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

PRO: My opponent inappropriately describes Wheeler's suggested "clues" in his paper, "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links" as a "doctrine",...I mentioned the "it from bit" doctrine. From Meriam-Webster:Doctrine: a set of ideas or beliefs that are taught or believed to be trueWith doctrine I simply mean a "principle". No negative connotation was intended. Other people also refer to the "it from bit" doctrine, not in a negative way:"Wheeler (1990) has suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this 'it from bit' doctrine, the laws of physics can be cast in terms of information, postulating different states that give rise to different effects without actually saying what those states are. It is only their position in an information space that counts. If so, then information is a natural candidate to also play a role in a fundamental theory of consciousness. We are led to a conception of the world on which information is truly fundamental, and on which it has two basic aspects, corresponding to the physical and the phenomenal features of the world."David Chalmers, [2],[3].PRO: ...he [=CON] is apparently unfamiliar with how cybernetics has given a scientific formulation of teleology, or how "models" have "intended interpretations", or that "God" is a reference to the "Ultimate Truth and Reality". Apparently my opponent believes there is no such thing as truth or reality, which makes any effort to elucidate these concepts for him quite futile.Well, if you define God as "truth and reality", or as a bowling ball for that matter, I would have to agree with Langan and you that God exists. Such an abstract definition of God is not very useful, and does not have any practical applications. It does not tell us that there would be any way to communicate to God or that praying is useful. Although I think that truth and reality are useful concepts, I am not necessarily convinced that these are absolute. Also, I am not convinced that a Theory of Everything exists. If CTMU is such a theory, then I gladly learned it. I have already spend some time trying to understand it, but from what I have learned so far, it does not seem to be the real deal.PRO: While I don't care who wins this debate, I do care if people actually want to understand.PRO: While I am eager to share my ideas with others, and how the CTMU has inspired many of them, I do not think my opponent would appreciate them so I will refrain from sharing more for the time being.I would appreciate it, but I cannot promise that I would not criticize it. So far, my opponent still has not addressed my charges of obfuscation/bluffing. I do care about this debate, because I have already spend quite some time researching it.PRO: "The CTMU says that by its self-generative, self-selective nature, which follows directly from the analytic requirement of self-containment, reality is its own "designer". Other features of the generative grammar of reality imply that reality possesses certain logical properties traditionally regarded as theological or spiritual, and that to this extent, the self-designing aspect of reality is open to a theological or spiritual interpretation. The CTMU, being a logical theory, does not attempt to force such an interpretation down anyone"s throat; not all semantic permutations need affect theoretical structure." - Langan, PCID 2002, pg. 12I guess that Langan is backpedaling here from the claim of having a proof of God. So he claims to have a proof, that is open to the interpretation of a proof of God - if one is willing to define God in sufficiently abstract terms such as "truth, logic, reality".Since my opponent has not given me much to respond to, I will add some new arguments.CTMU is not a recognized theoryCTMU is not a theory that has been accepted by the scientific community. For example, none of his writings have been published in mainstream scientific journals. The one paper we have cited several times appeared in PCID: Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design. This is a journal that publishes papers on Intelligent Design "research", but is clearly not mainstream. Of course, Langan blames this rejection on academia:"In short, academia has arrogated a position which it is not necessarily able or entitled to fill, and may in the process be disseminating misinformation and misleading the public. This situation is especially serious in those fields for which standard scientific methodology is inadequate or inappropriate. There can be little argument that organized higher education is a social necessity, and that the world's colleges and universities have been integral to many of the benefits presently enjoyed by society. But the popular respect and power with which society has repaid it have made it dangerously forgetful ... forgetful that its own value resides largely in the genius of individual minds that exist independently of it."--Christopher Langan [4]Still, I believe that if CTMU has scientific value, then scientists would jump on it. If the presentation of Langan of his ideas is unconventional, I am sure someone would translated it to the proper scientific language and conventions. So far, one cannot even say that Langan's theory is controversial, because it has been more or less completely dismissed by the scientific communities. CTMU proof of intellectual superiority?Now Langan does not get his credibility from his education, since he is a auto-didact. Instead, he leans on his alleged high IQ for his credibility. It seems that much of his following is not in academia, but in the high IQ community. Some people call Langan the "smartest man alive" which seems to be an exaggeration. He estimates his IQ between 190 and 210. That seems a little high to me, because there have not been enough people that have been subjected to IQ tests to conclude that a certain person is more than 6 standard deviations from the mean. Anyway, his "megasociety" is part a society for people with high IQ's, and partially a platform to spread his CTMU ideas. For an interview, see [5],[6],[7] (3 videos).Langan claims that he has never met a person as smart as himself. If anyone would claim that they were as smart as he is, he would not necessarily subject them to an IQ test. Rather, he would judge their intelligence by their theory of reality, and by their understanding of his theory of reality (CTMU). (see [7] (third video) at 8:20)So, it is perhaps understandable that the CTMU theory is obfuscated. If no-one understands it, it will prove the intellectual superiority of Christopher Langan.I think that Chris Langan is trying to compensate for his rejections in academia earlier in life, by playing the "high IQ" card. But this is just speculation on my part. But I encourage anyone reading this debate to listen to the interview and make up their own mind. Anyway, he is an interesting character -- more interesting than his CTMU theory.[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com...[2] http://en.wikipedia.org...[3] Chalmers, David. J., 1995, "Facing up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness," Journal of Consciousness Studies 2(3): 200–19. [4] http://www.megafoundation.org...[5] http://www.youtube.com...[6] http://www.youtube.com...[7] http://www.youtube.com...