Microsoft helped theoretical physicists explore the implications of our potentially autodidactic universe

Who doesn't love theoretical physics papers on a Friday? Today, on April ix, a hefty seventy-9-folio research paper entitled "The Autodidactic Universe" was posted online (via TNW). Its authors include physicists from Brown University and the Flatiron Institute.

The Microsoft connexion is straightforward. Co-ordinate to the paper'due south acknowledgments department, Microsoft provided "computational, logistical and other general back up" for the work that fabricated the paper'southward creation possible. Kevin Scott, Microsoft'south principal technology officer and executive vice president of Applied science & Research, received a personal shoutout for his support.

Then what exactly was Microsoft helping empower theoretical physicists to write nigh? Well, to put it simply: the theory that our universe is a massive auto that's constantly learning about itself. Much like we, human beings, understand ourselves, our limits, and our abilities more than and more equally we age, the thought goes that the universe is on a similar journey, evolving its own laws as it learns more about them.

Pretty crazy, right? Here's a fascinating passage from page sixty-vi of the paper for your enjoyment, teaching, and mystification:

The example of memes in human social structures show that a learning organization that is not constrained by "creature survival" can sometimes become dominated by "economical network furnishings" in cocky-reference. It is interesting to consider cosmological criteria other than brute survival that might give ascension to autodidactic structures that are resistant to becoming unconnected to an environment.

This isn't the first fourth dimension that Microsoft and the idea of memes as a ground for worldly agreement accept crossed paths. Far from it—memes were the centerpiece of an interactive virtual philosophy class that went by the proper name of Metallic Gear Ascension: Revengeance, released on Microsoft's Xbox 360 back in 2022. It'due south been a while since memes' impact on our understanding of the universe overlapped with Microsoft's operations, but now, eight years later, it's happened again.

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