Notes DB 91: Divine_Gravitation_2024
Sunday 24 November 2024 - Saturday 30 November 2024
[page 225]
Sunday 24 November 2024
We can gauge the power of quantum mechanics by exploring the vast space of languages, music and sounds in general all of which are a small segment of quantum mechanical
[page 227]
space.
Monday 25 November 2024
The mechanism of renormalization was described in detail by Kenneth Wilson. It is in effect the inverse of Cantor's development of the transfinite numbers. Kenneth G. Wilson (1979): Problems in Physics with many Scales of Length, Kenneth G Wilson (1982): Nobel Lecture: The Renormalisation Group and Critical Phenomena
Tuesday 26 November 2024
Quantum logic: The certainty principle is the agent intellect of the world.
Lapace: Mechanique Celeste Pierre-Simon Laplace Wikiedia,
Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange - Wikipedia
Hamilton William Rowan Hamilton (1834): General Method in Dynamics
Mitch Daniels: If you are not keeping score you are just practising. Mitch Daniels (2024_11_25): Opinion: Attention, Elon Musk: Here’s a blind spot in measuring government efficiency
Alexander Howard: Magic Mountain Alexander Howard (2024_11_26): The Magic Mountain is a sweeping critique of totalitarian Europe. 100 years later, its warnings about extremism feel urgent
Euler-Lagrange, hamiltonian and the normalization of quantum of action by logical operation: what is the connection. E-L will yield either 0 or 1 — measure action transfer is always 1 or n. 0 means no contact [is this possible in Hilbert space where there is no spacetime? We must mean no logical contact??]
Sum of diagonal values of quantum operator is 1. Is this constrained by Minkowski space? No, boson has action 1 [and is created or annihilated at every event, it is a substantive action, maybe a piece of the initial singularity existing in Hilbert/null geodesic space] fermion has change of action of one, spin up to spin down [but continues to exist]. Logical E=L extremalizes to 0 / 1.
[page 228]
Phone notes: Free fall is on a geodesic which is in effect an extension of Hilbert space into Minkowski space. So good. So now we have to put the Euler-Lagrange equation into Hilbert space. How does the Lagrangian work in Hilbert space? It cannot because there is no potential or action. But since EL is mathematical it is kinematic and so can be mapped onto Hilbert space. What we are looking for is stationarity or extremalization, ie phases that cancel as overtones to create a node as in a vibrating string (what is vibrating here? formalism, kinematic). Here we have the foundation for the differentiation of fermions and bosons based on the octave.
So the EL procedure works ipso facto(or it is per se in the epoch before the quantum mechanical differentiation of gravitation into potential and kinetic energy.
Was this insight worth a trip to the pictures to see BLUR. What next to put the cream on the cake? To the End (2024 film) - Wikipedia
Heuristic of simplicity will fix this. We assissted photons with our Hilbert space with null geodesics. What is special about fermions? Why are they massive? Their mass
[page 229]
must in fact be energy [/time], that is the rate of action. Photons carry energy but they are massless, simply a rate of action [pure inverse time] but they are not a substance (no rest mass; are all substances massive? not for Plato) they are created and annihilated by fermions, contributing action and energy. Further we have three flavours of quark (fancy electrons?) and eight species of gluons to accommodate them (and do the gluons change the colour of the quarks, or is that the role of the massive bosons). For the model we stick to electrodynamics, special relativity, Minkowski space and free fall, which is the state of a photon. This will come out in the end, a model for calculation.
Wednesday 27 November 2024
Cognitive cosmology: the big issue in section 3 is the relationship between Hilbert space and Minkowski space and the issue goes back to the question of substantiality debated by Aristotle and Plato — Plato's form of the good was real and substantive and became the first Christian philosophical model of God in neoplatonism; here we relate it to naked gravitation which, once equipped with Hilbert space and quantum mechanics, becomes the next step in the creation of the world.
[page 230]
The Church has the rather unjustified view that it speaks for the invisible god; I stand for a visible god which is obviously the immediate cause of every event in the world.
Thursday 28 November 2024
Physics began with Aristotle's critique of Plato, Metaphysics book III.
Reading through Wilczek's Lightness of Being again. This is the book, which over the last few years, irritated me enough to develop my new approach to physics encapsulated in Cognitive Cosmogenesis [think oyster, grit, pearl]. Now trying to write the essay recommended by Antony Eagle, I am back to trying to resolve all the gobbledegook about Yang Mills, confinement and asymptotic freedom that resulted from Friedman, Taylor and Kendall's observations at SLAC which led Wilczek and Gross to their Nobel Prize in 2004. Can I figure it out in less than a year? Will my romance with NN give me the energy to do it? What does the future hold, etc. Read and write more rude comments in Wilczek's book, particularly regarding renormalization, Yang Mills and all that. The big ask is for a pure quantum mechanical Hilbert space story of 'quantum chromodynamics' built around a trinity of flavours and an octet of bosons with sufficient power
[page 229b]
to be stable at all energies [ie without variation] and give us the hadronic / baryonic foundation of the Universe. This is the sequel to the essay, my trip from electrodynamics to chromodynamics via Einstein's article on the electrodynamics of moving bodies which opened up the whole story and bids well to finish the saga begun by Plato and Aristotle when they sought the grail of substance [essence]. An exciting influence of reproductive and scientific orgasm, ie the final fruit of the Hamiltonian method, a vague intellectual dream motivated by the sexual duality at the heart of [semi controlled] evolutionary [variation]. Frank Wilczek (2008): The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, Jeffrey Nicholls (2025): Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics, Allan Silverman (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): Plato’s Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology
Wilczek's paradox needs an explanation in terms of cognitive cosmology rather than the delusions of [infinity,] renormalization and Yang Mills arising from the misunderstanding of continuity and mass. The essence of the story will answer the question: why are fermions massive? Is the energy stabilized in a fermion analogous to the energy stabilized in the whole particulate universe? A massive person (Boethius) is an entity capable of sending and receiving messages, the foundation of the Trinity. We can identify naked gravitation with Plato's divinity, the idea of the good. Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1: A person is an individual substance of a rational nature
Wilczek's paradox: 'nature cannot realize contradictions'. When 'David Gross and I began the work that led
[page 230b]
to the Nobel Prize, we were driven by paradoxes. In resolving the paradoxes we were led to discover a new dynamic principle, asymptotic freedom' [page 100]. Frank Wilczek (2004): Nobel lecture: Asymptotic Freedom: from Paradox to Paradigm
The clue for me here is that free fall (asymptotic freedom) is motion on a null geodesic, that is in effect a 'motion' in Hilbert space, in some way connectd to bosons massless particles and photons, vestigia of the Trinity (countable multiplicity) of states induced in naked gravitation by non-constructive fixed point theory. Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia
1932: Chadwick: Neutron, strong force (which must be something logical within the ambit of quantum comoutation). Discovery of the neutron - Wikipedia
The big discovery: a whole genus of new particles are created when sufficient energy (that is time rate of action) is established so we are still in the field of natural selection [but on the other hand we cannot free gluons or quarks, meaning that they can only exist in an environment of themselves so that nothing much happens until there is enough energy present to create (eg) a [whole] new hadron].
Gell-Mann and Zweig: hadrons could be made of three kinds (flavours) of particles in different orbits and spins (ie in spacetime like the electronic structures of atoms. As in atoms, the structure is in some way a unit, different parts depending on on another, which takes all their interactions into account, apparently simultaneously rather than sequentially]. Murray Gell-Mann (1969): Symmetry and Currents in Particle Physics
Only bound states of quarks exist so they cannot exist outside an ecosystem of quark-antiquark (meson) or triplet (baryon) and charges of ± ⅓, ⅔
Force, radiation, motion and asymptotic freedon. In a way we are seeing the boundary between
[page 231]
Hilbert and Minkowski.
Wilczek page 102: ' Powerful interactions ought to be associated with powerful radiation. When the most powerful interaction in nature, the strong interaction, did not obey this rule, it proposed a sharp paradox.
Plato, Symposium, the link between eros and noos, clear and distinct events (Descartes), conception and insight. Symposium (Plato) - Wikipedia, Manley, D. B., & Taylor, C. S. (1996): Descartes Meditations - Trilingual Edition
Wilczek page 102: Paradox 2: 'Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics Both Work In particular, special relativity puts space and time on the same footing, but quantum mechanics treats them differently.' [Wrong again, quantum mechanics in Hilbert space is completely independent of space and time]
Three [Nobel] Prizes: Dirac 1933:
Imagine a particle moving on average at very nearly the speed of light, but with an uncertainty in position, as required by quantum theory. Evidently it there will be some probability for observing this particle to move a little faster than average, and therefore faster than light, which special relativity won’t permit. The only known way to resolve this tension involves introducing the idea of antiparticles. Very roughly speaking, the required uncertainty in position is accommodated by allowing for the possibility that the act of measurement can involve the creation of several particles, each indistinguishable from the original, with different positions. To maintain the balance of conserved quantum numbers, the extra particles must be accompanied by an equal number of antiparticles [page 102].
False, and a possible solution to the baryon asymmetry problem [ie antiparticles are intrinsically rare outcomes of particle interactions]. Paul A. M. Dirac: Theory of Electrons and Positrons, Nobel Lecture 1933
Second and third prizes: Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga + 't Hooft and Veltman, dealing with [fictitious theoretical] ultraviolet divergences. All this puts a whole new aspect on the relationship between Hilbert and Minkowski. Richard P. Feynman (1965): Nobel Lecture: The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics, Julian Schwinger (1965): Nobel Lecture: Relativistic Quantum Field Theory
Wilczek page 103:
When special relativity is taken into account, quantum theory must allow for fluctuations in energy over brief intervals of time. This is a generalization of the complementarity between momentum and position that is fundamental for ordinary, non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Loosely speaking, energy can be borrowed to make evanescent virtual particles, including particle-antiparticle pairs. Each pair passes away soon after it comes into being, but new pairs are constantly boiling up, to establish an equilibrium distribution. In this way the wave function of (superficially) empty space becomes densely populated with virtual particles, and empty space comes to behave as a dynamical medium [my italics].
WRONG. Quantum mechanics has nothing to do with space, time, energy and momentum. The link lies within gravitation which is continuous and perfect? [Here is a] fundamental error in physics.
[page 232]
The virtual particles with very high energy create special problems. If you
calculate how much the properties of real particles and their interactions are
changed by their interaction with virtual particles, you tend to get divergent
answers, due to the contributions from virtual particles of very high energy.
Planck overcomes the thermal ultraviolet catastrophe [with a combination quantization of energy into quanta and probability, cutting down the probability of high energy quanta so that the energy remains finite].
BUT [says Wilczek]
But quantum fluctuations are much more efficient than are thermal fluctuations at exciting the high-energy modes, in the form of virtual particles, and so those modes come back to haunt us. For example, they give a divergent contribution to the energy of empty space, the so-called zero-point energy.
Renormalization theory was developed to deal with this sort of difficulty.
The central observation that is exploited in renormalization theory is that
although interactions with high-energy virtual particles appear to produce divergent corrections, they do so in a very structured way.
Wilczek page 105:
Landau thought that he had destroyed quantum field theory as a way of
reconciling quantum mechanics and special relativity. Something would have
to give. Either quantum mechanics or special relativity might ultimately fail,
or else essentially new methods would have to be invented, beyond quantum
field theory, to reconcile them.
So we had the paradox, that combining quantum mechanics and special
relativity seemed to lead inevitably to quantum field theory; but quantum field
theory, despite substantial pragmatic success, self-destructed logically due to
catastrophic screening.
Wrong again. The answer is that quantum theory is independent of spacetime [thereby introducing a new degree of freedom which eliminates the need for quantum field theory] and we have to go back to Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle to find the answer. The answer proposed here, in a nutshell, is that quantum mechanics is cognitive, a [kinematic] form of mind,
[page 233]
independent of brain [or substantial material particles in general] but dependent on it [them] for its existence [and operation].
Wilczek's answer: [page 105]
2 Paradox lost: antiscreening, or asymptotic freedom
These paradoxes were resolved by our discovery of asymptotic freedom.
We found that some very special quantum field theories actually have antiscreening. We called this property asymptotic freedom, for reasons that will
soon be clear. Before describing the specifics of the theories, I’d like to indicate in a rough, general way how the phenomenon of antiscreening allows us to resolve our paradoxes.
Friday 29 November 2024
[proposed] Philosophical Essay: On the eradication of theological pornography: 80 year old fool sees the light at last [Warning: my superpower is simple stupidity].
Physics and theology are complimentary in that they both contribute to war, physics providing means and theology providing motivation.
Where is the mathematics in the world? It is embedded in the physical reality. The mathematics can only be infinite if the reality is infinite, but the reality is not. The mathematics is finite and like all mathematics it is a computational process executed either in Hilbert space or Minkowski space. Here is the answer to the reason renormalization works, because the problem does not exist in the first place, it is an artefact of mathematical continuity. That is because the Universe is cognitive / computational / logically quantized.
[page 234]
My principal motivation is to adapt both physics and theology to sustain a peaceful world. A casual observer will see that theological and religious beliefs provide the principal motivation for war. Putin supported by the Russian Orthodox Church and Netanyahu supported by the Jewish dream of a land provided by Yahweh are both fully engaged in genocidal war, Netanyahu supported by munitions from Christian America, Putin by weapons and troops provided by the quasi theocratic regime of North Korea. Niko Vorobyov: Patriarch Kirill: Putin ally faces backlash after ‘blessing’ war
Wilczek [book] page 41: ' The indeterminism for which quantum mechanics is famous' appears in Minkowski space as Δx. Δp ≈ ΔE. Δt ≈ ℏ because spacetime structure is created by the interaction of fermions [and bosons, which are discrete entities]; but in Hilbert space we have precise logic reflected by eigenfunctions and eigenvalues that we measure on particles so like on a beach the grains of sand are precise but the structure is uncertain by the size of a grains.
Virtual particles are 'off the mass shell' because they are not in Minkowski space but in Hilbert space where there is no mass shell, ie no energy, momentum, space and time. They are, from a Minkowski point of view, mathematical constructs which cannot be represented [precisely] in Minkowski space because it does not have the resolution and
[page 235]
so does not have the continuity and infinity which must be averaged out by renormalization. We control these, as we control all sources, by demanding that the sum of the probabilities of the alphabet of a source, like the output of a coin, die or roulette wheel, must be 1. The hardest thing to grasp is how the mathematics is represented by the reality, how ideas are reoresented in the mind and the key is superposition, the integration of synaptic inputs which determine when a neuron will fire, rather like the sea of words which taken together, lead me to do something, the role of prayer in action.
Wilczek likes to make the point, like Rovelli, that the world is not like it seems. The Cognitive Cosmogenesis critique of QFT and QCD starts with the biggest error of all, the cosmological constant problem. The general view of physicists is that this is certainly a problem but we are pretty sure that QFT and its offshoot QCD, not to mention QED, are all good so we eventually expect to find some tweak which will solve the problem while saving the theories in which trillions of dollars and thousands of scientific careers have been invested The whole thing is too big to fail. Only an ex theologian would be stupid enough to even think of quetionining it. Carlo Rovelli (2017): Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia
Wilczek page 51: Can I rewrite QCD in terms of cognitive cosmogenesis by answering 'Where is the mathematics in the world?'
[page 236]
In Hilbert space. We go back to Plato's forms and Aristotle's hylomorphic substance.
Wilczek page 62: How does the Lagrangian apply to the Hilbert space of QCD, or, for that matter, the Schrödinger equation, QED and QFT. Something for me to learn tomorrow.
Saturday 30 November 2024
Frail old man still trying to revise theology. How do we apply the Hamiltonian to Hilbert space where potential and kinetic energy have no meaning? We see the construction of Minkowski space as a consequence of the quantum bifurcation into bosons and fermions, realized by the bifurcation of naked gravitation into potential and kinetic energy, a primordial bootstrap. Despite my feeling of incompetence [imposter syndrome?] I am excited by the picture that is emerging in my union of physics and theology by founding the divine world on naked gravitation and non-constructive fixed point theory, by analogy to Augustine's trinity. The target, for this year, is to incorporate QCD into my picture, dealing with the producti0n of stable hadrons and mesons and fermions in general at the core of the world - Dirac equation and double cover of spacetime by bosons and fermions (whatever that might mean). Mary Sirridge (1999): "Quam videndo intus dicimus": Seeing and Saying in De Trinitate XV, Ronald Anderson & G C Joshi: Interpreting Mathematics in Physics: Charting the Applications of SU(2) in 20th Century Physics
[page 237]
At the heart we might find that Lagrange, Euler and Hamilton are built into naked gravitation, non-constructive fixed points and quantum mechanics realized by the bifurcation of naked gravitation into particulate fermions and bosons that give the local Minkowski space structure (symmetry) which lies at the heart of Einstein relativity. Abstract: My story begins . . . This is so exciting, but is it true?
My dream now seems to be the next 20 years becomnig an Einstein or a Kennedy and the article I want to write for Christmas is intended to do the job. Matt Bai (2024_11_29): Opinion | Bobby Kennedy finally achieves escape velocity
The problem with quantum mechanics is not uncertainty but multiplicity. Like a human conversation, a quantum event has as many outcomes as the dimensions of the Hilbert space in which it is represented. Like the numbers on a roulette wheel, each of these eigenfunctions and eigenvalues is perfectly defined and comes associated with a quantum of action but like the numbers on a weighed roulette wheel the probabilities of these events have a distribution which like the symbols in the alphabet of a communication source, add up precisely to 1, normalization. We represent the probabilities with the elements on the real diagonal of the appropriate density matrix,
[page 238]
Naked gravitation is substantial but formless like Aquinas's god. Plato's form of the good is substantial but omniscient, subject to criticism by Aristotle who added matter to make forms substantial. Since Einstein matter ≡ energy, so we make substance [using] form from quantum mechanics and energy from gravitation.
The world is hamstrung by radical errors and the most obvious and dangerous are the deeply rooted traits of authoritarianism and determinism in theology and religion. Everywhere we see the footprints of an omnipotent and omniscient god in total control of everything. This idea is supported by classical physics. The core intellectual tragedy of Einstein's life is that he was a determinist: 'God doesn't play dice', and completely failed to appreciate the role of chance variation not only in evolution but in the creation of the world. The radical fix, proposed here, is an omnipotent initial singularity which like a literal interpretation of Aquinas's God, is absolutely simple, totally without knowlege or control, constrained, as we see in all of science: Wilczek [quoted above page 229b] "nature cannot realize contradictions". Albert Einstein (1933): On the Method of Theoretical Physics: Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933
The theme of this article is that theology and physics have completely missed the point, and to get ourselves back on the right track we have to go back to somewhere near
[page 239]
the beginning, Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews, who became the paradigm for the Christian God based on Jesus of Nazareth. The Hebrew Bible is a long story of the relationship of humans to Yahweh, beginning in the Garden of Eden and coming to a close, when Satan, through Job, demonstrates that Yahweh is a solipsistic narcissist with no love for their people. The story is restarted in the Christian New Testament with the reappearance of Yahweh in the form their son, Jesus of Nazareth. Jack Miles (1996): God: A Biography
A few words from Aristotle about metaphysics and theology: Cohen & Reeve (2020) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): Aristotle's Metaphysics
Beings are not said to be “in accord with one thing,” therefore, as they would be if they formed a single first-order genus, but “with reference to one thing,” namely, a divine substance that is in essence an activity. And it is this more complex unity, compatible with generic diversity, and a genuine multiplicity of distinct first-order sciences, but just as robust and well grounded, that grounds and legitimates the science of being qua being as a single science dealing with a genuine object of study (Γ.2, 1003b11–16). The long argument that leads to this conclusion is thus a sort of proof of the existence, and so of the possibility, of the science on which the Metaphysics focuses. It is also the justification for the claim, which we looked at before, that the science of being qua being is in fact theology (Metaphysics 1026a27–32).
There, then, in the starry heavens above us, are the forty-nine celestial spheres, all moving eternally in fixed circular orbits. The outermost one, which contains all the others, is the primary heaven. Questions immediately arise: (i) how is the primary heaven moved by the primary mover, the primary god? Aristotle gives his response in Λ.7:
There is something [namely, the primary heaven,] that is always moved with an unceasing movement, which is in a circle (and this is clear not from argument alone but also from the facts). So the primary heaven would be eternal. There is, therefore, also something that moves it [namely, the primary god]. But since what is moved and moves something is something medial, there is something that moves without being moved, being eternal, substance, and activity. This, though, is the way the object of desire and the intelligible object move things: they move them without being moved [my italivs]. Of these objects, the primary ones are the same. (1072a21–27)
Active understanding, though, is intrinsically of what is intrinsically best, and the sort that is to the highest degree best is of what is to the highest degree best. The understanding actively understands itself by partaking of the intelligible object. (For it becomes an intelligible object by touching and understanding one, so that understanding and intelligible object are the same.) For what is receptive of the intelligible object and of the substance is the understanding, and it is active when it possesses it, so that this rather than that seems to be the divine thing that understanding possesses, and contemplation seems to be most pleasant and best. If, then, that good state [of activity], which we are sometimes in, the [primary] god is always in, that is a wonderful thing, and if to a higher degree, that is yet more wonderful. But that is his state. And life, too, certainly belongs to him. For the activity of understanding is life, and he is that activity; and his intrinsic activity is life that is best and eternal. (1072b18–28)
What does it [the primary god] understand? For it is either itself or something else. And if something else, then either always the same thing or sometimes this and sometimes that. Does it, then, make a difference or none at all whether it actively understands the good or some random object? Or are there not certain things that it would be absurd for it to think of? It is clear, therefore, that it actively understands what is most divine and most estimable and does not change [its object], since change would be for the worse, and would already be a sort of movement. First, then, if its substance is not active understanding but rather a capacity [to understand], … it is clear that something else would be more estimable than the understanding, namely, what is understood. And indeed [the capacity] to understand and active understanding will belong even to someone who actively understands the worst thing, so that if this is to be avoided (for there are in fact some things that it is better not to see than to see), the active understanding would not be the best thing. It is itself, therefore, that it understands, if indeed it is the most excellent thing, and the active understanding is active understanding of active understanding (hê noêsis noêseôs noêsis). (1074b22–35)
Theology
The science of being qua being is a science of form. But it is also theology, the science of god. The question now is, how can it be both? And to it Aristotle gives a succinct answer:
If there is some immovable substance, this [that is, theological philosophy] will be prior and will be primary philosophy, and it will be universal in this way, namely, because it is primary. And it will belong to it to get a theoretical grasp on being qua being, both what it is and the things that belong to it insofar as it is being. (E.1, 1026a29–32)
So the primacy of theology, which is based on the fact that it deals with substance that is eternal, immovable, and separable, is supposedly what justifies us in treating it as the universal science of being qua being.
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Further readingBooks
Hobson (2006), M. P., and G. P. Efstathiou, A. N. Lasenby, General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists, Cambridge University Press 2006 'After reviewing the basic concept of general relativity, this introduction discusses its mathematical background, including the necessary tools of tensor calculus and differential geometry. These tools are used to develop the topic of special relativity and to discuss electromagnetism in Minkowski spacetime. Gravitation as spacetime curvature is introduced and the field equations of general relativity derived. After applying the theory to a wide range of physical situations, the book concludes with a brief discussion of classical field theory and the derivation of general relativity from a variational principle.'
Amazon
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Miles (1996), Jack, God: A Biography, Vintage Books 1996 Jacket: 'Jack Miles's remarkable work examines the hero of the Old Testament . . . from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days. . . . We see God torn by conflicting urges. To his own sorrow, he is by turns destructive and creative, vain and modest, subtle and naive, ruthless and tender, lawful and lawless, powerful yet powerless, omniscient and blind.'
Amazon
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics, Austin Macauley 2025 ' The core idea of the top down theology devised by the Christian bishops for the Emperor Constantine is that the omnipotent and omniscient creator totally controls every moment of every event in the world. The imperial picture. Here we work from the bottom up. A key to the connection of physics and theology is symmetry with respect to complexity.
Although the difference in scale between fundamental particles and the people of an ideal democratic polity is immense, they are formally quite similar. Both democratic politics and quantum electrodynamics work in Hilbert space. Voting is linear, a form of superposition distributed by parties. Individuals and political parties are characterized by their directions in political space which may be modelled by vectors in a Hilbert space.
We may imagine a space with a basis vector for every person. Their sums in various combinations present us with a comprehensive picture of the political directions in an electorate. Such ideal democratic political systems have natural quantum mechanical support which gives us insight into the nature of the world.'
Amazon
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Rovelli (2017), Carlo, and Simon Carnell & Erica Sere (Translators), Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, Allen Lane Penguin 2017 ' Be prepared for your intellectual foundations to be vaporized . . . Carlo Rovelli will melt your synapses with this exploration of physical reality and what the universe is formed of at the very deepest level . . . Quantum gravity is so new that there aren't many popular books about it. You couldn't be in better hands than Rovelli, a world expert.' Tara Shears, The Times Higher Edcation
Amazon
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Wilczek (2008), Frank, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, Basic Books 2008 ' In this excursion to the outer limits of particle physics, Wilczek explores what quarks and gluons, which compose protons and neutrons, reveal about the manifestation of mass and gravity. A corecipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, Wilczek knows what he’s writing about; the question is, will general science readers? Happily, they know what the strong interaction is (the forces that bind the nucleus), and in Wilczek, they have a jovial guide who adheres to trade publishing’s belief that a successful physics title will not include too many equations. Despite this injunction (against which he lightly protests), Wilczek delivers an approachable verbal picture of what quarks and gluons are doing inside a proton that gives rise to mass and, hence, gravity. Casting the light-speed lives of quarks against “the Grid,” Wilczek’s term for the vacuum that theoretically seethes with quantum activity, Wilczek exudes a contagious excitement for discovery. A near-obligatory acquisition for circulating physics collections.' --Gilbert Taylor
Amazon
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Links
Albert Einstein (1933), On the Method of Theoretical Physics: Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933, ' It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. back |
Alexander Howard (2024_11_26), The Magic Mountain is a sweeping critique of totalitarian Europe. 100 years later, its warnings about extremism feel urgent, ' This month, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain turns 100. One of the 20th century’s towering literary achievements, it is a sweeping critique of the dangerous totalitarian political forces that shaped – and very nearly destroyed – Europe in Mann’s lifetime.
The novel also reflects Mann’s own dramatic public and political evolution. Initially politically reserved, he became an ardent patriot at the outbreak of World War I, only to become disillusioned by the rise of political extremism in postwar Germany. This shift set Mann on a collision course with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis – and ultimately led to him fleeing Germany in 1933. . . .
Mann started in on what should have been a fairly straightforward, small-scale undertaking. But world history had other ideas. On August 4 1914, German troops flooded into neutral Belgium, bringing the British Empire into the week-old World War I – and shattering the cultural ideals and intellectual suppositions of pre-war Europe.
German soldiers in Belgium during World War I (1915). Library of Congress
Mann was 39 when the fighting broke out. A prominent figure in the German cultural establishment, Mann, who lived in Munich at the time, was in many senses a model bourgeois citizen.
As intellectual historian Mark Lilla observes, Mann
attended concerts, he befriended composers, he read Goethe, he sent his children to the Volksschule, and he never expressed any views about politics.
That is, until 1914. “From one month to the next Mann became an intransigent and inflammatory defender of the German cause internationally,” Lilla adds, “writing articles and giving speeches that made him a favorite on the volkish nationalist right”. . .
Mann’s jingoistic fervour persisted even after Germany’s defeat, carrying over into the spring of 1919, when he finally returned to The Magic Mountain. However, everything had changed for Mann by 1922. Appalled by the waves of extremist political violence coursing through Germany, Mann was forced to take stock and reappraise his beliefs.
That year, in an unprecedented move that shocked his supporters and critics, he wrote and delivered his speech, On the German Republic.
In it, he publicly embraced the postwar Weimar Republic and the principles of its democracy, distancing himself from the types of authoritarian nationalism he had so passionately defended just a few years earlier.
This remarkable development, which led to him fleeing Nazi Germany, left an indelible mark on the development of The Magic Mountain. . . .
Would he, for instance, discern echoes of the same forces he grappled with in his modernist masterpiece, now manifesting in new, yet strangely familiar ways? And would he recognise the dangers of cultural and political polarisation and the allure of authoritarian forms of thought and activity that are currently casting increasingly long shadows over our own precarious moment?
I suspect he might. In any case, these are just some of the questions worth asking as we mark the anniversary of a novel that, much like its creator, challenges us to confront the currents of history and their unsettling tendency to repeat.
Near the end of the book, Mann writes: “These were such singular times.” Viewed from the perspective of 2024, I’m not so sure.' back |
Allan Silverman (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Plato’s Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology, ' Metaphysics, then, studies the ways in which anything that is can be said or thought to be. Leaving to sciences like biology or physics or mathematics or psychology the task of addressing the special ways in which physical things, or living things, or mathematical objects, e.g., numbers, or souls (minds) come to have the peculiar qualities each, respectively, has, the subject-matter of metaphysics are principles common to everything. Perhaps the most general principle is: to be is to be something. Nothing just exists, we might say. This notion implies that each entity/item/thing has at least some one feature or quality or property. . . ..
Three predecessors heavily influenced Plato's thoughts on metaphysics and epistemology, Heraclitus (c. 540 B.C.–480–70), Parmenides (c.515 B.C.–449–40), and Socrates (470 B.C.–399). Only fragments remain of the writings of Parmenides and Heraclitus, including some contained in the dialogues of Plato. Socrates wrote nothing. Plato's depiction of his teacher is our primary source of evidence for his philosophy.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 29, 1, A person is an individual substance of a rational nature, ' I answer that, Although the universal and particular exist in every genus, nevertheless, in a certain special way, the individual belongs to the genus of substance. . . . . And so it is reasonable that the individuals of the genus substance should have a special name of their own; for they are called "hypostases," or first substances.
Further still, in a more special and perfect way, the particular and the individual are found in the rational substances which have dominion over their own actions; and which are not only made to act, like others; but which can act of themselves; for actions belong to singulars. Therefore also the individuals of the rational nature have a special name even among other substances; and this name is "person."
Thus the term "individual substance" is placed in the definition of person, as signifying the singular in the genus of substance; and the term "rational nature" is added, as signifying the singular in rational substances.' back |
Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Among hundreds of fixed-point theorems] Brouwer's is particularly well known, due in part to its use across numerous fields of mathematics. In its original field, this result is one of the key theorems characterizing the topology of Euclidean spaces, along with the Jordan curve theorem, the hairy ball theorem, the invariance of dimension and the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. This gives it a place among the fundamental theorems of topology.' back |
Cohen & Reeve (2020) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Aristotle's Metaphysics, ' The first major work in the history of philosophy to bear the title “Metaphysics” was the treatise by Aristotle that we have come to know by that name. But Aristotle himself did not use that title or even describe his field of study as ‘metaphysics’; the name was evidently coined by the first century C.E. editor who assembled the treatise we know as Aristotle’s Metaphysics out of various smaller selections of Aristotle’s works.' back |
Cohen & Reeve (Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy), Aristotle's Metaphysics, ' In Book Ε [VI], Aristotle adds another description to the study of the causes and principles of beings qua beings. Whereas natural science studies objects that are material and subject to change, and mathematics studies objects that although not subject to change are nevertheless not separate from (i.e., independent of) matter, there is still room for a science that studies things (if indeed there are any) that are eternal, not subject to change, and independent of matter. Such a science, he says, is theology, and this is the “first” and “highest” science. Aristotle’s identification of theology, so conceived, with the study of being qua being has proved challenging to his interpreters.' . . .
Finally, we may note that in Book Β [III] , Aristotle delineates his subject matter in a different way, by listing the problems or perplexities (aporiai) he hopes to deal with. . . ..
The Categories leads us to expect that the study of being in general (being qua being) will crucially involve the study of substance, and when we turn to the Metaphysics we are not disappointed. First, in Metaphysics Γ [III]Aristotle argues in a new way for the ontological priority of substance; and then, in Books Ζ [VII], (substance, 1028b4) Η [VIII], and Θ [IX], (Actuality and Potentiality) he wrestles with the problem of what it is to be a substance. We will begin with Γ’s account of the central place of substance in the study of being qua being. . . ..
Before embarking on this study of substance, however, Aristotle goes on in Book Γ to argue that first philosophy, the most general of the sciences, must also address the most fundamental principles—the common axioms—that are used in all reasoning. Thus, first philosophy must also concern itself with the principle of non-contradiction (PNC): the principle that “the same thing cannot at the same time belong and also not belong to the same thing and in the same respect” (1005b19). This, Aristotle says, is the most certain of all principles, and it is not just a hypothesis. It cannot, however, be proved, since it is employed, implicitly, in all proofs, no matter what the subject matter. It is a first principle, and hence is not derived from anything more basic.' back |
Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In cosmology, the cosmological constant problem or vacuum catastrophe is the disagreement between the observed values of vacuum energy density (the small value of the cosmological constant) and theoretical large value of zero-point energy suggested by quantum field theory.
Depending on the Planck energy cutoff and other factors, the discrepancy is as high as 120 orders of magnitude, a state of affairs described by physicists as "the largest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of science" and "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".' back |
Discovery of the neutron - Wikipedia, Discovery of the neutron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The essential nature of the atomic nucleus was established with the discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932 and the determination that it was a new elementary particle, distinct from the proton.
The uncharged neutron was immediately exploited as a new means to probe nuclear structure, leading to such discoveries as the creation of new radioactive elements by neutron irradiation (1934) and the fission of uranium atoms by neutrons (1938). The discovery of fission led to the creation of both nuclear power and nuclear weapons by the end of World War II. Both the proton and the neutron were presumed to be elementary particles until the 1960s, when they were determined to be composite particles built from quarks.' back |
Dorian S. Houser et al (2024_11_22), Direct hearing measurements in a baleen whale suggest ultrasonic sensitivity, ' Predicting and mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic ocean noise on marine animals is hindered by a lack of information on hearing in these species. We established a catch-and-release program to temporarily hold adolescent minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) for hearing tests during their summer migration. In 2023, two minke whales provided measures of the auditory brainstem response and data on the frequency range of their hearing. Results show that minke whales are sensitive to sound frequencies as high as 45 to 90 kilohertz. These tests provide information on the types of anthropogenic noise that could affect minke whales and potentially, other related baleen whale species.' back |
Frank Wilczek (2004), Nobel lecture: Asymptotic Freedom: from Paradox to Paradigm, ' Frank Wilczek held his Nobel lecture December 8, 2004, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was presented by Professor Sune Svanberg, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
Summary: The idea that Quarks that are born free are confined and can’t be pulled apart was once considered a paradox. The emerging theory for strong interactions, Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) predicts the existence of gluons, which together with quarks can be seen indirectly as jets from hard scattering reactions between particles. Quantum Chromo Dynamics predicts that the forces between quarks are feeble for small separations but are powerful far away, which explains confinement. Many experiments have confirmed this property of the strong interaction. '
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High Schofield (2024_11_30), Gargoyles, stained glass and the spire: How Notre-Dame was restored, ' French President Emmanuel Macron has toured Paris's Notre-Dame cathedral live on TV, giving the public a first look inside the building since much of it was destroyed or damaged in a huge fire in 2019.
From the spire to the stained glass, it has been completely transformed. It is not just a renovation after the fire, but a complete overhaul including removing decades of crud and soot built up since the last restoration.
Here we take a look at some of the key features of the repair work and how it was achieved.
The return of the spire
The collapse of the spire was the climax of the 2019 fire. Many people thought it was medieval, but in fact the original was taken down in the 1790s because it was deemed dangerous.
Its replacement, which burned down five years ago, was put up decades later as part of a neo-Gothic reconstruction conducted by architect Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc.
This time, carpenters used a mix of the traditional and the computerised to design and build the massive wooden base.
It was lifted into place by Europe’s largest crane, then a scaffolding shell was mounted allowing workers to assemble the steadily rising structure.
Like the rest of the roof, the spire is lined with lead. At the top a new gilded cock has been fitted to replace the original that fell in the fire. It was recovered but was too damaged to go back.
Inside the new cock are holy relics including a thorn from the cathedral’s Crown of Thorns, and a parchment with the names of 2,000 people who worked on the renovation. back |
Joseph-Louis Lagrange - Wikipedia, Joseph-Louis Lagrange - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de l'Empire (January 25, 1736 — April 10, 1813; b. Turin, baptised in the name of Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer who made important contributions to all fields of analysis and number theory and to classical and celestial mechanics as arguably the greatest mathematician of the 18th century.' back |
Julian Schwinger (1965), Nobel Lecture: Relativistic Quantum Field Theory, ' Following the establishment of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, an initial relativistic theory was formulated for the interaction between charged particles and electromagnetic fields. However, partly because the electron’s magnetic moment proved to be somewhat larger than expected, the theory had to be reformulated. Julian Schwinger solved this problem in 1948 through “renormalization” and thereby contributed to a new quantum electrodynamics.' back |
Kenneth G Wilson (1982), Nobel Lecture: The Renormalisation Group and Critical Phenomena, Nobel Prize Lecture, 8 December 1982: This paper has three parts. The first part is a simplified presentation of the basic ideas of the renormalization group and the e expansion applied to critical phenomena, following roughly a summary exposition given in 1972. The second part is an account of the history (as I remember it) of work leading up to the papers in I971-1972 on the renormalization group. Finally, some of the developments
since 1971 will be summarized, and an assessment for the future given.' back |
Kenneth G. Wilson (1979), Problems in Physics with many Scales of Length, ' One of the more conspicuous properties of nature is the great diversity of size or length scales in the structure of the world. An ocean, for example, has currents that persist for thousands of kilometers and has tides of global extent; it also has waves that range in size from less than a centimeter to several meters; at much finer resolution seawater must be regarded as an aggregate of molecules whose characteristic scale of length is roughly 10-8 centimeter. From the smallest structure to the largest is a span of some 17 orders of magnitude.' back |
Manley, D. B., & Taylor, C. S. (1996), Descartes Meditations - Trilingual Edition, ' The publication of this English-Latin-French edition of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is quite simply an experiment in electronic scholarship. We decided to make this edition available and to encourage its free distribution for scholarly purposes. The idea behind the experiment is to see how others involved in electronic scholarship might put these texts to use. We have no predetermined ideas of what such use may be when transformed from this origin. The texts have no hypertext annotations except for those used for navigation. We invite others to download this edition and to create their own hypertext annotated editions and then to publish those additions on their own Web servers for everyone to use.' back |
Mary Sirridge (1999), "Quam videndo intus dicimus": Seeing and Saying in De Trinitate XV, ' What is being asserted is that thought has the same form as seeing or speaking respectively, i.e., that it works essentially like seeing or speaking, that thought is a formal and functional isomorph of seeing or speaking.' back |
Matt Bai (2023_5_15), Opinion | His name is Kennedy. His campaign is pure Trump., ' It doesn’t surprise me at all that a Trumpian candidate would emerge inside the Democratic Party, someone trying to run for president with the same cynical mix of star power and misinformation that fueled a nationalist uprising in 2016. It was inevitable from the moment Donald Trump showed us how easy it was to unmake a party in the age of social media.
What I would not have predicted is that the Trumpian challenge on the left would be waged by someone named Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Bobby to all who know him — would no doubt object to the comparison. He’s an environmental lawyer, a Hollywood fixture, a man who I’m sure harbors not a speck of white-nationalist sentiment.
Kennedy even tweeted this past week that “UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES” — his capital letters, not mine — would he agree to become Trump’s running mate, because their governing philosophies “could not be further apart.” That he felt compelled to make such a statement, however, tells you that they could be at least a little further apart. Maybe a lot.' back |
Matt Bai (2024_11_29), Opinion | Bobby Kennedy finally achieves escape velocity, ' Which is why, as critical as I’ve been of his narcissism and conspiracy theories, I have some grudging admiration for what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has now managed to do. Nearing 71, alone among his many siblings and cousins, he has finally achieved escape velocity.
Whatever else we say about him from this point on, Bobby will no longer be judged simply as a Kennedy. . . .
What none of them tried — not while Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, was still living vigorously at the fabled home known as Hickory Hill, and certainly not while Ted Kennedy cast his long shadow over the Senate — was to betray the family brand. Young Kennedys were keepers of the ’60s flame — duty-bound to campaign for Democrats and speak at conventions, assigned at birth to serve the liberal cause and burnish the legend of Camelot. If you wanted to remain in their orbit, you were expected to do the same — no exceptions.
As he aged, though, Bobby pushed the limits of that legend. . . .Then came the pandemic and his outspoken opposition to vaccine mandates and extended shutdowns.
Bobby became so estranged from the Democratic establishment that he decided to run in a primary against a sitting president most of his family knew and loved. When that proved delusional, because it turned out that being a Kennedy didn’t quite confer the same magic among Democrats that it used to, he did the unthinkable and ditched the party altogether. Along the way, he shed much of the ideology that had defined his father and uncles — mainly the defense of democracy around the world and a reverence for public service.
And then, finally, Bobby cut loose the final, most enduring ballast of his father’s legacy: compassion for the displaced and overlooked. He threw in his lot with Donald Trump, the world’s most enthusiastic bully of immigrants, women and even the disabled. It was the least Kennedy thing any Kennedy had ever done. . . .
And then, finally, Bobby cut loose the final, most enduring ballast of his father’s legacy: compassion for the displaced and overlooked. He threw in his lot with Donald Trump, the world’s most enthusiastic bully of immigrants, women and even the disabled. It was the least Kennedy thing any Kennedy had ever done.. back |
Mitch Daniels (2024_11_25), Opinion: Attention, Elon Musk: Here’s a blind spot in measuring government efficiency, ' As vital as keeping score is in business, where the market constantly measures you, it is doubly so in the nonprofit and public sectors. There, miserable performance can go on year after year without consequence; accountability has to be implanted, through monitoring of results and either reward or penalty, as the findings dictate, or it won’t happen at all.
So I was intrigued recently to spot a report by Britain’s Office for National Statistics entitled “Public Service Productivity.” The phrase belongs with “paid volunteer” or “temporary tax increase” on one of those lists of unintentionally funny oxymorons, but it raises serious issues in an era marked by staggering waste of tax dollars and dangerous declines in public confidence. The incoming U.S. administration would do well, in its announced quest for improved government efficiency, to study the ONS’s report. . . .
The Office for National Statistics is properly modest about its work. Phrases such as “These are Experimental Statistics,” “This approach has limitations” and “We advise caution when using the data” appear throughout. In one way, British taxpayers should hope the caveats are justified: The trend it reports is one of steadily declining productivity, down an estimated one-third since 1997, with upper and lower bands of -25 percent and -40 percent. . . .
The economist Robert Solow, who died last year, earned his 1987 Nobel Prize for demonstrating how productivity — private sector productivity — is the driver of economic growth. “Government activities performed” too often weigh against the productivity that lifts people out of poverty and powers upward mobility. . . .
Today’s governments do some things they have no business doing; some things they can legitimately do but do so poorly they should just stop; and some things they must do, even if they muck up the job. So doing those better really matters.' back |
Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, , Tasnif: Morghe Sahar, Ahang: Morteza khan Ney Davood
Sher: Malekoshoara Bahar
Kamancheh: Saeed Farajpoori
Tar: Majid Derakhshani
Barbat: Mohammad Firoozi
Tonbak: Homayoun Shajarian
Daf: Hossein Rezaee Nia
Concert: Bozorgdashte Ostad e sokhan Saadi
Talare bozorge keshvar, Tabestan 1386 back |
Murray Gell-Mann (1969), Symmetry and Currents in Particle Physics, Professor Gell-Mann has presented his Nobel Lecture, but did not submit a manuscript. back |
Natasha Lindstaedt (2024_11_25), Russia needs a peace deal soon as it is running out of soldiers, ' For Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump’s win couldn’t come soon enough. Putin may reportedly accept a deal where Moscow gains significant territory in Ukraine (about the size of the US state of Virginia) and Ukraine remains neutral and forgets about any plans to join Nato or the EU.
Though Ukraine is experiencing war fatigue, so is Russia. Russia is making steady advances in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, but the Kremlin is still struggling to recruit soldiers for the conflict. The recent revelation that North Korean soldiers were fighting in Ukraine attests to this.
Even as Russia ramps up the war, with reports from Ukraine suggesting Moscow had fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile of the war, it’s become clear that a peace deal would be in the interests of Moscow, as much as Kyiv.
According to western assessments, around 115,000 to 160,000 Russian troops have died, 90% of the personnel it had at the beginning of the war. While another 500,000 have been injured. To offset these losses, Russia has been recruiting 20,000 new soldiers a month. . . .
The military is also seen as a major trap to catch the poor and underprivileged. Conscripts in the Russian army are viewed as meat for the grinder; their graves are ignored and the bodies are sometimes not identified.
Most of the recruits have come from far east republics with large indigenous populations such as Bashkortostan, Chechnya, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Dagestan — or as far from Moscow as possible.
But even young men in Moscow are now facing an increasingly aggressive Russian state. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled the country, forcing the government to introduce a tougher draft law to round up troops.
With the new law, implemented on November 1 this year, instead of receiving a draft notice through the post, draft notices are now delivered online. Once the notice enters a Russian man’s digital mailbox, those called up are immediately barred from leaving the country and can face stiff penalties if they do attempt to leave. back |
Niko Vorobyov, Patriarch Kirill: Putin ally faces backlash after ‘blessing’ war, ' On March 16, Pope Francis held a video meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the 75-year-old leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The head of the Catholic church warned the Russian patriarch against hiding behind religion to justify armed aggression and conquest.
“Once upon a time there was also talk in our churches of holy war or just war,” the pope said, according to the Vatican press office. “Today we cannot speak like this.”
Ten days earlier, in a sermon, Patriarch Kirill appeared to endorse Moscow’s so-called “special peacekeeping operation,” as the war on Ukraine is officially called in Russia.
“We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance,” the patriarch said.' back |
Paul A. M. Dirac, Theory of Electrons and Positrons, Nobel Lecture 1933, ' There exists no relativistic quantum mechanics (that is, one valid for large velocities) which can be applied to particles with arbitrary properties. Thus when one subjects quantum mechanics to relativistic requirements, one imposes restrictions on the properties of the particle. In this way one can deduce information about the particles from purely theoretical considerations, based on general physical principles. This procedure is successful in the case of electrons and positrons. ' back |
Pierre-Simon Laplace - Wikiedia, Pierre-Simon Laplace - Wikiedia, the free encyclopedis, ' Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace ( 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics and astronomy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825). This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems.' back |
Richard P. Feynman (1965), Nobel Lecture: The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics, ' We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or to describe how you had the wrong idea first, and so on. So there isn’t any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work, although, there has been in these days, some interest in this kind of thing. Since winning the prize is a personal thing, I thought I could be excused in this particular situation, if I were to talk personally about my relationship to quantum electrodynamics, rather than to discuss the subject itself in a refined and finished fashion. Furthermore, since there are three people who have won the prize in physics, if they are all going to be talking about quantum electrodynamics itself, one might become bored with the subject. So, what I would like to tell you about today are the sequence of events, really the sequence of ideas, which occurred, and by which I finally came out the other end with an unsolved problem for which I ultimately received a prize.' back |
Ronald Anderson & G C Joshi, Interpreting Mathematics in Physics: Charting the Applications of SU(2) in 20th Century Physics, 'Abstract
The role mathematics plays within physics has been of sustained
interest for physicists as well as for philosophers and historians of science. We explore this topic by tracing the role the mathematical structure associated with SU(2) has played in three key episodes in 20th century physics – intrinsic spin, isospin, and gauge theory and electro-weak unification. We also briefly consider its role in loop quantum gravity.' back |
Symposium (Plato) - Wikipedia, Symposium (Plato) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον, lit. 'Drinking Party') is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, dated c. 385 – 370 BC. It depicts a friendly contest of extemporaneous speeches given by a group of notable Athenian men attending a banquet. The men include the philosopher Socrates, the general and statesman Alcibiades, and the comic playwright Aristophanes. The panegyrics are to be given in praise of Eros, the god of love and sex.
In the Symposium, Eros is recognized both as erotic lover and as a phenomenon capable of inspiring courage, valor, great deeds and works, and vanquishing man's natural fear of death. It is seen as transcending its earthly origins and attaining spiritual heights. The extraordinary elevation of the concept of love raises a question of whether some of the most extreme extents of meaning might be intended as humor or farce. Eros is almost always translated as "love," and the English word has its own varieties and ambiguities that provide additional challenges to the effort to understand the Eros of ancient Athens.' back |
To the End (2024 film) - Wikipedia, To the End (2024 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' To the End is a 2024 British documentary film about the rock band Blur's reunion in the 2020s and their first album in eight years, The Ballad of Darren. The film is directed by Toby L. It premiered at Sheffield DocFest on 14 June 2024.[1] It was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 19 July 2024.
It is the fourth documentary film about the band after Starshaped (1993), No Distance Left to Run (2010), and New World Towers (2015). back |
William Rowan Hamilton (1834), General Method in Dynamics, ' On a General Method in Dynamics; by which the Study of the Motions of all free Systems of attracting or repelling Points is reduced to the Search and Differentiation of one central Relation, or characteristic Function
In the methods commonly employed, the determination of the motion of a free point in space, under the influence of accelerating forces, depends on the integration of three equations in ordinary differentials of the second order; and the determination of the motions of a system of free points, attracting or repelling one another, depends on the integration of a system of such equations, in number threefold the number of the attracting or repelling points, unless we previously diminish by unity this latter number, by considering only relative motions. Thus, in the solar system, when we consider only the mutual attractions of the sun and the ten known planets, the determination of the motions of the latter about the former is reduced, by the usual methods, to the integration of a system of thirty ordinary differential equations of thesecond order, between the coordinates and the time; or, by a transformation of Lagrange, to the integration of a system of sixty ordinary differential equations of the first order, between the time and the elliptic elements: by which integrations, the thirty varying coordinates, or the sixty varying elements, are to be found as functions of the time. In the method of the present essay, this problem is reduced to the search and differentiation of a single function, which satisfies two partial differential equations of the first order and of the second degree: and every other dynamical problem, respecting the motions of any system,however numerous, of attracting or repelling points, (even if we suppose those points restricted by any conditions of connexion consistent with the law of living force,) is reduced, in like manner, to the study of one central function, of which the form marks out and characterizes the properties of the moving system, and is to bedetermined by a pair of partial differential equations of the first order, combined with some simple considerations.'
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Xinlu Liang (2024_11_24), How Xi Jinping is going back to Confucius to define China’s future, ' For most of the 103-year history of the Communist Party of China, the teachings of the philosopher Confucius were deemed relics of a backwards past, with its leaders looking to Marxism and socialism to modernise China.
But under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, Confucianism has made a dramatic comeback as the bedrock of imperial Chinese ethics and governance, and other Chinese classics have become the pillars of Beijing’s efforts to shore up its intellectual foundation and governance philosophy amid an intensifying ideological competition with the US-led West.
One of the latest ventures is the Ruzang, or “Confucian Canon”, project to create the largest ever compilation of Confucian classics. The project, which has had the input of nearly 500 scholars since it was started in 2003, was significantly elevated in 2014 when Xi became the first Chinese president to throw his personal weight behind it. . . .
The Ruzang project was first approved in 2003 by the Education Ministry under then president Hu Jintao and spearheaded by Chinese philosopher Tang Yijie, who pledged to compile all known Confucian classics while explaining the survival and development of the nation.
Xi backed the project when he visited then 87-year-old Tang at Peking University in 2014, hailing it as “a very meaningful endeavour that carries forward Chinese civilisation”.
Peking University vice-president Wang Bo took over the project from Tang after he died in 2014.
Wang was chosen to make policy recommendations at October’s study session of the 24-man Politburo chaired by Xi, who spoke on the goal of turning China into a “cultural powerhouse” by 2035, drawing strength from Marxism and Chinese traditional heritage.
So far, nearly 500 scholars from around 100 institutions in China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam have collaborated on the project, with estimated costs around 150 million yuan (US$21 million).' back |
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