In search of continuity: thoughts of an epistemic empiricist
arXiv:1106.1124
Abstract
Is the universe digital or analog? In this essay I argue that both classical and quantum physics include limits that prevent us from definitively answering that question. That quantum physics does so is no surprise. That classical physics does so is rather unexpected. In fact, I argue that classical physics is itself really nothing more than a convenient approximation. Either way, it turns out that our knowledge of the universe is discrete and so it is extraordinarily difficult, perhaps even impossible, to determine the underlying continuity of the universe itself.
10 pages, awarded Fourth Prize in the 2011 FQXi Essay contest, "Is Reality Digital or Analog?"