Dear Hippolyte,

1) Pigs can fly.

2) This statement is false.

Both of the above statements have something wrong with them. For statement 1, one would need knowledge of pigs to know that the statement is false. For statement 2, there is no need for external information; the knowledge of logic is all that is needed. If one did not know "logic" then how could the flaw with statement 2 and logic itself be explained? One would need to step outside of logic to explain the nature of logic. Languages as we know them (yes, even the communicates of animals) have logic, so we might not know a way to communicate with a being that did not possess logic. "Logic" seems to be hard-wired by evolution into our language center well before we became human because in evolution nothing so useful and complete language just appears.

Time is the problem with Quantum Theory. We live in the structure of time, so thinking outside of that structure is difficult. What if time was a function of entropy? The problem with entropy is that it is a collective state. A lone electron does not have a temperature or entropy state. We need an ensemble of atoms to define a state of entropy, which would define the "state" of time. Time ends up being the non-local of space-time. Going forward and back in time is possible and common at the quantum scale (I like to say "undefined" in space-time), but going "back" in macroscopic entropy is not possible. A positron could be considered an electron going backwards in time. A human-size time machine has entropy and must interact with the rest of the Universe to lower its entropy. Thermal dynamics is not reversible, while Quantum mechanics is fully reversible. An electron could kill its grandfather in childhood, but your grandfather is safe from that fate.

Sincerely,

Jeff Schmitz

    Dear Hippolyte,

    This is by far the best essay I read until now. It is highly illuminating, it is possible to understand it without a deep dig into literature first and one learns why becoming meta-observer is not a good thing:). 10/10.

      Hippolyte -

      A brilliant essay - and I'd like to thank Irek for pointing it out.

      You've done a masterful job at building the theoretical case for what is intuitively obvious (at least since Godel) - that the world is fundamentally "liar-like" and therefore fraught with undecidables.

      Although my essay lacks the rigor of yours, we are saying the same thing. Undecidability is a feature, not a bug, of physical and mathematical reality. I argue we can also extend this to the mind, and from an examination of the features of autonoetic consciousness (the mind looking at itself looking at itself) build a robust approach to understanding reality.

      So far your's is the best essay I have read.

      -George Gantz: The Door That Has No Key: https://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/3494

        Dear Jeffrey,

        Indeed logic seems to be at the core of ability to communicate. However, what kind of logic ? To us, humans, it seems that our language and concepts, build on how we experience our interaction with the world, is based on some "classical logic". So should we revise our classical logic in order to adapt it to quantum phenomena ? In my opinion, it is not necessary.

        Do we live inside the structure of time, or does time emerges because we are not "meta-universal object" but in fact we are part of the Universe, and try to describe it from inside ? Your reflexion on "undefined space-time and entropy" is quite interesting ! But if "time ends up being the non-local of space-time", isn't there a self-referential issue here ?

        All the best,

        Hippolyte

        Dear George,

        Thank you for your comment.

        In fact, Hofstadter already pointed out that consciousness might also emerge from these "strange loops". You could look at the Cartesian definition of the cogito : "Cogito ergo sum". Every time I think, I am conscious about the fact that I am thinking, and so that I am a "thinking being". The definition of our own "being" seems to be intricated with self-consciousness, i.e. a form of self-referential thinking. However, since consciousness seems not to be very well defined in physics, I prefer to remain sceptical and be careful towards linking, maybe too hastily, consciousness, time or reality. Nevertheless, I would agree with you that, very interestingly, they seem to share some common logical structure.

        All the best,

        Hippolyte

        Hippolyte,

        One of the best wrestling matches against quantum theory I've seen! Excellent stuff. And of course I agree the conclusive question; "..quantum theory is more paradoxical than other physical theories. But is Nature itself paradoxical?"

        However might there be a different possible starting assumption and mechanistic physical measurement sequence producing the data? Shockingly I suggest there might. Neils Bohr carefully made NO assumptions about pair morphology, but if we assume simple Poincare sphere vector distributions, and the same for polariser electrons, we have TWO distribution; polar curl and equatorial linear, going inversely to 0 over 90 degrees. Whats more, the change rates are Cos Theta Latitude (of the absorption interaction tangent point).

        We now only need 'entanglement' as matching axis orientation angle, and vector addition in 3D, we can produce Malus' Law at the 2nd (photomultiplier) interaction, and NOT require non-locality! (think of it as changed ellipticity of re-emission, only the major axis triggering ONE channel, or 50:50 if circular polarity. I identify John Bell anticipated such a solution (touched on in this years essay but given in more detail last year). It was independently verified to violate bells inequalities by Trails computer code and plot.

        Few seem able to follow this (DFM) process. I hope you can. Do question it.

        But well done for your essay and good understanding of QM.

        Very Best

        Peter

        Hippolyte,

        There is no major self-referential issue because time is a function of (in reference to) entropy. The observer effecting the observed state of a particle is a self-reference issue which is dealt with in Quantum Mechanics. Having time as a function of entropy ends up looking just like Quantum Mechanics (although harder to work with) with a non-local time instead of non-local space.

        The self-consistent system of communication needs something outside of that system to define that system. "Logic" is one of the building blocks. We think of logic as being created by humans in the past few centuries, but training an animal requires the "if then" of a reward. Sometimes you can watch an animal solve a problem. This is primordial logic.

        All the best,

        Jeff

        P.S. I know the contest is over, but, if possible, I would still like your opinion on my essay. Thank you.

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