Question
Why is symmetry such a prominent aspect of the universe?
Answer
Most of fundamental physics (possibly all of it, I wouldn't know, you'd have to ask people like Jay Wacker) can be described in terms of symmetries and symmetry-breaking.
Symmetry is a measure of information potential in a way. Empty bits. The universe appears to go from high symmetry to low symmetry (or equivalently, from low entropy to high entropy).
Symmetry-breaking is either noise or information. This is a very subtle issue. Some things are noise to some, information to others (like the digits of pi). Other things ("true" random numbers) appear to be noise to all.
Important question: where exactly is all this "information or noise" coming from? If the universe is thermodynamically closed, all the randomness has to come from initial conditions. That is, whatever tiny perturbations disturbed the big symmetries at t=0 when the Big Bang (and time itself) got going. If that's the case, hmm... ALL this complexity we see around us might just be the effect of a handful of equations acting on a handful of random numbers from 13.2 billion years ago.
If I understand this position in physics correctly (and I am not sure I do), the original "empty bits" information potential of the universe isn't actually getting filled up with information/entropy. It just seems to be getting filled up, since there is no ongoing source of random bits entering the universe (assuming the universe is thermodynamically closed). If this is the case, then the symmetry is all still there. It's just kinda mangled and distorted, not destroyed.
Whether true random numbers even exist (outside of Big Bang symmetry breaking initial conditions random numbers) with meaningful physical correlates is the question of whether you need the continuum to describe reality, or whether discrete math will do. Digital physics is the idea that discrete math will do, and that you can throw away the continuum. In fact, there's a stronger position that the continuum is not even necessary (though it is convenient and handy) to do any mathematics. I think it was Kronecker who said, "God created the integers, all else is the work of man."
What does this have to do with symmetry? I am not entirely sure, since I am not a physicist, but my pop-science understanding, that I have sort of satisfied myself with, is that you have to believe in one of two positions:
Symmetry is a measure of information potential in a way. Empty bits. The universe appears to go from high symmetry to low symmetry (or equivalently, from low entropy to high entropy).
Symmetry-breaking is either noise or information. This is a very subtle issue. Some things are noise to some, information to others (like the digits of pi). Other things ("true" random numbers) appear to be noise to all.
Important question: where exactly is all this "information or noise" coming from? If the universe is thermodynamically closed, all the randomness has to come from initial conditions. That is, whatever tiny perturbations disturbed the big symmetries at t=0 when the Big Bang (and time itself) got going. If that's the case, hmm... ALL this complexity we see around us might just be the effect of a handful of equations acting on a handful of random numbers from 13.2 billion years ago.
If I understand this position in physics correctly (and I am not sure I do), the original "empty bits" information potential of the universe isn't actually getting filled up with information/entropy. It just seems to be getting filled up, since there is no ongoing source of random bits entering the universe (assuming the universe is thermodynamically closed). If this is the case, then the symmetry is all still there. It's just kinda mangled and distorted, not destroyed.
Whether true random numbers even exist (outside of Big Bang symmetry breaking initial conditions random numbers) with meaningful physical correlates is the question of whether you need the continuum to describe reality, or whether discrete math will do. Digital physics is the idea that discrete math will do, and that you can throw away the continuum. In fact, there's a stronger position that the continuum is not even necessary (though it is convenient and handy) to do any mathematics. I think it was Kronecker who said, "God created the integers, all else is the work of man."
What does this have to do with symmetry? I am not entirely sure, since I am not a physicist, but my pop-science understanding, that I have sort of satisfied myself with, is that you have to believe in one of two positions:
- The universe doesn't contain as much information as it can. It might be fractally redundant in fact, and perhaps your brain has enough bits to completely "understand" the universe, in some sort of Kolmogorov-information-theoretic sense (i.e. you can download and install the "universe generator" algorithm along with its initial input, into your head. People like Stephen Wolfram and Seth Lloyd appear to believe something like this). In this view, not only is the universe finite and countable in a sense, the uncountable is a meaningless idea. The universe is nearly completely symmetric, and any indication otherwise is just you being a dumbass and not having the "universe generator" algorithm in your head.
- The continuum is real and the universe is actually packed chock-full of random bits, to capacity. It is completely asymmetric and any symmetry is a local illusion, and you can never hope to understand it. I think Joshua Engel is saying something like this (basically deriving the appearance of symmetry from a strong Anthropic principle, which I am not sure is an entirely valid thing to do).