COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS AS A TREND

Here a photograph of the inside of a computer, It seems computing machines are indispensable for constructing building stones for theoretical physics.

Computational physics seems to become more and more a trend. 

Should every physical theory only be valid if experimentally testable? This issue was put forward in an article by George Ellis and Joe Silk in Nature we all know as a most prominent  international journal of science. The philosophical tradition demands experimental verification. But what about string theory and multiverse theories? They cannot be verified by experiments, but they can make us feel to give a reasonable elegant explanation and may work inconsistencies out of sight. Field theory may use strings as a sort of units of space and make unification of quantum theory and general relativity perhaps possible.                                                We know there are the  questions involving the Standard Model. Why is the fine structure constant which is decisive for the strength of the  electromagnetic force, fine-tuned in such a way it has just the right value to make biological systems possible? Or are there infinite other universes having other values for electromagnetic forces and other biological systems as a result?                                                                                It looks like physics nowadays has become merely computational physics constructing theories by making data to fit in purely theoretical concepts? Is experimental verification or falsification still necessary?                                                                                                                                                                                     In history the scientific method proved it to be surely legitimate to bring about hypotheses, which cannot be verified right away but after some time demonstrate experimentally what they are worth. But what about strings?  Immediate verification seems not possible for 10^─ 35m strings and probably will never be. Be that as it may every valid new theory should be able to predict unambiguously new properties of an object other theories cannot. It is not enough for string theory to prove it does not contradict quantum mechanics or is in agreement with a positive bending of space. It should be able to give us more new experimentally measurable information.      As for the many worlds theory it should show us more than only being able to move inconsistencies in our own universe out of sight. Such a theory should be able to provide us with experimental testable knowledge about this universe that no other theory we already have can give us                       The trend shows that physics is mathematized more and more. String theory and multiverse theories till now are mainly mathematical concepts to be distinguished from physics. Nothing wrong with that. By the way, does the conception of infinity in mathematics really exist? It is not experimentally measurable. But for calculating limits, differential and integral calculus, asymptotic behaviour of graphs we make use of it in physics all the time.   

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DIGITALIZED PHYSICS AND REALITY.

Digitalized  Physics and Reality.                                                                                             More and more  our knowledge seemed mainly based on mathematized and digitalized processes of information. Is there a fundamental gap between computerized mathematics at one side and physics and reality at the other side?  Here a photograph of the inside of a computer as the looking glass information machine we nowadays hardly can do without.                                           

                     

More and more  our knowledge seemed mainly based on mathematized and digitalized processes of information. Is there a fundamental gap between computerized mathematics at one side and physics and reality at the other side?  Here a photograph of the inside of a computer as the looking glass information machine we nowadays hardly can do without.                                  In the past mathematics was used as an instrumental aid in a variety of parts of the scientific lines of work. Not only for physics, but also chemistry, biology cosmology and for such areas as meteorology, insurance calculations and financial analyses. Modelling theoretical insights and experimental possibilities were digitalized. Therefore last decades in depth knowledge of many branches of science rapidly increased. Now computers are used everywhere and convert theoretical concepts into algorithms of 1 and 0 sequences. Pictures are pixelated so to speak. Time after time to our own surprise mathematics and physics seemed to be far more deeply involved in each other than we thought being possible. Math appeared to be not only an instrumental aid, not only intertwined with physics, but pervading physics almost completely. Space and time once were mathematical constructions helping us calculating place and velocity of an object. According to the theory of relativity space, time, velocity, mass all has to do with reference frames of an object and the observer. And more so space- time has become a reality and assessed to be an object by itself. Unlike space, time is described as an imaginary property. And then there is quantum mechanics. For a quantum system a phase- space or momentum-space or whatever space can be constructed with as many axis’s as seems to be convenient. As many degrees of freedom, dimensions and imaginary axis’s as we like to use, make handling properties far more possible. The degree of abstraction we are able to construct increased. Contradictories appeared. The theory of relativity being a local theory somehow did not merge with quantum mechanics being non- local in essence. But probably string theory could combine both fundamental theories. Strings about the Planck Length 10 ^ -35 m could dependable on their frequencies be interpret as particles. Ten or eleven dimensions could deliver the wished for results. Also a parallel universe can come in handy. That way a unification theory for quantum gravity may be constructed. Someday much stronger acceleration machines can perhaps support the string theory with experimental results.                                               Recently Itzhak Bars and his Ph.D student Dmitry Rychkov from the University of Southern California could construct a link between string field theory and quantum mechanics.  They used the geometry of the joining and splitting of strings to explain commutation rules of quantum mechanics. ( Physics Letters B, 2014 ) It is interesting that Bars and Rychkov have showed here that string theory is not contradictory to some rules of quantum theory. Question remains about how powerful string theory could be to predict new phenomena. Maybe following this method  next steps could lead the way for string theory to describe quantum gravity and some beginning of constructing a unification theory becomes more possible.                                                                                                                                               In general the question remains what the  more and more digitalized processed descriptions of  phenomena of the last decades has to do with reality, with truth about the universe around us? Or could It be half true and half a digitally reduced fantasy.   

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Technological Innovations and their driving forces.

compass needed

Less than a decade from now society may change tremendously. If only we could get a glimpse of the future. Visiting a smart home of the future, we see probably in every room monitoring devices connected to the internet. Most of those “things” around have something to do with cloud computing. In that new cloud- world, data analyzing all the apparatuses at home and abroad, is taking place around the clock. Using the cloud gives not only the possibility to increase our number of measuring points to find out what is going on. By connecting apparatuses near and afar, data streams may be combined to get new information exponentially increasing. We are warned by our smart watch and other displays not to forget our sporting daily exercises; we get our instructions for cooking, shopping, driving, taking medicine, entertaining possibilities, mass communication programs and a lot more. Our clothes and shoes will contain sensors and displays to monitor our condition and behaviour. We need of course also generators for electrical supply for them which are probably also build in. Identifiers make every person, object or other “thing” automatically traceable. The way our economy works will be influenced by those technology. Locally generating energy devices will like 3D printing machinery at home influence the economic structure. Economics therefore will become more and more bottom up instead top down as it is now in general.                                                        Robots will take over tasks from us more and more. They have to be made more flexible, self- learning to adapt themselves to various tasks.                                           All this speaks to the imagination. Science and technology has created miracles in the past. Will it go on like that? Maybe, but where will this end? Cisco estimates 50 billion devices to be connected to the internet by 2020.                                                         What forces are driving technology and its innovations? Have we anything to choose in the end? Or have we just to obey possibilities without some sort of a compass that tells us where we arrive in the end? For the near future some driving forces are clearly working already shaping our society.                                                                              - We certainly are driven by reducing costs and waste of materials. Efficiency of production processes has to be upturned. And of course easy handing devices and apparatuses is a must for mass use.                                                                              -  Scarcity of energy makes us decide whether or how much we need for using fossil fuels or seek sustainable energy solutions. Solar cells, wind turbines or biotech solutions and all other possibilities will be examined for efficiency and costs.                 – Reducing costs of labour and the number of employees in organizations and at home. Robotics could be useful to take over more and more jobs. Not only the dirty, difficult to reach or dangerous jobs such as handling radioactive materials, or working in deep water. But also for monotonous tasks in factories, gardens, shops and streets. But also for medical institutions, the entertainment industry, personal assistants etc.         - Scarcity of materials. This in the broad sense. Scarcity of clean water, clean air, and food are included. Reducing waste materials points towards cleantech for giving solutions.                                                                                                                      - Monitoring the environment seems essential. Things like sensors, measuring devices, identifiers for people and objects, all that sorts of apparatuses in the future will be everywhere.                                                                                                                  - And not only the environment but also the human body will be object for research and technical solutions for medical problems and manipulation. Where will all this it ends? Brain- computer interaction is studied for instance at the university of Cincinnati. Even mind reading with developing thought- controlled smart tech is coming. Robotic- human interfaces may be possible by measuring and manipulating the brain’s electrical activity.                                                                                                                      How should we oversee all this and guard our well- being? Technical inventions often have negative side effects as loss of privacy, over regulation and diminishing our own personal decision making. Linking technological activities with morals and values seems crucial. Our ideas and views about morals and values have to balance technological possibilities. Ideas about humans, technology and the environment have to be institutionalized anew. Ethics have to be involved in decision making whether we like it or not. Then laws and rules can follow. It seems some virtual, moral compass has to be constructed to know where we are going following driving forces behind all new technological inventions about to come. It is all about things and people.

         THE SENSOR SOCIETY.                            

                        © H.M. Thomas.

Our future society most likely may be transformed into a sensor dominated society. What exactly is a sensor? It is a device may be based on mechanical parts or sophisticated digitalized electronics. It is a device able to detect something like fabrics, molecules, atoms, light, movements or whatever. It can be used to steer industrial processes, exercise quality control of food, air or water or almost anything else. Measuring devices are able to give people information about their environment. Build in our cars, clothes, shoes, technological devices, whatever products you choose, they track what happens with you at home and abroad.  Maybe over a decade, more than billions and billions of sensors are hanging on the internet.

The simplified photograph shows us the idea of a car following a digitalized road. No hands on the steering wheel because the car steers itself by computer programming devices. The surrounding will be scanned because the car has to react on obstacles and weather conditions. Inside sensors has to register if the driver has not fallen asleep, his blood pressure and health in general. Different parts of the car’s machinery communicate with each other and also with information coming from outside. All that will become available for the driver. The car has become a smart car. Maybe the car is on its way to the driver’s home, a smart home of course. The driver has given his instructions to his robotically steered automation devices taking care of his household. The place will be kept clean, meals prepared and the climate inside optimal regulated. In general sensor steered automation this way can become more smart, more adaptive to what we want to know and what we want products to let do for us. The more sensors are plugged in, the more points for measuring are situated in manufacturing systems and their products all around us and with us.  It means, far more information will become available, not only for material goods and companies and governments, but for everyone having very different interests. Sensors could be used for marketing purposes or for assurance companies exercising risk analyses, or for healthcare institutions with their decision making for medical treatments, for energy regulating, food and water supply engineering and quality control and many more purposes we hardly can think of having only a vague glimpse of the future.       Innovations can lead us to abundance as Peter Diamandis and many of us like that to believe.

Diamandis studied physics, biology and medicine. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimated him as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. He believes that problems like shortages of food, water and energy can be solved by means of technological innovations. But often technological innovations have unwanted side effects. Only if innovative ideas also are developed  for keeping technology in safe hands and to neutralize side effects like for instance too much regulation, loss of privacy and loss of authenticity of our natural environment, we all benefit.

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