End of The Universe
The latest comment by U. Schreiber in regard to the Crans paper is, "It rather neatly provides the right formal language for holography, it seems. I am enchanted."
Now Schreiber's view of the underlying physics still appears, mysteriously, to be quite conventional. He talks about stringy holography as if the boundary field idea is a principle in its own right. Instead, we originally considered the Gray tensor product in the context of a heirarchical quantum Machian principle (completely independently of gauge theories) where boundaries arise through a consideration of twistor causality. Anyway, there is a growing consensus (at least up to two people) that this dimension raising aspect of weak n-categories is crucial to quantum gravity.
It will be interesting to see how the mathematics converges: a calm process from a mathematical point of view, but perhaps a cataclysmic process from a physical one. Meanwhile I received a very polite letter from McDonalds declining my job application, so fortunately I am again in gainful employment marking large piles of assignments on Fluids and Thermodynamics.
Now Schreiber's view of the underlying physics still appears, mysteriously, to be quite conventional. He talks about stringy holography as if the boundary field idea is a principle in its own right. Instead, we originally considered the Gray tensor product in the context of a heirarchical quantum Machian principle (completely independently of gauge theories) where boundaries arise through a consideration of twistor causality. Anyway, there is a growing consensus (at least up to two people) that this dimension raising aspect of weak n-categories is crucial to quantum gravity.
It will be interesting to see how the mathematics converges: a calm process from a mathematical point of view, but perhaps a cataclysmic process from a physical one. Meanwhile I received a very polite letter from McDonalds declining my job application, so fortunately I am again in gainful employment marking large piles of assignments on Fluids and Thermodynamics.
posted by Kea | 9:26 AM
10 Comments:
P.S. Needless to say, no one is taking the slightest notice that I have been talking about this paper for years.
08 09 07
Hey Kea:
At least you now have a job. And McDonald's? What a waste!!! As I said to Matti, why not think entreprenurship? Kea, there is so much you could do with your time that could reinforce your research. I only wish you well and hope that when I can afford it, we may meet.
Also, you are likely affecting more souls than you realize. People take notice of what you are saying. Have you ever thought that maybe your ideas are far out and that it will take a few YEARS for anyone to begin to see the place where you are coming from?
Regarding black holes, I recall a comment that you posted a while back that got deleted at one of those blogs. It was poignant. And in fact it has been revealed since then that black holes really are a STRONG driving force in the universe.
Don't worry about the jerks, and keep your confidence. Ever thought of doing a programme in the US or even at Perimeter Institute? Just curious. You will always have my support if for nothing more than your willingness to explore new ideas, even if I dont always agree you COMMAND respect!
08 09 07
On the comment thread of the post at the NCategory Cafe, Urs did respond to your question and then developed it later in another post, stating its importance. Cool!
As I said to Matti, why not think entreprenurship?
Mahndisa, people have been telling me that for 40 years. I am simply incapable of thinking that way. When I was younger I was practically forced to work for an Investment Bank (I lasted a year) and I hated it so much I pleaded and begged and wailed (to my family and boyfriend, who were busy trying to dress me up like a barbie doll) to just let me go back to studying physics. I have changed a lot - but I'm now even more determined not to waste what little time I have left - not a single minute - even if I have to starve to death.
P.S. I actually sent an email to Rob Myers at Perimeter asking if I could have a desk (should I receive funding from NZ). I wasn't offered one. Perhaps I should have asked someone else, but having been there for 6 months in 2003 I'm not actually that keen to go back. There are plenty of good places to work at, and the weather in Waterloo is absolutely shocking.
08 09 07
Kea:
I think you, me and Matti are speaking past each other. By saying that you may wish to consider starting your own business, that would be to start a business within your field of interest. If you were willing to work for McDonald's that is far more of a waste of time than say writing someones quantitative analysis for their thesis or something.
My husband and I recently did analysis for this gals PhD proposal in education. There is a HUGE market for people in the soft sciences who are getting Masters or PhD's but that don'tknow squat about analysis, which is required for them. We call this easy money. The gal's analysis literally took eight hours of my time and I made about $300! So the rate is $37.50 per hour! This took literally one DAY to do. Now if you worked at McDonald's how long would it take to make that same amount?
After I finished the gals analysis plan, I felt quite pleased with myself and spent the next day lounging and doing resarch.
For this reason, I am not sure that would be a waste of time. But you needn't subject yourself to working conditions that are not in concert with your overall goal.
Whatever you do, you have my support and respect;)
08 09 07
Yeah, Perimeter is pretty far north!
Thanks, Mahndisa. What you say is very, very sensible, but it just ain't going to happen.
The convergence of ideas seems to happen. In TGD there is also natural hierarchy: number theoretic braids which could be understood as a reduction of anticommutativity at stringy curves caused by the replacement of C with hyper-finite subfactor making spinors quantum spinors; stringy curves where ordinary spinors anticommute; partonic 2-surfaces as basic dynamics object at level of dynamics of spinors; their 3-D lightlike orbits as basic geometric entities bringing in additional dynamics via spin glass degeneracy; space-time surfaces necessary for realizing quantum measurement theory by holography.
These lightlike 3-surfaces are not in general boundaries but surfaces at which the signature of Euclidian metric changes to Minkowskian. Something more than ordinary holography is obtained.
It would be interesting if one could have a connection with hierarchy of n-categories: what comes into my naive mind is too simple at space-time level: only simple topologies seems to emerge: Cartesian products of S^1 and D^1.
I could be wrong.
I sympathise with your job search. If you can work in Australia, there are many opportunities. This place called Spacewalker in Surfer's Paradise looked like fun to work in. If I ever am in position to hire a mathematician you would be top of the list.
Sorry that I've not commented about Schrieber or Crans, but it seems to be on the right track. You know I am fond of Machian cosmology. Matti is right that we may be converging on something. I agree with you and Mahndisa that Black Holes are very important.
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