Tegmark, Max

Max is Associate Professor of Physics, MIT, and founding Scientific Director, Foundation Questions in Physics & Cosmology [fq(x)]. His research area is precision cosmology: combining theoretical work with new measurements to place sharp constraints on cosmological models. As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, he has worked on data analysis of the observational large-scale structure of the universe combined with the cosmic microwave background data. In his 2002 article in Science, “Measuring Spacetime: From the Big Bang to Black holes,” Max wrote, “Space is not a boring static stage on which events unfold over time, but a dynamic entity with curvature, fluctuations, and a rich life of its own. Spectacular measurements of the cosmic microwave background, gravitational lensing, type Ia supernovae, large-scale structure, spectra of the Lyman forest, stellar dynamics, and x-ray binaries are probing the properties of spacetime over 22 orders of magnitude in scale. Current measurements are consistent with an infinite flat everlasting universe containing about 30% cold dark matter, 65% dark energy, and at least two distinct populations of black holes” Max is known for his speculative “theory of everything” idea of the “Ultimate Ensemble,” generated by self-consistent mathematical structures. Its only postulate is that "all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically," by which he means that in those complex enough to contain self-aware substructures (SASs), these SASs will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically "real'' world. Max states that “We find that it is far from clear that this simple theory, which has no free parameters whatsoever, is observationally ruled out.” Writing in New Scientist, Max stated, “So here is the crux of my argument. If you believe in an external reality independent of humans, then you must also believe in what I call the mathematical universe hypothesis: that our physical reality is a mathematical structure. In other words, we all live in a gigantic mathematical object… Everything in our world is purely mathematical - including you.”