natural theology

We have just published a new book that summarizes the ideas of this site. Free at Scientific Theology, or, if you wish to support this project, buy at Scientific Theology: A New Vision of God

Contact us: Click to email
VII Notes

2010

Notes

[Notebook: DB 69: Creation]

[page 50]

Sunday 30 May 2010

BONDAGE = DEBT (climbing out of a potential well).

The Universe expands (ie gains structure and measure) within the initial singularity. We may see this as parallel to Newton's insight that absolute space and time are established by God.

Einstein in Paid page 178: '. . . if there exists just one single object that falls in a gravitational field in a way different from all the others, then with its help the observer could realize he is in a gravitational field and falling in it. If such an object does not exist, however -- as experience has shown with great accuracy -- then the observer lacks any objective means of perceiving himself as falling in a gravitational field.'

No information without marks. A perfect symmetry, like a whiteout, tells us nothing, Gravitation is unobservable in the absence of some other force that breaks the gravitational symmetry, like the electromagnetic forces pressing on my bottom as I sit here.

Special relativity is local (inertial and we might imagine an epoch in the evolution of the Universe when it was the only structure, or more specifically, that it emerged

[page 51]

at a particular epoch.

We imagine the empty set mapping onto itself. One way. Similarly a set with one element is equivalent to a set with 0 elements. There are two ways for a set of two elements, p and not-p to map onto itself. But what is stationary then? The set. Time to read Jech. The two elements of the set are the fixed points in the correspondences ab and ba. In every case we see that the fixed points are the alphabet, the letters of any sequence the source may emit ababa . . . .

The fixed point theorem is the key idea. We expand it with the noetic network. The constraint is that all the outputs of the universal source are consistent, that is orthogonal, none conflicting with any other.

The beauty of mathematics is that being formal, we can write it down on paper and the evidence is there before our eyes and we can see how it fits together to male a process, ie the proof of a proposition of 'A killed B'. There is no need in mathematica (or at least some formal mathematicians say sow) for a laboratory outside the printed page to collect evidence for mathematical propositions, true sentences. It is a castle of true sentences in the air (on the page, in the imagination of readers and writers).

Dealing with God occurs at many levels, physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, ecology. The most complex and uncertain layer from our point of view is dealing with each other in the human and higher social layers, The breakdowns in the political layers that lead to war are the most devastating of all and undo much of our good work at lower levels like

[page 52]

agriculture and architecture. The most difficult problem is to deal with sovereign powers with a tendency to violence like Nazi Germany, North Korea and many others at all scales. The best way is to prevent people and organizations getting the power in the first pl;ace, but given the fluctuations in reality this is not easy. Most of the sovereign powers that do violence to people claim to be acting with authority from, some invisible God of their own, so natural religion, seeing the Universe as divine (so there are no secret Gods) seems a step in the right direction.

The only property of the initial singularity (= God) is consistency. Wherever local inconsistency arises in the Universe it is destroyed by motion = creation and annihilation.

Special relativity - velocity - rate of change of memory (position)
general relativity - acceleration - rate of change of rate of change . . . .

General relativity is based on a field of local inertial frames, and so we feel that the inertail frames are the alphabet of the gravitating Universe. [An] inertial frame, like an isolated quantum system is in principle unobservable because quantum mechanics says to observe it is to break its inertiality.

Sop what does the velocity of light mean in a system that has no space, that is no memory? Ie in an isolated quantum / inertial system?

Gardner, Skirt page 107: 'I hadn't thought of it from that angle, . . . ." A very Hilbert space thing to say, since all the information in a normalized space is encoded in the angle between vectors. Any two vectors define a

[page 53]

plane and an angle in that plane.

Formalism has no motion, no dynamics, unless it is represented by some living physical system like an atom or a brain. We can imagine formalism being brought to life by reality when we study it to gain insight into reality.

Monday 31 May 2010

Einstein's general relativity is a continuous approximation to a pixellated reality.

We tend to see the form as the driver of the action, as the sight of a potential mate excites passion, but we can also see the forms as stationary points created by the action, so in a sense it is the passion that drives the forms of mating. Given the recursive nature of almost all process, the time ordering for form-action-form is blurred by repetition, so after thousands of generations of human reproduction it is just as true to say that we fall in love with visions (ie visions create love) as to say that love creates vision.

So we look for a digital communication based explanation for the general relativistic communication based on the notion that bonding and high bandwidth communication are equivalent to attraction. So how does this attraction become so strong that we get a black hole? This idea, which is quite old with me is boosted by recent ideas that gravitation is an entropic force. Erik P Verlinde

QWuantum mechanics gioves us two things: first it defines stationary states very precisely, amnd secon dly it enables is to compute the probnability of transition between these states of fixed action or

[page 54]

angular momentum as a function of their energy.

Pais page 195: '[Einstein's] problem was and remained to find a way to give meaning to simultaneity for the case of a uniformly accelerated system.' Can this mean a way to see them as synchronous, ie one system?

We can measure fore with a spring, that it by the deformation of solid state structures which (if linear, or even if not) transform a force to a distance, ie a change of stte of memory.

How does gravity relate to conservation of eenrgy? It sees only energy and proves one way of moving energy from one place to another, ie changing local rates of action (?). Redshift. It is the dialogue between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy that is revealed ()'spoken') by the classical pendulum.

Restless, and it is windy.

Pais 198: 'the velocity of light is no longer a constant in the presence of gravitational fields.' ie gravitational fields change some processing rate, that is, some energy. So we begin to think of gravity and processing rate and wonder if gravitation is not the formalism that is created the space-time / momentum-energy.

Gravitation couples to the frequency / energy of photons (and everything else). This coupling in some way defines space-time as the habitat of photons, but it is yet only a degenerate spacetime since the photons only move on null geodesics and 'experience' no time or distance in themselves, ie no velocity, they sit in their own rest frame (which is inaccessible to us like an isolated quantum system).

[page 56]

The addition of space, time, energy and momentum to photons is a feature of a higher layer using the ur-photons as subroutines.

Are there photons in the initial singularity?

Pais page 198: "'Superficially seen [this equation ν1 = ν2(1 + Φ/c2)] seems to state something absurd. If light is steadily transmitted from S2 to S1 then how can a different number of periods per second arrive at S1 than were emitted in S2? The answer is simple, however. The apparent trouble lay not with the number of periods, but with the second: one must examine with the greatest care what one means by the rate of clocks in an inhomogeneous gravitational field.'"

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Pais: 'Toward the end of [Einstein's] stay in Prague, the technical concept of general covariance took shape ion his mind and the fundamental role of thje metric tensor as the carrier of gravitation became clear.' page 228.

gμν has ten components, 1 + 2 + 3+ 4.

Linear vs general covariance, ie independence from coordinates, ie direct relationships to one another. The function of the connection coefficients in the covariant derivative is to 'correct' for the change in coordinates. What we are looking for is a digital communication network whose continuous limit is the Einstein equation.

Einstein took on 4D space n one leap. Can we make the journey easier by going 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 dimensions. And is

[page 57]

we can explain the generation of dimensions in this way, can we also explain the degeneration of dimensions in a black hole, all of which are surrounded by an horizon? We need to bring quantum theory into this and somehow associate space time dimensions with dimensions in Hilbert space for spatial dimensions 1 to 3, via perhaps concrete 'wiring diagrams' and the concept that general (uncrossed) wiring is only possible in 3D or more.

Two communicating points on a line are attracted by communication (ie have (or generate)) symmetries. However if they become completely symmetrical we have not two points but one.

We might interpret general covariance as the stipulation that every point in space can communicate with every other point, none being hidden from another by crossed wires is (as in quantum theory) all communications between two points are private.

What does the equivalence principle (gravitation is formally indistinguishable from acceleration) mean? We might say in general that communication = force, gravitation = force, so gravitation and communication have force in common, suggesting that gravitation is a universal weak channel of communication (correlation) that represents the 'entanglement by common descent' that characterizes a creative Universe.

Pais page 232: '. . . Einstein correctly saw from the beginning that the incorporation of gravity meant the end of the unconditional validity of special relativity.' One cannot observe a system without becoming one with it and changing it., so as soon as we look at an inertial frame we accelerate is so destroying 'inertiality'. Similar problem in quantum mechanics. In both cases we represent the isolated system by a deterministic Turing machine (because why not, we can't see it anyway)

[page 58] and communication as the exchange of messages between these machines involving a change in the state of both. So we can interprt quantum mechanics as th theory of communication between two computers.

Turing machine = formal; computer = common language,

Einstein's theory is formulated in the continuous limit; in a real network processors operate independently between communication interrupts.

The '400' (anywhere) have a way of life characterized by wealth and power and accepted ideas about what one should do with such wealth and power.

Pais page 256: 'The portrait of Einstein as a scientist in 1913 is altogether remarkable. He has no compelling results to show for his efforts. He sees the limitations of what he has done so far. He is supremely confident of his vision. And he stands all alone. It seems to me that Einstein's intellectual strength, courage and tenacity to continue under such circumstances and then to be supremely vindicated a few years later do much to explain how during his later years he would fearlessly occupy once again a similar position, in his solitary quest for an interpretation of quantum mechanics which was totally at variance with commonly held views.'

[page 59]

Having built a huge mathematical structure we now cut it down to size with Cantor symmetry and the relativity of transfinity.

Planck in Pais page 242: '. . . natural laws always imply certain restrictions in infinitely many possibilities.'

General covariance is made necessary by the perceived need to introduce a coordinate system against which to measure the motions of the Universe.

We can never predict when the answer is coming. The world, like my consciousness, is a series of local events (like conceiving this sentence) which are loosely joined together by my history and the fact that it is my consciousness. In the daydreaming mode, the sequence of conscious events is not predictable, and even which we try to stay focussed on some task, stray thoughts are still common and may be powerful enough to distract us from the job in hand.

Pais page 243: Einstein: 'we have no means of distinguishing a centrifugal field from a gravitational field, [and therefore] we may consider the centrifugal field as a gravitational field.'

Whose gradient is away from rather than toward some fixed point, making fixed orbit [im]possible.

'According to our theory, there do not exist independent (selbständige) qualities of space.' These enter later. Is gravitation, like inertial spaces, still a distance free system with only null geodesics?

Pais page 244: The energy momentum tensor is the source of the metric tensor.

[page 60]

Pais page 250: Einstein: 'a new version of general reality "based on the postulate of covariance with

Pais page 266: '. . . general relativity consists of an intricate web of new kinematics and new dynamics. Its kinetic novelty was perfectly transparent from the start: Lorentz invariance is deprived of its global validity but continues to play a central role as a local invariant. However the new dynamics contained in the equations of general relativity has not been fully fathomed either during Einstein's life or in the quarter of a century following his death.'

The space of solutions to a differential equation is in effect all the structures that can be built using the differential equation as a building [block].

blocks of substance = bricks
blocks of meaning = functions (mappings).

'I loe you' maps a Universe of feeling into three words because they point o similat states in all of us excepts perhaps where the power to love is disabled.

Pais page 273: Einstein: 'the idea of general relativity "is a purely formal view and not a definite hypothesis about nature."'

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Pais page 320: Einstein: 'I believe less than ever in the essentially statistical nature of events and have decided to use the little energy still given to me in ways that are

[page 61]

Independent of the current bustle.

This is to overlook the essence of symmetry which makes certain events 9like the fall of a die) equiprobable rather than determined.

Thursday 3 June 2010
Friday 4 June 2010
Saturday 5 June 2010

Pais page 343: Einstein: '"Above us stands the marble smile of implacable Nature which has endowed us more with longing than intellectual capacity". Thus romantically , began Einstein's adventures with general connections [communications? Turing machines], adventures that were to continue until his final hours.'

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

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Feynman, Richard, QED: The Strange Story of Light and Matter, Princeton UP 1988 Jacket: 'Quantum electrodynamics - or QED for short - is the 'strange theory' that explains how light and electrons interact. Thanks to Richard Feynmann and his colleagues, it is also one of the rare parts of physics that is known for sure, a theory that has stood the test of time. ... In this beautifully lucid set of lectures he provides a definitive introduction to QED.' 
Amazon
  back
Gardner, Erle Stanley, The Case of the Singing Skirt, Fawcett 1992 From the Inside Flap 'Ellen Robb does more than just sing for her supper -- she also dances and sells cigarettes in a two-bit gambling parlor in a one-horse town. But when she hits a sour note with her scheming employer by refusing to help fleece a fat-cat customer in a crooked card game, she finds herself out of all three jobs. That's when she sings her song of woe to Perry Mason, who promises to turn her blues into greenbacks with the help of his crack team, Della Street and Paul Drake, and a hefty lawsuit. Things are humming along just fine -- until murder interrupts the merry melody of Mason's crafty legal maneuvers. When the vindictive wife of Ellen Robb's not-so-secret lover turns up shot to death, Mason is certain it's a frame-up -- and that his songbird client's belligerent boss is to blame. Until his own gun is found at the scene. The cocksure Mason will have to change his tune -- and do some quick thinking -- or else this case could be his swan song.' 
Amazon
  back
Higman, Bryan, Applied Group-Theoretic and Matrix Methods, Dover Publications Jacket: '... This work, a comprehensive, thoroughly reliable exposition of the basic ideas of group theory (realized through matrices) and its applications to various areas of physics and chemistry, systematically covers this important ground for the first time. ... Although [it] deals basiclaly with advanced level material, the unusually clear exposition provides much valuable insight and fruitful suggestion for student and specialist alike. Chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and others who would like an idea of the applications and methods of group and matrix theory in the physical sciences will profit greatly from this book. ...'back
Jech, Thomas, Set Theory, Springer 1997 Jacket: 'This book covers major areas of modern set theory: cardinal arithmetic, constructible sets, forcing and Boolean-valued models, large cardinals and descriptive set theory. ... It can be used as a textbook for a graduate course in set theory and can serve as a reference book.' 
Amazon
  back
Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '... Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
Amazon
  back
Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. . . . this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity. . . . ' 
Amazon
  back
Pais, Abraham, 'Subtle is the Lord...': The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford UP 1982 Jacket: In this ... major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire ouvre. ... Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography ... including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before.' 
Amazon
  back
Papers
Bouwmeester, Dick, "High NOON for photons", Nature, 429, 6989, 13 May 2004, page 139-141. 'Entangled photons conspire to create interference patterns that would normally be associated with a wavelength much smaller than that of the individual photons, beating the diffraction limit.'. back
Szathnary, Eors, Peter Hammersetin, "John Maynard-Smith (1920-2004)", Nature, 429, 6989, 20 May 2004, page 258-259. 'John Maynard-Smith ... made crucial contributions to several debates in evolutionary theory: the levels -- genes, the individual organism, and so on -- at which natural selection operates effectively; the maintenance of sex as a costly mode of reproduction; the use of game theory for biological analysis of conflict and cooperation; the characteristics of major evolutionary transitions, such as the origin of multicellularity; and the logic of animal signalling. ... Maynard-Smith observed succinctly that twentieth-century biology is more about the role of information in biology than about anything else. The terminology of molecular biology (transcription, translation, proofreading and so on), the concept of positional information in embryology, the nervous system as information processor and the questions on animal signalling (about which he published his last book just a few months ago) all confirm the validity of this point. ... '. back
Tschumperlin, Daniel J, et al, "Mechanotransduction through growth-factor shedding into the extracellular space", Nature, 429, 6987, 6 May 2004, page 83-86. 'Physical forces elicit biochemical signalling in a diverse array of cells, tissues and organisms, helping to govern fundamental biological processes. Several hypotheses have been advanced that link physical forces to intracellular signalling pathways, but in most cases the molecular mechanisms of mechanotransduction remain elusive. Here we find that compressive stress shrinks the lateral intercellular space surrounding epithelial cells and triggers cellular signalling via autocrine binding of epidermal growth factor family ligands to the epidermal growth factor receptor.'. back
Walther, Philip, et al, "De Broglie wavelength of a non-local four-photon state", Nature, 429, 6989, 13 May 2004, page 158-161. 'Superposition is one of the most distinctive features of quantum theory and has been demonstratred in numerous single particle interference experiments. Quantum entanglement, the coherent superposition of states in multi-particle systems, yields more complex phenomena. One important type of multi-particle experiment uses path entangled number states, which exhibit pure higher order interference and potential for applications in metrology and imaging; ... It has been generally understood that in optical implemetations of such schemes, lower order interference effects always decrease the overall performance at higher particle numbers. ... Here we have overcome this limitation, demonstrating a four-photon inteferometer based on linear optics. ... We anticipate that this scheme should be extendable to arbitrary photon numersa, holding promise for realizable applications with entanglement-enhanced performance.'. back
Links
Erik P Verlinde The Origins of gravity and the Laws of Newton 'Starting from first principles and general assumptions Newton's law of gravitation is shown to arise naturally and unavoidably in a theory in which space is emergent through a holographic scenario. Gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. A relativistic generalization of the presented arguments directly leads to the Einstein equations. When space is emergent even Newton's law of inertia needs to be explained. The equivalence principle leads us to conclude that it is actually this law of inertia whose origin is entropic.' back

www.naturaltheology.net is maintained by The Theology Company Proprietary Limited ACN 097 887 075 ABN 74 097 887 075 Copyright 2000-2020 © Jeffrey Nicholls