文档介绍：PHYSICS, PHILOSOPHY AND QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY
DAVID DEUTSCH
Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
E-mail: @
Quantum theory and the classical theory putation were perfected
in the 1930s, and fifty years later they were unified to form the quantum
theory putation. Here I want to tell you about a speculation — I can’t
call it more than a “speculation” even though I know it’s true — about the
kind of theory that might, in another fifty years’ time, supersede or transcend
the quantum theory putation.
There are branches of science — in fact most of them are branches of
physics — that we expect, by their nature, to have philosophical implications.
An obvious example is cosmology. There are other sciences, such as, say,
aerodynamics, in which, no matter how startling or important our discoveries
may e, we do not expect fundamental philosophical implications. So,
various sciences fall at different places on a scale (Fig. 1) ranging from the
most fundamental on the left to the least fundamental, the most derivative,
on the right.
Physics
CosmologyElementary ParticleAstrophysics ChemistryZoology Aerodynamics
Fundamental Derivative
Figure 1. Placing sciences on a scale from fundamental to derivative.
The same holds for mathematics. There are branches of mathematics,
such as logic, that we expect by their nature to be relevant to philosophical
iss