Background Concepts

Theories of Everything

Theoretical physicists are working on a "theory of everything" (TOE) which they hope will combine, the mathematical models of the larger physical universe such as Einstein's relativity, with the more chaotic rules which apply to the microscopic quantum universe. Likewise meta-physicists are seeking to solve mysteries such as  "the mind-body problem" relating to free will, emotions and sensation fits into a physical universe of inanimate objects. 

The terms "unified field theory" UFT and "grand united theory" GUT are also used, and mean much the same thing as a TOE.

Benji's TOE

Ideally a genuine "theory of everything" would include answers to the questions of both cosmology and metaphysics. I.e. a single inclusive explanation of the universe and our place within it might be found. Benji's TOE is a project by Benji Bear and Friends that attempts to provide a fairly complete description of how everything fits together that encompasses both the physical and metaphysical aspects of the universe we inhabit. 
 

Megaphysical Problems

Physics

Interpretations of Mathematical Models 1

Size, Stability & Smoothness

Although things seem quite predictable and stable from a distance, when we look at the physical universe more closely (at microscopic levels), things tend to get more chaotic.

A balloon filled with air will tend to be fairly stable in shape despite the fact that individual air molecules are moving rather chaotically. The random movements of the molecules of air in balloon tend to even out providing fairly stable air pressure so the balloon keeps its shape.

Over time large objects tend to take on less jagged forms through interactions with other similar objects such as the smoothing of river stones or via alignment of constituent particles as seen in the formations of planets and solar systems.

From a distance you don't see the movement of individual molecules but like a TV picture made of pixels things seem smooth if you don't look too closely.

In the TV analogy the general shape of the picture is a projection of a filmed or imagined world. I.e. the macroscopic view ultimately determines what we see. If our world is determined by its smallest building block in a bottom up approach as seen in John Conway's Game of Life.
 

Megaphysical Problems 2

Physics

Interpretations of Mathematical Models 2

Prediction & Interpretation

Physicists make up mathematical models of the theoretical situations and do experiments to see whether measurements from the real universe match those predicted by the models. Two of the most effective of these models at making such testable predictions have been quantum mechanics (QM), and Einstein's general relativity (GR). Both of these models use imaginary numbers in their calculations and can have results (such as the order of events) dependant on an observer's perspective or choice of observation method.

The interpretation of what such math tells us about the real world we observe is often open to vigorous debate. 

Complex number planes that use imaginary numbers (multiples of the square root of negative 1). From a mathematical viewpoint this might make sense  but saying I am "imaginary five" meters from home might be more likely to mean "I am 5 fractions of a seconds from home" rather than "I imagine I am five meters from home". 

QM makes the assumption that when we look at the smallest building blocks of the universe things appear to be digital and random much like looking at pixelated white noise on an out of tune TV screen. It also incorporates imaginary numbers to generate possible worlds.

The mathematics of Quantum Mechanics and related models such as information physics tell us a lot about what happens at the microscopic level but it doesn't, necessarily, give us an explanation of, why the universe seems to follow these mathematical rules, or what the universe is actually like, in terms of our everyday understanding.

The interpretation of what the mathematics of quantum mechanics actually mean is one of the most hotly debated topics in the physical sciences.

Megaphysical Problems 3

Physics 2

Interpretations of Mathematical Models 3

Simulation Metaphor

One explanation that is popular in today's information age is the idea that the universe is like a big computer simulation game where people like ourselves as the players. Under such a model there might be two sets of timelines: the order of interactions of the choices being made by the players and game designers; and the made up history which might have a basic outline written into the game code but with extra historical events being added during the course of the game. Under such a model the imaginary values might relate to probabilities of possible events within the game.

Ignorance

Another assumption we might make is that the universe is real and complete with all parts fitting together but we we need to use imaginary numbers and probability theory to model the extent of our ignorance. Thus the models used by us show our knowledge of the universe but the actual universe could (with complete knowledge) be modeled completely with definite precise real values.

Indetermination

However, there is some evidence that models (even mathematical ones) can only ever approximate reality.

The topic of "indetermination" studies the extent to which mathematical models (or the understandings of human observers) can represent the complexities of real-world situations.

The verdict seems to be that no matter how closely we try to make our measurements we will always encounter limitations which prevent us from getting total assurance or100% accuracy in our measurements or a totally complete description of the thing we want to describe. Even our choice of lexicon can determine what can and can't be said about a situation.

Megaphysical Problems 4

MetaPhysics

Mind-Body Problem

One of the big mysteries in philosophy of mind is the problem of how insubstantial minds seemingly capable of free will or agency are able to interact with a seemingly mechanistic world of substances.

One solution to this problem that has for some time been out of fashion is "idealism".

Idealism

Idealism solves the mind body disjunction by assuming that the physical universe has no reality outside its relationship to mental events such as the ability of physical objects to be sensed by observers such as ourselves. In simple terms it assumes that the universe is merely the backdrop of a dream. Idealism has often been attacked because it can lead to solipsism where one believes that everyone else in the universe is a figment of their imagination and therefore not worthy of respect, but other models such as shared dreams or dreamers with split personalities need not suffer from this problem.

Megaphysical Problems 5

Information Physics & Limitations of Language

Will Power

If we assume that the universe is really a big dream, it is but a small step to assume that everything that happens, occurs because someone imagines it to be so. From there, it is quite easy to imagine that individuals such as ourselves can influence the world by magical power of will. Groups such as Scientology and "What the Bleep..." are fairly vocal in pushing this idea. Likewise religions believe that events can be influenced by appeals to supernatural powers. But even if things like will-power or prayer have power, we should not forget that in times of war both sides usually pray for victory and there is usually only one winner.

Battles of Will

Whether we are simply thinking through a problem and comparing competing ideas or vast armies set out to war to fight over resources situations occur involving conflict and competition. The fittest (ideas or armies) survive while the unfit are left behind, leading to the evolution of ever fitter elements and more developed  ecologies.

Megaphysical Problems 5

Information Physics & Limitations of Language 2

Life, Death & Information

Entropy in loose terms is what you get when things break or wind down or get messy. The greater the disorder the greater the entropy or messiness and the more information needed to describe the situation. Therefore total randomness would have high entropy and a highly ordered universe with all zeros or all ones would have zero or very low entropy. Given time closed systems tend to wind down or die. As human bodies get older parts tend to malfunction and the system looses its integrity, but if the individual dies, from the point of view of the individual one would think that information was lost rather than gained. Similarly if we look at a stream of data, white noise would seem to be total gibberish devoid of information whilst total order of all ones or zeros would not contain much information either, begging the question as to whether intelligible information would need some amount of organization or structure. .

Cybernetics and Living Systems

Thermodynamic systems tend to gain in entropy and loose useful energy, thus causing the system to wind down. Our physical universe can be described as such a system. Evolutionary processes can however produce living sub-systems which tend to be able to grow and/or increase in adaptive ability or intelligence. Biological systems such as living bodies require physical sustenance whilst thinking minds or personalities require information as food for thought.

Cybernetics is the study of information processing ability of self regulating systems such as living creatures. This information processing ability or ability to adapt to changes to maintain essential aspects of form can be equated with intelligence. Essentially cybernetics provides a method of comparing the apparent intelligence adaptive systems.

Common sense might suggest that only living creatures would score high in such adaptive complexity however stars and other physical systems not usually deemed to be alive can sometimes have scores suggesting they are much smarter than mere human beings.  Also the level of detail depth of hierarchical focus may result in differing scores. E.g. a lynch mob might not show less intelligence than its separate members, or an ants nest may appear more intelligent than an individual ant.

When it come to stars neutron stars appear more intelligent than less dense stars like our sun. More dense black holes according to quantum cosmologists such as Lee Smolin may even be more intelligent or has encoded seeds of developmental instructions which have the potential for growing intelligence of a cosmic scale. It is not necessarily the case that heavier objects always hold more information or intelligence, but it may be the case that more matter means more potential data and more data allows more intelligence.

Solutions 1

Solutions Overview

Terminology

Throughout these explanations I will be switching between metaphors and terminologies and will often talk about the physical objects and living bodies as if they had real existence in themselves. I will however be assuming that the laws of physics are really laws of information physics where the rules relating to mental events observer-agents as information negotiators is key, and the apparent laws of physics are really disguised laws of communication (or psychology), or pragmatic fictions enabling us to better operate in our environment. 

Cosmic Persons

Latest theories from cosmology suggest that just as our bodies are living systems consisting of living cells, our entire universe is a single living sexual organism much like ourselves which lives in an environment outside our universe and subject to different laws of physics.

Microscopic Agents

The model being put forward assumes that everything that is (from the smallest to the biggest objects and details) is determined by persons like ourselves, and as a useful fiction we could assume that all physical objects are (and/or are part of a living entity such as ourselves) are living entities with thoughts feelings and desires.

The concept I will be developed starting with the simplest of theoretical subatomic particles and  assigning psychological states to them as seen in decision/game theories.

Ultimate Genesis

In development of  these states I will start with the premise of a genesis entity in zero dimensional space which interacts with itself to imagine more complex universes with separate entities such as itself. The mathematical / logical principles relating to cognitive processing and communications and preservation of personal identity will be key concepts used.

Solutions 2

Gaia Cosmology

Background Mathematics

Topology & Perspective Independence

Topology is a branch of geometric mathematics concerned with order, contiguity, and relative position, rather than actual linear dimensions. Topological mathematics (such as knot theory) also tend to be perspective independent. If you have a tangled fishing line and kept wiggling and pulling the string to see haw many knots it had. the number of number of knots would be independent of what angle you were viewing it, or whether you had access to a metric or yard ruler.

Benji's TOE will be using various perspective independent mathematical concepts such as multidimensional topology (of M-Theory, and Loop Gravity) and Super-symmetry. The measurement systems used will be generally digital or otherwise  metric independent. Axis when used will represent an observers perspective.

Variable dimension Geometry Language

When we talk about shapes or directions  we generally refer to things in 3 dimensions or less. We are familiar with directions such as North, South, East, West,  Up down Left, Right, Clockwise and Anti-clockwise. Likewise we are familiar with shapes such as 0D points, 1D line  segments, 2D triangles, and 3D tetrahedral pyramids,  all belong to a "triangular series" of shapes "with the smallest number of sides for its number of dimensions". Calling a seven dimensional shape of this series a 7D triangle is a convenient shorthand term, but keep in mind that a line segment is both a 1D triangle and a 1D cube. Likewise a point is a 0D anything.

The term "hyper" as in "hyper cube" sometimes refers to 4D objects and/or objects with an extra dimension than there name suggests. Visit An Introduction to the Vocabulary of Dimension  for more details on usual conventions but I will generally be using the terms something D triangle, cube or sphere when referring to shapes.

Complex Number Plane

Complex numbers consist of a pair of numbers the first being a "real" number such as negative 7 and an imaginary number which is a "real" number multiplied by i ("the square root of negative one").  Thus  (7-5i) would be a complex number; (-6+0i) = -6 is a real number; (0+4i) = 4i is an imaginary number.

Complex numbers can be represented can be represented as a point on a grid or as a vector (which is an arrow that need not have a grid).

Solutions 3

12D Space

According to Prof. Peter Forrest 12D spheres are very stable. M-theory suggests that (although our universe seems to have 3 real metric and one imaginary time dimension certain aspects of physics can be explained much simply if we assume our universe has about 10 or 11 dimensions. Benji's TOE assumes that our universe may  be sitting on the skin on the  12D apple or peach, and that the weaker physical forces such as gravity are actually strong forces from adjoining universes which have been  weakened by the greater distance the forces have travelled through hyperspace.

Sex in Hyperspace

Lee Smolin suggests that black holes act as sexual organs where universes can connect with other universes and exchange information which influences the development of new universes that are formed. It is quite likely that similar evolutionary forces which resulted in gender separation on Earth, would be at play.

Gaia & Game Theory

Similarly universes might come in different niche forms such as predators and prey. Also staged development ageing might also be expected.

Revisiting Entropy Resolution

The laws of thermodynamics, suggest that closed systems tend to increase in entropy (I.e. grow old and die). We may take heart in that according to quantum physics the macro level laws such as the laws of thermodynamics are approximations.  General theories of closed systems suggest that things that are not fed from external sources will be imperfect and may eventually die.  Another possibility is that while entropy at increases at one depth of resolution it may increase in  at other depths. Whether  death might be theoretically avoided nay later be discussed further, but the general reasons why death occurs on Earth are likely to also be present in the hyperspacial environment of our universe.

Cosmologists suggest that our universe is currently right on the balance between being to expand forever and so big it cannot sustain its own weight. Also it also appears to be highly efficient at evolving creatures like ourselves given its short age. Whether our existence is crucial or incidental to our host or super-system universe might not be easily determined but we might guess that just as we find most parts of our bodies have useful purposes that we likely perform some useful function of the universe, and it would be expected that the development of important organs would be fast-tracked. 

If we make the assumption that lighter universes that don't pass on the ability to die wind up filling the hyperspace environment with genetically inferior stock which can be easily preyed upon then it is not surprising that our universe should be heavy enough not to necessarily have an indefinite potential life span. Likewise our universe needs to have a long but not indefinite life or if extra weight has some survival factor such as supporting higher intelligence or physical strength then we might expect evolution towards the borderline balance we see in our universe.