natural theology > VII notes

Notes

[Sunday 2 October 2011 - Saturday 8 October 2011]

[Notebook: DB 71 Israel]

Sunday 2 October 2011

Monday 3 October 2011

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Wednesday 5 October 2011

[page 60]

Thursday 6 October 2011

On rebuilding religion (New Yorker)

Saint Andrews Prize for the Environment. University of St Andrews / ConocoPhillips

Natural religion : Software for an integrated world.

Friday 7 October 2011

Saturday 8 October 2011

St AndrewsPrize: The natural religion project again.

Landauer: All information is physical, ie the word is flesh. We are divine and our environment is divine, and we would do well to act accordingly.

[page 61]

A couple more years to perfect the product and some income would be nice.

Symmetry = undifferentiated count, all sheep are identically one unit.

Symmetry - randomness - creation

Can I do it? Yes I can. I can create a work of art which I would like to exhibit in the New Yorker. Why? Just seems the best and most potent place for it: On rebuilding religion.

Neuenschwander page 1: Philip Morrison: ' "I like best the idea of the seventeenth century philosopher Leibniz . . . for Leibniz symmetry is related to the indiscernibility of differences. Once you walk into the hall of a Palladian building, you can't quite remember whether you turned left or right." ' Essay "On Broken Symmetries" in Wechsler (1981). Neuenschwander, Wechsler

SYMMETRICAL = UNOBSERVABLE (symmetry = unobservability)

SYMMETRY == UNDECIDABIITY == INCOMPUTABILITY (is this insight worth the damage caused by one (tobacco laced) joint? I think so!).

Communication theory requires the theory of computation for its implementation, ie coding - decoding (transformation)

Neuenschwander page 42: Maximize proper time (to get geodesic in general relativity) = maximize productivity = optimize algorithm.

[page 62]

These ideas were encouraged in the 70s by long discussion with the late Milo Dunphy of the Total Environment Centre, Sydney. Should probably also mention Lawrence Fitzgerald OP from the 60s with whom I had long debates before being asked to leave the Order in 1967. Order of Preachers, Total Environment Centre, National Parks Association

'If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it I know I can achieve it.' Jesse Jackson Jesse Jackson - Wikiquote

Symmetry: The via negativa. Thomas Aquinas

Copying out these notes, up to March 2011. Rather like an orebody really, a lot of overburden, a reasonable percentage of payable ore and a few sparkling gems. I feel that I might be able to ignote the same process on the global community, sort of religious phase change, a melting of the solid boundaries that now partition religion space. Every layer has a religion (the layers above) and an alphabet (the layers below) except the initial singularity which is at the bottom, the first element of an ordered set parametrized by complexity. Quantum interactions constrain Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics by introducing indistinguishability, ie symmetry. Khinchin

We (and our world) are network creatures proceeding to our conclusions by a recursive (and hopefully convergent) process.

Related sites

Concordat Watch

Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty

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

Khinchin, A Y, The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Statistics, Dover 1998 'In the area of quantum statistics, I show that a rigorous mathematical basis of the computational formulas of statistical physics ... may be obtained from an elementary application of the well-developed limit theorems of the theory of probability'
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Neuenschwander, Dwight E, Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem, Johns Hopkins University Press 2011 Jacket: A beautiful piece of mathematics, Noether's therem touches on every aspect of physics. Emmy Noether proved her theorem in 1915 and published it in 1918. This profound concept demonstrates the connection between conservation laws and symmetries. For instance, the theorem shows that a system invariant under translations of time, space or rotation will obey the laws of conservation of energy, linear momentum or angular momentum respectively. This exciting result offers a rich unifying principle for all of physics.'
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Wechsler, Judith, On Aesthetics in Science, The MIT Press 1981 Amazon editorial review: 'The contributors to this unusual collection of essays—two physicists, a mathematician, a metallurgist, a psychologist, and a social theorist—all agree that aesthetic judgments are crucial to science. After all, Einstein, Bohr, and other pioneers of quantum theory relied heavily on visual thinking and aesthetic intuition. Darwin's recurrent image of an 'irregularly branching tree' presaged his theory of evolution. Poincare believed that aesthetic, not logic, is the hallmark of the mathematical mind. These clearly written essays explore such topics as the importance of personal style to discovery and invention, theoretical paradigms in the evolution of science, and the productive yet generally unacknowledged role of complex images in scientific work. Illustrative examples are drawn from a wide range of sources: crystal patterns to modern architecture, the writings of Borges and Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' A fruitful comparison of artist and scientist.' —Publishers Weekly
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Links

Jesse Jackson - Wikiquote Jesse Jackson - Wikiquote 'The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. (born 8 October 1941) is an American pastor, and a prominent civil rights and political activist.' back

Myles and Milo Dunphy - Wikipedia Myles and Milo Dunphy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Myles and Milo Dunphy were Australian conservationists who played an important role in creating the Australian wilderness movement.' back

National Parks Association Milo Dunphy obituary 'Milo Kanangra Dunphy, architect, conservationaist, bushwalker, dear friend to many, died in Sydney on 13 April 1996.' back

Order of Preachers Dominican Province of the Assumption 'The Australasian Dominican Order began as an Irish mission. Some 70 Irish friars served in this Province in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, currently, there are still two active Irish priests. The Irish have been predominant, whether from Ireland or from Irish Australian and New Zealand families, but the friars who have worked, or are still working, in this part of the world have been drawn from a remarkable diversity of other nationalities: French, English, Italian, Spanish, Maltese, Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Indian, Vietnamese, Solomonese, Papua New Guinean, Gilbertese, American.' back

Thomas Aquinas Via negativa 'We cannot know what God is, but only what He is not. So to study Him, we study what He has not -- such as composition and motion. His simplicity (3) or lack of composition. His perfection: and because everything in so far as it is perfect is called good, we shall speak of His goodness (6) -- and goodness in general (5) -- as well as His perfection (4). His infinity (7) and omnipresence (8). His immutability (9), and His eternity (10) following on His immutability. His unity (11). How God is known by us (12). The names of God (13). back

Total Environment Centre Total Environment Centre Established in 1972 by pioneers of the Australian environmental movement, TEC is a veteran of more than 100 successful campaigns. For over 30 years, we have been working to protect this country's natural and urban environment, flagging the issues, driving debate, supporting community activism and pushing for better environmental policy and practice. back

University of St Andrews / ConocoPhillips The St Andrews Prize for the Environment ' Welcome to the St Andrews Prize for the Environment website. The St Andrews Prize for the Environment is an initiative by the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the international integrated energy company, ConocoPhillips. The Prize recognises significant contributions to environmental conservation and since its launch in 1998 has attracted entries from more than 50 countries each year on diverse topics including; sustainable development in the Amazon rainforest urban regeneration recycling health and water issues renewable energy' back