Hello Mr. M. A. Gubrud,
This is Margarita Iudin.
I just read your essay. It is O' K, except it is not my topic. You ask what is the greatest problem (there are so many of them - here I agree with you). Sorry, those problems are not that kind of the problems that if you know them you can solve them.
1. I did not understand why you have decided to speak about Babel. Babel symbolizes lots of the things at once. Do you know how many positive meanings and influences biblical Babel and historical Babel (Nineveh?) have ? Do you against the urban culture? If yes, what you do about it?
2. I recommend you to read Plato to find out what he thinks about the mob (read, the nature of human mob) of Athens.
3. O' K, it is not my topic. I read somewhere your comments. It appears that you are the person who knows the difference between the power distribution (law) and normal Gaussian distribution (law). Very well.
I have a serious problem to find the contest entrants that will be able to understand my essay (James A Putnam, Wesley Wayne Hansen, ??)..
May I ask you, when you have time, to read my essay
Imagining the future humanity
at http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2096
Among other things it is about the analogous imagining and applications of the analogous imagining - in my essay I draw on analogies that you may find interesting.
Good luck,
M Iudin
By the way, I am a Jew and a meta-physicist.
Plato said that there were too much I oncewhetehr am very suscpicious about people and I like it even though I do not agree with your choice to apply statistical mechanics (basically, statistical mechanics is a branch of applied math; if you remember Ludwig Boltzmann lectured on applied math) and thermodynamics (thermodynamics is a kind of empirical physical science) to development of humanity.
As local control can be anything, the strong definition is required. And if you try to make the definition, you will find yourself in trouble.
I am curious about your usage of the high school and college physics - do you think people understood what they had learned (in school)?
I do not rank you essay (I think it should be 4 or 5) not to bring your current rank down. Still your essay is one of the best I read here. I like Mr. Putnam's (though I do not agree with him as well) and several more.
I have a serious problem to find those contest entrants that would be able to understand my essay (James A Putnam, Wesley Wayne Hansen, ??)..
If you have time, please read my essay Imagining the future humanity
at http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2096
Among other things it is about the analogous imagining and applications of the analogous imagining - in my essay I draw on analogies that you may find interesting.
Good luck,
M Iudin
Actually, I have a working experience in the chip design, writing OS for stand alone processors, in thermodynamics (laboratory analysis of the thermodynamic parameters), and so on. As yourself, I am also a pro-system approach and like statistical mechanics and mathematical physics.