Notes
[Notebook: Transfinite field theory DB 56]
[Sunday 11 July 2004 - Saturday 17 July 2004]
Sunday 11 July 2004
Monday 12 July 2004
Tuesday 13 July 2004
[page 134]
Wednesday 14 July 2004
Darwin's
Fishes: Daniel Pauly Pauly
Pauly: 'One cannot but wonder whether the reason why wrasses work
together so nicely with the females on their domestic arrangements is
because as protogynous hermaphrodites they can draw on insights from
their previous life as females. Nature 430:18 1 July 204.
Thursday 15 July 2004
Friday 16 July 2004
Saturday 17 July 2004
Dawkins:
Mount Improbable. Dawkins
Dawkins' distinction between design and 'the blind watchmaker' is
basically false, since all design consists of blind steps, selection
[page 135]
and retrial. In our minds the steps may occur at frequent
intervals in the same individual, resulting in the development of a
design by trial and error, as we see in the history of technology. In
natural selection, each cycle of the design process is a generation,
so the process takes much longer and involves many individuals, but
it fundamentally the same - try, succeed or fail, repeat. In the
first case the design appears quickly; in the second slowly, on one
or more individuals. In the network model, these 'scale bound'
features are of lesser account that the invariant process of
adaptation that goes on at all levels.
Episodes (events) of closeness but not intimacy. We can classify
relationships by peer level and bandwidth.
intimate = reproductive peer level = ℵ0 cardinal
closeness = bandwidth of communication = omega(0) ordinal
The conformity of models and reality is to be judged aesthetically
as well as logically. What we like to see (I think) is that
symmetries (invariants) of the model are reflected in symmetries of
reality, and vice versa. At the simplest level, such symmetry is
scalar, like the charge of the electron. This charge is common to all
electrons (and many other particles) and once we have plugged it into
our model it an stay thee unchanged forever., except perhaps from
increased precision in measurements and calculation.
So what are the symmetries of the transfinite network, and how do
they map onto observations.? This is the question.
a) model has quantum/continuous distinction based not on a metric
but on whether or not quantum events are bound into some larger event
which makes the quantum events into a continuum in the same way as
the sequence of states of a Turing machine are a continuum, ie
deterministically bound together, acting as one.
[page 136]
b) model is big. as the Universe is big. In fact both are ordered
sets with a minimum but no maximum element, as we would expect for a
divine system.
c) it is easy to see the world of experience as a dense, layered
communication network with things opening and closing links to one
another all the time and in a partially ordered, partially random
way. Underlying all this is, in a network as in reality is the
'packet switching' structure of both, and a small set of universal
protocols that allows communications of various sorts between the
various nodes of the network.
node-edge (point, line) duality. Fourier particle/wave.
d) see lecture ? of The Theory of Peace.
e) model is isomorphic to the mathematical structure of Quantum
Field Theory (?)
Russell: History of Western Philosophy.
Russell
Socrates (as portrayed by Plato) 'As a man we may believe him
admitted to the communion of saints; but as a philosopher he needs a
long residence in scientific purgatory.'
Political dynamics: the creation and annihilation of political
groupings all sharing a fixed modicum of power, but will different
shares according to their size and political skill.
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Related sites
Concordat Watch Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty
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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!)
Currie, Edwina, A Parliamentary Affair, Hodder and Stoughton: Coronet 1994 Jacket: 'Value for money . . . Currie recounts the vicissitudes of a whole gallery of characters. The book is permeated by (entirely justified) complaints against the barriers encountered by women in parliament: a male MP could not hope to get away with writing a novel like A PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIR' Gerald Kauffman The Times
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Dawkins, Richard, Climbing Mount Improbable, W. W. Norton & Company 1997 Amazon editorial review: 'How do species evolve? Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most eminent zoologists, likens the process to scaling a huge, Himalaya-size peak, the Mount Improbable of his title. An alpinist does not leap from sea level to the summit; neither does a species utterly change forms overnight, but instead follows a course of "slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, non-random survival of random variants" -- a course that Charles Darwin, Dawkins's great hero, called natural selection. Illustrating his arguments with case studies from the natural world, such as the evolution of the eye and the lung, and the coevolution of certain kinds of figs and wasps, Dawkins provides a vigorous, entertaining defense of key Darwinian ideas.'
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Heinlein, Robert A, Stranger in a Strange Land, New English Library: Hodder and Stoughton 1985 'Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.
The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck'
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Khinchin, A Y, The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Statistics, Dover 1998 'In the area of quantum statistics, I show that a rigorous mathematical basis of the computational formulas of statistical physics ... may be obtained from an elementary application of the well-developed limit theorems of the theory of probability'
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Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '... Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding'
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Melville, Herman, and Robert Milder (editor), Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales (Oxford Worlds Classics), Oxford University Press 2009 Product Description
'Billy Budd is among the greatest of Melville's works and, in its richness and ambiguity, among the most problematic. Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British man-of-war during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, Billy Budd, Sailor is a nautical recasting of the Fall, a parable of good and evil, a meditation on justice and political governance, and a searching portrait of three extraordinary men. In this edition are also eight shorter tales, reprinted from the most authoritative recent editions and are supplemented by a penetrating introduction and full notes.'
Amazon
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Pauly, Daniel, Darwin's Fishes: An Encyclopaedia of Ichthyology, Ecology and Evolution, Cambridge University Press 2004 Amazon Book Description: 'Presenting everything Charles Darwin ever wrote about fishes and many more topics, the entries in this encyclopedia are arranged alphabetically and extracted from Darwin's books, short publications, notebooks and correspondence. Readers can start wherever they like and are then led by a series of cross-references directly or indirectly to Darwin's original writings. The material is interpreted in the context of Darwin's time as well as of contemporary biology.'
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Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosoph, and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from Earliest Times to the Present Day, Simon & Schuster 1945 Amazon ditorial reviews: Ray Monk: 'A History of Western Philosophy remains unchallenged as the perfect introduction to its subject. Russell...writes with the kind of verve, freshness and personal engagement that lesser spirits would never have permitted themselves. This boldness, together with the astonishing breadth of his general historical knowledge, allows him to put philosophers into their social and cultural context... The result is exactly the kind of philosophy that most people would like to read, but which only Russell could possibly have written.'
Amazon
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Spong, John Shelby, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile., HarperCollinsPublishers 1998 Jacket: 'Spong demolishes the stifling dogma of traditional Christianity in search of the inner core of truth. It is a courageous, passionate attempt to build a credible theology for a skeptical, scientific age.' Paul Davies.
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Papers
| Jones, Dan, "A WEIRD View of Human Nature Skews Psychologist's Studies", Science, 328, 5986, 25 June 2010, page 1627. '. . . although undergrads from wealthy nations are numerous and willing subjects, psychologists are beginning to realize that they have a drawback: They are WEIRDos. That is, they are people from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures. In a provocative review paper published online in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) last week, anthropologist Joseph Henrich and psychologists Steven Heine and Ara Norenzayan of the University of British Columbia in Canada argue that WEIRDos aren't representative of humans as a whole and that psychologists routinely use them to make broad, and quite likely false, claims about what drives human behavior.'. back |
Links
| Eternal sin - Wikipedia Eternal sin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Eternal sins or unforgivable sins or unpardonable sins, are a concept in Christian theology of sins which cannot or will not be forgiven, whereby salvation becomes impossible. It has its origin in several biblical passages.
One sin frequently considered 'eternal' is that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; however this phrase is rarely taken to have its literal meaning. Some sins that are frequently considered eternal include deliberate rejection of the mercy of God, and ascribing the work of the Holy Spirit to the Devil.' back |
| Isaiah Berlin Poitive versus Negative Liberty From Two Concepts of Liberty, a lecture delivered in 1958 at Oxford University] 'One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical ideals -- justice or progress or the happiness of future generations, or the sacred mission of emancipation of a nation or race or class, or even liberty itself, which demands the sacrifice of individuals for the freedom of society. This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in divine revelation or in the mind of an individual thinker, in the pronouncements of history or science, or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good man, there is a final solution.'
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| James J Fox Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) / Good ' . . . The moral good (bonum honestum) consists in the due ordering of free action or conduct according to the norm of reason, the highest faculty, to which it is to conform. This is the good which determines the true valuation of all other goods sought by the activities which make up conduct. Any lower good acquired to the detriment of this one is really but a loss (bonum apparens). While all other kinds of good may, in turn, be viewed as means, themorla good is good as an end and is not a mere means to other goods. . . . ' back |
| Oneida Community - Wikipedia Oneida Community - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The Oneida Community was a utopian commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus Christ had already returned in the year 70, making it possible for them to bring about Christ's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this world, not just Heaven (a belief called Perfectionism).' back |
| Pride - Wikipedia Pride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Pride is, depending on the interactional and cultural context, either a high sense of one's personal status (i.e., leading to judgements of personality and character) or the specific mostly positive emotion that is a product of praise or independent self-reflection. Philosophers and social psychologists have noted that pride is a complex secondary emotion which requires the development of a sense of self and the mastery of relevant conceptual distinctions (e.g., that pride is distinct from happiness and joy) through language-based interaction with others[1]. Some social psychologists identify it as linked to a signal of high social status.[2] One definition of pride in the first sense comes from St. Augustine: "the love of one's own excellence".[3] In this sense, the opposite of pride is humility.
Pride is sometimes viewed as excessive or as a vice, sometimes as proper or as a virtue. While some philosophers such as Aristotle (and George Bernard Shaw) consider pride a profound virtue, most world religions consider it a sin.' back |
| S-L-M - Wikipedia S-L-M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Shin-Lamedh-Mem (Arabic: س ل م S-L-M; Hebrew: שלם Š-L-M; Maltese: S-L-M) is the triconsonantal root of many Semitic words, and many of those words are used as names. The root itself translates as "whole, safe, intact"' back |
| The Gates of Hell - Wikipedia The Gates of Hell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The Gates of Hell (French: ''La Porte de l'Enfer'') is a monumental sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from "The Inferno", the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It stands at 6 m high, 4 m wide and 1 m deep (19.69'H × 13.12'W × 3.29'D) and contains 180 figures. The figures range from 15 cm high up to more than one metre. Several of the figures were also cast independently by Rodin.' back |
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