TPF : On Physics

[Gnomon]

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/499155
On physics

What is force? What is energy? What is power?
Defining words that apply to the action of physical objects can be tricky. So getting past the language barrier to form true communication between us is difficult. — Gregory

For philosophical purposes, I define Physics in opposition to Meta-Physics, which includes the Platonic purity of mathematics. The problem of succinctly defining terms in Physics, may be why some mathematicians feel superior to the physicists, who propose complex arcane theories to explain mundane nature. On the other hand, some Physicists, argue that pure mathematics is not realistic & empirical, but idealistic & theoretical. FWIW, I have developed my own philosophical (Meta-Physical) definitions for such subjects of Physics as "Force". "Energy", and "Power".

Mathematical realism, like realism in general, holds that mathematical entities exist independently of the human mind. Thus humans do not invent mathematics, but rather discover it, and any other intelligent beings in the universe would presumably do the same. In this point of view, there is really one sort of mathematics that can be discovered; triangles, for example, are real entities, not the creations of the human mind.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phil ... thematics/

Mathematical Platonism is the form of realism that suggests that mathematical entities are abstract, have no spatiotemporal or causal properties, and are eternal and unchanging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mathematics

Meta-Physics :
4. Physics refers to the things we perceive with the eye of the body. Meta-physics refers to the things we conceive with the eye of the mind. Meta-physics includes the properties, and qualities, and functions that make a thing what it is. Matter is just the clay from which a thing is made. Meta-physics is the design (form, purpose); physics is the product (shape, action). The act of creation brings an ideal design into actual existence. The design concept is the “formal” cause of the thing designed.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page14.html

[Gnomon]

Is your "formal cause" in the mind (Kant) or somehow simultaneously in the mind AND in matter (Hegel)? I think this is pertinent to your position since I can't see how information can exist when no minds are around. — Gregory

In my Enformationism thesis, Generic Information is all four of Aristotle's causes. As the "First Cause", it's the program that astrophysicists call The Singularity, which existed in the mind of the Programmer. As the "Formal Cause", it's the patterns of Information that our senses interpret as material objects. As the "Material Cause", it's the ordinary matter that physicists measure in terms of Mass, which is a mental Quality. As the "Efficient Cause", it's the energy that causes all change in our evolving world. As the "Final Cause", it's the Intention of the Cosmic Programmer, who established the purpose of the evolutionary program.

Regarding the existence of Information when there are "no minds around", idealist philosopher Bishop Berkeley resolved that problem by asserting that everything exists in the Mind of God. Of course, he had in mind the Christian God. But the concept also applies to the non-sectarian notion of Pantheism, or as I prefer : PanEnDeism. Our world is understood as an idea in the mind of G*D. Even some atheist scientists have come to view PanPsychism (all is mind) as a viable answer to the Mind/Body problem. Anything else you want to know?

Generic Information : Information is Generic in the sense of generating all forms from a formless pool of possibility : the Platonic Forms.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html

What is a singularity? : A singularity means a point where some property is infinite.
Note -- it's also where all the laws of physics break down, hence not a part of our space-time world. Only in the form of immaterial Information (mind-stuff ; data) could all the contents of a whole universe exist in a single point with no extension in time or space.

The mass-energy-information equivalence principle : Here we formulate a new principle of mass-energy-information equivalence proposing that a bit of information is not just physical, as already demonstrated, but it has a finite and quantifiable mass while it stores information.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5123794

Information :
* Claude Shannon quantified Information not as useful ideas, but as a mathematical ratio between meaningful order (1) and meaningless disorder (0); between knowledge (1) and ignorance (0). So, that meaningful mind-stuff exists in the limbo-land of statistics, producing effects on reality while having no sensory physical properties. We know it exists ideally, only by detecting its effects in the real world.
* For humans, Information has the semantic quality of aboutness , that we interpret as meaning. In computer science though, Information is treated as meaningless, which makes its mathematical value more certain. It becomes meaningful only when a sentient Self interprets it as such.
* When spelled with an “I”, Information is a noun, referring to data & things. When spelled with an “E”, Enformation is a verb, referring to energy and processes.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page11.html

Evolutionary Programming :
Special computer algorithms inspired by biological Natural Selection. It is similar to Genetic Programming in that it relies on internal com-petition between random alternative solutions to weed-out inferior results, and to pass-on superior answers to the next generation of algorithms. By means of such optimizing feedback loops, evolution is able to make progress toward the best possible solution – limited only by local restraints – to the original programmer’s goal or purpose. In Enformationism theory the Prime Programmer is portrayed as a creative deity, who uses bottom-up mechanisms, rather than top-down miracles, to produce a world with both freedom & determinism, order & meaning.

Berkeley Limerick :
There once was a man who said "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad."

Dear Sir,
Your astonishment's odd.
I am always about in the Quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
God
http://faculty.otterbein.edu/AMills/Ear ... brklim.htm

PanEnDeism :
Panendeism is an ontological position that explores the interrelationship between God (The Cosmic Mind) and the known attributes of the universe. Combining aspects of Panentheism and Deism, Panendeism proposes an idea of God that both embodies the universe and is transcendent of its observable physical properties.
https://panendeism.org/faq-and-questions/
1. Note : PED is distinguished from general Deism, by its more specific notion of the G*D/Creation relationship; and from PanDeism by its understanding of G*D as supernatural creator rather than the emergent soul of Nature. Enformationism is a Panendeistic worldview.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page16.html

PanPsychism : https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... universal/

[Gnomon]

I don't see how someone can have sex without believing in the reality of matter. — Gregory

Did you infer from my comments in the last post that I think Matter is unreal? Not so. As far as I know, the material world is what sentient beings know as reality. But human beings are also capable of imagining Ideality (e.g. Plato's Ideal Forms). That's why some of us get those categories confused --- providing philosophers with fertile fodder to chew on. It's the age-old Subjective / Objective dilemma.

Obviously, you haven't grasped the whole point of Enformationism. You may think that PanPsychism and other all-is-mind concepts deny the reality of the material world. Even the idealist philosopher Berkeley didn't claim that the material world is an illusion. Instead, he argued, like some quantum theorists, that it is the observer who converts Virtual particles into Real particles. In his case, the Ultimate Observer is God.

However, since I no longer believe in the Abrahamic model of creation & causation, I prefer to refer to the First Cause Creator of Reality as "G*D", to avoid sectarian quibbles. But, if any notion of deity offends you, you may call the Cause of the Big Bang : "Multiverse", or some other name for the comprehensive Source of Causation & Creation, that is logically necessary to explain "why there is something rather than nothing".

For the record, I do believe in the "reality of matter". But, I also believe in the Ideality of Mind.

Subjective Reality :
According to Berkeley, an object has real being as long as it is perceived by a mind. God, being omniscient, perceives everything perceivable, thus all real beings exist in the mind of God.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_idealism

Observer Effect :
In physics, the observer effect is the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation. ... Physicists have found that even passive observation of quantum phenomena (by changing the test apparatus and passively "ruling out" all but one possibility) can actually change the measured result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

You listed 5 causes ( adding first causality, which wasn't Aristotle's) but I can't see how in your thesis there can be a difference between formal, material, and energetic causality. — Gregory

If you are interested, I can link you to several blog posts that illustrate how Formal, Material, Energetic, and Final Causes can be traced back to a single First Cause. The EnFormAction definition below gives a brief overview of the various stages of Causes & Effects in the material & mental aspects of the Real World.

For the record, Aristotle's First Cause and Prime Mover are the same thing.

First Cause is a term introduced by Aristotle and used in philosophy and theology.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/First_Cause

EnFormAction : the creative power to enform; to cause transformations from one form to another.
1. As the generic power of creation (Big Bang, Singularity), it turns eternal Potential into temporal Actual, it transforms Platonic Forms into physical Things.
2. As physical energy (Causation), it is the power to cause changes in material structure.
3. As condensed energy (Matter), it is light speed vibrations slowed down to more stable states.
4. As animating energy (elan vital, Chi), it is the power to cause complex matter to self-move.
5. As mental energy (Consciousness; knowing), it is the power to store & process incoming information as meaning relative to self.
6. As self-awareness (Self-consciousness; Will-Power), it is the power to make intentional changes to self and environment.
7. As the holistic expression of the human Self (Soul), it is the essence or pattern that defines you as a person.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html

[Gnomon]

The bothand blog is yours? I'm definitely into this stuff. — Gregory

As a former Catholic, you might appreciate my blog review of philosopher Edward Feser's recent book : Aristotle's Revenge : The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. He is a Catholic, but not a theologian. Instead of arguing religious dogma, he attempts to show that “Aristotelian metaphysics is not only compatible with modern science, but is implicitly presupposed by modern science.” Consequently, he discusses some of the same topics that have come-up in this thread. A primary Aristotelian distinction that is relevant to Physics, is his definition of Actual & Potential. For example, what physicists call "Virtual Particles" popping into & out of existence in a quantum foam, I would label them as Potential Particles that are actualized by inputs of Creative Energy : what I call En-Formation, or EnFormAction.

Aristotle and Einstein : Metaphysical Physics
http://bothandblog6.enformationism.info/page69.html

A lot of people say Aristotle understood the First Cause only as subsumed by the Final Cause which moves the universe towards It by being in the infinite future. — Gregory

In my Enformationism thesis, the mysterious Enformer of our evolving world is presented in the metaphor of a Programmer. So, the First Cause could be understood as the pre-Big-Bang-Singularity, imagined as the core or kernel of an evolutionary program, containing all necessary information to "calculate" Energy, Matter, & Mind. Then, the Final Cause, would be the Programmer's intention, encoded as an ultimate question to be solved by running the program. In this analogy, all components of the evolutionary program are various forms of Generic Information, which I call EnFormAction.

What is EnFormAction? : The novel concept of Enformation is also a synthesis of both Energy and Information. So I invented a new portmanteu word to more precisely encapsulate that two-in-one meaning : “EnFormAction”.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html

Subjective idealism? I've always thought this meant the world is illusion. — Gregory

Some philosophers do use the negative term "illusion" to describe our subjective Mental Model of the objective real world. But, I prefer to use the more positive terms "model" or "symbol" or "icon" , based on cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman's analogy with a computer screen : "He uses the modern metaphor of computers that we “interface” (interact) with, as-if the symbolic Icons on the display screen are the actual things we want to act upon." All of these analogies & metaphors are merely updates to ancient notions of Reality, using examples from modern science. His theory is on the leading fringe of mind science, but the book is worth the price. Check it out.

Interface : Window to Reality : Reality is not what you see
http://bothandblog6.enformationism.info/page21.html

Reality is Ideality : Physics is ultimately Meta-Physics
http://bothandblog5.enformationism.info/page17.html

Information Realism : Mathematical Reality
http://bothandblog4.enformationism.info/page18.html

[Gnomon]

As Hume would say, how do we know mass warps space-time? — Gregory

Because Einstein said so. ;)

In effect, Albert claimed that our subjective experience of gravity is an illusion, because it's not actually a pulling force but the effect of acceleration due to the curved so-called "fabric" of empty space. Even intangible Mass is not a real thing, but a measured property of the matter we know via our senses. That property is measured in numbers that are meaningful only to physicists.

I feel like maybe the idea of reality as energy+information is vague and doesn't explain well what being is. — Gregory

You won't really understand the Enformationism worldview, until you've actually read the thesis, as summarized here : http://enformationism.info/enformationi ... age11.html

If you want more explicit details of how Information is equivalent to Energy, and how Information explains "what being is", I refer you to the book linked below. The author is a physicist, who specializes in Complexity Theory. But, be warned, except for the Introduction and final chapter, the text gets quite technical & mathematical -- if that's the kind of "explanation" you are looking for. Its main thesis is "the information-theoretic ontology" (the science of Being).

My own Enformationism thesis was written by a non-physicist & amateur philosopher. So it's not nearly as technical as this book. In my blog, I discuss "what being is" in some detail. But it's written from a novel Information-Theoretic perspective. So, many of its essential concepts may not be familiar (vague) to non-specialists. That's why I have an online glossary of terminology. A summary of the concept of BEING is linked below.

Information—Consciousness—Reality : How a New Understanding of the Universe Can Help Answer Age-Old Questions of Existence
___James B. Glattfelder
https://www.amazon.com/Information-Cons ... B07QLN9X14
Quote -- "In the last chapter, an information-theoretic ontology was outlined. Guided by cutting-edge theoretical physics and theoretical computer science an unlikely foundation of the world was glimpsed : the fabric of objective reality is woven out of threads of information."
Note -- the complexity of this novel worldview means that it will remain "vague" until it becomes more commonly understood by non-specialists. The Enformationism worldview flips-the-script from reductive classical science to something closer to holistic ancient views.

BEING :
In my own theorizing, there is one universal principle that subsumes all others, including Consciousness : essential Existence. Among those philosophical musings, I refer to the "unit of existence" with the absolute singular term "BEING" as contrasted with the plurality of contingent "beings" and things and properties. By BEING I mean the ultimate “ground of being”, which is simply the power to exist, and the power to create beings.
Note : Real & Ideal are modes of being. BEING, the power to exist, is the source & cause of Reality and Ideality. BEING is eternal, undivided and static, but once divided into Real/Ideal, it becomes our dynamic Reality.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page10.html

[Gnomon]

I see a flaw here perhaps. General relativity shows clocks slow down, not time. As Sean Carrol admitted "we don't even know what time is." — Gregory

What "flaw" are you referring to? Are you arguing against Einstein? Are you saying that we don't know anything about space & time? Physicists have various theories & opinions about space & time. But
Enformationism merely says that, whatever space & time & matter & energy are, they are all forms of Universal Information.

There is no reference phrame because everything is moving even space and space's space. Does motions objects mean the same thing as the energy-information union? — Gregory

In physics, every human observer has a unique frame of reference, and it's always looking at the universe from the inside. Physicists always have to take into account their own movement, when they try to understand the movement of other things, including Time. But in Einstein's Block Time, which I call the "Ice Cube Universe", the only meaningful reference frame is the view from outside the universe. Which is either in the imagination of a physicist, or from the perspective of G*D. In the Enformationism thesis, the only non-moving reference point is wherever the "Unmoved Mover" is.

Reference frame, also called frame of reference, in dynamics, system of graduated lines symbolically attached to a body that serve to describe the position of points relative to the body.
https://www.britannica.com/science/reference-frame

Block Time Universe : Minkowski’s space-time manifold can only be viewed from G*D’s all-knowing vantage, but not from mankind’s ego-restricted frame of reference, which reveals to us mere glimpses of Reality. For the purposes of the Enformationism thesis, I call that all-at-once perspective “Enfernity”.
http://bothandblog6.enformationism.info/page73.html

[Gnomon]

I don't think General Relativity stands without a good psychological and philosophical foundation, which thinkers like Hegel and Peirce might be able to provide. Common sense is not a clear set of rules,and let us take the example of a first look into a mirror. Would you instantly intuite that the reflection was an accurate one of you? Or would you have to have someone else look at your reflection and confirm it's accuracy? We can't abandon all our common sense or we get to the point where only numbers are being crunched and no understanding of what is going on is found. It's bad enough in the quantum world, but confusion about the classical world is real too — Gregory

What's your point? That modern physics is non-sense? Admittedly, Quantum Physics seems pretty weird, from the common-sense perspective of the man-on-the-street. Yet, it makes sense to me, but only from an Enformationism perspective -- a model of reality in which everything is a form of Information.

The point of posting my non-mainstream "reflections" on a philosophical forum, is to "have someone else look at it". I'm not making this sh*t up. You can click on the links in my posts, to see where credentialed physicists, such as Paul Davies, have come to similar conclusions. Unfortunately, they are thinking way ahead of the curve. Which is why their information-theoretic views are not yet accepted by those still living in the 20th century.

How to Make Sense of Quantum Physics :
Popular science accounts inevitably refer to it as “strange,” “weird,” “mind-boggling,” or all of the above. . . . . We beg to differ. Quantum mechanics is perfectly comprehensible. It’s just that physicists abandoned the only way to make sense of it half a century ago. . . . . The problem is that all existing interpretations of quantum mechanics have internal contradictions and those can only be resolved by a better theory. . . . . If anything is mind-boggling about quantum mechanics, it’s that physicists have almost entirely ignored the most obvious way to solve its problems.
____Sabine Hossenfelder
https://nautil.us/issue/83/intelligence ... um-physics
Note : Her solution to the weirdness is Superdeterminism. Which I interpret, in layman's language is the top-down determinism of a Creator, which allows for no freewill. But, my model of reality involves bottom-up randomized determinism, which allows for a tiny bit of FreeWill for self-aware beings.

[Gnomon]

This thread has become a little weird. But so are parts of physics. And math. — jgill

Yes. The topic of this thread is "On Physics". But, since it's a philosophical forum, the weirdness of Quantum Physics falls under the heading of Meta-Physics. That's because the mystery is in the mind of the observer. The real world keeps-on-keeping-on whether we can make sense of Quantum Queerness or not. That's why several of the pioneers of QT turned to Eastern Philosophy, in search of a different perspective. Classical Physics was pretty straightforward, and Euclidean Geometry was quite linear. But non-classical physics, and non-linear math have revealed some strange aspects of the real world. Remember, that Pythagoras was a geometer and a mystic. So, maybe there's nothing new in the world.

Quantum mysticism is a set of metaphysical beliefs and associated practices that seek to relate consciousness, intelligence, spirituality, or mystical worldviews to the ideas of quantum mechanics and its interpretations. Quantum mysticism is considered by most scientists and philosophers to be ... However, states Hammer, in Heisenberg's Physics and Philosophy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mysticism

Metaphysical Mathematics :
Platonism about mathematics (or mathematical platonism) is the metaphysical view that there are abstract mathematical objects whose existence is independent of us and our language, thought, and practices.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plat ... thematics/

[Gnomon]

There are two things, matter and consciousness. As I see it consciousness is ultimately nothingness. It is just experience (experience from matter). Matter comes in different forms but it all has the same principle. Einstein said a lot about how people would view things in so in so situations but you need psychology, not just physics thought experiments, to validate all this — Gregory

In my worldview, there is only one thing : Information. Which takes on the form of Matter, Energy & Mind. But, to call Consciousness "nothingness" is to trivialize the only thing we know for sure in this world (Descartes).

If you want validation of Enformationism from Psychology, just give me a topic, and I'll give you a reference. But keep in mind, that the science of Psychology is limited to one approach : Thought Experiments. That's why Skinner's Behaviorist methods are no longer viable.

To understand the philosophical worldview of Enformationism, all you need for personal validation is to follow the logic, as presented in the thesis. Physical validation of a Meta-Physical concept is not going to get you far.

[Gnomon]

Positing information as having Being needs much elaboration. I will try to get to all these links you are putting out for us to read — Gregory

Please do! I can't "validate" a radical new worldview in a forum post.

So the "Creator" has no free will? That's Spinoza's opinion too — Gregory

No! You are getting ahead of your understanding of the Enformationism worldview. Since the reach of Science ends at the Big Bang, I have no information about any properties or qualities the Programmer might have, beyond those that are logically necessary for the First Cause to have the real world effects that we observe. Since our best human thinkers can't agree on whether their fellows have freewill, I'm not going to pretend to know whether the "Creator" had any choice in He/r little hobby. But, I can't imagine what kind of power could limit the creativity of a world creator.