[FOM] Could spacetime be discrete?

[H Z]

On 1/14/06, Alasdair Urquhart <urquhart at cs.toronto.edu> wrote:
> Richard Haney raises the question as to whether spacetime
> could be discrete.  I am not sure what this means, but if
> it means that there is a minimum length, this appears
> inconsistent with special relativity.  Could somebody
> elucidate this point?
>

Even when it  appears inconsistent with special relativity, in quantum
mechanics seems  not. I think that even some results suggest it, as
those related with the "Planck lenght" and "Planck time". I have made
the question to many physicists and even when they would like to live
in a continuos space most of them thinks that actually it is discrete.
Could be great to hear from others at this respect.

The answer is not harmless to other fields, in particular such of our
interest, foundations on math and computer science. Could somebody
elucidate also which could be the consequences for foundations? How
can we talk about and operate over continum fields if maybe they do
not exist? Is a discrete universe a limit to perform computations?
must be but some claims not.