vol VII: Notes
2016
Notes
Sunday 7 August 2016 - Saturday 13 August 2016
[Notebook: DB 80: Cosmic plumbing]
[page 185]
Sunday 7 August
Every possibility is a fork in the tree of creation. Some go on to be realized, some cannot survive in their local environment and become extinct.
Monday 8 August 2016
The computers implement the logical axioms of the Cantor (set theoretical) Universe. The transfinite computer universe us a setup that can do anything that can be done deterministically and opens to the infinity where creation lies.
Slowly coming round to seeing writing as real work, which is good because my building days are numbered: I would like to stop at eighty and have some other income coming in by then.
The reference mollusc — a shapeless (but 4D) blob pulled into shape by a metric. Einstein: Relativity
Insofar as the conjecture goes beyond the skills of the old guard, the old guard attempt to refute the conjecture. If all attempts to refute fail, we may judge the conjecture sound.
Tuesday 9 August 2016
The importance of phase in quantum mechanics means that time is of the essence, which means efficiency of computation is also
[pag 186]
an important feature of computational physics.
One might imagine that the most creative thing to do is to reproduce oneself totally, but this is not possible, the best we can go for is half a self, but this is still a huge task managed by the maternal cells using the DNA of both parents. How does writing a book compare?
We do not observe things but events and conjecture the existence of things by the relationships of events, like my face always going around with me.
Wednesday 10 August 2016
. . .
God and initial singularity are identical since a) no structure and b) source of the world.
God's personalities: Father: creator and judge
Son: intellect and victim
Spirit: love and education
Thursday 11 August
Friday 12 August2016
Every issue generates a spectrum of solutions.
There is so much stuff going on just to keep me alive.
[page 187]
What am I? An interface between information coming in and action going out to maintain my existence.
Tony Abbott embodies an error. Massola James Massola
Saturday 13 August 2016
Dreaming of networks. Contacts between individuals are the 'atoms' of a network. Contacts for each individual are time division multiplexed. Space is required to establish orthogonality between connections between separate individuals. Aquinas, Summa I, 28, 3
We have to face the problem that there is no eternal heaven and hell, but both are temporarily elements of our finite lifetimes. We have evolved to put off pleasure and even suffer pain if we have a reasonable chance of winning a commensurate reward. The pitch for natural religion is that by understanding and respecting the world we stand to gain a massive rebalancing of the ratio of pleasure to pain in the average human experience. The transformation must begin in the human segment of the noosphere. We need to make a plausible claim that enlightened cooperation will guarantee a better payoff than fighting to the death over what are technologically non-problems like health and food supply. What needs to be overcome is the desire of the haves to sequester their wealth from the have nots. Why do they do this? Security, ostentation, deranged greed? Overall the task is to show, through statistical mechanics, that we are all better of, even the rich, if we share. The fundamental problem is entrenched religious isolation best exemplified by the Roman Catholic Church, which claims to be right when it is seriously wrong. Noosphere - Wikipedia
Pushing ahead slowly. Which is not new. Most of my intelectual life has been tunnelling through hard rock, hoping to eventually come to some light. The target is there. As for Thomas, it is the vision of God. The step in principle is there: the universe is divine. On the other hand, the world is in a bit of a mess.
My hope is that the network model paradigm provides a way to describe the emergence of the world from the initial singularity to its present state. Formally this means the development of fixed points. God, or the initial singularity, is the first 'fixed point' in the universe. Its attribute is permanent (or necessary [probability 1]) existence. Christianity gives s a network view of the generation of the second Person, the Word of God, created by God looking at itself. The idea being that in God the 'image' and the 'reality' are identically real but distinct. Aquinas used the dynamic relationship procession to explain the different by paternitas et filiatio. Aquinas 168
A person, says Aquinas, following Boethius, is an individual substance of a rational nature: persona est rationalis natura individua substantia. Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1
Here we consider person to be formally identical to a source, an entity that sends and receives messages, ie an element of a network. The relations between sources are formalized in the content of the messages shared between them. We begin the complexification of the universal network by considering the null message, an abstract message without context which we identify which the individual act and the modern physical term event.
We can go on to incorporate quantum mechanics and then gravitation.
[page 189]
Networks multiply messages by copying, ie by spatially separating identical forms to create physically distinct but formally identical particles (sources).
A fundamental particle is a source whose whole message is itself so to 'send' itself is to annihilate and to receive is to create. Insofar as we have distinct species of fundamental particles, we have to explain that by the formal content of the particle, manifested by its behaviour in interactions.
Distinction in god is only by relation of origin. Aquinas 168: Whether in God there are only four real relations -- paternity, filiation, spiration and procession.
CAPITAL - fixed point - potential energy
CASHFLOW - dynamic - kinetic energy
Much of Aquinas's discussion of the Trinity comprises statements that every term used of God points to the identical reality but nevertheless there are real distinctions in the identical reality as a matter of faith. For the New Testament believer, the persons are distinguished by their roles in the history of salvation, Son Saviour etc.
Religion is the basic political bond? Theology provides the meaningful content of the messages that implement this bond.
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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!)
Brillouin, Leon, Science and Information Theory, Academic 1962 Introduction: 'A new territory was conquered for the sciences when the theory of information was recently developed. . . . Physics enters the picture when we discover a remarkable likeness between information and entropy. . . . The efficiency of an experiment can be defined as the ratio of information obtained to the associated increase in entropy. This efficiency is always smaller than unity, according to the generalised Carnot principle. . . . '
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Einstein, Albert, and Robert W Lawson (translator) Roger Penrose (Introduction), Robert Geroch (Commentary), David C Cassidy (Historical Essay) , Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Pi Press 2005 Preface: 'The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. ... The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated.' page 3
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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. . . . '
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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.'
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Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The Phenomenon of Man, Harper Perennial 1975 'Marks the most significant achievement in synthetic thinking since that of Aquinas.' -- Bernard Towers, Blackfriars
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Papers
| Barlow, H B, "Intelligence, guesswork, language", Nature, 304, 5923, 21 July 1983, page 207-209. 'A satisfactory definition of intelligence has never been found, and as a result it means different things to different people. What it is may remain too complex for succinct definition, but the theory and practice of information handling have clarified what it does for us; it enables us to guess better, and the discovery of unexpected orderliness is the chief means of doing this.'. back |
| Chaitin, Gregory J, "Randomness and Mathematical Proof", Scientific American, 232, 5, May 1975, page 47-52. 'Although randomness can be precisely defined and can even be measured, a given number cannot be proved random. This enigma establishes a limit in what is possible in mathematics'. back |
Links
| Amy Goodman, From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Japan's atomic tragedies, 'In 1945, the US suppressed reports of its A-bombs. In 2011, Japan censors Fukushima's radiation. When will we learn?' back |
| Aquinas 165, Summa I, 28, 1: Are there real relations in God?, 'Reply to Objection 4. Relations which result from the mental operation alone in the objects understood are logical relations only, inasmuch as reason observes them as existing between two objects perceived by the mind. Those relations, however, which follow the operation of the intellect, and which exist between the word intellectually proceeding and the source whence it proceeds, are not logical relations only, but are real relations; inasmuch as the intellect and the reason are real things, and are really related to that which proceeds from them intelligibly; as a corporeal thing is related to that which proceeds from it corporeally. Thus paternity and filiation are real relations in God.' back |
| Aquinas 168, Whether in God there are only four real relations -- paternity, filiation, spiration and procession. , ' . . . a real relation in God can be based only on action. Such relations are not based on the actions of God according to any extrinsic procession, forasmuch as the relations of God to creatures are not real in Him (13, 7). Hence, it follows that real relations in God can be understood only in regard to those actions according to which there are internal, and not external, processions in God. These processions are two only, as above explained (27, 5), one derived from the action of the intellect, the procession of the Word; and the other from the action of the will, the procession of love. In respect of each of these processions two opposite relations arise; one of which is the relation of the person proceeding from the principle; the other is the relation of the principle Himself. . . . ' back |
| Aquinas, Summa I, 28, 3, Whether the relations in God are really distinguished from one another, 'I answer that, The attributing of anything to another involves the attribution likewise of whatever is contained in it. So when "man" is attributed to anyone, a rational nature is likewise attributed to him. The idea of relation, however, necessarily means regard of one to another, according as one is relatively opposed to another. So as in God there is a real relation (1), there must also be a real opposition. The very nature of relative opposition includes distinction. Hence, there must be real distinction in God, not, indeed, according to that which is absolute--namely, essence, wherein there is supreme unity and simplicity--but according to that which is relative.' back |
| Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1, The definition of "person", 'Objection 1. It would seem that the definition of person given by Boethius (De Duab. Nat.) is insufficient--that is, "a person is an individual substance of a rational nature." For nothing singular can be subject to definition. But "person" signifies something singular. Therefore person is improperly defined. back |
| Emmy Noether - Wikipedia, Emmy Noether - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Amalie Emmy Noether, . . . (23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) was a German mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Described by Albert Einstein and others as the most important woman in the history of mathematics, she revolutionized the theories of rings, fields, and algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the fundamental connection between symmetry and conservation laws.' back |
| European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, Gödel Prize 2007, 'The theory of Computer Science was developed to formalize methods for computation and the problems they can solve. The class P consists of the problems solvable by conventional computers in time polynomial in the input size. Another class of problems called NP requires one to find a solution of a problem where it is feasible to quickly verify that the solution is correct. Many NP problems have no known efficient solution even though they have major practical applications.' back |
| James Massola, Tony Abbott reopens racial discriminaion debate and laments 'hyper-partisan' politics, 'Tony Abbott says his government should have pursued less ambitious reform of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, in comments that will re-open debate in the conservative wing of the Liberal Party about changing the Act and potentially create a new headache for Malcolm Turnbull.' back |
| Jonathan Freedland, Donald Trump's achilles heel is that he is truly un-American, 'What Trump had done was violate a core American ideal: the notion – not always honoured, admittedly – that no matter where your family came from, if you were born in the US or had come there and subscribed to its founding principles, then you were as American as a direct descendant of those who landed on Plymouth Rock. This was what set the US apart, the belief that national identity did not reside in blood or soil, but in loyalty to the nation’s constitution and its bill of rights.' back |
| Mach's principle - Wikipedia, Mach's principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of gravitation theories, Mach's principle (or Mach's conjecture[1]) is the name given by Einstein to an imprecise hypothesis often credited to the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach.
The idea is that the local motion of a rotating reference frame is determined by the large scale distribution of matter, as exemplified by this anecdote:
You are standing in a field looking at the stars. Your arms are resting freely at your side, and you see that the distant stars are not moving. Now start spinning. The stars are whirling around you and your arms are pulled away from your body. Why should your arms be pulled away when the stars are whirling? Why should they be dangling freely when the stars don't move?' back |
| Marcel Jackson, Millennium Prize; P vs NP, 'Roughly speaking, P (standing for “polynomial time”), corresponds to the collection of computational problems that have an efficient solution. It’s only an abstract formulation of “efficient”, but it works fairly well in practice.
The class NP corresponds to the problems for which, when the answer is “yes”, there is an efficient demonstration that the answer is yes (the “N” stands for “nondeterministic”, but the description taken here is more intuitive). P versus NP simply asks if these two classes of computational problems are the same.
It’s just the “deciding versus demonstrating” issue in Turing’s original Halting Problem, but with the added condition of efficiency.' back |
| Michael Murray, Alan Carey and Peter Bouwknegt, Millennium Prize:The Yang-Mills Esistence and Mass-Gap Problem, 'The case of interest in the Millennium Problem “Yang-Mills theory and Mass-Gap” is Yang-Mills gauge theory, a non-abelian theory which we expect to describe quarks and the strong force that binds the nucleus and powers the sun. Here we encounter a contradiction between the classical and quantum theories.
The classical theory predicts massless particles and long-range forces. The quantum theory has to match the real world with short-range forces and massive particles. Physicists expect various mathematical properties such as the “mass gap” and “asymptotic freedom” to explain the non-existence of massless particles in observations of the strong interactions. back |
| Noosphere - Wikipedia, Noosphere - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The noosphere . . . is the sphere of human thought.The word derives from the Greek νοῦς (nous "mind") and σφαῖρα (sphaira "sphere"), in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere". It was introduced by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in 1922 in his Cosmogenesis.' back |
| Thomas L Friedman, Donald Trump's Ambiguous Wink Wink to 'Second Amendment People', 'His right-wing opponents just kept delegitimizing him as a “traitor” and “a Nazi” for wanting to make peace with the Palestinians and give back part of the Land of Israel. Of course, all is fair in politics, right? And they had God on their side, right? They weren’t actually telling anyone to assassinate Rabin. That would be horrible. . . .
And that’s what the Jewish extremist Yigal Amir did to Rabin. Why not? He thought he had permission from a whole segment of Israel’s political class. back |
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