Essay Abstract

"What is fundamental?" Thales-- said by many to be our first philosopher and astronomer-- concluded that reality exists through an underlying fluid. However, in those days there were no super-conducting fluids, and no quantum, relativistic or string theoretic field theories in terms of which to think. Thales simply thought in terms of water. Close enough. Today that would be the fluid dynamics of fields. However, Thales also thought in terms of "agency" as we would term it today in behavioral economics, experimental and mathematical game theory.

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Engineer (ret.)

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5 days later

"Professional" means "by convention," the mathematical game of "common information" associated with the philosopher David Lewis, and refined by Jon Barwise in terms of mathematical "situations."

But now we need to know the truth.

I propose two equations:

1. self = (self)

2. self = (thinking, self)

The transformattion of state from (1) to (2) is demonstrated in the following datum.

"Anne took Helen to the water pump outside and put Helen's hand under the spout. As the cool water gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other hand the word "w-a-t-e-r" first slowly, then rapidly. Suddenly, the signals had meaning in Helen's mind. She knew that "water" meant the wonderful cool substance flowing over her hand.

Quickly, she stopped and touched the earth and demanded its letter name and by nightfall she had learned 30 words.

Helen's early writing, which includes words like cold, catch, latch, load, lord, coal, doll, hat, bad, and good-by.

Helen's early writing, completed seven days before she turned seven (the page is dated June 20th, 1887)

Helen quickly proceeded to master the alphabet, both manual and in raised print for blind readers, and gained facility in reading and writing. In Helen's handwriting, many round letters look square, but you can easily read everything.

In 1890, when she was just 10, she expressed a desire to learn to speak; Anne took Helen to see Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Boston. Fuller gave Helen 11 lessons, after which Anne taught Helen.

Throughout her life, however, Helen remained dissatisfied with her spoken voice, which was hard to understand.

Helen's extraordinary abilities and her teacher's unique skills were noticed by Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain, two giants of American culture. Twain declared, 'The two most interesting characters of the 19th century are Napoleon and Helen Keller.'"

Biography here.

    7 days later

    Hi Lee, Your essay has left me a bit puzzled. Was the point that, the self of all things is fundamental ( at least to the thing itself) and so self existent rather than dependent on, for example thought or sight for existence. I'd agree with that, though I wouldn't consider the generality of self synonymous with soul. A sentient beings sense of 'I am', more easily identified as a soul, in my opinion, is quite different from mere being of itself, of things. Or was the point that a kind of mathematical expression can be made from the philosophy. I don't understand its utility or in what way that is fundamental or maybe that isn't the point. Anyway thought provoking -different presentation. Kind regards Georgina

      Hi Georgina,

      Neither. Thales is fundamental by being the first in Western civilization.

      Have just read this. It is a nice demonstration. The biology of the transformation is an interesting consideration. To do with sensory response of receptors to stimuli, transmission of sensory information and stimulation of neurons and growth of synapses. I suppose that could ultimately be represent-able in a symbolic language that bridges the gap. There has to be temporal separation between the two equations. Maybe that ought to be included somehow. And thinking self=(thinking self) can revert to self=self,such as when unconscious or maybe in deep meditation. Thought provoking-thanks. Regards Georgina

      Yet you acknowledge that science of the enlightenment moved away from more ancient thought. So is your point Thales philosophy ought to be fundamental, as in the foundation, but hasn't been? Or it just is by being fist even though the building was put somewhere else, so to say.

      There is some ambiguity in the word 'fundamental'. As it could mean foundational or origin or something like that, or the main constituent or necessary ingredient, like the base of a soup. I mow think you have gone with the former but I have been using the latter, and looking for something else. That isn't a criticism of your presentation but my attempt to rationalize not understanding. Kind regards Georgina

      A sky scraper is a better analogy. The foundations are obviously foundational but he steel framing is fundamental without being foundational. It can be argued there is no sky scrapper without the foundations of it so they must be fundamental but are they most fundamental? As the steel framing is needed and supports every floor; enabling not just any building but a tall 'sky-scraping'one.

      Just trying to clarify what I said before-and sorry about the spelling mistakes : ). Sorry too if it seems irrelevant.

      ,,,"self = (self)" might be the fundamental equation in a hylozoic universe

      ,,,If the meaning of fundamental depends on the linguistic situation

      ,,,I hope you enjoy this video-- It's related but different from what I'm trying to say, and perhaps enjoyable nonetheless.

      L

      https://youtu.be/ugbNh9r0WQo

      Hi Lee. thanks for the link to the video explaining hylozoism. I agree fermion particles and all things constituted of them are in motion and so might be described as 'alive'or 'animated' Though not in the same sense as living beings that are characterized by specific activities of living. Emergent activities rather than fundamental workings.The video gets weird for me when it starts talking about telepathy to communicate with 'inanimate' objects. I think the 'animation' of existence is foundational, Those changes to existence throughout the entire universe, whereby foundational passage of time happens, is fundamental.I'd say self is a product of more foundational 'elements' of existence and necessary fundamental happening. Kind regards Georgina

      8 days later

      Georgina, "self = (thinking, self)" can be studied as a "coalgebra"--

      "The area of coalgebra is still in its infancy, but promises a perspective on uniting, say, the theory of differential equations with automata and process theory and with biological and quantum computing, by providing an appropriate semantical basis with associated logic. The theory of coalgebras may be seen as one of the original contributions stemming from the area of theoretical computer science."

      http://www.cs.ru.nl/B.Jacobs/CLG/JacobsCoalgebraIntro.pdf

      10 days later

      Probably matter is alive in the universe....Very nice concept Lee.....

      Water is mother of life..... very nice idea.... I highly appreciate your essay and hope for reciprocity.

      I request you please spend some of the valuable time on Dynamic Universe Model also and give your some of the valuable & esteemed guidance

      Some of the Main foundational points of Dynamic Universe Model :

      -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 GR on any condition

      -No Creation of matter like Bigbang or steady-state models

      -No many mini Bigbangs

      -No Missing Mass / Dark matter

      -No Dark energy

      -No Bigbang generated CMB detected

      -No Multi-verses

      Here:

      -Accelerating Expanding universe with 33% Blue shifted Galaxies

      -Newton's Gravitation law works everywhere in the same way

      -All bodies dynamically moving

      -All bodies move in dynamic Equilibrium

      -Closed universe model no light or bodies will go away from universe

      -Single Universe no baby universes

      -Time is linear as observed on earth, moving forward only

      -Independent x,y,z coordinate axes and Time axis no interdependencies between axes..

      -UGF (Universal Gravitational Force) calculated on every point-mass

      -Tensors (Linear) used for giving UNIQUE solutions for each time step

      -Uses everyday physics as achievable by engineering

      -21000 linear equations are used in an Excel sheet

      -Computerized calculations uses 16 decimal digit accuracy

      -Data mining and data warehousing techniques are used for data extraction from large amounts of data.

      - Many predictions of Dynamic Universe Model came true....Have a look at

      http://vaksdynamicuniversemodel.blogspot.in/p/blog-page_15.html

      I request you to please have a look at my essay also, and give some of your esteemed criticism for your information........

      Dynamic Universe Model says that the energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation passing grazingly near any gravitating mass changes its in frequency and finally will convert into neutrinos (mass). We all know that there is no experiment or quest in this direction. Energy conversion happens from mass to energy with the famous E=mC2, the other side of this conversion was not thought off. This is a new fundamental prediction by Dynamic Universe Model, a foundational quest in the area of Astrophysics and Cosmology.

      In accordance with Dynamic Universe Model frequency shift happens on both the sides of spectrum when any electromagnetic radiation passes grazingly near gravitating mass. With this new verification, we will open a new frontier that will unlock a way for formation of the basis for continual Nucleosynthesis (continuous formation of elements) in our Universe. Amount of frequency shift will depend on relative velocity difference. All the papers of author can be downloaded from "http://vaksdynamicuniversemodel.blogspot.in/ "

      I request you to please post your reply in my essay also, so that I can get an intimation that you replied

      Best

      =snp

      5 days later

      Thanks for your reply. Link doesn't work for me- but I did a quick web browse. Kind regards Georgina

      Dear Lee Bloomquist,

      Reliable evidence exists that proves that the surface of the earth was formed millions of years before man and his utterly complex finite informational systems ever appeared on that surface. It logically follows that Nature must have permanently devised the only single physical construct of earth allowable.

      All objects, be they solid, liquid, or vaporous have always had a visible surface. This is because the real Universe consists only of one single unified VISIBLE infinite surface occurring eternally in one single infinite dimension that am always illuminated mostly by finite non-surface light.

      Only the truth can set you free.

      Joe Fisher, Realist

      Lee, your essay is a bit short and would have benefited from more explanation. In particular the link to the HK video is not explained. Essays need to be more self-contained.

      However, there are some interesting ideas here. Your message seems to be that the universe emerges from game theory played between selfs. Is that accurate?

      It would have been good to hear more about how coalgebras are relevant. I also think coalgebras are important. They are dual to algebras and together they form bialgebras.

      Using non-wellfounded set theory is courageous. They can easily lead to paradoxes.

        Yes.

        ***

        Mr. Gibbs,

        You write as if you are my assigned judge. Yet as a judge of fundamental physics you make no mention of the two equations in the essay: "self = (self)" and "self = (thinking, self)".

        Please consider:

        Have you seen these equations anywhere else?

        Lee,

        A nice change from most. I suspect Thales was right all along about the 'underlying fluid'. I've certainly found a logical consistency.

        I'm also a fan of game theory. Are there any new rules for this one?

        And I've checked through your equations and can't find any mistakes. I am therefore I think! (I think). I think and hope as an engineer you may like mine.

        Very best

        Peter

        ps. (I claim not to be a robot but is there really a difference?, ...and if so is that not discrimination?)

          Hello Peter,

          The equation "self = (self)" is an abstract model of Helen Keller before learning the word "w-a-t-e-r". And "self = (thinking, self)" is an abstract model of Helen after learning the word "w-a-t-e-r."

          The Born rule can be modeled as a game with rules called Probability Learning, well studied years ago in the lab. I wrote a little about applying Probability Learning to the Born rule for the contest here about math, titled "Simple math for questions to physicists."

          Some might be uncomfortable with the "self" in "self = (thinking, self)". For particles following the Born rule, instead of "self" you could use "it"--

          it = (bit, it)

          This is the obverse of John Wheeler's idea, "it from bit." (Which Ed Witten talked about in an interview available on the web.)

          "it = (bit, it)" says instead that once you have an "it", then "it = (bit, it)" means that a particle following the Born rule produces a stream of "bits" from the "it."

          In the interview, Witten also talks about the diagram Wheeler used in conjunction with "it from bit"-- an eye with an arrow of seeing circling around to see itself. So circularity seems to be common to both Wheeler's "it from bit" and the non-wellfounded set "it = (bit, it)."

          More on applying non-wellfounded sets to game theory is in the book by Barwise and Moss, "Vicious Circles: On the Mathematics of Non-Wellfounded Phenomena."