
Increasingly encompassing models have been suggested for our world. Theories range from generally accepted to increasingly speculative to apparently bogus. The progression of theories from ego- to geo- to helio-centric models to universe and multiverse theories and beyond was accompanied by a dramatic increase in the sizes of the postulated worlds, with humans being expelled from their center to ever more remote and random locations. Rather than leading to a true theory of everything, this trend faces a turning point after which the predictive power of such theories decreases (actually to zero). Incorporating the location and other capacities of the observer into such theories avoids this problem and allows to distinguish meaningful from predictively meaningless theories. This also leads to a truly complete theory of everything consisting of a (conventional objective) theory of everything plus a (novel subjective) observer process. The observer localization is neither based on the controversial anthropic principle, nor has it anything to do with the quantum-mechanical observation process. The suggested principle is extended to more practical (partial, approximate, probabilistic, parametric) world models (rather than theories of everything). Finally, I provide a justification of Ockham’s razor, and criticize the anthropic principle, the doomsday argument, the no free lunch theorem, and the falsifiability dogma.
FOS: Computer and information sciences, predictive power, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Simplicity and complexity, Universal self-sampling, Industrial engineering. Management engineering, Computer Science - Information Theory, FOS: Physical sciences, Ockham’s razor, Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph), T55.4-60.8, No-free-lunch, Observer localization, no-free-lunch, Physics - Popular Physics, observer localization, Foundations, quantum information and its processing, quantum axioms, and philosophy, Universal theories, Philosophy of mathematics, World models, inductive reasoning, simplicity and complexity, computability, Inductive reasoning, Information Theory (cs.IT), universal self-sampling, QA75.5-76.95, world models, Foundational topics in statistics, universal theories, Algorithmic information theory (Kolmogorov complexity, etc.), Keywords: Computability, Electronic computers. Computer science, Ockham's razor, 190, Predictive power, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
FOS: Computer and information sciences, predictive power, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Simplicity and complexity, Universal self-sampling, Industrial engineering. Management engineering, Computer Science - Information Theory, FOS: Physical sciences, Ockham’s razor, Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph), T55.4-60.8, No-free-lunch, Observer localization, no-free-lunch, Physics - Popular Physics, observer localization, Foundations, quantum information and its processing, quantum axioms, and philosophy, Universal theories, Philosophy of mathematics, World models, inductive reasoning, simplicity and complexity, computability, Inductive reasoning, Information Theory (cs.IT), universal self-sampling, QA75.5-76.95, world models, Foundational topics in statistics, universal theories, Algorithmic information theory (Kolmogorov complexity, etc.), Keywords: Computability, Electronic computers. Computer science, Ockham's razor, 190, Predictive power, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
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