Essay Abstract

This paper suggests that our observations are leading us in the wrong direction. For over 2000 years we observed the sun going around the earth and assumed that was the science of the day. Discovery of the molecule happened about 100 years ago. How much time will pass before we understand what goes around in it? This paper takes issue with our mathematical capabilities and our ability to predict and make decisions. The initial contest challenge is interpreted as a question between determinism and self determinism. The answer to this question is presented as a yes and a no.

Author Bio

Al Schneider received a B. S. in Physics from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 1969. Professionally, Al produced software for embedded systems from pacemakers to airplane guidance systems. A life long endeavor has been the study of QM including the publication of two books on the subject: Quantum Mechanics A-Z without the BS and New Age Quantum Physics.

Download Essay PDF File

A different essay than I expected from the title. I agree that we can be mislead by mathematics. There is the problem of the maths tail wagging the physics dog. Short but some good insight. Regards Georgina

10 days later

John

Your article is very interesting, since you define an important question. However, I think that you should put more work in your answer.

With best regards from ____________________ John-Erik

    John-Erik

    Thanks for the comment.

    My primary goal was to stick to the topic as best I could. I also attempted to make it entertaining and clear to a casual reader as requested by the moderators. And I struggled to keep my opinions of universal structure away from the dear reader. To console myself I put a post of those ideas in the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread.

    So with all that in mind perhaps I did not devote enough to the answer.

    5 days later

    Al,

    I have done some modeling in my day in the area of logistics for the B1 bomber. I can follow your thinking. I share your ideas for undecidability and unpredictability, believing that all mysteries can be solved eventually but many in our lifetime. The uncomputability part is mainly due to human failures to understand, too many variables, and the belief than any mystery can be solved with a super algorithym. Quantum computers can be a solution, intercultural cooperation, and enhanced cognition.

    Jim Hoover

    Jim Hoover

    Started reading your article. Does being a programmer bring a sense of reality? There your thoughts are directly transferred to action in the real world. As I read your words I think, "Every answer spawns a myriad of questions. I have two interests that I think give me an edge on understanding reality. I have been a programmer most of my life and I am a leading member of the world magic community. I am known as a writer, teacher, and creator. I am accustomed at observing two sides of the same thing. In computers One side is the magic the user sees. The other side is the massive number of if,than, and else statements. In magic the sides are the illusion the spectator sees and the device causing the illusion. I see QM in a similar way. There is the illusion and the real mechanics. Most seem to be enamored with the illusion.

    23 days later

    Thanks for a brief but power punched essay. You have put your finger on the malaise. But the patient should be willing to take your treatment.

    Language is the transposition of one's/a system's thought/command in another person/system's mind/CPU. Mathematics does that for quantitative aspects of Nature. Hence, mathematics is a language of Nature. But it describes the quantitative aspect only - not all aspects. Like any language, it has its own grammar. It deals with numbers, which are scalar quantities. They return the same result under all substances. Hence undecidability is false.

    Uncertainty is inherent in Nature due to our inability to know ALL factors affecting the outcome of any operation. This does not invalidate causality. Hence, given total input, the output is predictable and unpredictability is false.

    But uncomputability stand on a different footing altogether.

    One day I wanted tea. I prepared tea and used a strainer to separate leaves from the liquid. The other day, I prepared coffee using coffee powder, but again using the strainer. Nothing was left on the strainer. My friend, who was observing it, said, tea behaves like classical objects, but coffee is like quantum. If you apply this logic, then uncomputability is true. But is this logic itself valid? No. The essence of tea or coffee lies in its effect as a stimulant. Straining is linked to its physical volume and dissolvability. They describe independent aspects not linked to each other. Hence, uncomputability is a function of wrong or incomplete selection of parameters. Paradoxes arise only because of such wrong or incomplete selection of parameters.

    As you say: "When a man processes data, the data is known and the logic of the man is known. With this information, a calculation (applying mathematics correctly) can be performed that would predict any decision the man might make". But if the data itself is incomplete or insufficient, the outcome will be GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out. You have rightly pointed out the malaise: "The theory here is that such a machine to do such a calculation cannot exist". When you choose reductionism and then extend the description of a part to describe the whole, you are sure to be misled.

    Your statement: "From the perspective of the man" is important. That perspective is not the universal perspective. We have limited degrees of freedom, but that is within a broad domain of universal programming. Everything in the universe follows a pattern. If we use our little degree of freedom to create ripples in it, it will not last long. Only in the interim, we will be confused thinking it is uncomputable, forgetting that it is we, who have violated the natural sequence to create a temporary ripple.

    We have violated these principles to land in uncomputability. This is what I have brought out in my paper.

      basudeba mishra

      Me thinks you miss my point.

      There is one computer up to the task.

      It is called cosmos.

      However I must review your thought.

      And I will take a look at your paper.

      Al

      a month later

      Hi Al, Thanks for the expose. a good work, the abstract was very appealing. oh How I wish it'd be a longer essay.it would outline all conflicts of Human bias in science vividly.i have proposed a simple essay here -https://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/3525 that you may read/rate on some foundational instances that are non trivial in science. kindly pass by that. all comments welcome. best of luck.Thanks.

      9 days later

      Dear Al Schneider

      I agree:

      There are no paradoxes in reality.

      I think the following is incorrect:

      There are paradoxes in logic and mathematics. Generally, mathematics is an approximation of reality. Reality is quantized, mathematics is not.

      All this is due to the lack of understanding of mathematics by physicists.

      Regards,

      Branko

      • [deleted]

      Branko

      There was a king that laid 10000 square feet of sod behind the castle. It looked so good he wanted rose bushes around the area. He asked the gardener to plant roses. The gardener asked the royal mathematician how many roses would be needed given the area was 10000 square feet. The mathematician made out an order slip for the gardener. It requested 400 rose bushes and 400 taycheon rose bushes.

      Hi Al,

      I take the opposite view to you on determinism and free will, but I do agree with the general premise that the entire cosmos is the only satisfactory computer, as LaPlaces Demon isnt available to us, and that everything we do to measure and create ontologies is just approximation.

      Regards

      Lockie Cresswell

      5 days later

      Dear Al Schneider,

      I greatly appreciated your work and discussion. I am very glad that you are not thinking in abstract patterns.

      While the discussion lasted, I wrote an article: "Practical guidance on calculating resonant frequencies at four levels of diagnosis and inactivation of COVID-19 coronavirus", due to the high relevance of this topic. The work is based on the practical solution of problems in quantum mechanics, presented in the essay FQXi 2019-2020 "Universal quantum laws of the universe to solve the problems of unsolvability, computability and unpredictability".

      I hope that my modest results of work will provide you with information for thought.

      Warm Regards, `

      Vladimir