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vol VII: Notes

2018

Notes

Sunday 8 April 2018 - Saturday 14 April 2018

[Notebook: DB 82: Life and Death]

[page 132]

Sunday 8 April 2018

In the psychophysical view, mental existence is also real physical existence. States of mind are physical states and vice versa

Monday 9 April
Tuesday 10 April 2018
Nicole Aragi: The time is ripe for a new theology given that the Catholics and the Christian fundamentalists have sold out to the new anti-Christian mantra, make America great, hate your neighbour. Nicole Aragi

Wednesday 11 April 2018
Thursday 12 April 2018

Two essays to submit tomorrow. Trying to encapsulate the ideas of psychophysics in a few thousand words designed to make sense to my philosophy teachers in cognitive science and the philosophy of religion. The purpose of this essay is to explore the universal mechanism of mind in terms of computer network, beginning from quantum mechanics. Here we wish to show that the connectionist approach, while fruitful, is much narrower than the universal computer network and not able to explain its own training because training methods which seek to determine the states of a large number of connected units by examining a small number of output units violates the cybernetic principle of requisite variety, ie a simple

[page 133]

system cannot control a complex system. To be effective the training system must be of greater complexity than the system being trained, as is the case of a village bringing up a child. We can begin this essay by noting that quantum mechanics describes a computer network and then work our way up through QED to evolution, the evolution of the human mind and finally to the science and education industries.

The second essay, in philosophy of religion is concerned with the idea that the existence of god may be proved from the existence of morality. We change the context of this argument from an examination of traditional theism to the parallel argument in the context of evolution, fitness, election, survival and failed nations. We make the point that failed nations are a consequence of moral failings, whereas the 'DNA' of successful nations is a system of legislation that lays down the condition necessary for the control of a system of a large number of actors working together in order to prevent freeloaders and disruptive elements from destroying the system by implementing an effective immune system whose ultimate purpose is to eliminate genetic deviants, ie foreign and cancerous organisms.

Friday 13 April 2018
Saturday 14 April 2018

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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!)

Barnes, Peter, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons, Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2006 Amazon Editorial Reviews Book Description 'In Capitalism 3.0, Peter Barnes redefines the debate about the costs and benefits of the operating system known as the free market. Despite clunky features, early versions of capitalism were somewhat successful. The current model, however, is packed with proprietary features that benefit a lucky few while threatening to crash the system for everyone else. Far from being "free," the market is accessible only to huge corporations that reap the benefits while passing the costs on to the consumer. Barnes maps out a better way. Drawn from his own career as a highly successful entrepreneur, the author's vision of capitalism includes alternatives to the current profit-driven corporate approach, new legal entities, and a more responsible use of markets and property rights. Capitalism 3.0 offers viable solutions to some of the country's most pressing economic, environmental, and social concerns.' 
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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.' 
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Hofstadter, Douglas R, Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Basic/Harvester 1979 An illustrated essay on the philosophy of mathematics. Formal systems, recursion, self reference and meaning explored with a dazzling array of examples in music, dialogue, text and graphics. 
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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, Einstein Lived Here, Oxford University Press 1994 Amazon Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly 'These 11 essays, articles and pastiches of interviews are assembled by a physicist who is arguably Einstein's best interpreter; his biography of Einstein (1879-1955), Subtle Is the Lord , won the American Book Award in 1983. Pais's rigidly organized approach in that book served Einstein's science well but constricted the various, random views of "Einstein the man" collected here. Several of the essays have an unedited, dictated quality; many of the articles appeared in American Scientist in the late 1980s; two sections are reprinted from Subtle Is the Lord . A charming three-page selection, "Dear Dr. Einstein," contains letters addressing the scientist as though he were Ann Landers. The great figure in 20th century science that Pais depicts here seems more his own personal icon than Einstein the man.' Photos. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. 
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Seymour-Smith, Martin, Robert Graves: His Life and Work, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 1995 Introduction: 'Robert graves is unique in English letters: in his paradoxical versatility -- as brilliantly successful popular historical novelist, eccentric but erudite mythographer, translator, pungent and outspoken critic, and as arrogant poet oblivious to pubic opinion -- and in his lifelong refusal to conform. It is of course as a poet that he will be chiefly remembered, and by general readers as well as by critics, who are certain to accord him major status (a phrase he hates). But he will be remembered too as a man, as a personality and perhaps as a kind of prophet of 'the Return of the Goddess'.' 
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Papers

Kyriacou, Charalambos P, "Behavioural genetics: Sex, flies and acetate", Nature, 446, , 29 March 2007, page 502-504. 'A receptor molecule in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster responds to a male pheromone in both sexes. But the effect of this response on sexual behaviour is not the same in males and females.'. back

Links

Bretislav Friedrich and Dudley Hersbach, Stern and Gerlach: How a Bad Cigar Helped Reorient Atomic Physics, 'After venting to release the vacuum, Gerlach removed the detector flange. But he could see no trace of the silver atom beam and handed the flange to me. With Gerlach looking over my shoulder as I peered closely at the plate, we were surprised to see gradually emerge the trace of the beam. . . . Finally we realized what [had happened]. I was then the equivalent of an assistant professor. My salary was too low to afford good cigars, so I smoked bad cigars. These had a lot of sulfur in them, so my breath on the plate turned the silver into silver sulfide, which is jet black, so easily visible. It was like developing a photographic film.' back

Erin Wde, I'm a female chef. Here's how my restaurant dealt with harassment from customers, 'We decided on a color-coded system in which different types of customer behavior are categorized as yellow, orange or red. Yellow refers to a creepy vibe or unsavory look. Orange means comments with sexual undertones, such as certain compliments on a worker’s appearance. Red signals overtly sexual comments or touching, or repeated incidents in the orange category after being told the comments were unwelcome. When a staff member has a harassment problem, they report the color — “I have an orange at table five” — and the manager is required to take a specific action.' back

George W Collins II, The Virial Theorem in Stellar Astrophysics, back

Helen Davidson, "We underestimated Gurumul': an unlikely career on the edge of two worlds, 'Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu did exactly what you’d do if you didn’t want to be successful – but he succeeded anyway. It’s an observation wryly made midway through a new documentary on the life and career of the late singer, a blind Gumatj man from Arnhem Land in Australia’s remote north. One of the most famous Indigenous performers in modern Australian history, he left much behind when he died last year – musically, personally and culturally. As his aunt Susan Dhangal Gurruwiwi narrates: “When you talk about Gurrumul, it’s a big story.” ' back

Johnny Dwyer and Ryan Gallagher, Target: Journalist, 'The video captures the frantic final moments of journalists Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik. The two were struck by a rocket on the morning of February 22, 2012, in the neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs, Syria. It was the beginning of that country’s civil war, which has now stretched into seven years of devastating violence. In federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the video was submitted as a key piece of evidence in a lawsuit accusing the Syrian government of targeting and murdering Colvin, a U.S. citizen raised on Long Island, as she sought to cover the war.' back

Kriti Nagrath, AGL's plan to replace Lidell s cheaper and cleaner than keeping it open, 'AGL’s Liddell replacement plan is designed to provide an equivalent amount of energy and dispatchable power at a similar level of reliability. The plan’s total investment of A$1.36 billion is more than the A$920 million estimate of the 2027 Liddell extension plan, but once operating and fuel costs are included the average cost of replacement generation is more affordable at A$83 per megawatt hour (MWh), compared with extending the life of Liddell at A$106 per MWh.' back

Margi Murphy, Chinese facial recognition company becomes world's most valuable AI start-up, 'The Chinese government's plans for mass surveillance using facial recognition have received a boost from one of the country's tech powerhouses, after Alibaba led a $600m investment in SenseTime, which develops technology for tracking individuals. . . . US university Massachusetts Institute for Technology is working with SenseTime for its research into “human and machine intelligence”. It is already working with 40 local governments in China which use its CCTV recognition, helping spot people of interest during festivals and in airports.' back

Marguerite Johnson, Mary Beard and the long tradition of women being told to shut up, 'Professor Mary Beard’s latest book Women & Power: A Manifesto is a short, sharp analysis of women in the West and their ongoing struggles for a voice in the public domain. Based on two lectures delivered in 2014 and 2017, Beard chronicles some of the major obstacles women continue to face, framing her analysis through the lens of the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome.' back

Nicole Aragi, Literary agency, 'Aragi, Inc. represents a wide range of fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels. We do not represent screenplays. Submitted queries should include a cover letter with your name, a short bio, the title of the work, and a brief synopsis.' back

Olega Oleinikova, Four Years after the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine: key gains and losses, 'On November 21 2013, massive protests under the European Union flag erupted in the central square of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. The Euromaidan revolution demanded democratic values and decried the kleptocratic regime of the then president, Viktor Yanukovych. In the next three months, a hundred activists were killed, Russia annexed Crimea and supported breakaway forces in a war that tore apart eastern Ukraine.' back

Penny Edmonds and Hannah Stark, Friday essay: on the trail of the London Thylacines, 'Some 167 specimens of Tasmanian tigers reside in museums in the UK alone. As such, this small joey is made more poignant by the scale of what we saw. A museum visitor might see a single thylacine on display, where one body stands in for its entire species.' back

Ramzy Baroud, How Britain Destroyed the Palestinian Homeland, ' Finally, I became fully aware of why Balfour was a "bad person". Once Britain's Prime Minister, then the Foreign Secretary from late 1916, Balfour had pledged my homeland to another people. That promise was made on November 2, 1917, on behalf of the British government in the form of a letter sent to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, Walter Rothschild. ' back

Wikipedia, Black hole thermodynamics, 'In physics, black hole thermodynamics is essentially the theoretical study of energy and entropy at the boundary regions of black holes. It is generally recognized that this is a special field of research, having been created within the last 30 years, entirely centered around the thermodynamics of black holes.' back

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