Christopher Langan's Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU) was first published no less than two decades ago. Unfortunately, however, this work has received little attention from contemporary academia. Mr. Langan is often lambasted for his ostensible prolixity, obscurantism, and his writings' supposed "lack of rigor". However, if one holds steadfastly to one's own curiosity and powers of intellectual discernment, one will unearth a theory that will indeed shake this very world as we know it. In this book, I endeavor, through a cross-analysis with Langan's work with that of Ludwig Wittgenstein, to illustrate the CTMU in all of its metaphysical and spiritual grandeur, leading the reader to form his own conclusions about the theory.
Paperback version of the 2002 paper published in the journal Progress in Information, Complexity, and Design (PCID). ABSTRACT Inasmuch as science is observational or perceptual in nature, the goal of providing a scientific model and mechanism for the evolution of complex systems ultimately requires a supporting theory of reality of which perception itself is the model (or theory-to-universe mapping). Where information is the abstract currency of perception, such a theory must incorporate the theory of information while extending the information concept to incorporate reflexive self-processing in order to achieve an intrinsic (self-contained) description of reality. This extension is associated with a limiting formulation of model theory identifying mental and physical reality, resulting in a reflexively self-generating, self-modeling theory of reality identical to its universe on the syntactic level. By the nature of its derivation, this theory, the Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe or CTMU, can be regarded as a supertautological reality-theoretic extension of logic. Uniting the theory of reality with an advanced form of computational language theory, the CTMU describes reality as a Self Configuring Self-Processing Language or SCSPL, a reflexive intrinsic language characterized not only by self-reference and recursive self-definition, but full self-configuration and self-execution (reflexive read-write functionality). SCSPL reality embodies a dual-aspect monism consisting of infocognition, self-transducing information residing in self-recognizing SCSPL elements called syntactic operators. The CTMU identifies itself with the structure of these operators and thus with the distributive syntax of its self-modeling SCSPL universe, including the reflexive grammar by which the universe refines itself from unbound telesis or UBT, a primordial realm of infocognitive potential free of informational constraint. Under the guidance of a limiting (intrinsic) form of anthropic principle called the Telic Principle, SCSPL evolves by telic recursion, jointly configuring syntax and state while maximizing a generalized self-selection parameter and adjusting on the fly to freely-changing internal conditions. SCSPL relates space, time and object by means of conspansive duality and conspansion, an SCSPL-grammatical process featuring an alternation between dual phases of existence associated with design and actualization and related to the familiar wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics. By distributing the design phase of reality over the actualization phase, conspansive spacetime also provides a distributed mechanism for Intelligent Design, adjoining to the restrictive principle of natural selection a basic means of generating information and complexity. Addressing physical evolution on not only the biological but cosmic level, the CTMU addresses the most evident deficiencies and paradoxes associated with conventional discrete and continuum models of reality, including temporal directionality and accelerating cosmic expansion, while preserving virtually all of the major benefits of current scientific and mathematical paradigms.
A novel metaphysical paradigm is knocking at our door. Christopher Langan's Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU), though it is currently underappreciated, is a theory of everything that has the potential to alter every facet of our world. In this short book, the author presents the core ideas of Langan's theory in a simple and straightforward manner, drawing stylistic inspiration from the illustrious philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. *This work has not yet been reviewed by Mr. Christopher Langan*
Modernity and the Rise of the Pocket God explores the relationship between modern religion and ancient values. Journey through the bucolic fields of the ancient villager, en route to the concrete jungles and splendid skylines of the modern city-goer. See what wedded the ancient believer to his God and his fellow believers. Then glimpse the growing chasm between the modern believer, her society, and her Father. And, in the end, see what us modern folks can do to attain an ancient-like communion with the Lord.
Recent years have seen the rise to prominence of ever more sophisticated philosophical and scientific critiques of the ideas marketed under the name of Darwinism. In Uncommon Dissent, mathematician and philosopher William A. Dembski brings together essays by leading intellectuals who find one or more aspects of Darwinism unpersuasive. As Dembski explains, Darwinism has gathered around itself an aura of invincibility that is inhospitable to rational discussion—to say the least: “Darwinism, its proponents assure us, has been overwhelmingly vindicated. Any resistance to it is futile and indicates bad faith or worse.” Indeed, those who question the Darwinian synthesis are supposed, in the famous formulation of Richard Dawkins, to be ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked. The hostility of dogmatic Darwinians like Dawkins has not, however, prevented the advent of a growing cadre of scholarly critics of metaphysical Darwinism. The measured, thought-provoking essays in Uncommon Dissent make it increasingly obvious that these critics are not the brainwashed fundamentalist buffoons that Darwinism’s defenders suggest they are, but rather serious, skeptical, open-minded inquirers whose challenges pose serious questions about the viability of Darwinist ideology. The intellectual power of their contributions to Uncommon Dissent is bracing.
I was lost and totally confused. The year was 2016 and I voted for Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. Being a mere nineteen years old-battling severe depression, social anxiety and fighting my sexuality-I was looking for "Hope" and I was looking for "Progress". In this book, I start out by chronicling my personal political journey, moving from the bowels of the modern left to the opening arms of the modern right. Following this, I lead the reader on a hard-hitting analytical journey, addressing and deftly dismissing some of the modern left's most persuasive and most used tools of narrative. In the end, things are poignantly brought back to home, as I address the overall deficiencies of the liberal idea of "progress" and how this relates to the theme of finding personal meaning in one's own life. This is at once a heartfelt story of personal triumph and a profoundly rigorous and witty treatment of liberal rhetoric. Hold on to your hats.
This book chronicles the development of the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU) from the first essays in the ultra-high IQ journals in 1989 to its breakthrough interpretation of quantum mechanics in 2019 and explication of reality as a self-simulation in 2020. CONTENTS PART I – Early Writings 1 The Resolution of Newcomb’s Paradox 2 On the CTMU 3 Introduction to the CTMU PART II – The CTMU 4 The Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe: A New Kind of Reality Theory PART III – Uncommon Dissent 5 Cheating the Millennium: The Mounting Explanatory Debts of Scientific Naturalism PART IV – Cosmos & History 6 An Introduction to Mathematical Metaphysics 7 Metareligion as the Human Singularity 8 The Metaformal System: Completing the Theory of Language 9 Introduction to Quantum Metamechanics (QMM) 10 The Reality Self-Simulation Principle: Reality is a Self-Simulation
Lloyd Strickland presents a new translation of the 'Monadology', alongside key parts of the 'Theodicy', and an in-depth, section-by-section commentary that explains in detail not just what Leibniz is saying in the text but also why he says it.
Solutions for problems arising at the limits of science and philosophy require ontological grounding. Quantum Mechanics (QM) is increasingly called upon as a source of insight regarding such problems, but is not itself well-understood. The fact that QM has many conflicting interpretations for which ontological status is claimed demands a "post-quantum" theory which clarifies its meaning, settles the differences among its interpretations, and facilitates the analysis and solution of otherwise intractable problems. Herein described as Quantum Metamechanics (QMM), this theory is a "meta-interpretative" mapping of QM and its various interpretations into a supertautological description of reality, the CTMU Metaformal System. By incorporating the CTMU, a true ontic identity supporting the self-identification and self-existence of reality, QMM provides QM with a valid ontology in terms of which its various interpretations can be evaluated and synergized.
