I am a licensed Professional Engineer.
BSEE The University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana; 1966
MSEE Syracuse University; 1970
Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu
A member of Mensa
From 1966 to about 1987 I worked in the power semiconductor/power
electronics industry. I published some papers on the subject such as in
the IEEE "Transactions on Electron Devices."
Since 1987 I have been chief engineer at a medium size aerospace
company. My most recent publication [coauthored with my brother] is in the
Winter 1997 U. C. Davis Law Review and is an application of complex system
ideas to illuminating the effects of the burgeoning of the law.
My interest in material relevant to the list dates back a rather long
time. About 10 years ago this interest increased due to a general
dissatisfaction with the statistical approach to the founding of
thermodynamics during a dab at writing a social science fiction novel. The
intended moral is somewhat reflected in the title of Brian Czech's book:
"Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train" though I propose a purposely cyclic
economy/population since "steady state" seems an empty but dangerous quest
for so many reasons. [Growth is the derivative of size and when it comes
to an economy entrepreneurs can find fertile ground when it is either
positive or negative and the required rule set can have low complexity -
the latter seemingly coinciding with an interpretation of Joseph Tainter's
"The collapse of Complex Societies". Being in the aerospace business I see
the negative marginal utility of new rules every day.] The social science
fiction approach to the moral seems a little bit like the possible
background driver for the book "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle.
About four or five years ago this line of thought lead me to the idea that
our universe could be based on no net information. I was then pointed to
this list by participants on another list.
My current approach the issue of origins is to try to find our universe in
a zero information Everything type of ensemble. I am not looking for why
we are in our universe because I see any result - such as "our universe and
its close relations form some major fraction of the population" - as net
information in the Everything and therefore I reject such a search as a
departure from and incompatible with a zero information
foundation. Further I see machine based approaches such as a UD as also
requiring the Everything to have non zero information and so currently
reject them.
My current interests are to further refine my model based on the idea of a
zero information ensemble of counterfactuals, look for possible
observational evidence to support it, and see if I can make any predictions
with it. For example my discrete point space grid idea would be just a
ground condition - any number of excited conditions would be possible
including something a little like a "gas" of points. Thus I see no end to
the "particles" we will observe with ever higher energy machines, but I
currently see no place for an association of a "particle" and what we see
as gravity. I currently see no "Free Will" nor do I see a central [non
passive] role for an "observer". The rules of evolution of a universe -
which I see as a large lookup table applied locally to each of the discrete
points rather like a cellular automaton - would be strictly followed unless
a state to state transition corresponded with the injection of true noise
from the dynamic of the ensemble.
I see lookup tables [all alphabet and {if - then}'s] as below formal
systems so I do not see formal system mathematics or any of its member
systems as pointers to the correct base model whatever it may be. However,
the extension of the base model to particular universes can make good use
of such systems to the extent that such systems of mathematics are large
scale [spanning many rows of the table and many state to state iterations
and many cells within the automaton] approximations to the lookup
tables. Further the arrival at such a lookup table base involves a "logic"
in the sense that the components of the Everything must form a complete and
thus zero information set of counterfactuals.
My ultimate interest is in "life" and its nature and behavior especially
its possible dependence on and response to true noise in its universe and
how to build reasonably robust social systems that would attract all
varieties of "reasonable" people.
I feel this list has an excellent chance of eventually arriving at what
seems to me to be the collective goal - a simple explanation for what I
believe to be my environment. I also think the list needs a FAQ like
document of a sort that suits it. I made an attempt to write one but ran
out of time for awhile.
As to my reading I own at least 150 books with relevant content that I have
read or browsed.
As to weather any of these seem to be an identifiable near precursor to my
current approach I do not believe so.
Hal
