This series of essays arose from a personal on-line adventure through the foundations of modern physics. They provided a method for organising information and ideas. The adventure was so interesting I decided to share the essays in case anyone else found them enjoyable or thought provoking. Essays were published online in 2018 and 2022 and tis latest set in mid 2024.
There are numerous ideas in the above essays. I hope that others will test these ideas and that some of them will turn out to have merit, or at least inspire ideas that do have merit. It is highly likely that other people have had some similar ideas already. I have tried to attribute what I can, but often the sources were innumerable or indirect. I apologize to anyone who feels they have already had the same idea and I am happy to give them credit for what they have done. Mistakes and bad ideas are or course my own fault.
My underlying intuition is that something has gone astray in modern physics. There are too many weaknesses and issues. Since I resumed by interest in physics a decade ago the problems have only deepened. An objective observer would have to conclude that the standard paradigm is in trouble. I see this as a major opportunity to go forward.
Acknowledgements
There has been an explosion in information on the internet, some of it very good. My explorations involved checking multiple sources in an effort to sort out what I thought was credible plausible or at least thought provoking. A deep thank you goes to all those working to make scientific papers and abstracts more open and accessible. There are also some excellent websites and Youtube presenters. Some specialise in teaching the mainstream paradigm in an efficient, effective and entertaining way. A few are prepared to question and challenge and look for new ideas, or revisit old ideas that may yet provide much needed answers. Some notable presenters on YouTube are:
Sabine Hossenfelder
Alexander Unzicker, Unzicker’s Real Physics
Whoever is behind the YouTube channel SeethePattern
A big thank you also to all those who contribute to Wikipedia.
Heretical Physics Website
The website repository is intended to be simple. There are no pop-ups, external links or action buttons. The homepage has links to the individual essays. The essays are simple pdf files. The website name was supposed to be a pun on Theo-heretical physics. If anyone detects an issue please contact the author.
Author Details
Sjoerd Bernardus Antonius van de Vusse – usually called Tony
Born: Netherlands 1955, emigrated to Australia 1955
Education: University of Tasmania 1973-76 BSc (Physics) 1st Class Honors
Rhodes Scholar Tasmania 1977, St Catherine’s College, Oxford
University of Oxford 1977-1980, MSc in Mathematical Physics, MPhil in Economics
Career: Shell International, Shell Australia, BP Australia, BP International, Telstra Mobiles, Tasmanian public service – Director, Office of Energy
Author’s contact: SBAvan@utas.edu.au Author’s location: Hobart, Tasmania
Homepage
Van de Vusse, Sjoerd B.A., 2024, Some ideas and experiments for issues affecting modern physics, https://hereticalphysics.com.au
If I travelled the same path as everyone else I would end up in the same place.
It is hard to see fresh fields head down in the herd.
Thank you anyone who has read any of these essays. I hope you found some of it interesting. Please feel free to do the experiments.
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Thanks for your essays, Tony. As per our correspondence so far, my thoughts on fundamental physics very much echoes what you’ve written here.
As a computer scientist I find it fascinating that even though the Internet has been around for a while now, the dissemination of powerful, important, helpful ideas is really really struggling to compete for space and attention compared to ‘established thinking’ for which endless communicators-of-science have popularised current theories to the point that it’s difficult to entrain ourselves _out of_ fragmented ways of seeing the world: Standard Model, coping with QM / GR split, etc., many issues in cosmology…
Thank you for your publications here Tony, I believe that your work here, as well as the work of people like the late Ray Fleming, are incredibly important to light the path forward for the sorry state of fundamental physics today.