An Acataleptic Universe by Philip Gibbs

Hi Philip,

What I understand when you say the projective or conformal symmetries are not "large" enough is that they could not be dimensionally reducing in the way holography is.

So let me make another suggestion for a "hidden symmetry"... how about a kind of "fractal invariance"?

The idea is to postulate that space (and not just the contents) is self-similar. It would not necessarily have to be a regular fractal, like a Koch snowflake, but could be a brownian fractal (in the sense that Mandelbrot used the term) or even some kind of Julia set. Restriction to a fractal subset can be dimensionally reducing.

In fact, if I remember correctly, the measurements of the fractal dimension of luminous matter in the cosmos is about 2, instead of 3. It is also worth noting the efficiency of the fractal compression algorithm on various kinds of data, and that the wavelet packet algorithm is surprisingly effective on natural spatial and temporal signals. Laurent Nottale has explored some of the consequences for microphysics of assuming fractal structure.

Hugh

Dear Philip, Congratulations. I sincerely hope you win this contest. Apologies if this does not apply to you. I have read and rated your essay and about 50 others. If you have not read, or did not rate my essay The Cloud of Unknowing please consider doing so. With best wishes.

Vladimir

Dear Philip,

Quantization is only an abstraction of infinity in that process of abstraction is infinite for absoluteness. Information paradox indicates that the nature of information is continuum rather than discrete and thus the nature of matter seems to be as string-matter continuum rather than as particles, that is realistic rather than probabilistic with observational information.

With best wishes

Jayakar

Sorry dear Philip,

There is an error in tagging at my previous post.

Kindly consider as, 'in that process of abstraction is infinite for absoluteness.'

Jayakar

Dear Philip,

I think time has come to rate our essays and I would like to know whether you have rated mine; I am thinking of giving a very high rating. Please inform in my thread and I am glad to know that you are leading the essay contest on account of your amazingly written essay.

All the best in the contest,

Sreenath

Dear Philip -

You say: 'The lesson to be taken from holography is that there is a huge hidden symmetry in physics that nobody has yet appreciated.' I agree completely, and I must say that it is interesting in this contest to see how disparate thinkers start from such different perspectives and draw near to a concept of the Cosmos that can, I sense, accommodate a grand synthesis of their views.

Simply put, we're all questioning long the established parameters, as has occurred throughout history - and we're doing so for the same reason as always: so that we might interact with a field of reality that is more comprehensive (or consistent), and less paradoxical.

Like you, I see space-time as emerging from uncertainty - only my paradigm defines certain borders between the states of particles that are projected upon the Cosmos as particles aggregate in large numbers. Consequently, the Cosmos is divided into Zones of dimensionality, as are the particles that constitute it.

This is similar to the holographic interpretation of reality you expound so well, and I wonder if you might not find some use in my paradigm in this regard?

I ask because I work within the broadest set of parameters: Unlike you, my focus is not on the mathematics of the Cosmos, but rather on the evolutionary aspect of both observer and Cosmos, and the effects of their continuous correlation. I submit that it is in this area that our key assumptions must be reconsidered: Is not the historical expansion of mathematics into the field of reality a phenomenon that must also precisely describe the evolution of the human mind within that field?

And is not space-time emergent as a function of evolution, a process that produces our experienced correlation (or symmetry?) in the space-time Zone? If so, symmetry is harder to describe in the quantum world and in deep space - these being the Zones from which space-time and the evolving observer emerge, so that they cannot have the consistency found in space-time, and in the highly evolved mind.

Since information, organism and cosmos emerge from one source and remain correlated (or we could not make sense of anything) my conclusion is that It and Bit are correlated.

I was captivated by your combination of mathematical thoroughness, and your concern for the 'real-world' aspect of whatever paradigm will one day resolve the issues at hand. Given this broad perspective, I'm sure you'll find many points of interest in my essay.

Congratulations on this important work; I have rated it highly, and I look forward to your response.

All the best,

John.

Philip,

There is an issue with gravity flux through a closed surface.

For comparison, let's start with Gauss's law used in electrostatics. If I had two co-centric metal spheres both with charge +Q, I could make a closed surface between the inner and outer spheres. A test charge on that closed surface would experience a force due to the electric field. The electric field lines would start at the surface of the inner sphere and end at the induced negative charge on the inside of the outer sphere. Using the correct surface integral I could find the charge +Q on the inner sphere.

If I did the same thing with two co-centric spheres of mass M and a small test mass to find the gravitational field, I could be disappointed. Since there is no anti-gravity there is no induced anti-gravity charge on the inside surface of the outer sphere. I could place the test mass at a radial distance, r, between the inner and outer spheres where the force due to gravity of the two spheres would cancel. A surface integral at the closed surface at radial distance, r, will find no mass for the enclosed inner mass. This means that some of the information contained within a closed surface is not reflected in the flux through that surface.

Gravity does effect time. Since the above is a statics problem and therefore time independent, this effect on time should not be an issue.

Jeff

Philip,

An insulator or dielectric will have an electric dipole moment per unit volume or polarization. This induced dipole will be were the field lines effectively end.

Since there is no negative gravity, there is no gravity dipole.

Jeff

Hello Philip

You suggest that the lesson to be taken from holography is that there is a huge hidden symmetry in physics that nobody has yet appreciated. It may be only visible in an algebraic pregeometric theory from which space time emerges. My essay shows the foundation of such a pregeometry, and its nature. I would very much appreciate it if you might look at my paper and consider how it might inform your efforts. My essay is endpoint abstract, but otherwise not too hard to follow. After all, how did the universe know it was going to match some very heavy and complicated mathematics when it came into existence, figuratively speaking.

As a matter of intellectual honesty, I don't feel qualified to rate your paper (so I won't, to be fair to you). While your essay deals with many areas dear to me, I found it very heavy going, and it took me a long time to get through. It required the reader to know some very advanced mathematics, Noether's theorem, gauge theory...you name it. With so much assumed foundation (of the nature of what there is) the foundational aspect of the essay is obscure to me. I have specialist knowledge of mathematics and physics relating to foundations, but would need another five or six years intensive study to fully appreciate it.

Hello Philip - Have you had a chance to read my post, above?

John

Dear Philip,

One can see the holographic principle in Plato's cave; indeed it defines the unsolvable reverse problem of observation. Consider the closed 2d surface surrounding you. The information written on this surface is all you know about the universe outside (or indeed, about the universe inside either). The changing pattern of information is what we call (perhaps in our conceit) "asking yes-no questions." The universe outside is, from your perspective, perfectly symmetrical under any transformations that write the same information on your boundary.

Now imagine moving this closed boundary moving from your skin outward into space. The boundary encodes different information at every location. But the "boundary" here is purely notional; the physics - what is going on - does not depend on where the boundary has been located. This is also true as the boundary collapses inward to some point in the center of your body. At the (classical) limit, the boundary encodes no (classical) information, but this means nothing for the dynamics going on outside.

So we have a "holographic information paradox" at every closed boundary. What the black hole knows about the universe is the same as what the universe knows about the black hole, and in neither case does this information pin down the dynamics.

Cheers,

Chris

Hello Philip

Richard Feynman in his Nobel Acceptance Speech (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html)

said: "It always seems odd to me that the fundamental laws of physics, when discovered, can appear in so many different forms that are not apparently identical at first, but with a little mathematical fiddling you can show the relationship. And example of this is the Schrodinger equation and the Heisenberg formulation of quantum mechanics. I don't know why that is - it remains a mystery, but it was something I learned from experience. There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn't look at all like the way you said it before. I don't know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature."

I too believe in the simplicity of nature, and I am glad that Richard Feynman, a Nobel-winning famous physicist, also believe in the same thing I do, but I had come to my belief long before I knew about that particular statement.

The belief that "Nature is simple" is however being expressed differently in my essay "Analogical Engine" linked to http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1865 .

Specifically though, I said "Planck constant is the Mother of All Dualities" and I put it schematically as: wave-particle ~ quantum-classical ~ gene-protein ~ analogy- reasoning ~ linear-nonlinear ~ connected-notconnected ~ computable-notcomputable ~ mind-body ~ Bit-It ~ variation-selection ~ freedom-determinism ... and so on.

Taken two at a time, it can be read as "what quantum is to classical" is similar to (~) "what wave is to particle." You can choose any two from among the multitudes that can be found in our discourses.

I could have put Schrodinger wave ontology-Heisenberg particle ontology duality in the list had it comes to my mind!

Since "Nature is Analogical", we are free to probe nature in so many different ways. And you have touched some corners of it.

Regards and Good luck!

Than Tin

Dear Philip,

For completeness, kindly indulge me an answer to the question even though it may not be your essay topic. But being a professional I will value your opinion:

Is it being implied by the relational view of space and as suggested by Mach's principle that what decides whether a centrifugal force would act between two bodies in *constant relation*, would not be the bodies themselves, since they are at fixed distance to each other, nor the space in which they are located since it is a nothing, but by a distant sub-atomic particle light-years away in one of the fixed stars in whose reference frame the *constantly related* bodies are in circular motion?

You can reply me here or on my blog. And please pardon my naive view of physics.

Accept my best regards,

Akinbo