The Fabric of Reality: Towards a Theory of Everything (Penguin Science)

by David Deutsch

However, it is an interesting fact that the physical universe admits processes that create knowledge about itself, and about other things too. We may reasonably try to explain this fact in the same way as we explain other physical facts, namely through explanatory theories. You will see in Chapter 6 of The Fabric of Reality that I think that the Turing principle is the appropriate theory in this case. It says that it is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every physically possible environment. If the Turing principle is a law of physics, as I have argued that it is, then we should not be surprised to find that we can form accurate theories about reality, because that is just virtual reality in action. Just as the fact that steam engines are possible is a direct expression of the principles of thermodynamics, so the fact that the human brain is capable of creating knowledge is a direct expression of the Turing principle.