Notes
[Sunday 3 May 2009 - Saturday 9 May 2009]
[Notebook: DB 66 Turing Field]
Sunday 3 May 2009
[page 140]
Let us parse the above a little (notesM04D26.html) Let us guess that the world is driven to move by inconsistency. Inconsistency reduces
[page 141]
entropy since inconsistent bits cannot be trusted, and so, if we are to have stability then inconsistent parts of the system must be avoided. Once the inconsistency is removed (by motion) the system returns to equilibrium (stillness) and stays there until further perturbed by some inconsistency with its environment. Inconsistency is exposed by communication. In human terms, we hope that all people subjected to undue stress by their environment become able to express themselves and so motivate some melioration of their plight.
The good part of Christianity = MELIORISM Meliorism - Wikipedia
The bad part of Christianity is its MOTIVATION. The Christian story is no longer conducive to fitness. Instead, we must develop an empirical theology from [the] axiom the Universe is divine so that wherever we look we see god.
To become fit, one must be motivated by a true understanding of our own physiology and the physiology of the world, isomorphic to divine physiology.
What is divine? Primarily, the Whole, and by implication all of its subprocesses which contribute to the universal process.
Movement is caused by the existence of contradiction or inconsistency, so that when we have lain on one side for long enough [we] roll over, or the prophet of Biblical [and modern] times sees things going bad and tries by the force of strong words . . . to set them right. The aim of prophecy is error correction, and the more power and mystique one can gather to oneself, the more likely one's point of view is to prevail.
[page 142]
We arrive at a proof of Cantor's theorem by reductio ad absurdum, showing that for it not to be true, given its hypotheses, is self contradictory so that it must be [formally] true. Here we have an explanation for the expansion of the Universe and its increase in entropy, since the Universe is forced to increase its cardinal number because given certain prerequisites, it would be inconsistent not to. This idea has been with me for a long time but each time I revisit it it seems more plausible, and the network model, with its feature of copying texts by sending messages, seems consistent with this.
We seem to have two general classes of motion, represented by real and complex exponentials.
REAL = MONOTONIC
COMPLEX = PERIODIC EXPONENTIAL
Writing, being cheap and permanent, helps us to construct abstract explorations of reality withut the danger and expense of real tests of potentially dangerous ideas. There is danger when books like the Bible of Mein Kampf are taken too seriously and used as a guide to action.
In a general way, error manifests in human consciousness as pain, either physical or psychological. One of the most intense psychological pains is the death of a close relative or friend, there there are myriad other pains, all in some way involving the destruction of a beautiful thing, something inevitable in a finite world with infinite possibilities of change.
[page 143]
This relates to the 'axiom' that we have to kill to live, insofar as our own continued existence requires food derived from other once living organisms. We may see a day when our food can be manufactured from sunlight without using plants and animals.
FUTUROLOGY: PREDICTIVE - what is likely to happen
NORMATIVE - what (we think) should happen
Crombie page 151: 'The faith that inspired nearly all science until the end of the 17th century was that it discovered real intelligible structure in objective nature, an ens reale and not merely an ens rationis/
CONTRADICTION INHIBITS
So we say that the photon travels at the velocity of light because it would in some way be inconsistent for it to do otherwise. We may guess that this inconsistency becomes manifest in a certain layer of the universal network.
Monday 4 May 2009
The 3D structure of the Universe does not come from gravitation, but from the requirement that every point be able to communicate with every other with no intermediary, ie that all points can be joined by unbroken lines of communication generally realized by fibres, wires or geodesics followed by photons and other bosons.
The increase in 'entropy of connection' as we move from 2D space to 3D space is the advantage gained by implementing
[page 144]withut error the algorithms embodied in 3-space, which are executed in 3-space-time as we observe in the flight of birds, the flowing river, the planetary orbits and, we guess, the whole maintenance and running of the cosmic network. The defining deature of 4-space is that its three space and one time dimension are strictly orthognal in an inertial space. Nevertheless the world appears to be an infinite set of inertial frames in motion relative to one another with velocities ranging from greater than zero to the velocity of light. This velocity establishes a fixed relationship between space and time so thart all four dimensions can be combined into a four vector whoe length is invariant under all Lorentz transformations between (relatively) moving frames, ie moving entities or personalities; moving sources, capable of both transmitting and receiving messages.
What do we mean by moving? Our perception of motion is the local motion of massive objects like ourselves, our vehicles and everything else that visibly changes its relationships to some natural or arbitrary frame of reference. We say a vehicle has moved if it is no longer to be found in front of the house where it was formerly parked. Of course one might want to say that the vehicle stood still and the suburb moved, but this view is hard to sustain if we consider something like the traffic, a discrete flow through a well marked network (the road system) which contains far too much information to be encoded in the movements of the [rigid] city rather than the vehicles. Motion may thus be conceived with many degrees of freedom (the set of all 'traffic vectors') [that] is measured against a system which is effectively immovable (the road map).
The fact that the physical world can be described by
[page 145]
continuous functions alerts us to its minimal structure, since there is no information in a continuum. An observer who sees the world as a continuum sees nothing; only differentiation can carry information. Continuity is a strong constraint on a function, limiting the difference between adjacent points to something that can be described by an algorithm much more compact that the lookup tables needed to express all possible functions. Ashby In a set of functions of the same cardinality, such lookup tables are permutations of the domain of the function.
CAPITAL = SPACE: A fixed system (representable by an algorithm) to get things done. In the simple arithmetical algorithms of a computer everything operates deterministically and there is is minimal need for feedback to track the results of a set of actions. In more complex fields like building and communicating, many metrics may be necessary to get things right, and it is necessary to track every process to see that it is going well (nail remains unbent) and correct it if it deviates from some standards.
If one only kills things one is scared of, the pursuit of witches perhaps shines a light on the insecurities of the late medieval Church.
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Creation is in effect the creation of orthogonality, that is independent degrees of freedom which add entropy to the space they define and information to points in that space. Observable degrees of freedom. We might say that the initial singularity has zero degrees of freedom (and no observation). The introduction of time, energy and quantum mechanics may correspond to the 'degree of freedom' we call time. In the present world, in a local frame, time is
[page 146]
not free in that we can only move to the future, not to the past (although we can observe, the past, which is a sort of movement toward it). In a more primitive (reversible) Universe (which quantum mechanics represents) time is free, in that movement in both directions is equally feasible, and time there is no longer numerus motus secundum prius et posterius, but simply numerus motus, and in the absence of error and quantization may be considered a featureless continuum with zero entropy, ie no memory, no 'states', just one state.
I love you, but that love is not unconditional: it is conditioned by the realities of survival, work, reproduction, 'bringing up' children, and so on. An effect of true love may be to make the necessary work effortless in that it is clearly coupled to the emotion of love, and driven by the emotion to maintain the survival of the emotion by the continual resolution of differences, either by agreeing on something or establishing a new degree of freedom [agree to differ] (or reinforcing an existing one).
We (they say) want to be free but everywhere we are in chains. There will always be chains, but they need not be false chains enforced by violence but true chains (ie works) which are clearly coupled to the maintenance of freedom.
DESIGN: We mentally compute path integrals from raw materials to finished product and choose the one with the stationary action which is an optimum and an equilibrium point, representing maximum entropy in its local 'frame', = protocol.
[page 147]
Wednesday 6 May 2009
The 'special creation' approach to humanity establishes a dichotomy within the Universe parallel to the dichotomy between God and the World. We are exiles, strangers in a strange land, sinners in a world damaged by our sin. All this palaver politically motivated to keep people down and maintain the position and the perquisites of the ruling class.
Thursday 7 May 2009
For the time being the physical side of the physics-theology equation seems to be in good shape. The key idea seems to be that gauge invariance points to a communication channel, that is a system which is invariant with respect to the actual messages (represented physically by phases) sent through it. We now turn to theology with something aimed at Theological Studies with a title like Theology and Quantum Field Theory.
The Christians talk as though love can be commanded 'Love God, love your neighbour'. In fact love is effectively outside human control because it is a relationship between two persons which is too complex for a single participant to comprehend. Neither lover has the variety necessary to comprehend their love. Yet Christianity predicts punishment for those who do not control their love along approved channels. This is part of the total catch22ness of the Christian story: we are all naturally deranged by original sin, so be controlled by lies and violence.
We live in a 3D world. In construction everything becomes simple of we stick to square shapes with parallel sides.
[page 148]
This is an abstract structure. Real curved surfaces carry a lot more information because they are points in a much bigger space.
Meaning may be measured by the entropy of the space it occupies.
Here theology applies network theory at the most complex level available to us which we approach by extrapolating our own history of complexity to its mathematical limits.
Friday 8 May 2009
All this work is done in the context of Western Christianity which is the only religion and theology I know by experience. My thesis is that the traditional Christian dichotomy between God and the World is no longer necessary.
This dichotomy has two roots. The first is the ancient tradition that God is the invisible creator, sustainer and guide of the world. This tradition developed from very ancient ideas (perhaps analogous to the Dreamtime Stories of Australian indigenous people) to the monotheism of the Hebrews. The lively relationship between the Hebrews and their God Yahweh is recorded in what Christians call the Old Testament of the Bible, and in many other fragments of ancient literature.
Much of the Hebrew tradition was destroyed as a consequence of the Roman imperial occupation of their land, but from it a new religion grew, now called Christianity which became compatible with Roman politics.
[page 149]
Christianity has outlasted the Roman Empire, and has followed other imperial forces to become the most powerful religion on Earth if we judge it by the [number,] wealth and power of its adherents. The dichotomy between God and the world is the raison d'etre of Christian religious institutions which see themselves as channels of communication between God and the world.
The second root is the theoretical difficulty of reconciling models of God with models of the world. This difficulty is the foundation of proofs for the existence of god, all of which take the form: The World exists; the World cannot account for its own existence. There must therefore be another agent (God) which makes the world exist. In order to obviate the need to explain the existence of God by some other agent, it must be assumed that God explains its own existence.
This discussion is model dependent. The task here, from an intellectual point of view, is to show that God and the World may be consistently identified by producing a consistent model that fits both.
From a political point of view we can expect the Church initially to oppose this idea if it shows any signs of gaining momentum. Nevertheless, the idea may eventually become more powerful than the Church and lead to a doctrinal revision similar to those which converted Judaism into Christianity or the Roman Catholic Churches into the Protestant Christian churches. Only time will tell.
David Herbert Richard Lawrence Women in Love. Lawrence Liberating
[page 150]
love from its Christian captivity. They say God is love. What does it mean? We need an historical study of love from the beginning of literature, since this is probably the history of human (as opposed to institutional) theology. The core of Christianity is expressed by the phrase 'greater love hath no man . . . [A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends John 15:13 John] and it remains that acceptance of death is the ultimate criterion of love, as evidenced by the real or imagined life of Jesus. Implicit in this is the insight that in a military situation some must die to save the others and it is better than they die willingly rather that at the point of a friendly gun. To join the military for defence where necessary, is necessary for the survival of human groups with their territories and resources. Once we see this we see that the answer to war is to give everybody a fair share, a basic metabolic resource to live and participate in the goods of the world. We implement this practically by a global social security payment to every person from birth to death financed by taxing those who have more than a fair share. This is the alternative to coupling love to death. Instead it is coupled to life, all those doing well sharing with those doing not so well, with the overall effect of increasing the entropy and stability of human society. With these problems solved, we can turn to the wider problem of our relationship with the rest of the world: our occupation of space; our consumption; our wastes, etc etc.
The Theology Company. We are not saying our product is perfect but it is better than its traditional precedent. It may upset some people. But it may also attract all those who have cast themselves loose from the traditional
[page 151]
religions because, given what we know, they are too absurd to believe.
Do we see fairness in physics? Every electron gets an equal share of mass? The community is in communication, and in physics we see 'fair' protocols leading to minimum action, maximum entropy, identical particles and so on all seeming to point to an optimized system of network communication, completing each operation with 'stationary' action, which suggests that an optimal algorithm has been implemented for the task. This is something we might expect of the divinity.
Physics may be perfect, but human affairs are not so, since many people are in pain. The sources of pain we may classify as fellow humans and other. Many human seem to delight in giving others a hard time. This desire may be sublimated into sport but we also see it manifest in military dictators who murderously suppress dissent while enriching themselves. And then there are the more natural pains of illness, injury, hunger, homelessness and so on. The traditional problem of evil is to ask why is this so? The Christian answer is that we must be tested and prove ourselves worthy to enter into the kingdom of Heaven and all the evils around us are our own fault for disobeying God in the beginning. A more realistic answer points to the power structures in the world and seeks to discern and correct errors in the current social and political software (protocols) that govern our relationships to one another and to the world. In general the stability of society is increased with its entropy, which in turn is maximized if all its citizens become equiprobable in their access to human communication networks : inclusiveness.
[page 152]
It may be that our problem is shifting from aggressive nations, which can now do business with one another, to aggressive religions which continue to hope for the extinction of their rivals. And it is a storm in a teacup (?). They are all pretty wrong.
The George Bush fuck the rest of the world attitude is slowly dying in the face of the common problems which may be attributed to the lifestyle assumed by the George Bushes of the world.
Theology undertakes to understand the freedoms and constraints of human existence. We might say that freedom of enterprise is maximized by careful oversight, lack of which is implicated in the GFC (global financial crisis).
Financing the Universe while conserving action, energy and momentum.
The same surgery that removes the abyss between God and the World removes the abysses between the competing religions of the world, since they all share the same god, the world.
Lawrence. Women page 111: 'After all, what is mankind but just one expression of the incomprehensible. And if mankind passes away, it will only mean that this particular expression is completed and done.'
We may see religion as establishing the governing law of social contract. While the ancient religions maintain a hierarchy culminating in god, natural religion ('secular religion') sees a network based on protocols founded in humanity.
Saturday 9 May 2009
The Theology Company. Currently in the research phase, generating bankable intellectual property. We follow the Roman Catholic Church in keeping things (to some extent) proprietary, but also the charitable model of giving the intellectual property away and charging only for embodiments thereof, ie T shirts, media, courses, counselling. We see the ultimate result as a public company with the accompanying public oversight and accountability both financially and with respect to product quality. TTC need own no churches etc, but may franchise its brand to Churches which see it as a useful addition to their spiritual arsenal. The cheapest route to this goal would seem to be the internet, so we need to develop a web app which enables everybody to participate in the development of ideas and practices.
Once ideas are written down they are forever captive (at least as long as the medium lasts, and the network seems to be a durable medium). TTC is in the mind development industry, using the methods of science to arrive at a model for peaceful human coexistence and the methods of advertising, promotion and public relations to spread the model and survive on income derived from appreciative customers. The illusion created in me by the Roman Catholic Church was so strong that it has taken a long time to see past the illusion to how it really works, enriching itself by false promises which despite their falsity bind people into fit systems by endowing them with a set of common protocols for life, by which we tell is a person is 'one of us' or not.
Why am I motivated to do this: by the inconsistency I see between reality and human religious ideals. Almost all the ancient religions have, by modern standards, pathological elements such
[page 154]
as that we are all sinners and ourselves and our world were made defective (and remain defective) by sin. The sin of Adam and Eve was to think for themselves, something which religious authorities of the traditional kind strenuously suppress. False religious doctrine, including the suppression of dissent, has caused pain in my life and I see it causing pain elsewhere. The trade foundation of the Theology Company is the cure of religiously induced pain, falsely advertised as a means to gain merit in the afterlife instead of an evil to be removed by redesigning to remove errors in the relevant social software.
Lawrence page 188: 'I would die like a shot, to know that the earth would really be cleaned of all the people. It is the most beautiful and freeing thought. Then there would never be another foul humanity created for a universal defilement.'
'Do you think that creation depends on man?'
Peace = no-violence. Keeping the peace, the task of the police, is to suppress those who use violence to get their way, and also the task of religion, to demonstrate that more people can get their way by peaceful means than violent ones. Business, in general, pays better than war, or, it is the task of religion to design the human environment so that this proposition is true, ie to deprive all of profits obtained by violence ['proceeds of crime'].
COMMUNICATION == COMPUTATION
[page 155]
Because natural religion is natural it is coming to be all over the place, complexifies, as the internet cheapens communication thus allowing us to consume more of it and by more communication resolve our difficulties on a finer scale. Violent regimes, on the other hand, try to cut down communication using secret police, censorship, banning the free press and so on. All these tendencies must be resisted of we are to maintain our real standard of living.
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