Physical Limits of Inference
APA
Wolpert, D. (2008). Physical Limits of Inference. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/08110000
MLA
Wolpert, David. Physical Limits of Inference. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 11, 2008, https://pirsa.org/08110000
BibTex
@misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:08110000, doi = {10.48660/08110000}, url = {https://pirsa.org/08110000}, author = {Wolpert, David}, keywords = {Quantum Foundations}, language = {en}, title = {Physical Limits of Inference}, publisher = {Perimeter Institute}, year = {2008}, month = {nov}, note = {PIRSA:08110000 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}} }
NASA Ames Research Center
Collection
Talk Type
Subject
Abstract
I show that physical devices that perform observation, prediction, or recollection share an underlying mathematical structure. I call devices with that structure ``inference devices\'\'. I present a set of existence and impossibility results concerning inference devices. These results hold independent of the precise physical laws governing our universe. In a limited sense, the impossibility results establish that Laplace was wrong to claim that even in a classical, non-chaotic universe the future can be unerringly predicted, given sufficient knowledge of the present. Alternatively, these impossibility results can be viewed as a non-quantum mechanical ``uncertainty principle\'\'. Next I explore the close connections between the mathematics of inference devices and of Turing Machines. I end by informally discussing the philosophical implications of these results, e.g., for whether the universe ``is\'\' a computer.