I argue for a full mathematisation of the physical theory, including its
axioms, which must contain no physical primitives. In provocative words:
"physics from no physics". Although this may seem an oxymoron, it is the royal
road to keep complete logical coherence, hence falsifiability of the theory.
For such a purely mathematical theory the physical connotation must pertain
only the interpretation of the mathematics, ranging from the axioms to the
final theorems. On the contrary, the postulates of the two current major
physical theories either don't have physical interpretation (as for von
Neumann's axioms for quantum theory), or contain physical primitives as
"clock", "rigid rod ", "force", "inertial mass" (as for special relativity and
mechanics). A purely mathematical theory as proposed here, though with limited
(but relentlessly growing) domain of applicability, will have the eternal
validity of mathematical truth. It will be a theory on which natural sciences
can firmly rely. Such kind of theory is what I consider to be the solution of
the Sixth Hilbert's Problem. I argue that a prototype example of such a
mathematical theory is provided by the novel algorithmic paradigm for physics,
as in the recent information-theoretical derivation of quantum theory and free
quantum field theory.Comment: Opinion paper. Special issue of Philosophical Transaction A, devoted
to the VI Hilbert problem, after the Workshop "Hilbert's Sixth Problem",
University of Leicester, May 02-04 201
