The universe: A book written in the mathematical —and the programming— language

Macuglia, D. (2021) The universe: A book written in the mathematical —and the programming— language. Il nuovo cimento C, 44 (1). pp. 1-13. ISSN 1826-9885

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Abstract

This paper concerns the pronounced shift that occurred, in the twentieth century, from the formulation of scientific laws with limited computational capabilities —a distinctive trend of the early and late modern periods— to the formulation and the massive computation that we can now perform with the aid of computer technologies. This change altered our relationship with science, and thus our ambitions with nature. What seems clear is that the universe —the “grand book” that “stands continually open to our gaze”— is not solely written with “triangles, circles, and other geometric figures”, as Galileo Galilei put it, but also with languages whose characters consist of data, processes, structures and other constructs of computer programs without which we would now wander about “in a dark labyrinth”.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	500 Scienze naturali e Matematica > 530 Fisica
Depositing User:	Marina Spanti
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2021 10:02
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2021 10:02
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/21301

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