Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics, MIT Kavli Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Article: What scientific idea is ready for retirement? “Infinity!” (2014)
ArXiv (11): The Mathematical Universe PDF
Homepage(s): Book,Our Mathematical Universe, Knopf (2014), Facebook, inSPIREHEP , Personal
Wikipedia: Mathematical Universe Hypothesis
YouTube
Links above go to a few of Tegmark’s pages on the web.
Links below go to references with this website:
• Homepages:
__2021: Redefine Space, Time, And Infinity!
__2018: Open Letter to Max, Arkani-Hamed and Neil Turok, What is a concept?
__With Hawking on the infinite, October 16, 2016
__Time Is Always Right Now, This Moment… October 2, 2016
• Articles: July 2015 The very first reference to Max Tegmark was in December 2012 (that reference is just below). Found in many posts throughout the site, here it is again under the title, “A Simple View of the Universe: Is a simple mathematical and geometrical view of the Universe meaningful or useful?”
• December 2012: In 2001 Frank Wilczek (MIT) wrote, Scaling Mt. Planck (Physics Today). In 2006 Wilczek with Max Tegmark (MIT), Anthony Aguirre (UC Santa Clara), Martin J. Rees (Cambridge) focus on 31 key dimensionless constants (ArXiv).
• All emails from January 2012 to January 2022: Tegmark is a very busy person and has never responded to these emails. His system did send an automated response to a LinkedIn request in 2014. Because it was automated and has an important link, it’s inserted below.
Most recent email: 12 May 2022 at 2:48 PM
Dear Prof. Dr. Max Tegmark:
On the homepage today, first paragraph, with Eugene Wigner, we are building on your Mathematical Universe. More references and links to your pages will be forthcoming. I thought you would want to know. Thanks for all that you do to stimulate discussions about first principles and initial conditions.
Warmly,
Bruce
Tenth email: 23 January 2022 at 5 PM
Of course the hadron didn’t cut it.
Composites aren’t fundamental.
None of the subs are.
It’s got to be more like a perfect sphere.
Aren’t spin dynamics manifestations of sphere dynamics?
Compared to the Planck base units or Stoney base units, all the subs and hypotheticals are rather large and clunky.
Of course, historically these “Planck Particles” have been considered tiny blackholes while others insist such entities simply do not exist.
My shot at it: https://81018.com/particle/ Of course, we’ve got to work on that definition of the finite-infinite relation: https://81018.com/almost/#CSH Hilbert needs to be placed on hold for a bit. Why not?
-Bruce
___________
Ninth email: Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 7 PM
Dear Max:
Picking up on your theme that we need to redefine spacetime and infinity, perhaps you would like to get involved with these explorations:
- The first second is still alive, well and moving outward 13.8 billion years later!
- Or, today’s expansion of the universe is also the first moment of the universe.
- Blackholes aren’t just sucking everything in; they (Type B) are also pushing it out at levels (sizes) that our measuring devices will never pick up.
Thanks.
Warmly,
Bruce
PS. I think the current homepage is worth a quick read: https://81018.com/empower/
Also, I know you get too much email so I will not send another email to you without an invitation to do so. -BEC
Eighth email: Tuesday, 1 September 2020
Dear Prof. Dr. Max Tegmark:
On the homepage today is this paragraph:
DEEPER DYNAMICS. Max Tegmark of MIT wants to retire infinity. We want to expand our understanding of infinity. Our key question is to discern how that finite-infinite relation gives rise to infinitesimal spheres, sphere stacking, and cubic-close packing of equal spheres, and how it is that this special mix renders basic geometries, emergence, and a natural inflation.
My record of my emails to you: https://81018.com/2012/01/12/tegmark/ To come up with such an idiosyncratic point of view, here are my presuppositions that fall outside the mainstream: https://81018.com/presuppositions/ I hope you and your family are well and doing fine.
Warmly,
Bruce
Editor’s note: In 2022 these took on yet another format. https://81018.com/checklist/
___________
Seventh email: 28 March 2020
Dear Prof. Dr. Max Tegmark:
Along with Nima and Neil, you three constitute a force in physics and are three of my favorites among the legions of the brilliant. Today’s homepage — https://81018.com/uni-verse/ — has links to you three, plus to one of my very favorite pages: https://81018.com/redefinition/
Our idiosyncratic model of the universe is different:
1. The infinite-finite relation is unique — the infinite is the qualitative expression of continuity (order), symmetry (relations), and harmony (dynamics) while the finite is the quantitative expression of continuity, symmetry, and harmony. For me, any other definition of the infinite has too much historicity that is limited within time.
2. The initial perfections of the qualitative is challenged by the geometric gap of the five tetrahedral configuration. It becomes the grounds for quantum fluctuations which becomes systemic before Notation-64 where particles and waves begin to manifest.
The fact that the speed of light is confirmed within .01% of laboratory-defined speed at the one second mark between Notation-143 and Notation-144 and then again with a light year between Notation-168-and-169 is sweet.
When it comes to testing new ideas, we are all fools albeit some of us more foolish than others given those quantum leaps and impatience with incrementalism.
I wish you well. We all must try to stay healthy in these very odd times.
Most sincerely,
Bruce
Sixth email: Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 5:39 PM
Subject: Fwd: Do our simple mathematics at all jive? I hope so.
Hi Max –
Whenever I quote somebody’s work, I send a copy of that reference.
We all should know your work and your thinking. To that end, we have
a Max Tegmark page within our website (Editor’s note: This page!)
We live in such crazy times and I believe a lot of it has to do with Stephen Hawking’s dystopian, nihilistic bang. Also, to address your desire to throw out infinity, I have offered a redefinition (only highlighted here within this document).
Our naive model has a simple logic, a most-simple start, and simple mathematics. It is all-inclusive yet particularized. And, it also has a simple logical start for infinity, indeterminacy, fluctuations, incompleteness, and imperfections.
So I ask myself, “Why not try to integrate it with the Standard Model of Physics, with quantum gravity, and with the ΛCDM model?” Would you advise us? Thank you.
Most sincerely,
Bruce
*********
Bruce (as the Editor) answers his own note on 27 March 2020:
“Advice…? So, you want advice? Here’s my advice as a question: What, are you crazy?”
Fifth email Email: Sunday, 2 October 2016
Max –
Is this a fair summary? https://81018.com/redefinition/ Today, it is our homepage: http://81018.com
Changes?
-Bruce
PS. We are the simple people — simple model, simple logic, simple math, filling in the continuum from the Planck scale to the CERN-Atlas scale, and then beyond.
Fourth email: 4 August 2016
Hi Max,
Your endearing smile and wonderful openness should have the world on your doorstep. Congratulations on all that you do.
Of course, the big bang is one of those answers that only a fool would dare question. So, here I stand among the fools. We’re just high school folks; we claim no special status, so maybe we can be excused for being nicely idiosyncratic and naive!
I think you might enjoy seeing the numbers all filled in from the Planck base units to the Age of the Universe using base-2 notation. Boeke’s Cosmic View looks a little timid by comparison. Even ‘t Hooft’s Time in the Powers of Ten misses too much. If you have a moment — it is looking for a special critique.
Is it solipsistic poppycock? That chart is big; it is horizontally-scrolled, starts with the five Planck base units (and some simple geometries), and it is carried out the 202 notations to the Age of the Universe. You can follow the changes of each base unit in contrast to the others. There are over 1000 simple-simple-simple calculations. But, simple is good. It tells a bold and dramatic story but it may have more to do with fantasy than reality… but I don’t think so. I respect you too much to waste your time that way.
Is it possible that the universe started with those infinitesimally small numbers and grew quietly and rather prodigiously and all rather quickly? Of the 200+ notations, the first second is between 143 and 144. The first light year is between 168 and 169. And the first million years between 188 and 189.
That small scale universe, 1-67, could be a new science and math. Maybe Langlands is on the right path after all. Below I’ll post some of the other work-in-progress asking for critical review! Thank you.
Most sincerely,
Bruce
* * * * *
http://81018.com
- Big bang questions for academia: https://81018.com/2016/06/01/quiet/
- Questions for the public: https://81018.com/bigbang/
- Electroweak: https://81018.com/Electroweak/
- Expansion: https://81018.com/transformation/
- Also being tweaked: Inflation: https://81018.com/inflation/
Third email: 22 September 2015
I am now a groupie of sorts. Too old and too naive to be deeply informed.
You encourage me with your great spirit while I’ve begun working through your “Dimensionless constants, cosmology and other dark matters.”
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511774
From the perplexing place we were within my first note, to the questioning within the third, would you tell us why our basic concept is wrong headed and “to take a break.”
A Simple View of the Universe:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/simple-view-universe-bruce-camber
On Developing A Rationale For A Working Model Of The Universe Based On A Quiet Expansion:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/developing-rationale-model-universe-based-quiet-expansion-camber
Your website is sensational! Thank you for all that you do to stimulate scholarship and creative thinking!
-Bruce
An automated response: September 22, 2014:
Thanks for your LinkedIn invitation, which I’m going to accept shortly! Although there’s essentially no information on my LinkedIn page, I have an active public Facebook page where you can connect and discuss with me and others intrigued by science and life’s big questions. I very much hope you’ll join me there! Just surf over to the link below and click “like”:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Max-Tegmark/461616050561921
You’ll also find movies, articles and an FAQ for my book at http://mathematicaluniverse.org
Cheers,
Max
—————————-
http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark
****
Second email: May 9, 2013
Reference: http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/goofs.html
Max –
I was 20 when you came into this world, I suspect you came in feet first. So much standing comedy in all that you are and do. It is entirely refreshing. I am enjoying your pages-and-writing immensely.
I am on a search for simple wisdom. I’m a simple person.
But, I do have a seriously silly question for you. It started when I was asked to substitute for my nephew a couple of years ago. He was to have a second child and I got his five geometry classes for a few days. I wanted to stand them on their head a little, so they actually made models of the “Big Five.” They took a tetrahedron, divided the edges in half, connected the new vertices, and bingo, there is a tetrahedron in each corner and an octahedron in the middle. Then, the same with the octahedron, with six baby octahedrons in the corners and eight tetrahedrons in the faces, all sharing a centerpoint.” That’s a goldmine and you kids have got to go in there and start digging!”
That was the beginning of my regression. The next time, Stevie wanted to take his bride on a fifth-anniversary cruise and left me with those buggers on the last day of class before the Christmas recess, Monday, December 19, 2011.
Enter “The Big Board – little universe.”
“Come one, come all, see the universe and everything in it from the smallest to the largest measurement in about 202 steps!”
We used the Planck Length and started multiplying by 2. Within a relatively short time, we had the entire universe looking like a Planck Factory. Everything had a place. Geometry was pervasive. Here was the homunculus of all homunculi. One part Plato, add a little relativistic aether, and mix well into the first sixty steps — nobody seems to have explored 2-to-60, possibly 64 (just before getting hit with any sensibility and a neutrino and quark).
Absolutely crazy?!? Worth exploring further??? Or, shall I tell the kids to come out of that cave?
Thanks.
Warmly,
Bruce
Bruce Camber (part of my life as a television producer)
Small Business School
http://SmallBusinessSchool.org
First email: January 12, 2012
Ref: http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/crazy.html
Dear Max,
Please, help me to debunk this crazy Alice-in-Wonderland hole that I’ve dropped into….
I am a television producer. But recently, I was asked to cover the classes for a high school geometry teacher, a nephew. He asked me to introduce the kids to Plato’s five. It would be my second time with them, so I had to expand my own horizon a bit for my visit on December 19, 2011.
The first time I had them, back in March 2011, they made icosahedrons out of 20 tetrahedrons. I called it squishy geometry and said that it probably fits into quantum geometries or imperfect geometry somewhere and somehow, but I couldn’t find any online references to it. This link goes to pictures of those icosahedrons.
Then Shechtman comes along with his quasicrystals and five-fold symmetries… I got to thinking about the nesting of tetrahedrons and octahedrons within the icosahedron and wrote up that little note to him (link above).
I thought, “…speculative, fanciful thinking, probably just nonsense.”
Yet, just after that first encounter, I became impatient with my little paper model of a dodecahedron. I took the same pentagonal groups of five tetrahedrons, and attached twelve of them together. I filled it with PlayDoh, then tried to discern what was inside.
A smaller icoshedron was in the center of the thing. Fascinating for me. No study of it online yet. I found a name – hexacontagon — but none in the shape of this particular pseudo-dodecahedron.
I’ve been looking inside those five-tetrahedral structures for awhile. A week before that class, I asked, “How far within, how many steps by dividing by 2, would I have to go to get to the range of Planck’s length?” I assumed thousands. Nope. Just 118 steps! There I was, dividing one meter by 2 and then by 2 again u.s.w until 1.6×10−35 or Planck’s length. Then I thought about the large scale universe and in 91 steps I was out in the range of 1027 meters and the edge of the observable universe.
I hadn’t seen such an application of scientific notation so I made it up and produced a colorful chart for the class: https://81018.com/big-board/
Where did I go wrong? Is there anything here?
Thanks.
Warmly,
Bruce
Worldviews limit perspective 