Physicist George Ellis on the importance of philosophy and free will

17 Replies to “Physicist George Ellis on the importance of philosophy and free will”

1. 1
   Mung says:

   July 27, 2014 at 9:31 am

   nice find news!
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   bornagain77 says:

   July 27, 2014 at 10:00 am

   It is of interest to point out that Ellis was part of the team that extended Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to show that not only space but time also had a beginning in the Big Bang:

   Big Bang Theory – An Overview of the main evidence
   Excerpt: Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention to the Theory of Relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time. In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to include measurements of time and space.1, 2 According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy.”3
   Steven W. Hawking, George F.R. Ellis, “The Cosmic Black-Body Radiation and the Existence of Singularities in our Universe,” Astrophysical Journal, 152, (1968) pp. 25-36.
   Steven W. Hawking, Roger Penrose, “The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series A, 314 (1970) pp. 529-548.
   http://www.big-bang-theory.com/

   Here is a quote from Ellis on the fine tuning of the laws of physics:

   ‘Amazing fine-tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word “miraculous” without taking a stand as to the ontological status of that word.’
   – George Ellis

   I was also heartened to see George Ellis quote this from Parker Palmer,,,

   The Contradiction of the Cross
   “On the cross, our false dependencies are revealed. On the cross, our illusions are killed off. On the cross, our small self dies so that the true self, the God-given self, can emerge. On the cross, we give up the fantasy that we are in control, and the death of this fantasy is central to acceptance. The cross is, above all, a place of powerlessness. Here is the final proof that our own feeble powers can no more alter life’s trajectory than a magnet can pull down the moon. Here is the death of the ego, of the self that insists on being in charge, the self that continually tries to impose its own idea of order and righteousness on the world.
   The cross is a place of contradiction. For the powerlessness of the cross, if fully embraced, takes us to a place of power. This is the great mystery at the heart of the Christian faith, from Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr., the mystery of the power of powerlessness. As long as I am preoccupied with the marshaling of my own feeble powers, there will be no way for God’s power to flow through me. As long as I am getting in my own way, I cannot live in the power of God’s way.”
   – Parker Palmer, The Promise of Paradox, Pg 46-47

   Ellis quotes that quote from Palmer at the 60 minute mark of the following video:

   Cosmology and Ultimate Causality – video
   https://vimeo.com/20681475

   As to philosophy, Ellis made this following, rather dramatic, statement:

   “People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations… For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations… You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds… What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that.”
   – George Ellis – W. Wayt Gibbs, “Profile: George F. R. Ellis,” Scientific American, October 1995, Vol. 273, No.4, p. 55

   And indeed Ellis need not rely on a ‘model’ to point out the centrality of the earth in the universe. He can just use this video to point out the centrality of the earth in the universe:

   Centrality of The Earth Within The 4-Dimensional Space-Time of General Relativity – video
   https://vimeo.com/98189061

   Of course the caveat is that in 4-Dimensional space-time every place in the universe may be considered central:

   “There is no centre of the universe! According to the standard theories of cosmology, the universe started with a “Big Bang” about 14 thousand million years ago and has been expanding ever since. Yet there is no centre to the expansion; it is the same everywhere. The Big Bang should not be visualized as an ordinary explosion. The universe is not expanding out from a centre into space; rather, the whole universe is expanding and it is doing so equally at all places, as far as we can tell.”
   – Where is the centre of the universe?: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/.....entre.html

   Thus from a 3-dimensional (3D) perspective, any particular 3D spot in the universe is to be considered just as ‘center of the universe’ as any other particular spot in the universe is to be considered ‘center of the universe’. This centrality found for any 3D place in the universe is because the universe is a 4D expanding hypersphere, analogous in 3D to the surface of an expanding balloon. All points on the surface are moving away from each other, and every point is central, if that’s where you live.

   Thus, as Ellis pointed out, the only reason you can exclude the earth as being central in the universe is on philosophical grounds, not on empirical grounds. Yet empirically, we now have evidence that the earth is not as haphazardly placed in the universe as materialists/atheists would prefer people to believe:

   Is there a violation of the Copernican principle in radio sky? – Ashok K. Singal – May 17, 2013
   Abstract: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) observations from the WMAP satellite have shown some unexpected anisotropies (directionally dependent observations), which surprisingly seem to be aligned with the ecliptic\cite {20,16,15}. The latest data from the Planck satellite have confirmed the presence of these anisotropies\cite {17}. Here we report even larger anisotropies in the sky distributions of powerful extended quasars and some other sub-classes of radio galaxies in the 3CRR catalogue, one of the oldest and most intensively studies sample of strong radio sources\cite{21,22,3}. The anisotropies lie about a plane passing through the two equinoxes and the north celestial pole (NCP). We can rule out at a 99.995% confidence level the hypothesis that these asymmetries are merely due to statistical fluctuations. Further, even the distribution of observed radio sizes of quasars and radio galaxies show large systematic differences between these two sky regions. The redshift distribution appear to be very similar in both regions of sky for all sources, which rules out any local effects to be the cause of these anomalies. Two pertinent questions then arise. First, why should there be such large anisotropies present in the sky distribution of some of the most distant discrete sources implying inhomogeneities in the universe at very large scales (covering a fraction of the universe)? What is intriguing even further is why such anisotropies should lie about a great circle decided purely by the orientation of earth’s rotation axis and/or the axis of its revolution around the sun? It looks as if these axes have a preferential placement in the larger scheme of things, implying an apparent breakdown of the Copernican principle or its more generalization, cosmological principle, upon which all modern cosmological theories are based upon.
   http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.4134.pdf

   Why is the solar system cosmically aligned? BY Dragan Huterer – 2007
   The solar system seems to line up with the largest cosmic features. Is this mere coincidence or a signpost to deeper insights?
   Caption under figure on page 43:
   ODD ALIGNMENTS hide within the multipoles of the cosmic microwave background. In this combination of the quadrupole and octopole, a plane bisects the sphere between the largest warm and cool lobes. The ecliptic — the plane of Earth’s orbit projected onto the celestial sphere — is aligned parallel to the plane between the lobes.
   http://www-personal.umich.edu/.....uterer.pdf

   Of note: The preceding article was written before the Planck data (with WMPA & COBE data), but the multipoles were actually verified by Planck.

   A Large Scale Pattern from Optical Quasar Polarization Vectors – 2013
   http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.6118.pdf

   Testing the Dipole Modulation Model in CMBR – 2013
   http://arxiv.org/pdf/1308.0924.pdf

   Mathematicians’ theory means Earth may be the center of the universe – Oct. 2010
   Excerpt: Their solution? That the acceleration seen is due to an expanding shockwave that occurred after the Big Bang–a shockwave that would have originated very near the Earth.
   Did you catch that? A shockwave, plowing through the universe and spreading out the galaxies that originated near the Earth.,,,
   ,,,the Earth-centered shockwave theory would also explain another phenomenon: the fact that Earth seems to be sitting in an odd “bubble of underdensity” — a region of the universe that doesn’t have much in it.,,,
   ,,,the biggest strike against it in the eyes of physicists? According to the article, it is the fact that it puts the earth at the center of the universe. As one particular cosmologist, Michael Wood-Vasey, is quoted in the Seed article concerning such a possibility: “It’s very philosophically disconcerting… It’s not very satisfying.”
   http://wallacegsmith.wordpress.....-universe/
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   bornagain77 says:

   July 27, 2014 at 10:02 am

   Also of interest to the ‘geometric’ considerations of centrality in the universe is the following,,,

   The Scale of The Universe – Part 2 – interactive graph (recently updated in 2012 with cool features)
   http://htwins.net/scale2/scale.....olor=white

   The preceding interactive graph points out that the smallest scale visible to the human eye (as well as a human egg) is at 10^-4 meters, which ‘just so happens’ to be directly in the exponential center of all possible sizes of our physical reality (not just ‘nearly’ in the exponential center!). i.e. 10^-4 is, exponentially, right in the middle of 10^-35 meters, which is the smallest possible unit of length, which is Planck length, and 10^27 meters, which is the largest possible unit of ‘observable’ length since space-time was created in the Big Bang, which is the diameter of the universe. This is very interesting for, as far as I can tell, the limits to human vision (as well as the size of the human egg) could have, theoretically, been at very different positions than directly in the exponential middle.

   Further note:

   The Galileo Affair and “Life/Consciousness” as the true “Center of the Universe”
   Excerpt: I find it extremely interesting, and strange, that quantum mechanics tells us that instantaneous quantum wave collapse to its ‘uncertain’ 3D state is centered on each individual conscious observer in the universe, whereas, 4D space-time cosmology (General Relativity) tells us each 3D point in the universe is central to the expansion of the universe. These findings of modern science are pretty much exactly what we would expect to see if this universe were indeed created, and sustained, from a higher dimension by a omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal Being who knows everything that is happening everywhere in the universe at the same time. These findings certainly seem to go to the very heart of the age old question asked of many parents by their children, “How can God hear everybody’s prayers at the same time?”,,, i.e. Why should the expansion of the universe, or the quantum wave collapse of the entire universe, even care that you or I, or anyone else, should exist? Only Theism, Christian Theism in particular, offers a rational explanation as to why you or I, or anyone else, should have such undeserved significance in such a vast universe. [15]
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BHAcvrc913SgnPcDohwkPnN4kMJ9EDX-JJSkjc4AXmA/edit

   Verse and Music:

   Psalm 33:13-15
   The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

   You Are Mine – Third Day
   http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=GKWPWNNX
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   bornagain77 says:

   July 27, 2014 at 10:05 am

   ditto mung @1, very nice find News!
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   Axel says:

   July 27, 2014 at 10:17 am

   At the microcosmic level, it is clear from just a few remarks of Plank and Bohr that the boundary between matter and spirit had been all but reached by quantum physic, 80 plus years ago.

   And bear in mind, that while BA77 continually tries to get it across to befuddled atheists, that the mathematical underpinning of the quantum-mechanical paradigm has also been mathematically proven to be the final, definitive, unimprovable paradigm for all time, these same naturalists are still looking elsewhere….’cos QM is crazy stuff…’n’ stuff.’

   ‘Whoy, ifn Oi wanted fer to get ter Whimperng Chutney, Oi wouldn’t start from ‘ere, dyer see….?’
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   Joe says:

   July 27, 2014 at 10:40 am

   Wow, I cannot believe Einstein would say something like that knowing full well that it is not a testable claim. One can just as easily claim that said Moon would try to depart from its boring trajectory and upon realizing that it cannot, would be thoroughly convinced that it was being directed by some unseen force and did not have any free will to choose a different path.
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   Andre says:

   July 27, 2014 at 11:11 am

   Ellis is a fellow countryman of mine. And just like professor David Block they make me very proud..
8. 8
   Mapou says:

   July 27, 2014 at 12:55 pm

   The day will come soon when Albert Einstein is no longer regarded as the god of physics. The man was so wrong about so many things (time dimension, determinism, block universe, spooky action at a distance, continuity, etc.) that the only reason that he’s still considered one of the greatest scientists in history is humanity’s propensity for hero worship. His strictly deterministic worldview is what caused him to dismiss free will. The man was a crackpot, in my opinion. Sorry if I offend anyone else’s worldview.
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   bornagain77 says:

   July 27, 2014 at 9:13 pm

   I find it very interesting that the materialistic belief of the universe being stable, and infinite in duration, was so deeply rooted in scientific thought that Albert Einstein, (1879-1955), when he was shown that his general relativity equation indicated a universe that was unstable and would ‘draw together’ under its own gravity, added a cosmological constant to his equation to reflect a stable universe rather than entertain the thought that the universe might have had a beginning..

   Einstein and The Belgian Priest, George Lemaitre – The “Father” Of The Big Bang Theory – video
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhLQ_b3bKdI

   In January 1933, the Belgian mathematician and Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre traveled with Albert Einstein to California for a series of seminars. After the Belgian detailed his Big Bang theory, Einstein stood up applauded, and said,

   “This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened.”

   Einstein ended up calling the cosmological constant, he had added to his equation, the ‘biggest blunder’ of his life.

   “Much later, when I was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder of his life.”
   — George Gamow, My World Line, 1970

   Most people who take a passing interest in science are aware of Einstein’s ‘biggest blunder’, but fewer people are aware that Einstein was also proven wrong in challenging the ‘spooky action at a distance’ predictions of quantum mechanics.

   Quantum Entanglement – Bohr and Einstein – The Failure Of Local Realism – Materialism – Alain Aspect – video
   https://vimeo.com/98206867

   Einstein vs quantum mechanics, and why he’d be a convert today – June 13, 2014
   Excerpt: In a nutshell, experimentalists John Clauser, Alain Aspect, Anton Zeilinger, Paul Kwiat and colleagues have performed the Bell proposal for a test of Einstein’s hidden variable theories. All results so far support quantum mechanics. It seems that when two particles undergo entanglement, whatever happens to one of the particles can instantly affect the other, even if the particles are separated!
   http://phys.org/news/2014-06-e.....today.html

   Of related interest to Einstein being proven wrong in Quantum Mechanics, Einstein was once asked (by a philosopher):

   “Can physics demonstrate the existence of ‘the now’ in order to make the notion of ‘now’ into a scientifically valid term?”

   Einstein’s answer was categorical, he said:

   “The experience of ‘the now’ cannot be turned into an object of physical measurement, it can never be a part of physics.”

   Quote was taken from the last few minutes of this following video:

   Stanley L. Jaki: “The Mind and Its Now” – video
   https://vimeo.com/10588094

   The preceding statement was an interesting statement for Einstein to make since ‘the now of the mind’ has, from many recent experiments in quantum mechanics, undermined the space-time of Einstein’s General Relativity as to being the absolute frame of reference for reality. Perhaps the most dramatic example of the ‘now of the mind’ within quantum physics is Leggett’s Inequality:

   Do we create the world just by looking at it? – 2008
   Excerpt: In mid-2007 Fedrizzi found that the new realism model was violated by 80 orders of magnitude; the group was even more assured that quantum mechanics was correct.
   Leggett agrees with Zeilinger that realism is wrong in quantum mechanics, but when I asked him whether he now believes in the theory, he answered only “no” before demurring, “I’m in a small minority with that point of view and I wouldn’t stake my life on it.” For Leggett there are still enough loopholes to disbelieve. I asked him what could finally change his mind about quantum mechanics. Without hesitation, he said sending humans into space as detectors to test the theory.,,,

   (to which Anton Zeilinger responded)

   When I mentioned this to Prof. Zeilinger he said, “That will happen someday. There is no doubt in my mind. It is just a question of technology.” Alessandro Fedrizzi had already shown me a prototype of a realism experiment he is hoping to send up in a satellite. It’s a heavy, metallic slab the size of a dinner plate.
   http://seedmagazine.com/conten....._tests/P3/

   Quantum Physics – (material reality does not exist until we look at it) – Dr. Quantum video
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ezNvpFcJU

   Lecture 11: Decoherence and Hidden Variables – Scott Aaronson
   Excerpt: “Look, we all have fun ridiculing the creationists who think the world sprang into existence on October 23, 4004 BC at 9AM (presumably Babylonian time), with the fossils already in the ground, light from distant stars heading toward us, etc. But if we accept the usual picture of quantum mechanics, then in a certain sense the situation is far worse: the world (as you experience it) might as well not have existed 10^-43 seconds ago!”
   http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec11.html

   But it interesting to note where the ‘now of the mind’ of quantum mechanics finds partial congruence with relativity,,,

   “The laws of relativity have changed timeless existence from a theological claim to a physical reality. Light, you see, is outside of time, a fact of nature proven in thousands of experiments at hundreds of universities. I don’t pretend to know how tomorrow can exist simultaneously with today and yesterday. But at the speed of light they actually and rigorously do. Time does not pass.”
   Richard Swenson – More Than Meets The Eye, Chpt. 12

   Of note from Near Death Experiences (NDEs),,

   ‘Earthly time has no meaning in the spirit realm. There is no concept of before or after. Everything – past, present, future – exists simultaneously.’
   – Kimberly Clark Sharp – NDE Experiencer

   ‘There is no way to tell whether minutes, hours or years go by. Existence is the only reality and it is inseparable from the eternal now.’
   – John Star – NDE Experiencer

   As to free will and Einstein’s denial of it, quantum mechanics has shown that not only is consciousness integral but and observers free will is also integral to the experiments in quantum mechanics. Perhaps the clearest example of free will’s integral role in quantum mechanics is the following experiment;

   Quantum physics mimics spooky action into the past – April 23, 2012
   Excerpt: According to the famous words of Albert Einstein, the effects of quantum entanglement appear as “spooky action at a distance”. The recent experiment has gone one remarkable step further. “Within a naïve classical world view, quantum mechanics can even mimic an influence of future actions on past events”, says Anton Zeilinger.
   http://phys.org/news/2012-04-q.....ction.html

   How Free Will Works (In Quantum Mechanics) – video
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMp30Q8OGOE

   In other words, if my conscious choices really are just merely the result of whatever state the material particles in my brain happen to be in in the past (deterministic) how in blue blazes are my choices instantaneously effecting the state of material particles into the past?,,, These experiments from quantum mechanics are simply impossible on a reductive materialism (determinism) view of reality!
10. 10
    bornagain77 says:

    July 27, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    It is also interesting to note where Einstein’s theories of relativity and free will find partial congruence. Having free will basically boils down to having two options and choosing one of them. In Theism the two choices boil down to heaven and hell,,

    “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”
    – C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

    And two very different ‘eternities’ are revealed by Einstein’s two theories of Relativity:

    General Relativity, Special Relativity, Heaven and Hell
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_4cQ7MXq8bLkoFLYW0kq3Xq-Hkc3c7r-gTk0DYJQFSg/edit

    “Einstein’s equation predicts that, as the astronaut reaches the singularity (of the black-hole), the tidal forces grow infinitely strong, and their chaotic oscillations become infinitely rapid. The astronaut dies and the atoms which his body is made become infinitely and chaotically distorted and mixed-and then, at the moment when everything becomes infinite (the tidal strengths, the oscillation frequencies, the distortions, and the mixing), spacetime ceases to exist.”
    Kip S. Thorne – “Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy” pg. 476

    Verse and Music:

    Deuteronomy 30:19
    This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

    Rhett Walker Band – When Mercy Found Me (Acoustic LIVE)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F83f6Lg3nj8
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    Mung says:

    July 27, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    Deuteronomy 30:19
    This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

    Did they choose life?
12. 12
    jstanley01 says:

    July 27, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    Great interview, thanks News. BTW, whatever happened to Nightlight? It looks to me like Ellis addresses the theory that he wrote about so much here.

    A specific related issue: there is a group of people out there writing papers based on the idea that physics is a computational process. But a physical law is not an algorithm. So who chooses the computational strategy and the algorithms that realise a specific physical law? (Finite elements perhaps?) What language is it written in? (Does Nature use Java or C++? What machine code is used?) Where is the CPU? What is used for memory, and in what way are read and write commands executed? Additionally if it’s a computation, how does Nature avoid the halting problem? It’s all a very bad analogy that does not work.
13. 13
    bornagain77 says:

    July 28, 2014 at 4:51 am

    I found a transcript of Jaki’s “The Mind and Its Now”

    The Mind and Its Now – Stanley L. Jaki, July 2008 – transcript
    Excerpt: There can be no active mind without its sensing its existence in the moment called now.,,,
    Three quarters of a century ago Charles Sherrington, the greatest modern student of the brain, spoke memorably on the mind’s baffling independence of the brain. The mind lives in a self-continued now or rather in the now continued in the self. This life involves the entire brain, some parts of which overlap, others do not.
    ,,,There is no physical parallel to the mind’s ability to extend from its position in the momentary present to its past moments, or in its ability to imagine its future. The mind remains identical with itself while it lives through its momentary nows.
    ,,, the now is immensely richer an experience than any marvelous set of numbers, even if science could give an account of the set of numbers, in terms of energy levels. The now is not a number. It is rather a word, the most decisive of all words. It is through experiencing that word that the mind comes alive and registers all existence around and well beyond.
    ,,, All our moments, all our nows, flow into a personal continuum, of which the supreme form is the NOW which is uncreated, because it simply IS.
    http://www.saintcd.com/science.....imitstart=
14. 14
    Jaceli123 says:

    July 28, 2014 at 11:32 am

    Great post News!
    Hey guys I found some papers and essays that George Ellis wrote on his bio site.
    ——————————————
    http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/~elli.....omness.pdf
15. 15
    vjtorley says:

    July 28, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    Good find, Jaceli123. Readers might also like to have a look at this:

    http://www.parssky.com/tools/f.....veries.pdf (warning: it’s a big file)

    Scroll down to Ellis’s article, “Why Are the Laws of Nature as They Are? What Underlies Their Existence?” on page 387.

    See also this article by biologist Dennis Noble, a friend of Ellis’s:

    http://www.musicoflife.co.uk/pdfs/Answers-new1.pdf

    Got to run. Bye for now.
16. 16
    Andre says:

    July 29, 2014 at 4:41 am

    Don’t forget Prof David Block!

    http://www.davidblock.co.za
17. 17
    Andre says:

    July 29, 2014 at 4:48 am

    I love this quote from Professor Block….. one of my favourites….

    “As a scientist, I always think logically and I reason things out. That was how my whole search for God began. I looked through my telescope at Saturn and said to myself, “Isn’t there a great God out there?” And when I studied relativity, relativistic astrophysics, cosmology and all those beautiful areas of mathematics, they pointed me to the fact that this whole universe is masterfully made, finely-tuned and controlled by the Great Designer. The logical next step was to want to meet this Designer face to face.”