Constructor theory.
Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between and physical transformations–those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from the prevailing conception of fundamental physics which is to predict what from in...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 190; no. 18; pp. 4331 - 4360 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Dec2013
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between and physical transformations–those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from the prevailing conception of fundamental physics which is to predict what from initial conditions and laws of motion. Several converging motivations for expecting constructor theory to be a fundamental branch of physics are discussed. Some principles of the theory are suggested and its potential for solving various problems and achieving various unifications is explored. These include providing a theory of information underlying classical and quantum information; generalising the theory of computation to include all physical transformations; unifying formal statements of conservation laws with the stronger operational ones (such as the ruling-out of perpetual motion machines); expressing the principles of testability and of the computability of nature (currently deemed methodological and metaphysical respectively) as laws of physics; allowing exact statements of emergent laws (such as the second law of thermodynamics); and expressing certain apparently anthropocentric attributes such as knowledge in physical terms. |
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