[1210.7439] Constructor Theory

Skip to main content

arXiv is now an independent nonprofit!<br>Learn more<br>&times;

Search arXiv

Press Enter to search &middot; Advanced search

-->

Physics > History and Philosophy of Physics

arXiv:1210.7439 (physics)

[Submitted on 28 Oct 2012 (v1), last revised 17 Jan 2013 (this version, v2)]

Title:Constructor Theory

Authors:David Deutsch<br>View a PDF of the paper titled Constructor Theory, by David Deutsch

View PDF

Abstract:Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between possible and impossible physical transformations - those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from the prevailing conception of fundamental physics which is to predict what will happen from initial conditions and laws of motion. Several converging motivations for expecting constructor theory to be a fundamental branch of physics are discussed. Some principles of the theory are suggested and its potential for solving various problems and achieving various unifications is explored. These include providing a theory of information underlying classical and quantum information; generalising the theory of computation to include all physical transformations; unifying formal statements of conservation laws with the stronger operational ones (such as the ruling-out of perpetual motion machines); expressing the principles of testability and of the computability of nature (currently deemed methodological and metaphysical respectively) as laws of physics; allowing exact statements of emergent laws (such as the second law of thermodynamics); and expressing certain apparently anthropocentric attributes such as knowledge in physical terms.

Subjects:

History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)

Cite as:<br>arXiv:1210.7439 [physics.hist-ph]

(or<br>arXiv:1210.7439v2 [physics.hist-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1210.7439

Focus to learn more

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history<br>From: David Deutsch [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:09:05 UTC (1,617 KB)

[v2]<br>Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:46:43 UTC (1,679 KB)

Full-text links:<br>Access Paper:

View a PDF of the paper titled Constructor Theory, by David Deutsch<br>View PDF

view license

Current browse context:

physics.hist-ph

next >

new<br>recent<br>| 2012-10

Change to browse by:

physics<br>physics.comp-ph

References & Citations

NASA ADS<br>Google Scholar

Semantic Scholar

1 blog link<br>(what is this?)

export BibTeX citation<br>Loading...

BibTeX formatted citation

&times;

loading...

Data provided by:

Bookmark

Bibliographic Tools

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer Toggle

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)

Connected Papers Toggle

Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)

Litmaps Toggle

Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)

scite.ai Toggle

scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data, Media

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv Toggle

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)

Links to Code Toggle

CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)

DagsHub Toggle

DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)

GotitPub Toggle

Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)

Huggingface Toggle

Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)

ScienceCast Toggle

ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Demos

Replicate Toggle

Replicate (What is Replicate?)

Spaces Toggle

Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)

Spaces Toggle

TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Related Papers

Recommenders and Search Tools

Link to Influence Flower

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)

Core recommender toggle

CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)

Author

Venue

Institution

Topic

About arXivLabs

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? |<br>Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

Major funding support from