A Universe Made of Stories by Philip Gibbs

Dear Philip,

Thanks for this original, thorough and well argued essay.

Thank you for pointing out some long overdue problems with the intuitive reductionist approach. I am glad that you point out, for instance, that "the hypothesis has been further bolstered by the observation that the laws of particles physics are unnaturally fine-tuned". I follow a falsificationist approach, namely a deductivist methodology in science that allows (in your words) "mathematics [to] guide the way until the experimental outlook improves".

So, I think that there are pretty interesting similarities between our essays, and I would be most grateful to have your opinion about my work.

Your idea that "Reality is relative to the observer" is indeed one of the most promising directions of investigation in the modern foundations of physics. I find a particular affinity with a recent proposal by Brukner that there are "no facts of the world per se, but only relative to an observer" (If you havent seen this yet, please see https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.05255).

I definitely rate you high.

I wish you the best of luck, and I hope to hear from you soon for a discussion.

Best wishes,

Flavio

I think this essay is very interesting...

I'll have to read it a couple of times Phil, because you give me a lot to think about. I am reminded of, or informed by, a paper of Steven K. Kauffmann on "Getting path integrals physically and technically right," which argued for the less known Hamiltonian formulation of the sum over histories method.

This approach favors events over objects, while the conventional Lagrangian form assumes the kinematic nature of particles or other entities. One might consider that to be more physically-realistic, but the Hamiltonian form automatically incorporates uncertainty.

More later,

Jonathan

Thanks Phil,

I just finished reading yours for the first time, and I comment below. I just now got a preview too, of an upcoming entry from Brian Josephson (whom I met at FFP15), and I commented to him that with your entry being on "A Universe Made of Stories" his should fit right in. So yes; I think it will be an interesting field once the remaining essays have all posted.

All the Best,

Jonathan

The phenomenologists have tried to look at a wide range of supersymmetry models but they have to make assumptions to simplify the parameter space. Without knowing how supersymmetry would be spontaneously broken it is impossible to know the right way to proceed. Some experimental observation would resolve it.

If a particle has spin half, but zero baryon and lepton number it will be stable, because there are no light particles for it to decay into without violating baryon or lepton number conservation. That is what is meant by R-partiy conservation. A neutralino is just an example of such a particle. Supersymmetry was promising because it had the potential to solve a few different problems in one go, but all those problems could be solved in different ways so it does not have to be right at LHC energies.

Some symmetries at least are fundamental. I think this is the case for the gauge symmetries and for particle interchange, and if I am right there must be other hidden symmetries that are fundamental. Using symmetry as a "guiding principle in the search for unification theories" was the central theme of 20th century physics, from relativity to the standard model. I think that will continue but first we would need to find how the unknown symmetries operate. A lot of theorists now think that symmetries are all emergent and cannot help us further. I can't see how that can be right.

Phillip,

The difficulty comes in thinking that some new mathematics is just the 'discovery' of more of what we have, rather than considering a really different direction of mathematics.

What is needed is a boost, an expansion, of mathematics into areas not considered today, because we think we have already covered them. This direction could also prove very expansive for both mathematics and science - and might help us understand the entire onion, rather than individual layers.

Complex numbers are not proper values today. They are represented as two numeric parts added together with an unknown quantity (i = sqrt( -1)) that makes the full value un-usable as quantities for measurement (we toss out the 'imaginary' part and can only use the 'real' part as a measurement). This remains the case today even though complex numbers are used extensively in science.

Two things are needed to correct this situation: negative base numbers need to be properly defined and a numeric system devised (as in invented) that can represent a value for sqrt( -1) as well as represent any complex number as a single valued numeric value.

I understand this is a problem for current mathematics that has used complex numbers as 'plane numbers' for several centuries. However the simplification of many equations should be apparent, if complex numbers could be represented as single values.

Science has been built on the decimal numeric system (and its cousin positional numeric systems, eg. binary or hex 'numbers'). It has known no other system. The science of today could not operate using the Roman Numeral system. In an analogous way, I do not think science can properly go beyond its current knowledge stage without a more advanced numeric system.

I also think we will find that complex values can represent measurement values not currently allowable today (as these numbers will require additional functionality built into them than our current positional numeric systems have).

Take care,

Don

Hi Philip Gibbs

"Atoms are more fundamental than the laws of thermodynamics, but atomic physics in turn is derived from the interactions of more primitive components. Is fundamentality then a relative concept with no absolute bottom".......... very nice idea.... Dear Philip Gibbs... 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

Independent writers that worked in industry and that start researching after retirement have severe problems in publishing unorthodox and controversial documents otherwise than via vixra. It is an excellent service.I praise Philip Gibbs for providing that service. I have found another way to present my knowledge in a concise and flexible way that enables revision of the published text. I publish in a Wikiversity project. It is a perfect way to present a coherent piece of knowledge and it offers an excellent editor. The format is familiar for those that use Wikipedia. The project that I initiated is https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hilbert_Book_Model_Project. Highlights of the project are collected at http://vixra.org/author/j_a_j_van_leunen. I use a ReseachGate project to discuss the Hilbert Book Model Project. https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-Hilbert-Book-Model-Project This works fine.

In the approaches in this contest, I miss the efforts of Garrett Birkhoff and John von Neumann to establish a fundament that emerges into a suitable modeling platform. In their 1936 paper, they introduced a relational structure that they called quantum logic and that mathematicians call an orthomodular lattice. It automatically emerges into a separable Hilbert space, which also introduces a selected set of number systems into the modeling platform. Hilbert spaces can only cope with division rings and separable Hilbert spaces can store discrete values but no continuums. Each infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space owns a unique non-separable Hilbert space that embeds its separable partner. In this way, the structure and the functionality of the platform grow in a restricted way. After a few steps a very powerful and flexible modeling platform evolves. This model acts as a repository for dynamic geometric data that fit in quaternionic eigenvalues of dedicated operators. The non-separable part of the model can archive continuums that are defined by quaternionic functions.

In other words, the foundation that was discovered by Birkhoff and von Neumann delivers a base model that can offer the basement of well-founded theories and that puts restrictions on the dimensions which universe can claim.

Multiple Hilbert spaces can share the same underlying vector space and form a set of platforms that float on a background platform. On those platforms can live objects that hop around in a stochastic hopping path. This adds dynamics to the model.

The orthomodular lattice acts like a seed from which a certain kind of plant grows. Here the seed turns into the physical reality that we perceive.

Stochastic processes generate the hop landing locations and characteristic functions control these processes. These characteristic functions are the Fourier transform of the location density distribution of the hop landing location swarm that represents the elementary particle.

This delivers the holographic control of these elementary modules. Also, higher level modules are controlled by stochastic processes that own a characteristic function.

See: "Stochastic control of the universe"; http://vixra.org/abs/1712.0243 Indirectly via the characteristic functions the universe is controlled in a holographic way.

The Wikiversity Hilbert Book Model Project investigates this approach.

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hilbert_Book_Model_Project

http://vixra.org/author/j_a_j_van_leunen contains documents that treat some highlights of the project.

Hello Philip,

Well written essay.

I really like the way you interpreted the question and your essay is a unique essay among here.

I find some similarities between our essay; we both have not focused only on one topic but tend to discuss other topics as well, and the conclusion is also inspiring. I liked that you focused on symmetry which is also a mathematical term. I have also interpreted symmetry on my essay which focuses on mathematics and pattern being fundamental.

Kind Regards

Ajay Pokharel

Dear Fellow Essayists

This will be my final plea for fair treatment.,

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

Hello Gibbs,

A very well written essay. I enjoyed your essay a lot; though some parts were out of my qualification, I tend to understand your essay carefully.

Believe me or not, but both of our essays have the same way of literature. You choose one topic and defend whether it could be fundamental by providing facts and logic which is same as I do in my my essay.

In fact, some of our lines coincide; like this particular one:

"Philosophers of physics discuss the emergence of the universe from nothing, but what is nothing?" where you define nothing as everything, while I define it in terms of mathematics, as zero (0)

I liked this line which gives a sense of motivation "Particle physicists should not give up on the hierarchy problem in particle physics just because they think they have tried everything." I have also used a sense of inspiration at the end of my essay.

At last, you conclude that mathematics and physics are required to solve the problems and it is indeed true which is reflected in my essay as well.

Anyway, I enjoyed your essay and wish you a great luck in the competition.

Kind Regards

Ajay Pokharel

It just requires mathematicians and physicists to bring their knowledge together.

Dear Philip,

I've only just got round to reading your essay which Jonathan had recommended to me. We do have a similar philosophy, but you have gone into the maths a lot which I have not as yet. I have two comments. Firstly, when I was a post-doc at the Univ. of Illinois working with Kadanoff on critical phenomena, Kadanoff was just developing his recursive view of critical points, according to which behaviour at one level generated behaviour at a higher level, which would come to a limit in the manner you describe. Kadanoff's ideas led in due course to the renormalisation group.

Secondly, as regards the mathematical side, in the discussion of my own essay earlier today I posted the idea that we need to get used to the fact that at the deeper levels nature is biological and very messy, with quantitative maths rarely seen. But has since occurred to me that we need to look further and train ourselves to see it in Ilexa Yardley's terms, which I talked about a bit in my FFP15 lecture, which can be viewed at https://youtu.be/-Bv5vsZzX6Q. She speaks of a highly complex structure involving entities, systems and processes, perhaps hierarchical though she says it is wrong to view any hierarchy as linear. But anyway she sees all this structure as aspects of circle, itself viewed in a complicated way, but we can perhaps pick up particular aspects such as (a) the cycle (temporal aspect) and (b) rotation about an axis getting us back to the start (spatial aspect). It is also in some aspect the source of regularity in nature, possibly related to the fact that repetition, when it can happen, develops skills. Ilexa would argue that circle is the most fundamental aspect of mathematics, citing in effect how our concepts get more and more complex through the way systems develop. I think when one fully learns to see things the way she does this will make sense. If these comments don't make sense, think about elementary maths, e.g. set theory with its Venn diagrams made up our of circles, and then understanding sets of numbers by seeing unit things as sets.

Hi, Philip.

You describe the particle zoo like it would be the result of an observer situated in an old universe.... the only thing surviving would then be the information, or guidings... it is a very cool view. Maybe we can link it to the black hole and its informational paradox, and a way to see on information?

"If so, then the physics probed in particle colliders is barely more fundamental in kind than the workings of biology that evolved from the initial chemical accidents of abiogenesis." Yes, it is how I started to Think, or was FORCED to Think, rather, when comparing to biology.

I also started to look at general relativity like this. https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Relativity-Including-Relativistic-Non-Symmetric/dp/0691120277/ref=reader_auth_dp

A non-symmetric field? We are so used to look at the symmetry and see gravitation as 'the distorter' but can it be the other way? It is Worth pondering. Can then gravitation 'survive' from one epoch to Another, and carry the information with it?

Can a process be the fundamental thing, not particles? Processes are described by constants, couplings, interferences, liftings, in one Word - complexity, but that requires and open system, and asymmetry. See my essay.

It is an interesting journey to try to gain general relativity and quantum mechanics through analyzing BIOLOGY :) Sounds odd? Yes, it is strange, but well Worth the effort.

https://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/3093 my essay :)

Enjoying Reading this, thanks.

Ulla Mattfolk.