It's a whole lot easier to change the way we use energy than it is to change the laws of physics. It is a physical law , a requirement that we have to get to zero carbon emissions. So this is our house.
But that's what's going on. And all of it comes from physical law . What you touch on in the book as sort of a corollary to that is it certainly feels like we have free will, and maybe that's what really
Because I provocatively said at the outset, I agree with Schrodinger, that we need a new type of physical law . And I think it's a physical law that will embed information in a fundamental way in the laws of physics. These will be new laws of physics, but it will be physics, not magic.
Right? We can think about the world, we can be affected by the world, but ultimately, when we act, that action is originating within us. We are not mathematical beings whose strings are pulled by physical law . And that just is incoherent.
And that just is incoherent. We are collections of particles fully governed by physical law , and every thought that we have, every action that we take is nothing but those particles playing out the dictates of the mathematical equations, the physical laws.
He said that one must be prepared to find a new type of physical law prevailing in it. So notice that it's not just a new physical law , but a new kind of law. For many, many years, I was skeptical that we would need new physics to explain life.
And it's not really going to spark a kitchen revolution in the near future, because this is nanotechnology. So that's why I think the new type of physical law comes in, but this is still a work in progress.
Well, I guess if there's not complete overlap, I have to ignore something. But I will stand by the claim that the aspects of physical law that I've chosen are not cherry picked. Those are absolutely central to our fundamental understanding of the basic laws.
to describe these sort of neat, conceptual nuggets of information that describe terms about emotions a little bit like Ohm's law. The simplest, physical law described as an equation which gets represented often as this sort of triangular model that allows you to very quickly see the relationship between the different terms. When Chip and I were talking about emotional equations, I realized that's what he means by equation; it's a model of the relationship between these conceptual categories.
And Schrodinger was open minded about this. He said that one must be prepared to find a new type of physical law prevailing in it. So notice that it's not just a new physical law , but a new kind of law.
And Adverb Adder, saves all that typing, and thinking. Great mathematical physicist, said that, to be a convincing physical law , it must be capable of beautiful expression.
we need to think of information not so much as something to talk about, but as a physical variable that can enter into the laws of physics. Because I provocatively said at the outset, I agree with Schrodinger, that we need a new type of physical law . And I think it's a physical law that will embed information in a fundamental way in the laws of physics.
And it's not really going to spark a kitchen revolution in the near future, because this is nanotechnology. I think we can capture that concept of functional or meaningful information in a context, in a new type of physical law , which was what Schrodinger
Earth, but not because anything fundamental about the laws of physics have changed. So the laws of physics basically say that all of these things-- time, orientation, positions in space-- none of those matter in the physical law . Now that actually is incredibly helpful.
And I take a step back, and I'm like, yeah, my particles just did a reasonably good job of saying what my other particles were trying to articulate. And I sit back, and I'm like, thank you, particles, for doing that, or thank you, physical law , for allowing my particles to do that. And in that way, I actually feel a degree of gratification for the fact that my particles did something that I'm happy with.