PUBLIC LECTURE: Is Physical Reality a Matrix?

An Institute of Advanced Studies public lecture by Dr Sylvester James Gates, Jr, John S. Toll Professor of Physics, University of Maryland.

The physicist John Wheeler proposed over thirty years ago a hypothesis he described as `IT from BIT,’ meaning the ultimate architecture of nature must be similar to computer codes. The science fiction movie `The Matrix’ is based on a similar idea.

This lecture will discuss new results in theoretical physics that suggest such ideas may be correct.