Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-5r2nc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-10T00:22:57.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - On the spontaneous generation of complexity in the universe

from Part II - Cosmological and physical perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2013

By
Seth Lloyd
Edited by
Charles H. Lineweaver ,
Paul C. W. Davies  and
Michael Ruse
Charles H. Lineweaver
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Paul C. W. Davies
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Get access

Summary

A glance out the window confirms that the universe is complex. By day, intricate weather patterns chase the Sun along its path. At night, galaxies, stars, and planets wheel across the sky. Rabbits hop across the lawn, pursued by coyotes. Trucks rumble along the highway. Turning one's gaze inside the room confirms the diagnosis. People chat and argue. Children grow. Food cooks on the stove. Spam accumulates in the computer inbox.

How and why did all this complexity come about? The answers that we currently possess are largely qualitative and historical. The big bang happened, gravitational instability made matter clump together, stars started to shine, planets formed, life began, humans showed up, societies formed, all hell broke loose. We know that the universe is complex, and we know something of the sequence in which more and more complex systems developed. It would be good, however, to know WHY the universe is complex. Is there some intrinsic drive to the creation of complexity in matter and energy? Are there other universes, and if so, are they more or less complex than ours? Will this generation of complexity go on for ever?

Type
Chapter
Information
Complexity and the Arrow of Time , pp. 80 - 112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, E. A. (1992). Flatland: a Romance in Many Dimensions (1884). New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Aguirre, A., Tegmark, M., & Layzer, D. (2010). Born in an infinite universe: a cosmological interpretation of quantum mechanics. arXiv:1008.1066.
Albrecht, A. & Sorbo, L. (2004). Can the universe afford inflation?Phys. Rev. D., 70, 063528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, C. H. (1985). Dissipation, information, computational complexity and the definition of organization. In Pines, D. (ed.), Emerging Syntheses in Science. Redwood City CA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 215–233.Google Scholar
Bennett, C. H. (1990). How to define complexity in physics, and why. In Zurek, W. H. (ed.) Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information. Redwood City CA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 137–148.Google Scholar
Birrell, N. D. & Davies, P. C. W. (1982). Quantum Fields in Curved Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bousso, R. & Susskind, L. (2011). The multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics. arXiv:1105.3796.
Chaitin, G. J. (1987). Algorithmic Information Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cover, T. M. & Thomas, J. A. (1991). Elements of Information Theory. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. C. W. (1974). The Physics of Time Asymmetry. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dyson, L., Kleban, M., & Susskind, L. (2002). Disturbing implications of a cosmological constant. J. High. Ener. Phys., 0210, 011.Google Scholar
Gell-Mann, M. & Hartle, J. B. (1993). Classical equations for quantum systems. Phys. Rev. D, 47, 3345–3382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffiths, R. (2002). Consistent Quantum Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guth, A. H. (1981). Inflationary universe: a possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems. Phys. Rev. D, 23, 347–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolmogorov, A. N. (1965). Three approaches to the quantitative definition of information. Prob. Inf. Trans. 1, 1–11.Google Scholar
Li, M. & Vitanyi, P. (2008). An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications, 2nd edn. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddle, A. R. & Lyth, D. H. (2000). Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, A. D. (1986a). Eternally existing self-reproducing chaotic inflationary universe. Phys. Lett. B, 175, 395–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, A. D. (1986b). Eternal chaotic inflation. Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 1, 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, A. (2007). Sinks in the landscape, Boltzmann brains, and the cosmological constant problem. J. Cos. Astr. Phys., 0701, 022.Google Scholar
Lloyd, S. (1993). Quantum computers and uncomputability. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 943–946.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, S. (1995). Almost any quantum logic gate is universal. Phys. Rev. Lett., 75, 346–349.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, S. (1996). Universal quantum simulators. Science, 273, 1073–1078.CrossRef
Lloyd, S. (1997). Universe as quantum computer. Complexity, 3/1, 32–35.3.0.CO;2-X>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, S. (2000). Ultimate physical limits to computation. Nature, 406, 1047–1054.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, S. (2002). Computational capacity of the universe. Phys. Rev. Lett., 88, 237901.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, S. (2006). Programming the Universe. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Lloyd, S. & Pagels, H. (1988). Complexity as thermodynamic depth. Ann. Phys., 188, 186–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolus, N. (1984). Physics-like models of computation. Physica D, 10, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolus, N. & Levitin, L. B. (1998). The maximum speed of dynamical evolution. Physica D, 120, 188–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messiah, A. (1999). Quantum Mechanics. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Mukhanov, V. (2005). Physical Foundations of Cosmology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, I. (1687). Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. London: Royal Society.CrossRef
Nielsen, M. A., Chuang, I. L. (2000). Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nomura, Y. (2011). Physical theories, eternal inflation, and the quantum universe. arXiv:1104.2324.
Omnés, R. (1994). The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Papadimitriou, C. H. & Lewis, H. (1982). Elements of the Theory of Computation. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Peres, A. (2002). Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods. New York: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlmutter, S., Alderling, G., Goldhaber, G. et al. (1999). Measurements of omega and lambda from 42 high-redshift supernovae. Astro. Journal, 517, 565–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riess, A., Filippeuko, A. V., Challis, P. et al. (1998). Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating Universe and a cosmological constant. Astro. Journal, 116, 1009–1038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidhuber, J. (1997). A computer scientist's view of life, the universe, and everything. In Freksa, C. (ed.). Foundations of Computer Science: Potential – Theory – Cognition, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. New York: Springer, pp. 201–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomonoff, R. J. (1964). A formal theory of inductive inference, Part I. Inf. Control, 7, 1–22. A formal theory of inductive inference, Part II. Inf. Control, 7, 224–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starobinsky, A. A. (1982). Dynamics of phase transition in the new inflationary universe scenario and generation of perturbations. Phys. Lett. B, 117, 175–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susskind, L. (2007). The anthropic landscape of string theory. In Carr, B (ed.), Universe or Multiverse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tegmark, M. (1998). Is ‘the theory of everything’ merely the ultimate ensemble theory?Ann. Phys., 270, 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tegmark, M. (2007). The multiverse hierarchy. In Carr, B. (ed.), Universe or Multiverse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tegmark, M. (2008). The mathematical universe. Found. Phys., 38, 101–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tegmark, M., Strauss, M. A., Blanton, M. R. et al. (2004). Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP. Phys. Rev. D, 69, 103501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turing, A. M. (1937). On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., 2, 42, 230–265. Turing, A. M. (1937). On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem: a correction. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., 2, 43, 544–546.Google Scholar
Vilenkin, A. (1994). Topological inflation. Phys. Rev. Lett., 72, 3137–3140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinberg, S. (2008). Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, S. (1986). Theory and Applications of Cellular Automata, Advanced series on complex systems 1. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Zurek, W. H. (1989). Algorithmic randomness and physical entropy. Phys. Rev. A, 40, 4731–4751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zurek, W. H. (1991). Decoherence and the transition from quantum to classical. Phys. Today, 44, 36–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×