Epistemological Aspects of Edward Fredkin's Digital Cosmology in the Context of the Development of Artificial Intelligence Ideas -

Article

Open Access

by Andrii Synytsia¹
¹ Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Lviv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/36/8
Received: 9 November 2025 / Accepted: 10 January 2026 / Published: 1 February 2026

View Full-Text Review Reports Cite This Paper

Abstract

The article examines the main features of E. Fredkin’s digital cosmology. Based on the analysis of the epistemological aspect of his concept, it is considered how he interprets the question of the possibilities of our knowledge of the world around us, defines the fundamental principle of the Universe, throught the analysis of the Other, and reflects on the world of human existence through the study of the soul in its static and dynamic manifestations. It is shown that despite the attempt to define the informational-computational approach as a universal one, in the study of the human inner world it appears to be imperfectly developed, and the further development of artificial intelligence theory has only confirmed that many assumptions about the digital nature of the world, which seemed obvious to Fredkin at the beginning for the transition from metaphors and parallels with the computer sphere to the construction of digital cosmology, as well as ontology and clarification of the metaphysical basis of reality, not only remained unconfirmed, but interpretations appeared that offered conclusions that differed significantly from them (while radicalizing certain ideas, replacing the real with the virtual, and developing not so much the idea of discreteness as the idea of continuity). In addition, attempting to explain how the world works by reducing everything to computational fundamentals provides a technocentric explanation of the nature of reality, which may be overly simplistic, as it leaves gaps in the explanations and does not solve the problem of consciousness and human experience. At the same time, it has been stated that the development of artificial intelligence technologies can clarify many issues of digital cosmology, in particular by improving our knowledge of the external world and human existence.

Keywords: digital cosmology, finite nature, information-computational approach, limits of cognition, reality, metaphysics of the Other, human inner world.

References

Abraham, R., and Roy S. (2012) A digital solution to the mind/body problem. In P. Simeonov, L. Smith, A. Ehresmann (Eds.), Integral Biomathics (pp. 213-225). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28111-2_20

Bostrom, N. (2003) Are we living in a computer simulation? Philosophical Quarterly, 53(211), 243-255. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9213.00309

Broadbent, D. (2023) Could our Universe have been initiated intentionally: An epistemological framework. Philosophy and Cosmology, 31, 4-12. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/31/1

Butlin, P., Long, R., Elmoznino, E., Bengio, Y., Birch, J., VanRullen, R. et al. (2023) Consciousness in artificial intelligence: Insights from the science of consciousness. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08708

Chalmers, D. (2011) A computational foundation for the study of cognition. Journal of Cognitive Science, 12(4), 325-359. https://doi.org/10.17791/jcs.2011.12.4.325

Chalmers, D. (2022) Reality+ : Virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Chandler, D. L. (2023) Could the Universe be a giant quantum computer? Nature, 620 (7976), 943-945. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02646-x

Dulberg, Z., Dubey, R., Berwian, I. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2023) Having multiple selves helps learning agents explore and adapt in complex changing worlds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(28), e2221180120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221180120

Faizal, M., Krauss, L., Shabir, A., & Marino, F. (2025). Consequences of undecidability in physics on the theory of everything. Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, 5(2), 10-21. https://doi.org/10.22128/jhap.2025.1024.1118

Fredkin, E. (1990) Digital mechanics: An informational process based on reversible universal cellular automata. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 45(1-3), 254-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2789(90)90186-S

Fredkin, E. (1992) Finite nature. Proceedings of the XXVIIth Rencontre de Moriond (Les Arcs, Savoie, France, March 22–28, 1992) (pp. 345-354). Gif-sur-Yvette, France: Editions Frontieres.

Fredkin, E. (1993) A new cosmogony. In D. Matzke (Ed.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Physics and Computation (October 2–4, 1992) (pp. 116-121). New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society Press. https://doi.org/10.1109/PHYCMP.1992.615507

Fredkin, E. (2000) On the soul (Unpublished manuscript). https://www.scribd.com/document/235105454/On-the-soul-Ed-Fredkin

Fredkin, E. (2003) An introduction to digital philosophy. International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 42, 189-247. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024443232206

Fredkin, E. (2004) Five big questions with pretty simple answers. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 48(1), 31-45. https://doi.org/10.1147/rd.481.0031

Fredkin, E. (2005) A computing architecture for physics. CF’05: Proceedings of the 2nd conference on Computing frontiers, 273-279. https://doi.org/10.1145/1062261.1062307

Pietarinen, A. V. (2025). Synechism 2.0: Contours of a new theory of continuity in nature. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 100, 103–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2025.05.006

Pittard, J. (2023) The Skeptical challenge of the theistic multiverse. Ergo, 9, 36. https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.2925

Steinhart, E. (1998) Digital metaphysics. In T. W. Bynum & J. H. Moor (Eds.), The Digital Phoenix: How Computers are Changing Philosophy (pp. 117-134). Cambridge: Blackwell.

Synytsia, A. (2025) Remarks on Karl Popper’s idea of three worlds in the context of the development of virtual reality technologies. Actual Problems of Mind, 26, 31-48. https://doi.org/10.55056/apm.7748

Weber, C. (2025) The multiplicity objection against uploading optimism. Synthese 205, 226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05057-9

Wittgenstein, L. (1922) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus / trans. by C. K. Ogden. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

Yampolskiy, R. (2023) How to escape from the simulation. Seeds of Science. https://doi.org/10.53975/wg1s-9j16

Share and Cite

Synytsia, Andrii (2026) Epistemological Aspects of Edward Fredkin’s Digital Cosmology in the Context of the Development of Artificial Intelligence Ideas. Philosophy and Cosmology, Volume 36, 193-205. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/36/8

Back to the list of Articles