Pio
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3 years ago
4 Fundamental Theories - D. Deutsch
"Four most fundamental ideas underlying all other ones are: Quantum Physics, Theory of evolution, Theory of computation and Theory of knowledge which is usually not even considered part of science, but those were the four strands.
Give me a quick synopsis of each of the four quantum theory is the language that all other theories in physics are expressed in and it
sort of constrains the kinds of ideas that one can express within physics. It's the deepest and most successful theory evolution. And
then so the theory of evolution is the basic theory of emergent properties. It's how large objects can have properties can be understood
in terms that do not follow from their low level definitions in terms of atoms, Darwin solved one of the fundamental mysteries of
nature, but it cannot be expressed in terms of atoms computation. And then theory of computation is the theory of what um processes in
nature are independent of or transcend the material substance that they are embodied in. So for example, I I can say I had an idea last
year and now I'm telling it to you and that idea is an abstract entity that is in stan she ated in first of all, it's insane. She hated
and brain then it's insane, she hated in movements of my mouth, then in vibrations of air molecules and so on. And it can be in stan she
hated in ink on paper and and an enormous variety of things. But in order to understand any of those transitions you have to understand
that what is affecting things, what is moving things here is the information itself not its instance, she ations and the general theory
of how information is processed in the world is the theory of computation. And that immediately leads to knowledge which is the kind of
information that can do things so or solve problems as we would say at the human level. But but in these terms adaptations in living
things are also a form of knowledge. So DNA embodies knowledge. Human brains embody knowledge, books and computers embody and the
internet all embody knowledge. And the thing about the knowledge that makes it fundamental is that if you think of any kind of
transformation of a physical system, you know from hot to cold or from a block of marble into a statue and so on. If you think about all
possible transformations that are permitted by the laws of physics, the overwhelming majority of those only happen if the right
knowledge is present. So from the point of view of what can be transformed into what it's practically all the theory of what knowledge
can do. And that is why knowledge is a fundamental thing in the physical world. Quantum physics evolution. Information knowledge each
its own category. Each its own way of viewing reality as if each were a special filter, enabling its own kind of special insight. Yes,
strands of the fabric of reality, but the whole cloth ultimate reality. But is ultimate reality limited to physical reality? If not,
could information and knowledge be keys? Could they lead to consciousness? Because of reality? Were a kingdom, Consciousness could be
king. I go to caltech to consult a leading brain scientist, Christof, coke, christoph. Do you think the fact that consciousness is
existent is something that we need to consider in discerning what ultimate reality is completely? Absolutely. Well, the only way I know
about the world is from my conscious experience, but that doesn't mean consciousness is fundamental to reality. How else do I know
about? I accept that that that's your way of knowing about reality, but that could be a total random accident that just happened to be
that way it just happened to be. But yes, so I find myself in the universe where I happen to have consciousness, but it's such a central
fact that if if that gets left out, then I've almost explained nothing really relevant about the universe. And so what I want to explain
is everything physical. But also this is most central aspect that I have and that you have and that dogs have and lots of other
creatures have and so how can we leave that out? I think the more relevant question is is that like another phenomenon like wetness.
People don't think to understand why water is wet, what clings to walls? You need to, you need to introduce a new thing called wetness,
right? It's just emerges out of you have a bunch of systems. There's laws of physics and chemistry that tell you ultimately what wetness
is." source: video 
