#Image1#There may be no better question for FQXi to ask then, What Is "Fundamental"? We asked this question last October for our latest essay contest, and over 200 deep-thinkers sent us their ideas.
You might agree with what they have said, or you might not.
It is now time to reveal all the answers! -- or, I mean, reveal all the winners.
Let me first thank our sponsors, for making the contest possible. The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation have long been a great help, and The Fetzer Franklin Fund has joined us in our ongoing Agency in the Physical World program. Thanks also to our panel of judges for their diligence. And thank you to all of you who took the time to answer our question and write us an essay.
Here we go with the winners, to be revealed as the day goes on. You can follow along as well, on Twitter, @FQXi --
This year we have two special prizes to announce.
An award for Creative Writing ($1,000) goes to Mozibur Ullah and his dialogue, Socrates, Atoms, and Being.
And an award for a Student Author ($1,000) goes to Aditya Dwarkesh, for 'Fundamentality' as a Linguistic Paradigm (and Linguistics as a Fundamental Paradigm).
Next, we have our Fourth Prize Winners. These will all receive $1,000. In first-name alphabetical order, we have:
Ian Durham, Bell's Theory of Beables and the Concept of 'Universe'
Ken Wharton, Fundamental Is Non-Random
Marc Séguin, Fundamentality Here, Fundamentality There, Fundamentality Everywhere
Markus Mueller, Mind Before Matter: Reversing the Arrow of Fundamentality
Tejinder Singh, Things, Laws, and the Human Mind
Next, we have the Third Prize Winners. Each essay will receive $2,000. We have:
Gregory Derry, Fundamentality, Explanation, and the Unity of Science
Karen Crowther, When do we stop digging? Conditions on a fundamental theory of physics
Sabine Hossenfelder, The Case for Strong Emergence
Sean Carroll and Ashmeet Singh, Mad-Dog Everettianism: Quantum Mechanics at Its Most Minimal.
And now, for our Second Prize Winners. Our panel felt that each of these was all-around excellent quality, and chose to award each one a full $5,000. We have:
Alyssa Ney, The Politics of Fundamentality
Dean Rickles, Of Lego and Layers (and Fundamentalism)
Matt Leifer, Against Fundamentalism.
And now finally, we have our top winner. Last year, you may recall our panel could not decide between three essays for first. This year, they unanimously agreed on one entry. We are pleased to award the $10,000 First Prize to:
Emily Adlam, Fundamental?
Congratulations to all our winners. Here's looking forward to the next contest. On behalf of FQXi, thanks to all of you for reading along.