The Perfect First Question. by T H Ray

"I would have used Joy's treatment of the Dirac belt trick in its classical framework, to explain how the complete (4 pi) rotation is angle preserving (conformal) to infinity."

I hope you do sometime. Your breadth and depth are amazing!

James

Thanks, James. Honestly, though, it is only in the last couple of years that these disjointed elements of knowledge acquired over many years have come together in a meaningful way. I think it shows the power of one great idea to make sense of a thousand little ones -- I hadn't imagined, and I know of no one else who had imagined, that topology -- through application of continuous global properties and patterns of a compact space, could describe discrete local measurement results without a probabilistic structure.

With the greatest demonstration of intellectual courage, Joy has blazed a trail for us through this thick wilderness where no one else dared to go. Long after the controversy is forgotten and buried, this idea will still be affecting fields of science from cosmology on one extreme, to brain mechanics and consciousness on the other.

Tom

Good work Tom!

I've been a fan of your work for way too many years & this does not disappoint - both content & style. Very impressive. I'm hungry or more!

-C

Hello Thomas glad you participated again in this year's contest.

And I am very glad you are Alive - as you have proven mathematically beyond any reasonable doubt !! If you follow my argument in Q6 of my present FQXI paper, based on older arguments in my papers referred to therin, you will see that I believe that quantum probability is a mathematical interpretation of a very unprobabilistic local, causal world of wave-like diffusion in a universal lattice In other words in EPR and Bell the photons have identical phase from start to finish, but it is the random state of the detectors that create the illusion of probability.

For this reason although I could see how deeply and learnedly you have gone into these questions, I do not want to take that route myself. I would like to learn about Poincare's circle, though - I have renewed respect for his ideas - and will google accordingly. Thanks and good luck.

Vladimir

Dear Thomas

Yes I know the Escher circle you mean - he is great. Thanks for the link to the Poincare geometry - I do not know if this is significant in any way but in Fig. 9.2 all the construction circles on the tangent are bow waves see my Bow Wave paper here - these waves are the same shape as far-field dipole wavefronts as described in my United Dipole Field paper linked from the same page. I have argued for having the electric field in these waves as the source of quantum probability - in other words quantum effects are due to the spread of real dipole bow waves in the ether. Easy to say and looks good in a diagram (attached diagram from my Beautiful Universe paper), but of course to prove it convincingly (or disprove it?) is not that easy!

I will have to study Joy's work. I am not saying a probabilistic interpretation does not work as a mathematical nuts-and-bolts method to describe physical situations, but that this 'probability' is an outcome of an ordered, local, causal process. Thanks again for appreciating my art. My physics needs some more work!

Cheers. VladimirAttachment #1: BUFIG28.jpg

Tom

I congratulate you on an excellently written essay but even better content. It seems I'd misjudged you as a reactionary, probably my fault by not admitting to 'knowing' anything, leading you to 'direct me' back to a quagmire I'd just spent years rising above! But I see you can be very open minded and reject majority 'wisdom' when appropriate. The work certainly deserves a much better score than at present.

I like your fresh view that it's the 'Bellites' who are determinist, and of questioning the assumption that reality is (only) observer created. I also noted your post about better understanding of Georgina's thesis of two apparent 'realities', each observers being only subjective.

I extend this to derive two distinct classes of observation. One by direct detection or (particle coupling) interaction with the phenomena being measured, and a different 'apparent only' class equivalent to Minkowski's "imaginary c+v" (1908). The mechanism is explored in detail but an analogy is TV i.e. The Enterprise taking off at warp 3, (or as I said to Paul, the Keystone cops dong 100mph). They all have a secondary mechanism in between the original reality and the detection, but the real signals to and from the TV all do c. Only one uses 'Proper Time', and gets the real result 'c'. I quote Lorentz expressing his doubt about 'excluding' this apparent c+v in 1913.

This physical analysis using quantum logic turns out very analogous to your metaphysical approach supporting Joys mathematical one. Even down to the 'handedness', which is evident in Chirality, IFR, and the orientation of the CMB anisotropic flow of Smoot etc. A wide range of astronomical anomalies are resolved including ballistic free relativistic stellar aberration matching observation which the IAU have been seeking since abandoning the 'constant' in 2000, and resolving the outstanding ecliptic plane issue.

I do hope you find time to read mine and can spot the consistencies, if from a totally different viewpoint. It is dense and probably tries to explain too much as it will test any intellect. 'Kinetic thinking' is unfamiliar. I've put in in a slightly theatrical setting to lighten up the read a little. I greatly look forward to your views.

Best of luck

Peter

Tom:

You've done a wonderful job with this abstract topic. Due to the subject nature, and my lack of familiarity in the area (which I want to remedy!), I've found your essay challenging each time I read it---but, those limitations aside, I thought you did an excellent job of presenting an enjoyable, even poetic argument, in which a number of interesting bits fall neatly in line.

Good luck!

Daryl

Dear Thomas for some reason I missed seeing your comment on my page till today, and have answered there - sorry for the delay. I value your opinions.

Vladimir

Steve, you wrote in Ronald Bennett's forum, to which I offered to reply here:

"Indeed Tom , but apparently a lot of scientists do not really love the critics. Tom, could you help me to be accepted in an university in USA? I d like have my doctorate in physics. I could imrpove my works.I d like also learn engeniering and computing. I do not know all you know Tom, I have never said that I knew all.I am arrogant indeed but you know I am just a young searcher wanting to be recognized for his researchs and wanting to learn more in the good universities with the good mentors and professors. I have found an improtant thing Tom, you know it, I d like learn more and I d like test my models and inventions with good partners. Belgium is frustrating. Ihave already had a business angel from Paris, I must admit that I am a little parano.

I d like find the good university. I have always dreamed to learn in an american university.Like I have already explained, I was in geology at the FNDP of Namur Belgium. But I have had neurological probelms.It was difficult you know after.I have learned by myself. I have always this dream you know.

Regards "

LOL! I'm not an academic, Steve. I couldn't get you into Barber College. I do know something about neurological deficiency, however, having only fairly recently surmised that my lifelong dyslexia probably originates from an auto accident between ages 3 and 4. A bad one -- infant brother killed, mother and stepfather seriously injured -- though it appeared that I was the lucky one, having only been thrown from the vehicle, knocked unconscious and suffered a wound to the back of the head that was closed with a few stitches. I have learned that it coincides with the part of the brain that controls language skills.

I went through a childhood of isolation, with difficulties in speech, reading and comprehension. I tried to compensate by reading material over and over -- sometimes I would take away an entirely different meaning from one reading to the next (very frustrating). I had devoured two sets of encyclopedias by age 11 or so. About the same time, I taught myself algebra from the radio circuit design books my father had left behind (he was a radio technician who died when I was 2). That was a mistake -- I only managed to pass second year algebra in school with a promise to my teacher that I wouldn't pursue any higher mathematics. While I did manage to be admitted to college, I couldn't keep up well enough to keep my student deferment and avoid being drafted into the military (I ended up volunteering for the U.S.Navy) to serve in Vietnam. I withdrew into myself to do mathematics then and ever since, earning a living any other way that I could (and I haven't done badly, in fact, for myself and my family). My only ambition, by force of circumstance more than conscious choice, is knowledge for its own sake.

Today -- and this is only in my late years -- it is a feeling of great accomplishment and triumph to even participate in a forum such as this, and be able to hold my own. I don't just know what I'm talking about -- I know *how* I know, because I have of necessity studied it many more times and more intensely than most, closing gaps of understanding through many many repeated iterations of the same material. Even I would find that tedious, if I didn't have to do it.

Everyone has their own life to live and their ways of learning, and I don't consider mine any better or worse than anyone else's. All I can say to you is that if you wish a life in science -- then live it. Don't talk about it, don't expect anyone to give you a formal introduction to it, don't invest a lot of confidence in people or institutions to give you help. If it means enough to you, you'll find a way. Write papers, prove theorems, apply for conferences (most have scholarships for those without means, whose abstract or paper passes peer review).

I don't consider myself "self taught." Though one can be trained to behave in a certain way, no one is ever taught anything. Learning can only be acquired by meaningful study and exchanges with other scholars in the field, and this is the case whether one has much formal education, or none at all. Scholars aren't scholars because they earned a Ph.D. Scholars are scholars because they practice scholarship.

Take care. Here's hoping that you find the will to pursue your goals no matter what.

Tom

Hello Tom,

I thank you very much for this answer.It permits to better understand you.

You know Tom, me also I have had a difficult life more my health. But the most important like you say is to continue to learn more still and always. I have still a lot of parano and this and that but I try to relativate.

I d like continue my universities. I must found the correct places in fact with good teachers.

I am going to search a good university with the good professors and I will learn and I will imrpove my works. I have learned a lot on net ,here on fqxi or on other platforms. But I must learn more.

I thank you Tom still for your sincerity and your advices.

Regards

sorry it was from me

Hello Tom,

I thank you very much for this answer.It permits to better understand you.

You know Tom, me also I have had a difficult life more my health. But the most important like you say is to continue to learn more still and always. I have still a lot of parano and this and that but I try to relativate.

I d like continue my universities. I must found the correct places in fact with good teachers.

I am going to search a good university with the good professors and I will learn and I will imrpove my works. I have learned a lot on net ,here on fqxi or on other platforms. But I must learn more.

I thank you Tom still for your sincerity and your advices.

Regards

Hi Tom,

At this momment I study the p-adic numbers and the K theory. It seems relevant when the groups are well distributed.In a sphere of course, evolutive. I ask me how I am going to make detrministic correlations in a pure 3D and the proportions with rotations.I ask me how I can converge with Qp the commutative body of these p-adics numbers.The serie of uniqueness has its secret in this line of reasoning. The p-adic analyse seems relevant when the groups are finite in their pure general universal serie of uniqueness.

I believe strongly that a real taxonomy of spheres can be made.with a correct fractalization of our 3D. I see that the axiom of dimension is not verified for the Ktheory. I beleive that the correct superimposing is a 3d, there in logic it is ok at my opinion.

Could you explain me Tom why the non-commutative tori in superior dimensions have the same Ktheory.Is it due to the projective of irrational superimposings ?

Regards

Hi Tom

Having started to get to grips with Joy Christian's work, I can appreciate what a superb job you have done in producing such a well-written and easy to read essay that discusses the meaning of such complex issues.

All the best in the competition,

Michael

Dear Tom,

First, thank you very much for this well-written and thought-provoking essay.

I've been feeling a heavy guilt trip for not commenting on your essay before now, especially in light of the very kind and thoughtful comments you left on the blog for my essay. Not to make too big a production of it, but the reasons for my failure to comment here are a bit complex. I've now read your essay four times, and it makes me feel incredibly stupid/obtuse to say that I still cannot claim to fully understand it. Your thought processes obviously are very subtle and refined. My thought processes, by contrast, tend to be what I think of as being at the more naive and primitive end of the spectrum. I'm convinced that both modes of thinking are important and useful, and certainly not necessarily mutually exclusive. That said, the subtlety of the argument in your essay has left me perplexed.

To offer just one example of my obtuseness, could you please give a few specific, concrete examples of the sorts of questions which might be asked in Wheeler's version of "20 Questions"? Even that basic point has left me unsure that I comprehend the underlying concept. Any help greatly appreciated.

Btw, I've been following with great interest the discussions you've been involved in over on George Ellis's blog on top-down vs. bottom-up causation. Fascinating stuff! Don't know whether you might have noticed a couple of posts I left there on the nature of sentience as it may relate to that topic. How could anyone not be deeply intrigued by all this?

Good luck in the competition!

Regards,

jcns

"It turns out to be Bell loyalists who are the actual determinists, believing that reality is determined by probabilistic measure schemata, by which they assign equally likely outcomes to [']... the experiment not done...[']..., and thereby limit the questions that can be asked, to an assumed domain of perfect knowledge."

Not necessarily. Now here's a Bell loyalist who REALLY thinks outside the box:

"... In a truly non-causal world, Bell's Theorem cannot be formulated because in such a world elemental events are not stable enough for Bell-type non-locality to even be defined. ....

"Bell showed in 1964 that this cosine-squared dependence of polarization correlations is incompatible with a local reality. Therefore any reality (quantum reality) that lies behind these facts must be non-local. It is important to realize that Bell's Theorem is based solely on the facts not on the details of quantum theory so that if someday quantum theory is falsified or replaced by a better theory, Bell's Theorem will still be valid. Even if quantum theory is wrong, reality must be non-local.

"Although Bell's Theorem is based on facts, it goes beyond facts to make confident assertions about the reality behind those facts. Because it deals with reality, not facts or theory, Bell's Theorem is metaphysical, not physical, and hence is vulnerable to certain metaphysical assumptions about the nature of the world that are essential to Bell's proof. If we live in a world where these metaphysical assumptions are not justified, then Bell's theorem cannot even be formulated. Here I examine a class of worlds in which Bell's Theorem does not apply, and in which non-locality, in the way it's defined by Bell, does not even make sense."

NOTE: Nick Herbert's use of the word "reality" might need clarification. He employs it in the Kantian sense of "noumenal reality" -- i.e., the Whatever beyond or behind the phenomenal ("factual") world of our perception.

A SIMPLE REFUTATION OF BELL'S NON-LOCALITY THEOREM (CAUTION: VALID ONLY IN SOME WORLDS)

Interestingly, the guy also believes that in a singular manner Bell managed to stick a finger through the veil:

SEE SPOT RUN: A SIMPLE PROOF OF BELL'S THEOREM