III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

1. Quantum Cosmology Theoretic Unity

Turner, Michael and J. Anthony Tyson. Cosmology at the Millennium. Reviews of Modern Physics. 71/2, 1999. A retrospective on humankinds’ progress in the 20th century to observe and describe in word, number, symbol and equation a vast, still unfolding, galactic cosmos.

Turok, Neil. The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2012. The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics director has stepped up to make this major contribution about the state of physical cosmology. The text is from his CBC Massey Lectures presented October 2012 in six cities to sold out audiences across Ontario (CBC Canadian Broadcasting Company). A clear survey of the historical endeavors and highlights of physics: “It is a story of fun, yearning, determination, and most of all, humanity and awe before nature.” (49) Yes, all are men, with much technology, the cosmic scenario is mechanically abstract, but as rare today the work is quite optimismic over an on-going promise. With this scene in place, Turok confronts a pervasive pessimism by dismissing string theory, Stephen Weinberg’s “pointless” mantra, and especially Lawrence Krauss’s The Universe from Nothing, along with Richard Dawkins nasty afterword, for malicious claims of an indifferent, accidental, senseless universe. As noted in Alan Lightman above, Freeman Dyson in World Philosophy, and elsewhere, a miasma confounds physics, evolution, and most science and humanities quick to write off, and abandon in despair. Important correctives as this, also Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel, and others, are vital to get reality back on a positive future track.

At every stage in the history of the universe, there was the potential for vastly more than what had been required to reach that stage. Today, this is more true than ever. Our understanding of the universe has grown faster than anyone could have imagined a century ago, way beyond anything that could be explained in terms of past evolutionary advantage. We cannot know what new technologies we will create, but if the past is any guide, they will be extraordinary. Commercial space travel is about to become a reality. Quantum computers are on the horizon, and they may completely transform our experience of the world. Are all these capabilities simply accidental? Or are we actually the door-openers to the future? Might we be the means for the universe to gain a consciousness of itself? (201)

Through a deeper appreciation of the universe and our ability to comprehend it, not just scientists but everyone can gain. At a minimum, the magnificent cosmos provides some perspective on our parochial, human-created problems, be they social or political. Nature is organized in better ways, from which we can learn. The love of nature can bring us together and help us to appreciate that we are part of something far greater than ourselves. This sense of belonging, responsibility, and common cause brings with it humility, compassion, and wisdom. It is time to connect our science to our humanity, and in so doing to raise the sights of both. If we can only link our intelligence to our hearts, the doors are wide open to a brighter future, to a more unified planet with more unified science. What a privilege it is to be alive. Truly, we are faced with the opportunity of all time. (256-257)

Vazza, Franco. On the Complexity and the Information Content of Cosmic Structures. arXiv:1611:09348. A Hamburg University mathematical cosmologist with a 2009 doctorate from the University of Bologna proposes a novel astro-analysis so as to include nature’s intrinsic informative and organizational propensities, as the Abstract conveys. FV has become a prolific contributor in these fields, see for example The Quest for Extragalactic Magnetic Fields at 1611:00043.

The emergence of cosmic structure is commonly considered one of the most complex phenomena in Nature. However, this complexity has never been defined nor measured in a quantitative and objective way. In this work we propose a method to measure the information content of cosmic structure and to quantify the complexity that emerges from it, based on Information Theory. The emergence of complex evolutionary patterns is studied with a statistical symbolic analysis of the datastream produced by state-of-the-art cosmological simulations of forming galaxy clusters. This powerful approach allows us to measure how many bits of information are necessary to predict the evolution of energy fields in a statistical way, and it offers a simple way to quantify when, where and how the cosmic gas behaves in complex ways.

The most complex behaviors are found in the peripheral regions of galaxy clusters, where supersonic flows drive shocks and large energy fluctuations over a few tens of million years. Describing the evolution of magnetic energy requires at least a twice as large amount of bits than for the other energy fields. When radiative cooling and feedback from galaxy formation are considered, the cosmic gas is overall found to double its degree of complexity. In the future, Cosmic Information Theory can significantly increase our understanding of the emergence of cosmic structure as it represents an innovative framework to design and analyze complex simulations of the Universe in a simple, yet powerful way. (Abstract)

Vedral, Vlatko. Living in a Quantum World. Scientific American. June, 2011. A long time in coming, a University of Oxford and National University of Singapore physicist describes novel insights into how quantum phenomena are being found to apply not only in arcane subatomic realms, but, as many have suspected, are in similar evidence for classical macroscopic living systems. “Entanglement,” the interaction of far-flung objects, and other such effects, is increasing recognized in chemical compounds, cellular doings, photosynthesis, superconductivity, vibrational motion, avian flockings, and so on. So the 20th century revolution continues apace, as it promising to now enter a vital new synthesis.

Verlinde, Erik. On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton. arXiv:1001.0785v1. The weekly New Scientist often extols the far frontiers of physics to interest readers. But once in a while, an item appears of much significance. This is the case with “Gravity’s Origin Falling into Place” (January 23, 2010) which reports on the above paper by the University of Amsterdam physicist. We quote at length whereof Verlinde considers Newton’s law to arise naturally in an emergent space from an intrinsic holographic universe. Similar to a credit card hologram, in such a cosmic context, a three-dimensional image lies embedded on a two-dimensional surface. One might add that every iota then characteristically contains a modicum of the entire scene. Peer approval comes from Nobel physicist Gerard t’Hooft of Utrecht University who commends the theory because it is founded on real physical features such as mass and force, and not just abstract mathematics.

The universality of gravity suggests that its emergence should be understood from general principles that are independent of the specific details of the underlying microscopic theory. In this paper we will argue that the central notion needed to derive gravity is information. More precisely, it is the amount of information associated with matter and its location, in whatever form the microscopic theory likes to have it, measured in terms of entropy. (2) The most important assumption will be that the information associated with a part of space obeys the holographic principle [8, 9]. The strongest supporting evidence for the holographic principle comes from black hole physics [1, 3] and the AdS/CFT correspondence. (2)

In this paper we present a holographic scenario for the emergence of space and address the origins of gravity and inertia, which are connected by the equivalence principle. Starting from first principles, using only space independent concepts like energy, entropy and temperature, it is shown that Newton's laws appear naturally and practically unavoidably. Gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by a change in the amount of information associated with the positions of bodies of matter. (3)

Vilenkin, Alex. Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. The Russian-American, Tufts University cosmologist writes his book to champion how the latest quantum, string and celestial physics seem imply an infinity and eternity of bubbling universes, each with a wide range of parameters, most destined to oblivion. Our local cosmos is a rarest, finely tuned instance which permits life and human observers to exist. By this last Copernican demotion, earth and human attain ultimate denigration. A clash of cosmologies reigns today, at the root of our civilizational chaos, with a waxing genesis creation on the horizon. (See also Knobe in World Philosophy)

In the worldview that has emerged from eternal inflation, our Earth and our civilization are anything but unique. Instead, countless identical civilizations are scattered in the infinite expanse of the cosmos. With humankind reduced to absolute cosmic insignificance, our descent from the center of the world is now complete. (117)

Waegell, Mordecai, et al. The Generative Programs Framework. arXiv:2307.11282. We select thus paper by Chapman University Institute of Quantum Studies physicists including Emily Adlam as a way to show thatsuch theoretical views are quite ongoing into the 2020s. Indeed a self-making uniVerse may awaken in its phenomenal Earthuman phase so to begin a long quest to learn, understand, vivify and prevail.

Recently there has been significant interest in using causal modelling to understand the structure of physical theories. However, the notion of `causation'limits a physical theory to the forms that they may take. In this paper, we set out a more general framework to say that any quantitative theory can be represented in the form of a generative program as a list of instructions showing how the empirical information-processing program can be represented. We discuss some applications of our framework to philosophical questions about realism, operationalism, free will, locality and fine-tuning.

Walleczek, Jan and Gerhard Groessing. Is the World Local or Nonlocal? Towards an Emergent Quantum Mechanics in the 21st Century. arXiv:1603.02862. A keynote for the EmQM15 (Google) Emergent Quantum Mechanics conference held at Vienna University of Technology in October 2015. Walleczek is a German physicist previously at Stanford University Medical School and MPI for Molecular Genetics. Groessing is an Austrian Institute for Nonlinear Studies physicist. Among the 39 speakers (37 men and 2 women – Ana Maria Cetto and Silke Weinfurtner) are Gerard ‘t Hooft and Basil Hiley. Both talk abstracts and full slides are on the EmQM15 site. Into these 2010s, as worldwise scientific collaborations rethink everything, there are serious issues with the 20th century, rudimentary version of this deepest realm. As the quotes allude, older abstractions need to be brought into agreement with the nonlinear network sciences, whose pervasive presence implies a more organic milieu.

What defines an emergent quantum mechanics (EmQM)? Can new insight be advanced into the nature of quantum nonlocality by seeking new links between quantum and emergent phenomena as described by self-organization, complexity, or emergence theory? Could the development of a future EmQM lead to a unified, relational image of the cosmos? One key motivation for adopting the concept of emergence in relation to quantum theory concerns the persistent failure in standard physics to unify the two pillars in the foundations of physics: quantum theory and general relativity theory (GRT). The total contradiction in the foundational, metaphysical assumptions that define orthodox quantum theory versus GRT might render inter-theoretic unification impossible. On the one hand, indeterminism and non-causality define orthodox quantum mechanics, and, on the other hand, GRT is governed by causality and determinism. How could these two metaphysically-contradictory theories ever be reconciled? The concept of emergence, and the development of an EmQM, might help advance a common foundation - physical and metaphysical - as required for successful inter-theory unification. (Abstract)

The resurgence of interest in ontological quantum theory, including both deterministic and indeterministic approaches, challenges long held assumptions and directs focus towards the following questions: Is the world local or nonlocal? What is the nature of quantum nonlocality? If nonlocal, i.e., superluminal, influences exist then why can’t they be used for superluminal signaling and communication? How is the role of the scientific observer/agent to be accounted for in realistic approaches to quantum theory? How could recent developments in the field of space-time as an emergent phenomenon advance new insight at this research frontier? These and related questions will be addressed in the context also of a possible “deeper level theory“ for quantum mechanics that interconnects three fields of knowledge: emergence, the quantum, and information. The symposium provides a forum for considering (i) current theoretical and conceptual obstacles which need to be overcome as well as (ii) promising developments and research opportunities on the way towards realistic quantum mechanics. (Conference Overview)

Weinberg, Steven. Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. At age 75, the Nobel physicist once again contributes with this latest grand tour of space and time. Its ten parts cover the technical aspects of the Early Universe, Inflation, Fluctuations, Expansions, Gravitational Lenses, the Growth of Structure, and other topics. Yet Weinberg holds to his stance that although human beings might be able to gain such comprehension, the cosmos remains devoid of any purpose. As a comment, it amazes that while a vocal advocate of science, along with Richard Dawkins and others, vs. archaic fundamentalisms, they cannot see what is wrong with this dire conclusion, how corrosive it is, which only serves to drive people to seek the meaning we must avail into these extremes.

Wetterich, Christof. Fundamental Scale Invariance. arXiv:2007.08805. This entry reviews current papers by the University of Heidelberg theoretical physicist (search) as his mathematical and geometric studies of the whole dynamic universe continue apace. See also The Probabilistic World (2011.02867) and Cosmology from Pregeometry (2104.14013, quote below) and more on this site. By a philoSophia take, how curious it is that a member of a scientific collective on a minute bioworld can achieve such vast and deep quantifications. Might we consider such endeavors, the two million arXiv eprints, as the phenomenal way that an autodidactic genesis ecosmos proceeds to textually describe itself?

We propose fundamental scale invariance as a new theoretical principle beyond renormalizability. Quantum field theories with fundamental scale invariance admit a scale-free formulation of the functional integral and effective action in terms of scale invariant fields. They correspond to exact scaling solutions of functional renormalization flow equations. Such theories are highly predictive since all relevant parameters for deviations from the exact scaling solution vanish. Realistic particle physics and quantum gravity are compatible with this setting. The non-linear restrictions for scaling solutions can explain properties as an asymptotically vanishing cosmological constant or dynamical dark energy that would seem to need fine tuning of parameters from a perturbative viewpoint. (Abstract excerpt, 2007.08805)

Fundamental scale invariance is a new theoretical construction principle beyond renormalizability. The existence of a continuum limit at fixed microscopic couplings is a very natural setting for a fundamental theory. The required existence of scaling solutions could be sufficiently restrictive to qualify theories with fundamental scale invariance as candidates for the quest of a unified fundamental theory of physics. (11, 2007.08805)

In summary, the evolution of the universe undergoes several crossovers between different approximate scaling solutions that are each valid for long cosmological epochs. The driving agents for these crossovers are slowly evolving expectation values of fields, in particular the scalar field. This evolution is dictated by the properties of solutions of the field equations which are derived from a rather simple quantum effective action for our model of pregeometry. Many ingredients for realistic cosmology, that are often ”put in by hand”, arise naturally from pregeometry. (51, 2104.14013)

Wilczek, Frank. Physics in 100 Years. arXiv:1503.07735. This posting by the MIT Nobel laureate physicist of his talk at Brown University’s 250th anniversary occurs between his 2013 Multiversality paper (search) and a latest July 2015 book A Beautiful Question. Into this 2115 vista, the past and future of science is seen most of all as a grand unification project. Prior endeavors are mechanics and optics, space and time, wave and particle. Over the next century, new syntheses might involve Forces, Forces and Substance, Space-Time and Matter, Evolution and Origin, Action and Information, Quantum and Symmetry, and Mind and Matter. As a result, the promise of a technical co-creation is illumed over micro, meso and macro scales. The beautiful essay alludes to a consequent wisdom, as does the book, which might be most guided by an appreciative fulfillment of a natural, yin-yang like complementarity. See also a shorter version in Physics Today for April 2016.

Unification V: Action and Information: Information is another dimensionless quantity that plays a large and increasing role in our description of the world. Many of the terms that arise naturally in discussions of information have a distinctly physical character. For example we commonly speak of density of information and flow of information. Going deeper, we find far-reaching analogies between information and (negative) entropy, as noted already in Shannon's original work. Nowadays many discussions of the microphysical origin of entropy, and of foundations of statistical mechanics in general, start from discussions of information and ignorance. I think it is fair to say that there has been a unification fusing the physical quantity (negative) entropy and the conceptual quantity information. Fundamental action principles, and thus the laws of physics, will be reinterpreted as statements about information and its transformations. (17)

Unification VII: Mind and Matter: Although many details remain to be elucidated, it seems fair to say that metabolism and reproduction, two of the most characteristic features of life, are now broadly understood at the molecular level, as physical processes. Francis Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis is that it will be possible to bring understanding of basic psychology, including biological cognitive processing, memory, motivation, and emotion to a comparable level. But mind is what it is, and what it is will not be diminished for being physically understood. To me it seems both prettier and more sensible to regard the Astonishing Hypothesis anticipating the richness of behavior matter can exhibit, given what physics has told us matter is. Biological memory, cognitive processing, motivation, and emotion will be understood at the molecular level. And if physics evolves to describe matter in terms of information, as we discussed earlier, a circle of ideas will have closed. Mind will have become more matter-like, and matter will have become more mind-like. (19)

Wilczek, Frank. The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces. New York: Basic Books, 2010. An accessible, well written entry to these frontiers by MIT physicist. In 2004, FW received the Nobel physics prize, along with David Gross and David Politzer for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction. The first quote is the book synopsis, while the second explains the title. Milan Kundera’s latest novel is The Festival of Insignificance, (2015) which is even more anguished. While a perceptive scientist is able to sense a deeply innate design, a minority view, the second humanities culture continues to descend into terminal despair. So these contrasting works could well delineate our urgent contest and struggle between desolation and discovery.

Our understanding of nature’s deepest reality has changed radically, but almost without our noticing, over the past twenty-five years. Transcending the clash of older ideas about matter and space, acclaimed physicist Frank Wilczek explains a remarkable new discovery: matter is built from almost weightless units, and pure energy is the ultimate source of mass. Space is no mere container, empty and passive. It is a dynamic Grid; a modern ether; and its spontaneous activity creates and destroys particles. This new understanding of mass explains the puzzling feebleness of gravity, and a gorgeous unification of all the forces comes sharply into focus. The Lightness of Being is the first book to explore the implications of these revolutionary ideas about mass, energy, and the nature of empty space. In it, Wilczek masterfully presents new perspectives on our incredible universe and envisions a new golden age of fundamental physics. (Publisher)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is the title of a famous novel by Milan Kundra. It is about many things, but perhaps above all the struggle to find pattern and meaning in the seemingly random, strange, and sometimes cruel world we live in. Of course, Kundera’s approach to these problems, through story and art, looks very different from the one I’ve taken through science and philosophy. For me at least, coming to understand the deep structure of reality has helped make Being seem not merely bearable, but enchanted. Hence The Lightness of Being.

Matter is not what it appears to be. Its most obvious property – variously called resistance to motion, inertia, or mass – can be understood more deeply in completely different terms. The mass of ordinary matter is the embodied energy of more basic building blocks, themselves lacking mass. Nor is space what it appears to be. What appears to our eves as empty space is revealed to our minds as a complex medium full of spontaneous activity. (1)

But Nature’s data set seems far from arbitrary. We’ve been able to make short codes that describe large parts of reality fully and accurately. More than this: in the past, as we’ve made our codes shorter and more abstract, we’ve discovered that unfolding the new codes gives expanded messages, which turn out to correspond to new aspects of reality. (141) Even more compressed, profoundly simple equations to start, ever more complex calculations to unfold them, ever richer output that the world turns out to match, This, I think, is a down-to-earth interpretation of what Einstein meant in saying “Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.” (142)

[Prev Pages]   Previous   | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13  Next