What Is Reality In the Context of Physics? by Georgina Parry

Dear Georgina

I agree with you.We should all agree in our notions, then later we can discuss whether something is real or not.

Kind Regards

Tommy,

I should have said thank you very much indeed. I am so glad you enjoyed the essay. I have never heard myself likened to an excellent natural philosopher before, so I am feeling flattered. :) Thats me smiling.

Georgina

Looks like we're on a bit of a joint charge in the community rankings! I've also just encouraged someone to give you a public vote as that was languishing way too low! I don't think we can be browbeaten in the Time Travel blog, only ignored!

Very best of luck

Peter

Hi Peter,

I haven't forgotten you or your essay. I was reading it again yesterday.I was making a list of what I like about it, which is a lot. I am very familiar with my own ideas and explanations but need to get my head into your way of thinking. My poor head is suffering from reading too many essays in a short space of time and not enough sleep.I will post positive feedback on your thread soon and give a good vote before the deadline. Thats not being tactical but unsure and indecisive.

I didn't really want to get distracted by the time travel blog but couldn't resist trying once more to be convincing. It never gets anywhere. After the contest maybe I will just concentrate on predictions and experiments.I've spent too long saying the same things to no avail and I've said enough.

The public voting has been rather erratic from a low of 3 to a high of 10. Thank you for helping to get it moving it in the right direction. Though I really hope we both make it to the final, I think the community voting might get a little mad towards the deadline and anything could happen.

The very best of luck to you too. Georgina.

The public votes have been 8, 4, 3, 10 and 6. Which firstly makes me think not many members of the public bother to read the essays let alone vote. Then secondly they either really like or dislike my attempt. Though I don't actually know if they have read it. I don't see how someone who has read it could mark it a 3 when I have fulfilled the competition criteria.

It is relevant, it is foundational, it is groundbreaking, it is accessible to a well educated but non specialist audience as requested, it is clearly written, it does not assume knowledge of PhD level physics or a mathematics degree, where analogy is used it is done sparingly and with clear purpose, it is rigorously argued and addresses the competition question. I haven't just written about my favorite topic but have followed a line of reasoning that is relevant to the question, pushing forward understanding in a fresh way with fresh perspective as requested. Leaving out other interesting things that would be less relevant.

The competition question asks "is reality digital or analogue" so my essay starts by looking at what reality is, which is something that has to be done. Otherwise different people may be working with different incompatible notions of reality. The essay ends by addressing the second part of the question. It looks at a number of relevant issues when it comes to determining if the different facets of reality, discussed in the essay, are digital or analogue.

ion. That has to be worth a decent mark.

Georgina

We can't complain about human failings, but we can help people to overcome them!

I was secretly really pleased about your essay as I was cramming in too much logic and evidence already to mine and really hoping I could rely on you to cover the key difference between perceived and concrete reality. You did better than I'd ever hoped, well done. It's all about 'observer frames' Only one is relevant to physics, there could be 100 other observers flying about all over the place and they'd all measure different things. It's unbelievable that physics so often forgets that, normally in blindly applying mathematical abstraction.

You may have seen my last post on the 'time' blog. I've mounted my white charger and honed the sword in support of John, and looking for bony fingers to chop off. We mustn't back off but must keep speaking the truth with confidence. My motto is "I have the strength of 10 men as I am pure in heart" I try not to be bombastic, but blinkers need ripping off sometimes. Do let me know if you think I'm getting OTT. (Email atop my essay m'lady). Your own calm quiet style is wonderfully complimentary to that. Never give up!

Best of luck

Peter

Peter,

I hope you saw my reply to you and not just my moan about the public voting.

I really am glad that you liked my essay.Your encouragement is appreciated.

I guess its good that you are so enthusiastic.I am also passionate about this topic but I don't really see it as a battle of truth against lies but trying to find the very best explanation, which is probably still inadequate.

Its like chipping away until the argument can no longer be refuted and so has been expressed in a fully acceptable manner. I keep thinking that if I can say it in the right way then - eventually other people will agree. The blog forum disagreements or reluctance to accept what is said as valid is actually useful because it highlights where gaps in the argument need filling or expressing differently or I need to reconsider the ideas. I don't really want to antagonize those that disagree with me because they may come around to my way of thinking and even if not I would like to still be on speaking terms. It is a pity that those who have given me a low public vote have not commented on why they think that is all it deserves.

I am addressing the experimental question. It seems clear that although observed objects do not have absolute positions in space time, their position depending on observer perspective, they must have (scale dependent) super relative positions in space otherwise air traffic control would not be able to tell where the different aircraft are and they would be smashing into each other. They are not where they are seen by any one observer, (as the observers see images as they were at different times), but they are where they are at uni-temporal, objective Now.

I want to be fair and give other people the same consideration that I would like for my essay but it is impossible to read them all and impossible for me to fully grasp what is said in many of them. Not quitting yet but tired from reading too many ideas in such a short space of time, trying to make sense of it all. Too much coffee and not enough sleep.

Best of luck to you, Georgina.

Dear Readers,

There are three kinds of the essays in our contest: 1) the essays with original physics research where all physics' information was created by their authors. Often such essays seem to have errors because they often contradict orthodox theory. 2) There are essays-stories about physics which contain generally known physics' information copied from the textbooks or papers and author's commentaries (for example Jarmo Makela, Ian Durham, and so on). Such essays have ARTISTIC VALUE only but not scientific value; usually these essays-stories do not have any errors by definition because all physics' information was copied from the textbooks and other published papers. 3) There are essays of mixed type containing mixed information. It is clear that the authors of the essays-stories have advantages because their essays rarely contain errors since all Physics' information was copied from the textbooks.

What kind of the essay must FQXi community support? If we support the essays-stories, we'll transform FQXi into the entertainment community. For example, instead of my ''interpretation of quantum mechanics'' I could send the jokes about Bohr, Einstein or stories like Gamov's ''Mr. Tompkins in paperback''. It would be very interesting and fun. Another option is to create artistic essays-discussions with Einstein, Bohr, or Aristotle following the example of Jarmo Makela. In this context, the next logical step is to organize a banquet for the authors of essays where we tell jokes and funny stories about physics. What is our purpose?

Since the goals of the FQXi (the "Contest") are to: ''Encourage and support rigorous, innovative, and influential thinking about foundational questions in physics and cosmology; Identify and reward top thinkers in foundational questions'', therefore I ask readers to vote for essays with original research rather than for essays-stories. In this way we'll encourage the fundamental physics research but not entertainment essays.

Sincerely,

Constantin

Constantine, that's a very brave thing to have said and which has a distinct ring of truth about it. I can't help but agree with your sentiments and rather heartily at that. Best wishes, Alan

Dear Georgina,

I wish to ask you a rather off-beat question, but it may help you somehow:

Q: Is there a bird species which only has the female migrating south for the winter, which leaves the male able to occupy and defend the best nesting site ready for the female and young the following summer?

Is this not a potentially rewarding strategy which an avian species seems to have yet discovered?

Best wishes, Alan

Dear Constanin,

You are correct. Under the 2/3 marks for interest it says that an original and creative essay is one that pushes forward understanding in a fresh way with new perspective.As it does also have to be technically correct and rigorously argued it is not just pulling those ideas out of thin air and throwing them together. As you have pointed out not all of the well written, accessible and technically correct essays are doing that.

The voting system is imperfect as there is no guarantee of consistency in how the essays are ranked by different voters and no one voter can thoroughly read and vote on all of them. However it is really good that the essays are available for everyone to read comment and vote on, rather than it being entirely conducted behind closed doors. We will at least know what the judges have to consider.I understand from Florin's comments in the blog forum that the community voting score is not visible to prevent some of the worst tactical voting that has occurred in previous competitions. It will be really interesting to see what the community has voted as the top essays when community voting closes. Potentially useful information for future competitions.

I gratefully take your post as support for my essay. Thank you very much.

Good luck, Georgina.

(This comment is respectfully offered in response to several previous posts)

An off-beat answer and question in the same thread:

Some species of penguins go north.

When walking above the huge, 2200 acre single living fungus in Oregon, is it possible to have some unknown energy between the fungus and human interact or occupy some of the same space? (I think so, and why not on a much grander, (universal) scale?)

A perspicatious view might offer a quicker and/or complementary resolution of a problem than a single focused direction. I'm glad variety is accepted into this contest. Thank-you FQXi.

Joseph Markell

Hi Alan,

I will keep it for future reference and if it proves useful I will have you to thank!! Lots to think about at the moment including your Archimedes screw, so I won't get sidetracked by puzzling over how it could be helpful right now.

Hi Joseph,

I agree the variety of entries is really good. Not just variety in how the competition question has been addressed but also the variety of style in which it has been done. However it has been done though, it ought to fulfill the competition criteria to score highly.It is good that FQXi has been so inclusive.

Yes there are two different ways of looking at a problem, breaking it down,and dealing with individual parts or looking at the big picture, how things are related and then dealing with what you have. Both can be successful. Perhaps in physics it is the relationships that have been somewhat overlooked in favour of the parts.

The fungus kingdom is a very weird collection of life forms. I haven't personally experienced an "unknown energy" between myself an a fungus but know that some have mind altering abilities. Have you come across this really bizarre one?

Georgina.

I think I may have been incorrect about the individual public votes. I hadn't been keeping track of the score but tried to work out what it must have been from memory. Thinking some more it might have gone 8,4 1, 9... instead. Which is actually worse!!! The actual numbers don't really matter it is still erratic voting that counts for nothing in the end. So if a member of the public wants to make a valid point about the quality of the essay why haven't they commented?

Why not leave a comment?

Fancy you should mention penguins Joseph. I was pleasantly mystified by your post and can't help but think that you've been influence by the Oregon vortex perhaps?! As to my quandry with migrating birds, I have a hunch that a species would have developed this strategy on the continent of Antarctica during it's course of drifting over the south pole. It would be worth migrating the 6000km fom one side of the landmass to the other when the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

Georgina: thanks for the link. Excellent new site for me to explore!

Dear Georgina:

Yours is one of the few essays I will take the time to seriously re-read. and mr. barbours and mr. rickles and maybe two or three more n the little timeleft to vote in the contest.

I do remember your threads past. they were insightful and inspired me to enter verry very late like the white rabbit.

anyway i vote for you now, and I vote high...

Sincerely,

TommySnake

Please see threads for my final equation on thematter. and for this conttest. for the next is already written....

than x again for you wise commenatry on my own meagre offerings.

TMG

this is the direction his community should support. as of 5 Mar2011, it is my opinion that Georgina's placement in the Ratings is correct and quite high lol.

mine is not but I think bcause i wuz a late entry. there will be more contests. and our deep-thinkings in these threads, if worthy, shall remain Immortal...

I am happy to pretend I belong here temporarily, amoung these lofty smarty-pantses (or smarty-skirtsof Minimal length) etc.

Or Facebook. Or www.QuantumWidgets.com/FQXiEssayContest.html. I'm easy...

Dear Georgina:

Some other members have brought to my attention that they felt I was antognistic and intemporate in some of my threads to your essay.

I'm very sorry about that: I thought I was being clever, cheeky and ironic but apparently it came off as 'hostile'?

Again that was not my intent. Really I was just trying to find fault with an essay that didn't have many. It's hard to give decest criticm to an essay you secretly admire lol. All I can do is convince others of my sincerety by my content in future threads.

Good Luck again...

And that would indeed supply the motive for the nice little skirmish that has me embattled in my own thread, that seems to have nothing to do with reason and everything to do with personality.