• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Calling Planck units “pixels” is extremely reductive. This is just naively applying video game concepts to physics with a poor understanding of both.

    • BrerChicken @lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I took an entire graduate course in QM and a quantized Universe does, in fact, seem pixelated. That’s exactly how I explain it to people. There’s simply a finite level to how closely you can zoom in. Space, time, and energy are all quantized, and maybe even gravity though we haven’t figured that one out yet.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        A finite level to how close you can zoom in is very different from pixels. Pixels (or voxels in this case) are indivisible elements of a larger whole that exist along an evenly spaced grid. The universe doesn’t have a Cartesian coordinate system measured in Planck lengths

        • BrerChicken @lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Pixels (or voxels in this case) are indivisible elements of a larger whole that exist along an evenly spaced grid.

          That’s exactly what a Planck unit of spacetime is. And yes, the Universe–like a screen–is divided into an evenly-spaced grid any time you choose a coordinate system.

    • BrerChicken @lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I took an entire graduate course in QM and a quantized Universe does, in fact, seem pixelated. That’s exactly how I explain it to people. There’s simply a finite level to how closely you can zoom in.