Minecraft: The Riemann Manifold of Fun—A Hypothetical Physics Simulation

Overview

The following is a semi-serious, highly technical, and completely humorous review of the Swedish video game Minecraft. This title, often described as a sandbox construction game, is revealed here as an ambitious, albeit incomplete, simulation built upon a set of radically altered fundamental physical axioms. Much like Greg Egan’s Orthogonal trilogy, which explores a universe where spacetime is a Riemannian rather than a Lorentzian manifold, Minecraft offers a world governed by novel, non-standard laws, yielding a highly amusing, yet surprisingly fertile, ground for engineering and logic.

We present the core deviations from classical and quantum physics, followed by the advanced (modded) scientific extensions, concluding with an enthusiastic invitation to join the Nanjing University Minecraft Organization (NMO).

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Minecraft: A Universe Governed by Novel Physical Axioms

The game’s construction and behavior fundamentally violate established principles, creating a unique, blocky physics:

1. The Selective Gravitational Field (A Non-Universal Force)

• Standard Physics: Gravity is a universal force, affecting all mass-energy according to the equivalence principle.
• Minecraft Axiom 1: The Gravitational Field is Selective and Binary. Most solid, block-based matter is completely immune to gravitational acceleration, existing in a state of perpetual, stable, rigid suspension ($\mathbf{g} \rightarrow 0$ for blocks). Conversely, biological entities (mobs), dropped items (entities), and a few special blocks (e.g., sand, gravel) are fully subject to Newtonian mechanics in the vertical dimension.
• Academic Joke: This posits a universe operating on a "Preferred Mass Triviality" principle, where the vacuum energy density of block materials is perfectly zero, or where the interaction range of the mediating graviton field is artificially restricted to a select subset of material phases.

2. The Entropically-Neutral Life Cycle (Weakened Energy Conservation)

• Standard Physics: Biological generation, death, and interaction are governed by the conservation of energy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy increases).
• Minecraft Axiom 2: Energy Conservation is Critically Weakened for Biological Processes. The spawning and despawning of biological entities (mobs) are entirely decoupled from energy conversion (no heat loss, no chemical potential change), making the $\Delta E$ of the process arbitrarily close to zero. The Entropy Model is Not Applicable to population dynamics.
• Academic Joke: This implies the existence of a perfectly efficient, localized, Non-Equilibrium Spawning Operator that bypasses the need for free energy conversion entirely, suggesting a non-thermal origin for life in this simulated cosmos.

3. Population Dynamics: Discrete Events vs. Continuous Models

• Standard Physics: Real-world food webs are modeled by continuous Population Dynamics (e.g., the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey equations, which account for carrying capacity and continuous rates of consumption).
• Minecraft Axiom 3: Biological Interaction is Driven by Discrete State Transitions. The interaction between species (e.g., a wolf attacking a sheep) is resolved as an immediate, discrete event, entirely ignoring continuous variables like environmental carrying capacity, energy expenditure for hunting, and instantaneous rates of predation.
• Academic Joke: The simulated ecosystem is a vast, interconnected Finite State Machine (FSM), where the biological agents simply transition between states (e.g., 'Target Acquired' $\rightarrow$ 'Attack Executed' $\rightarrow$ 'Target Entity Destroyed'), making the entire system computationally simple but ecologically nonsensical.

4. Structural Engineering: The $\mathbf{F}_{\text{critical}} \rightarrow \infty$ Universe

• Standard Physics: Real-world engineering structures must adhere to material science principles, especially Hooke's Law, and structural failure due to Euler Buckling. The critical load for a column is $F_{\text{critical}} = \pi^2 E I / (K L)^2$, where $E$ is Young's Modulus and $I$ is the Area Moment of Inertia.
• Minecraft Axiom 4: The Young's Modulus is Infinite, and Buckling is Prohibited. Materials can be stacked indefinitely into cantilevers, suspension bridges, or towers without concern for tensile, compressive, or shear stresses. The buckling critical load limit is $\mathbf{F}_{\text{critical}} \rightarrow \infty$, rendering all structures perfectly rigid.
• Academic Joke: This is a universe built upon the principle of Perfectly Rigid Bodies where all elastic and plastic deformation is set to zero. All construction is, by default, an ideal, non-deformable Born-Oppenheimer Approximation of a structure.

5. Fluid Dynamics: The Navier-Stokes Trivialization

• Standard Physics: Fluids obey the Navier-Stokes Equations, accounting for viscosity, pressure gradients, and the conservation of momentum (e.g., the Bernoulli principle linking speed and pressure).
• Minecraft Axiom 5: Fluid Mechanics is Trivialized into a Simple State Machine. Fluid flow (water and lava) does not adhere to viscosity, pressure-gradient forces, or the Bernoulli principle. Flow velocity is purely a function of the block-volume displacement—a simple, discrete decay model from the source block.
• Academic Joke: The game's liquid is an example of a Non-Newtonian Block-Wise Fluid where the velocity field is quantized and the stress tensor is trivialized, making it an ideal model for computational simplicity, if not physical accuracy.

6. Redstone Circuits: The Pure Boolean Logic Engine

• Standard Physics: Electronic circuits rely on Electromagnetism, governed by Maxwell's Equations, where signal transmission is due to the movement of electrons and photons.
• Minecraft Axiom 6: Signal Transmission is Purely Logical. The Redstone system simulates Boolean logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, XOR, etc.) but its operation is entirely decoupled from the fundamental laws of electricity and magnetism. The signal decay is a digital delay over distance, not an ohmic loss.
• Academic Joke: Redstone is a perfect Analytic Continuation of Boolean Algebra into Physical Space, acting as a medium for pure, unadulterated logic, rather than messy, analog electromagnetic waves.

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Advanced Academic Extensions (Modded Physics)

For those finding the base physics too simplistic, the game supports "Mod-Science", allowing the integration of complex hypothetical systems:

• Thaumcraft: Introduces Alchemical Engineering based on a quasi-quantum substance-energy field theory, demanding the balancing of Aspects (elemental energy charges).
• Ars Nouveau: Allows the construction of a Programmable Runic Dynamical System—a Turing-complete system for magic utilizing custom-defined flow charts and abstract elemental components.
• GregTech: Implements a complex, high-throughput Strongly Correlated Electron Industrial System, demanding real-world thermodynamic and material constraints for high-tier processing.
• Create Mod: Introduces Rotational Kinematics and Stress-Field Matter Reorganization, requiring players to manage Stress (a simplified equivalent of torque and material strength) to power kinetic machines, thereby reintroducing a non-trivial Young's Modulus (Axiom 4 is partially disabled). This mod also features mechanisms for Quantum Tunneling Transmission and Precision Manipulation Systems.

Call to Action

The world of Minecraft is not merely a game; it is a laboratory for exploring non-standard physical realities and designing complex computational systems.

Join the Nanjing University Minecraft Organization (NMO) to delve deeper into these systems and build incredible worlds!

Find out more: https://www.nmo.net.cn/

Join the NMO meow, join the NMO thank you meow.