Essay Abstract

My marathon swimming son1, Jon Erikson, passed away in July 2014 and his death has prompted me to ponder some serious realities of Panpsychism 2-4. This is suggested as the real "mysterious connection" in the essay question. "Feelings" guide the many achievements of physicists, mathematicians, and yes, even swimmers. A relaxed feel of water is required to swim, or even to float. Whence came force and energy to swim? Activities of water and a swimmer are dual, the former being quite massive and stable, and the latter less so in motion. An inscribed sphere in a regular tetrahedron is similar as a quantitative model. Assuming such dualities as mass and it's energy, such relationships may be written; I. Regular tetrahedron, as energy â‡" Inscribed sphere, as mass (as photon/electron; swimmer/water; shell/nucleus; people/government..) Left and right sides of (I) are expressed as their respective geometrical area- to-volume ratios. Symbolically, (A/V)T = (A/V)i.s, where A, V, T, and "i.s" represent area, volume, tetrahedron, and sphere. Geometric manipulation converts both A/V's to a dimensionless linked Surface-to-Content ratio, S/C. The sphere/tetrahedron (I) duality serves as a model guide to balance other dualities as system/environment effects. In making such dualities, Dr. Tykodi's "thermo- staedic" for steady-rate systems 6-8, and my thesis 5, Thermodynamics of the Steady State, of some 56 years ago are helpful for dynamic definitions, i.e. at steady-rates. Several S/C ratios, differences, and/or percent, A/(A+V), are tabulated. These values are properties of nature for links to be evaluated and tested as defining panpsychism.

Author Bio

Ted Erikson earned a BS ChE ('52) and a MS Chem ('59) from IIT and a Gas- Surface Interaction diploma ('65) from MIT. He spent 23 years at the IIT Research Institute as a Senior Chemist resulting in 2 patents and 10 publications followed by 16 years teaching chemistry, math, and physics in public schools. Erikson is also an accomplished marathon swimmer. His beacon in life is chaos, "a state of things where chance is supreme" all things considered.

Download Essay PDF File

Hey!, technical people! Table 2 is key to the whole idea. No one can comment on it? I find strange things can be done with it.

Thanks for your comment in my essay comment section.

I think all things have life including rocks.

All things:

``Dual actions of all things as "surface - to - content - ratio" applies to " all creatures, small and large" vis.: photons - electrons - protons - molecules - bacteria - animals - whales. Finding space to occupy and hold , time to exist , and fend off challenges is a battle for all things ! ''

For instance, the attraction of mass is to become bigger, to hold, to exist, to reproduce.

Did you forget reproduce? 2014 contest paper

    2014 paper interesting,but, so what?.. Re your "reproduce" is covered in "First, a game with dimensional units. Using standard symbols and units, the combination, one, (h/c2 ), implies units of Kg-sec, and two, (c3/ G), implies Kg/sec. Multiplying "one" and "two" produce Kg2, while dividing "one" by "two" produce sec2 . Taking square roots of these final unit results imply ± mass and ± time. The eight combinations (multiplied and divided) support notions of waves. In sum, mass motion is ± in direction and mass growth is ± in size.. To go from minus to zero to plus implies "reproduction"! Table 2 is key to whole show..

    Dear Ted,

    As I promised in my Essay page, I have read your particular Essay. Here are my comments:

    1) Although with delay, I send you my condolences for the death of your marathon swimming son Jon.

    2) I find your statement ""Feelings" guide the many achievements of physicists, mathematicians, and yes, even swimmers" very nice and correct.

    3) I agree with you that duality is a fundamental property of nature.

    4) I am fascinated by swimming. Congrats for your and Jon's records.

    5) Do you think that your statement that "tiny-small-big things (e.g., photons, electrons, protons, molecules, bacteria, animals, whales, etc.) must have a panpsychist awareness of each other's presence to sustain a workable and definable system-environment link" could have some connection with Brownian motion?

    6) Your statement that particles could have an unknown property of nature (memory?) could have interesting implications on the black hole information puzzle, see my paper Ann. Phys. 353, 71 (2015), pre-print here.

    In any case, I found your Essay very nice. Thus, I will give you a high rate.

    I wish you best luck in the Contest.

    Cheers, Ch.

    For your 1-4 personal comments, (do you swim? heh heh) Thank you, Prof. Corda:

    Re: (5) Hidden from our powerful physics and mathematics, there is a "growth" feature that begins whee bit from "zero". Such panpsychism seem to govern all that follows, including possibly, Brownian influences.

    Re: (6) I am ignorant about BH's , but if panpsychism can be fit into growth influences, then clearly something is carrying memory onward and upward.. heh heh

      Hi Ted,

      You can merely call me Christian without any suffix.

      Thanks for your replies 5-6.

      Yes, I was born near the sea, thus, I started to swim when I were 2 years old..

      Concerning the point you raised in my page, what do you mean telling that I "stretched" the submission rules a bit?

      Cheers, Ch.

      Christian:

      Re: Stretch.. Kind of silly, but I believe you stretched "one page". heh heh. Ah well.

      "following can be appended to these 9 pages: one page of references, "

      Wow, started at 2 year old swimming..

      Re: Instead of starting from the "big bang" origin, seems as though things should have started from a wee whisper, i.e. zero..

      Dear Mr. Erikson,

      I thought that your essay was exceptionally well written and I do hope that it fares quite well in the competition.

      Warm Regards,

      Joe Fisher

        Thank you, Joe Fisher:

        Words have so many meanings. Geometrical definitions of the sphere and tetrahedron allow , rightly or wrongly, quantitative info about the surface "activity" to the content "availability". I liked your presentation which simply attempts the i.d. of reality. My vote for you was above average.

        Dear Mr. Erikson,

        I am a little baffled by your essay insofar as there is no discussion of the subjects that are embedded in the relevant theme for the FQXi Essay Contest - Trick or Truth: the Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics.

        There are no references to "Trick", "Truth", "Mysterious" or "Mathematics" and in the two uses of the term "Physics" and one of "Connection" (both on page 7) none address the contest theme.

        I notice that others have responded more favorably. I feel like an alien trying to understand what on earth is going on!

        Gary Hansen

        23 days later

        Dear Ted,

        I think Newton was wrong about abstract gravity; Einstein was wrong about abstract space/time, and Hawking was wrong about the explosive capability of NOTHING.

        All I ask is that you give my essay WHY THE REAL UNIVERSE IS NOT MATHEMATICAL a fair reading and that you allow me to answer any objections you may leave in my comment box about it.

        Joe Fisher

        Gary Hansen:

        Sorry that you feel like an alien in regards my essay. Some arithmetic errors exist, but I believe that the abstract identified "panpsychism" as the mysterious connection between mathematics and physics. Did you miss that?

        Mass as an inscribed "stable" sphere within a regular tetrahedron can never be addressed without the interference of the "unstable" tetrahedron. It is a war for existence since given free rein, one will always eliminate the other. Only at 50-50, a balance of surface-to-volume, can both achieve a limited time for existence, otherwise one wins and the other loses. Kind of like people..

        Dear Ted,

        Very original look, images and ideas on the dialectic of the "LifeWorld" (Husserl), which pushes the mind to search for a new paradigm of the Universe as a whole, "connection the unjoinable" (Nicholas of Cusa) at all levels of existence. Indeed, the "language of geometric representations" (M.Nalimov " "The Universe is aware of itself"") - the key to the "grasping" primordial structure of the Universe, the core of which memory. Your essay is consonant with the work of Bergson's "Matter and Memory". Your essay is close to me in spirit, methods and areas of research.

        I invite you to see my analysis of the philosophical foundations of mathematics and physics, the method of ontological constructing of the primordial generating structure, "La Structure mère" as the ontological framework, carcass and foundation of knowledge. I believe that the scientific picture of the world should be the same rich senses of the "LifeWorld", as a picture of the world poets and philosophers.

        Kind regards,

        Vladimir

        Vladimir:

        Thank you for your kind words.. Yes, Bergson's views have not been improved or changed since he wrote them..He really impressed me with his coverage of ALL. Your "Life world" is a good philosophy model.

        Regards

        Ted