Caro professore D'Ariano,
mille grazie per aver condiviso la sua bella mente con noi. (I'm afraid my written Italian stops here -- but I can talk :)
I would like to bring your attention to the beautiful and short, almost like a theorem, essay by Maria Carrillo-Ruiz, who also shows how cellular automata can be linked to the concept of emergence. In the context of ontological monism she says, "Reality is ultimately composed of one basic stuff. Yet the concepts of physics are not sufficient to explain all the forms that this stuff takes and all the ways it comes to be structured, individuated, and causally efficacious." I thought you may like to read it and please share with us your impressions.
The other essay to which I wanted to bring your attention is by Dr. Carolyn Devereux, who, also in the context of ontological monism, introduces a novel idea of how 'matter' may emerge from harmonic oscillations within the vibrating primordial substrate, thus offering an alternative to CA mechanism of emergence. I am especially partial to this view, because it resonates with my vision of how the universe emerged (which I tried to convey, within my layman limitations, in the last year contest).
The central idea of both essays fits very well with my understanding, that, in layman terms, everything in the universe, including space itself, is made of the same 'space stuff'. Or, alternatively, that reality emerges in the dynamic structure of space-time -- in this view, energy = dynamics and information = structure or organization that emerges out of primitive processes governed by just a few simple principles. Thus, in my understanding, if ToE is ever to be found, such a theory would naturally have to be background independent -- in fact, the organization of what we define as background would emerge from it -- and everything else would emerge from this background. Or, in layman terms again, every 'thing', including space-time itself, is ultimately 'made of' the underlying quantum processes. I hope that this also in line with your view --at least this is how I understand it-- please correct me if I'm wrong.
Please read these two essays and tell us what you think :)
Maria Carrillo-Ruiz: http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1892
Dr Carolyn Devereux: http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1893
(Of course, if you could find the time to read my own essay and post a sincere comment, I'd cherish it forever. ..otherwise, I understand :)
Mille grazie!
-Marina