Dear Jonthan,

at first I was travelling the last three days and here is my delayed answer..

Thanks for the voting and for your words. I hope to get a chance for the next round but to have a chance for good discussions is also very good.

Your interpretation of fractals (as squeezing information) is very good. I never thought in this direction. Fractals is only one method for a more general view, a wild embedding (like Alexanders horned sphere). I wrote about it in the previous FqXi essay contests. I found it by chance during my research on exotic smoothness. The interesting point is the equivalence between wild embeddings and quantum states (and therefore fractals as wild embeddings of the circle must be also correspond to some quantum state).

Therefore what you wrote about Mandelbrot sets and unification contains maybe a very deep truth. We should start an email exchange about it (torsten.asselmeyer-maluga@dlr.de) if you like....

As a direct reaction: it was interesting what you wrote about functional memory of our brain. Honestly I don't know it. I was guided by mathematics when I developed this model.

Thanks again for voting

More later

Torsten

Dear Willy,

at first I was travelling the last three days and here is my delayed answer...

Thanks for reading my essay and the comments.

I agree with you completely as top-down causation is a very important sign for intelligence

but not the only one (there are also complex systems showing top-down causation without

being alife).

With great interest I also read your essay. Before I found this model about the neural

networks I also thought about social systems (right in your spirit). As you correctly

stated hierarchical structures played a strong role in this game. (I like the Nelson Mandela cite) I miss a little bit the evolutionary elment in your discussion (my work enforced me to think in this direction).

I'm quit esure that this regulator theorem is applicable for you theory as well.

Thanks for writing such a good essay

Best wishes

Torsten

I shall begin an e-mail discussion..

The term 'mirror neurons' comes to mind, regarding the specificity of activated brain areas being associated with various actions an object might perform, rather than with an object by its qualities of construction or appearance.

More later,

Jonathan

Dear Torsten Asselmeyer-Maluga,

Thank you for your detailed and colorful essay on neural networks and the fractal nature of the ability to generate intention. While I have had some limited experience with neural networks over the past 20 years, your essay has inspired me with some fresh perspectives. I find the fact that "feedback loops produce the topology of the network" to be a key step in future computational ability too. We are also in agreement about the nature of top-down and bottom up feedback loops being essential in such realizations. Thank you for writing so succinctly and with great examples. I have enjoyed your essay and have rated it too.

Regards,

Robert

    I hope you enjoy the paper I sent you Torsten..

    I have been thinking also about a fractal relation involving developed land and forests or other natural spaces. It appears that the quality of life is higher when humans and nature are in close proximity, where conventional planning often eliminates buffer zones in neighborhoods, or isolates them, but interpenetration allows ease of boundary crossing. Anyhow; I think fractal human/nature boundaries are optimal and that it would be good to write about this. It is broadly in line with your essay topic, but this is a question I've pondered for some time.

    All the Best,

    Jonathan

      Hi Torsten,

      Great paper, and I totally agree with what I think is the assumption behind it: that the only way the problem of consciousness will be solved will be to apply ideas from multiple disciplines- including advanced mathematics and physics.

      Best of luck in the contest and om your research,

      Rick Searle

        Hi Rick,

        thanks for your words. I like multiple disciplines. One can take the best from each. I already comment your essay, also great work.

        All the best and good luck in the contest

        Torsten

        Hi Jonathan,

        I have to further think about the paper you sent me. More directly via email.

        Great idea to write something about ecology and human-nature interactions. There are also so many fractal structures in nature itself. Right I have also to think about it.

        Best Torsten

        Jim,

        GRG essay contest: it is an essay contest of the Gravity Research Foundation having the deadline at April, 1st.

        But now I'm free (with not much time for voting).

        Best

        Torsten

        Dear Robert,

        certainly I plan to read your essay. It looks very interesting and I must dig deeper...

        Thanks for your words and voting

        All the best and good luck for the contest

        Torsten

        Hi Torsten,

        Your idea is similar to the idea of deep learning in AI via Renormalization group. Googling will get you many papers. As a matter of fact my system generates RG automatically.

        You have seen my system before but in my new essay which is short and sweet:) I derive Newtons gravitation(long distance) law from the SAME system that generate all the quantum mechanical results. Moreover, the simulations that predict the electron and the proton now I find an analog of it in the standard physics via Helmann potential which is a combination of Coulomb and Yukawa potentials. Thanks for your attention.

        last year essay

        your this year essay

        see gravity,p2

        gravity

          Torsten,

          I see. General Relativity and Gravitation sponsored by GRF. Any affiliation with eventual LIGO efforts to approach BB waves?

          Jim

          Sorry, that should be gravity "P" energy in the results. thanks

          Torsten,

          A great essay as usual, right on topic, well written and more importantly for me correctly identifying the quantum scale mechanisms, layered (fractal) and feedback based architecture producing the - almost 'illusion', of aims, intent and even consciousness.

          Of course I would think all that as my essay describes and concludes exactly the same components and structure, so is very complementary, though where you more thoroughly cover the key point I also identify important related matters at the highest and lowest ends of the scale. I hope you may particularly comment on my identifcation of a classical derivation of QM's 'probability' distribution, built wearing last years red & green socks!

          I gather yours too has been hit by '1's. Mines had 11! but I've refused to retaliate. I think yours is worth far more than it's current placing suggests. Close now to final scoring so I hope you'll get to read mine and confirm you agree with my analysis of our complementarity or raise any issues.

          Very well done, again, and best of luck.

          Peter

            Dear Torsten,

            A very well written technical essay, that makes some very interesting points. While I grasped the larger ideas of feedback loops, top-down effects and the results you obtained on fractal curves, I can see the devil is in the details. I wish my knowledge of topology was better to better appreciate some of the results and insights here, but I intend to change that and come back to this paper again once I have a better grasp of related concepts (PS: If you can suggest some kind of good resource for someone who is beginning to study topology, I would be very grateful. I rather not start with some of the advanced references in your submission).

            Please know that I appreciate the mathematical rigor of your work, for I think it is important to not be wishy washy when dealing with issues of learning and intuition. My submission shows that our learning is intricately tied to feedback-feedforward models. I also agree on the idea of top-down causation (though I prefer that Ellis is now referring it to as top-down realization). It is heartening to see that over the course of the various submissions, there seems to be a growing consensus emerging on what some of the important ideas to probe further are.

            This is great work and focuses on the important questions. I have rated it highly so that it can make it to the final deservedly, and can be judged fairly for its proper technical content. I now look forward to going back and reading your past winning essays on this forum. Thanks and good luck in the contest!!

            Cheers

            Natesh

            PS: My email is nganesh@umass.edu. Please feel free to reach out. I would love to see where you go further on this line of work. Hopefully I will gain more understanding on this area of math, as I dive deeper. I am particularly interested in understanding strange non-chaotic attractors.

              Hi adel sadeq,

              thanks for your hint. I think my approach is a little bit more general and flexible then renormalization group approach. In particular, I'm not limited to the Ising model. But again, thanks for the hint. I will study more work in this direction.

              Now to your work: honestly I had some problems to understand it (including your last year essay). It was not obvious to me how you will get the quantum mechanics? In this year essay, how did you get the Hellman potential? Did you assume it?

              Best wishes and good luck with the contest

              Torsten

              Dear Peter,

              thanks for your words and the voting (which I really need).

              Today I had a chance to look into your essay. Interestingly I had a kind of deja vu. You got also similar structures (like SU(2) etc.). So, I agree that our essays are complementary. In particular, your essay is the background of my essay and vice verse.

              Well done, Peter.

              Of course I will comment on your interpretation of QM but better on your comment area.

              All the bestfor you and good luck in the contest

              Torsten

              PS: That speaks in your favour that you don't retaliate. I also don't do it.

              Thanks Torsten,

              I have a friend Jolanda who was form many years a Civil Engineer and now has a degree and practice in Environmental Law. She may have some insights or information relevant to our writing about human/nature boundaries and to quantify changes in fractal dimension before and after development.

              All the Best,

              Jonathan

              It is good to see that..

              If the qualifying round ended right now, you and I would both be in the finals. I wish you luck now and into the future Torsten. I left another brief reply/comment above.

              All the Best,

              Jonathan