On: Build a digital clock in Conway's Life

[ChuckMcM]

I'm once again amazed at how "routine" this stuff seems to be. In the top solution go to the life simulator and paste in a copy of the gist and then click 'fit pattern' and run. Amazing stuff.

[TheSpiceIsLife → ChuckMcM]

I've had to check the Wikipedia article on Conway's Game of Life a few times to make sure I'm remember it right: Yep, four simple rules is all it takes to describe a Universal Turing Machine.

How whacky.

[intrasight → TheSpiceIsLife]

Stephen Wolfram postulates that quantum mechanics and therefore all of physics and the whole universe emerge from a few simple cellular automata rules.

How truly wacky (if true)

[cgh → intrasight]

I believe I read somewhere (Chaitin?) that what you stated implies a deterministic universe. It doesn't seem plausible.

[zeroer → cgh]

The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is deterministic. It's one of the (many) qualities that makes it so attractive.

[taneq → cgh]

You don't think it's plausible that the universe is deterministic?

[Filligree → cgh]

Why not? All the laws of physics we know of are already deterministic.

[gbrown → Filligree]

Except (maybe) all of quantum mechanics

[taneq → gbrown]

Just because there are things we can't measure from inside this universe doesn't mean that those things aren't deterministic.

[cyphar → taneq]

> Just because there are things we can't measure from inside this universe doesn't mean that those things aren't deterministic.

There is no reason to believe that non-local hidden variables are the reason for the probabilistic nature of QM.

Many worlds is another classic interpretation that works.

[hyperpallium → taneq]

What would be the nature of those things, given that we find no correlation at all with things in this universe?

I could believe we just aren't measuring with enough precision (and perhaps, it's impossible to do so). But that's still deterministic and inside our universe.

[harryh → cgh]

It does if we're living in a simulation.

[FeepingCreature → TheSpiceIsLife]

You can get Turing completeness in a one-dimensional cellular automaton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110