Edward Fredkin

Edward Fredkin (October 2, 1934 – June 13, 2023) was an American computer scientist and philosopher of information theory. Quotes Cellular automata are now being used to model varied physical phenomena normally modelled by wave equations, fluid dynamics, Ising models, etc. We hypothesize that there will be found a single cellular automaton rule that models all of microscopic physics; and models it exactly. We call this field DM, for digital mechanics. An informational process based on reversible universal cellular automata Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 45 1–3 September 1990 254–270 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016727899090186S 10.1016/0167-2789(90)90186-S Under the roof of one controversial assumption about physics, we discuss five big questions that can be addressed using concepts from a modern understanding of digital informational processes. The assumption is called finite nature. The digital mechanics model is obtained by applying the assumption to physics. The questions are as follows: 1. What is the origin of spin? 2. Why are there symmetries and CPT (charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal)? 3. What is the origin of length? 4. What does a process model of motion tell us? 5. Can the finite nature assumption account for the efficacy of quantum mechanics? https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5388918/ Five big questions with pretty simple answers IBM Journal of Research and Development 48 1 January 2004 31–45 Quotes about Fredkin Feynman considered Fredkin a brilliant and consistently original, though sometimes incautious, thinker. If anyone is going to come up with a new and fruitful way of looking at physics, Feynman said, Fredkin will. Robert Wright: April 1988 Did the Universe Just Happen? https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/88apr/wright.htm The Atlantic Bennett from IBM, Fredkin, and later Toffoli investigated whether, with gates that are reversible, you can do everything. And it turns out, wonderfully true, that the irreversibiilty is not essential for computation. It just happens to be the way we designed the circuits. Richard Feynman: Infinitesimal machinery Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems 2 1 March 1993 4–14 http://www.oz.nthu.edu.tw/~d9511818/Infinitesimal%20Machinery.pdf (quote from p. 12; speech delivered in 1983 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena) External links Category:1934 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Philosophers from the United States Category:Computer scientists from the United States Category:People from Los Angeles Category:California Institute of Technology alumni Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty