Shameless Self-Promotion: Who is Andrew Knight?

Yesterday a neighbor asked me, “Oh, you’re a physicist?  So what do you do?”

I hemmed and hawed and gave her a really half-assed answer that didn’t reflect the meaning or magnitude of what I’m doing.  So despite the risk of being a shameless self-promoter, let me clearly and confidently answer a few questions.

Who am I?

·       A philosopher of physics and mind.  This is my most recent identity, starting in 2018 when I began pursuing, full-time, answers to the hardest unsolved problems in physics and philosophy.

·       A rocket scientist.  I invented the Rotating Spindle Pump™, a rocket engine liquid propellant pump that is lighter and less expensive than traditional turbopumps.  It was recognized as a Modern Marvel of The History Channel Invent Now^TM Challenge.  I am the sole inventor on ten U.S. patents covering RSP and other rocket engines and pumps.

·       An inventor.  I am the sole inventor on an additional seven U.S. patents on a variety of technologies including software, information compression, and consumer products.

·       A teacher.  I taught high school physics (including AP physics) as well as mathematics at several colleges, including the University of Georgia.

·       An eternal student.  I am currently taking graduate physics courses at East Carolina University, the 10^th university I’ve attended.  Others include UF (B.S.), MIT (S.M.), Georgetown (J.D.), Princeton, NYU, Shenandoah U, Universidad de Guadalajara, USF, and UAH.

·       A nuclear engineer.  I received my undergraduate and master’s degrees in nuclear engineering.

·       An entrepreneur.  I started two small hospitality businesses in Maine: the Inn at the Agora and the Agora Grand Event Center, which I sold in 2018.

·       A world traveler.  When my wife and I returned from our travels this past summer, I had traveled to my 101^st country.

What am I currently doing?

·       Pondering and solving hard problems about consciousness and the physical universe

·       Documenting, publishing, and explaining this progress via this blog, my channel on YouTube, and papers (especially this, this, this, and this).

What problems have I solved?

·       Is quantum computing possible or scalable?

·       Is Schrodinger’s Cat (or Wigner’s Friend or macroscopic quantum superpositions in general) possible?

·       Does the brain cause consciousness?

·       If the brain produces conscious identity, can the brain be copied?

·       Can conscious states be copied?

·       Is mind uploading possible?

·       Will artificial intelligence (AI) ever be conscious?

·       Is consciousness algorithmic?

·       Is the physical world reversible?  Is it deterministic?

·       Does consciousness cause collapse of the quantum wave function?

·       Do quantum waves always evolve linearly (i.e., unitarily and reversibly)? 

·       Is the above assumption (“U” or “universality”) a valid inference?

·       What are quantum superpositions?  Are they relative?

·       What does conscious identity imply about the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics?

·       The measurement problem

·       The black hole information paradox

·       Did the Afshar experiment demonstrate a paradox in wave-particle duality?

·       What is the role of gravity in decohering quantum superpositions?

·       Is time travel possible?

·       What scientific evidence is there for the existence of God?

·       Does infinity exist?

What problems am I working on?

·       Is there an afterlife?

·       Are conscious states history dependent?

·       Are there more possible conscious states than can be produced by the brain?

·       Do we have free will?

·       Information creation: Is Planck’s constant (ℏ) actually decreasing?  If quantum uncertainty is decreasing with time, what does that tell us about the past?  Can we extrapolate backward in time to the Big Bang?

·       Are thoughts private?

·       Why is it always now?

·       What causes the arrow of time?

What I have already accomplished is significant and important, whether or not anyone else recognizes or validates the results.  I am excited to have the time, energy, and mental capacity to continue working on these fascinating, difficult, and very meaningful problems.

FYI: Here is a selected portion of my current CV (curriculum vitae).