Announcing SIAL: The Somerset Institute for Advanced Logic in Rocky Hill, NJ

A group of wealthy charitable persons and deep intellectuals in Somerset County, NJ, who wish to remain anonymous for the time being, are pleased to announce the formation of yet another "Advanced Institute" to be called The Somerset Institute for Advanced Logic in the borough of Rocky Hill, NJ, in Somerset County, NJ, four miles north of Princeton.

The purpose of SIAL is as follows:

To Advance Humanity.

More specifically:

To Advance Humanity by assisting Physics and Physicists.

More specifically:

To Advance Humanity by assisting Physics and Physicists, by assembling in one place, the finest Applied Mathematicians and the finest Applied Computer Scientists on our planet.

And also, any future full-time employees will be well compensated, unlike most intellectuals. Minimum $150,000 for first-year employees (a doctorate in Mathematics or Computer Science required), and future salary to be determined. We'll see how this goes.

Ironically, NO PhD. in Physics will be invited, as the purpose of SIAL will be to assist Physics, not employ them. In both Academia and other Advanced Institutes, such as IAS at Princeton Township, there are plenty of jobs to employ them. However, we are most interested in the opinions of the world's greatest Physicists as to how to proceed.

SIAL is currently in the planning stages, and will not start up until the year 2015, at the soonest.

Toward that end, there are nine individuals on Earth whose opinions we seek on how to go forward. All nine individuals are unaware of this announcement, today, on December 21st, 2010, yet we seek their opinion greatly. If not them, then we are open to the next best choices.

Those individuals are:

IN COMPUTER SCIENCE:

- Paul Allen

- Steve Wozniak

- Jaron Lanier

IN MATHEMATICS:

- Andrew Wiles

- Shing-Tung Yau

- Edward Witten

IN PHYSICS:

- Steven Weinberg

- Gerardus 't Hooft

- Garrett Lisi

If any of you reading this can think of better choices, do tell. For example, we would like to also involve John Baez and Greg Egan involved somehow, indeed they are on our shortlist as initial co-directors (Roman Republic consul style).

The current state of affairs at SIAL is that we are researching a farm to buy in either The Borough of Rocky Hill or The Township of Montgomery, which surrounds it. In order to have SIAL, a non-profit institution, sustain itself into the future and beyond the initial investment, we intend the farm to be large enough to host an amusement park across the street from the Institute (so maybe we'll have to buy two farms ... what the heck, it's only money).

Classical Newtonian Mechanics is cool, and roller coasters are the greatest "hook" in our opinion to attract people to that currently low-paying field yet ultimately important field (if we are to advance our species) that is Science, specifically the "gold standard" of Science, that is Physics.

Our "patron saint" if you will, will be Aristotle, and it is hoped we are successful one day to erect a twice-lifesize statue to that man at the entrance of our Institute. 

Onward and upward, Humanity!

Marble bust of Aristotle. Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippus c. 330 BC.