Dear Jeffrey

I just want to let you know that I have read your nice and short essay. Up to now robots and computers don't have human features such as feelings and desires, but perhaps in the far future things may change. You also discuss that the universe has no purpose. Of course you assume that the universe is composed of inert elements, but how would you explain the emergence of purpose, feelings and desire from brute inert matter. Usually, the explanation is that all of these are nothing but chemical reactions, do you agree?

I'd like to invite you to read my essay and leave some comments. There I discuss about Wheeler's dream and propose a potential way to get out of the present crisis.

I'll be looking forward to hearing any comments you may have.

Regards

Israel

    Israel,

    I said that the universe might not have a purpose. If the universe has a purpose, it might be difficult or impossible for us to know.

    Life has a purpose to reproduce. Feeling and desires are experienced by more complex life forms. We (complex animals) have many layers of intelligent systems. As an example, you do not have to think to make your heart beat or regulate body temperature. A rabbit will run in a zig-zag pattern than hide when frighten. We still have that "run and hide" command set within us, but we often over-ride this instruction. We still "feel" that command set to "run and hide" as a rabbit might feel but over-ride the "feed" command to run and hide.

    Thank you for your comments,

    Jeff

    Hi Jeff

    Thanks for your reply. Just to add: If the purpose of life is to reproduce then one could say that the purpose of the universe is to give consciousness, don't you think? So, why do you say that life has a purpose and the universe doesn't?

    Regards

    Israel

    Israel,

    Consciousness does not do anything for the universe, as far as we know, as universe existed without consciousness for billions of years. Without reproduction life would not be. The universe might have a purpose and consciousness might be that purpose, but that purpose is not clearly visible. On some other planet, they might view the goal of the universe very differently.

    Thank you for your questions,

    Jeff

    Dear Jeffrey,

    We are at the end of this essay contest.

    In conclusion, at the question to know if Information is more fundamental than Matter, there is a good reason to answer that Matter is made of an amazing mixture of eInfo and eEnergy, at the same time.

    Matter is thus eInfo made with eEnergy rather than answer it is made with eEnergy and eInfo ; because eInfo is eEnergy, and the one does not go without the other one.

    eEnergy and eInfo are the two basic Principles of the eUniverse. Nothing can exist if it is not eEnergy, and any object is eInfo, and therefore eEnergy.

    And consequently our eReality is eInfo made with eEnergy. And the final verdict is : eReality is virtual, and virtuality is our fundamental eReality.

    Good luck to the winners,

    And see you soon, with good news on this topic, and the Theory of Everything.

    Amazigh H.

    I rated your essay.

    Please visit My essay.

    Dear Jeff,

    A great opening statement that I concur 100%, as a matter of fact KQID is designed to power Xuan Yuan Operating system2.0 to realize Xuan Yuan's Da Tong, an idea society in which "from each to each according to his/her dreams and aspirations" where each has free eduction, free health care and free material wealth. May I invite you to my blog and if you like it please rate it to raise my ranking. I am doing the same here.

    You opened with : "The 
universe 
itself 
might
 not 
have
 a 
purpose,
but
 science,
one 
of
 the 
ways
 we 
try 
to
 understand 
our
universe, 
needs 
a
 purpose. 
The 
purpose
 of
 science 
affects 
this
 seemingly
 dispassionate
 pursuit.

"

    I also agree with your conclusion: "In 
a 
similar 
vain,
 science 
to 
be
 science,
 must 
continue 
to
 look
 out
and 
relate
 to 
the 
physical
 universe.
 The 
information 
age 
gives
 us
 new
 possibilities 
of 
intelligence, 
but
it 
cannot
 by pass 
the
 scientific 
method."

    If I may post here a long summary of KQID:

    In summary, quoting my answer to Michel Planat and please forgive me for being respectfully and humbly boastful to counter the doubtful: First, KQID Qbit is (00,1,-1) which is singularity Qbit Multiverse in zeroth dimension at absolute zero temperature that computes and projects Einstein complex coordinates (Pythagoras complex triangles or Fu Xi's gua or Fibonacci numbers) onto the 2D Minkowski Null geodesics and then instantaneously into the 3D in Lm, our Multiverse timeline to allows Existence to move around 360 degree and its arrows of time or ψτ(iLx,y,z, Lm). New informations are created and distributed per ≤10^-1000 seconds. No information is ever deleted. KQID is the only theory out there that can calculate the dark energy of our Multiverse ≤10^-153Pm/Pv and the minimum bits as the lower bound ≥ 10^153 bits in our Multiverse. KQID is the only theory that I know here that proves bit = it; KQID calculates Sun lights into Sun bits; calculates electron, proton and neutron in terms of bits; set up equivalent principle of bits with energy and matter. Therefore, Wheeler's it from bit and bit from it. Please correct me if I am wrong. And, KQID is the only theory in this universe has the mechanism on how Holographic Principle works. Also answer the mother of all questions, the why, how and what Existence.

    KQID's Origin of Mass:

    Furthermore, KQID is the only theory that can explain the origin of mass as A+S=E=ψI(CTE) that Wilczek said admittedly in 2012 after the discovery of Higgs boson mH ≈ 125 GeV in his tour the force article Origins of Mass arXiv:1206.7114v2 that human beings do not yet know the origins of mass and it is not even in sight. He concluded on page 32/35 and lamented like Einstein 51 years before: "We've passed some milestones, but the end of the road is not in sight." Einstein, after his landmark article 107 years ago on m=E/c^2 showing mass in terms of energy in 1905, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content?" But this equation required us to know what is energy before we can define the origin of mass. Einstein truly like Socrates before him as the wisest man in Athens according to the Oracle simply because Socrates claims that he does not know anything, Einstein the wise similarly stated his own ignorance of energy in 1951: "All these fifty years of pondering have not brought me closer to answering the question, what is light quanta?"

    KQID's origin of mass is simply A + S = E = ψI(CTE) that is Dao's Wuwei (the least action moves) maximizing the flow of A, anti-entropic time-future bits-waves function moving from future to time-present bits-waves function E in optimizing the E flow and minimizing the flow of S, entropic time-past bits-waves function moving from time-past to time-present in terms of both bits and joules SI. That also leads to Pauli's exclusion principle and the lowest amount of energy arrangement required in an atomic system. See KQID Ouroboros Equations of Existence.

    Michel asked the heart of KQID: "Where is the FAPAMA concept coming from in your frame? I mean who is the influencial thinker?"

    First from Fu Xi's gua(trigrams) Ξ ☷ as DIRECT representations of nature, from Pythagoras's all things are numbers, from Jesus's Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, from Hindu's Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, from Planck's intelligent mind as the matrix of all matter and from Maxwell's infinite being with infinite storage capacity who computes in bits/qbits to create and distributes energy that does works, and from Landauer who teaches us that information is physical and nature can freely create and distribute bits/qbits but to erase/deletes the created bits/qbits must incur entropy cost somewhere else in Multiverse. That is why our Ancestor FAPAMA Qbit does not and can not erase any information. The computation of Holographic Principle must be within the one and only Qbit(00,1,-1) showing that Existence origin is from Non-existence and the calculations of Einstein complex coordinates can only be done at absolute zero temperature in which Bose-Einstein superconductivity perfectly happens without resistance or entropy. From Susskind and Hooft, who got the idea from Beckenstein-Hawking black hole entropy, proposed/discovered Holographic Principle and Hooft's quantum entanglements must be from the beginning. Thus FAPAMA Qbit must be there from the beginning (Hooft) and splits freely without cost (Landauer and Guth) to itself and Multiverse infinitely every absolute digital time T≤ 10^-1000 seconds. Moreover, every T-moment, our FAPAMA Qbit escapes extinction from its forever chasing companion Non-existence to be reunited only just barely by rebooting, resynchronizing, refreshing, renewing and reborn itself, so that it is forever just newly born evolved immortal baby. This gives us the arrow of time. Ξ00☷ = < S | E | A > = ψτ(iLx,y,z, Lm) ⊆ T. Time reemerges every digital T-moment. Every T-moment Qbit resynchronizes all Minkowski events in time-present. This is the KEY in re-entangling everything and keeping things in order and not crashing down. Complementarily, KQID also supports block Multiverse within T-moment in which all time-past-present-futures are forged into the NOW that in turn enabling resynchronization above! Time disappears. Yes, Einstein-KQID relativity rules (8πG/c^4)Tμν - Kqid(ΑΘ-ΘS)gμν = Τμν block Multiverse. Yes, Existence is the founder of creativity, it must invent new ways to escape from the grip of its Non-existence complementarity-companion. Dear Akinbo, KQID answers your immortal question if our founder is it or bit. The Founder Qbit is both bit and it simultaneously. Existence-Non-existence is one Qbit. This Qbit is It as Existence. FAPAMA: FA in Chinese means law like law of gravity that gives Existence order in time, PA from the concept of papa or the Holy Ghost or Brahma or Fu XI heaven Ξ that connects everything with everything else as one meaningful whole that manifests in quantum mechanics as Hooft's physical quantum entanglement. Yes, quantum entanglement phenomena must be instantaneous with infinite speed because it is within that one Qbit, there is no gap, no space, no time, no dimension, no locality but it is everywhere locally in physical forms that are derivative from MA as mama trigram earth ☷ that gives birth to mass and structure of Existence in ψτ(iLx,y,z, Lm) relativistic Multiverse in which time contracts, thus length contracts and mass/energy increases. So you see KQID gives picture of Existence as fantastically magical Disney's world, a holographic but physically relativistic fiction but real Multiverse. We are active game changers in our Wheeler's participatory magical kingdom, the Leibniz's happiest Multiverse possible. Because we are limited, we have choices to make including mistakes that lead to man/nature made miseries; so that we have free will to enjoy this wonderful make-believe holographic world. Let us sing and praise Xuan Yuan's Da Tong song and dance.

    I do strongly believe that we must encourage diversity of opinions/theories. Because uniformity of opinion is a heat-death state of thermodynamic equilibrium tantamount to Schrodinger's defunct bumblebee. Let us celebrate symphonies of ideas. In the end, because of our Ancestor Qbit's meme ψI(CTE) imperative to venture into our realm, we the Qbit must discover our own truths in different ways and methods. Let 1000 bumblebee's thoughts bloom, flourish and make love to give births to another forever new 1000 hybrid flower of thoughts.

    Hope for the best,

    Leo KoGuan

      I know there are many essays out there, but cutting and pasting me first and last sentence is not a review.

      Interesting.

      I rated your essay a ten

      http://www.fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1616

      Dear Jeff,

      I have now finished reviewing all 180 essays for the contest and appreciate your contribution to this competition.

      I have been thoroughly impressed at the breadth, depth and quality of the ideas represented in this contest. In true academic spirit, if you have not yet reviewed my essay, I invite you to do so and leave your comments.

      You can find the latest version of my essay here:

      http://fqxi.org/data/forum-attachments/Borrill-TimeOne-V1.1a.pdf

      (sorry if the fqxi web site splits this url up, I haven't figured out a way to not make it do that).

      May the best essays win!

      Kind regards,

      Paul Borrill

      paul at borrill dot com

      Light and fun to read.

      I enjoyed it. Descartes may have helped invent 'It from Bit' Cogito Ergo Sum - if translated in the impersonal - is Thinking therefore Being, or Bit engenders It.

      Have Fun!

      Jonathan

        Jonathan,

        There are many essays out there and only a very few were "fun" for me to read. I am glad you enjoyed my essay and found it easy to read. Easy is hard to do.

        All the best,

        Jeff

        10 months later

        Hello Mr. Schmitz,

        I read your comments on the essays-2014.

        May I ask you to read my essay? It is called

        Imagining the future humanity

        at http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2096

        Sincerely,

        M Iudin

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