Biography

First cause formed in physics the knack;
Cybernetic effects fed it back.
But our needs led to want;
We collapsed to a quant.
Hence theology's back on the track.

This limerick is an autobiography and whimsical biography of the universe, a kind of Theory of Everything in panentheism (the theistic worldview holding God to be both transcendent and immanent). It describes my own studies in physics and cybernetics, followed by my material desires leading me into a stage in my career as a quant (financial quantitative analyst), and finally my interest in theology in an effort to find my way back to meaning and purpose, resparking my academic interests in physics and cybernetics. 

The allegorical aspect of the five lines is more complex:

• Line 1 — A first cause started a world in which evolution (the "knack") would eventually emerge;
• Line 2 — By means of feedback mechanisms, intelligence emerged and became self-aware;
• Line 3 — Mankind chose to serve their own material needs;
• Line 4 — As a result of this, humans are conscious of themselves as individuals rather than as beings coherent with the universal wave function;
• Line 5 — God guides us in the search to rediscover a selfless worldview.

Theories of Everything

The constituent notes of reality,
Are they: vibrating string musicality?
Or a resonant cavity —
Based on loop quantum gravity?
Perhaps thought conducts universality?

Amongst the competing theories of what represents the ultimate constituent of the universe's reality are:

1. String theory (e.g., Super-string theory, M-theory) - often described as vibrating strings of energy. The Japanese-American physicist Michio Kaku says, "... the universe is a symphony and the laws of physics are harmonies of a super-string." Parallel Universes, BBC Science & Nature, Horizon, 2002.
2. Loop Quantum Gravity theory (e.g., LQG theory) - sometimes modeled in terms of a quantization of space-time into resonant energetic "cavities".
3. Idealism - Our consciousness causes collapse of the universal wave function to bring perceived reality come into being.

Causality Loops

If causality loops have recurred
Consequential-based logic's abjured.
Links acausal confuse
What begins, what ensues —
Life's a paradox, strange and absurd!

Causality loops are hypothetical constructs based on speculation that future events, if allowed to impact their own past causes, will lead to logical paradox, and are thus sometimes used to posit that acausal connection cannot therefore exist. Science fiction has many instances of such fanciful implications (they are collectively referred to as the predestination paradox). However, if one does not make the assumption that time-lines (an individual observer's past-present-future chain of causal events) are fixed for all observers (this is technically called an assumption on non-locality); and that if it is possible to revisit and change the past through an acausal connection; then perhaps subsequent events from that point on are within a new time-line for the acausal observer. Non-participating observers on other time-lines will be unaffected, though from then on exist in other worlds, inaccessible to the acausal observer (and vice versa). The implication here is that many time-lines (and thus worlds) may coexist.

However, an individual observer only perceives the time-line he is on. He is responsible — because of his acts and observations — for the world he exists in. Thus, a time-traveler can go back in time and kill his own grandfather and still exist, because the world from that point on unfolds differently to his prior recollection. He is on a new time-line. As such, there is no paradoxical causality loop in such a formulation, and the concept of free-will is preserved. Strange as it may sound, such many world interpretations of quantum mechanics are serious candidates explaining the underlying reality of the observable universe.

Consciousness Causes Collapse

Many worlds may exist, and perhaps,
If our consciousness causes collapse
Of the total wave function —
From states of conjunction —
The chosen emergent path snaps

Consider the problem of precognition of the result from throwing a die in a game. If at the point of a game-player's anticipation multiple realities are possible (following the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory), and the conscious choice of the player determines the path of his time-line (according to the quantum-mind theory), then a normal player visualizes multiple scenarios of equal probability (e.g., when casting a die he sees six scenarios each with one sixth likelihood – this is the conjunction, or superposition, of all possible states and can be represented as a total, or universal, wave function).

Precognition in such a model would be assumed if the player is able to collapse the future time-line to just one scenario (e.g., predict a result and then throw it – this is called the collapse of the wave function to an observable state) by an act of will. If the future is aligned to his choice it will look like a conscious act of will; if the player sees the future scenarios, but has no control over selection, it will look like an unconscious act of will. If a person believes in his unconscious that future choice is random, then that is what he sees, even if he consciously wishes it to be otherwise (he unconsciously manifests a random world).

To gain conscious control of the collapse (perhaps through the Law of Attraction) he needs to align his conscious and unconscious will by removing his unconscious doubt, through assent in faith — one issue remains — faith in what?

PS: I'm not a fan of the Law of Attraction if what you seek is to attract unfairness, greed and partiality.

Anti-Matter

An electron's the anti, in fact,
Of a positron (to be exact) —
As if time has been flipped.
But symmetry has slipped,
To allow life, it seems to be hacked!

One way of viewing anti-matter is that it is normal matter traveling backwards though time (flipped, or tipped over, in symmetrical terms). The two would be then indistinguishable from each other. As the American physicist Michio Kaku says "...if we push an electron with an electric field, it moves, say, to the left. If the electron was going backward in time, it would move to the right. However, an electron moving to the right would appear to us as an electron with positive, not negative, charge. Therefore an electron moving backward in time is indistinguishable from antimatter moving forward in time." (Beyond Einstein; The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe)

This looks very symmetrical then. However if the world was perfectly symmetrical, then anti-matter would cancel matter and there would be no matter, no life. So symmetry must be violated to allow life to exist it seems, it is as if life has hacked the code of the universe to give room for its own existence.

It brings to mind a quote from Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventure in Wonderland:"… 'I don't understand you,' said Alice. 'It's dreadfully confusing!' 'That's the effect of living backwards,' the Queen said kindly: 'it always makes one a little giddy at first.'"

Fractals

The Mandelbrot set was derived —
In its complex quadratic-contrived
Polynomial form —
To repeat as a norm:
With self-similar fractals revived.

These irregular shapes are a set.
As each fractal is plotted, you get
Geometrical art
That reflects in each part
Its original — small — smaller yet.

So they go, on and on; there's no end
To recursions that make your mind bend!
As you pass through these levels,
Your consciousness revels:
Are we just a fractal God penned?

•••

The Franco-American (Polish-born) mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot (MAN-duhl-broht) (b. 1924) studied parameter spaces of complex quadratic polynomials. With modern information technology he was able to plot their point sequences to form images of complex fractals. Partly because of his work, fractals have been introduced into many practical as well as aesthetic applications today.

(Co-Authored with Carol June Hooker)