Julian Barbour
British physicist · United Kingdom · On the map · Scientists · Born 1937 · age 89
Julian Barbour is a British physicist with research interests in quantum gravity and the history of science.
Julian Barbour is read about 55 times a day, in 19 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 19 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
2011“Wheeler argued that anything physical... derives its... existence... from discrete detector-elicited information-theoretic answers to yes or no quantum binary choices: bits.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.“I argue... this weakens but not necessarily destroys the argument that nature is fundamentally digital and continuity an illusion.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.“I find no reason to reverse the standard assumption of physics... what we experience can be explained by the assumption of an external world governed by law.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.“It is a mistake to believe that the digits 0 and 1, being abstract, represent the immaterial. Quite... the contrary... they stand for something quintessentially concrete.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.“Shannon information... [which] he also called entropy or ... involves things (...Shannon ...messages) and probabilities for those things.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.“and variety are central to my critique of 'it from bit'. For we can only talk meaningfully about a thing, including a , if it has distinguishing attributes.”In their wordsEssay submitted Third FQXi essay competition (2011) on the subject Is Nature Analog or Digital? Sources: 1, 2.1937Born
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, Julian Barbour
, 4 statements, newest first
Things, not information, are primary. ... 'bit' derives from 'it'.
Ontological primacy should not be given to information but to things, as has always been the standpoint of realists.
Greek astronomers observed intricate motions of the sun, moon, and planets on the two-dimensional sky.
About this person
Country
United Kingdom
Category
Scientists
Type
Scientist
Status
Living
Dates
Born 1937 · age 89
