Dear Hector Zenil,

Thank you for trying to warn me about possible minor glitches, and for taking time to read my essay. I am genuinely interested in any problem that there may be with my approach, because I would not want to come up with a wrong theory. If there are some glitches in it, I would vey much like to know precisely what they are, to fix them and get the correct theory. But I'm afraid I don't understand where you see them. You said:

"I think there are possibly some minor logical glitches in constructing your case against some pre assumptions that you think are wrong in modern physics, in particular I think of assumptions 1 and 5. Assumption 1 says that Singularity theorems predict the breakdown of General Relativity (GR). As you know, I think one of the greatest, if perhaps not the greatest open problems in modern physics, because it could lead to a conciliation between GR and quantum mechanics (QM), is the issue of what happens inside a black hole and specially in the singularity point. I think most physicists would agree that if the equations of GR break that doesn't imply that reality breaks (this is connected also to your assumption 5)."

People really do claim that singularity theorems prove that GR breaks down. There are dozens of papers and books which start with this claim, in general to sell other "more radical" theories. And what I said is that A. singularity theorems are correct, and they lead to singularities and B. singularity theorems don't prove that GR fails. They only prove that singularities appear in some very general conditions. I agree that in GR singularities appear, but I show that they are not a problem, because the equations can be put in a form which works there too.

"I think most physicists would agree that if the equations of GR break that doesn't imply that reality breaks"

Yes, and I agree too. I don't reject this. I only reject the assumption that from the existence of singularities follows that GR breaks down. As I explained, the standard equations are those who break down. But I put them in a form which works without infinities at singularities. Otherwise, at non-singular points, they are equivalent. If we divide by the volume element to get Einstein's equation in the standard form, at singularities we divide by zero. If we don't make this "simplification", and keep the equations in the densitized form, then they are valid even at singularities.

IMO, it is a good thing to extend GR beyond the limits usually assumed. My approach makes it work at singularities, both for big bang and for black holes. I think I am correct, and I think this is a progress, because it fixes important problems in GR without extra assumptions, and without modifications which then should be proven to lead to the same predictions as GR. Fixing GR should not be viewed as an enemy of other theories.

This doesn't mean that I am against the "conciliation between GR and quantum mechanics (QM)". I am for it. In fact, my singularities seem to provide a way to make gravity renormalizable, by leading in a natural way to a dimensional reduction (section 7).

"The agreement I think is that we just don't understand and have no tools to explain what happens in such a limit situation. As you suggest, topology may be a source for better understanding, and I think that is an interesting idea discussed in good detail in your very fine essay."

Well, I hope these tools I developed help, and thank you for the appreciative comment. Even if GR should be modified and replaced, and even if by quantization it will become different, they may help, as many other tools developed in GR may be inherited in other theories. But it is possible that in the real world my solution doesn't work. We don't know the final theory, maybe it will incorporate GR (hopefully with my "bug fix"), maybe not.

"I am still bugged by the contradiction between your zero distance idea and the fact that QM seems to suggest there is a minimum length (and I also see your argument that there is no minimum mass, isn't it because photons are conventionally massless?)."

I'll try to explain this. Let me state from the beginning that I agree that the Plank length may be special, although I don't know yet how. But I think there is no experimental evidence or mathematical proof that there is a minimum length. You say "QM seems to suggest there is a minimum length". I am not aware of such suggestion from QM. In QM, the discrete spectra are obtained from equations which assume continuous space and time. There's no need to assume minimal length to get the discrete spectra of electrons in the atom for example. In fact, I don't know of a way which explains some quantum spectra of observables from the assumption of a minimal length. There is though the argument that to probe the Plank distance you need Plank energies, which would create tiny black holes. If it's correct that this prevents us from seeing what happens under the Plank scale, this doesn't mean that this distance is minimal. There may be a minimal distance, or there may be not. This argument can't distinguish between the two. Now, I don't say there is no special length. This may be true. But it doesn't mean it is minimal. I think that the existence of a minimal length is an open problem (although at this time I consider that it has little chances to be true).

Thank you for taking your time to read properly my essay and the papers on which it is based, and for warning me about possible dangers. I appreciate your comments, and if you feel that I did not answer properly to your possible objections, I hope you will find time to detail them.

Best regards,

Cristi

Dear Cristi,

I hope you don't mind that I referenced your essay on several of the other threads. I assure you I mentioned it in a positive light! Take care,

Ben

Hello Cristi

I must admit I have only just found your essay, and glanced through the paragraph headings. I have spent a bit more time reading your correspondence, particularly with Torsten Asselmeyer-Maluga and Jonathan Dickau.

Everything you say (and which I have seen so far) makes very nice sense. Thank you for it.

About quantization: you write "Hopefully, we will see someday what the ultimate explanation is, by a qualitative, nonperturbative answer". My essay is an attempt to guess the form of such an answer. It assumes an asymmetric Riemannian structure, and involves algebra directly derived from it and a variational principle. That is all. It also includes a discussion of the uncertainty principle which underlies the mystery of what happens at the Planck scale of distance. I hope it may appeal to you.

Best wishes, Alan H.

    Dear Alan,

    Thank you for your comments. What you say is intriguing, and I look forward to take a closer look at your essay.

    Best regards,

    Cristi Stoica

    Dear Christie:

    Benjamin Dribus made me alert on your essay, especially the part where information can be preserved by a BB like event. So I started reading...

    Your approach of zero length is very interesting , however I think we are entering here a pure mathematical view.

    In "THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION", my approach is that this mathematical view is a pure "in the mind" perception, just because of the fact that I position limits at the material universe (Planck length and time). And when I am looking at your illustrations with lengths of zero, indeed the illustrations are no longer visible...we enter a new dimension.

    You loose me in the parts 6 and 7, as an architectional engineer my math' is forgotten, my approach is more philosophical, but if you take those two together maybe the whole becomes understandable.

    You say : God divided by zero, and somewhere later you say that WE are doing so. I wholly agree with you, in my perception the non causal part of our consciousness in Total Simultanity is the origin of the "reality" as perceived by the causal part of our consciousness here in the arrow of time, some posts on my thread are inclined to perceive the GOD perception in this view, in fact the same as you say.

    You made me think again over the concept singulairity, thank you for that.

    I hope that can find some time to read/rate and comment "THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION".

    Wilhelmus

      Dear Wilhelmus,

      "Your approach of zero length is very interesting , however I think we are entering here a pure mathematical view."

      The very prediction of the occurrence of singularities in General Relativity is purely mathematical too. If we trust maths enough to claim that GR has a problem because of singularities, then we should trust maths also when offering the solution.

      "You say : God divided by zero, and somewhere later you say that WE are doing so."

      I ask "Did God divide by zero", and then answer that we did, when we wrote the equations and divided by the volume element, which may vanish at singularities.

      "my approach is more philosophical [...] I hope that can find some time to read/rate and comment "THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION"."

      I hope too. I have a deep respect for theoretical philosophy, as a tool to explore open-mindedly various possibilities, and then to submit them to logic and critical thinking.

      Best regards,

      Cristi

      Bravo Christi, beautiful and very well explained.Maybe my problem of the Data Transmission Delay between the awareness and the consciousness influence on the collapse of wave function is of the same order. I would like to know your opinion. Of course my text is not as thouroughfull scientific underlayed as yours , but I think we are touching the same object.

      Wilhelmus

      Thanks, Wilhelmus. It may be, but I don't know what to say, I don't know much about the relation between consciousness and collapse of the wavefunction, if there is any. But maybe you can find something helpful here and here.

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      Dear Cristinel,

      World is much simpler than you thinking.Please read my essay with the comments and you will understand how the World works.

        If you do not understand why your rating dropped down. As I found ratings in the contest are calculated in the next way. Suppose your rating is [math]R_1 [/math] and [math]N_1 [/math] was the quantity of people which gave you ratings. Then you have [math]S_1=R_1 N_1 [/math] of points. After it anyone give you [math]dS [/math] of points so you have [math]S_2=S_1+ dS [/math] of points and [math]N_2=N_1+1 [/math] is the common quantity of the people which gave you ratings. At the same time you will have [math]S_2=R_2 N_2 [/math] of points. From here, if you want to be R2 > R1 there must be: [math]S_2/ N_2>S_1/ N_1 [/math] or [math] (S_1+ dS) / (N_1+1) >S_1/ N_1 [/math] or [math] dS >S_1/ N_1 =R_1[/math] In other words if you want to increase rating of anyone you must give him more points [math]dS [/math] then the participant`s rating [math]R_1 [/math] was at the moment you rated him. From here it is seen that in the contest are special rules for ratings. And from here there are misunderstanding of some participants what is happened with their ratings. Moreover since community ratings are hided some participants do not sure how increase ratings of others and gives them maximum 10 points. But in the case the scale from 1 to 10 of points do not work, and some essays are overestimated and some essays are drop down. In my opinion it is a bad problem with this Contest rating process. I hope the FQXI community will change the rating process.

        Sergey Fedosin

        • [deleted]

        Hi Cristi,

        I saw that you are, like us, one of the victims of the strange "rising and dropping" of the Community Rating.

        In any case, I enjoyed in reading your interesting Essay, hence, I am going to give you an high score.

        Cheers,

        Ch.

          Dear Dr. Corda,

          Thank you very much for reading my essay. I also enjoyed yours, and singularities may very well be forbidden by quantum or even semi-classical effects, as you explain. I hope that my analysis of singularities is a safety net for the case when they exist, or a good idealization/approximation, if they don't.

          Best wishes,

          Cristi Stoica

          Christian & Christi

          You're not alone. Gangs of trolls seem to be dishing out 1's, or there's something else very wrong happening. I've dropped over 100 places overnight! Lawrence was also targeted. I think it needs investigation.

          Luckily I hadn't scored yours yet which should help mitigate your drops.

          Best Wishes

          Peter

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            Dear Cristinel Stoica,

            just to let you know I've seen your essay. I love the way you have set it out so clearly, tied it up neatly beginning and end and of course the colourful eye catching diagrams that break up the text ( the coloured titles too!). Others are more qualified to discuss the detail but it is clearly relevant to the essay question. Good luck, kind regards Georgina

              Dear Peter,

              Thanks. While I would expect in the final day high activity, I would also expect that at least the top rated essays already got some weight, and huge fluctuations seem to me suspicious, when taking place in very short time.

              Best wishes,

              Cristi

              Dear Georgina,

              Thank you for the very kind words about my essay. I could not avoid using some heavy equations, because otherwise some very counterintuitive results would be more difficult to grasp or accept, if stated only in words. I tried to compensate by pictures, to make reader's life easier. Good luck with your very nice essay!

              Cristi

              • [deleted]

              MAX PLANK:

              An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents; it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning.