Constructor Theory: Casting physics in a new form - Borzumehr Toloui Semnani

The prevailing mode of explanation in physics purports to describe everything in nature, at the most fundamental level, in terms of laws of motion and initial conditions. Constructor theory is a newly proposed alternative to this prevailing mode of explanation. The fundamental principle of constructor theory is that all laws of physics are expressible entirely in terms of what physical transformations can or cannot be caused to happen, rather than what actually will or will not happen given a particular set of initial conditions. This seemingly small change of view has dramatic consequences. For example, constructor theory treats counterfactual statements and properties and factual ones evenhandedly. This allows for information, with its counterfactual property, to have a sharp and natural expression and to be fully integrated with the rest of physics within constructor theory. Constructor theory also has a natural and efficient way to define and identify resources in terms of tasks. Yet, it has deep and important differences with conventional resource theories. While resource theories contain the same premises and ultimately the same content as their already established underlying theories in this fields, constructor theory makes independent, new and falsifiable assertions about the physical world. For example, constructor theory demands that all physical theories must have a local and deterministic structure. In this talk, I will introduce constructor theory and give a summary of its main premises and some of its early results including the newly developed constructor theory of information.