The idea that physical events are generated is radical but not new:
1. Fredkin. Proposed that for physical events to be generated “…only requires one far-fetched assumption: there is this place, Other, that hosts the engine that “runs” the physics.” (Fredkin, 2005) p275.
2. Wilczek. Proposed that what generates the physical is “… the Grid, that ur-stuff that underlies physical reality” (Wilczek, 2008 p111).
3. Wheeler. Proposed that some sort of processing generates matter “… every physical quantity, every it, derives its ultimate significance from bits … a conclusion which we epitomize in the phrase, it from bit.” (Wheeler, 1989).
4. D’Espagnat. Proposed that a “veiled reality” generates time, space, and matter. (D’Espagnat, 1995).
5. Campbell. Proposed that a “Big Computer” generates our reality (Campbell, 2003).
6. Barbour. Proposed that time is generated by a landscape where “The mists come and go, changing constantly over a landscape that itself never changes” (Barbour, 1999) p230.
These examples postulate that something else generates physical events, so let Fredkin’s engine, Wilczek’s ur-grid, Wheeler’s bit source, D’Espagnat’s veiled reality, Campbell’s big computer, and Barbour’s landscape all refer to a primal network that existed before our time and space began. In our cellphone networks, each station actively supports local phones and also connects to its neighbors (Figure 2.1), so let the network proposed do the same, except it isn’t physical and each station is a point of space that supports local entities not phones. Space itself is then a network of processors, for as Hiley recalled:
“I remember … Richard Feynman … saying that he thought of a point in space-time as being like a computer with an input and output connecting neighboring points” (Davies & Brown, 1999) p138.
Feynman thought of a point of space as a processing point in a network that isn’t in space, but generates it. Empty space is then when that processing is null, and when it isn’t it shows something else, like a photon or electron, and it is the same quantum processing that runs quantum computers.
But if quantum processing generates matter, is matter just information, as Wheelers It from Bit implies? Before exploring how a quantum network could create a space and time like ours, let us clarify how matter relates to information.