natural theology > VII notes

Notes

[Sunday 25 May 2008 - Saturday 31 May 2008]

[Notebook: DB 64 Gravitation]

Sunday 25 May 2008

[page 33]

Monday 26 May 2008

Heaven is the state before the Fall, and the Roman Catholic Church sees itself as the institution charged by the Creator to redeem this situation and return us to our original condition. Of course, to the best of our knowledge, there was no fall. It is an attractive hypothesis. As people became aware of themselves and began to reflect on the human condition they must have seen it as pretty glum, life being full of work and woe

[page 34]

and times of plenty and happiness few and far between. This is one side of the picture presented by the Bible, which also presents its antidote : we have a powerful God looking after us, a God much more powerful than their Gods. Historically, this God did not prevail, and we can see its loss of credibility in the Book of Job, where the human becomes a pawn in a game between Satan and God. The general idea has two notable rivals, Christianity and Islam, but these too are losing their credibility, partly because both claim to believe in the same God but they are still sharply distinct and often at loggerheads about the nature and works of God. We still need an answer, however, and the success of the scientific method suggests we use it on our ideas of God. The religious method is to start 'preaching the gospel'. The scientific method, which I hope to emulate, calls for publication in peer reviewed journals. I feel free to report work in progress, recorded here and in my personal reviews of this work. Every reproduction of my web pages is a point from which this idea may diffuse into our 'collective consciousness'. (Teillhard de Chardin 'noosphere, better human noosphere, since we may see each layer of the network as a distinct sphere of mind characterized by its inputs and outputs and processes). Teilhard de Chardin

Heisenberg page 106: Quantum systems are multiply periodic. A computer works at a clock frequency and at other frequencies whose periods are integral multiples of the clock period. Heisenberg

Being in a party is like being in a Hamiltonian as superposition of the interactions of a number of independent sources perhaps liberated from customary protocols by drugs.

[page 35]

The most gorgeous thing that ever walked the planet, superposition, both linear or not, is an integrated version of a sequence of events which may be considered as acting sequentially. In this sense, a completed motor vehicle is the superposition of all its components which were manufactured and assembled sequentially in the factories producing the car.

Technologically, we can do anything in a very wide domain. The root of 'greenness' is to constrain this domain in a scientifically acceptable and politically possible way. The space of political possibility is created and sustained by education.

False education: I have spent my life among epistemologically impaired people, first the Order of preachers and later the hippies, often well educated middle class people who moved from the city to go to the hills, beginning in the sixties. And of course much of the general society. As ever we concentrate on the Roman Catholic Church because is is large, well documented and well known to me.

No stretch of the modern scientific imagination can conceive of the Christian history of mankind as literally true. Instead we can see it as an hypothesis which was tenable in its day but no longer agreeing with the evidence. In particular, there was no Fall in the ontological sense attributed to it by the Roman Catholic Church, but there was the dawning of awareness that life is not all roses, an awareness we do not attribute to the animals from which we evolved.

[page 36]

We take the step from physics to theology by substituting the word communication, for the word force in all our thoughts. These concepts are quite close anyway, and all we are saying is that the vector representing a force is a message in the same sense as the stationary points in myself are a message, just transfinitely more complex.

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Thursday 29 May 2008

The puppet Universe sees a set of independent substances like ourselves all choreographed by god. The divine Universe choreographs itself by the intercommunication of countless different personalities like ourselves, atoms, galaxies, nations etc, more complex personalities be[ing] an artifact of less complex, as I am a network of neurons (among other things) capable of thinking as writing this sort of stuff. The Universe, like God, is dynamically like myself.

Friday 30 May 2008

Differentiation requires memory, since it is based on comparison of values at two points. We picture calculus first in continuous 2D and 3D spaces, and then move to infinite dimensional spaces and more abstract objects than spatial distances. All we really require for calculus is that we can attribute a continuous measure to them. This measure must obey the arithmetic rules of addition and subtraction which we model with set theory and the cardinal numbers. The heart of practical dynamics is using local considerations to devise a differential

[page 37]

equation and then integrating the equation to get a global picture of the dynamics, with some variable(s) staying constant, growing of decaying exponentially or oscillating.

We digitize this with recursive function theory. We retain the additive measure, and postulate that its units are quanta of action. This cardinal measure is an abstract view of what we might call ordinal measures. While a cardinal measure is simply a scalar number, ordinal measures are more generally isomorphic to the system being measured. So this paragraph is a slab of ordinal measure of the relationship between physics and theology. An ordinal measure, like cardinal measure, may be represented symbolically. But whereas a scalar requires one location, an ordinal memory may require a [large ordered set of atoms of memory].

Much of physics is the creation and solution of differential equations. As far back as records go, we see mathematics and physics closely intertwined. Many ancient documents are commercial accounts, attributing a scalar value to each physical unit (like a measure of grain) and doing arithmetic with the scalars. We also find surveyors, architects and builders using geometric models to represent their ideas and facilitate their work.

Efforts to fit gravitation into the quantum field theoretical model have not been successful. String theory offers itself as an alternative, replacing point particles with vibrating strings whose scale is the Planck length. This is so far beyond present or foreseeable experimental test that its status as an explanation of the Universe may not be testable except in a mathematical sense, providing a self consistent ordinal measure which may or may not correspond to reality.

[page 38]

Physics seeks to devise ordinal measures (ie computational algorithms) that yield the observed cardinal measures. So we have the 'hard sphere' gas. which provides an ordinal model which approximates to real gases under certain conditions.

SUPERPOSITION = NON-LOCAL COMMUNICATION

Many 'alphabetic' states are imagined as existing simultaneously in some place, giving a final state which is the sum of the amplitudes of the c constituent states. The constituent states are modelled as orthogonal vectors in Hilbert space, that [is] as independent degrees of freedom which are parametrized by complex amplitudes, that is by ordered sets of two elements with special arithmetical rules. Amplitudes are an ordinal measure which are reduced to a cardinal measure by multiplying an amplitude by its complex conjugate and interpreting the resulting real number as a probability.

By energy we mean the traffic on a channel, is the entropy attributed to a given symbol (ie a given Turing machines), that is the rate of emission of that symbol. The emission of a symbol is equivalent to the halting of a Turing machine. For us a symbol is a static entity but in reality it is a dynamic entity which we represent not by a static point but by a function.

The biggest problem for science is how to represent a dynamic Universe in static symbols, and we do it by using large sets of static symbols to represent a single dynamical symbol.

[page 39]

Parmenides is the first visible physicist , and it seems that he was led by that problem to propose that motion is an illusion. In fact motion is the most concrete, a single motion can be described by an infinity of fixed points; so all our writings about god are simply fixed points in the single act, the life of God.

One can see the invention of writing and physics as mirror images of one another. By learning to write we use representations of the sounds of speech to create a new channel for representing the world. This channel, through mathematics, moved further and further away from natural language speakability into a formal world of its own that simply explores all possible arrangements of symbols.

I just want to kick off an idea. As soon as a few people get the hang of it it will begin to seem obvious and take on a life of its own : an ordered set that gives a credible working model of the Universe that will help us to optimize our relationships with and another and our planetary environment.

Symmetric Universe is a phase space for mathematics and physics.

So make 'on the non-quantization of gravitation' into an article, 90% theory, one application, first developing the model using communication intuition. Communication theory is quite vast enough to embrace all physical models.

Somewhere in the symmetric Universe we can find any structure represented by an ordered set : Cantor, anything thinkable.

Calabi-Yau shapes are reminiscent of Einstein's reference

[page 40]

molluscs.

So far we have used the continuum to guide us in our understanding of particle behaviour. We now want to reverse the procedure, beginning from the same observable messages from the Universe (particle event so we propose a communication network to provide the explanatory paradigm with which to understand the meaning of quantum field theory.

The trick: since communication rates are represented by the dot products of state vectors, what does this say about a state vector? Can we interpret it as a string of code, as we are saying state vector = symbol = Turing machine. Stringing together words forces the ideas along, but if the words don't make sense, they have to be abandoned. So the dynamic worms of though that inhabit my mind are transformed into this ordered set of little stings of ink.

Raw theology. This book is that, ultimately, with all its fellows to be combined in a coherent narrative that describes the effect of see the subject of cosmology and the same entity. This seems to be the power of the communication mode, that is the same across all levels of complexity: transmit = {encode, decode}

Every process has a visible beginning, an invisible middle and a visible end, just like a Turing machine, which is fully determinate in itself and reflects upon (measures) itself as is makes its transformation. In the real Universe gauge theory tells us that every receipt or emission of a symbol is accompanied by an invisible internal change of state.

[page 41]

So the photon carries energy between electrically charged particles and its emission and reception are accompanied by the change of state in the emitter or recipient.

One cannot have a deterministic continuum? Deterministic = error proof = quantized.

Quantum mechanics puts wave functions inside the nodes [of the natural network]. We want to put computers.

Why complex numbers? Because they are periodic, so that a 2 pi change of phase brings us back to where we started (if we ignore the absolute magnitude of the rotating vector representing the number). Complex numbers are geometric and map perfectly to the Argand plane.

Why periodic? Because that is what a string of symbols is, some sort of rhythm, musical, poetical, everyday etc. A periodic function need not be smooth wave, just an event that happens regularly and with minimal duration (like the tick of a clock) which is analogous to a particle and cannot be represented by waves unless we superpose a broad spectrum of frequencies. The broader the spectrum, the better the localization of the ticks. So how do we represent a string of bits by a superposition of waves? We want a wave that looks like 100110101000 . . . , encoding the same ordered set of symbols as the bit string. Al this is done in telephony by modulating carriers with signals. The signal lies in the energy levels of the transmission, loud for 1, soft for 0, the difference between loud and soft being great enough to avoid mistakes. One may modulate frequency or phase as well as amplitude, all the same form the point of view of information transmission.

[page 42]

In quantum mechanics, information is processed by interference, that is by additive superposition of amplitudes that lose one degree of freedom after we introduce normalization.

Complex for completeness? All polynomials have solutions in the complex field.

. . .

We say gravitation works in the layer where there is no meaning and no error, just as a scalar rate of communication that can be discovered by simple counting against a clock, ie words per minute.

Quantum mechanics enables us to compute the rates of communication on various channels such as the transitions between the various atomic states of hydrogen.

Zee page 17: '. . . we can integrate over all spacetimes . . . ' at least all the spacetime in the past light cone of the event we are studying whose action is S(q). Zee

'It i interesting that Lorentz invariance, with c playing the role of the speed of light emerges naturally.'

'Of course, nobody believes that the fields observed [?] in nature, such as the meson field or the photon field, are actually constructed of point masses tied together with strings.'

[page 43]

Zee's mattress is a communication network with a 4-momentum gauge.

People might believe this if we think of it as a communication network, the nodes being masses requiring considerable persuasion to move and the springs being communication channels between the nodes, carrying influence (force) from one to another.

Zee page 23: D(x) propagator is amplitude for disturbance to get from origin to x. D(x) decays exponentially for spacelike separations.

The error correcting power of the Universe lies in the fact that the probability of confusing symbols decreases exponentially with the distance between them.

It took about 20 year (23-43) say to get over the 'affective' conditioning about the nature of God and be able to consider te hypothesis that God and the Universe are one without some vague fear of retribution. A sort of post traumatic effect of my experience with the Order.

AN ORDER, COMMAND, AUTHORITY. Found by long experience to be the best way to manage a fighting force; do what you are told or die. Kill or die, possibly both.

We are peers of our environment, insofar as our survival requires that we can deal with all the dangers and resources in our environment relative to our lives, so that in a sense peers of God, gods in the sense of autonomous sources of action, ie degree of freedom. Each of us is a degree of freedom in the human sphere (whose cardinal we call aleph(human)).

[page 44]

Parmenides: While it is true to say that the sun is in the west at sunset, this statement is false at dawn, becoming true again in the afternoon.

The Western (European) notion of God.

Theological Studies : When we look around the planet, probably less than half believe in the model of God favoured by Christianity. The alternative to this has a democratic right to air-time.

The source of all life (which we call God) is inside/outside the Universe.

An alternative theology hypothesis.

Serendipiditously my life has enabled me to reflect carefully on my Catholic experience, see where the Church fooled me, and begin to develop an evidence based alternative.

The Fall caused the whole Universe to be generally ontologically deranged.

With the symmetric Universe as a phase space we imagine every permutation as existing in some sort of disembodied form isomorphic to an ordered set, ie an element of a set of permutations.

Quantum mechanics is the first step toward giving meaning to the meaningless physical flow of action through the Universe which is the moving front of time modelled as an infinitesimally separated series of spacelike slices.

[page 45]

At root quantum mechanics introduces duplicity and multiplicity in general. So all its inner processes are modelled by ordered arrays of complex numbers which are integrated in various ways to give real numbers which are interpreted as the probabilities of various events. How do complex numbers fit into this? Complex numbers have two degrees of freedom and cannot be ordered. A state is represented as an array of complex numbers whose only constraint results from the normalization of probabilities, so the total probability of all possible outcomes is 1. This constrains the absolute but not the relative contributions of different elements of the state vector to the outcome. The probability that a uranium nucleus will decay or not decay must add up to 1 at all times.

DECAY = SEND A MESSAGE ('self destructive', an attribute of fundamental particles.). Less fundamental particles like atoms can change their internal state without decay or disintegration or annihilation.

Science maps IDEAL (formal) to REAL (concrete).

Maxwell in Lamb page 347: 'The bodies which we deal with in abstract dynamics are just as completely known to us as the figures in Euclid. They have no properties whatever except those which we explicitly assign to them. Maxwell Scientific Papers II page 779. Lamb Maxwell

DIGITAL CORRESPONDENCE = EXACT
ANALOGUE CORRESPONDENCE = APPROXIMATE

All practical activities are approximate and subject to error: so the batter sometimes misses, the nail bends, the car runs off the road and so on.

[page 46]

Saturday 31 May 2008

A computer maps from linear time beat by its clock to a program pointed which indicates the address of the operation currently being performed by the computer. The program counter is not linear in the sense that it may return to the same elementary operation again and again (a loop) as it goes through its motions.

The Parmenidean foundation of our world is logic embodied in computers. This foundation creates a rich space of possibilities which it is powerless to control. but which must control itself by natural selection, avoiding death spots and concentrating on the best spaces for life, ie in the old language, avoid hell, move toward heaven.

The discovery of quantum computation algorithms is analogous to the discovery of critical damping and other features of classical dynamis, such as Gauss's method of applying the current to an undamped tangent galvanometer. Lamb, page 32

Work and energy: Lamb 43

Work converts potential energy via kinetic energy into potential energy. So I working convert the potential energy in my food into the potential energy in a building (with considerable losses).

FIELD <--> FORCE
RELIGION <--> CONSTRAINED BEHAVIOUR.

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