Inevitable Universe-Parker-Rhodes' peculiar mixture of ontology and physics. The second Parker-Rhodes memorial lecture.

摘要

When asked to give a lecture on Parker-Rhodes' physics, I was somewhat non-plused. I almost replied ''What physics.'' --- a point of view that Frederick expresses himself more than once in the book he was working on when he died. But that would be unjust. Whatever his view, I assert that the discovery of the Combinational Hierarchy is one of the most important ''discoveries'' --- or whatever you want to call it --- in physics made in this century. His calculation of the proton-electron mass ratio is also a fantastic result that we are still trying to come to grips with. And his insight into early cosmology --- what he called a ''cold big bang'' --- which appeared in an early version of the Theory of Indistinguishables, also had merit. His early universe is a lot closer to my own views now than I realized when I first encountered it. We will mention other insights as I go along. But his views are so different from those of anyone I know or knew, that I have decided to let him speak for himself by reading passages from his manuscript The Inevitable Universe, or TIU, which was still unpublished at the time of his death, and add a few comments on them.