factual

Cellular Automata Inappropriate For Fundamental Physics

Cellular automata, despite being fertile minimal models for many phenomena, are inappropriate for fundamental physics because they assume a pre-existing fixed notion of space and time, whereas fundamental physics requires going underneath those notions and building space and time from something more fundamental.

factualpending

Speaker

Stephen Wolfram

Evidence Quote

I never thought that cellular automata would be relevant to fundamental physics. I mean, other people were sort of saying "Cellular automata are going to solve fundamental physics!" And I was like, "No, please don't say that. That's just not going to work."

Source

155 | Stephen Wolfram on Computation, Hypergraphs, and Fundamental PhysicsSean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 3:30:55 AM

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