1.2 The Engine of Creation (Turing Completeness of Physical Systems)

(The Engine of Creation - Turing Completeness of Physical Systems)

“If there is a spell effect that cannot be described by any macro command or script, then it is not magic, it is cheating. The Titans do not allow cheating.”

After establishing that Azeroth’s resources are finite (Axiom of Finite Information), the second question we face is: How does this world move? In other words, what does the driving engine that turns present Azeroth into the next second’s Azeroth look like?

Old physicists liked to use complex calculus equations to describe the world, which is like trying to make a game with hand-drawn animation—beautiful but inefficient, requiring every frame to be redrawn. Moreover, they assumed nature could instantly complete infinite precision calculations, which is a huge Bug logically.

In this section, we will demonstrate the core property of the physics engine—computability.

1.2.1 Physical Laws Must Be Executable Code

Before the Titans arrived, natives rarely thought about the “computational cost” of physical laws. Arcanists thought that as long as you chanted the spell, a fireball would appear out of thin air.

But any goblin who has written addons knows that nature will never execute non-computable operations. If a physical process requires solving an unsolvable math problem (like the halting problem) or infinite computing power, then this process simply cannot happen in Azeroth. The game engine will skip it directly or throw an error.

Therefore, we introduce a constraint: All physical laws must be algorithmically definable.

This means that for any physical process—whether it’s the growth of plants or the opening of a Burning Legion portal—there exists a finite-length “code” that can simulate its result in finite time.

1.2.2 The Titan-Turing-Deutsch Principle

David Deutsch, a physicist who may have gnome blood, proposed a shocking view, which can be expressed through our “Code of Azeroth” theory as:

The Titan-Turing-Deutsch Principle (TTD)

Any system that is physically possible in Azeroth can be perfectly simulated by a universal quantum computer. Conversely, any result that a universal quantum computer can calculate corresponds to a physical process that can be found in Azeroth.

This principle establishes the isomorphism between physics and computer science:

1. Completeness: There are no “supernatural” phenomena beyond code. Even N’Zoth’s mad whispers or the Light’s miracles are essentially advanced programs running within this physics engine framework. No true “magic” can escape the system’s logical closure.

2. Universality: Azeroth itself is a universal quantum computer. It not only calculates its own evolution; theoretically, by rearranging matter in this world (programming), we can simulate an Outland or Shadowlands inside Azeroth.

1.2.3 Physical Evolution as Quantum Computation

Based on the previous axiom, we can prove that so-called “time passage” and “physical change” are essentially computation.

Theorem 1.2.1 (Physical-Computational Equivalence)

If you have a universe model that satisfies causality and finite information density (like our server), then all data that can be obtained by observing phenomena in this universe can be calculated by a universal quantum computer in finite time.

In plain language:

1. State encoding: The matter you see (a warrior’s armor, a mage’s water elemental) is essentially data written in server memory (Hilbert space).
2. Dynamics decomposition: All physical interactions (swinging a sword, fireball explosion) can be decomposed into a series of most basic logical operations (quantum logic gates). Just like any complex macro command is ultimately composed of /cast and /target.
3. Simulation execution: Physical evolution is the server executing this code. Particle collisions are logic gate operations, chemical reactions are subroutine calls, and the passage of time is merely CPU clock ticks.

1.2.4 Rejecting Cheating (Rejecting Hypercomputation)

An important corollary of this principle is: Denying the existence of cheating (Hypercomputation).

Although mathematically we can imagine a “supercomputer” with infinite precision, or a machine that uses time reversal (closed timelike curves) for infinite time loops. But physically, these are all explicitly banned by the Titans.

• Infinite precision: Prohibited by the uncertainty principle and bag limit (Bekenstein bound). You cannot make a number precise to infinite decimal places because the server doesn’t store floating-point numbers; the bottom layer is all integers.
• Infinite loops: Prohibited by thermodynamic laws (server energy consumption).

Therefore, our universe is strictly limited to the Turing-computable domain. This delineates the absolute boundary of scientific cognition: Non-computable means non-existent. You want a sword with attack power of “infinity”? Sorry, the database doesn’t have this field type stored.

In summary, the Turing completeness of physical systems tells us: The universe is not simulating a world; it is that computer itself; physical laws are not documents describing machine operation, but the operating system code at the bottom layer of the machine.