vol VII: Notes

2014

Notes

[Notebook: DB 77 Discretion]

[Sunday 12 January 2014 - Saturday 18 January 2014]

[page 42]

Sunday 12 January 2014

What is the process that turn 0 into 1. In the formal world we achieve this by simple fiat, perhaps according to come rule or function. In a real computer it is achieved by a flow of electrons, which is equivalent to the annihilation of electrons in one place and their creation in another. In quantum mechanics we see it as the continuous rotation of one state into an orthogonal state (the Schrödinger picture).

The fundamental fact is that we are all the same species, we can mate with one another, fall in love and raise children. All the artificial cultural boundaries that do not recognise this fact have to go, the animosities bred of different parochialistic [parochial?] religious notions, ethical and moral beliefs and so on. None of them have any real foundation in human nature.

[page 43]

Monday 13 January 2014

Feeling a bit cranky but no obvious post-birthday hangover. A grey rainy day. Pleased to see that Pope Francis approves of breast feeding in the Sistine chapel. Philip Pullella

Shannon, Bell System Technical J 27 379-423 (1948) Claude E Shannon

Complex numbers are essential to quantum mechanics first because they are periodic (and so can model the clock and all the other periodic processes in a computer) and because of their arithmetic properties modelling 'interference' by addition and rotation [progression in space-time] by multiplication.

Tuesday 14 January 2014

These days I seem to get one good paragraph out of half a joint. The essence of quantum computation's claim to greater power than digital computation is that a Platonically (formally) perfect analogue machine is more powerful because it can transform infinite sets of data in one operation. The atomic process of a digital computer is a one bit operation, p becomes not-p. However the logical proof of the Platonic analogue contention is digital, using point set theory [which includes Boolean algebra] in which all points are orthogonal and uniquely addressed [by real numbers], rather like a Hilbert space of sufficient dimension to represent processes in a continuum

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Thursday 16 January 2014

Friday 17 January 2014

Saturday 18 January 2014

Copyright:

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

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Further reading

Books

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

Abbott, Walter M, and Joseph Gallagher (translation editor), The Documents of Vatican II: in a new and definitive translation, with notes and commentaries by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox authorities, Geoffrey Chapman 1972 Jacket: 'All 16 Documents of Vatican II are here presented in a new and readable translation. Informed comments and appraisals by Catholics and non-Catholics make this book essential reading for anyone, of whatever shade of belief, who is interested in the changing climate of today's world.'  Amazon   back

Denzinger, Henricus, and Adolphus Schoenmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum, Definitionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum, Herder 1963 Introduction: 'Dubium non est quin praeter s. Scripturam cuique theologo summe desiderandus sit etiam liber manualis quo contineantur edicta Magisterii ecclesiastici eaque saltem maioris momenti, et quo ope variorim indicum quaerenti aperiantur eorum materiae.' (3) 'There is no doubt that in addition to holy Scripture, every theologian also needs a handbook which contains at least the more important edicts of the Magisterium of the Church, indexed in a way which makes them easy to find.'back

Hesse, Hermann, The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi), Peter Smith Publishing 1992 Amazon Editorial review: 'Final novel by Hermann Hesse, published in two volumes in 1943 in German as Das Glasperlenspiel, and sometimes translated as Magister Ludi. The book is an intricate bildungsroman about humanity's eternal quest for enlightenment and for synthesis of the intellectual and the participatory life. Set in the 23rd century, the novel purports to be a biography of Josef Knecht ("servant" in German), who has been reared in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy. This he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).' Merriman-Webster Encyclopaedia of Literature  Amazon   back

Tymoczko, Thomas, New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology, Princeton University Press 1998 Jacket: 'The traditional debate among philosophers of mathematics is whether there is an external mathematical reality, something out there to be discovered, or whether mathematics is the product of the human mind. ... By bringing together essays of leading philosophers, mathematicians, logicians and computer scientists, TT reveals an evolving effort to account for the nature of mathematics in relation to other human activities.'  Amazon   back

Links

Claude E Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, 'The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem. The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages.' back

Philip Pullella, Breadtfeed if you wanrt pope tells mthers inSistine Chapel, 'VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis baptized 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday and told their mothers, including one who was married in a civil service rather than in church, to have no qualms about breast-feeding them there.' back