Final Musings Speculations

In order to address this intriguing question, we must first of all be clear about what me mean by physics. According to the CD-ROM edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, physics is the science of matter and energy and of interactions 

While the figure obviously grossly oversimplifies how we understand nature, it highlights the salient points we are trying to make in this section  

Given that, historically, new developments in mathematics and physics have always been closely aligned, we can anticipate a strong need to develop a (possibly radically) new mathematics in order to effectively deal with these issues. 

For example, think of the complicated 13-glider collision producing a glider gun shown in figure 3.79. One might also ask whether it is more (or less) appropriate 

The short answer is that the ON/OFF bits are real on the microscopic level and the objects are real on a higher, emergent level. A glider is a specific pattern of lower-level bits that, unless it comes into contact with other patterns, is faithfully reproduced in a diagonally displaced position every four iterations. The deeper answer is that both questions are ill-posed because neither object nor real can be objectively defined. Both terms can be understood only when interpreted modulo a specific dynamical level. 

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