Dr. Ojo,

I thought your essay was very well written. As I have explained in my essay BITTERS, the real Universe and everything in it is unique, once. As conspicuously noted in your essay, philosophers and mathematicians have historically always ignored unique in favor of attempting to propound some sort of repeatable identical theoretical states. They have easily described the identical properties of the invisible.

    Dr. Ojo,

    You wrote "then the definition of the point and other objects of geometry

    will eventually need to be revisited." While I enjoy many aspects of your refreshing approach, I prefer to simply distinguish instead between the ideal Euclidean mathematical object point, Leibniz's infinitesimal, and the assumed smallest physical entity.

    You might read earlier essays of mine. Recently I got aware of what I consider an inconsistency in Wheeler's thinking: The dichotomy of yes/no-questions corresponds to rational numbers. The calculus used as to derive putatively physical singularities is based on the trichotomy of the real numbers. If Wheeler is correct, and the reality can be thought as a superposition on yes/no-basis, then the singularities are mere mathematical fictions like for instance the middle line inside of a electric conductor.

    Eckard

      Hi Alan,

      Thanks for reading my essay and the road less traveled by will be less lonely if I have you for company :)

      I observe your interest on wave-particle duality, which is one of the encountered difficulties on the zero point road. I therefore think it better to go further back in physics to identify the root cause of your area of interest.

      One puzzle for you to ponder over, since the origin of duality started with the photon: When a light beam emerges from water to air, it starts travelling at a speed higher than hitherto. What is the origin of this speed increase? It is only waves that can increase speed when moving from one medium to another, particles cannot increase their speed that way. I may post more paradoxes on your essay page.

      The import of monadology is that space is not a "nothing" but becomes substantival and will transmit signals as waves.

      Hello John,

      I appreciate your comments on my paper. You mention your difficulty on the border issue.... "Necessarily a border would have to be smaller than the dimension it limits, but this refutes the claim of smallest possible measure". If you consider that a border is a geometric object (likely to be a line or curve) and the Pythagorean idea is that the monad is the smallest possible geometric object, then it cannot have a shape and that being so it cannot have defined borders. Borders are attributes of composite geometric objects or else you start asking how many parts can a border be divided into? I agree the picture is not a familiar, everyday one but based on logic I concur with Leibniz on that attribute. Do you still disagree on the border issue? Regards

      Dear Marcus,

      I am happy you found time to read my essay and would probably want you to enjoy a tour on Monad Highway. You must be aware that on the zero point road, we have been having different drivers changing seats. First the Mathematicians, then the Particle theorists and probably Computer scientists are warming up going by this year's essay topic. I recall Einstein saying somewhere that the moment mathematicians took over his theory he himself could no longer recognize it anymore. I will therefore not give you reassurance by delving into 'probabilistic blurs' so as not to fall into the trap of Mathematicians... The issue to focus on is whether there is a limit to divisibility? Mathematically, the answer is NO but Physically, what is your take? Cheers

      Dear Joe,

      I will read your essay BITTERS this weekend and thanks for your comment. Like I have asked others, what is your take on whether or not there is a limit to divisibility? Do you agree that a line has no breadth and a surface can really exist with zero thickness?

      Regards,

      Akinbo

      Hi Eckard,

      Thanks for your comments. I will try and read your essay this weekend and give you my opinion.

      Akinbo

      Hi Joe,

      I have read your essay titled BITTERS but I will do so only ONCE :) The title and the abstract do not do justice to the SWEETNESS contained in the body of the essay. There is a resemblance between your 'unique' viewpoint and the powerful Philosophy of the One advocated by Parmenides and his student Zeno. You can google this and also check them out in the Aristotle references in my essay.

      The questions I asked in my last post I think will throw light on your uniqueness theory.

      Cheers.

      Akinbo

      I have read your article on the wave-particle duality. As I said some of the problems may result from the view that space is a 'nothing'.

      You said "So if an electron is truly a fundamental particle, it had to be a point particle,which clearly cannot be divided further.." Is your definition of point particle one of zero dimension?

      You also said "Applying special relativity to this massive photon in its rest

      frame.." Can a photon be at rest in any frame? What is the velocity in other frames? These are unintended fall outs of what you rightly pointed out as "Generations of physicists have been educated to ignore physical intuition about the paradoxes, while focusing on mathematics divorced from physical pictures. In response, the field of theoretical physics became more mathematically abstract, straying far from its origins explaining the behavior of real objects

      moving in real space"

      The correctness or not of NQP proposal must come after you have first settled the question whether space is nothing but a relational entity or on the contrary a substantial thing.

      Regards

      Monads are what matter is pre-measurement.

      Particles, atoms, molecules, and stuff in general exist as measurements the monads made of themselves.

      • [deleted]

      Dear Eckard,

      I have read your essays 369 and 527. Both reflect your strong engineering background. Signalling as well as Classical and Quantum measurements take place in an arena we call 'space'. All are agreed on this.

      Surely, whether or not this arena is a "nothing", i.e. merely a relational concept which by implication will be infinitely divisible being a mathematical entity as propagated by the Platonic school OR a "something", i.e. a substantival thing, which by implication of the action-reaction principle must be capable of acting and being acted upon, must have implications for signalling and measurements.

      Again, in line with the theme of this year's essay, if the arena is a substantival thing, then Nature can store its information in it.

      Being an engineer you can explore what ideas such as 'Cellular Automaton', 'A New Kind of Science' by Stephen Wolfram, 'Digital Physics' by Edward Fredkin can do for your theories on signalling (check these out initially on Wikipedia).

      Until proved otherwise, for me, monads are candidates for the fundamental Cellular Automata.

      5 days later

      Dr. Ojo,

      I am terribly sorry for rudely not answering your question, I lost track of my essay comments. Uniqueness cannot be quantified, qualified or rectified. Real uniqueness cannot be contrived, constructed or construed. Nature only deals in real uniqueness once and it only produces one whole real thing once. For instance, nature has produced one real unique whole me and one real unique whole you once. Mathematicians believe that there are such things as postulated identical "whole " numbers, and these identical "whole" numbers can be odd or even and they can be repeatedly divided, multiplied and equated, provided some sort of abstract identical laws are applied to the process. Whereas there is no limit to the divisibility of an abstract 1, a real one cannot ever be divided.

      Unique real nature does not provide any separable lines or surfaces.

      Dear Sir,

      The most striking thing about your essay is the glossary at the beginning. For unambiguous communication, we must assign precise and fixed meaning to the technical terms we use. Unfortunately, most scientists use an operational definition, which can be suitably manipulated in all possible manner. Congratulations for this bold approach. However, we wish you should have also defined space, time and dimension, since you have discussed these quite often. And your ending is really dramatic.

      The first 5 pages of your essay can be summarized as follows: Dimensions are perceived (ocular perception) through electromagnetic radiation, where an electric field and a magnetic field, move perpendicular to each other and also to the direction of their motion. Thus, we have three mutually perpendicular dimensions which differentiate the "internal structural space" - bare mass from the "external relational space" - the radiative mass. For this reason, we classify the states of matter as solid, fluid or gaseous, depending upon whether the dimension is fixed, unfixed or unbound. A point, which does not have "internal structural space", cannot have dimension. The outgoing electro-component associated with heat energy also propagates through conduction, convection and radiation in objects associated with these states. But what about the propagation of a point, which does not have "internal structural space", but has "external relational space" (because it has existence)? Like a photon it radiates. What is its life-time?

      Time is the ordered sequential arrangement of events that shows their mutual degree of priority or posterity just like space is the interval between objects. In absolute terms, no event can be said to be the first event or the last event. Hence time, like space, is infinite. But unlike space, time comes in cycles - from being to becoming to growth, transformation, transmutation and finally destruction. This is the life-time. These cycles are different for different species. Hence relativistically, they lead to time dilation. Since everything moves like a wave which is cyclic, the minimum life time can be the time taken to cover one wave length. And that is also the maximum life time for it, because it has no dimension. Only the wave existed to give its perception indirectly. This is what is meant by virtual particles pop out and vanish in the quantum states. The photon is absorbed at only one place, so the cycle of the re-emitted wave comes from that point.

      There is a fine glitch in Newton's action-reaction principle. Though every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, most of the time, the reaction is non-linear, whereas the action is linear. But most text books interpret it wrongly.

      The simplest answer to Zeno's paradox is that velocity is related to the mass of the body that is moving, the energy used (force applied) to move it and the total density of and the totality of the energy operating on the field. These are all mobile units against the back drop of the field that is static with reference to these. Middle of the distance is related to the frame of reference, which is relatively static with reference to the other mobile aspects. Thus, it is like comparing position and momentum. They do not commute. Hence there is no paradox, which is borne out of experience. While the middle of the distance is gradually reduced, the velocity is not reduced by the same proportion.

      Rest of your points we have already discussed in our essay.

      Regards,

      basudeba

        Akinbo,

        I was very impressed with your essay. I have tried to prepare a comment on your essay, walking along the Extended Point Highway, but I am uncertain as to how the 'point' or 'extension' works in with Leibniz' belief that perception and consciousness cannot be 'mechanical'. So rather than display my confusion, I became sidetracked by a comment you made on Phil Gibbs' blog. Referring to the concept of bit as the answer to 'yes/no' questions, you asked Phil:

        "What is the question?'

        I believe that the essential question is 'One or Many?'

        The Multiverse theory is based on hundreds of (hypothesized) fields, leading to 10-to-the-500 universes, all invoked to explain 'fine tuning'.

        The Zen 'theory' is that the universe is essentially, 'not-two'.

        I tend to fall on the 'not-two' side and address this in my essay. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed your essay.

        Welcome to FQXi. You are already a valued participant.

        Best,

        Edwin Eugene Klingman

          Akinbo,

          Beautifully written essay, good concept and well argued. I agree the fork analogy (and also used it often) and particularly the argument about the implications of non-point particles. I hope you may read my last years essay which went a long way down that road and found many implications, as well as this years, firmly distinguishing the mathematical 'point' from nature.

          One proposal is that Monad density may be variable and indeed have gravitational potential, so equivalent to dark matter. I identified these in my 2011 essay as the ions of the iono/ plasmaspheres of space, which then also act as the a border of 'boundary' condition and mechanism. This may help show the great potential of the fork you take.

          As Einstein said objects are not 'in' space but are 'spatially extended'. The border may then be a scattering surface defining an inertial system.

          Well written, good to read, and certainly a very good score to come from me. I'd also greatly welcome your views on my own essay, which may just give you a (rather dense) taste of what I have derived may lie down that road to 'physical reality'.

          Best of luck

          Peter

            Hi Basudeba,

            Thanks for reply.

            RE: Dimensions are perceived (ocular perception) through electromagnetic radiation, ...

            No. I don't agree. Dimension can also be perceived in other ways, e.g. by sense of touch

            RE: A point, which does not have "internal structural space", cannot have dimension.

            A fundamental geometric object cannot have internal structure. It can "have no parts". See Euclid's definition and my reference to a translation of Leibniz Monadology, available online). The issue whether a fundamental object can or cannot have dimension IS THE CRUX of the matter!!. Plato is not sure but asks us to assume they cannot have dimension. Aristotle, Proclus, Leibniz and the Pythagoreans INSIST that that fundamental object cannot be dimensionless if it exists.

            RE: no event can be said to be the first event or the last event. Hence time, like space, is infinite.

            Possibly. But if the universe has a beginning and emerged from nothing then there is a first event and if there is going to be a Big Crunch, there will be a last event.

            RE: Zeno's Dichotomy paradox has nothing to do with velocity, unless you are referring to his paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. What Zeno is saying is that IF there is an infinite number of places between origin and destination then the runner will not reach his destination. For an account of the paradoxes, check out

            http://www.iep.utm.edu/zeno-par/

            http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno

            Wikipedia

            Best regards,

            Akinbo

            Thanks Eugene!

            As you must have observed there are so many similarities between our essays. I think the appropriate place to comment on your essay is on your blog and I will be doing that right away.

            RE: I believe that the essential question is 'One or Many?'

            Before asking this, dont you think you should ask the question: existing (1)/not existing (0)? Then, if the binary answer is 1, ONLY THEN you follow up with ONE or MANY? But if you ask me, that is the SECOND MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION and till today it has not been answered to everybody's satisfaction. Somewhere in Aristotle's papers, either Physics or Metaphysics you will find more. Parmenides and his student Zeno are the major proponents and are yet to be fully faulted, despite the use of Calculus and other mathematical tools (see Dowden' article on Zeno http://www.iep.utm.edu/zeno-par/

            I am glad to be in this community and someone here, Joe, always brings a smile to my face when I see 'codswallop'. He appears to believe in 'not-two' as well, though he prefers the term UNIQUE and ONCE.

            Cheers and all the best.

            Akinbo

            Thanks for the fine essay. It seems then that Plato wins the verdict - the abstract geometrical form of "point" cannot be pinned down by the finite limitations of the physical world, but exist most beautifully in the higher mental realm. Indeed, for the mathematician, the line is infinitely divisible and a multiplicity of infinities can easily be imagined. Not so for the poor physicist who must suffer with the ugly discontinuity of monads that pop in and out of existence.

            Query - for physics to be complete, do monads require other properties than simply on or off?

              Hi Akinbo,

              Thanks for reading and for your gracious comments. I've observed that you always ask good questions!

              1.) As I noted in an earlier essay, Eugenio Calabi in 1953 essentially asked if our Master equation was valid:

              "Could there be gravity ... even if space is a vacuum totally devoid of matter?"

              He reasoned: "...being non-linear, gravity can interact with itself and in the process create mass", and he conjectured, "curvature makes gravity without matter possible". The Calabi-Yau manifold confirms our Master equation-based only on gravity -but his conjecture was based on special geometry in which "time is frozen".

              As I mentioned in technical notes, the uncharged electromagnetic field has energy, hence mass, but only interacts with charge, hence does not react with itself. The gravitomagnetic field energy has mass and interacts with mass, hence does interact with itself (in local motion). This has two consequences. The self-interaction vortex leads to soliton-like particles and the particles can be confined in a 'self-generated' field, hence achieving what is currently assigned to "color" in QCD. Thus the one field can interact with itself in a Yang-Mills gauge theory of mass. I would replace the "gluons" [which are considered to interact with themselves] by the C-field. In this case QCD has 10 extra parameters used to "fit" data.

              2.) I'm pleased that you agree the threshold provides the real meaning of 'bit'.

              The quantum analysis (which falls out of my master equation) leads to discreteness only for 'bound' systems. A free electron (say) has no well-defined properties (other than charge, which, in my theory results from binding the particle together.) When it is bound to a proton then it has discrete orbit-determined wavelength and energy. Thus a hydrogen atom can undergo structural change to record a 'bit' of information. Many higher levels of structure can be 'in'-formed.

              3.) I will answer 3 in a later comment.

              Finally you ask about gravitational action and action-at-a-distance. The first FQXi contest I participated in was "What's ultimately possible in physics?" I conclude my essay with:

              "What is ultimately impossible is to explain gravity and consciousness; the essence of G and C (self-attraction, self-awareness, and ability to act) will forever remain mysterious. This defines the ultimate possibility of physics."

              In other words, gravity, as the souce of action, matter, and awareness will always be a mystery. But it's behavior is describable, and it's self-evolution may be 'understood'. It's essence will never be understood. Newton was surely right to tread carefully there.

              Thanks again. It's a pleasure to discuss these things with you.

              Edwin Eugene Klingman

              PS. As I have provided links to two earlier essays, I may as well provide the link to my last essay, The Nature of the Wave Function. In it I present a formulation that, in Geometric Algebra terms is a 'trivector', defined to have volume and orientation but not a fixed 'shape'. It occurs to me that this in some ways describes your 'monad' as an amorphous extended entity.

              Akinbo,

              Too many windows open. The above was intended for my blog, where you numbered your questions.

              As for your question above, I tend to assume existence, but if one has doubts, then I agree, that is the first question!

              Joe is also right, but tends, I believe, to overlook some of the fine points.

              Best,

              Edwin Eugene Klingman