natural theology

This site is part of the The natural religion project
dedicated to developing and promoting the art of peace.

Contact us: Click to email

Notes

[Notebook: DB 57 Language]

[Sunday 8 May 2005 - Saturday 14 May 2005]

[page 132]

Sunday 8 May 2005
Monday 9 May 2005

Funder. Stasiland.Funder

"In the GDR people were required to acknowledge an assortment of fictions as fact. Some of these fictions were fundamental, such as that human nature is a work-in-progress which can be improved upon, and Communism is the way to do it.' page 96

Infinite = not determinate = variable.

A set is called infinite if it can be put into one-to-one correspondence with itself. Wikipedia

[page 133}

Education = mind control/mind construction. The hardness need to maintain order decreases the error rate, increases resolution, and through exponential growth, increases freedom. The definiteness of the ordered set of natural numbers serves as a foundation for the generation of transfinite numbers.,

The heart f mathematics is functions = constructions = transformation. We deal with three classes of function, entropy preserving, entropy increasing and entropy decreasing.

Funder page 100: 'I mean you'd go mad,' she says, 'if you thought about it [surveillance] all the time.'

Page 101: 'I mean you might have your doubts about the west - I sure did - but we also felt that our own country was feeding us lies and that our futures depended on seeing to agree with it all.

'But looking back on it, its the total surveillance that damaged me the worst.' The Catholic God, like the Totalitarian God, sees all.

The internal inconsistency of the GDR arose from its finiteness. Cantor says only an unbounded dynamic system can be consistent.

page 141: 'Its hard to live in society if you cannot subordinate yourself to authority.

Page 149: 'God could see inside you to reckon whether your faith was enough to save you. The Stasi could see inside your life too, only

[page 134]

they had a lot more sons on earth to help.

Tuesday 10 May 2005

Funder page 162: 'To start a new country, with new values and newly minted socialist citizens, it is necessary to start at the beginning, with the children.'

MIND CONTROL - STASI - RELIGION - EDUCATION - ADVERTISING

I manipulate your mind.

Are logical possibilities constrained by physical properties? No. We can make a universal machine with binary strings and binary and unary operators, which are freely available in the physical world. However, there are questions of size and speed. The Planck scale of quantum events gives us the smallest and fastest realizations of formal structures.

Music can be represented as a one dimensional string of bits (CD) but it is also multidimensional, because any piece of music can be mapped to a point n the countable dimension space of discrete frequencies in a Fourier transform.

The measurement of truth is a mapping problem.

Funder page 186: 'Did Jagger, Plant and Daltry know of their dopplegangers in the East?'

[page 135]

Funder page 188: 'It was much worse under Hitler,' he says. 'We would have been whisked off to concentration camp.

Page 189: '"We are here to inform you today that you do not exist any more"' ANNIHILATION = particle physics

page 192: Klaus Renft Combo: 'As If Nothing Had Happened' . Klaus Renft Combo

page 198: Recruiting informers: 'Mostly thought, people just said yes.'

Above all personal survival. Only a few deviate from the survival geodesic.

Page 199: perfect dictator-logic: we investigate you therefore you are an enemy. Mind control = observation and modification.

'"In fact." he says, "as time went on there was more and more work to do because the definition of 'enemy' became wider and wider."'

page 202: 'Schooled in the art of convincing people to do things against their own self interest.'

ORDER and METRIC are rather closely related, as ordinal and cardinal numbers. We calculate the cardinal number of an ordered set (and so measure it) by addition or integration. When we consider the set of natural numbers as an ordered set, the actual 'size' of the numbers is irrelevant. We ma think of an ordered set an an array of same sized objects which are nevertheless distinguished by a name (somehow represented by the object itself) which determines its position in the order - a numeral.

[page 136]

All numerals have the same size in an ordinal number.

The metric calculated by integration suppresses much detail.

Now we might ask the question: is the number of states in the Universe equivalent to (equinumerous with) the number of nodes (transfinite numbers) in the transfinite network.

Since the world (Universe) can have no external constraints (since there is nothing outside to constrain it) it can have only internal constraints. These all fall into the category of inconsistency, since our article of faith is that we do not expect actually inconsistent observations. Instead we often find uncertainties, such as unobservable superpositions of inconsistent states.

Its a hopeless task, but a fascinating one. How do we describe fascination in network terms. A tantalizing problem - low probability of solution, but a correspondingly large payoff if we can make it happen. Human technology is directed toward changing the probabilities of events in a way perceived to favour ourselves. Because of normalization, if one probability goes up, another must go down, and if we are reducing the probabilities of the environmental services upon which we depend, we decrease the probability of our own survival.

[page 137]

A religion network question: How much should nodes internalize their problems, that is, not transmit requests for help, perhaps because they will be ignored. The resilience of the network is increased, (we suppose) by more requests for help and corresponding responses (in other words, an economy). Religion creates economy by creating a circuit of value so that the provider of a service to one requesting it is paid in some currency.

Weinberg page xxi: '. . . quantum field theory is the way it is because it is the only way to reconcile the principles of quantum mechanics (including the cluster decomposition property) with those of special relativity. Weinberg

Now that we see religion as a global public health problem

Wednesday 11 May 2005
Thursday 12 May 2005

Old cars, noisy hardware, lots of error correction - most recent new head, new ball joints, etc etc.

We can easily draw a physical network in two dimensions, a set of nodes (terminals) joined by physical links like copper wire of streams of photons [and phonons] either spreading out through space or guided by an optical fibre [or some other medium] To understand it properly, however, we must look at it in 3D because each node is layered, the layers running from the physical through the various software layers to the user. Corresponding layers in different nodes are called peers, and each peer group interact through certain protocols that encode and decode the messages

[page 138]

between them. A user action burrows down through the layers to the physical layer where is is transmitted to the foundation of another layered tower topped by a user. Tanenbaum This layering we model by the Cantor Universe.

Above the human are corporate layers, systems that use us (often wittingly) to achieve ends beyond the power of independent individuals. Many of these corporate organizations are given to us by history and are very complex, like the workings of the Vatican. But all these structures communicate within and between themselves through the physical layer. As Landauer explained, all information is physical. Landauer What is not physical is the meaning of the information.

The building trade has provided a bridge for me from the old religion to the new. It has enabled me to maintain self esteem through their management of the physical world while I have been lost in a spiritual wilderness. I am now to some extent found in the spiritual wilderness, the region of maximum spiritual entropy (and since one is always in some state or another, information). I still have a long way to go before 'faith' returns, and I am afraid of straight faith: give me critical faith, and not infallible, but most probable.

Hodges page 100: Turing: 'This meant that he has a way of representing a number, like pi, an infinite decimal, by a finite table. . . . Such numbers he called computable numbers. Hodges

But underneath there lay the same powerful idea that Gödel had used, that there was no essential distinction between numbers and operations on numbers. From a modern

[page 139]

mathematical point of view they were all alike symbols.

A physical embodiment of information we call a particles or symbol. As a Turing machine writes and erases symbols, so quantum fields create and annihilate particles.

Friday 13 May 2005

The transfinite network is a potential model of god: first foreshadowed by Aquinas Doctrine of the Trinity. Aquinas 160 Given the model, we can now turn to its application and verification. Many of these points are already made in A Theory of Peace, but the most crucial one from my point of view is its application to quantum field theory : here we see particles as observable messages created (sent) and annihilated (received) by fields, ie operators, protocols or programs (software) [particle = hardware].

My mind seems a dull implement confronted by these challenges but I take heart from the days of stone axes when it was shown that sufficient persistence could cut down tall trees and sculpt huge statues with implements scarcely harder than the statue itself.

Weinberg page xxi: '[Particles . . . are introduced . . . as ingredients in the representation of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group in the Hilbert space of quantum mechanics. Weinberg

The creation and annihilation of particles is 'made possible' by Einstein's discovery that special relativity implies the equivalence of mass and energy. What has the network model got to say

[page 140]

about this? A most interesting question that I have been skirting around for decades. It seems clear enough that energy has got to do with some sort of information processing and transmission. All sorts of quantum formulae feature the component eihE.

Secondly physics is in 4-space (and what does the network have to say about this - just sufficient to allow complete state connectivity of all points within it, ie it is CONVEX). (2-D wires cannot cross, 1-D only two nodes. 3-D can get uncrossed wires from any a(x1, y1, z1) to b (x2, y2, z2), 4-D overkill - too expensive to use wiring, use peer to peer in software instead).

The important feature is the dichotomy (experienced) and union (mathematical) of space and time, so that energy and momentum mean much the same thing: what they are is a measure of definition, ie information or entropy density.

So energy has mass, moving energy has momentum. For the photon, which has no rest mass, (and with c = 1) E = p (energy and momentum are identical) For massive particles, we have the relationship E 2 = m 4 + p 2.

Galileo realized 'Newton's first law' that the momentum of a body is only changed by force, that is momentum is changed by communication, and the rate of communication is energy. When we push on a body traveling near c, we cannot make it go much faster, but we can increase its momentum by increasing its mass or inertia.

[page 141]

h and ds 2 are relativistic invariants. h is the minimum action, and so also in a sense a minimum distance since it is the minimum change between one state and another.

Finally we apply the transfinite network model to the writing of this paper. The paper is a particle, a message, something in the physical layer that may be transmitted and copied to my peers.

Saturday 14 May 2005

Related sites

Concordat Watch

Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty


Copyright:

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.


Further reading

Books

Feynman, Richard P, and Albert P Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals, McGraw Hill 1965 Preface: 'The fundamental physical and mathematical concepts which underlie the path integral approach were first developed by R P Feynman in the course of his graduate studies at Princeton, ... . These early inquiries were involved with the problem of the infinite self-energy of the electron. In working on that problem, a "least action" principle was discovered [which] could deal successfully with the infinity arising in the application of classical electrodynamics.' As described in this book. Feynman, inspired by Dirac, went on the develop this insight into a fruitful source of solutions to many quantum mechanical problems.  
Amazon
  back

Funder, Anna, Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books 2003 Editorial Review: Publishers Weekly "Its job was to know everything about everyone, using any means it chose. It knew who your visitors were, it knew whom you telephoned, and it knew if your wife slept around." This was the fearsome Stasi, the Ministry for State Security of the late and unlamented German Democratic Republic. Funder, an Australian writer, international lawyer and TV and radio producer, visiting Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, finds herself captivated by stories of people who resisted the Stasi-moving stories that she collects in her first book, which was shortlisted for two literary awards in Australia. For instance, Miriam Weber, a slight woman with a "surprisingly big nicotine-stained voice," was placed in solitary confinement at the age of 16 for printing and distributing protest leaflets; she was caught again during a dramatic nighttime attempt to go over the Wall. Filtered through Funder's own keen perspective, these dramatic tales highlight the courage that ordinary people can display in torturous circumstances." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. 
Amazon
  back

Hodges, Andrew, Alan Turing: The Enigma, Burnett 1983 Author's note: '. . . modern papers often employ the usage turing machine. Sinking without a capital letter into the collective mathematical consciousness (as with the abelian group, or the riemannian manifold) is probably the best that science can offer in the way of canonisation.' (530) 
Amazon
  back

Mehra, Jagdish, The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Oxford University Press 1994 Amazon Customer Review: By David Keirsey 'There are two type of reviews of this book. Those who were interested in the man from a personal, non science perspective and those who know science, are interested and can read and understand Feynman's scientific work. Those who interested in the more entertaining books on Feynman, e.g., Gleick, and some of Feynman's own books should tread on this book lightly for it includes mathematical and scientific analysis you cannot get from the other books. On the other hand, Jagdish Medra does an excellent job in reciting some of the personal stuff between him and his father, which were crucial in forming both Feynman's personal and scientific personality. This is the only book you will get that. Mehra did not include some of the more interesting andecotes that are in Feynman's books, so it is not a complete biography despite its length and breath. If you are interested in some of Feynman's reasons for his ideas and the context of those ideas, then you must read this book. If you are not interested, for example, in Maupertuis, Lagrange, Hamilton ideas on minimum action -- you might have to skip large parts of the book because Mehra recounts Feynman's ideas in detail (including all his equations). . . . ' 
Amazon
  back

Tanenbaum, Andrew S, Computer Networks, Prentice Hall International 1996 Preface: 'The key to designing a computer network was first enunciated by Julius Caesar: Divide and Conquer. The idea is to design a network as a sequence of layers, or abstract machines, each one based upon the previous one. . . . This book uses a model in which networks are divided into seven layers. The structure of the book follows the structure of the model to a considerable extent.'  
Amazon
  back

Weinberg, Steven, The Quantum Theory of Fields Volume I: Foundations, Cambridge University Press 1995 Jacket: 'After a brief historical outline, the book begins anew with the principles about which we are most certain, relativity and quantum mechanics, and then the properties of particles that follow from these principles. Quantum field theory then emerges from this as a natural consequence. The classic calculations of quantum electrodynamics are presented in a thoroughly modern way, showing the use of path integrals and dimensional regularization. The account of renormalization theory reflects the changes in our view of quantum field theory since the advent of effective field theories. The book's scope extends beyond quantum elelctrodynamics to elementary partricle physics and nuclear physics. It contains much original material, and is peppered with examples and insights drawn from the author's experience as a leader of elementary particle research. Problems are included at the end of each chapter. ' 
Amazon
  back

Papers

Landauer, Rolf, "Information is a physical entity", Physica A, 263, 1, 1 February 1999, page 63-7. 'This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that, on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.'. back

Landauer, Rolf, "The Physical Nature of Information", Physica A, 217, 4-5, 15 July 1996, page 188-93. 'Information is inevitably tied to a physical representation and therefore to restrictions and possibilities related to the laws of physics and the parts available in the universe. Quantum mechanical superpositions of information bearing states can be used, and the real utility of that needs to be understood. Quantum parallelism in computation is one possibility and will be assessed pessimistically. The energy dissipation requirements of computation, of measurement and of the communications link are discussed. The insights gained from the analysis of computation has caused a reappraisal of the perceived wisdom in the other two fields. A concluding section speculates about the nature of the laws of physics, which are algorithms for the handling of information, and must be executable in our real physical universe.'. back

Links

Adam Taylor, Britain's inquiry into the Iraq War is coming out soon. It only took 7 years, $15 million and 2.6 million words, 'Britain's Chilcot Inquiry will finally be released on July 6. To say it's highly anticipated would be an understatement. The inquiry, named after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, was set up in 2009 to investigate the country's role in the Iraq War. Although the inquiry began seven years ago and last held public hearings in 2011, the report's release has been repeatedly delayed in large part because of disagreements about what classified information can be released.' back

Ambrose Bierce, Politics, 'Politics n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.'I back

Andrea Thompson, See Earth's temperature spiral toward 2C rise - graphic, 'The steady rise of Earth’s temperature as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and trap more and more heat is sending the planet spiraling closer to the point where warming’s catastrophic consequences may be all but assured. That metaphoric spiral has become a literal one in a new graphic drawn up by Ed Hawkins, . . .. The animated graphic features a rainbow-colored record of global temperatures spinning outward from the late 19th century to the present as the Earth heats up. . . . The graphic is part of Hawkins’s effort to explore new ways to present global temperature data in a way that clearly telegraphs the warming trend. Another climate scientist, Jan Fuglestvedt of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo, suggested the spiral presentation.' back

Antony Funell, President Kennedy's topper: Reclaiming agency and why its important, 'Giving over our agency for thinking about the future has a lengthy tradition. Such acquiescence is the basis of the social construct we call religion; and it's long been a feature of both politics and our relationship with technology. Returning to Kennedy for a moment, one could argue that JFK became a sort of totem for many in the early 1960s—both in the United States and the wider world. He made a lot of people feel comfortable about the future, that he was somehow taking responsibility for leading them towards it.' back

Aquinas 160, Summa: I 27 1 Is there procession in God?, 'Our Lord says, "From God I proceeded" (Jn. 8:42).' back

Aquinas 30, Summa I, 5, 6: Is goodness divided into the virtuous [honestum] the useful [utile] and the pleasant [delectabile]?, 'I answer that, This division properly concerns human goodness. But if we consider the nature of goodness from a higher and more universal point of view, we shall find that this division properly concerns goodness as such. For everything is good so far as it is desirable, and is a term of the movement of the appetite; the term of whose movement can be seen from a consideration of the movement of a natural body. Now the movement of a natural body is terminated by the end absolutely; and relatively by the means through which it comes to the end, where the movement ceases; so a thing is called a term of movement, so far as it terminates any part of that movement. Now the ultimate term of movement can be taken in two ways, either as the thing itself towards which it tends, e.g. a place or form; or a state of rest in that thing. Thus, in the movement of the appetite, the thing desired that terminates the movement of the appetite relatively, as a means by which something tends towards another, is called the useful; but that sought after as the last thing absolutely terminating the movement of the appetite, as a thing towards which for its own sake the appetite tends, is called the virtuous; for the virtuous is that which is desired for its own sake; but that which terminates the movement of the appetite in the form of rest in the thing desired, is called the pleasant.' back

Archdiocese of Baltimore, Baltimore Catechism Part 1, ' A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore, or simply the Baltimore Catechism, is the official national catechism for children in the United States. It was the standard Catholic religion school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s.' back

Christian Davenport, A fight to rotect 'the most valuable real estate in space', '“We have considered space a sanctuary for quite some time. And therefore a lot of our systems are big, expensive, enormously capable, but enormously vulnerable,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work. Perhaps most striking is how openly Pentagon officials are talking about their efforts to fight in space — especially because much of the work remains highly classified.' back

Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia, Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas, or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.' back

Corinne Dufka, Confronting Mali's New Jihadist Threat, 'But in 2015, a new Islamist group emerged in Mali’s previously stable central and southern regions. The group, which appears to be the latest franchise of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and is often referred to as the Macina Liberation Front, has attacked military posts and executed mayors and councilmen. Its new area of operation is largely inhabited by the Peul ethnic group (also known as the Fulani), which makes up about 15 percent of Mali’s population.' back

Fermi-Dirac statistics - Wikipedia, Fermi-Dirac statistics - Wikipedia, the fre encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Fermi-Dirac statistics is a particular case of particle statistics developed by Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac that determines the statistical distribution of fermions over the energy states for a system in thermal equilibrium. In other words, it is the distribution of the probabilities that each possible energy levels is occupied by a fermion. back

George Joyce, The Blessed Trinity (Catholic Encyclopedia) , 'The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Christian religion — the truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another. back

Haaretz, Israel News: Haaretz Israelis News Source, back

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution - Wikipedia, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution - Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, 'Written partly in response to social Darwinism and in particular to Thomas H. Huxley's Nineteenth Century essay, "The Struggle for Existence", Kropotkin's book drew on his experiences in scientific expeditions in Siberia to illustrate the phenomenon of cooperation. After examining the evidence of cooperation in nonhuman animals, in pre-feudal societies and medieval cities, and in modern times, he concluded that cooperation and mutual aid are the most important factors in the evolution of species and the ability to survive.' back

Ian Leslie, Amanda Knox: What's in a face?, 'Amanda Knox was convicted of murder and her reputation sullied around the world, in large part because of her facial expressions and demeanour. Her story reveals how our instincts about others can be dangerously superficial, writes Ian Leslie' back

Kathleen M Donovan-Maher and Steven L. Groopman, Why Dark Money is Bad Business, 'But as lawyers who specialize in investor rights, we see another critical, nonpartisan reason to support the rule: When it comes to political spending, companies are often not as informed as one might think — especially when it comes to dark money. By mandating disclosure, the rule would allow investors to serve as a potential check on risky political donations, and help investors determine whether a company’s political spending habits make its shares a good investment in the first place.' back

Klaus Renft Combo, Klaus Renft Combo - Die offizielle Heinseite, back

Lex Borthwick, Auatralia's cultural heritage: parents who despise education, 'These friends' parents mostly didn't support education, inducing or forcing their children to leave school early. Through overt or covert disdain for education, these parents condemned their kids to lifetimes of low incomes or unemployment, and the consequent problems, including social disaffection, crime, alcoholism, drug addictions, and family abuse. But most of these parents were themselves victims of their own parents, caught in cycles of negative parental influence probably stretching back several generations.' back

Masha Glesson, Putin and the Night Wolves vs. Poland, 'The Russian Foreign Ministry, in its outrage over the blockade and in pointing righteously to Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s recent visit to Russia to mark the anniversary of the plane crash, is profoundly tone-deaf. It appears to compare a Polish government delegation with a Russian motorcycle gang, a man grieving for his twin to a group commemorating a decades-old military triumph and a tragic accident to Nazi terror. But such is the cynical core of Russian propaganda: It turns everything into the moral equivalent of everything else.' back

Prince, Full concert = 02/30/82 Capitol Theatre, (Official) back

Ross Gittins, Budget 2016: How to unspin the budget, '. . . Malcolm Turnbull hasn't been able to withstand the pressure to use spin doctors to massage his messages to the electorate. A better term for that dubious profession is "perception manipulators". They "operationalise" one of modern politicians' core beliefs: the perception is the reality.'. . . You can blame it all on ever-declining standards of political behaviour - which Turnbull's arrival has failed to arrest - or you can share the blame with a media that allows itself to be manipulated.' back

Salvation History - Wikipedia, Salvation History - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Salvation History (German Heilsgeschichte) seeks to understand the personal redemptive activity of God within human history to effect his eternal saving intentions.
The salvation history approach was adopted and deployed by Christians, beginning with Paul in his epistles. . . . In the context of Christian theology, this approach reads the books of the Bible as a continuous history. It understands events such as the fall at the beginning of history (Book of Genesis), the covenants established between God and Noah, Abraham, and Moses, the establishment of David's dynasty in the holy city of Jerusalem, etc., as seminal moments in the history of humankind and its relationship to God, namely, as necessary events preparing for the salvation of all by Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. ' back

Solidarity - Wikipedia, Solidarity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.[1][2] It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one. The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences as well as in philosophy or in Catholic social teaching. . . . Solidarity is also one of six principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union[4] and December 20 of each year is International Human Solidarity Day recognized as an international observance.' back

Wikipedia, Dedekind-infinite set, 'In mathematics, a set A is Dedekind-infinite if some proper subset B of A is equinumerous to A. Explicitly, this means that there is a bijective function from A onto some proper subset B of A. A set is Dedekind-finite if it is not Dedekind-infinite.' back

www.naturaltheology.net is maintained by The Theology Company Proprietary Limited ACN 097 887 075 ABN 74 097 887 075 Copyright 2000-2021 © Jeffrey Nicholls