ProtoQuant.com

After almost a year of absence ProtoQuant is back — this time, hopefully without interruptions. We have spent a great deal of time on planning and testing the ideas we have for this site and, as we can see even from the beginning, our time and efforts are paying off.

As with every web page on the Internet, there will undoubtedly be some spam content that will find its way onto our pages. We ask you for your kind patience and understanding as we are working diligently to weed out any spam content.

Let it be stated from the beginning that discussions on ProtoQuant.com will be conducted in a civilized and decent manner, without spam. Please feel free to register and participate in our discussions.

What is this site about? Todays existential problem for those who have time to think of it, can be resumed by the following words of Ernest Becker:

The man of knowledge in our time is bowed under a burden he never imagined he would ever have: the overproduction of truth that cannot be consumed. For centuries man lived in the belief that truth was slim and elusive and that once he found it the troubles of mankind would be over. And here we are in the closing decades of the 20th century, choking on truth. There has been so much brilliant writing, so many genial discoveries, so vast an extension and elaboration of these discoveries — yet the mind is silent as the world spins on its age-old demonic career.

These words are perfectly true, and so are themselves part of that overproduction of truth they refer to. They express most clearly what we believe. There is little to be added and this will be done only in order to make it clear how we understand them. To state, at least partially, who we are, let us just say that there is here a man who holds it true that every other man possesses the TRUTH. The overproduction Ernest Becker refers to comes into play only because not every man possesses the language to express it, while he/she is forced to express it by his/her intimate nature. On top of this, there is sometimes the natural lack of decency, which tells us that our word is so necessary for this WORLD to exist, that it cannot exist without it. Now, even though there is no vision, the mission of this page must be clear, for it has been already explained by Cicero

“Homo sum et nihil humani … a me alienum est!”

A trace of decency still remains: as the overproduction of truth is nowhere more striking than in Physics, where sometimes one can hear voices claiming discovery of “Mother Nature’s Laws”, and as we don’t have a better language to use, we will start and finish with Physics speculations. They are neither confessions nor professional beliefs. Strange as it may seem, the fact is that we just enjoy them. What can we say: another aspect of human nature! Otherwise, nothing can illustrate what we are and do
than the very words of great Francis Bacon who already explained it all four centuries ago:

The requests I have to make are these: of myself I say nothing; but in behalf of the business which is in hand I entreat men to believe that it is not an opinion to be held, but a work to be done; and to be well assured that I am laboring to lay the foundation, not of any sect or doctrine, but of human utility and power. Next, I ask them to deal fairly by their own interests, and laying aside all emulations and prejudices in favor of this or that opinion, to join in consultation for the common good; and being now freed and guarded by the securities and helps which I offer from the errors and impediments of the way, to come forward themselves and take part in that which remains to be done”

Instauratio Magna, Praefatio

So, we are in good company! Join us!