The Universe - An Effect Without Cause by Philip Gibbs

Phil,

"Emergence of cause" mean "To put the cart before the horse"

I think that spacetime and unitarity are emergent. Unitarity is a special case where quantum wave functions are analytic everywhere. Singularities, such as with a black hole, introduce a pole which makes these wave functions meremorphic. Rather than being unitary they are modular. Unitarity is an approximation when the fields can be treated in a semi-classical setting. There has been some controversy over this of late with a paper by Almheiri, Marolf, Polchinski, Sully http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3123, where the holographic principle is found to have a problem. 't Hooft and Susskind formulated this with no treatment of the black hole interior, which I think means the unitary theoretic basis behind the holographic principle is approximate.

If spacetime and unitarity are emergent, then so is causality. Causality is meaningless if there is no time development or any fundamental construction of spacetime. Spacetime is probably an emergent structure where quantum gravity becomes semi-classical or transitions to a classical setting.

Lawrence

What mean unitarity is emergent?

More simple please.

Dear Philip

I enjoyed reading your very interesting essay. It is well structured and well written. I would not hesitate to give a high score. I agree with your view of causality, I think that causality it is just a construction of the mind to try to predict a forthcoming event. To achieve this, the mind tries to find correlations among possible factors that may lead to a particular effect. If the universe were causal if would be deterministic and thus predictable. This also presupposes that the laws of physics either existed before the creation of the universe or were created along with the universe.

You said: There is no general consensus yet on how to replace space and time but there is a widespread view that the space-time manifold as we knew it in general relativity is no longer the accepted starting point. It is just an approximation to some other unknown mathematical structure.

My essay has something to say in this respect though my thesis does poses a view that does not go along with the current trends in physics. Vesselin Petkov claims in his essay that gravity is not a force, this claim, I believe, would have profound implications in the present notion of space-time. My line of research is condensed matter. Within the literature of this field I have found a series of reports that hold that the vacuum resembles more a condensed state of matter, which suggests itself that space is more a material fluid than just geometry as modeled in relativity. I am in agreement with this view but I reached this possibility following another line of reasoning. In my essay I claim that when theoretical physics cannot move forwards is because it has to go backwards and reconsider some old conceptions that could be helpful to solve our present problems. Vesselin and many theoretical physicists holds that there is a crisis in physics and that in these moments of desperation any possibility is valid. I do agree. Though I am aware that my proposal can be amply view as heretic for contemporary physics I am confident that conceiving space as a material fluid is the correct path to get out of the present puzzle. So, I invite you to read my work and I would be grateful if you could leave some comments.

Best regards and good luck in the contest

Israel

Dear Israel

i am also supporter of opinion that gravity is not a fundamental force. It seems to me that Sakharov's view about elasticity of space close to truth.

See detail my article "What Wolfgang Pauli Did Mean?"

http://vixra.org/abs/0907.0022

Dear Philip Gibbs,

I just commented on your essay within topic 1364 because it makes my arguments hopefully easily understandable.

Respectfully,

Eckard

You are right, technically.

But when you say: "Yuri, It is because causality is an emergent phenomema. There is no indication that it is built into the fundamental laws of physics and therefore no reason to think that cosmological models that go beyond the observable universe are required to be causal.", what is one supposed to infer.

You are hardly saying that causality is fundamental. Looks to me like you are saying quite the opposite.

But I will move on to other issues.

If you look above I break this out in a bit more detail. Unitarity is a limiting case where wave functions are analytic everywhere. Physics based on modularity and nonlocality has no reference to spacetime. Causality in physics is based on propagators or Greene functions that push a field from (x, t) to (x', t'). Without spacetime this simply does not exist. The removal of the pole or singularity occurs when there are no black holes or in a region of spacetime that excludes big bang singularities.

One of the things I think comes from this is the universe contains only one of each particle. The universe has only one electron, one up quark, one muon, one photon, one Z, one higgs one... . What we observe as individual particles are the same particle within different configuration variables, whether spacetime or momentum-energy. Spacetime is in effect a sort of emergent property, in many ways an illusion, where particles we observe are mirror images of the same particles with different configurations. Baruch Spinoza wrote about something like this, which he called monads.

My essay should appear here in the next day or so. I break this part out in greater detail.

The "Monads" belong to Leibniz, The "Modes" coined by Spinoza.

Dear Philip

The Higgs boson and The COMALOGY http://vixra.org/abs/1206.0002

In my theory I consider the beginning of existence or the universe at t=0 is from energy not mass. Mass is created from energy. I name this state is the infinity state, it is the state of infinity energy and zero mass. At this state The spacetime length equals to zero. the light system is located at the infinity. At this state there is no past or future, there is only present. All the information that I live in my material world is coming from the infinity by the spacetime length. Since we have the mass, thus mass is creating the spacetime length greater than zero. Mass is a reluctance to receive all the information elements of all my life history in a zero spacetime length or at the same present. The higgs boson is creating this reluctance and creating the mass and the spacetime grater than zero. If there is no Higgs boson the particle will own rest mass equals to zero and thus its location will be in the infinity state same as the light beam. This illustrating why the particle without Higgs boson will move with speed of light in vacuum. The speed of light c is measured relative to a system which owns rest mass greater than zero, and c is locally constant. c is related to mass. The origin of the universe is not the mass, it is the energy. at t=0 everything in the universe was energy, and by existing the Higgs field it is created the mass and the speed of light c and the space and time what we know now, all of that are created at the time equals to blank time. Blank time is the time separation between the mass and energy. If I could leave my mass, and I transferred to energy, I'll find all my life history in the infinity state with me at the same present without future or past. The God particles forbidden me to reach that, they created my mass, time, space, and then past and future. Please read my paper http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1272 that interpreting what is the time and space according to our mass, and how I receive my information elements which are exited in the infinity state, and what is the meaning of the wavefucntion and the collapse of the wavefunction, all of these definitions are creater by mass.

Israel, thanks I will read your essay later.

Phil

Nice essay, I think. I hung on all the way until 'diffeomorphism invariance' emerged through 'geometrogenesis', so I fell at the last! a shame as I was trying to glimpse what you felt the solution looked like.

If it means the change between equivalent spaces has a structure based on matter centred frames and apparent causality evolves between them, then I entirely agree. If it means something entirely different then I may of course entirely not do so!

I agree space-time will have a different form to our current interpretation of Minkowski's conception, but this competition is not about what we may or may not agree with. Your essay is well written and argued and deserves a good score.

Can you give me an opinion on this; I've found a difference between real and apparent causality. Apparent is what is found on TV, where the image of what happened arrives later than the fact and any consequence experienced in real time. We find this in 'gravitational' lensing, where delayed light from a source arrives at the same time as light emitted later, so events may commonly appear to be reversed. Of course in reality causality holds, but apparent time may be different to 'Proper Time', by the standard definition. Is this the 'causality breach' you allow?, or do you suggest a real effect before a cause?

I also hope you may read and comment on my essay which I hope offers a fuller ontological foundation of what space time might really look like. It's dense and serious content given theatrical metaphors to also hopefully amuse.

Best of luck

Peter

Dear Phil and Edwin:

(You may have missed my reply above; hence I am posting it again here. I would appreciate your response. Thanks)

I would appreciate your review and feedback on the following thoughts on how to integrate Free Will or Consciousness into physics.

The clues to this come from some well-known phenomena that are non-causal or free-willed such as spontaneous decay/birth of particles, wave-particle duality, and free-willed physical laws that prevail in the universe without any external cause. I have tried to derive a deterministic model (GNM) of the spontaneous decay in my posted paper -" From Absurd to Elegant Universe" and integrate into a simplified form of general relativity to allow the free willed mass-energy-space-time conversion. Just allowing such provision in the integrated model (GNMUE) resolves many of the current paradoxes/singularities of physics, successfully predicts the observed universe and galactic expansion, as well as provides understandings of the inner workings of quantum mechanics.

Causation vs. Free Will - What is Fundamental?

The following arguments support the conclusion that Free Will or Spontaneity or Consciousness is the fundamental or root cause process of all physical phenomena.

An outcome of an event is determined by the input parameters and the governing law (or equation). The governing laws are the fundamental universal laws of conservation of mass, energy, momentum, space, and time which are existent at Free Will without any external cause. The input is also chosen at the free will of the observer or operator. In some cases, the input is determined by the outcome of a preceding event such as in the Domino Effect. But even in those cases, the originating or primary root input is always determined at the free will of the originator or source. Hence, the universe is not a Clockwork Universe wherein its fate is predetermined. The evolution of the material or manifested universe is subject to the free-willed laws and inputs.

The widely used assumption of bottom-up causation that particles or strings of matter are the most fundamental elements of universal reality is incorrect. The particles are known to be born spontaneously out of or decay spontaneously into the so-called vacuum or nothingness. Hence, the fundamental reality, both top-down and bottom-up, is vacuum (or the Zero point state of the mass-energy-space-time continuum as described in my paper. This state is synonymous with the implicit eternal and omnipresent laws of the universe.

The fundamental physical process that leads to spontaneous (no causation) birth or decay of particles is the free will or spontaneity in the universe. A universal theory that does not entail this free-will dimension allowing spontaneous conversion of mass-energy-space-time continuum will remain incomplete and unable to describe the universal reality. This is vindicated in my paper.

I would greatly appreciate your comment on my paper- " From Absurd to Elegant Universe".

Regards

Avtar Singh

Dear Avtar Singh,

Philip has stated that "As for "free will", I don't think it can be defined in an operational sense, same for consciousness." I tend to agree with him. One can, through subjective experience of consciousness, postulate a number of things, and perhaps reach some conclusion, but operational definitions are another thing. How does one distinguish free-will based action from random action? And how does one prove it, objectively?

I have my own definitions that I believe are appropriate to discussions of this topic and I presented these in my first FQXi essay on 'Ultimate Physics", so I am not opposed to discussion of these topics in terms of physics. But, lacking an operational definition, I suspect that one will persuade only the already persuaded.

I will try to read your essay.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Philip Gibbs,

Space and time lead to structure, and I have claimed in my previous essays and developed in "The Automatic Theory of Physics" that logic and math emerge from structure, with examples of RNA/DNA, silicon logic gates, neural networks, and analog equivalents.

Lawrence Crowell, in his essay, argues that "beyond a certain point, our probe creates black holes that hide the information..." and thus "space-time is a barrier to complete specification of an observable." But to go beyond observables one must put "math beyond physics", since physics based on observations is self-limiting.

But since logic and math emerge from space-time structure, it is not at all clear that one can abolish space-time structure and yet believe that logic and math (both typically dependent on temporal causality) can still be used beyond this abolition. Since I believe that consistency is meaningless without logic, it is not clear that consistency does not emerge post the emergence of logic. Of course I suppose that the religious approach of 'belief in a Platonic realm of math' can be offered, but I would reject that approach.

I have nothing at all against the use of logic or math in "what if" pursuits, just as I have nothing against mathematicians or philosophers, but I do wonder whether one should call such musing past the limits of observation "physics". As I see it, Frank de Meglia has as valid a claim to this territory as anyone.

As I remarked above, to presume that logic and math (and hence 'consistency') are preserved after space and time are abolished is similar to climbing the rope and then pulling the rope up after you. Your surely can't take this kind of logic to the bank.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

I suppose I would maybe take issue with the idea that logic is dependent on structure. The emulation of logic by physical or mechanical systems may depend on structure. Further, logic has a basis: S1: If x then y, S2 x, S3 conclude y, where when this modus ponens is accessed by a brain the if comes before y in a tensed fashion, and S1, S2 and S3 occur in a temporal sequence according to how the brain reads this. However, this in a set theoretic setting is x\in A and y \in B with A\subset B is not time ordered. The time ordering comes with how we solve a syllogism or with how a machine might compute a logical problem with gates. I am not a set theory maven, but with my tangential knowledge of the subject I would suspect that mathematics hangs on logic. Mathematics involves relationships between objects and structures, and those relationships are consistent according to logic.

I would then say that one can abolish causality, or temporal sequences and still say that logic exists. In my my response to your post on my essay page I illustrate how this is connected to a correspondence between QCD and spacetime physics. Further, I argue based on the BCFW recursion (a subject that requires some effort to understand --- sorry that's just the facts of life) that there are QCD amplitudes which are not explicitly local or with reference to spacetime, which means that the gravity sector is "quantum gravity without spacetime." This further still has structure, both physical and mathematical. It is not as if we are in a pure nothingness that has no description. However, this is a vacuum state model with a huge reduction in the number of degrees of freedom. It is then closer to what we might call nothingness.

Cheers LC

I agree that mathematics hangs on logic. And while it is certainly true that "the emulation of logic by physical or mechanical systems may depend on structure" of course you can 'maybe' take issue with the idea that "logic is dependent on structure." But to assume that when space and time are abolished ("close to what we might call nothingness") somehow logic and math still exist is to assume a lot. I believe it is a wrong assumption.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Edwin and Phil:

Thanks for your reply.

Let us not get hung up on the operational definition of "Free Will" so as not to miss the crucial physics that is missing from current theories. Let us focus on the degree of freedom that is well observed in the universe but not included in the current theories.

What is missing from physics and cosmology today is a lack of this degree of freedom to allow a mechanistic conversion of mass to energy and space to time to allow a complete implementation of the equivalence principle into the current theories. Hence, the missing physics leads to singularities (general relativity) and paradoxes such as dark energy, dark matter, quantum gravity, quantum time, measurement paradox, unknown and unverifiable particles, multi-dimensions, multi-verses etc. etc.....For example, when the mass of a galaxy or universe is confined to a point-like volume singularity is experienced in general relativity because no spontaneous mass to energy conversion and subsequent evaporation is allowed. Once this is allowed, as shown in my paper, the singularity goes away. Second example, the accelerated expansion of the universe is not predicted by general relativity because of the missing physics wherein the mass evaporates into the relativistic kinetic energy that provides the observed accelerated expansion. This provision naturally provides the mechanistic physics of expansion rather than the currently used Einstein's blunder fudge factor - cosmological constant.

The point (as described in my paper- -" From Absurd to Elegant Universe" ) I would like to bring to the attention of scientists in this forum that the fundamental reality of the universe is the Zero-point state of the mass-energy-momentum-space-time continuum and fundamental dynamic process that governs the manifested universe is the spontaneous (Free-willed) birth and decay of particles. Neither the Particles/strings nor space-time nor biological evolution are fundamental in themselves but their overall state of the wholesome continuum. There is a lot of focused discussion in this forum on the artifacts -inconsistencies and paradoxes of the missing physics but a lack of focus on the missing most fundamental state and processes that govern the universe at its core. As shown in my paper, once the missing physics is properly included in current theories, the artifact questions and inconsistencies disappear along with artifact paradoxes listed above leading to a coherent and simple/elegant universe.

We must cure the disease (missing fundamental physics) and not focus on merely eliminating symptoms (artifact assumptions, inconsistencies, paradoxes, mysterious phenomena etc.). The castle (universal TOE) cannot be built upon missing fundamental foundations. We must not get lost in trees (artifacts) so as not to lose the vision of the forest (fundamental universal reality).

Best Regards

Avtar

Peter, it was not possible to explain the mergence of diffeomorphism invariance fully in this essay because I ran out of space. It is not a complete theory yet either.

In special relativity light cones have nice simple shapes but in general relatciity where light is bent they are more complex than you might think. This is due to effects like the gravitational lensing that changes the topology of the light cone in the distant past if you could trace it back. This does not efect causality so long as there are no closed timelike curves. Same principle applies to the way we receive information via various communication channels such as TV.

I will read your essay when I get more time.