On the Physical Basics of Information Flow

Abstract

For three years Konrad Zuse (1910 - 1995) and me, we collaborated on the idea of a Computing Universe. We both agreed that some of the main tenets of modern physics would have to be expressed, at least those of quantum mechanics and of special relativity. Discussing which tenets should be tackled, Zuse said “those which can be understood by an engineer”. But many years passed before the deterministic approach of Gerard’t Hooft (2002) made a complete elaboration of the originally conceived ideas possible. We follow the principles of combinatorial modelling, which is a proper synthesis of continuous and discrete modelling.