CATEGORY:
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics? Essay Contest
[back]
TOPIC:
Physics Stops where Natural Metaphysics Starts by Marcel-Marie LeBel
[refresh]
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 11, 2009 @ 12:42 GMT
Essay AbstractAbstract: We may understand the possibilities of physics by attempting somehow to define it. To define it is to make it finite, to expose its boundaries and its limitations. We could say that physics is about experiences and theories described & tested in our physical reality. This essentially means that physics requires from the start, that whatever it discovers about the universe must be formulated in terms of space and time for the purpose of testing. This pre-requisite is at the same time a prejudice that prevents physics from asking and answering questions pertaining to the actual existence of those very elements it requires. Therefore, physics cannot ask the questions of whether or not space or time really exists in the universe. This is the limit of physics. The questions of the actual existence of space or time in the universe are metaphysical questions, questions that natural metaphysics could ask and answer. To believe otherwise would be to pretend that our physical relationship with the universe is so special that it is in fact a true and ultimate representation. This is the present situation and we do not have the choice but to use a metaphysical approach to answer these final questions about what really exist out there. This essay will make an overview of essentials like truths and truth systems, the working of philosophy and science and the importance of logic, not just for our mathematics and sciences but also, for this universe. As required, we will build a proper natural metaphysics. This exploration will give indications as to the possibilities of physics, once it acquires a metaphysical and logical understanding of the universe. If we consider everything physics has accomplished without knowing what the universe is really made of, just think of what it could do if it did.
Author BioBSc Biology 1979, Three years in environment, 24 years in a forensic laboratory in counterfeits.
Download Essay PDF File
report post as inappropriate
James Putnam wrote on Sep. 13, 2009 @ 17:55 GMT
Dear Marcel-Marie LeBel,
Your words: "If these two contrary statements or states were to be separated by time i.e. making them to be 'not at the same time', they would be individually acceptable while remaining as a whole, a global contradiction."
My words: You point out that the universe did not exist and then later it did exist. Your point is that not being and being can be separated in time. There can be a before and after, but those conditions are not the act of creation itself. How do you propose that a separation in time can exist in an act of creation?
James Putnam
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 13, 2009 @ 18:24 GMT
Hi! Hello the public! I am the author of the essay above. Don't let the word "Metaphysics" bother you.
This essay is for the public. The goal here is to give the universe back to the public. Wouldn't it be a shame if nearly 3,000 years of research were to produce some equation that would be understood only by a handful of people? The universe is simple and there is an equally simple logical explanation that is "sidewalk level". For anyone! You included!
I actually ask simple but fundamental questions like "if something really exists" what are the game rules? What are the requirements and consequences? And in order to answer these questions, I use simple logic and a type of structure used in science to produce something that is "true". This Natural "Metaphysics" is no longer part of Philosophy... Give it a try!
Thanks,
Marcel,
Disclaimer: No harm was done to any goldfish in any way in relation to this essay.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 13, 2009 @ 19:56 GMT
REPLY TO PUTNAM
Dear James, thanks for the question.
LeBel: "If these two contrary statements or states were to be separated by time i.e. making them to be 'not at the same time', they would be individually acceptable while remaining as a whole, a global contradiction."
Putnam: You point out that the universe did not exist and then later it did exist. Your point is that not being and being can be separated in time.
LeBel: Yes. But it also show that only the time process can effect both the "being part" and the "separation part".
Putnam: There can be a before and after, but those conditions are not the act of creation itself.
LeBel: There is no "before", except as a concept in mind, since time is created at that moment. The creation act itself could be spontaneous. A Better question is who made the rules for this creation to be logical? Or is it that, one of Smolin's successful baby universes has to be logical?
Putnam: How do you propose that a separation in time can exist in an act of creation?
LeBel: Because the process of time is what is created.... only the time process can effect both the "being part" and the "separation part" without risking contradiction. It may sound just like made-up rules... But they are actual conditions preventing the existence of anything else but the process of time.
----------
LeBel: I liked your essay. You touch the same fundamental questions and search for a unique cause. But as you can read in my essay, the "disunity" in physics is not a problem as you think it is, if you understand that they are just different truth systems.
report post as inappropriate
James Putnam wrote on Sep. 13, 2009 @ 21:10 GMT
Dear Marcel,
Thank you for your reply. My question was intended to give you a reason to expound on your ideas. Thank you for your remarks about my essay. I will try to avoid interjecting my own ideas into your forum. I thought your essay was very good from a metaphysical point of view up to the point where I submitted my question. I think your contribution here is valuable because I think that theoretical physicists could profit greatly from prizing metaphysics as much as they do their theories.
I chose to question you at the point where I thought you moved from metaphysics into theoretical physics. My intent is still to give you an opportunity to explain how you make this transition. Thank you for your previous answers. I do ask now: How do you know that time began at the beginning of the universe? Are you assuming the correctness of relativity theory for your taking that position. I am not taking a position myself while discussing this with you. I am interested in your justifications for your ideas. I need to get passed this point before knowing what to ask further.
James
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 14, 2009 @ 01:08 GMT
REPLY II TO PUTNAM
PUTNAM: I do ask now: How do you know that time began at the beginning of the universe? Are you assuming the correctness of relativity theory for your taking that position.
LEBEL: The exercise of the logical creation of the universe was meant to show that it could happen from rules of logic, and to find out what substance was allowed to exist in such a universe. For "Something from nothing" this is the only logical solution. Maybe someone can find another one. But I doubt it be so simple. Now, the word "time" has dozens of meanings and if one is not specified then none is meant i.e it means nothing. The "time" I speak of is a substance-process of a continual explosive type that makes everything in the universe and which variations and structures work by rules of logic. This explosive process directs both the rate and direction at which spontaneous event happen. In a locally uniformed rate of the time process the clock beat at a certain rate. In a locally non uniform rate of the time process, the clock still beats, but now it also move, because the clock existence itself is an event that is now more probable in a specific direction i.e gravitation. Since the rate of the time process varies here and there in the universe, there is no absolute uniform "age of the universe"; just a general approximation. A bunch of clocks dispersed everywhere in the universe would not show the same age at the same time and this is only a mental exercise since there is no such thing as "at the same time" in the universe.
So, I am not sure of which "time" you speak of.
I have been influenced by general relativity in the metaphysical conclusions I could draw from it. I have nothing against the physics of SR or GR as long as they do not make any metaphysical claims. Pseudo-metaphysics as metric models is o.k. and even necessary for the physics of GR.
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
James Putnam wrote on Sep. 14, 2009 @ 01:39 GMT
Dear Marcel,
Thank you for your answer. I believe I understand your position about time. As for myself, I definitely did not mean clock time, assuming that any activity in the universe that is repetitive can be used as a clock. Relativity theory is, for me, not a basis for defining time. However, that is not important here. Your definition is what is important here.
I do have another question. You speak of time as the "Cause". I assume that you are saying that there is a continuous relationship between time and all effects and that this exclusivity, not seen by other theoretical causes, indicates that time is the reason, the cause, for the effects? You use the common appearance of time in physics equations to support this view. Is this a correct understanding?
Also, your said ... [The "time" I speak of is a substance-process of a continual explosive type that makes everything in the universe and which variations and structures work by rules of logic.] Where did the rules of logic come from? Are they properties of time? I do not mean to sound confrontational. I am interested in your reasoning. Whatever answer you give is the one I am asking for because it is your answer.
James
report post as inappropriate
Anonymous wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 01:34 GMT
REPLY III TO PUTNAM
PUTNAM: You speak of time as the "Cause". I assume that you are saying that there is a continuous relationship between time and all effects and that this exclusivity, not seen by other theoretical causes, indicates that time is the reason, the cause, for the effects?
LEBEL: The system universe is ruled by logic and allows only one cause. A cause is identified by logic in the example of gravitation. It is the only cause.
PUTNAM: You use the common appearance of time in physics equations to support this view. Is this a correct understanding?
LEBEL: Yes. As explained, since time makes everything, we already have some knowledge of it, in a form or another, by way of our own metaphysical appreciation (consciousness+memory). This knowledge from our perception of time is not entirely wrong. The time of physics is perfect for physics.
PUTNAM: Also, your said ... [The "time" I speak of is a substance-process of a continual explosive type that makes everything in the universe and which variations and structures work by rules of logic.] Where did the rules of logic come from? Are they properties of time?
LEBEL: The rule of non-contradiction is shown, in the essay, to be a requirement of accepting that something really exist... and this rule is the basis of logic...
..James, is it me or you are taking an awful long time in getting to the point?
All my answers from I to III are taken straight from the essay. How about you say what`s on your mind?
thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Anton W. M. Biermans wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 02:21 GMT
Hi Marcel,
The question “whether or not space or time really exists in the universe” refers to a higher realm from which the eventual existence of spacetime can be determined: if to non-believers there is no such realm so the universe has to create itself out of nothing, then spacetime is among the things it creates (see ‘Mechanics of a Self-Creating Universe’), so it certainly is no...
view entire post
Hi Marcel,
The question “whether or not space or time really exists in the universe” refers to a higher realm from which the eventual existence of spacetime can be determined: if to non-believers there is no such realm so the universe has to create itself out of nothing, then spacetime is among the things it creates (see ‘Mechanics of a Self-Creating Universe’), so it certainly is no metaphysical quantity but instead created by its inhabitants, the particles to which their distance matters energetically, to which the existence of spacetime is a sine qua non for their own existence.
If there is no higher realm, then there is no authority to lend creations in/of the universe the title ‘real’: if the universe creates itself out of nothing, then things inside, including spacetime itself, exist only to each other, but have no reality outside of it.
To illustrate this, let’s imagine a huge volume of spacetime with only a single particle in it, never mind for the moment that for lack of other particles to exchange energy with, it cannot even exist itself. As long as it has nothing to interact with it doesn’t matter energetically where it is: as it cannot know where it is, all positions are identical to the particle, so the volume can be infinitesmal as well as infinite. To the particle spacetime then is a completely undefined quantity, which is not surprising as it can exist itself, have mass only by exchanging energy with objects in its environment, an exchange providing information about their direction and distance, and so about the dimensions of spacetime itself. If particles create each other (see the essay for the mechanism) so they see each other appear at the same time, in concert, we might imagine the universe to start with particles of a very low energy, their exchange proceeding in extremely large wavelengths so their position, their distance is very indefinite, spacetime between them ill defined.
As even a large displacement takes almost no energy, all positions being almost identical, it doesn’t even make much sense to use an adjective like ‘large’ for their distance or the dimensions of spacetime.
If we define spacetime to be larger as it contains more physically, energetically different positions, then to a particle spacetime is smaller as its own restenergy is smaller.As the distinction between the distance between particles and their velocity with respect to each other fades at larger distances, higher velocities or lower energies, all quantities becoming less definite, so does spacetime: the smaller the energy of the particles, the less defined spacetime looks to them, the less physically different position it contains, the smaller it can said to be. The higher the restenergy of a particle, the more physically different positions it can distinguish, the larger its universe is, the more particles at larger distances it exchanges energy with, the larger its part in their creation is, in the associated creation of spacetime, in its expansion.
So mass and spacetime are intrinsicly related, spacetime being a product, an aspect of mass and vice versa instead of something which comes for free, some empty, abstract property-less quantity. As seen from the center of the universe (any point being its center), its rim then is no sharp border but an area where the energy of the particles decreases to become infinitesmal: the more distant, the smaller, the less indefinite their energy, the longer their wavelength and the less definite their position is, the less spacetime is defined, the more the concept of spacetime looses any significance.
view post as summary
report post as inappropriate
Florin Moldoveanu wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 03:00 GMT
Dear Marcel,
I have enjoyed very much reading your essay. I started skeptical, saw that it is surprisingly well thought out and liked the first half very much. As the essay progressed however, things got progressively muddied up into fuzzy philosophy and unsubstantiated speculations. However, the basic original ideas are in my opinion very good and they present a very interesting point of view. I have struggled with those issues myself for quite some time and I had discovered some time ago the link between logic and time. I also discovered it is not enough to fully understand our world. Please see my essay: “Heuristic rule for constructing physics axiomatization”. It is mostly on the mathematical side, but the philosophical implications resonate very much with your first part of the essay. Your ideas capture the standard understanding of physics and philosophy, but I am trying to push the envelope and extend math’s reach into a formerly philosophical domain. I would very much appreciate your thoughts regarding my essay. Thank you.
report post as inappropriate
James Putnam wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 04:30 GMT
Dear Marcel,
You write an essay where you propose a solution to the nature of the universe. I write you three messages in less than two days and you say this to me:
..James, is it me or you are taking an awful long time in getting to the point?
No more questions.
Jamesw
report post as inappropriate
Stefan Weckbach wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 07:39 GMT
Dear Marcel,
i read your essay with great interest.
Especially your rule of non-contradiction is interesting to me for reasons i layed down in my own essay here in the current contest.
My main question in my own essay - and also in comparison to yours -, is, how are choices *possible* at all in a logical universe (including our minds) that is governed exclusively by that rule of non-contradiction? Why are there not only facts and truths, but also assumptions and choices?
"If we assume that nothing existed at the start, we could face a contradiction
by suddenly making something to exist."
Yes, but what, if this assumption is simply not a truth? For example, in cosmology this "start" is assumed as a quantum fluctuation and therefore, the rules of quantum mechanics had to be in some very precise sense "pre-existent" to manage this start. Even if the explanation of this "start" via quantum mechanics isn't true at the end, one thing seems to remain true for me: For the aim of deducing time as the mysterious substance that makes it possible to link existence and non-existence, time has to be pre-existent according to your rule of non-contradiction. If it wouldn't be pre-existent, we would arrive at the same problem of something coming out of nothing (namely time). So it seems to me that your explanation of the problem that something came out of nothing is a problem constructed by a "truth" that mustn't be - logically speaking - a truth, but also could simply be a choice by assumption (namely a possibility).
It seems to me that every explanation of "everything" via mutually exclusive contraries like "to be" or "not to be" cannot squeeze more information out of these contraries as are put in right from the start (means by constructing a "truth" that needs an opposite to be "true").
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 18:59 GMT
REPLY I TO WECKBACH
WECKBACH: My main question in my own essay - and also in comparison to yours -, is, how are choices *possible* at all in a logical universe (including our minds) that is governed exclusively by that rule of non-contradiction? Why are there not only facts and truths, but also assumptions and choices?
LEBEL: We make assumptions and guesses simply because we don’t...
view entire post
REPLY I TO WECKBACH
WECKBACH: My main question in my own essay - and also in comparison to yours -, is, how are choices *possible* at all in a logical universe (including our minds) that is governed exclusively by that rule of non-contradiction? Why are there not only facts and truths, but also assumptions and choices?
LEBEL: We make assumptions and guesses simply because we don’t know everything.
See how I describe a truth system.
WECKBACH: "If we assume that nothing existed at the start, we could face a contradiction by suddenly making something to exist."
Yes, but what, if this assumption is simply not a truth? For example, in cosmology this "start" is assumed as a quantum fluctuation and therefore, the rules of quantum mechanics had to be in some very precise sense "pre-existent" to manage this start.
LEBEL: The start I describe calls only for logic to be there either as the pre-existent requirement, or as the only requirement giving off universes with substance and eventually intelligent life… Quantum mechanics as behavior of matter, not the description) had to emerge from these simple rules of logic.
I said the truth system universe required at least one rule of impossibility in order to exist; there could be another one! One impossibility having to do with a speed limit in the universe. Can a truth system be born of two impossibilities or constraints? Yes! Each electron in the atom owe its specific existence and position to a specific set of constraints that define it as being unique ( quantum numbers and Pauli’s exclusion).
WECKBACH: For the aim of deducing time as the mysterious substance that makes it possible to link existence and non-existence, time has to be pre-existent according to your rule of non-contradiction. If it wouldn't be pre-existent, we would arrive at the same problem of something coming out of nothing (namely time). So it seems to me that your explanation of the problem that something came out of nothing is a problem constructed by a "truth" that mustn't be - logically speaking - a truth, but also could simply be a choice by assumption (namely a possibility).
LEBEL: First, only the rule of logic may be somehow pre-existent or at least a pre-requirement for a universe giving off substance and intelligent life … The only substance allowed to come out according to the rule is the stuff we deduce from experience as time. Secondly, “something out of nothing” is not a problem. It is in fact the whole purpose of this exercise I called “logical creation”; creation means “Something out of nothing”. A kind of spontaneous symmetry breaking of the logical kind. Our conservation laws covers only what exists by replacing the time process but not the time process itself since
it is continually being generated.
WECKBACH: It seems to me that every explanation of "everything" via mutually exclusive contraries like "to be" or "not to be" cannot squeeze more …
LEBEL: I am conscious of this unavoidable circularity. There must be some principle, I don’t know which (maybe Godel’s incompleteness) that says that something like a theory of everything for a system that is described from the inside of the system can only show circularity? Then, could a choice-less un-branched circularity be the final proof of concept? In a way, we can only use our own words and logic to describe it and we are tied to the answer. As part of this universe, we do exist, work and think using the same rules as any other part of the universe. Finding the rules can’t be that hard.
All theories are windows that give us a limited and specific point of view into the underlying reality. What we need now is not more windows. What we need is to not be afraid to look through these windows and deduce what it is that exists really in the underlying reality. In the essay, I approach this question by showing that the basic rules on each side of the windows are the same; logic.
The above discussion is very interesting and I learn much from these discussions. But IT mostly shows the requirement for further development, most of which is beyond the scope of this essay, and frankly, beyond my own present capacity.
Marcel,
view post as summary
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 15, 2009 @ 19:24 GMT
Dear James,
Sorry about that. Your questions were mostly asking for verbatim answers
from my essay.. I got frustrated from not learning anything new in my answers
to your questions.
I downloaded from your website the 147 pages full theory ... lots of maths!
My philosophy here is the following. If there is something new to be found
in physics ... there are already thousands of physicists way better than I
working at it. So, I address that important part of the question that they dare not address; the actual metaphysical (actually ontology) dimension of it.
In the last 200 years we have written down tons of equations. With a metaphysical rule of correspondence, we could now READ them for what they really mean, not for our reality but for the underlying reality.
What is on your mind?
p.s. See answer to Weckbach - May answer a few of your other questions.
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 16, 2009 @ 01:17 GMT
REPLY I TO BIERMANS
BIERMANS: The question “whether or not space or time really exists in the universe” refers to a higher realm from which the eventual existence of spacetime can be determined: if to non-believers there is no such realm so the universe has to create itself out of nothing, then spacetime is among the things it creates ...
LEBEL: My take on "spacetime" is that it is a conceptual bridge between our physical reality and the underlying reality (only made of the time process). A speed limit in the universe spelled, 100 years ago, the end of space. So, in order to keep doing physics we quickly devised this conceptual tool, which is all it is. It is not a true metaphysical entity and, to me, has no significance other than reflect a dimension of our need to know. I am interested in metaphysical claims made from physics if coming from someone who knows he is actually doing metaphysics. If one doesn't know he is doing metaphysics, chances are he is doing it wrong. (Now I will read your essay and compare with your post)
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 16, 2009 @ 02:24 GMT
REPLY I TO MOLDOVEANU
LEBEL: I honestly tried to read your essay but it is calling for principles, rules and concepts with which I am not familiar. this said, I ahve a few comments:
- A good start for a new physical theory is an impossibility, either factual or postulated (see truth systems)
- My conclusion is that no physical TOE is logically possible. Mathematical connection/description is still possible.
- I am not sure of your: physical reality vs real world vs Platonic world ...
- I like you addressing the concept of truth: "The universal truth property can be shown to create a constraint on the event manifold that manifest itself
as global hyperbolicity [13], typically called time." I would like your short explanation without having to dig into ref (13).
- You mention a metaphysical questions like the "Nature of time". I don't think that mathematical precision will answer that one.
- You say: "Instead on trying to solve the nature of reality, a much
more useful approach is not to seek the similarities, but the di®erences. And this is the main idea of this essay." My approach is exactly about "trying to solve the nature of reality" or the underlying reality.
- "but I am trying to push the envelope and extend math’s reach into a formerly philosophical domain" . Maths are based on logic and somehow they are most welcome in the truth system metaphysics. Simple logic only give me the initial "why"; after that I am pretty much lost; maths of explosive process evolution, maths explosive structure, etc.
LEBEL: Now, would you do me a favor and tell me where the second half of my essay start and list the fuzzy philosophy and speculation. I may have lost you there along with everyone else. This feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Florin Moldoveanu wrote on Sep. 16, 2009 @ 04:29 GMT
REPLY I TO LEBEL
> A good start for a new physical theory is an impossibility, either factual or postulated (see truth systems)
F: Yes, but is but no means the unique way.
>My conclusion is that no physical TOE is logically possible. Mathematical connection/description is still possible.
F: Wrong: Nature seems to have no problem combining relativity with quantum...
view entire post
REPLY I TO LEBEL
> A good start for a new physical theory is an impossibility, either factual or postulated (see truth systems)
F: Yes, but is but no means the unique way.
>My conclusion is that no physical TOE is logically possible. Mathematical connection/description is still possible.
F: Wrong: Nature seems to have no problem combining relativity with quantum mechanics and gravity in a logical coherent way. Just because we are not yet able to do it is only a reflection of our limited intellectual power, and we should not be too arrogant to claim it cannot be done.
F: And Right: depends on what we mean by a TOE. Mathematics is infinite in complexity, and so is physics. We understand now how the human body works but we will never have a TOE of medicine (we are still battling diseases like cancer). Similarly, there will be no closed mathematical system describing a physics TOE like say the Euclidean geometry. (Axiomatizing physics is still possible.)
>I am not sure of your: physical reality vs real world vs Platonic world ...
F: Reality seems to be nothing but a collection of relational mathematical structures organized in a specific way. But this is fuzzy philosophy. What matters is that you can derive important uniqueness results about nature simply by comparing math and reality.
>I like you addressing the concept of truth: "The universal truth property can be shown to create a constraint on the event manifold that manifest itself as global hyperbolicity [13], typically called time." I would like your short explanation without having to dig into ref (13).
F: You cannot dig in ref 13 because it is not published yet. Basically you can translate Goedel’s incompleteness proof almost 1-to-1 into the global hyperbolicity proof. This is very much related to your ideas: if something is true (like past history), then you have no freedom: you get only a frozen past (that cannot be rewritten by traveling back in time). No time travel to the past = global hyperbolicity. In Special relativity one has the Minkowski cone and LOCAL hyperbolicity which separates past from future, but in general relativity one can bend the space time a little bit at each point in such a ways that globally time can wind back to itself, and this violates GLOBAL hyperbolicity.
> You mention a metaphysical questions like the "Nature of time". I don't think that mathematical precision will answer that one.
F: mathematically, time=global hyperbolicity. Philosophically, time is the (unique) mechanism that prevents us from becoming inconsistent and separating existence from non-existence. Without time, there will be only frozen contextual truths (many at odds with each other) and also there will be inconsistent statements. Demanding universal consistency (or universal truth property) necessarily demands the existence of time.
>You say: "Instead on trying to solve the nature of reality, a much more useful approach is not to seek the similarities, but the di®erences. And this is the main idea of this essay." My approach is exactly about "trying to solve the nature of reality" or the underlying reality.
F: Indeed. Initially I have gone your path as well. But what I try to do now is to extract mathematical consequences and prove that the real world has uniqueness. I believe we should be able to rigorously prove in the end that the universe must have 3 spatial and one time dimension, it must has quantum mechanics, it must has the gravitational, electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces, it must have the particles we observe and their properties, etc.
>"but I am trying to push the envelope and extend math’s reach into a formerly philosophical domain" . Maths are based on logic and somehow they are most welcome in the truth system metaphysics. Simple logic only give me the initial "why"; after that I am pretty much lost; maths of explosive process evolution, maths explosive structure, etc.
F: But there are very important “why”s we do not have an answer yet: why are there 3 generations of matter? Why do we have the strong force? Why do we observe the value of the cosmological constant the way it is? Etc, etc. After all major “whys’ are answered, then we can concentrate on secondary issues.
>LEBEL: Now, would you do me a favor and tell me where the second half of my essay start and list the fuzzy philosophy and speculation. I may have lost you there along with everyone else. This feedback would be appreciated.
F: you did not lose me; I was able to follow your essay to the end, although admittedly it became much harder to read after the first half. Your essay is losing the physics audience around page 5: “How many substances?” The (wrong) speculation begins fully on page 6: “We got ourselves a universe of time”. I do understand fully what you mean, I used to think along similar lines myself, but I now know it to be mathematically incomplete. As much as I had wanted it so, I cannot obtain quantum mechanics only from my universal truth property. What you are missing is the second principle: composability. From composability and universal truth property one can mathematically derive the necessity of both quantum and classical mechanics.
view post as summary
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Sep. 17, 2009 @ 01:40 GMT
REPLY II TO MOLDOVEANU
(I skip past where I offer no more reply; to be taken as partial agreement)
LEBEL: Thanks for the hyperbolicity
>LEBEL: Now, would you do me a favor and tell me where the second half of my essay start and list the fuzzy
philosophy and speculation. I may have lost you there along with everyone else. This feedback would be appreciated.
LEBEL: Thanks for the feedback! It's appreciated! I will investigate this
"composability"...
LEBEL: Science and especially physics are empirical. This means that we can, and effectively have done wonderful things without ever having a clue about what we are really doing. If we are stuck right now it is because the empirical
approach as run out of its capabilities. It has fulfilled it promises and is now complete. To go further, we have to stop and try to figure it out, understand from all the clues we have gathered.
In the last 200 years we have written down a host of empirical yet successful equations describing our reality. I would not dream of re-writing QM or GR as they are perfect for what they were meant to do. All that is left to do now
is to understand what these equations really mean with respect to the universe. And that is all I have to offer, with a metaphysical approach; to understand what it is that we are really doing. Once we do, the possibilities are practically limitless..
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Narendra Nath wrote on Sep. 29, 2009 @ 03:20 GMT
The disciplinary boundaries have been created in science by we humans. In fact, all sciences, including Mathematics, initially had only a philosophical curiousity. Thus human mind is the source of everything we have, as our resource of knowledge.Let us not restrict ourselves in our quest for better truth about our physical universe by introducing limiting boundaries for our professional spheres. i for one have strongly sensed that we need a far closer colloboration with life sciences today than ever before. Physics is getting a stop over in new discoveries, partly confirmed by the award of Nobel prizes in past several years for mainly lifetime studies to the awardees! Interdisciplinary approach is very much the need in order to expand our minds, the main source of concepts/precepts. Keen observation coupled with a self-discriminatory critical analysis is the only way to freshness in acquired knowledge. It already exists in the universe since its birth but we need to widen our approach, instead of narrowing it through what we call specialities.
i wish the author best of luck with his remarkable attempt to pen down an essay. He is correct to suggest that space and time are intrinsic concepts. The homogeneity or linearity in them today may not be true from the start of the universe. As indicated in my essay, the distortions/ inhomogeneitirs in space and time are the souces for production of mass and energy in the universe.However, the theories we have propounded over the years may not provide sufficient confidence, as we are complex in our thinking process and even some simplicities in nature gets converted into complexities due to our own bias and restrictions imposed by what we consider as knowledge that has been proved as successful mostly.
report post as inappropriate
Anton W.M. Biermans wrote on Oct. 2, 2009 @ 08:15 GMT
‘ … “spacetime” is … a conceptual bridge between our physical reality and the underlying reality …’
‘ … A speed limit in the universe spelled, 100 years ago, the end of space…’
Spacetime is as physical an object as a chair as it is populated with virtual particles which are real enough as long as they interact, exist, particles which in turn keep spacetime going, one being a manifestation of the other. Unless you believe in some outside creator, there is no underlying reality either: all things in the universe are only real, that is, exist to each other as far as they interact, exchange energy, space being an aspect of mass like energy is of time, one defining, creating the other. Though in a universe created by some creator, a caused and causal universe there is a speed limit, in a self-creating universe the speed of light is no velocity but just a number which says how many meters correspond to how many seconds. Though an observer measures a transmission time proportional to the distance, to the photon its transmission is instantaneous. As you can never cross a spacedistance larger than corresponds to the associated timedistance, nothing goes faster than instantaneous, which is obvious. So there is no end to spacetime either.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Oct. 4, 2009 @ 19:08 GMT
REPLY II TO BIERMANS
Anton,
My essay just points to the following facts.
Science (and physics) is an empirical method of testing our physical theories. This system considers our reality as a black box, the content of which is of no consequence. We poke the box and we get in return some reaction. These “poke and reaction” constitute our experience of reality. The information-relation between the “pokes and reactions” constitutes behaviors that we regroup to form laws. With these laws we can make wonderful things without ever having to wonder what is really in the box, i.e. what it is the we are really doing. This is, and always was, the limit of physics.
The essay presents the idea that we now know enough to be able to deduce what the content of the box is. (Which is what I do in the essay)It also says that the content of the box is real by opposition to everything else we can touch and feel that is an experience. Hence, the metaphysical approach. The cool thing is that the rules inside the box are also the same outside the box, even if at first glance they appear more complex because they carry the dimensions of our reality and senses.
If you understand this, the rest is easy…
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Narendra Nath wrote on Oct. 13, 2009 @ 02:18 GMT
Just a look at your Abstract and your Biodata, i got awareness about your simplicity and straightforwardness. yes,the nature is simple. Then what complicates Physics that started as a branch of pure philosophy. We may call that now metaphysics that is ' hypothetical physics'. All these contradictions arise because the human mind is very complex, unstable and basically wandering in its substantial nature. It makes some of our theoreticians trigger happy with their mathematical expertise. They tend to dominate Physics with their mathematical expertise, without much caring if their presumptions, concepts and precepts are relevant and valid to the problem at hand. Then there are experimentalists too who may have preconceived ideas and tend to project their results to justify their false notions. It is all done by the dirty mind.
The question to tackle therefor lies with cleaning and quieting our minds with freshness, unbiased attitudes and at the same time attune to the simplicity of nature as it is. There lies the solution to our problems in sciences, humanities and social sciences and whatever the branch of knowledge we feel attracted to work in.
Being a forensic scientist you may have had several illustrations of the crooked mind which make people do things taht they may themselves not like. But once having done so, they have the need to protect themselves. That is when they expose themselves to be caught by the science you do.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Oct. 16, 2009 @ 18:47 GMT
Comment to Nath
There is nothing wrong with science being empirical. As long as we recognize its limitations, we may draw very important information from it. The problem appears when we think we may pull more from it than it can deliver. By not recognizing the limits of the empirical method, we did not realize that we were not asking a very important group of questions, starting by “what are we really doing”?
The year 2000 was not supposed to look like this. Those who painted our future long ago guessed that we would by then do more and know more. The thing is that we do more things but we don’t know more about what we are really doing. So, we are not wrong. We are just very late. We should have figured that out 50 years ago. The result is that we all go around very proud of our ipod nano plugged into our ears but we still strap our astronauts to tons of explosives to send them into space. This was o.k. for the daredevils of the hay days of space exploration, hardly the basis of a space exploration program.
Playing with things only require an empirical approach. To master those same things requires the deepest of understanding.
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
TR wrote on Oct. 26, 2009 @ 23:56 GMT
Hi Marcel, thanks for your presentation. I agree that foundational questions regarding the nature of the universe import not only the physics - matters of 'mechanics', but necessarily the metaphysics as well - the matters of the mind. Our understanding will always be limited by the context of our existence, a function of the way the human neural cortex processes the information admitted and filtered by our senses, finally interpreted by the discriminate assay of the collective intellect circa 2009. In other words, when you get right down to it, it's really mind moving flag isn't it. Having said that, it appears as though mathematical science and logic may very well be providing us the means to perhaps one day apprehend a comprehensive 'objective' understanding.
I also agree with your conclusion that time is for real and space is the concept having no correspondence with reality. I arrived at that conclusion, however, in an entirely different manner: singularityshuttle.com.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Oct. 28, 2009 @ 03:20 GMT
TR,
Thank you for the appreciation. On the subject of metaphysics, I can only repeat one of my explanation above which is clearer than anything in my essay..
Science (and physics) is an empirical method of testing our physical theories. This system considers our reality as a black box, the content of which is of no consequence. We poke the box and we get in return some reaction. These “poke and reaction” constitute our experience of reality. The information-relation between the “pokes and reactions” constitutes behaviors that we regroup to form laws. With these laws we can make wonderful things without ever having to wonder what is really in the box, i.e. what it is the we are really doing. This is, and always was, the limit of physics.
The essay presents the idea that we now know enough to be able to deduce what the content of the box is. (Which is what I do in the essay)It also says that the content of the box is real by opposition to everything else we can touch and feel that is an experience i.e something that requires our presence and that is dictated by our limitations. Hence, the metaphysical approach....
p.s. I could not get the shuttle to work ..????
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
TR wrote on Oct. 28, 2009 @ 21:26 GMT
I agree, the contents of the box doesn't really matter to physics, that's more a question for metaphysics - ontology and epistemology. Nonetheless, most physicists describe their theories using terms which clearly implicate context and content (spacetime curvature, vibrating strings) because ultimately science is about trying to visualize in some sense in order to understand. Sorry the Singularity Shuttle won't run for you, it's just a flash movie but does require high-speed download to run. Some browsers make it so the buttons have to be hit twice, but this is the first I've heard of anyone having a problem. It talks about physics and metaphysics, space and time, content and nothingness; thought you might find it interesting.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Oct. 29, 2009 @ 03:39 GMT
REPLY II TO TR
TR: I agree, the contents of the box doesn't really matter to physics, that's more a question for metaphysics - ontology and epistemology. Nonetheless, most physicists describe their theories using terms which clearly implicate context and content (spacetime curvature, vibrating strings) because ultimately science is about trying to visualize in some sense in order to understand.
Marcel: This is the point exactly. “Understanding” is not really about knowing the laws that govern our observations and descriptions of the universe. Understanding is about knowing the logic behind the existence and evolution of the universe.
The box contains everything physicists ever wanted to know about the universe. The content of the box is the only thing that will allow us to make sense of all the theories and equations (unification). But they can’t get it with the empirical approach. The empirical approach is about finding things by experience, trial and error. It is a choice we made long ago between knowing and doing. The empirical test is not just the proof of a theory. It is before all a practical demonstration of control over some segment of the universe and this control provides the illusion that we understand what we are doing. We don’t.
The metaphysical and logical understanding of the universe is accessible, understandable and necessary for us to progress beyond the limits of physics. It is certain that this metaphysics still has to be engineered back into physics in order to produce something new and practical in our reality.
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
TR wrote on Oct. 30, 2009 @ 01:43 GMT
From one of my favorite people: "Mind can see that reality is evoluting into weightless metaphysics. The wellspring of reality is the family of weightless generalized principles." Buckminster Fuller - Synergetics, pg.xxxi
report post as inappropriate
Author Frank Martin DiMeglio wrote on Dec. 12, 2009 @ 16:55 GMT
Hi Marcel. How would your essay account for the following, as the below is crucial to a proper understanding of the relationship/limits of physics in relation to thought and experience in general.
Since dreams make thought more like sensory experience (including gravity and electromagnetism/light) in general, the idea of "how space manifests as electromagnetic/gravitational energy" is not only demonstrated in dreams (as I have shown), but this idea is then ALSO understood to be NECESSARILY central to an improved understanding of physics/experience in general.
According to Jonathan Dickau, my idea of "how space manifests as electromagnetic/gravitational energy" is "right on" as a central and valuable idea/concept in physics.
Also, how do you account for the following:
Do you understand the GIGANTIC significance of the following three statements taken together?:
1) The ability of thought to describe OR reconfigure sense is ultimately dependent upon the extent to which thought is similar to sensory experience.
2) Dreams involve a fundamental integration AND spreading of being, experience, and thought at the [gravitational and electromagnetic] MID-RANGE of feeling BETWEEN thought AND sense.
3) Dreams make thought more like sensory experience IN GENERAL (including gravity and electromagnetism).
Now, also consider the following:
These are the essential parameters/requirements regarding the demonstration/proof of what is ultimately possible in physics.
1) Making thought more like sensory experience in general.
2) Space manifesting as gravitational/electromagnetic energy.
3) Balancing/uniting scale.
4) Exhibiting/demonstrating particle/wave.
5) Repulsive/attractive.
What is ultimately possible in physics cannot (and should not) be properly/fully understood apart from this great truth:
The ability of thought to describe OR reconfigure sense is ultimately dependent upon the extent to which thought is similar to sensory experience.
FQXi -- Stop deleting my posts.
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Dec. 28, 2009 @ 17:48 GMT
Frank,
You say,
"The ability of thought to describe OR reconfigure sense is ultimately dependent upon the extent to which thought is similar to sensory experience."
- It is well known that our mind transforms heavily the signals from our senses to create the experience of reality. What you see is what you get, but not what you have.
- My essay shows that the universe is, at the metaphysical level, a monism; one substance and one cause. In this way, the processes of thinking are using the same substance and cause to operate i.e. the same principles as the universe does. But this is no surprise since we all understand that we are also part of the universe ...(This is probably why most people do not share your enthusiasm over these statements).
- In general I leave consciousness, dreams and thinking processes to psychologist and neurobiologists.... I leave the whole process as a black box for them to peak into. So, I separate all these activities from actual physics
and natural metaphysics.
MIND --- experience (Physics) ---- underlying reality (natural metaphysics).
I work on the two on the right leaving the mysteries of the mind to others...(for now :-)
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
steve Dufourny wrote on Jan. 5, 2010 @ 18:41 GMT
Hello dear Mr LeBel,
Nice to know you .
you say ... the "disunity" in physics is not a problem as you think it is, if you understand that they are just different truth systems.
I think you confound the foundamentals with the sciences fiction .The quest of the truth is not a play where the imaginaries are always the driving forces .No an universality is an universality .I think what many confounds the 3D and its spirituality of universality and the unknew ,they try to encircle an imossible thing to encircle .They shall be more satisfied if they focus on the physicality and the sciences of the life .
You say ...The metaphysical and logical understanding of the universe is accessible
False too ,only the physicalitty gives a road to encircle the unknew ,only by this ,a contemplation of the creations,it doesn't exist a system in the physicality to encircle above our 3D .It is thus a lost of time ,a wind ,a joke ,perhaps even a business and that is all .Why scientists want to go so far ,I am persuaded they don't know even the name of a flower or an animal .The biological lifes show us the physicality and its aim .Our aim as humans as catalyzers of the harmony is to act in this equation .Not to loose their time ,in "not necessary extrapolations"
You say " Understanding is about knowing the logic behind the existence and evolution of the universe."
Sorry but that has no sense for me that .I repeat only 3D .
Best Regards
Steve
report post as inappropriate
Edwin Eugene Klingman wrote on Jan. 6, 2010 @ 01:07 GMT
Dear Marcel,
I somehow missed reading your essay during the contest period. I would have voted for you had I read it. I recently saw some of your comments on Tegmark's "Mathematical Universe" thread, which caused me to come back to your essay.
Your paper naturally divides into two parts: natural philosophy and physics.
Your treatment of natural philosophy is masterful. I...
view entire post
Dear Marcel,
I somehow missed reading your essay during the contest period. I would have voted for you had I read it. I recently saw some of your comments on Tegmark's "Mathematical Universe" thread, which caused me to come back to your essay.
Your paper naturally divides into two parts: natural philosophy and physics.
Your treatment of natural philosophy is masterful. I have never seen your perspective on truth before, and I found it very enlightening!
Your essay is wonderful. The first half is so clear but the second half is more confused. To the unbiased observer, this would seem to indicate that the first half is 'true' while the second half was based on a false choice. I believe that this is your choice of 'time' as the 'fluid substance' that your first half implies as the basis of the universe. But I am not an unbiased observer -- because I believe that the 'fluid substance' that is the basis of our universe is gravity, or more properly the gravito-magnetic field.
In my essay I claim that this field is sufficient to account for the physical universe, as we know it. I go further to attach an interpretation to the 'magnetic' part of the gravity field, that of consciousness, but even if this interpretation is rejected, the theory still accounts for all of the known particles, the basic universal constants, the inflationary force, the logical character of this substance, and much more (everything else!).
Because the first thing you pull into your theory (after time) is gravity, I ask you to 'willingly suspend your disbelief' and consider that the gravitational field is the 'fluid substance' from which the universe is built. The field has energy (Maxwell) and hence mass (Einstein) and the self-interacting vortices in the field essentially condense into particles, from which the rest of our universe has evolved.
Marcel, if possible, I would have taken your first five pages and appended my essay to it. Yours is so beautiful and of course I believe that mine answers more fundamental questions of physics than other essays. But your metaphysical reasoning is superb.
As is illustrated many times in these comments, by the time someone develops their ideas sufficiently to be able to submit a qualified, original, essay to a contest like this, they are pretty much wedded to their ideas. That's quite natural.
But I hope that you will consider the fact that others have admired the first half of your essay, while arguing with the choice of 'time' in the second half, to attempt a fresh look at the problem. I invite you to study my essay (and associated comment thread) as a logical extension of your wonderful metaphysics.
Because the first thing you do after your choice of time is to incorporate gravity, you may be amenable to consider starting with the gravity field, and choosing it as the difference between 'something exists and nothing exists'.
You also state that it is postulation of an impossibility, or a 'limit' that revolutionizes physics. In my essay it is the limit to the curvature of a gravitational vortex in space-time that brings about a new phenomenon, the electromagnetic field, and establishes the basis of charged particles. Everything else depends from these constituents, ALL of which are simply 'phases' of the primordial monistic substance.
For an exposition of this, see my essay.
For example, from the Quantum Flow Principle, I derive three compatible physical possibilities. If, according to your exposition, these are to be found in a single truth system, they must be self-consistent. Since the term defines a value in each system, the value must be the same. This turns out to be Planck's constant (in reality) and the relation specializes to Heisenberg's uncertainty relations in addition to other consequences, such as the quantization of angular momentum, mvr = h.
Elsewhere I show how logic arises from physical construction; silicon, protein, neural (or other) and the fact that such logic, regardless of implementation or instantiation, gives no choice in its operation clearly defines a central character of the physical universe, ie, it supports logic.
Marcel, I find your discussion of gravity and time very interesting, and wonder if, from a monistic gravito-magnetic substance, you could not derive similar, but perhaps new and insightful relations. Else you seem to be faced with the problem of explaining particles, inflation, etc, etc. I would love to hear your thinking on this.
As you state, we make choices in order to proceed with a new theory, whatever the reasons for our choices. For example, I had decided, after long consideration, that consciousness was best represented by a field, and, since my consciousness interacts with the physical universe, I decided there must be a force equation (no matter how unlikely this has always seemed to me!). It did not take long to find a reasonable, or at least interesting guess for the form of this equation, which I did 3 Jan 06, exactly 4 years ago. Since then it has been cornucopia! No end of results and explanations of current mysteries have flowed from this choice, and not one contradiction in four years.
Thank you for such a clear exposition of truth as the absence of choice. I will quote you and paraphrase you in the future. You have made a major contribution to my thinking.
With my compliments,
Edwin Eugene Klingman
view post as summary
report post as inappropriate
Steve Dufourny wrote on Jan. 6, 2010 @ 19:39 GMT
Hi dear Mr Klingman and dear Marcel ,
I d like insist on the fact what I don't critic the universality of a person ,just the physics models .
I liked a lot reading your essay Mr Klingmann ,and yours too Mr Le Bel in a phylosophical point of vue .
That said ,I am frank ,I don't encircle the necessities to extrapolate extradimensions ,or hidden variables .....We can say all what we have our limits due to our young age at the universal scale .This reality must be inserted in all models ,it is that the relativity in fact .
We know all what we have our limits and walls .
About the gravito magnetism ,there it is very relevant if the referenatial is in 3D ,the velocity of rotations and the synchronizations more the volumes and the senses and directions .....thus can imply a specific rule .The evolution takes all its sense with these polarisations between gravity and light .
The quantum architecture is in 3D and a time constant ,it is essential in my opinion .This system is like that since the begining of the physicality it seems to me.
Best Regards
Steve
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Jan. 12, 2010 @ 00:35 GMT
Dear Mr Klingman,
Sorry for taken so long to answer. As you have noticed, I am strolling around in various blogs, forums etc. where you in fact have been in contact with my ideas.
- As shown by my logical creation of the universe, time was not a choice but rather a necessity.
- the monism is not by choice as well. This monism prevents anything but time to exist.
Your choice of gravitation is the physicality closest to my theory of time. But, as `Bill Unruh describes it, gravity is our own experience of time… so time is more fundamental than gravity..citation follows:
“A more accurate way of summarizing the lessons of General Relativity is
that gravity does not cause time to run differently in different places (e.g., faster far from
the earth than near it). Gravity is the unequable flow of time from place to place. It is not
that there are two separate phenomena, namely gravity and time and that the one, gravity,
affects the other. Rather the theory states that the phenomena we usually ascribe to gravity
are actually caused by time’s flowing unequably from place to place.
Time, Gravity, and Quantum Mechanics, W. G. Unruh
CIAR Cosmology Program, Dept. of Physics, University of B. C., Vancouver, Canada V6T 2A6”
- Other also told me of this “second” part which confusion, I am not sure, is either in my own writing or is in the rejection of the mind of the reader. Gravity is still physics while my second part remains metaphysical.
Your theory may be internally consistent and a new way to describe physics. My goal was specifically not to find a new (another) physical description but rather a logical understanding in the absence of an observer.
My path is about logic and metaphysics. I leave particles and inflation to others…
Me, it was some day in February 1998 at 5.00 am. I woke up realizing I could understand gravitation as a logical operation, logical as in “spontaneous”. It has been also a Cornucopia of discoveries… of the metaphysical kind.
((I don’t mix consciousness anywhere in my discourse. It is certain, in a monistic universe, that time plays a role in it. But it is not my concern right now.)) All this was possible simply by admitting that something has to exist somewhere, by itself outside our usual physical approach. Following the logical consequences lead to more details. I think you theory could be the closest to mine while remaining `physics`.
I will download and read your essay and comment later.
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate
Edwin Eugene Klingman wrote on Jan. 12, 2010 @ 01:05 GMT
Dear Marcel,
No problem with time to answer, we're all busy, but thanks for answering. I am still in love with the first half of your essay, and wish to again express my appreciation for your clarity and coherence in your view of truth.
I will study your reply above and comment if I find anything to say. I also very much appreciate your comments on other threads, such as Tegmark's Mathematical Universe. If you care to point me to other places you are commenting, I'd be happy to study those as well. I still regret not finding your essay until after the contest closed. I kicked a number of people up to 4.0 and some of them stayed there.
I am glad you will read my essay. Although the ten pages barely represent the tip of the iceberg, it still gives you an idea of the theory. The consequences that fall out of the theory fill over a thousand pages. And, most importantly, make predictions and explain physical phenomena that are currently unexplained.
"My path is about logic and metaphysics. I leave particles and inflation to others..."
My concern too is logic and meta-physics, but I believe that logic implies the nature of the physical world, and therefore the particles and inflation must fall out of the logic. They can't be just added as an afterthought.
I've read your essay at least three or four times, and hope that you find time to absorb mine before you comment. I am very much interested in your comments.
Looking forward to your reply,
Edwin Eugene Klingman
report post as inappropriate
Author Marcel-Marie LeBel wrote on Jan. 21, 2010 @ 00:53 GMT
Dr Klingman,
I have read your essay. Maybe its me, but there is like too much in it. One or two aspects driven and demonstrated could have been enough for now. I am not familiar with quite a few concepts in there, so it makes the reading difficult. I still think you have something good going here. You end by saying that we will never know gravity. Yes, this is the limit of physics, but it is also the beginning of metaphysics. Magnetic, electric and gravitation are all aspect of a single substance; the explosive passage of time. No matters how true my metaphysics is, we will have to use it to formulate some physics of equivalence if we want to make something useful out of it. Your theory/approach is possibly the closest thing to such a principle of equivalence.
Thanks,
Marcel,
report post as inappropriate