vol VII: Notes

2016

Notes

Sunday 6 March 2016 - Saturday 12 March 2016

[Notebook: DB 80: Cosmic plumbing]

[page 38]

Sunday 6 March 2016

A good physical theory yields numerical coincidences with measured values of certain parameters such as positions and times and frequencies. The theory is supposed to represent the hidden mechanisms responsible for these coincidences. These mechanisms are traditionally described by functional processes in continuous manifolds which I wish to replace with processes in discrete logical manifolds in order to gain the universality required if I am to successfully assert that the universe is divine. The question then becomes how do we comprehend logical processes as the sources of the arithmetical values that we observe in our laboratories and in the wider world? All the observed physical values are ratios [of fixed points] and in general they are ratios of frequencies or energies. We imagine that these ratios are representatives of the relative amounts of processing required to get from one state to another.

[page 39]

General covariance describes the radical disconnect between the flow of data and the flow of meaning carried by that data. General covariance - Wikipedia

Watching Swan Lake and wondering how this spectacle relates to physics from the photons and phonons that carry the spectacle from stage and orchestra to spectators, to the myriad molecular processes within the performers all of which are given structure and meaning by their ordering in space-time. Perhaps I am spending too much time on the digitization of quantum actions and not enough on the generation of structure and meaning by the network ordering of these actions. Tchaikovsky

We need to explain two categories of things: the actual nature of the physical events (their eigenfunctions) and the frequency of each class of event, given by the overlap integral of the initial and final states of the event.

Monday 7 March 2016

All changes of state (motions) require tunnelling / borrowing / uncertainty: first the annihilation of the initial state and the the construction of the new state. At the quantum level (and everything is quantum, nℏ where 1 < n < ℵ₀) this will turn out to be absurdly simple because no one has thought of it before.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Thursday 10 March 2016

Gaussian coordinates represent ordering, but not distance,

[page 40]

which comes later with the metric. So general covariance relates to order (permutation) but not distance (?) [the ordering of the points in differentiable manifolds makes it possible to map them continuously to the real numbers which have an inherent order].

Friday 11 March 2016

First smoke for three weeks. Any ideas? Not so far, but some motivation to go to work after three weeks dealing with death and life, my dying parents and my thriving children and grandchildren. The weight of denial of reality that is sweeping the world ['axe the facts'] is very heavy, but there is little to be done about it (for me) than to show that scientific theology is very sexy, desirable and useful because it is describing god, the source of all good things and because of resource limitations [arising from] suboptimal spiritual development, of bad things as well. So catch up with the diary and put some time into scientific /physical theology (ie observable theology). Hannan. Peter Hannan: Grim prospects: the shake-up of Australia's climate science

The quantum no-cloning theorem bars broadcasting in a pure quantum network and restricts all connections to the pairwise interaction of sources (?). No cloning theorem - Wikipedia

Saturday 12 March 2016

Back to work after a three week layoff / crisis of confidence. Now back to somewhat blindly pushing ahead, rather confident that somewhere in my subconscious mind (invisible process) there are the answers necessary to cary the job forward.

[page 41]

Brain: it takes one to know one: similia similiter intelliguntur. The network brain knows the network world by mapping itself to the world.

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!)

Carson, Rachael, Silent Spring, Mariner Books 2002 Amazon.com Editorial review: 'Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson's book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work.'  Amazon   back

Hochschild, Adam, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Mariner Books 1999 Amazon book description: 'In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. . . . "  Amazon   back

Job, The Book of Job in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Introduction: 'The Book of Job is the literary masterpiece of the [Biblical] Wisdom movement. . . . The author of the Book of Job . . . is without doubt an Israelite, brought up on the works of the prophets and the teachings of the sages. . . . The writer puts the case of the good man who suffers. This is a paradox for the conservative view then prevalent that a man's actions are rewarded or punished here on earth.' (pp 726, 727)  Amazon   back

John of the Cross, and E Alison Peers (Translator, editor, Intorduction), The Dark Night of the Soul: A Masterpiece in the Literature of Mysticism, Image 1959 'A sixteenth-century mystic who wrote of man's relationship with God, St. John of the Cross was also a Carmelite monk who helped reform the Order and aided St. Teresa of Avila in establishing new convents for women. In this book--his spiritual masterpiece and a classic of Christian literature and mysticism--he addresses several subjects, among them pride, avarice, envy, and other human imperfections. He also provides an extended explanation of Divine love; and describes methods of conversion through prayer, submission, and purification. "...the most faithful [translation] that has appeared in any European language: it is, indeed, much more than a translation for [Peers] added his own valuable historical and [critically interpretive] notes."--London Times.  Amazon   back

Revised English Bible, Revised English Bible, Oxford University Press, USA 2003 From Library Journal 'From its inception the New English Bible was intended to be revised. This revision, which has taken into account praise and criticism of the New English Bible and advances in biblical scholarship, is the fruit of 15 years' labor. The style has remained dignified but not stuffy, vigorous but not coarse. Many Briticisms and awkward phrases have been reworked ("loose livers" in I Cor. 5:9 is now "those who are sexually immoral"), though some remain ("a rod in pickle" in Prov. 19:29). The removal of "thee" and "thou" from address to God and the cautious, discriminating use of inclusive language reflect current usage. Transposition of words, verses, and whole passages in the name of clarity--carried over from the New English Bible --will cause continued concern and will decrease somewhat this work's value as a study Bible. All things considered, however, this is an excellent translation that will easily find a place in public and private reading. Highly recommended. - Craig W. Beard, Harding Univ. Lib., Searcy, Ark. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.'  Amazon   back

Waugh, Evelyn, Brideshead Revisited, Penguin Books 2000 Amazon customer review: An Often Misunderstood Classic of 20th Century Literature By Gary F. Taylor "Like most great novels, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is about a great many things--not the least of which is the decline of English aristocracy. But at center, Evelyn Waugh's greatest novel (and one of his few non-satirical works) is about religious faith, and how that faith continues to operate in the lives of even those who seem to reject it, and how that faith supports even those who falter badly in it. . . . '  Amazon   back

Papers

Landauer, Rolf, "Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing Process", IBM Journal of Research and Development, 5, 3, 1961, page 183-191. 'Abstract: It is argued that computing machines inevitably involve devices which perform logical functions that do not have a single-valued inverse. This logical irreversibility is associated with physical irreversibility and requires a minimal heat generation, per machine cycle, typically of the order of kT for each irreversible function. This dissipation serves the purpose of standardizing signals and making them independent of their exact logical history. Two simple, but representative, models of bistable devices are subjected to a more detailed analysis of switching kinetics to yield the relationship between speed and energy dissipation, and to estimate the effects of errors induced by thermal fluctuations. '. back

Links

Anna Fels, Can Nicotine Be Good For You, 'My new patient explained that in her sophomore year at college she had started smoking. The effect, she said, was like “a key that fit perfectly into a lock.” Her brain felt clearer, her thoughts were more coherent, her mood and energy improved. Not wanting to damage her lungs, she soon switched over to nicotine gum and had been taking the same amount of it for well over a decade — a pattern of stable “dosing” that I discovered is typical in long-term nicotine users.' back

Bible, Bible: King James Version, 'About the Bible, King James Version The original electronic text for this version of the Bible was provided by the Oxford Text Archive. Original tagging was performed by the New Centre for the Oxford English Dictionary (Waterloo). Subsequent conversion to SGML was performed by the University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative. The HTI is grateful for the permission of the Oxford Text Archive to provide access to the text.' back

Christopher Lamb, Pope Francis cardinal problem: am exit strategy for George Pell, 'Too many senior people in Vatican positions still don't "get it" when it comes to abuse, often seeing the matter through a strict legal prism or believing the crisis has been whipped up by the media. The needs of victims, meanwhile, seem very low on the priority list. It should be pointed out that not everyone in Rome are dragging their feet. The Pope has set up a commission for the protection of minors and much work has gone on to ensure bishops across the world have guidelines on child safeguarding. Yet these are small steps in response to what has arguably been the church's greatest crisis since the reformation. Cardinal Pell's appearance before the commission should ratchet up the pressure on the Vatican to do much more.' back

General covariance - Wikipedia, General covariance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, In theoretical physics, general covariance (also known as diffeomorphism covariance or general invariance) is the invariance of the form of physical laws under arbitrary differentiable coordinate transformations. The essential idea is that coordinates do not exist a priori in nature, but are only artifices used in describing nature, and hence should play no role in the formulation of fundamental physical laws.' back

Gibbs Paradox - Wikipedia, Gibbs Paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, a semi-classical derivation of the entropy that doesn't take into account the indistinguishability of particles, yields an expression for the entropy which is not extensive (is not proportional to the amount of substance in question). This leads to an apparent paradox known as the Gibbs paradox, allowing, for instance, the entropy of closed systems to decrease, violating the second law of thermodynamics. It is possible, however, to take the perspective that it is merely the definition of entropy that is changed to ignore particle permutation (and thereby avert the paradox).' back

Landsat Program - Wikipedia, Landsat Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat.[1] The most recent, Landsat 8, was launched on February 11, 2013. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education, and can be viewed through the USGS 'EarthExplorer' website. Landsat 7 data has eight spectral bands with spatial resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the temporal resolution is 16 days.' back

Martk Beeson, Ahould academics be policy-relevant realists or cosmopolitan idealists? , 'Too often, the argument goes, the interests of nations are put before the interests of people. There is no shortage of examples around the world that bear out this claim. The alternative could and should be a focus on “human security” that actually thinks about the lived experience of individual human beings and the factors that do or don’t keep them safe.' back

Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics - Wikipedia, Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics describes the statistical distribution of material particles over various energy states in thermal equilibrium, when the temperature is high enough and density is low enough to render quantum effects negligible.' back

No cloning theorem - Wikipedia, No cloning theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The no cloning theorem is a result of quantum mechanics which forbids the creation of identical copies of an arbitrary unknown quantum state. It was stated by Wootters, Zurek, and Dieks in 1982, and has profound implications in quantum computing and related fields.' back

Paul Oslington, Pushin back against the politicisation of economic modelling, 'Debate was sparked when BIS Shrapnel declined to reveal who had commissioned its modelling, which showed that reducing negative gearing would drive up rental prices and push down house values. The modelling was described as “manifestly ridiculous” by the Grattan Institute’s John Daley, and “dodgy” and bringing the economics profession into disrepute , according to Fairfax’s Ross Gittins. The Australia Institute has called for a code of conduct for economic modellers.' back

Peter FitzSimons, George Pell is finished whatever way you look at it, '"Still," the supporters cry, "what about the Melbourne Response, that Pell pioneered?" Exactly. You only need to know one thing about the Melbourne Response. Beyond putting a cap on damages paid to victims, it did not result in a single call being made to police. Not one! As victims came forward, deals were done, and money paid, but not a call.' back

Peter Hannan, Grim prospects: the shake-up of Australia's climate science, 'Forty years ago next month Paul Fraser and three other CSIRO scientists towed a hardy NASA-built caravan chock with sensitive detecting equipment to Cape Grim on the pristine windswept tip of north-west Tasmania. The make-shift facility quickly made its mark, detecting ozone-depleting chemicals in the atmosphere as they blew past in the stiff Roaring Forties. Over the decades since, the site also tracked the relentless rise of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. . . . That Cape Grim's fate – and much of Australia's climate research – hangs in the balance surprises many just months after the country signed up to a global effort in Paris to limit global warming to 1.5-2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.' back

Ross Gittins, Time to take a stand against misleading modelling, 'The lesson for relatively new treasurers trying to establish a reputation for economic competence, and the ability to explain complex economic concepts persuasively, is you'll never do it if you act like a political brawler and latch on to whatever third-party modelling seems to be going your way. A treasurer looking for respect doesn't identify himself with any modelling before his experts – the economists in his department, not the ambitious young politicos in his office – assure him it's kosher.' back

South by Southwest - Wikipedia, South by Southwest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of film, interactive and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring (usually in March) in Austin, Texas, United States. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates. In 2011, the conference lasted for ten days, with interactive lasting for five, music for six, and film lasting the longest at nine days.' back

Tas van Ommen, Chasing ice: how ice cores shape our understanding of ancient climate, 'It is just over 50 years since French scientist Claude Lorius dropped some glacier ice in his whisky and started a quest that continues today. Lorius was studying glaciers in Antarctica and wondered if the air bubbling out of some ice he had drilled that day might carry information from the past. The answer to that question was “yes”. We now know that ice cores carry a rich archive of past information in the bubbles and the ice itself.' back

Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake, '"The Swan Lake Teatro alla Scala, Vladimir Bourmeister, Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra back

Tripitaka - Wikipedia, Tripitaka - Wikipedia, the free encclopedia, 'Tripiṭaka is a traditional term used by various Buddhist sects to describe their various canons of scriptures. As the name suggests, a Tripiṭaka traditionally contains three "baskets" of teachings: a Sūtra Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Sutta Pitaka), a Vinaya Piṭaka (Sanskrit & Pali) and an Abhidharma Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Abhidhamma Piṭaka).' back

Ubirr - Wikipedia, Ubirr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Ubirr is within the East Alligator region of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, and is known for its rock art. It consists of a group of rock outcrops on the edge of the Nadab floodplain where there are several natural shelters that have a collection of Aboriginal rock paintings, some of which are many thousands of years old. The art depicts certain creation ancestors as well as animals from the area such as barramundi, catfish, mullet, goannas, long-necked turtles, pig-nosed turtles, rock ringtail possums, and wallabies.' back

University of Oxford, The Oxford Text Archive, 'The Oxford Text Archive develops, collects, catalogues and preserves electronic literary and linguistic resources for use in Higher Education, in research, teaching and learning. We also give advice on the creation and use of these resources, and are involved in the development of standards and infrastructure for electronic language resources.' back