[PoPpAScience]

Hi austin;

I took time to read your post here and the links you supplied, so that I could give my best reply.

Originally Posted by austintorn@aol.com Yes, good point that we’re here—and so potential had to be there make us possible, and, I might add, we would have to be in such a place. (note that we’ve dispensed with the notion of some or one right fundamental thing having been around forever that worked perfectly for no apparent reason. And that a perfect absolute nothing without potential would stay as such.)

I love how you worded this, "a perfect absolute nothing without potential would stay as such". That is the big point. "Potential" gave birth to that which best represented it, and that would be to me an, "Idea". An "Idea" is a 'nothing something' just like "Potential". The only thing this "Idea" needed to give it direction was, to be "Aware". The "Idea" of "Aware" popped forth from the "Paradox of Potential", giving 'something' to 'nothing'.

Originally Posted by austintorn@aol.com Were there other places that became from some spewed inert stuff that had no potential? Does the timeless-formless ‘try’ everything in no time and in all forms? (Brute force)

Originally Posted by austintorn@aol.com Was the ‘incredible luck’ that led our universe via the basic stuff to space to gravity to stars to atoms to molecules to cells to life to brains to experiences to consciousness really remarkable, or not so, given that it had to be stumbled upon eventually, given all of time?

I personally do not see any 'incredible luck' to our universe. I also do not think of it as 'remarkable'. I see the point where the Universe is now, as "inevitable". I see the universe evolving to the point it is now, by using all the tools "inherent" to it, and those learned along the way. What are called chaotic interactions to many, is called the "Art of Evolution" to me. I see the life we see today as the "inevitable" outcome of the path our universe took through the "Art of Evolution". If that path evolved any differently then it did, then so would of Life. Just as I see life on other planets, being a product of their environment, I see all 'possible' life in other universes as being products of their environment.

If the parameters of the evolution of matter had evolved differently in the past, then so would the "inevitable" outcome, and look of life. Thus, I feel very strongly that life is not the outcome of random luck, but the "inevitable" outcome of "Aware" moving through the "Art of Evolution".

Originally Posted by austintorn@aol.com It impossible for us, even with computer and math, to solve the three-body problem, so it’s difficult to propose an underlying fundament awareness that could foresee all, especially at the earliest simplest point, for we don’t wish for any composite, non-fundamental systems at that earliest point. Thus, your 0-dimensional simple beginning somehow grew to feedback upon itself and form awareness, much like Hofstader proposes the strange loops forming a cascade of symbols leading to consciousness. Yes, this is a lot of hand-waving, but, as you say, we are stuck with today’s words, and perhaps whatever started reality is now long gone and beyond our grasp. But we can still ask questions like ‘Given all this, how should we live our lives?’ What happened after the TOE’s early doings is something we can at least get a handle on, but will never be as interesting as the TOE, although it still affects our outlook on the human condition. Here I tried to speculate on such in post #180, ‘The Meadows of Heaven’: http://www.toequest.com/forum/cosmol...html#post46233 Although I have since changed the last part to say ‘…some of the luckiest sons and daughters of being…’ Finally, there’s an old thread that attempts to tell how our being works from movement of appearances through space at our human level, for the TOE must explain EVERYTHING, relating it all back to the simple entities. http://www.toequest.com/forum/your-t...g-reality.html Is the quantum world inside the Planck length where the potential might be, or must it be deeper than that—even what gave rise to the quantum world? Should the accepted superposition of all possibilities in the quantum world be taken as proof that our potential/posssibility theory should be taken more seriously that there's more to all than nothing or something?

In reply to the rest of your post, I believe if humanity can survive the insanity of the 'Ego' era, we will do the experiments that are needed to reach further into the sub atomic world. When we are able to capture and study 'quarks', this is when the age of 'scientific enlightenment' will change the opinions of the those that promote, 'dead dumb matter'.

I agree totally that the TOE must include everything that there is, and not just the combining of the 4 forces into a new theory. I personally believe that a theory showing the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces in combination, as being the cause of the effect we call gravity. As only the first step to seeing a bigger TOE that includes the core entity that causes the effect of the forces. Only when the forces are combined in a new theory, will the seekers move onto the next great, as you say, "accepted superpostion of all possiblities in the quantum world".