Glad I got to read your effort Jim...

Much dive bombing it seems.

Jonathan

Dear Jonathan,

Interesting essay. I like the analysis of the limitations imposed to our knowledge. I enjoyed your discussion of the Mandelbrot fractal, and the interesting discussion around the Misiurewicz point. You have an interesting visual style of approaching nature, and use it to make analogies and connections between various domains in interesting ways. Good luck in the contest!

Cheers,

Cristi

    Thanks greatly Cristi...

    I appreciate the kind comments and the boost.

    Warm regards,

    Jonathan

    For what it is worth...

    I am not the person who has been low-balling you. If I have left a comment with praise you got a good score, and if I left comments with moderate criticism, you got a decent score from me. I gave out no ratings below 5 and I gave my very first rating of 10, this year.

    I gave out more than a few 9s, and a lot of 6, 7, or 8 ratings, this year. But I do not believe in punitive or retaliatory scoring. I use a points system based on a checklist of my own design. I reward for quality and proper rigor. Confusing or confused essays get a lower score.

    If you need to retaliate, or find a scapegoat, please look elsewhere for your detractors. I have been getting hit by people giving me low ratings and making no comments. Please don't imagine that I would treat others that way.

    Regards,

    Jonathan

    Thanks to all!

    I appreciate the positive attention from my supportive readers and visitors, and the unspoken criticism of my detractors is also noted. In a contest about the presence of uncertainty or unknowability in the universe; I guess some measure of that in the identity of those who choose to hit and run is warranted.

    I hope everyone who came to my essay got something of value. I'm sorry that, with the death of my Dad in the middle of the contest, I did not have more time to read and comment on other essays. The Covid-19 pandemic took a toll on me personally. I hope that it has spared and will spare most of you.

    Warm Regards,

    Jonathan

      Thanks greatly Rick,

      I look forward to plumbing the depths.

      Best,

      Jonathan

      I want to again thank everyone...

      I am pleased that people appreciated my work enough to put me at the low end of the high-ranked papers. It is a privilege to be able to share my ideas on this forum with like-minded people. The fact that FQXi participants tend to be open-minded is a bonus. But I hope my quality of work warranted your positive attention, that it provided ample food for thought, and that it will continue to appreciate in value thereby.

      All the Best,

      Jonathan

        I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. I hope you're relatively well.

        - Shawn

        You deserve a high rating; your essay is robust for being so short.

        - Shawn

        Thanks Shawn,

        I try to squeeze a lot in, pare down the slop, add in a few more details... until there is no more time or space to allot. What good is having a wealth of knowledge if you can't share it? A lot of what I write about is elementary or basic-level stuff on advanced topics, that has been ignored or misrepresented.

        If people re-visit some of the things they know, or think they know, from a new angle - something different pops out. I guess I am hoping that if enough true scholars read my work, its value will be obvious, and they will wonder why it has been ignored instead of why a crazy idea is being embraced.

        It's pretty radical. But the recent work of Giulio Tiozzo and others conclusively proves there is an enormous potential untapped.

        All the Best,

        Jonathan

        I miss him every day...

        And I keep wondering if there was something more I could/should have done, or been more cautious with my Dad. It all happened so fast. At the point he was infected; they had just figured out it was human to human transmissible but figured the outbreak was unlikely to spread beyond the far East.

        I am healthy and well. Probably got it myself and had a complete recovery back in January. Nobody suspected that it had spread all over Europe by then, and my partner sings in a group where someone had just returned from Italy with a cough, but thought she was over the flu.

        So while they were debating whether it could spread, people played beer pong in Ishgl (in Tyrolia in the Austrian Alps), and a bunch of rich people who thought they were immortal spread it all over the continent. So much for containment to the far East. One heck of a wild ride.

        All the Best,

        Jonathan

        Yeah, there was a cricket game at the local park the other day. I hope none of them were infected.

        - Shawn

        17 days later

        Due to frustration with others unable to follow my perspectives about space gravity etc, I have taken your advice and e-mailed to Carlo Rovelli with a new 'problem of Doppler' paper that you might find interesting.

        I could send it to you if I had your e-mail . mine is pshrodr8@aol.com