Endophysics

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Endophysics literally means “physics from within”. It is the study of how the observations are affected and limited by the observer being within the universe. This is in contrast with the common exophysics assumption of a system observed from the “outside”. The term endophysics has been coined by David Finkelstein in a letter to the founder of the field Otto E. Rössler.

Gödel's incompleteness theorem is considered a proto-endophysics result in mathematics, as it uses an arithmetical statement making reference to the mathematical system under consideration. When studying physics from within, the observer should be included in the description of the world, so that the observer should have a model of itself. Endophysics therefore focuses on the model of the observer, this being the feature distinguishing it from classical physics (exophysics).

Extrinsic or exophysical perception is a two-level hierarchy, in which the system is laid out and the experimenter peeps at its features without changing it. The interaction between the system and the experimenter is a one-way information flow from the system to the experimenter. The system is not affected by the experimenter's actions. For this reason, logicians might prefer the term meta- (about) over exo- (out), ie: metaphysics (however this term is used to describe a different phenomenon).

Intrinsic or endophysical perception is non-hierarchical: the experimenter is part of the universe under observation. Experiments use devices and procedures that are within the universe. The experimenter being in the observed system can be represented by a two-way information flow. "Measurement apparatus" and "observed entity" are therefore distinghished only as a matter of intent and convention. Endophysics observation is limited by the fact that measurement devices may affect the observed feature.

Research in endophysics concentrates on what makes it different from traditional physics (exophysics):

not only the world has to be modeled, but also the observer
the “interface” between the observer and the world is the only reality the observer can really perceive

In particular, research focused on mathematical models of the observer and of their interactions with the universe.

[edit] Historical notes

While endophysics as such has been formally defined and investigated only since the end of the 20th century, the idea of the observer as part of the universe was already considered by several researchers.

Relativity theory deals with embedded observers, because Einstein insisted on operational methods available within the system only in defining clocks, and defining length scales.

A few hallmarks are mentioned without claim of completeness. Historically, Archimedes conceived "points outside the world, from which one could move the earth." Archimedes' use of "points outside the world" was in a mechanical rather than in a metatheoretical context: he claimed to be able to move any given weight by any given force, however small.

The 18'th century physicist Boscovich realised that it is not possible to measure motions or transformations if the whole world, including all measurement apparata and observers therein, becomes equally affected by these motions or transformations.

In his Meditations on First Philosophy 1,9, Rene Descartes discusses the possibility of a demon deceiving our perception entirely.

Fiction writers informally elaborated consequences of intrinsic perception. E. A. Abbot's Flatland describes the life of two- and one-dimensional creatures and their confrontation with higher dimensional phenomena. The Baron Freiherr von Münchhausen rescued himself from a swamp by dragging himself out by his own hair. Among contemporary science fiction authors, D. F. Galouye's Simulacron Three and media artists such as Peter Weibel consider virtual reality and are particularly concerned about the interface between "reality" and "virtual reality," both practically and philosophically.

Already in 1950 (19 years after the publication of Gödel's incompleteness theorems), Karl Popper has questioned the completeness of self-referential perception of "mechanic" computing devices. Popper uses techniques similar to Zeno's paradox (which he calls "paradox of Tristram Shandy") and "Gödelian sentences" to argue for a kind of "intrinsic indeterminism."

More recently, Toffoli discussed the role of the observer in uniform systems. Otto Rössler and Karl Svozil proposed the concept independently.

Rössler's emphasis has been on the role of the interface between observer and observed object.

Svozil's emphasis is on the logico-algebraic structure and on the intrinsic definition and generation of space-time frames. For automaton logic, the extrinsic propositional structure is Boolean, whereas for intrinsic observers, it can be nondistributive.

[edit] References

R. J. Boskovich, De spacio et tempore, ut a nobis cognoscuntur, partial English translation in: J. M. Child (Ed.), A Theory of Natural Philosophy, Open Court (1922) and MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1966, pp. 203–205.

T. Toffoli, The role of the observer in uniform systems, in: G. J. Klir (Ed.), Applied General Systems Research, Recent Developments and Trends, Plenum Press, New York, London, 1978, pp. 395–400.

K. Svozil, Connections between deviations from Lorentz transformation and relativistic energy-momentum relation, Europhysics Letters 2 (1986) 83–85.

O. E. Rössler, Endophysics, in: J. L. Casti, A. Karlquist (Eds.), Real Brains, Artificial Minds, North-Holland, New York, 1987, p. 25.

O. E. Rössler, Endophysics. Die Welt des inneren Beobachters, Merwe Verlag, Berlin, 1992, with a foreword by Peter Weibel.

K. Svozil, Extrinsic-intrinsec concept and complementarity, in: H. Atmanspacker, G. J. Dalenoort (Eds.), Inside versus Outside, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1994, pp. 273–288.