Some experimental notes

29 Oct: Or, perhaps not: http://cs.nyu.edu/pipermail/fom/2007-October/012156.html

A UK ECE undergrad, Alex Smith, has proven that Stephen Wolfram's 2,3 computational machine design is in fact a universal Turing machine (the fundamental platonic programmable computer), and is probably the smallest one possible. This is amazing, in several ways.

Wolfram's blog post explains a bit more about the significance of this proof and how it helps to shore up his New Kind of Science (NKS) and the Principle of Computational Equivalence (PCE) all the more firmly. He's not likely wrong about 2,3 being used in genetic computing in the near future. Bam.

Well, it means even more to my personal theology. That part is harder to explain, since I don't understand it myself. There are hints in the Reciprocality papers (and their book, Third Age) and in science fiction such as Vernor Vinge's Spacetime and Deep books, as well as the Escape Pod story "The House Beyond Your Sky" (here)... all of these ideas that the reality, even the physical universe we study and interact with is not singular, and not one dimensional, but may well have complexities of it's own. Cross that with postmodern ideas about quantum consciousness and identity (mix in a little more Reciprocaity here) and ... *pop* ... but such a fun brain explosion it is.

And someday, some one is going to find the program, to run on 2,3 maybe, that did it all. Or are they? Still it's awfully fun looking.