Dear Bill,

Thank you very much for your kind words! Actually I like that question. As it stands, the philosopher in question would be Weinberg. I am half joking because his name sound German and imposing, but only half because besides Popper, Russell and newer philosophers like Maudlin and Earman I can't say I enjoy philosophy (to my embarrassment) and none of these four philosophers influenced me. I do however enjoy great thinkers; people like Weinberg and Susskind are thinkers, are to me they are greatly enjoyable. The writer that, if I'm lucky, influences my style, and who - I can say - taught me English, is Terry Pratchett. He was a greatly appreciated humourist from the UK. His writing is very mood lifting - and he too was a great thinker, writing about the human nature and combining it with obscure jokes about quantum mechanics.

Wish you the best of luck in your work and in the contest!

Alma

Hi Alma--

I admire your preferences for thinkers and philosophers. If you haven't already, I urge to read Jim Holt's book, "Why does the world exist"?. It's a wonderful book. Furthermore, Holt devotes an entire section to Weinberg (chapter 9). Reading Weinberg's views on philosophy, the multiverse, etc., was fascinating.

Best regards,

Bill.

Oh, thank you for the recommendation, Bill! It sounds great! I just looked him up and watched his TED talk; I will definitely read the book.

Alma,

You're a winner. I do not exaggerate when I say that in my opinion, your essay ranks near Wigner's own, in its breadth of knowledge and depth of insight.

A couple of confessions I have to make: I have followed and enjoyed your intelligent commentary in other forums, so I knew I would get to your essay eventually. And the other confession is that I checked on the internet to verify how young you are; I would never have believed it from your mature postings. I do hope your circumstances permit you to go on to higher academic pursuits -- it's obvious that you have the "right stuff."

I didn't know the story of von Neumann and the engine. I do recall another one, though, of his lightning-fast calculating skill -- mathematicians like to try and fool each other with problems that seem complicated, but can be made simple with "tricks". One of them concerns two trains approaching each other, with a fly flying back and forth between the engines -- how far does the fly travel before getting squashed when the trains collide? One can get a quick answer by knowing the short cut of averaging -- otherwise, calculating the series by brute force is long and tedious. It is said that when the problem was put to von Neumann, he gave the solution almost immediately. Asked if he knew the short cut, he looked puzzled and replied, "What could be easier than summing the infinite series?" The Wolfram site has an article on the two-train problem.

Highest marks, and good luck!

Tom

    Dear Alma,

    Your essay is extremely insightful and directly addresses this forum topic. I really enjoyed the development of your conclusions, in particular "mathematical physics is only as good as physical insight." My essay makes the exact same point, and discusses how changing the physical insight subsequently effects the mathematical abstraction, and how changing mathematical representation affects physical explanation. Your examples are excellent and very pertinent, in fact exciting. In particular, your juxtaposition of the Langlands program with Godel is brilliant. The Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conjecture is an incredible connection of different mathematical areas, and I absolutely agree that an equivalent to the Langlands program applies to physics; indeed it is a cornerstone in physical explanation. Schroedinger is perhaps one immediate example, though there are many more, and I'm familiar with some university programs specifically designed to connect different areas of physics for this very reason. As I mentioned, I liked how you juxtaposed this with your discussion of Gödel, and how you distinguished mathematical physics when countering the consequences of incompleteness. My essay too shows how what was considered a limitation can actually be expanded when attempting to physically model undecidability, and thus consider the physical requirements resulting from incompleteness. Finally, your appreciation of the humanity and lives of some of the greats, coupled with your optimism for the future is quite noble. This essay is a great contribution and I give it a 10.

    Please check out my essay as well, and we have many things in common and our ideas very well support each other.

    Thanks,

    Steve Sax

      Dear Alma

      nicely written essay. I agree on many points, and especially about complexity, about which you say that "That our knowledge manifests gaps around emergent phenomena seems to be an indication that we lack some insight of the mathematical description itself, not just of what happens physically." And I agree that that this limits our knowledge in fields as biology, along with phys. and math themselves.

      My best wishes for your essay and for you

      Mauro

        Dear Steve,

        Thank you for your generous compliments! I am very happy to know that you enjoyed my writing and my ideas, especially because, as you mention, our work follows the same direction. Honestly I wasn't sure that my usage of examples instead of properly formed arguments may be thought of as lacking in rigor but I am glad it is not so. Actually your comment is hinting at the fact that the examples themselves were what most readers enjoyed, and I thank you for that insight! The equivalences I used may form the general idea of a conjecture rather than feel compelling and I was aware that there was some factor of risk when it came to putting together such remote areas of science. I am glad it turned out to be comprehensible and not a waste of time for the reader.

        My best wishes,

        Alma

        Dear Tom,

        You've hit a bull's eye there :) I would dearly love to pursue further education but I am not in the appropriate circumstances for that. Hopefully that will change in the future, but my age might become a problem at some point. We'll see; where there's life, there's hope. I am surprised and very flattered by your confession! I too look up people when I am curious so I take it as a sign of genuine interest. Thank you very much for your kind words and for your many compliments!

        I am very happy you liked the anecdote on von Neumann, and thank you for the Wolfram page on the problem! I chose Neumann because his life produced the most numerous and funniest anecdotes about scientists or mathematicians (except for the Pauli effect, which is even funnier). If you'd like to amuse yourself with a few more and find out the punch line of the Ford anecdote, visit this page; another rich deposit of Neumann's memorable sayings is here; I also read more about the legend here.

        Thank you again and my best wishes!

        Alma

        Dear Mauro,

        Thank you very much for returning me the visit and for your kind words!

        My sincerest appreciation,

        Alma

        Dear all,

        Thank you for your heartwarming comments!

        Should you want to remain in touch, you can reach me at alma[dot]ionescu83[at]gmail.com.

        Warm regards,

        Alma

        Dear Alma,

        I suspected as much. My own formal education was cut short by life circumstances, and it's made me an advocate for universally free lifetime education. I don't see how democracy in the world can survive without it.

        I don't know how it is in Europe -- in the States, however, the disparity between privileged members of society with full access to educational institutions and financial resources, and the rest of the country (the vast majority) has reached a critical point. The class division has never been greater in my long lifetime.

        If there's any justice left in the world, you'll get the chance to fulfill your potential. It would be shame for a person of your fine intellect to be denied. And don't make age the issue!

        Thanks for the tip on von Neumann.

        All best,

        Tom

        Hi Alma,

        I wanted to let you know that I thought your essay was wonderful and that I am glad you seem to have done well in the contest.

        All the best,

        Rick Searle

        Hi Alma,

        Just to let you know that I replied to your excellent post on my page.

        Best,

        Tom

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