Dr. Steven Wolfram dropped into our meeting last week to give a talk about a new way to view the physical structure of our universe, our actions, our past and our present, and it was a stunning presentation.

We first met Wolfram at the 2018 G4G Conference in Atlanta, where Kate had gone to present results on energetic and morphing surfaces from her Contemporary Geometric Beadwork team. We bumped into Stephen outside one of the meeting rooms, and had a spirited conversation with him about structure and physics, and he talked about his dream of pursuing and articulating a new fundamental theory, which he has now developed and refined.

His theory is based solely on relations and the rules governing the evolution of the relations. Like Charles is always saying, everything is an interaction; there are nothing but interactions. An interaction is a relation. A good example is momentum which is characterized by the units of Joules-seconds per meter. Each of these units is defined by a relation. Joules by a potential difference, seconds by now and then, and meters by here and there. The measurement of momentum is used to determine almost all physical phenomena, from particle creation in an accelerator like the LHC, to the interaction of light (electromagnetics) with matter, to the conditions necessary for hot fusion. Keeping track of relations and the associated rules for evolution might be key to unlocking new physical phenomena.

Please give a listen to Stephen’s thrilling talk and the exciting discussion afterwards. There may even be a way to use his theory to discover more about the fundamental nature of energy and how to harvest the energy in the relations of the Universe in a new way.