The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU) is True Metaphysics

"My opponent is MIA, but if anyone else wants to discuss CTMU, challenge me. ... I will argue that Chris Langan's CTMU theory is not brilliant. This theory seems more like metaphysical diarrhea to me," - black_squirrel http://www.debate.org... I noticed the above debate recently, and posted some comments there as well. I've always been interested in philosophy and religion, but through various experiences became disenchanted with both, I found them to be overly encumbered by their own historiography or metaphorically rendered in such a way which didn't readily lend themselves to deep logical analysis. However the CTMU is focused on metaphysics, and in keeping with its tradition, bridges false dichotomies toward a point of mutual commensurability. "Metaphysics is that portion of philosophy which treats of the most general and fundamental principles underlying all reality and all knowledge. ... Aristotle himself had referred to that portion of philosophy as "the theological science" (theologik), because it culminated in the consideration of the nature of God, and as "first philosophy", both because it considered the first causes of things, and because, in his estimation, it is first in importance." - Catholic Encyclopedia Since (as its title implies) the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe is concerned with reality as a subject in its own right, as well as the scope of our knowledge of it, then metaphysics is indeed a relevant place to begin. "Say that there are two true but different theories of metaphysics M and M", one or each of which contains information inferentially excluded by the other. Call all such info "d". Since M, M" are both true, and the distinction between two truths is itself a truth, d is true. Since metaphysics is comprehensive over reality by definition, it can exclude no real truth. But at least one of the pair M, M" excludes at least a part of d. So at least one of the pair is not a theory of metaphysics, and the assumption that two such theories exist is self-contradictory. This implies that there is at most one true theory of metaphysics." http://megasociety.org... "Every syndiffeonic relation has synetic and diffeonic phases respectively exhibiting synesis and diffeonesis (sameness and difference, or distributivity and parametric locality), and displays two forms of containment, topological and descriptive. The medium is associated with the synetic phase, while the difference relation is associated with the diffeonic phase (because the rules of state and transformation of the medium are distributed over it, the medium is homogeneous, intrinsically possessing only relative extension by virtue of the difference relationships it contains). Because diffeonic relands are related to their common expressive medium and its distributive syntax in a way that combines aspects of union and intersection, the operation producing the medium from the relands is called unisection (un). The synetic medium represents diffeonic potential of which the difference relationship is an actualization. ... The greatest theoretical advances have typically been associated with two complementary processes, reduction and extension. The conceptual components of a theory are reduced to more fundamental components, and the theory extended by the emergence of new and more general relationships among them." http://www.megafoundation.org... I will share some ideas, terms and a formula which helped me clarify a few of the basic concepts, and refer diligent researchers to the book, "Moonshine Beyond the Monster: The Bridge Connecting Algebra, Modular Forms and Physics". For the right-hemisphere dominant I also rendered some concepts as metaphors. Koinotely refers to the "common expressive medium", "synetic medium", or "diffeonic potential". It is produced by "unisection". Isotelesis refers to the "diffeonic relands" or the "actualization" of diffeonic potential. It is produced by "reverse unisection". If unisection is thought of as the fusion of parts, reverse unisection could be thought of as the fission of "wholes". Koinotely refers to Conterminality and Isotelesis to Coextensivity, telesis being the common component, the former is concerned with connectivity and coherence while the latter with self-similarity and consistency. The self-similar motif is reminiscent of the flower of life, though with 19 non-overlapping "isotelic" circles (local telors) packed into 1 "koinotelic" circle (syntactic unisect or global telor) which covers them all, the circles and their constructive-filtrative layering can be thought of as spheres or hypersurfaces if you can see it as such, this relates logic with resources (as in the linear logic program uniting logic with linear algebra) or state-syntax duality with the packing-covering duality, where issues like optimization and the conservation of freedom (and information) become relevant. As far as self-determinacy is concerned, the diameter of the larger circle is defined in terms of the smaller circles, and the space for the smaller circles are defined in terms of the larger circle, with each circle being 5 sub-circles wide, and simultaneously/reflexively, the number of circles definable within 1 circle is 19. 19x5=95 represents "teleoplection" or the entanglement of local (isotelic) and global (koinotelic) utility functions, (what is globally optimal is automatically locally optimal due to a property of convex geometry). Teleoplection is a self-dual relation/process (as are Chu Spaces), and is involved in how complexity arises from simplicity from/through self-consistent entanglement (or coherent inner expansion/decoherent requantization of subjective/objective states in syntactic operators). The fractional multiplier 5/19 (koinotely/isotelesis) and/or conversely, 19/5 (isotelesis/koinotely) is representative of the scale invariance and the universality of conspansion. Visually, inscribed in each circle and sub-circle are 19 circles per 5-diameter circle, when/where circles overlap they create new inner expansive domains which add circles or constraints/subtract space or freedom while contracting/expanding as they divide diffeonetically/multiply synetically, with outward inductive and inward deductive processes mirroring each other. So each circle can be considered koinotelic within its own domain, while being isotelic to a higher and/or for a lower level domain. This can be formulated as koinotely(isotelesis)=isotelesis(koinotely). On the left side of the equation, koinotely distributes over isotelesis, acts as the "memory" or model of past/present domains topologically including the right side of the equation, where vice-versa, isotelesis distributes over koinotely, "anticipating" or modeling the "future" as a codomain of the "past/present", it descriptively includes the left side, where abstract potentialities are rescaled as they are actualized in situ. Some preliminary ideas. Money (or abstractly, "utility" is a means for voluntary exchange which measures how much an "agent" is willing to give up in order to acquire some intrinsic/extrinsic motivator) is like a common denominator which allows for the exchange of values. If "spending/selection power" is thought of as a resource such as "freedom", then in order to be meaningful or useful, it could be subject to the laws of conservation (or global symmetry principles), such as energy, where one has to generate it in order to spend it (according to relative entropy). Although transformations among parts take place at varying scales of resolution, the self-consistency of the whole is maintained. As in the whole number "1", which as a resource may be divided and subdivided. The act of dividing resources is dually the process of multiplying functions, or similarly, the act of subtracting freedoms is dually the process of adding constructions. The whole is adjoined to its parts on all scales, while the parts are relatively disjoint from the whole. While some rules of exchange are reversible, others are not. The current monetary system can be thought of as "Abelian" which means that various dependencies among transactions are not relevant to the value of the outcome. However the paradigm of "non-Abelian money" is also worth considering for certain kinds of transactions (perhaps in triple-bottom line accounting, or mechanism design). A brief sketch of an economy informed by "spiritual" concepts may be to consider these parts as instead, "letters" or "utils" of an alphabet which form "words" or "entangled utility functions". "Abstract laws are more general than the concrete, physical matter-and-field systems that obey them. If we divide reality into the concrete, and the abstract but non-concrete, math falls under the latter heading due to its generality. That is, concrete physical reality exemplifies mathematics, but mathematics is not confined to any particular physical model; equivalently, the laws of physics are a mere subset of the laws of mathematics. So mathematics inhabits a higher (or alternatively, more basic) level of reality than the material world. Since the human mind can reason both inductively (from the specific to the general) and deductively (from the general to the specific), it spans both levels. Therefore, mathematics is mental as opposed to merely physical in nature. Because, as we have just noted, the laws of physics are a mere subset of the laws of mathematics, and because (as you write) the laws of nature are discovered, not invented, physical reality is ultimately mental in character as well. However, although this applies even to gravity, we are corporeally locked into a physical compartment of abstract mental reality within which we are not free to treat gravity as a mere "concept". This helps explain why we can't fly by the power of thought alone." http://www.megafoundation.org...