Recent content by grahamc

Hi Mosassam - thanks for the input. Asking where the rules are stored is, I think, important. I'm not sure their existence does transcend space-time. If there's no means of communicating between space-time and objects in the universe then both the objects and the rules must be encoded/defined in...

Whatta - OK thanks I assume the same applies for all the elementary particles. Vanesch: not the same problem at all. The triangle is an abstact concept which doesn't physically interact with other triangles or the universe with a set of predictable and reproducible behaviours. This thread...

Well, possibly. But surely if you accept that the universe is not homogenous then you must accept that some "parts" of it are different from others - whether we are here to perceive it or not. Long before humans existed particles were interacting with particles. Or am I misunderstanding your...

OK, you may be right but I'd like to offer four propositions. If they seem sound then I'd like to suggest an experimentally testable hypothesis. I realize I may be setting myself up for a big fall - but here goes... Proposition 1. An elementary particle is incapable of possessing knowledge...

Hi all. I'm running a thread in the Philosophy section about rules of the universe etc but I'm stuck on a fundamental question which probably only a current quantum mechanics expert can answer. In essence do the most current iterations of QF theory maintain that the ultimate and irreducible...

OK - read that but I'm no further forward!

Hi Watta - well that is what I'm getting at, and why I started this thread. I can think of at least one possible explanation. But what I really wanted to know from physicists at the cutting edge is what is the latest thinking (apart from brane theory) about the fundamental nature of the...

OK let's get back to a very simple idea. If the fundamental state of the universe is nothing more than random energy fluctuations in a quantum field then how probable would it be that these random fluctuations would produce, for example, countless billions of photons all of which have absolutely...

Hi Whatta. Well that wouldn't solve the issue. If we accept that the ultimate condition of the universe is random energy fluctuations in a quantum field then it would be very difficult to understand how this could result in ordered particle behaviour/properties. Random energy fluctuations...

Hi Warren. I'm not sure this is necessarily a deeply philosophical question. I think it goes to the heart of the QF dilemma. Whilst it is an interesting mathematical exercise to calculate QF effects it seems odd to me to do so without wondering why or how ordered behaviour can occur at the...

A particle traveling through space will (at least according to Newton's first law) continue at the same velocity etc. etc. My question is this: how does this particle "know" that this is how it must behave and that it is behaving correctly? Either the rules of the universe are contained...