“The University of New South Wales”

School of mathematics,

11-01-90

 

Dear Dr. Arcidiacono,

 

Thank you for sending me a copy of your booklet on the Theory of the Hyperspherical Universes. If you are familiar with my work on cosmology and relativity, etc, you would know that I am interested in making physical (and operational) sense of theories, rather than theories. Your approach reminds me of Roger Penrose’s (Oxford Univ.) theory which also employs a 5 – dimensional mainforce to describe the 4- dimensional Universe and everything about it. Once you bring in extra (hypothetical) dimensions, you can forego the traditional meaning of “time” (as defined in terms of our observations of change and motion around us) and so play with “advanced potentials”, as well as retarded potentials, as you (and Hoyle) have done! I do not see that the introduction of your 5^th dimension makes any better (physical) sense of special relativity, gravitation, quantum theory, etc.

I would strongly query your conjecturals (pp. 46, 49) about biological phenomena, which I see as deriving from physical phenomena, through the association of large complex molecules forming cells, which by evolution, have led to multicellular systems which developed nerve (communication) systems, brains, etc. We do not need to postulate any special attribution of matter nor “an intelligence which governs the cosmos” to understand the complexity of life. I can send you a paper on this matter if you are interested.

You may also be interested in my view, on special relativity and cosmology which appear in two articles in the June, 1989 issue of Foundations of Physics ?

 

Yours Sincerely.

S.J. Prokhovnik