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Theoretical Physics
Physics as a fundamental science has expanded and changed tremendously since the first discoveries and the "golden age" of the 20th century (Old Earth reckoning). Especially three major paradigm shifts have occurred: information physics, topological physics and torsion theory. |
"It from bit."
- John Archibald Wheeler, Old Earth physicist
The information era was dominated by the attempts to formulate a Grand Unified Theory (GUT), constantly frustrated by the apparent inability to create a theory that included all known forces. The standard models were revised again and again, but always shown to contain tiny but measurable anomalies. Over time a paradigm of information physics replaced the previous "mechanical" view of fundamental physics: the universe consisted of information and interactions rather than matter-energy and fields. Using this formalism the search for the GUT could be extended enormously, thermodynamics and complexity theory were united with fundamental physics (Howani 2082 and Kazan-Glass 2133) and the underpinnings of entropy management necessary for large-scale nanotech were discovered. This proved enormously fruitful to theoretical physics, but practical applications were lacking and in the increasingly matter-of-fact culture dominated by applied science and the exploitation of the already more than revolutionary results of 20th century physics the field slowly declined. In the 24th century theoretical physics was mainly a pastime for AI aesthetes.
During the renaissance of the First Federation interest in applying information physics blossomed, and thanks to the now mature nanotechnology it proved feasible to employ it in a variety of applications. The result was "photonanotech", although a more proper name would be quantum nanotechnology. It employed photonics, wave-properties of atoms, sculpted wave functions and quantum computation, extending the power of nanomachines and nanocomputation significantly.
Although photonanotech was not a conceptual breakthrough it encouraged and enabled more theoretical physics. During the middle federation era much effort went into the study of the properties of vacuum and how to control nuclear matter. While picotech proved to be mainly a hard engineering problem involving the need of conceptually new views of what constitutes a machine or process, vacuum research produced surprising developments.
"Physics is the science of vacuum. Everything else is just a corollary, left as an exercise for the student."
- Bharata Vange, member of the Grand Fourteen
That vacuum behaves as if it was filled with virtual particles and that it is actually a dynamic rather than passive medium was known for a long time. It was also known that its properties could be influenced by matter, for example in the Casmir effect, and that inertia was intimately connected with its structure. Up until the 35th century there was no truly satisfactory theory of vacuum behaviour that could account for all observations. In 3487 a joint team from the Clavius Institute and the Jupiter Magnetosphere Combers ("the Grand Fourteen") presented a theory of topological physics that could account for all known vacuum behaviour.
Topological physics extended information physics into a new domain, enabling an understanding of Planck-scale interactions and how the vacuum produced momentum, time's arrow and Mach's principle. Basically, it considered all possible physics as a whole as a topological structure, and through the use of multiface topology could derive actual physics as a low-genus/low-energy special case. One fundamental result was that physical laws were themselves subject to a physics. This marked the final end of the search for an unified theory of physics, instead theoreticians began to study the evolution and dynamics of physical law: while they were fixed across the universe and likely impossible to change, there were evidence for Planck-scale fluctuations in physics.
Topological physics also birthed vacuum engineering, although it took several centuries before it could be practically applied. By influencing the vacuum in suitable ways the interaction between it and matter could be influenced, promising control over momentum, physical forces and maybe even space-time itself. The first major application was the drive sails, enabling the conversion of electrical power into force. Although the Hernandez Theorem (2014) had demonstrated that the zero-point field could not be used to do work, later developments had shown that under some circumstances it could still act in useful ways for fast transport. Spurred by this and using the maturing field of picotechnology for enhanced control and more energetic processes, similar to the drive sails work produced the first zero-point engines and later space drives.
The ability to create localised changes in vacuum structure led to mature vacuum engineering. A number of drive field configurations and specialised picotech manipulator environments were developed, although only a few ever reached commercial importance. It also pointed the way towards space-time engineering. Especially in the case of the bias drive the appearance of the bias singularity demonstrated that it was in principle possible to warp space-time to the extent that it no longer remained locally connected.
"What Torsion is? Oh, just the beh-consistency of a topifold."
- Tadpole 19, torsion theoretician
The search for control over space-time was hampered by the difficulty of using topological physics in vacuum engineering, as well as fundamental complexity issues from information physics. Managing Planck-length wormholes and inflation fields involved dealing with systems of enormous algorithmic complexity, making even many high transingularity AIs despair. However, in 4000's a conceptual breakthrough occurred among the theoretical physics AI clusters in the solar system. Torsion theory was a theory as far beyond topological physics as it was beyond information physics. Instead of trying to predict properties of possible physics it dealt with the interactions of indeterminate physics. This turned out to be exactly what was needed to both fathom wormhole stabilisation as well as enabling femtotechnology.
Torsion theory was the first physical theory that was provably beyond any first singularity entity's comprehension. While information physics and (with some difficulty) topological physics could be understand by an augmented human or transhuman, torsion theory demanded a conceptual flexibility and ability to handle non-compressible ideas that forever kept it out of reach of any first singularity mind. It demonstrated that even if the universe was as "simple" as topological physics, the actual behaviour and rules followed were not simple at all and quite possibly arbitrarily complex. If topological physics removed the possibility of unification, torsion theory removed the possibility of simplicity.
After the torsion theory breakthrough the impetus towards theoretical physics largely vanished among sub-singularity beings. Although significant questions such as the nature of the physics-determining processes and boundary conditions of the universe remained accessible to subsingularity intellects, they developed into their own independent field: eschatology. Eschatology came to be a combination of philosophy, physics and the study of intelligence and its influence over the physical world.
Among the high-singularity entities theoretical physics flourished, both to support the development of femtotech and picotech, and through the fruitful links between torsion theory and toposophy. According to hermeneutic studies, a major school among the hyperturings (the "Keterist school of intelligent physics") believe toposophy and torsion theory are mathematically equivalent to each other, and understanding of one will give understanding of the other. Physics and the development of more advanced forms of superintelligence hence become identical, and total understanding of one gives the other: omniscience and omnipotence may be possible to reach, a theological/ideological identification no doubt popular among Keterists. A dissenting view (the "NoCoZo irreducibilists") suggest that torsion theory is basically irreducible, and will be shown to contain arbitrarily complex interactions. This suggests an open-ended future, where new discoveries can enable profoundly new and different forms of being and power.
Since the 4000's the growth of postsingularity physics has continued, although details of the results have been slow to percolate down through the singularity barriers. Perhaps the strongest hint that even the mainbrains find the subject daunting is the spread of cosmography, the science and philosophy of possible worlds and the effects of alternative assumptions and physical laws on universes. This field is mainly based on massive simulations and other semi-empirical methods; had there existed simple ways of understanding the full implications of torsion theories it would not have been necessary. Some hints suggest that major conceptual breakthroughs occurred in the 8000's, but no information has been revealed about its nature.
