Dear John,
With great interest I read your essay, which of course is worthy of high praise.
You are one of the few who directly answers the question put by the contest.
You are absolutely right that «Because a single universe exists, a single Theory of Everything exists involving causal relations from the very small to the very large».
You correctly put questions and find answers «This implies applying a deterministic perspective to replace the probability arguments.» «The simple rules need to be identified. Additional concepts such as fractal structures and negative feedback loops from the emergent principal that describe the universe are also helpful.»
In my essay , is shown that if you do not use the mystical properties of matter and fields, then there is every reason to believe that the universe is much simpler than it is thought to be.
There is only one essence and the only universal quantum parametric mechanism in the universe that operates on the principle of the classical heat pump in solitons, and that functions both at the micro- and macro-level of fractal matter. This mechanism allows using a small fraction of the external energy to control in many times big fraction the energy of the system.
This mechanism is also the answer to the questions of this competition.
However, everyone loves their fiction and "magic", built by their "gods", so very few are able to see the rational grain in other people's ideas because of their illusions.
Your essay allowed to consider us like-minded people.
You might also like reading my essay .
Kind regards,
Vladimir