This comment was posted on Florin's "Clothes for the Standard Model Beggar":
John Merryman-- as you know, the Galilean transformation is perfectly correct mathematics, in which any two velocities can be added to produce the resultant velocity. What is missing is the physical concept of a 'maximum velocity', the speed of light. In similar fashion, it is not today's math that is incorrect, but the underlying physical concepts are incorrect.
For example, Florin begins with the statement that "the geometric-algebraic duality is at the core of understanding quantum mechanics, the Standard Model, and even this years FQXi essay question." I do not believe this to be true. As stated in my essay, "Steiglitz has shown the equivalence of time-invariant realizable analog filters and digital filters, so the theory of processing analog signals and the theory of processing digital signals are equivalent. Thus analog or digital reality questions can't be answered mathematically-- the answer must be found in a physical universe." Unless I have missed something above, Florin does not deal with physical reality, focusing only on math. This seems to lead to very dogmatic statements about physics.
Duality is a tricky subject. One might even claim that the entire purpose of Zen Buddhism is to get beyond dualism, which, as Florin implies, may have its root in left-right brain structure.
The source of dualism in physics is not Connes geometry-algebra, but Bohr's "complementarity principle" which is the basis of the Copenhagen interpretation, and refers to effects such as wave/particle duality, the root problem of quantum mechanics. Einstein claimed that "In a complete theory there is an element corresponding to each element of reality." But the deBroglie-Bohm theory of physics posits a 'particle plus pilot wave', which is TWO elements of reality, while quantum mechanics offers only ONE element of reality, the 'wave function' which corresponds only to the 'pilot wave'. The wave-function does NOT correspond to the particle. Instead a 'superposition' of wave functions uses Fourier mathematics to 'construct' a particle, but as John Bell points out, the problem is that this wave-packet 'disperses', and only the extremely ugly GRW 'stochastic collapse' currently 'solves' this problem [a true 'patch' in John's sense of the word].
Einstein reminded us that "Maxwell's equations are laws representing the *structure* of the field." In this sense Maxwell's generalization of these laws to include gravito-magnetism enlarges the set of possible field structures. These field equations can, in a Yang-Mills, Calabi-Yau-compatible sense, incorporate stable particles, something that superposition of linear fields can never manage to do. Maxwell's gravito-magnetic C-field based upon electromagnetic equations plus symmetry, and General Relativity's production of the same equations in the 'weak field approximation' has not been sufficiently appreciated. Only recently has Ronald Adler examined "Gravito-magnetism in Quantum Mechanics". Other than this first attempt, QM does not take the C-field into account.
Therefore, if, as John Bell preferred, reality is best described by Bohm's 'particle plus wave' rather than as Bohr's 'particle/wave', then the quantum mechanics wave function corresponds only to the 'wave' element of reality and quantum mechanics is incomplete. In this case ALL of its problems are rooted in the 'superposition' approach to particles. The C-field offers a 'particle' structure that corresponds to an element of reality that has no correspondence in quantum mechanics. Even the need for a Higgs field is based upon the fact that 'superpositions of wave functions' cannot produce or explain mass. And the ideas of 'collapse of the wave function' lead to more confusion, up to and including the 'non-local, non-real' ideas associated with so-called 'violation of Bell's inequality'.
Edwin Eugene Klingman