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How Self-Relational Consciousness Produces and Interacts with Reality
In essence, Steven E. Kaufman’s work shows how self-relational Consciousness produces and interacts with reality. But to appreciate the important work done by Kaufman, one needs to read the whole 325 pages of this Focus Issue of JCER covering his work. Our goals with this Focus Issue are: (1) bring broader awareness of Kaufman’s work by scholars and all genuine truth seekers; and (2) promote scholarly discussions of the same through commentaries and responses to commentaries in the future issues of JCER. In so doing, we hope that all of us may benefit in our endeavor to reach higher Consciousness within ourselves and build a genuine Science of Consciousness.
Physics as Infinite-dimensional Geometry and Generalized Number Theory: Basic Visions (by Matti Pitkänen)
Abstract: There are two basic approaches to the construction of quantum TGD. The first approach relies on the vision of quantum physics as infinite-dimensional Kähler geometry for the "world of classical worlds" identified as the space of 3-surfaces in certain 8-dimensional space. Essentially a generalization of the Einstein's geometrization of physics program is in question. The second vision is the identification of physics as a generalized number theory. This program involves three threads: various p-adic physics and their fusion together with real number based physics to a larger structure, the attempt to understand basic physics in terms of classical number fields (in particular, identifying associativity condition as the basic dynamical principle), and infinite primes whose construction is formally analogous to a repeated second quantization of an arithmetic quantum field theory. In this article brief summaries of physics as infinite-dimensional geometry and generalized number theory are given to be followed by more detailed articles. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/46
Physics as Infinite-dimensional Geometry I: Identification of the Configuration Space Kähler Function (by Matti Pitkänen)
Abstract: There are two basic approaches to quantum TGD. The first approach, which is discussed in this article,is a generalization of Einstein's geometrization program of physics to an infinite-dimensional context. Second approach is based on the identification of physics as a generalized number theory. The first approach relies on the vision of quantum physics as infinite-dimensional Kähler geometry for the "world of classical worlds" (WCW) identified as the space of 3-surfaces in in certain 8-dimensional space. There are three separate approaches to the challenge of constructing WCW Kähler geometry and spinor structure. The first approach relies on direct guess of Kähler function. Second approach relies on the construction of Kähler form and metric utilizing the huge symmetries of the geometry needed to guarantee the mathematical existence of Riemann connection. The third approach relies on the construction of spinor structure based on the hypothesis that complexified WCW gamma matrices are representable as linear combinations of fermionic oscillator operator for second quantized free spinor fields at space-time surface and on the geometrization of super-conformal symmetries in terms of WCW spinor structure. In this article the proposal for Kähler function based on the requirement of 4-dimensional General Coordinate Invariance implying that its definition must assign to a given 3-surface a unique space-time surface. Quantum classical correspondence requires that this surface is a preferred extremal of some some general coordinate invariant action, and so called Kähler action is a unique candidate in this respect. The preferred extremal has interpretation as an analog of Bohr orbit so that classical physics becomes and exact part of WCW geometry and therefore also quantum physics. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/48
Physics as Infinite-dimensional Geometry II: Configuration Space Kähler Geometry from Symmetry Principles (by Matti Pitkänen)
Abstract: There are three separate approaches to the challenge of constructing WCW Kähler geometry and spinor structure. The first one relies on a direct guess of Kähler function. Second approach relies on the construction of Kähler form and metric utilizing the huge symmetries of the geometry needed to guarantee the mathematical existence of Riemann connection. The third approach relies on the construction of spinor structure assuming that complexifiedWCW gamma matrices are representable as linear combinations of fermionic oscillator operator for the second quantized free spinor fields at space-time surface and on the geometrization of super-conformal symmetries in terms of spinor structure. In this article the construction of Kähler form and metric based on symmetries is discussed. The basic vision is that WCW can be regarded as the space of generalized Feynman diagrams with lines thickned to light-like 3-surfaces and vertices identified as partonic 2-surfaces. In zero energy ontology the strong form of General Coordinate Invariance (GCI) implies effective 2-dimensionality and the basic objects are pairs partonic 2-surfaces X2 at opposite light-like boundaries of causal diamonds (CDs). http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/49
Physics as Infinite-dimensional Geometry III: Configuration Space Spinor Structure (by Matti Pitkänen)
Abstract: There are three separate approaches to the challenge of constructing WCW Kähler geometry and spinor structure. The first approach relies on a direct guess of Kähler function. Second approach relies on the construction of Kähler form and metric utilizing the huge symmetries of the geometry needed to guarantee the mathematical existence of Riemann connection. The third approach discussed in this article relies on the construction of spinor structure based on the hypothesis that complexified WCW gamma matrices are representable as linear combinations of fermionic oscillator operator for the second quantized free spinor fields at space-time surface and on the geometrization of super-conformal symmetries in terms of spinor structure. This implies a geometrization of fermionic statistics. The basic philosophy is that at fundamental level the construction of WCW geometry reduces to the second quantization of the induced spinor fields using Dirac action. This assumption is parallel with the bosonic emergence stating that all gauge bosons are pairs of fermion and anti-fermion at opposite throats of wormhole contact. Vacuum function is identified as Dirac determinant and the conjecture is that it reduces to the exponent of Kähler function. In order to achieve internal consistency induced gamma matrices appearing in Dirac operator must be replaced by the modified gamma matrices defined uniquely by Kähler action and one must also assume that extremals of Kähler action are in question so that the classical space-time dynamics reduces to a consistency condition. This implies also super-symmetries and the fermionic oscillator algebra at partonic 2-surfaces has interpretation as N = 1 generalization of space-time super-symmetry algebra different however from standard SUSY algebra in that Majorana spinors are not needed. This algebra serves as a building brick of various super-conformal algebras involved. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/50
CHRISTIAN ANFINSEN – NOBEL LAUREATE IN CHEMISTRY
Nobel Prize: Christian Anfinsen (1916–1995) was awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation.” Anfinsen is a pioneer in the study of enzymes.
Nationality: American
Education: Ph.D. in biochemistry, Harvard University, 1943
Occupation: Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania; Researcher at Carlsberg University (Denmark), National Institute of Health (Bethesda) and National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases; Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins University from 1982 until his death
1. To the question, “Many prominent scientists - including Darwin, Einstein, and Planck - have considered the concept of God very seriously. What are your thoughts on the concept of God and on the existence of God?” Christian Anfinsen replied:
“I think only an idiot can be an atheist. We must admit that there exists an incomprehensible power or force with limitless foresight and knowledge that started the whole universe going in the first place.” (Anfinsen, as cited in Margenau and Varghese, ‘Cosmos, Bios, Theos’, 1997, 139).
2. Prof. Anfinsen wrote to the compilers of the scientific anthology ‘Cosmos, Bios, Theos’ (1997) this:
“I enclose a favorite quotation from Einstein that agrees almost completely with my own point of view.
Einstein himself once said that ‘The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God’.” (Anfinsen, as cited in Margenau and Varghese, ‘Cosmos, Bios, Theos’, 1997, 140).
3. In his letter of 28 March 1989 to Prof. Henry Margenau (compiler of the scientific anthology ‘Cosmos, Bios, Theos’), Anfinsen wrote:
“Thank you for your letter of March 13 and your kind words about my small contribution to your anthology. I can think of little more to add to my final point having to do with the nature of God and the existence of God. Clearly, an all-powerful, all-knowing entity must exist to explain our existence.” (Anfinsen 1989).
4. In 1979, Anfinsen converted to Orthodox Judaism, a commitment he retained for the rest of his life; he maintained that he had been deeply impressed by the “the history, practice and intensity of Judaism.”
On 16 November 1995, in her Memorial speech for Christian Anfinsen at Memorial Garden Dedication, Weizmann Institute, Libby Anfinsen (Prof. Anfinsen’s wife) said:
“His religious background is interesting in that his Jewish maternal grandmother’s family disappeared when the Nazis invaded Bergen, Norway. His parents were Bible reading Lutherans, and he himself was an agnostic until the later 70’s when he studied and converted to traditional Judaism. He felt the following quote from Einstein accurately expressed his beliefs. ‘The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God.’ He xeroxed and distributed this quote to many.” (Libby Anfinsen, 1995).
CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882), founder of the Theory of Evolution
1. Charles Darwin ended his most fundamental scientific work The Origin of Species (1872, 6th edition) with the words:
“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” (Darwin 1928, 463).
2. “Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.” (Darwin 1995, 60).
3. “To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual.” (Darwin 1928, 462; The Origin of Species).
4. “With respect to the theological view of the question; this is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically.
I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance.” (Darwin 1993, 224).
5. In 1879, three years before the end of his life, Darwin wrote that he had “never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.” (Darwin, as cited in Bowden 1998, 273).
6. In 1873 Darwin stated: “The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God.” (Darwin, as cited in Bowden 1998, 273).
