Saturday, August 20, 2022

THE QUESTION WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT ANSWER

 


The Key to the Universe? 

 

ON THE QUESTION OF WHETHER EVERY MEANINGFUL QUESTION THAT CAN BE ASKED HAS A MEANINGFUL ANSWER

© Copyright August 2022, Edward R Close

Can every question that can be asked, have a meaningful answer? You may believe that there is an easy yes or no answer to this question, but before you rush to give your answer, take a few minutes to think about it. This is not a trivial question. If you google it, you will find different answers given by a number of competent thinkers, with a number of different reasons why they believe the answers they give are correct. Their answers range from a definite “yes” to “only if it is a meaningful question” to a definite “no”.

Some answers are worth thinking about before you come to a conclusive answer of your own. Consider, for example, the answer given by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German polymath who lived more than 300 years ago. Leibniz developed the infinitesimal calculus at roughly the same time as Sir Isaac Newton, but even though Newton is given credit for “inventing” the calculus in the English-speaking world, it is Leibniz’s notation that we use because he was able to explain why the calculus worked better than Newton did, and his notation was more effective for the dimensional analysis of equations with multiple variables than Newton’s was.

Among the many amazing things that Leibniz did, you will find that he also answered our question in the affirmative, and the prime example he gave to support his answer was his analysis of the question “why is there something rather than nothing?” His answer to that seemingly unanswerable question was: There is something rather than nothing because God created everything that exists, and the Infinite Intelligence that is God has always existed and will always exist. But a number of brilliant thinkers have said no to the question of whether there is an answer for every question for a variety of reasons, and many who have thought deeply about it realize that the question may be as important to us as human beings as the answer may be.

In this post, I am going to agree with Leibniz and answer yes, there is an answer to every question, but my ‘yes’ is a qualified answer, and my reasons for answering in this way are different than the reason given by Leibniz. Not because he was wrong. In fact, it is provable that he was right, but my reason for answering yes differs from his because of the existence of a very important mathematical proof that provides us with information that was not available during Leibniz’s lifetime. That theorem, proved by an Austrian mathematician named Kurt Gödel, is known as the incompleteness theorem.

 

The answer to any question requires a declarative statement. And, according to the theory of types famously developed by Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead, any statement must be either true, false, or meaningless. But, if you have been reading my posts, then you should know that the theory of types was radically amended by G. Spencer Brown in his monumental work, Laws of Form, when he proved that some statements designated as “meaningless” may actually be complex paradoxical statements that include the logical equivalence of complex numbers with “imaginary” components, represented by multiples of the square root of minus one, as, for example, in solutions of certain algebraic equations of the second degree or higher. What does Leibniz’s answer and the incompleteness theorem have to do with whether every question that can be asked has an answer or not? I’m glad you asked, because the answer is related to the extent of our knowledge about the nature of reality and the expansion of consciousness.

The incompleteness theorem proved that there are meaningful questions that can be asked that cannot be answered in the logical system within which they have been stated. Some of the leading philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists at the time the incompleteness was proved to be true thought at first that this meant that there could be very important meaningful questions that could never be answered. But most soon realized that that is not necessarily what the proof of the incompleteness theorem implied. If the system of logic within which a seemingly unanswerable question was asked could be expanded with an appropriate new axiom, then there would actually be a meaningful answer within the newly expanded paradigm.

This truth was proved with applications of Brown’s calculus of indications interpreted for logic in Laws of Form. Application of Brown’s calculus to questions that could not be answered in the existing logical system were shown to produce meaningful answers, if the logical system could be expanded to include the conceptual equivalence of imaginary numbers. He gave examples of intractable engineering problems that were successfully resolved with complex number solutions, and he also provided demonstrations that proved that complicated logical syllogisms can be solved much more easily with the logical system extended to include the equivalence of imaginary numbers, than with complicated classic symbolic logic methods that do not include analogs of imaginary numbers.

Application of the quantum calculus of the TDVP, i.e., the calculus of dimensional distinctions (CoDD), makes this point stand out even more clearly because it deals directly with the dimensionality of the question that is being analyzed. Appearances of imaginary numbers in the solution of a quantized CoDD equation indicate that an additional dimension, beyond the measured dimensionality of the expression of the question is involved, and when the logical system is expanded to include the additional dimension, a valid answer is available. The CoDD solution of the three-dimensional equation representing the combination of two up quarks and a down quark to form a proton is a prime example of this increased clarity. Because the dimensionality of the equation expressing the combination is explicit in the notation, the existence within each quark of specific numbers of quantum units of something we decided to call gimmel is revealed; and surprisingly, the units of gimmel that are revealed represent additional measurable components of reality that cannot be categorized as either matter or energy.

The measurements of finite units of mass, energy, space, time, and their combinations are the only tangible evidence we have of the existence of the physical universe as a separate objective reality outside of the consciousness associated with our individual physical bodies, so now we need to pause and ask exactly what does the existence of something measurable that is neither mass nor energy tell us about the nature of reality? It tells us a lot, including the fact that that nearly 95% of objective reality is non-physical.

I submit to you that this is probably why the inventive genius Nikola Tesla said: “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” The TDVP has explained more than fifty things ignored and unexplained, or poorly explained, in current mainstream science. It is also remarkable that TRUE analysis, based on the mass and volume of the electron and the triad of mass, energy, and consciousness in the drawing of distinctions, reveals the existence of three categories of nine mutually orthogonal dimensions in the six-directional domain of finite reality. Perhaps this is why Tesla also said: If you knew the magnificence of 3, 6, and 9, you would have the key to the universe.

Finally, if every meaningful question that can be asked has a meaningful answer, and we can prove that it does, then we must ask: What is the most important question that can be asked? If we can identify that question, and the existing logical paradigm can be expanded with the inclusion of an axiom that guarantees the existence of the correct answer to that question, then that answer will be the most significant thing that any conscious being can ever discover.

ERC – 8/20/2022


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