I’m forever hearing that there are rules in science.

If a theory breaks the rules, I’m told, it must be rejected.

Trouble is, if, in the past, we’d rejected any theory that breaks the rules, we’d have rejected Copernicus’s idea that the Earth goes around the Sun, Galileo’s observation that there are mountains on the Moon, Newton’s laws of motion, Einstein’s theories of relativity, quantum mechanics – we’d definitely have rejected quantum mechanics – we’d have rejected everyimportant theory in the history of science.

Truth is, every rule for science you’ve ever been taught is wrong.

There are no rules in science.

So... you may be wondering... if there are no rules, how do you know the difference between a good scientific theory and... nonsense?

Well, that’s simple.

There’s a formula for a good scientific theory.

This 7-word formula has worked for every significant discovery in the history of science.

And I’m willing to bet that you’ve never heard of it.

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References:

• Thales of Miletus
• Thales’ eclipse
• Galileo Galilei
• Galileo’s mathematics quotation
• Johannes Kepler
• Isaac Newton
• Werner Heisenberg
• Max Born
• Wolfgang Pauli
• Erwin Schrödinger
• Paul Dirac
• String Theory
• Overfitting
• Stephen Wolfram
• Jonathan Gorard
• The Wolfram Physics Project

Credits:

• Jupiter and Moons through a 10” lx200 telescope by Jan Sandberg, enhanced by Google Gemini, reproduced with permission: “The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.”

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The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

The full article is here.

Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Stephen Wolfram is an extraordinary thinker.

He doesn’t seem to think like other scientists. He doesn’t seem to think like other technologists. And he certainly doesn’t think like an academic.

So I asked him how he thinks. How does he have all the ideas I’ve been exploring at The Last Theory?

Here are 10 ways to have big ideas, derived from Stephen’s answer:

1. Drill down to the foundations
2. Experiment with your ideas
3. Try to understand your findings
4. Have the humility to doubt your expectations
5. Have the confidence to push ahead regardless
6. Explain your ideas to others
7. Discuss your ideas with others
8. Get to know when an idea will take flight
9. Don’t miss a step: imagine, experiment, explain
10. Visualize your ideas

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Stephen Wolfram

• Stephen Wolfram
• The Wolfram Physics Project
• Wolfram Institute
• Wolfram Institute Community Discord

Concept mentioned by Stephen

• Computational irreducibility

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The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

If physics is computational, then what gets computed when?

This is a surprisingly deep question.

The seemingly even computation of the universe gives us a clue, not just to the nature of time, but to the nature of the universe.

And it leads us to a wider question:

Why are we in the universe we’re in?

Let me introduce you to three different answers to that question... sodifferent that they don’t even agree on whether one universe exists, or every possible universe exists.

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References

• Anthropic Principle

Credits

• Image of Messier 101 galaxy by ESA/Hubble licensed under CC BY 4.0
• Image of galaxies by NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team licensed under CC BY 4.0
• Retina image by د.مصطفى الجزار licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

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The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

The full article is here.

Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.