What Did We Learn in 2023?

[heymike3]

I got to know ChatGPT this year, which then led me to learn about Julian Barbour

"The universe can and will create itself from nothing."

Asking ChatGPT about which prominent physicists believe quantity is an illusion yielded this noteworthy result: The idea that quantity is an illusion is associated with the physicist Julian Barbour. Barbour is a proponent of a theory called “shape dynamics,” which suggests that the universe is fundamentally about relationships and shapes, rather than quantities or numbers. In this view, quantities like time, mass, and energy are not fundamental aspects of the universe, but are instead emergent …