If you are aware of an interesting new academic paper (that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or has appeared on the arXiv), a conference talk (at an official professional scientific meeting), an external blog post (by a professional scientist) or a news item (in the mainstream news media), which you think might make an interesting topic for an FQXi blog post, then please contact us at
forums@fqxi.org with a link to the original source and a sentence about why you think that the work is worthy of discussion. Please note that we receive many such suggestions and while we endeavour to respond to them, we may not be able to reply to all suggestions.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the
"Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the
"Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Contests Home
Current Essay Contest
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss
•
winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss
•
winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss
•
winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and MathematicsContest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss
•
winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008read/discuss
•
winners
Forum Home
Introduction
Terms of Use
By using the FQXi Forum, you acknowledge reading and agree to abide
by the Terms of Use
RSS feed | RSS help
FQXi FORUM: What's Ultimately Possible in Physics? Essay Contest (2009)
May 28, 2022
Here you can read and discuss entries in FQXi's 2009 essay contest. Please remember that the intention of this contest and forum is to provide a meaningful, open, and respectful discussion of the ideas brought forth. Commentary that is unconstructive, insulting, or excessively distracting from the core essay contest goals will be removed. As always, the opinions expressed in the essays and the forums do not necessarily reflect those held by FQXi. That said, feel free to join the discussion!
Please note: Prize Winners announced! Click
here for results.
Please note that you can order the essays by:
What Is Ultimately Possible in Physics? by Stephen Wolfram
43 posts • created by Stephen Wolfram
• Oct. 9, 2009 @ 16:33 GMT
Two steps back, one leap forward by Steven Oostdijk
65 posts • created by Steven Oostdijk
• Oct. 8, 2009 @ 11:33 GMT
Might black holes reveal their inner secrets? by Ted Jacobson and Thomas Sotiriou
14 posts • created by Thomas Sotiriou
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:22 GMT
Natural, Integrated, and Interactive Experience and What is Ultimately Possible in Physics by Frank Martin DiMeglio
48 posts • created by Frank Martin DiMeglio
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:22 GMT
Lessons from failures to achieve what was possible in the twentieth century physics by Vesselin Petkov
57 posts • created by Vesselin Petkov
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:22 GMT
Is No Drama Quantum theory Possible? by Andrey Akhmeteli
3 posts • created by Andrey Akhmeteli
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:22 GMT
Physics, Information and Life, Towards a Universal Theory by David W. Hobill
8 posts • created by David W. Hobill
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:22 GMT
Why Physics Knows No Bounds by Enrico Rodrigo
2 posts • created by Enrico Rodrigo
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 16:20 GMT
The Zero-sum Game of Physics by Ryan S. Westafer
6 posts • created by Ryan S. Westafer
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 11:28 GMT
Mission Impossible by Maulik Parikh
13 posts • created by Maulik Parikh
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 11:27 GMT
Solving the mystery of wave/particle duality---the road to a unified theory of physics by Dennis Crossley
22 posts • created by Dennis Crossley
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 11:27 GMT
Mountains on the Moon: The Multiverse and the Limits of Physics by Richard Easther
16 posts • created by Richard Easther
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 11:27 GMT
The No-Signalling Theorems: A Nitpicking Distinction by Kent A. Peacock
3 posts • created by Kent A. Peacock
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:56 GMT
Towards A More Realistic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics by Terence Nelson
11 posts • created by Terence Nelson
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:56 GMT
Ultimately, Experimental Metaphysics Will Triumph by James Graber
3 posts • created by James Graber
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:55 GMT
The Ultimate Physics Experiment by Ken Wharton
10 posts • created by Ken Wharton
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:55 GMT
What is ultimately possible in physics depends on foundations and philosophy by Peter Lynds
43 posts • created by Peter Lynds
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:40 GMT
Emergent gravity and the spatiotemporal limits of knowledge by Gil Jannes
5 posts • created by Gil Jannes
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:40 GMT
Unification and Emergence in Physics: the Problem of Articulation by Ian Durham
22 posts • created by Ian Durham
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:40 GMT
On the Impossibility of Separating Clocks from Rulers by Armin Nikkhah Shirazi
4 posts • created by Armin Nikkhah Shirazi
• Oct. 5, 2009 @ 10:39 GMT
Unification and the Limits of Knowledge by Marcelo Gleiser
10 posts • created by Marcelo Gleiser
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 21:46 GMT
Physics and limits of Human Thought by Gagandeep Singh Bhatia
21 posts • created by Gagandeep Singh Bhatia
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 21:44 GMT
Ultimately, in Physics the Rational shall become Reasonable! by Terry Padden
72 posts • created by Terry Padden
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 17:01 GMT
Impossible To Sketch The Ultimate Thing In Science by Madhuri Latha Kanukollu
7 posts • created by madhuri latha kanukollu
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:17 GMT
What is Ultimately Possible in Physics, Completeness of Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Gravity, and Consciousness by Janko Kokosar
15 posts • created by Janko Kokosar
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:16 GMT
At the Frontier of Knowledge by Sabine Hossenfelder
23 posts • created by Sabine Hossenfelder
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:16 GMT
Possibilistic Physics by Tobias Fritz
14 posts • created by Tobias Fritz
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:16 GMT
Chaos and the Quantum: Limits of Physics Involving the Physics of Limits by William C. McHarris
15 posts • created by William C. McHarris
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:16 GMT
Interstellar Travel and the Future of Physics by Stephen Lee
7 posts • created by Stephen Lee
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 16:15 GMT
The limits of cosmology by Amedeo Balbi
18 posts • created by Amedeo Balbi
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 15:03 GMT
Charged Photons? - An Educated Guess of Properties by Enrique Canessa
7 posts • created by E. Canessa
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 15:02 GMT
Subjective Universe by Daegene Song
9 posts • created by Daegene Song
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 15:02 GMT
Fundamental Physics of Consciousness by Edwin Eugene Klingman
103 posts • created by Edwin Eugene Klingman
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 14:11 GMT
The Ultimate Meaning of the Universe. A finger exercise on an all-pervasive machine by Gerhard Groessing
6 posts • created by Gerhard Groessing
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 12:05 GMT
On the Non-Existence of TOEs by Ari Stophrenic
4 posts • created by Ari Stophrenic
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 11:59 GMT
On the applicability of quantum physics by George F. R. Ellis
23 posts • created by George F. R. Ellis
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 11:59 GMT
On the (im)possibility of quantum computing by Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu
18 posts • created by Gheorghe-Sorin Sorin Paraoanu
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 11:58 GMT
A Computational Anthropic Principle: Where is the Hardest Problem in the Multiverse? by Navin Sivanandam
4 posts • created by Navin Sivanandam
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 10:54 GMT
The Possibility of Unification via a Global Adynamical Organizing Principle by Michael David Silberstein and W. M. Stuckey
29 posts • created by Michael David Silberstein
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 10:53 GMT
Spacetime and Matter - a duality of partial orders by Hans-Thomas Elze
46 posts • created by Hans-Thomas Elze
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 09:45 GMT
Finally it is possible to understand our universe and its implications by Gordon Kane
9 posts • created by Gordon Kane
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 09:43 GMT
The experimental method and the constitutive limits of the mathematical description of physics by Enrico Prati
17 posts • created by Enrico Prati
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 09:42 GMT
Quantum Physics for Burning Questions by George Schoenfelder
46 posts • created by George Schoenfelder
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 09:42 GMT
The Fundamental Importance of Discourse In Theoretical Physics by Philip Vos Fellman, Jonathan Vos Post, and Christine Carmichael
19 posts • created by Philip Vos Fellman
• Oct. 2, 2009 @ 09:40 GMT
Conformal Geometrodynamics as the Basis for the Unified Description of Nature by Mikhail Vladimirovich Gorbatenko and Gennady Grigorievich Kochemasov
8 posts • created by Mikhail Vladimirovich Gorbatenko
• Oct. 1, 2009 @ 14:58 GMT
What is the Ultimate Velocity? by Andrew Miller
16 posts • created by Andrew Miller
• Oct. 1, 2009 @ 11:41 GMT
The Ultimate Possibilty Physics.Anthropological Daseinisation by Michael Alexeevich Popov
5 posts • created by Michael Alexeevich Popov
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:28 GMT
Ordinary Analogues for Quantum Mechanics by Arjen Dijksman
74 posts • created by Arjen Dijksman
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:28 GMT
Wigner's weird friends by Pablo Garcia Tello
8 posts • created by Pablo Garcia Tello
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:15 GMT
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics by Paul N Butler
23 posts • created by Paul N Butler
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:15 GMT
The Ultimate Physics of Number Counting by Andreas Martin Lisewski
22 posts • created by Andreas Martin Lisewski
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:15 GMT
The Possibility for Answers from Physics by Jonathan J. Dickau
128 posts • created by Jonathan J. Dickau
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:15 GMT
Star Maker: Reshaping the Archipelago of Habitability by Milan M Cirkovic
9 posts • created by Milan M Cirkovic
• Sep. 30, 2009 @ 14:15 GMT
On the impossibility of superluminal travel: the warp drive lesson by Carlos Barcelo, Stefano Finazzi, and Stefano Liberati
7 posts • created by Stefano Finazzi
• Sep. 29, 2009 @ 13:59 GMT
Quantum theory, gravity, and the standard model of particle physics : using the hints of today to build the final theory of tomorrow by Tejinder Singh
74 posts • created by Tejinder Singh
• Sep. 29, 2009 @ 12:13 GMT
Ignoramus and Ignorabimus by Alfred Tang
11 posts • created by Alfred Tang
• Sep. 29, 2009 @ 12:12 GMT
Marblewood: A Gentle Unification of Quantum Theory and General Relativity by Cristinel Stoica
62 posts • created by Cristinel Stoica
• Sep. 29, 2009 @ 12:12 GMT
What Is Ultimately Possible in Physics Will Be Found Within An Observer-Participant Universe Where The Photon Carries The Arrow of Time by Darryl Jay Leiter
43 posts • created by Darryl Jay Leiter
• Sep. 28, 2009 @ 12:33 GMT
Unification of Nuclear Structure Theory Is Possible by Norman D. Cook
26 posts • created by Norman D. Cook
• Sep. 28, 2009 @ 12:33 GMT
What is ultimately possible in physics? by Jeffrey Nicholls
15 posts • created by Jeffrey Nicholls
• Sep. 28, 2009 @ 12:33 GMT
The Imitation of Christ: The Universal Security State, Freedom and Responsibility by Eugene Fredrick Mische
2 posts • created by Eugene Fredrick Mische
• Sep. 28, 2009 @ 12:33 GMT
Is Feasibility in Physics Limited by Fantasy Alone? by Cristian S. Calude and Karl Svozil
18 posts • created by Cristian S. Calude
• Sep. 25, 2009 @ 17:46 GMT
What if ... fundamental mathematics constrains the physics? by Franklin Potter
48 posts • created by Franklin Potter
• Sep. 25, 2009 @ 17:45 GMT
A Historical Approach to Research in Fundamental Physics by Emile Grgin
127 posts • created by Emile - Grgin
• Sep. 25, 2009 @ 11:42 GMT
What is ultimately possible in Physics? Can Quantum Physics lead us to a Transempirical, Transmaterial and Transpersonal Domain of Physical Reality? by Lothar Schäfer
6 posts • created by Lothar Schafer
• Sep. 25, 2009 @ 11:42 GMT
Galilei, Gold, Ren - votes for ultimate realism by Eckard Blumschein
128 posts • created by Eckard Blumschein
• Sep. 25, 2009 @ 11:42 GMT
From Chaos To Consciousness by Basileios Grispos
18 posts • created by BASILEIOS GRISPOS
• Sep. 24, 2009 @ 11:30 GMT
Stardrives and Spinoza by Louis Crane
30 posts • created by Louis Crane
• Sep. 24, 2009 @ 11:30 GMT
The limit of physics,..Science, Consciousness, and Free Will. by Juan Enrique Ramos Beraud
10 posts • created by Juan Enrique Ramos Beraud
• Sep. 24, 2009 @ 11:30 GMT
What Physics Can and Can't Do? by Narendra Nath
71 posts • created by NARENDRA NATH
• Sep. 23, 2009 @ 09:49 GMT
Can God find a place in physics? St. Augustine's philosophy meets general relativity by Ettore Minguzzi
41 posts • created by Ettore Minguzzi
• Sep. 22, 2009 @ 12:08 GMT
Synergy Physics - A Holistic View by Stephen A. Brenner
5 posts • created by Stephen A. Brenner
• Sep. 22, 2009 @ 12:08 GMT
A Geometrical Approach Towards A Theory of Everything by Ray B Munroe
264 posts • created by Ray B Munroe
• Sep. 22, 2009 @ 12:08 GMT
It's the Temperature! by Buz Craft
18 posts • created by Buz Craft
• Sep. 22, 2009 @ 12:08 GMT
The fairness principle and the ultimate theory of not everything by Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
76 posts • created by Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
• Sep. 17, 2009 @ 10:20 GMT
A New Kind of New Kind of Science by Owen Thomas Cunningham
51 posts • created by Owen Thomas Cunningham
• Sep. 17, 2009 @ 10:20 GMT
Quantum Mechanics and the Source of Awareness by Casey Blood
56 posts • created by Casey Blood
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 17:04 GMT
On Explaining Existence by Dean Rickles
37 posts • created by Dean Rickles
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 17:04 GMT
Gravity From the Ground Up by Don Limuti
58 posts • created by Don Limuti
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 17:03 GMT
Energy, Matter, and Scale in an Evolving Universe by Vasile Coman
8 posts • created by Vasile Coman
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 17:03 GMT
The Ultimately Possible in Physics by Sascha Vongehr
15 posts • created by Sascha Vongehr
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 17:03 GMT
What is Ultimately Possible in Physics? Physics! A Hero’s Journey with Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Planck, Einstein, Schrodinger, Bohr, and the Greats towards Moving Dimensions Theory. E pur si muove! by Dr. Elliot McGucken
51 posts • created by Dr. Elliot McGucken
• Sep. 16, 2009 @ 14:14 GMT
The Infinite Fractal Universe by Robert L. Oldershaw
100 posts • created by Robert L. Oldershaw
• Sep. 15, 2009 @ 15:59 GMT
The Intrinsic Structure of the Quantities by Peter van Gaalen
65 posts • created by Peter van Gaalen
• Sep. 15, 2009 @ 15:43 GMT
Physics Stops where Natural Metaphysics Starts by Marcel-Marie LeBel
36 posts • created by Marcel-Marie LeBel
• Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:42 GMT
Turing's Landscape: decidability, computability and complexity in string theory by Abhijnan Rej
23 posts • created by Abhijnan Rej
• Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:31 GMT
Quantum mechanics from a stochastic least action principle by Joakim David Munkhammar
19 posts • created by Joakim David Munkhammar
• Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:26 GMT
Could we physically replicate our universe? by Malcolm Macleod
5 posts • created by Malcolm Macleod
• Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:21 GMT
Taming of the One by Helmut Hansen
30 posts • created by Helmut Hansen
• Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:20 GMT
Ultimate Possibilities of Physics by Ben Baten
29 posts • created by Ben Baten
• Sep. 9, 2009 @ 12:13 GMT
What is Ultimately Possible in Physic? by James L De Spears
11 posts • created by James L De Spears
• Sep. 9, 2009 @ 11:15 GMT
Is There a System Beyond the Particle? by Mohammed Sanduk
27 posts • created by Mohammed Sanduk
• Sep. 4, 2009 @ 11:29 GMT
Perfect Symmetry by Peter A Jackson
139 posts • created by Peter Jackson
• Sep. 1, 2009 @ 15:17 GMT
Can we see into a black hole? by Lawrence B Crowell
138 posts • created by Lawrence B Crowell
• Sep. 1, 2009 @ 14:46 GMT
Matter-universe to Cluster-matter-universe by Jayakar Johnson Joseph
221 posts • created by Jayakar Johnson Joseph
• Sep. 1, 2009 @ 14:46 GMT
Mechanics of a Self-Creating Universe by Anton W. M. Biermans
27 posts • created by Anton W.M. Biermans
• Sep. 1, 2009 @ 14:46 GMT
What is Possible for Theoretical Physics? by James A Putnam
62 posts • created by James A Putnam
• Aug. 26, 2009 @ 12:32 GMT
The Return of the Gods - Cosmology at its Limits by Ernst Fischer
8 posts • created by Ernst Fischer
• Aug. 20, 2009 @ 13:54 GMT
ant among giants. . .a fable by Richard P Dolan
11 posts • created by Richard P Dolan
• Aug. 20, 2009 @ 13:54 GMT
What is possible in physics depends on the chosen representational formalism by Lev Goldfarb
105 posts • created by Lev Goldfarb
• Aug. 7, 2009 @ 05:28 GMT
How to create an absolute vacuum and a perfectly isolated system by Constantin Zaharia Leshan
36 posts • created by Constantin Zaharia Leshan
• Jul. 27, 2009 @ 08:24 GMT
Interferometric detection of gravitational waves: understanding if Einstein's General Relativity is the correct and definitive theory of gravity will be Ultimately Possible in Physics by Christian Corda
81 posts • created by Christian Corda
• Jul. 21, 2009 @ 07:56 GMT
Nature of the Universe by Ranganath Gururaj Kulkarni
5 posts • created by Ranganath Gururaj Kulkarni
• Jul. 20, 2009 @ 05:50 GMT
A Logical Physical Theory by Nainan K. Varghese
13 posts • created by Nainan K. Varghese
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:17 GMT
Heuristic rule for constructing physics axiomatization by Florin Moldoveanu
283 posts • created by Florin Moldoveanu
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
On the Impossibility of Time Travel by J. C. N. Smith
219 posts • created by J. C. N. Smith
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
A Very Short Story of What is to Come by Alexandre Paradis
4 posts • created by Alexandre Paradis
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
Identical Crisis by Joe Fisher
6 posts • created by Joe Fisher
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
The Math of Hua Luogeng - Another Game in Town by Frank Dodd Smith
6 posts • created by Frank Dodd Smith
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
An Intuitive Explanation for the Existence of Everything by Irvon Eugene Clear
12 posts • created by Irvon Eugene Clear
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
Pursuing the Limits of Failed Symmetry by Alan M. Schwartz
93 posts • created by Alan M. Schwartz
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
Ultimately, anything is possible by Hrvoje Nikolic
35 posts • created by Hrvoje Nikolic
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
To be or not to be strictly deterministic? by Stefan Weckbach
63 posts • created by Stefan Weckbach
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT
Awakening of the Observer in Physics by Amrit Srecko Sorli
178 posts • created by Amrit Srecko Sorli
• Jul. 17, 2009 @ 08:16 GMT