Huh.

So my friend told me about this mathematician/computer scientist at IBM named Gregory Chaitlin. He wrote a book about stuff called “Meta math!” which talks about some computational stuff. It’s a pretty easy read and gets a sense of what he’s working on across fairly accessibly, which is now a field called algorithm information theory. I read a draft of the book off of arxiv in one sitting and had some ideas in the process.

I will now assume you know a bit about AIT from reading this book or whatever.

So first, a stupid little thought: if stuff is digital, then you are partly some Diophantine equation that processes food. By metaphorical reasoning a la Chaitlin, food -> you -> poop, and if we assume there is a string representation of all the info contained in food and shit on a finite digit basis, you would probably be some sort of food processing program operating on those food bits, spitting out poop bits. By some extraordinary abstract bullshit, you would also be an equivalent Diophantine equation. Corollary: kernel(you) = taco bell. [EDIT: so I think I’m probably wrong in this paragraph because the book talks about Diophantine equations being equivalent to some sort of finite axiomatic system I think]

Yay nomber thury.

Second, I had this idea: equivalence up to human experience. I’m not sure how this idea would be formalized, or even if it could be formalized, but I think there is something in the idea worth exploring. The observational tools at our disposal today are much more vast than the tools available centuries ago, so in a sense, the human experience is widening to include the senses we build for ourselves (like the Hubble telescope and the LHC). Chaitlin addresses the ontology of the universe and takes the stance that the universe, at its core, is in fact discrete. Provocative.

But he’s also a computer scientist. Computers can be pretty convincing at feigning reality sometimes. Man, computers are really good at it, actually.

Carl Sagan says we’re made of star stuff! I’m guessing Chaitlin believes we’re made of digital stuff. Depending on your philosophy on consciousness, that could mean our consciousness has a finite digital representation, if you believe in the mundane. Still, I have a feeling that real life might be made up of a quantum alphabet, and that might mean some sort of quantum analog of omega exists, where omega is representable by a sequence (or if quantum programs are not denumerable, by a net or filter or something) of vectors in $\mathbb{C}^2$.

Last thought: why do so many mathematicians enjoy hiking. Like, hardcore hiking. I don’t get it. Is it a rite of passage? Will I have to fight off a bear for a PHD in math? Will it be a grizzly bear? Or Grizzly Bear, even?

Maybe, just maybe, mathematicians are bears at heart. WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID OF OUR BEAR NATURE? EMBRACE THE PRIMAL. EAT RED MEAT. POOP MORE. WE ARE DIGITAL PEOPLE.

P.S. I’m working on the DSP, I have a chiptune tracker on my GBA, and I’m doing a recording gig for cash. Woot.