Reverse-engineering the world
I woke up and saw a chair.
You know those Amazon recommends engines on websites? Well a concern is that you never get to see new things, it just give you more of the same.
I wonder if the same thing is happening with our immediate environment (hence the chair). The steps are:
- Physicists experience their environment.
- They create theories to explain what they see.
- Engineers use these theories to create our environment.
- Physicists experience this environment...
In other words, physics is the reverse-engineering of the environment. If we create the environment, we just get our own rules back. Even worse for virtual worlds.
Is this really a problem? If so, what can be done about it?