Things, Laws, and the Human Mind by Tejinder Pal Singh

If the Universe has been created by an unknown, the logic of creation shows extremely high level of Intelligence/ We scientists have yet to add even an iota to this marvellous creation. We only are trying to explain a few things for which we seem to have 'discovered' some patterns tha fit the laws governing such processes. Consciousness for humans is a mere human consciousness. Note that the adjective used here is 'human'. It can't be limited to we humans. As i pointed out. Indian Wisdom as contained in our scriptures called Vedas and Upanishads. indicate a far deeper understanding and comprehension. Thus, your reference to Alex Hanesky's essay does not appear to justify the correctness of your stand. I respect your stand but sorry to find any rebuttal of the line of thinkng i have taken. Yoga and meditation techniques are found to be outstanding the world over and these are the products of the search for our Trueself done by such men of wisdom in ancient times that we can not ignore if we have succeeded in understanding the Cosmos to a poor strength of just a few percentage!

Tejinder,

Sorry about that. You give a very dense and logical description of the relationship between "things" and laws. I think there are a few issues which might frame this relationship from a different perspective.

Because our thoughta are flashes of perception, we think of time as a narrative dimension, with events strung along it, separated by intervals of duration, thus assume duration is this underlaying dimension.

The reality though is that instead of the present "moving" from past to future, it is change turning future to past, as in tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth turns. So duration is simply the state of the present, as events coalesce and dissolve.

Reality might be considered a dichotomy of energy and form. Energy manifests form and form defines energy.

Since energy is dynamic and conserved, it is always and only present, but changing form. So energy goes past to future, while form goes future to past. Pushing against and feeding back on each other.

As biological organisms, we evolved a central nervous system to process form/information and the digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems to process energy.

Think in terms of a factory; The product goes start to finish, being in the future, to being in the past, while the production line points the other way, consuming material and expelling product, onto the future, shedding the past. Life is similar. Individuals go birth to death, being in the future to being in the past, while the species goes the other direction, shedding old generations and moving onto new ones.

So to my point about thought and consciousness, as consciousness goes past to future thoughts, while thoughts, these forms our consciousness take, go future to past.

Which gets around to things and laws as top down framing devices, of this bottom up dynamic that produces them. In the void, there is no structure and so no laws needed to define it, but as soon as there is that original fluctuation of energy, then properties like waves, frequencies, amplitudes, limits, interaction, etc all start to rise and create definitions to the energy.

Since our minds are designed to extract information, we are constantly following the trail created through this dynamical process, thinking there must be some final end, goal, nirvana, etc. but when we think we found an end or goal, it just turns out to be a cresting wave and we get caught up in the undertow.

This is because our minds are reductionist, but nature is thermodynamic.

Think in terms of a galaxy; Energy is radiating out, as mass falls in and it is one big cosmic convection cycle.

Society is the same way. We have essential social and biological energies pushing out and upward, as the civiil and cultural forms push back down, giving it structure and form. Like youth pushing out, until it crests, then age pushing down, giving signal to the noise. Then it cracks open and repeats.

Dear Tejinder,

Very well written article. I browsed it through and will soon give it a thorough reading (mu apologies ...struggling with my other time-bound deadlines). One thought...If we look at the world from the idea of holograms of space and time, which may vary with any change in the reference frame. So, everything that manifests is simply an illusion - might be a temporary reality for one but illusion for all others. I wonder if the same applies to the so called "consciousness". We may be wrongly describing "consciousness" by the notion of "absoluteness". "Absoluteness" may be a weaker notion and may not be apt to comprehend "consciousness". What are your thoughts on this?

Kind regards,

Anil

Dear Tejinder Singh,

If there was no logic and no causaltity in the things then were we lost in blind belief and mysticism. However, Cantor was not quite wrong when he declared the essence of mathematics to be its freedom.

I fundamentally disagree with your opinion that laws and things (map and territory) "become more and more like each other, until deepest down, they become one and the same".

My last boss blamed a paper of mine for being too fundamental. Why? He got aware that there is a problem that evades solution with approximation and mathematics because it depends on a strict philosophical alternative between Parmenides and Heraclitos: Is an evolving system system shift-invariant at all? Are you really the same thing at all ages?

My answer is yes in case of models but no in case of reality. To me, there is just one fix point in nature - the current border between the past and the future. Any counterargument?

Nonetheless, I admire your essay which deserves getting rated appropriately.

Kind regards,

Eckard Blumschein

Dear Tejinder,

It doesn't often happen that experts agree with me on that the current border between past and future is the only fixed point, because their view is based on Hilbert's, Einstein's, and other's block universe.

When Einstein denied the objective differences between past, present, and future, I see him definitely at least incorrect in so far, as the present "state" is no state at all because it has in contrast to past and future no extension. Therefore "living at this border" refers to something fuzzy like "today" that may include a part of the past and a part of the future.

If you have time enough, you might sooner or later read my 9th essay and find some hurting arguments that are too fundamental to mathematics and physics as to be easily swallowed.

Best regards,

Eckard

Tejinder,

Thanks for your very original and interesting thoughts and ideas. It may have been better in last years contest but was valid none the less. I do also appreciate your excellent clear writing style standing out from others far harder to read.

I'd like to discuss views on areas ours have in common, the electron, EPR & QM. I have to disagree with an electron BEING it's algorithmic description even if non-commutative, but don't think you were serious. ...Were you?

To explain my view clearly it's best to read my, possibly shocking, essay, deriving a wholly classical set of QM predictions including (EPR) local reality from x,y,z axis electron momenta taken from simple spinning spheres (as momentum exchange on absorption & requantization). including a simple experimental proof. I hope those with adequate knowledge can find flaws, but so far none (mostly stony silence from shock!)

Please also read Declan Trails short essay giving the matching code and cos2 graph plot with CHSH>2 violation with no detection loophole.(steering inequality >1). I hope you feel that may answer the questions and concerns you posed. Or let me know where you think there remain doubts.

You last line question might then be a resounding NO! But let me know if you reach the same conclusion - if not too shocked!

Many thanks, for your essay and anticipated responses.

Very best

Peter

I have composed and published some writings of mine on topics like. viz. Science Interface with Spirituality, Inconstancy of the Physical Constants, Cosmology and Particle Physics, a relative study.... I find a study of thoughts interesting. It does not have a continuous train, there are short and longer gaps.It is during such gaps that our mind comes into full play and it is able to interact with cosmos in a better way. Here i give a personal quote from Einstein, which was published in a book by Professor D.S. Kothari. Einstein has said that what are called my top discoveries have not come out of my intellectual thoughts. These have come from some empty moments in the thought processes and thus these came from external sources to my usual thinking. That is i have not thought about these!

I give a liitle more of the Eictein quote. In fact, ladies at Princeton were keen to meet the genuis Einstein. Einstein knew what they were going to seek the background behind discoveries associated with him. Only he knew the truth. He had problems in his mind and his own thoughts/ thinking processes were busy deciphering them. He was not thinking about photoelectric effect or relativity as such. It is then that happened which have already been expressed above, as he directed his house maid not to permit entry to these ladies, as he had nothing to clear their curiousity!

Dear Tejinder,

I enjoyed reading your essay; it was well written and interesting. I was concerned when you start to address the subject of consciousness. I really like your search for consistency between things and laws.

Kind regards, Christophe

Christophe and Tejinder, please excuse my interjection here. I find that ' Consciousness ' is being brought in to our discussions on a scientific topic on ABSOLUTENESS! The reason is 'what is behind our thoughts/ thinking processes. It is considered a domain of psychologists/ neurologists, oculogists who are all linked with the field of medicine. They are basics with biology and many of them are not upto the mark or even 'afraid ' of the rigours of physical sciences/ Maths, etc.Thus there is problem with understanding and apprehension of grasping the subject matter fully. On the other hand, we mostly understand that awareness is tied to consciousness. That is considered linked to our body. But we forget the universalness of Consciousness. It exists without matter, mass, space and time too! To me it is present even before our Universe was born or for that matter any of the other verses we talk about in cosmology.Kindly do go through my brief essay on 2/3 pages, where i indicate my views without providing any references. But my background is extensive in this area. To just quote my personal experiences. In India when we retire, we are are considered out of active professional life. This frustrated me in 1993 and there after as i was confined to home and close friends. I happen to seek my friends from industry as i was an experimental scientist to the core if i may say so! We did lot of development work before we used the equipment set up for researchstudies. At that time we felt satisfied with our publications! But when i toured the industrial establishments i made my friend sit in Managerial office. I then toured and talked about each part of final product from the basic material stage. It may surprise many of you hare that it was the way i got ideas for filing my half a dozen patents as these were mere corrolaries to the development studies i got involved during the active research period! But development work remained hidden from public and even my colleague friends outside our group!