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Wandering Towards a Goal Essay Contest (2016-2017)
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Emergence of life and consciousness in a purposeful universe by Rodolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin
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Author Jorge Pullin wrote on Jan. 12, 2017 @ 21:11 GMT
Essay AbstractRecent scientific developments provide evidence that we live in a world whose nature encourages the emergence of life and consciousness. We are not arguing that the world was created with that purpose, rather our view is that the world has a nature that is receptive towards life and consciousness and is open to organization imposed via top down causation by ever more complex organisms. We can see in this -at first unrecognized- tendency a universe whose purpose is to offer opportunities for life and expand the potential of the living organisms endowed with various degrees of consciousness. Such purpose is manifest in the laws that rule the world and in the nature of the fundamental entities whose regularities such laws describe. That is how we end up with individuals whose goal is the development of capabilities that are just a further manifestation of the fundamental nature of the world, and through them, a universe capable of observing itself.
Author BioRodolfo Gambini is a professor of physics at the University of the Republic of Uruguay. He is a fellow of APS and AAAS and a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Uruguay and Argentina. He is the recipient of the TWAS physics prize. Jorge Pullin is the Horace Hearne Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Louisiana State University. He is a fellow of APS, AAAS, IOP, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Argentina and Mexico. He is the recipient of the Edward Bouchet award of APS.
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John Edward LaMuth wrote on Jan. 13, 2017 @ 06:07 GMT
I am unsure of the mechanism for your final assertion that through these results in a universe capable of observing itself.
John L
http://youtu.be/gMSGoxUSYxk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p
8kL3v539D4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alf5IB6iR2c
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David Brown wrote on Jan. 14, 2017 @ 11:48 GMT
"To make a long story short, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics is that in its traditional formulation the theory is not complete without an observer involved." I think that the preceding is a good aphoristic summary of the measurement problem. I say that Milgrom is the Kepler of contemporary cosmology — although one might say that Kepler is sui generis. Is Milgrom's MOND relevant to the measurement problem?
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Steve Dufourny replied on Jan. 18, 2017 @ 16:45 GMT
Hello Mr Brown,
I beleive that Mr Milgrom or Mr Verlinde with this modified newtonian mechanic are in the error.But it is just my opinion of course.Here is why.We know indeed that we have this problem of rotations with the galaxies.When Zwicky has found this problem, he has inserted this matter not baryonic to solve this problem.I beleive that people makes also the same error in considering the quantum gravitation, this weakest force like an emergent electromagnetic force.This gravitation cannot be nor relativistic nor baryonic.Gravitons for example cannot answer so because they are bosons and that gravitation is not bosonic.The dark matter and gravitation for me are linked.The newtonian mechanic is universal.If we want to, unify G c and h we must insert new parameters but these parameters respect this newtonian mechanic it seems to me.
Food for thought.
Regards
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Hans van Leunen wrote on Jan. 16, 2017 @ 11:48 GMT
Dear authors,
If you want to find purpose inside physical reality, then it suffices to interpret the fact that all discrete objects in the universe appear to be either modules or they are modular systems. With other words, one of the most influential laws in nature must read as:
"Thou shalt construct in a modular way"
Modular construction implies several aspects. Modular construction applies its resources in a very economic way. Modular design and modular construction enable reuse and that reuse requests standardization. The modular design method becomes very powerful when modules can be constructed from lower level modules. The standardization of modules enables reuse and may generate type communities. The success of a type community may depend on other type communities. Also, modular systems can form type communities.
In the beginning, modular design will use a stochastic approach.
The modular design and construction method is very efficient and even with stochastic design it easily wins against the monolithic design and construction method. With enough resources available even the stochastic modular design and construction method can produce intelligent modular systems. From that instant on, will intelligent design at these locations take over from stochastic design. For those species, the creator’s choice for modular construction will contain important lessons. See: Voting for extinction of our species by Hans van Leunen https://doc.co/GMDDeb
Hans van Leunen, retired physicist
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Joe Fisher wrote on Jan. 16, 2017 @ 16:43 GMT
Dear Professor Gambini and Chairman Pullin,
Simple natural reality has nothing to do with any abstract complex musings such as the ones you effortlessly indulge in. As I have thoughtfully pointed out in my brilliant essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY, the real Universe consists only of one unified visible infinite surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light. Reality am not as complicated as theories of reality are. We each have a complete surface and we live in a world that also has a complete surface.
Joe Fisher, Realist
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Lee Bloomquist wrote on Jan. 17, 2017 @ 00:01 GMT
This essay is an extremely enjoyable read and proposes to help us understand "how a Universe ends up understanding itself."
But using prose to say that the Universe has an "understanding" of something still leaves us with the "mindless mathematics."
I wonder-- would mathematical game theory be the best, or the only, "mindful" mathematics that we have for expressing this statement...
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This essay is an extremely enjoyable read and proposes to help us understand "how a Universe ends up understanding itself."
But using prose to say that the Universe has an "understanding" of something still leaves us with the "mindless mathematics."
I wonder-- would mathematical game theory be the best, or the only, "mindful" mathematics that we have for expressing this statement in a mathematical language?
It's certainly not for me to answer this question. But I can't help thinking about it.
"The Universe was viewed as an infinite space where masses described trajectories determined by forces ruled by immutable laws."
I feel a tacit warning, here, that in the subsequent text, the old-time classical model is going to be wheeled into surgery. "Trajectories," "forces," "immutable laws," it seems, are going to be refined somehow in the balance of the text. OK, that makes me think.
Can we assume that the "laws," or the "regularities" of the Universe are indeed constant, indeed "immutable"?
Maybe not. There might be small exceptions-- too small for us yet to notice, perhaps too small for us ever to observe.
And that-- is enough to outline a game.
The particle in this kind of Universe must be able to adapt. For in this kind of game, it cannot "know" the laws expressed by the Universe because they may subtly, or for very brief periods substantially, change.
Instead of "knowing" the laws of the Universe, in this kind of game the particle would have to "learn" the laws of the Universe. For example, the particle would have to perform a "learning algorithm."
Then--
Would finding such a game-- and finding such a learning algorithm-- in the data, support the following statement?
"The Universe was viewed as an infinite space where masses described trajectories determined by forces ruled by immutable laws. But now-- because of these data (wherein we find a learning algorithm)-- we conclude that the laws of the Universe are Not immutable."
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Joe Fisher replied on Jan. 17, 2017 @ 16:34 GMT
Dear Mr. Bloomquist,
Natural reality am simple to understand.As I have thoughtfully pointed out in my brilliant essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY, the real Universe consists only of one unified visible infinite surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light.
Joe Fisher, Realist
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Lee Bloomquist wrote on Jan. 19, 2017 @ 02:30 GMT
Experiments have confirmed the Born rule.
Within experimental limits, the mathematical pattern in the data is explained by the Born rule.
The Born rule says that the same number can be output from two independent algorithms.
(Bohm and Hiley had previously said "from two independent concepts.")
Confirming the Born rule is the same, mathematically, as confirming through an experiment that there is an algorithm in the data.
It has the signature of a learning algorithm.
What is it learning?
The laws of physics.
Who is teaching it?
The answer is in the final thoughts of this essay:
"...we end up with individuals whose purpose is the development of capabilities that are just a further manifestation of the fundamental nature of the world, and through them, of a universe capable of observing itself ."
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Lawrence B. Crowell wrote on Jan. 23, 2017 @ 11:50 GMT
I gave 10 for public vote and will do the same on community once my essay appears. Your argument is largely ψ-ontic. I tend to think there is some sort of relativity or complementarity between ψ-ontic and ψ-epistemic interpretations though. In effect QM does not conform well to the sort of metaphysical categories we ordinarily think according to.
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Jack Hamilton James wrote on Jan. 29, 2017 @ 11:35 GMT
I enjoyed this essay and style it was written, thankyou. I disagree with your claims on top down causation and emergence. I think these are conceptual errors, albeit very difficult to account for and easy to fall for. There is a lot of talking up of emergence and top-down causation at the moment, and although we think we can demonstrate both occurrences, and although consciousness isnt in the brain when we open it up, in both cases our lack of understanding, and our explanation, is the real issue. A strong clue for this is that there is a fundamental disproportionality in our weighting of thought. The fruits of reductionism and common sense are being fundamentally shortchanged/overlooked. How can one show from top-down causation the interaction between two microscopic bodies? Now sure, in some cases we cant explain, via bottom-up causation, all goings on in those terms. But this gap isnt a gap that top-down causation should fill. It's a little like the Schrodinger equation chuggin along by itself creating all sorts of universes, but oh wait what about the observer. What about wholes being made up of parts in/at/of time?
(Please note I dont hold any of this against your paper, and I understand here i am merely speculating, thanks for a great essay).
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Anonymous wrote on Feb. 6, 2017 @ 10:16 GMT
Rodolfo and Jorge,
Your essay is very thoughtful and well written.
I appreciate your point that quantum “developments illuminate a world that is much more hospitable to life than that of the mechanist paradigm” which “open the possibility for new vistas on the problem of consciousness and, through it, how a Universe ends up understanding itself.”
And I appreciate that “physical laws are descriptions of what happens in the world. Physical Reality may well go beyond the laws, which only describe observed regularities.”
I think what you’re getting at is that the idea of “blind mathematical laws” is a misconception, and properly conceived, the “physics” of the universe must be compatible with intentionality. The universe must somehow be intentional, in however inchoate its primitive physical form, because we are natural beings and we are intentional.
But although the concept of Life may be illuminated by your accent on top-down causation (i.e. supervenience), it doesn’t actually “open the possibility for purpose in the world”, or even of experience. Top-down determination only suggests how purpose and intention can be effective, not how it can be possible.
Mainstream biologists may agree that there is top-down determinism in the metabolism of a biotic cell, but they will absolutely deny that there is anything intentional about it. Intention and purpose involve imagining and possibly bringing about an eventuality that doesn’t exist by working with and against causal processes. And there is nothing in the idea of quantum probability that begins to explain how such a disposition could come into the world.
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James Arnold replied on Feb. 7, 2017 @ 10:09 GMT
Sorry, didn't mean to be anonymous -- the preceding was my review.
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Avtar Singh wrote on Feb. 11, 2017 @ 00:18 GMT
Dear Rodolfo and Jorge:
Thoroughly enjoyed your well-written essay. I fully agree with your expressed conclusion - " The purpose of the Universe should appear in the laws that favor the emergence of systems with high degree of complexity. …… We hold the regularist position that states that the laws of nature just describe certain regularities of a reality that transcends them. From a first person perspective the world has a phenomenal nature which we perceive from our conscious mind but it also satisfies certain regularities that science, in particular physics, describes."
Building upon the spontaneous decay of quantum particles as the Downward Causation agent for the emergence of higher order consciousness or free-will phenomenon, I have developed an integrated relativistic model of the universe that resolves the Hard problem of consciousness, predicts the observed universe, and explains inner workings of QM. I would appreciate it very much if you could please provide your comments on my contest paper - " FROM LAWS TO AIMS & INTENTIONS - A UNIVERSAL MODEL INTEGRATING MATTER, MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND PURPOSE" as it explains the emergence phenomenon as transcendence from one state of relative reality to the next higher state within an infinite sets of potential realities following the laws of conservation.
Looking forward to your feedback on my paper,
Best Regards
Avtar Singh
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Satyavarapu Naga Parameswara Gupta wrote on Feb. 11, 2017 @ 01:25 GMT
Hi, Gambini and Pullin,
Very Good essay sirs, Your views on consciousness are really fantastic ...!
In your concluding para you said………….. If the Universe Had no beginning as in the eternal inflationary scenario, one cannot discuss the purpose of its creation. But In a Universe That is life-‐friendly and phenomenic in character one can always find purpose in its inhabitants………….
I want to say few points for further discussion …
1. Probably you are referring to Bigbang based cosmologies here. There you are considering only 40 percent of all the Galaxies and remaining Blue shifted Galaxies and quasars are not considered.
I request you to have a look at Dynamic Universe model also for the other side of the coin…..
2. You are implying someone created the universe. I am also firm believer of God, but everything we cannot leave to God …. If we need some progress in science…. What do you say…?
3. You said nicely that life friendly phenomenon exists in Unverse… Good.
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Satyavarapu Naga Parameswara Gupta replied on Mar. 18, 2017 @ 09:54 GMT
Dears,
I want you to ask you to please have a look at my essay, where ……………reproduction of Galaxies in the Universe is described. Dynamic Universe Model is another mathematical model for Universe. Its mathematics show that the movement of masses will be having a purpose or goal, Different Galaxies will be born and die (quench) etc…just have a look at the essay… “Distances,...
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Dears,
I want you to ask you to please have a look at my essay, where ……………reproduction of Galaxies in the Universe is described. Dynamic Universe Model is another mathematical model for Universe. Its mathematics show that the movement of masses will be having a purpose or goal, Different Galaxies will be born and die (quench) etc…just have a look at the essay… “Distances, Locations, Ages and Reproduction of Galaxies in our Dynamic Universe” where UGF (Universal Gravitational force) acting on each and every mass, will create a direction and purpose of movement…..
I think intension is inherited from Universe itself to all Biological systems
For your information Dynamic Universe model is totally based on experimental results. Here in Dynamic Universe Model Space is Space and time is time in cosmology level or in any level. In the classical general relativity, space and time are convertible in to each other.
Many papers and books on Dynamic Universe Model were published by the author on unsolved problems of present day Physics, for example ‘Absolute Rest frame of reference is not necessary’ (1994) , ‘Multiple bending of light ray can create many images for one Galaxy: in our dynamic universe’, About “SITA” simulations, ‘Missing mass in Galaxy is NOT required’, “New mathematics tensors without Differential and Integral equations”, “Information, Reality and Relics of Cosmic Microwave Background”, “Dynamic Universe Model explains the Discrepancies of Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry Observations.”, in 2015 ‘Explaining Formation of Astronomical Jets Using Dynamic Universe Model, ‘Explaining Pioneer anomaly’, ‘Explaining Near luminal velocities in Astronomical jets’, ‘Observation of super luminal neutrinos’, ‘Process of quenching in Galaxies due to formation of hole at the center of Galaxy, as its central densemass dries up’, “Dynamic Universe Model Predicts the Trajectory of New Horizons Satellite Going to Pluto” etc., are some more papers from the Dynamic Universe model. Four Books also were published. Book1 shows Dynamic Universe Model is singularity free and body to collision free, Book 2, and Book 3 are explanation of equations of Dynamic Universe model. Book 4 deals about prediction and finding of Blue shifted Galaxies in the universe.
With axioms like… No Isotropy; No Homogeneity; No Space-time continuum; Non-uniform density of matter(Universe is lumpy); No singularities; No collisions between bodies; No Blackholes; No warm holes; No Bigbang; No repulsion between distant Galaxies; Non-empty Universe; No imaginary or negative time axis; No imaginary X, Y, Z axes; No differential and Integral Equations mathematically; No General Relativity and Model does not reduce to General Relativity on any condition; No Creation of matter like Bigbang or steady-state models; No many mini Bigbangs; No Missing Mass; No Dark matter; No Dark energy; No Bigbang generated CMB detected; No Multi-verses etc.
Many predictions of Dynamic Universe Model came true, like Blue shifted Galaxies and no dark matter. Dynamic Universe Model gave many results otherwise difficult to explain
Have a look at my essay on Dynamic Universe Model and its blog also where all my books and papers are available for free downloading…
http://vaksdynamicuniversemodel.blogspot.in/
Be
st wishes to your essay.
For your blessings please…………….
=snp. gupta
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Member George F. R. Ellis wrote on Feb. 12, 2017 @ 06:44 GMT
Hi Rodolfo and Jorge
"So any system in an entangled state exhibits downward causation. The states’ roles in causation, their disposition to produce events, and their non separatiblity when entangled are at the root of this phenomenon". Bravo!
George
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Kigen William Ekeson wrote on Feb. 25, 2017 @ 19:06 GMT
Dear Profs. Pullin and Gambini,
Thank you for your very well written and insightful essay. I agree with your final reflections on "purpose". Although I was a bit surprised of your aesthetic choice of the term "object" to describe any pre-event system. Still, you made it work. Thanks again and hope you find time to look over my essay.
William Ekeson
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Alexey/Lev Burov wrote on Feb. 28, 2017 @ 01:25 GMT
Dear Rodolfo and Jorge,
I am glad that I found your essay. I think we agree in our starting points, and our essays talk deeply with each other. In particular, I would note your, “If a further fine-tuning were required to have close to optimal conditions for life the Anthropic Principle would be insufficient to account for our existence in the universe. The recently discovered life-friendly properties suggest that this is the situation we are in.” Although it is not fully clear what you mean here, I am happy to suggest you my proof of your point: the discoverability of the laws of nature, which is definitely an excess to what would be needed for the existence of simple observers.
Best,
Alexey Burov.
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Edwin Eugene Klingman wrote on Mar. 2, 2017 @ 02:28 GMT
Dear Rudolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin,
Thank you for reading and commenting on my essay.
You discuss an event ontology and the possibility that events in the brain can be accessed physically in a third person sense, but also mentally in a first-person sense as perceptions. Is this 'mental' access occasioned by the neural network itself, or by physical field, or what? As you know, I postulate a physical field that possesses the attribute of awareness: awareness of itself (hence Yang-Mills type non-linearity) and awareness of momentum/energy density. This postulate actually takes one quite far in a physical world that includes consciousness and intelligence in myriad entities.
As you note, I am 'regularist' in the sense that I believe we project structure onto regularities of nature. The 'necessitarian' interprets the structural projections as 'laws' governing system evolution, despite that QM is only a statistical bookkeeping system that depends from the evident universality of the partition function.
One would think that the
underdetermination that is obvious from the existence of five or more 'interpretations' of quantum mechanics, would give pause to
Quantum Credo-ists, but this is met head-on with "shut up and calculate". As a means of solving specific problems, this may be good advice. As a means of determining ontological reality, not so good.
You note that in a universe that is life-friendly and phenomenic in character one can always find purpose in its inhabitants, and this may imply "
a universe capable of observing itself". With a consciousness field it is almost a foregone conclusion that local observations of self will evolve. If, instead, only a possibility exists that life and neural networks will evolve, given sufficient time, the possibility would also seem to exist that such would never happen, leading to absurdity and nihilism.
Best regards,
Edwin Eugene Klingman
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James Lee Hoover wrote on Mar. 2, 2017 @ 23:21 GMT
Rodolfo and Jorge,
Interesting read. You say that the world has a nature that is receptive towards life and consciousness and encourages organization and complexity? The popular hypotheses has been that a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning and a colossal stroke of luck brought about life, but a more interesting proposal England’s theory seeks to underlie, rather than replace, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. He believes that "clumps of atoms surrounded by a bath at some temperature, like the atmosphere or the ocean, should tend over time to arrange themselves to resonate better and better with the sources of mechanical, electromagnetic or chemical work in their environments.” The animate and inanimate have these characteristics.
Does the universe offer opportunities for life and consciousness thru such mindless laws that Jeremy England is describing? Since we are a further manifestation of the nature of the world do we become part of the capability of observing ourselves and the current and past universe through our telescopes?
You inspire some interesting questions.
Jim Hoover
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James Lee Hoover replied on Mar. 4, 2017 @ 00:59 GMT
Rodolfo and Jorge,
Interested in seeing your comments and your thoughts on my essay.
Jim
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Rajiv K Singh wrote on Mar. 3, 2017 @ 12:28 GMT
A strong case is made in favor of certain emergent physical structures that show top-down causation to give rise to certain physical consequences. 'Universe having sufficient complexity for the purpose of evolution' is also placed well. But, this did not seem to lead to our sensing of aims and purpose.
"Nature described by quantum mechanics is about dispositions and events with a phenomenal internal aspect", did not really bridge the gap. Russell's quote, "an ultimate scientific account of what goes on in the world, if it were ascertainable,..", left much to be desired as to how it may become ascertainable.
The phenomenal nature is brought in as a hypothesis, "From a first person perspective the world has a phenomenal nature which we perceive from our conscious mind but it also satisfies certain regularities that science –in particular physics‐ describes." It also seems to imply that we cannot have an objective third person measurement system for the same. Moreover, we will have to grant then that bacterium and even other lower forms may have subjective experience, and if its actions are in line with self-sustaining, then it also may have a sense of purpose.
- Rajiv
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Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote on Mar. 4, 2017 @ 05:21 GMT
dear jorge,
i found your essay to be informative, insightful and highly readable. i do however have difficulty in seeing how it answers the main question (or a variant of the same), "how can mathematical laws give rise to aims and intentions" - would you be willing to elaborate?
many thanks.
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Edward Kneller wrote on Mar. 7, 2017 @ 18:31 GMT
Rodolfo and Jorge:
I enjoyed your essay for both its broad scope and specific details regarding physics and consciousness, especially how you address the hard question of why the universe ‘encourages the emergence of life and consciousness’.
I agree that understanding the universe requires us to ‘be precise about the nature of physical laws’, and your statement near the end, ‘Explaining why the Universe is life-friendly does not depend only on the values of certain parameters. It also depends on the elegance and creative potential of the physical laws. It depends on quantum mechanics being as it is, and on the geometric and dynamical nature of space-time.’
You may be interested in my essay, ‘The Cosmic Odyssey of Matter’. This essay does not attempt to tackle the hard problem of how/why consciousness, but instead develops a simple framework/ontology to show the progression that leads from particles to life, individual consciousness, and social goals/consciousness. Per your guidance, I attempt to ‘be precise about the nature of physical laws’ by providing clear definitions and concepts that improve our understanding of the progression towards consciousness.
Regards, Ed
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Stefan Keppeler wrote on Mar. 8, 2017 @ 15:05 GMT
Dear Rodolfo, dear Jorge,
I like how you use entanglement as an illustration for how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts. I'm doubtful, however, as to whether entanglement actually plays a role for emergence on macroscopic scales. I'd rather think that Boltzmann-type arguments are more relevant there (this idea I pursue in
my essay), since they are essentially independent of the details of the underlying microscopic dynamics.
Cheers, Stefan
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Héctor Daniel Gianni wrote on Mar. 12, 2017 @ 22:30 GMT
Dear Rodolfo Gambini
I invite you and every physicist to read my work “TIME ORIGIN,DEFINITION AND EMPIRICAL MEANING FOR PHYSICISTS, Héctor Daniel Gianni ,I’m not a physicist.
How people interested in “Time” could feel about related things to the subject.
1) Intellectuals interested in Time issues usually have a nice and creative wander for the unknown.
2) They usually enjoy this wander of their searches around it.
3) For millenniums this wander has been shared by a lot of creative people around the world.
4) What if suddenly, something considered quasi impossible to be found or discovered such as “Time” definition and experimental meaning confronts them?
5) Their reaction would be like, something unbelievable,… a kind of disappointment, probably interpreted as a loss of wander…..
6) ….worst than that, if we say that what was found or discovered wasn’t a viable theory, but a proved fact.
7) Then it would become offensive to be part of the millenary problem solution, instead of being a reason for happiness and satisfaction.
8) The reader approach to the news would be paradoxically adverse.
9) Instead, I think it should be a nice welcome to discovery, to be received with opened arms and considered to be read with full attention.
11)Time “existence” is exclusive as a “measuring system”, its physical existence can’t be proved by science, as the “time system” is. Experimentally “time” is “movement”, we can prove that, showing that with clocks we measure “constant and uniform” movement and not “the so called Time”.
12)The original “time manuscript” has 23 pages, my manuscript in this contest has only 9 pages.
I share this brief with people interested in “time” and with physicists who have been in sore need of this issue for the last 50 or 60 years.
Héctor
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Dizhechko Boris Semyonovich wrote on Mar. 14, 2017 @ 05:36 GMT
Dear Rodolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin!
. I appreciate your essay. You spent a lot of effort to write it. If you believed in the principle of identity of space and matter of Descartes, then your essay would be even better. There is not movable a geometric space, and is movable physical space. These are different concepts.
I invite you to familiarize yourself with New Cartesian Physic
I wish to see your criticism on the New Cartesian Physic, the founder of which I call myself.
The concept of moving space-matter helped me: The uncertainty principle Heisenberg to make the principle of definiteness of points of space-matter; Open the law of the constancy of the flow of forces through a closed surface is the sphere of space-matter; Open the law of universal attraction of Lorentz; Give the formula for the pressure of the Universe; To give a definition of gravitational mass as the flow vector of the centrifugal acceleration across the surface of the corpuscles, etc.
New Cartesian Physic has great potential in understanding the world. To show this potential in essay I risked give «The way of The materialist explanation of the paranormal and the supernatural” - Is the name of my essay.
Visit my essay and you will find something in it about New Cartesian Physic. Note my statement that our brain creates an image of the outside world no inside, and in external space.
Do not let New Cartesian Physic get away into obscurity! I am waiting your post.
Sincerely,
Dizhechko Boris
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Peter Martin Punin wrote on Mar. 14, 2017 @ 14:39 GMT
Dear Jorge, dear Rodolfo,
The first point having impressed me in your essay is your refusal of nihilism, a rare thing in modern philosophy of science. Of course, at first glance, philosophy of science is not directly concerned by nihilism, nor by anti-nihilism, respectively the denial and the defense of values, and even of the pertinence characterizing the notion of value as such. Or,...
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Dear Jorge, dear Rodolfo,
The first point having impressed me in your essay is your refusal of nihilism, a rare thing in modern philosophy of science. Of course, at first glance, philosophy of science is not directly concerned by nihilism, nor by anti-nihilism, respectively the denial and the defense of values, and even of the pertinence characterizing the notion of value as such. Or, in other words, notion of value seems to concerning moral philosophy, perhaps social sciences and so on, but not philosophy of science.
In fact, it is not so simple.
Alexey and Lev Burov – they posted a positive comment on your forum – show in their essay that the current or at least mainstream conception of science reducing the latter to “formal systems” and subsequently denying the value which makes the difference between arbitrary formal things and approaches having a sense, systematically leads to self-refutation Moira and Eileithyia for Genesis by Alexey and Lev Burov . Personally, I am glad to see that the back ground of your essay is the same.
Anyway, to begin, I entirely agree that modern science during a long time-period had been imprisoned by (in?) the mechanism paradigm, and that modern knowledge inciting us to go beyond this paradigm opens up new horizons. Yes, but the mechanism paradigm is not only a path leading to a deadlock. This paradigm, by its nature, denotes something deeper allowing us to transcend a mechanist vision of the world while remaining in a scientific vision of the world. I will try to explain the foregoing. Physical knowledge is characterized by symmetry in prediction and retro-diction. This point makes all the difference between physics and non-physics. Physical time-symmetry without which physics would not be physics is based on group-theoretic foundations. You can find more details in my own essay Daring Group-theoretic Foundations of Biological Evolution despite Group Theory? by Peter Martin Punin. Now, from a physical standpoint – with regard to purely algebraic motivations, it is another story – the epistemic roots of group theory initially, please pay attention to “initially”, are inscribed in mechanics stricto sensu. Consider the watch on your arm. This mechanism expresses a superposition of several expressions of the same rotation group, and this point allows at least ideally to predict as well to retro-dict the passed and future states of the watch from any state chosen as t0-reference. In the same sense, Galileo referred to group-theory avant la lettre, without being aware of it. Nevertheless, that what we call today the Galileo-group is fundamental in Newtonian mechanics. Always from our present-day perspective, we say that the Galileo-group is a subgroup of the Lorentz-Poincare-group in SR, whereas at the RG-level, Riemann manifolds are to be interpreted as a transformations group over a set of local approximations formalized the Lorentz-Poincare-group. So, in macroscopic physics, you find a lot of group-theoretic structures expressed by mechanical systems and vice versa.
Now, saying that quantum physics essentially transcends the mechanism paradigm, you are absolutely right. Of course, quantum entities cannot be reduced to sole “objects”, and even the notion of entity is reducing, but for human minds it is hard to find better. Of course, simplifying bit, a Hilbert space comprises connected potentialities potentially connected beyond their actual (?) realization. And so on, your statement is complete through its compactness; so repeating it would be useless. Well, but how to explain that we are not merely lost at the quantum level?
Here, the answer is compact: it is in turn for group-theoretic reasons. Hilbert spaces, the unique possible “environment” of Schrödinger's wave is a group-theoretic “entity”. Heisenberg's matrix approach equivalent of Schrödinger's approach is based on non-commutative matrix group theory. Top-down causation as you evoke it from a rigorous physical perspective, is formalizable in terms of semi-groups; knowing that the latter, mathematically speaking, require previously given full groups. This point seems paradoxical, but it is not the case: To describe top-down causation to be formalized in terms of semi-groups, you need a Hilbert space being a full group-theoretic entity.
So, on the one hand, I think that the nature of physical laws necessarily comprises group-theoretic foundations, and on the other hand,these group-theoretic foundations allow physics to transcend its initial mechanist limits.
Now, an important point, must be clarified. If group theory funds mechanist as well as non-mechanist physics, it must precede ontologically any form of physics, and “preceding something ontologically” implies “preceding something in an immaterial and eternal way.” The foregoing obviously leads to Platonism which does not please everyone. Well, but since you mention Leibniz, recall that Leibniz precisely says that our physical universe, instead of existing, also could not exist. So its existence is a mystery. The eventual existence Platonist mathematical universe would be mysterious, but not “more mysterious” than the existence of our material/physical one. Subsequently, if the ultimate consistency of physics is better ensured by Platonist presuppositions than by the current refusal of Platonism, there is no reason to reject Platonism at the cost of non-consistency.
In my paper you find certain paths denoting that anti-Platonism encounters serious deadlocks, among others the fact that within an universe considered as a historical process, law appearing “with” the phenomena they govern imply circularity.
Evoking yourselves the turtle paradox, you probably agree with the foregoing. Analogously to the turtle problem, an issue like “Where comes the law XX from?” perhaps receive the answer “From UVU.” Yes, but the answer will be followed by a new question: “Where comes UVU from?” And so on. Ultimately, we have the choice between and endless, infinite series of questions and answers and questions and answers, or self-reference (implying circularity) or the reference to something transcendent/eternal. Reading your non-nihilist essay, and provided I understand well, I think, you are not opposed to a transcendent/eternal solution. Your reference to Leibniz seems to go in this sense.
But now, a real problem arises. Eternity is eternity, whereas aims and intentions are inscribed in time. So, our contest subject has to be reformulated: How can mathematical laws operate such a passage from eternity to temporality?
Or, more basically: given that physical laws are group-theoretic laws, and that biological evolution as such is not formalizable in terms of group theory, how can mathematical laws operate such a passage from group theory to non-group theory?
Even if both questions are not positioned at the same ontological level, they converge, and this interesting. But the answer is hard to find.
Saying that our universe is life-friendly, or fine-tuned for life, of course you are absolutely right. Nevertheless, fine-tuning is a necessary precondition for the appearance of life, but not a sufficient one. Fine-tuning belongs to physics, so to the aspects of our universe being formalizable in terms of groups and/or semi-groups. The next stages, the passage, under life-friendly conditions, from inert matter to living matter, and then evolution, and then the appearance of thought (this is again another story; see the essay of A.& L. Burov and my comment on their forum Moira and Eileithyia for Genesis by Alexey and Lev Burov globally are not formalizable in terms of group theory.
How to resolve this problem?
Have you an answer beyond the fine-tuning precondition?
In my own paper Daring Group-theoretic Foundations of Biological Evolution despite Group Theory? by Peter Martin Punin , I try to find this kind of answer: Given the essentially group-theoretic foundations of physics, evolution theory should be group theory embedded in non-group-theory. Such a model is possible. For the moment, there is a lot of speculation, but perhaps my approach is less speculative than other approaches doing as if physics would not be physics, or as if universal physical laws exceptionally could be forgotten in evolution theory.
Agreeing the essential of your vision, I would be glad to open a discussion with you.
All the best
Peter
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Jonathan J. Dickau wrote on Mar. 14, 2017 @ 19:01 GMT
Greetings Rodolfo and Jorge,
This essay is certainly one of the finest I have read, in this contest. Both in terms of an idea that is worthy to present, and in having clear exposition of your message, I must give you kudos. But also; you have squarely addressed the topic in a satisfying way, which many of the essays fail to do. I like that a universe that encourages evolutionary trends is a natural consequence of quantum mechanics, and that this is a more general result - rather than being tied to your own interpretation of QM.
I admire that you were able to explain all of the technical details using only one easy to understand equation. This essay sets a standard for clarity. My own essay affirms that the laws of nature encourage living beings to arise and evolve, and creates spaces or ranges for us to do so, but my rationale is very different. I assert that certain features in higher-order Maths can also give rise to evolutionary features of natural law. A conversation I had with Tevian Dray at GR21 affirmed some of my ideas on this, which inspired this year's paper.
I invite your comments on
my entry. Good luck in the contest!
All the Best,
Jonathan
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Laurence Hitterdale wrote on Mar. 21, 2017 @ 02:57 GMT
Dear Rodolfo and Jorge,
I think I understand in general terms how your view of the emergence of consciousness and purpose depends on a number of factors. These factors include a regularist as opposed to a necessitarian view of physical laws, an ontology in which events are fundamental, some features of quantum mechanics, the values of fundamental physical parameters, and the “elegance and creative potential of the physical laws.” However, one thing that is not clear to me is the importance for this picture of not accepting the principle of sufficient reason in the form in which Leibniz advocated it. You mention the principle of sufficient reason at the top of page 8.
In any case, thank you for an interesting and worthwhile discussion.
Laurence Hitterdale
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Jarmo Matti Mäkelä wrote on Mar. 22, 2017 @ 09:01 GMT
A very clearly written and thoughtful essay. Congratulations! I gave it high marks.
Jarmo Mäkelä
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Robert Groess wrote on Apr. 1, 2017 @ 04:43 GMT
Dear Jorge Pullin,
Thank you for your wonderfully written and thorough essay, covering ground from physical laws, to emergence and top-down causation, neatly summed up in "Ultimately it is the laws of nature and their ontology who are bio friendly". I wanted to let you know I really enjoyed reading your essay and you have given me much to think about. Thank you for the new perspectives. I have in the meantime, also rated it.
Reagrds,
Robert
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George Gantz wrote on Apr. 2, 2017 @ 15:59 GMT
Rodolfo and Jorge - An excellent essay, thank you. You have addressed the key topic of the contest - the nature of purpose in a world described by mathematics - that many others have not. I also appreciate your comment on the "lack of answers to the inexplicable life-friendliness of the Universe"
If you have a chance, I'd appreciate your review of my essay The How and the Why of Emergence and Intention. I suggest that the "inexplicable" is the result of an intentionality that drives emergence at all levels, and I contrast it with the multiverse speculation which has no answers.
Cheers - George Gantz
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Tommaso Bolognesi wrote on Apr. 3, 2017 @ 13:29 GMT
Dear Rodolfo and Jorge,
the hints at a radically new way to look at (and solve) the matter/mind dichotomy that you provide in your text appear to me as very original and attractive, and superior to the majority of the several essays I’ve read. I wrote ‘hints’ because the impression I had is one of a treasure-map in which a considerable amount of effort is still to be made for getting...
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Dear Rodolfo and Jorge,
the hints at a radically new way to look at (and solve) the matter/mind dichotomy that you provide in your text appear to me as very original and attractive, and superior to the majority of the several essays I’ve read. I wrote ‘hints’ because the impression I had is one of a treasure-map in which a considerable amount of effort is still to be made for getting a fully detailed picture. For example, you seem to hint at some intimate connection between the disposition to act that one can attribute to objects under a certain ontological view at quantum mechanics, and the more familiar agency of conscious creatures: how can I decide whether this idea is extremely profound, has practical consequences (up to suggesting specific experiments), or is just a cute remark of purely metaphorical value?
This type of assessment is further complicated, I believe, by the ’regularistic’ choice that you make, which, unlike the ‘necessitarian one’, leaves room (if I understand correctly) for descriptions of some other, non-regular aspects of nature that escape the Galilean grip of mathematical language. How would one then proceed for rigorously assessing similar conjectures? (Please note that this is a genuine question, not a criticism: I think that bold visions of this type are very appropriate for the FQXi Essay Contest, when supported by articulated arguments and competence, as in this case.)
Another idea that I found brilliant is that of viewing the relation between a QM entangled system and its components (the state being defined only for the former, not for the latter) as enabling a form of top-down causation. I never thought of that phenomenon under this perspective, and this is now one of my favourite examples of top-down causation — I wish I knew more, beside the ‘classical’ ones from the biosphere. By the way, I have quickly checked George Ellis’ recent book (‘How can Physics underlie the mind’ - 2016), largely devoted to top-down causation, and I could not find an explicit mention to this case. Was this idea first proposed in Gambini et al. 2015?
Thank you
Tommaso
fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2824.
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Vladimir Nikolaevich Fedorov wrote on Apr. 4, 2017 @ 11:03 GMT
Dear Jorge,
With great interest I read your essay, which of course is worthy of high rating. Excellently written.
You are one of the few who directly answers the question put by the contest.
I understand your search for causality in quantum mechanics.
«We will then review the ontology that is suggested by several interpretations of quantum mechanics and how it lays out building blocks for reality dramatically different from those of the mechanist paradigm. In particular we will see that this ontology naturally leads to the understanding of emergence and top-¬‐down causation. We will conclude arguing that it opens the possibility for purpose in the world and that it fitsvery elegantly with the description of the Universe that modern science leads to.»
«A realist interpretation of quantum mechanics given in terms of events is much more than an understanding of the measurement problem. It is a vehicle to understand how a world with given properties emerges from a world of quantum potentialities. One would end up with a world in which objects, understood as quantum systems in given states and the ensuing events are the building blocks of reality.»
«An important point is that in order to have a truly quantum ontology, the interpretation of quantum mechanics considered should supply a self‐consistent notion of event.» Based on my explanations of the structure of the solar system, we can say that it is in a certain complex quantum state, like the Hydrogen atom. How will the quantum ontology change in this case?
I wish you success in the contest.
Kind regards,
Vladimir
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Jonathan J. Dickau wrote on Apr. 5, 2017 @ 03:02 GMT
Hello again my friends..
It is good to see that your well-written essay continues to fare well in the ratings, as the contest draws to a close. It is one of the few that appears to address the essay question squarely, and in relevant fashion - presenting an honest and plausible answer - so it is deserving of high regard. I wish you continued luck into the finals.
All the Best,
Jonathan
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Peter Jackson wrote on Apr. 5, 2017 @ 20:41 GMT
Dear Rodolfo and Jorge,
Another very good entry in all valid ways and with some great content. However I must take issue with the suggestion that; "Mechanistic views strip from the description of the world any reference to aims and goals". I suggest my and other essays disprove that.
But I do like and agree your important comments on QM; "The theory does not say what happens when there are no measurements on the system." and;
"..in order to have a truly quantum ontology,the interpretation of quantum mechanics considered should supply a self-‐consistent notion of event."
However I think I falsify in my essay the suggestion a that (do check and comment) "Interpretations that define events via interactions with classical systems or observers are not suitable to construct a purely quantum ontology.;" Though only as Bohr missed a Maxwell momentum! Please do look and falsify!
Very best
Peter
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Bruce M Amberden wrote on Apr. 7, 2017 @ 04:58 GMT
Hello Rodolfo Gambini,
Your essay is the best that I have read. Thank you very much. I am working on the hard problem of consciousness and I have to say that I have learned much from your essay. I have read your essay about 5 times now, and I learn a little more with each read.
My degrees are in astrophysics, and I admire your description of the nature of our universe. Through...
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Hello Rodolfo Gambini,
Your essay is the best that I have read. Thank you very much. I am working on the hard problem of consciousness and I have to say that I have learned much from your essay. I have read your essay about 5 times now, and I learn a little more with each read.
My degrees are in astrophysics, and I admire your description of the nature of our universe. Through hard personal work I had already come to many of the conclusions that I find in your essay, but clarity of your writing has clarified my thoughts. I had come to the Platonist position regarding the mathematical foundations of our universe (I read Max Tegmark’s book), but thinking about causality caused me to think otherwise. You have given me a wonderful label for my current viewpoint – regularist physicalism. I am now regular (sorry, bad pun).
A couple of points and one quibble:
First, the notions of top-down causation can easily be extended into a new argument for the connection between determinism and free will. I think that determinism and free will are flip-sides of the same coin. Free will is a consequence of the loose coupling between deeply complex causal event chains, where causal action in one chain can take action in another causal chain. This is independent action, and where a mind is involved this is free will.
Second, there is a lot more to say about the emergence of semantics. Beyond basic information theory and Turing machines, there are semantics machines that operate with semantics analogous to how computers operate on symbols. Human thought and language are just two examples. This is the leading edge of my current work.
Now for the quibble. It seems to me that in the regularist view, the universe is mindless. Being mindless, the universe isn’t even indifferent. Any purpose in the world is put there by us. We are subjective entities implemented on a physical substrate, and our only experience of the world is through our subjective sensations. Our mental and subjective selves are semantic constructs, and we slather our semantics on the physical universe. We experience the physical world through layers of our semantics. Objectivity and mathematical laws are communally agreed upon semantics that we plaster over the world. The quibble: I think that purpose in the world comes from us and is not already inherently present in the mindless universe – no matter that we live in a Goldie-Lockian just-right universe.
Thanks for the good read.
Cheers,
Bruce Amberden.
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