Hi Ray,
I don't know theory anywhere close to your level. That being said, I do have thoughts. I use mechanical ideas like energy in my own work. However, I think that all of the mechanical properties used in theoretical physics are not real. I think the effects that they are based upon are real. I just think that mechanical ideas are not representative of the true nature of the universe. So, I don't believe in a property of energy. I do accept complexity and think that it is far more extensive than what mechanical theory can represent.
I don't know whether or not there are other properties outside of our universe. I don't know if there is an outside of our universe. However, I am willing to go along with considering such possibilities. So long as they are mechanically interpreted, I have a problem with them. However, the subject is theoretical physics, so I follow along with discussions about the mechanical properties of the multiverse.
When I consider the multiverse, I see some of the same perplexing problems remaining. For example, I wonder what is the origin of the properties of life and intelligence in our universe. The number of universes can be increased without limit, but, for me the problem of the origin of the properties of intelligence and life remain. I do not go along with supposing that the solution to this problem exists in theoretical physics, but, is sort of buried in complexity whether here in our universe or in any number of universes.
I think that free will is fully a product of the potential that existed at the beginning of our universe. Perhaps this is too limiting and some potential for it exists outside of our universe. However, if free will, whether in this universe or as a property of a multiverse, is considered to result from uncertainty or probability theory, then I can't go along with that. I see human free will as a meaningful, orderly process. I do not see it being patched together by the chance joining together of otherwise disorganized pieces.
Everywhere I look I see control. Control reveals itself in both predictability and meaning. While I do not think that free will is inherently predictable or preset and, therefore, not free will, I see it and every other effect in this universe or even outside it as part of a fully controlled process. I think that we have free will because the universe was formed to give it to us. What I found interesting to consider and pursue was: How does this fully controlled universe, or perhaps multiverse, give us the property of free will? I now see it as a logical consequence of the combination of the properties given to us by means of the particles from which we are formed and the way in which we interact with the universe.
That is what I think. I recognize that you can support your ideas better than can I in terms of higher level theoretical physics. I read what you write and I try to follow it. For the reasons given above, I have a reluctance and uneasiness about many of the ideas put forward by today's theoretical physicists. Still, I appreciate learning what you and other qualified people think. I am on a learning curve, and, for better or for worse my learning curve bent in a very different direction from others.
James
