Christinel,

"Why is there something rather than nothing?" A good question.

Is so-called empty space the cusp of reality, alternatively something then nothing?

How do you make this physics foundation solid ? of the pyramid?

Jim

Dear Cristinel Stoica

I invite you and every physicist to read my work "TIME ORIGIN,DEFINITION AND EMPIRICAL MEANING FOR PHYSICISTS, Héctor Daniel Gianni ,I'm not a physicist.

How people interested in "Time" could feel about related things to the subject.

1) Intellectuals interested in Time issues usually have a nice and creative wander for the unknown.

2) They usually enjoy this wander of their searches around it.

3) For millenniums this wander has been shared by a lot of creative people around the world.

4) What if suddenly, something considered quasi impossible to be found or discovered such as "Time" definition and experimental meaning confronts them?

5) Their reaction would be like, something unbelievable,... a kind of disappointment, probably interpreted as a loss of wander.....

6) ....worst than that, if we say that what was found or discovered wasn't a viable theory, but a proved fact.

7) Then it would become offensive to be part of the millenary problem solution, instead of being a reason for happiness and satisfaction.

8) The reader approach to the news would be paradoxically adverse.

9) Instead, I think it should be a nice welcome to discovery, to be received with opened arms and considered to be read with full attention.

11)Time "existence" is exclusive as a "measuring system", its physical existence can't be proved by science, as the "time system" is. Experimentally "time" is "movement", we can prove that, showing that with clocks we measure "constant and uniform" movement and not "the so called Time".

12)The original "time manuscript" has 23 pages, my manuscript in this contest has only 9 pages.

I share this brief with people interested in "time" and with physicists who have been in sore need of this issue for the last 50 or 60 years.

Héctor

Hi James,

> Is so-called empty space the cusp of reality, alternatively something then nothing?

No, I didn't say this.

> How do you make this physics foundation solid ? of the pyramid?

I am not sure what you mean. If you refer to the universe as a mathematical structure, maybe consistency is enough. I am not sure what is "solid", since there is no such thing in reality. Solid objects only appear to be so. Or "solid" as a thing that can't be destroyed? What can destroy a mathematical structure? Or perhaps I am missing what you mean.

Best regards,

Cristi

Hi Cristi,

I send you my congrats not only for this new, intriguing Essay, but also for your recent remarkable results in general relativity, particle physics and quantum mechanics.

Concerning your Essay, you wrote "Suppose we will find the unified theory of the fundamental physical laws. Then what?". This is a fundamental question. Your statement that "if the wave-function is real rather than mere probability, causality as we know it has to be reconsidered" is intriguing and opens various doors. Finally you wrote: "A bottom-up approach may never lead to the understanding of the higher levels, and a top-down approach is not enough." This shows how small we are with respect to the gigantic Nature.

Your Essay is a remarkable contribution which deserves the highest score that I am going to give you. Good luck in the Contest.

Cheers, Ch.

    Hi Christian,

    Thank you for your kind comments, I am very honored. I hope this essay contest will catalyse the rigorous research of the connections between the fundamental laws and the emergent systems. While I too dedicate most of my time to researching the fundamental law, in this essay I wanted to emphasize the necessity to also consider the metalaws. I wish you good luck with the contest!

    Cheers,

    Cristi

    Dear Cristinel Stoica,

    Please excuse me for I have no intention of disparaging in any way any part of your essay.

    I merely wish to point out that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Physicist & Nobel Laureate.

    Only nature could produce a reality so simple, a single cell amoeba could deal with it.

    The real Universe must consist only of one unified visible infinite physical surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light.

    A more detailed explanation of natural reality can be found in my essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY. I do hope that you will read my essay and perhaps comment on its merit.

    Joe Fisher, Realist

    Dear Joe Fisher,

    I could not agree more with the quote from Einstein, and with your remarks on simplicity. I am a modest seeker of simplicity myself, and I hope that the laws of the universe fit on a small tablet. Maybe some are more blessed with the ability to see the simplicity without simplifying too much, and others are more involved or sometimes lost in complexity. As a realist, you definitely know that the same simple unique reality includes all kinds. I added your essay to my planned readings. Good luck with the contest!

    Best regards,

    Cristi

    Dear Cristi,

    that was interesting to read. I have some praise and some criticism -- and maybe a funny final observation! But let's begin from the start. I like the early sections of your essay, in particular |5> Floating levels of the pyramid -- I fervently support your conclusions in that section.

    I also agree with what you say about quantum field theory in |6>, but I fear we wouldn't easily reach consensus on several things you say about quantum mechanics in |6> and |7> (e.g. the non-locality implied by the violation of Bell's inequalities isn't at variance with causality and there are interpretations of quantum mechanics which avoid the problems caused by the collapse in the Copenhagen interpretation).

    You lose me somewhat in |8> and |9>. In sections |10> and |11> you develop some special version of Platonism, with which one may or may not want to agree.

    Interestingly, however, I essentially agree again with your section |12>. Given that there were a couple of points in between, which I'd challenge, this might be surprising. Looking once more at it, I think you could have almost jumped straight from |5> to |12>! I'd be curious about your views on my essay, which, I think, partially parallels those parts of your essay leading me to similar conclusions.

    Cheers, Stefan

      Hi Christinel,

      "If sentience is either reducible or related to physical structure and information, then one should expect it to be present in primitive forms at each level of reality, since structure and information are also present there." C. Stoica, 2017

      Sentience can be related to physical structure and information without being present in the lower levels constituents. It is important to avoid the fallacy of division. Regarding sentience, there either is sufficient complexity and organization for its emergence or there isn't. Beyond sentience there either is sufficient structural organization of neural architecture for goals and planning or there isn't; In my opinion. For analogy: An Aran design scarf with twisted knitted cables running its length emerges over time from some specific sequences of forces applied to a length of the spun yarn; giving the accumulated complex spatial distribution of the wool. It would be incorrect to say that, as the scarf shows the Aran cable design so must the wool yarn itself, the wool fibers making up the spun yarn and even the atoms of the wool. There are no Aran design atoms or Aran design wool fibers, or Aran design unknitted yarn. The emergent characteristic exists because of the level of complexity and organization. Though dependent on the structure and characteristics of the constituents at smaller scales the emergent characteristic is not due just to there being more. Thus, lesser amounts do not show a lesser amount of the characteristic, they do not have the emergent characteristic.

      "Photons and electrons are associated to information processing, and we can say that their goal is to propagate according to the physical laws. This goal is always to propagate an infinitesimal step, and it is always attained in an infinitesimal time, in accord to the equations of motion.?" C. Stoica, 2017

      "We can say that their goal is... but is it? A goal is an anticipated future outcome not merely action Now caused by the physics /chemistry of the situation. Inanimate objects do not have the capacity to possess goals of their own. Assigning prior purposes and goals rather than just looking at the causes is unnecessary and in my opinion inaccurate.

      You've tackled some interesting big questions. A good read, thanks.

        Dear Stefan,

        I very much appreciate your comments, including your criticism. My comments about Bell's and especially KS theorems vs. (what we used to know as) causality refers only to realistic interpretations. In particular, in KS, a realistic state has to know in advance the measurement. I don't see this as a problem, since I advocate a realistic interpretation based only on the Schrodinger equation, without collapse. But I proved here that if the measurement takes place without collapse, the initial conditions have to be special. And KS shows that whatever variables you add, hidden or not, this can't be avoided. I think that in all directions we go, we have to give up what causality used to be (past elements of reality influencing/determining future elements of reality but not vice-versa). "In sections |10> and |11> you develop some special version of Platonism, with which one may or may not want to agree." I completely agree to disagree with parts of what I wrote, in particular with these ones. I used the opportunity of this essay contest to include along with things on which science agrees also discussions of some speculative proposals, and even to propose some. I hoped I made it clear enough whenever I wrote about such things that they are possibilities rather than established truths on which we can objectively agree, possibilities which I found interesting and definitory for some underlying philosophies of nature. Thanks for the careful analysis and insightful comments, and even if we don't agree on of my entire essay, I find your remarks very useful. I am looking forward to read your essay!

        Cheers,

        Cristi

        Dear Georgina,

        I enjoyed very much reading your comments, and I am happy to see in them your keen eye for identifying the most critical parts of an argument. And if I was reading only the fragments you quoted I would most likely agree with you. In them I tried to summarize things I wrote earlier in the essay, in which in turn I tried to summarize some of my thoughts about this. You rightfully say that there are things that emerge at higher level which are not visible in lower levels (and the first half of my essay is just about this). So I think the meaning of what I mean is neither reducible nor included in the parts you quoted, it is just summarized, and perhaps I could summarize them better. If I didn't succeed, is my complete fault, I should not try to fit to much into a short essay. I plan to write what I meant in a more detailed form, in which to consider your counterarguments and others that I have myself. Maybe the conclusion I will reach will be different from this and other possibilities I mentioned in the essay. Nevertheless, it would be helpful to appeal to your keen eye after I'll finish it, so if you will still be interested I will send it to you (and also if you are not sure already it's a dead end). Thanks for your comments, and good luck with the essay, which I am looking forward to read!

        Best wishes,

        Cristi

        Dear Georgina,

        The main thing I had in mind when writing that part of the essay was to attempt to strip consciousness from what are "easy problems", to see what ultimately remains, if remains anything. I tried to explain briefly both possibilities: it remains nothing, or what remains is some primitive, bare, essence of subjective experience and goals. In the former possibility, only the form, the patterns to use your example, are relevant for this level. In the latter possibility, it should be something irreducible that remains. And I asked what would be the level where these appear, in both options, and I think the level is much lower than we expect in both cases. I try not to be committed to any of the possibilities, since I think that objective science can only describe functionality, the "as if", while our subjective experience seems to tell us that there is something irreducible beyond the "as if". For this reason I suggested to use a sort of subjective science. If there is a chance that subjective science can add something on top of the objective science, something irreducible, I can't prove objectively, and I not only stated that it is impossible to prove, but perhaps impossible to even formulate the question in an objectively rigorous way. I will see where this will lead me, but I think it is essential in both cases to strip to the bare bones as much as possible the definitions and questions about consciousness, and to go as deep as possible.

        Best wishes,

        Cristi

        Hello Cristi,

        Thank you for this coherently written and informative essay.

        I was wondering on your choice of the pyramid shape for the

        different levels of modeling. Is it just an intuition that the

        lower strata must be bigger in order to be more "foundational",

        or is there some other point to the pyramid shape that I missed?

        Miles Mutka

          Hello Miles,

          Thank you for the comments and the good question! I was oscillating between a pyramid and a tower, and perhaps the better choice is a tower. A pyramid has to end somewhere (maybe a final "purpose"?), but a tower can go on forever, so maybe this is better. However, it came handier to me to make it pyramid, and didn't give much thought of what may this convey, maybe I chose it like this because it is more stable. Good question!

          Best regards,

          Cristi

          Dear Ms Stoica,

          "The highest levels appear from the lowest level by ignoring details, resulting in a coarse graining of the state space." You identify it is as a process of abstraction. In a long time, I find a person that agrees on this. Thank you. Yet, its potential is far greater.

          You take this example to defend the emergence of indeterministic statistical laws from deterministic processes at the most fundamental level. I cannot agree with this entirely. By asking to ignore the details at the lower level, what you allow is that many microscopic states map to one macrostate, and at macroscopic level, there is a many to one mapping. At the microscopic level though, evolution proceeds as one to one mapping between cause and effect, which in turn causes unique thread of macroscopic evolution, regardless of what it may appear at coarser level of macroscopic details. In fact, even if we consider many to one mapping at microscopic level, still we do not escape the unique trajectory in phase space. That is, the past of the universe may have many descriptions, but the future is unique since you do not allow one to many mapping. This logic could be applied to the earliest possible epoch, and then we could say that one is tracing a single thread of outcomes making the universe entirely deterministic. Therefore, indeterminism may arise only if at the fundamental level also many to one, and one to many mapping occur in the state space. Otherwise, statistical significance would vanish with sufficiently powerful computing technology.

          In sections |9> to |11>, you have touched upon so many ideas and notions that overlap with elements of my own, that if I try to discuss and compare them all, it would be as much as the essay itself. Yet, let me take a few.

          All of our thoughts have informational basis, all descriptions are informative, all communications are exchange of information. And here I do not mean quantity of information (as per Shannon), but the semantics (meaning) of information. All information is relational. Does information have a reality of its own? Information does not have to be digital or discrete at all. Due to our ability to draw inferences from observation of states of matter we tend to accept that association of information with states results from an act of modeling, without realizing that unless the system like brain has the ability to store, process, and transmit information by natural means, no information may ever come to reality. Therefore, either information has a reality of its own in the function of the universe, or it can never come about. In fact, if we associate information with states of matter, then the states must naturally bear correlation with that information. Moreover, with each interaction then information processing takes place.

          Panpsyschism does not have to be right. Goals / aims are abstract information of expressions of 'need or want' that can emerge from specific structured information processing in a reproducing systems, as I have attempted to work out in my essay. That is, goal is not fundamental, information is.

          "Is this impossibility to give an objective definition of subjectivity a proof that the hard `problem doesn't exist? ... A subjective science can't be objective ..."

          Hard problem may dissolve if we find objective process of building abstraction. The process of abstraction that you mentioned is the potent mechanism to give rise to irreducible symbolism -- you may refer to my submission. Yes, you are right in saying, "Maybe subjective experience emerges from the organization of matter, or as a property of information.", It is not as much as the organization of matter as it is for the organization of information processing.

          "This leads us straight to Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis, which posits that physical existence equals mathematical existence."

          1) There are other mathematical structures that are not applicable to physical world as we see it. And there cannot be a limit on number of mathematical structures.

          2) Mathematics as we construct and apply are deterministic, it cannot deal with indeterminism. Laying down the probabilities is not a description of the physical function.

          3) If a priori truth of mathematics is equivalent to physical universe, then description of the universe had the reality of eternity beyond time; there could not be anything that has not happened, and there could not be anything that is not happening at each moment of time. Indeterminism comes to rescue here again to save the universe from the eternity of the mathematical laws. Prof Max Tegmark is off the mark maximally.

          By the way, I apply the following statement of yours, "because there are structures that can't not exist - mathematical structures", in a slightly different way. An universe has no existence if there is no pattern, no constancy in the function of its elements, but then given any correlation or constancy of relation, it cannot avoid exemplifying a mathematical structure.

          As an aside, it appears that you have practiced Vipassana technique of meditation, it is not possible to be so accurate in articulating without having gone through the experience.

          Rajiv

            Dear Rajiv,

            I like very much your detailed and well thought observations. I see that the agreement between our views is far from being total, and I am glad for this.

            > You take this example to defend the emergence of indeterministic statistical laws from deterministic processes at the most fundamental level.

            This is kind of the standard way to derive statistical mechanics, and works whether or not is determinism at the lowest level (possibility which I allowed, see |2>). In addition, there is a way to have both deterministic evolution and free choice, by delayed initial conditions (which appears in the QM interpretation I prefer, see this and this).

            > indeterminism may arise only if at the fundamental level also many to one, and one to many mapping occur in the state space

            This is interesting. I am curious how can it be done. The closest thing to this I can imagine is in the links I gave above.

            I liked your remarks about information, especially being relational, semantic, and not having to be discrete. Relation is what matters, and relation also means mathematical structure, so I think there is much agreement between what (I think) you say and my previous essay.

            I only replied to a part of your comments, but thank you for all of them, and I'm looking forward to read your essay.

            Best regards,

            Cristi

            Cristi, Hi !

            While following your pointers I learned just now that I made a mistake in addressing you in my comment to your essay. It certainly shows that I did not know about you, and did not try to find out who you were. I am sorry about my ignorance ! Ah! but I am also a bit disappointed, as I was appreciating such 'sharp' reasoning from some one else !

            Life isn't always fair !

            Rajiv

            P.S. Be fair, and let me know if others also make this mistake often?

            Hi Rajiv,

            Don't worry, it is not the first time this happened to me, I was even told once that this confusion brought me a job offer :)

            Best regards,

            Cristi

            Nice essay Prof Stoica,

            Your ideas and thinking are excellent some quotes below....

            1. This optimism is fueled by the foundation of the entire physics on a few laws we know, of general relativity and gravity, quantum theory, and the Standard Model of particles, which indeed fit on a tablet. This makes us hope that the solutions of puzzles like dark matter, dark energy, and quantum gravity, will still fit on a tablet

            2. A useful picture of how a theory of the universe works is given by dynamical systems. The set of all possible states of a system are collected in a space. Then, we need a rule to specify how the system changes from one state to the next usually an equation......................

            For your information Dynamic Universe model is doing exactly this as you have mentioned in quote 2......

            It is totally based on experimental results. Here in Dynamic Universe Model Space is Space and time is time in cosmology level or in any level. In the classical general relativity, space and time are convertible in to each other.

            Many papers and books on Dynamic Universe Model were published by the author on unsolved problems of present day Physics, for example 'Absolute Rest frame of reference is not necessary' (1994) , 'Multiple bending of light ray can create many images for one Galaxy: in our dynamic universe', About "SITA" simulations, 'Missing mass in Galaxy is NOT required', "New mathematics tensors without Differential and Integral equations", "Information, Reality and Relics of Cosmic Microwave Background", "Dynamic Universe Model explains the Discrepancies of Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry Observations.", in 2015 'Explaining Formation of Astronomical Jets Using Dynamic Universe Model, 'Explaining Pioneer anomaly', 'Explaining Near luminal velocities in Astronomical jets', 'Observation of super luminal neutrinos', 'Process of quenching in Galaxies due to formation of hole at the center of Galaxy, as its central densemass dries up', "Dynamic Universe Model Predicts the Trajectory of New Horizons Satellite Going to Pluto" etc., are some more papers from the Dynamic Universe model. Four Books also were published. Book1 shows Dynamic Universe Model is singularity free and body to collision free, Book 2, and Book 3 are explanation of equations of Dynamic Universe model. Book 4 deals about prediction and finding of Blue shifted Galaxies in the universe.

            With axioms like... No Isotropy; No Homogeneity; No Space-time continuum; Non-uniform density of matter(Universe is lumpy); No singularities; No collisions between bodies; No Blackholes; No warm holes; No Bigbang; No repulsion between distant Galaxies; Non-empty Universe; No imaginary or negative time axis; No imaginary X, Y, Z axes; No differential and Integral Equations mathematically; No General Relativity and Model does not reduce to General Relativity on any condition; No Creation of matter like Bigbang or steady-state models; No many mini Bigbangs; No Missing Mass; No Dark matter; No Dark energy; No Bigbang generated CMB detected; No Multi-verses etc.

            Many predictions of Dynamic Universe Model came true, like Blue shifted Galaxies and no dark matter. Dynamic Universe Model gave many results otherwise difficult to explain

            Hope you will have a look at my essay on Dynamic Universe Model and its blog also where all my books and papers are available for free downloading...

            http://vaksdynamicuniversemodel.blogspot.in/

            Best wishes to your essay.

            For your blessings please................

            =snp. gupta