It from Bit: The Universe is a Quantum Computer

[Lindley]

Both can't be valid for a single set of physical laws - logically speaking.

Not simultaneously, no, but either one can be equally valid in isolation from the point of view of formal logic.

Consider the purpose of a mathematical model. Its purpose is not only to explain observations, but also to make predictions.

If two different models explain all observations equally well, and make equally good predictions, then while it's true that only (at most) one of them can be "correct"......in some sense they're equally good models, because no evidence can be found to elevate one over the other.

 

[Defiant]

The problem is, if these models have no predictive value, they are little more than games - interesting, to be sure, but not valuable in and of themselves.

Science requires that each hypothesis be tested by experiment. Feynman in his famous lectures put it quite well: mathematics is not science. That doesn't make it bad, it's just not science.

 

[Nomad V]

The number 42.