natural theology

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vol VII: Notes

2013

Notes

[Sunday 13 January 2013 - Saturday 19 January 2013]

[Notebook: DB 74 CREATION]

[page 73]

Sunday 13 January 2013

Follow Cantor's example and reach for the sky, having

[page 74]

faith in a God that will keep me on the right track (if I love and respect it sufficiently). So the quantum mechanical section of 'Unreasonable effectiveness' goes from quantum mechanics through communication theory to computation and we imagine that quantum mechanics describes a computable network operating in an addressable transfinite (binary) memory space. We use this idea to implement the Church-Truing hypothesis and show that it is symmetric with respect to complexity and so useful for demonstrating the isomorphism from the collapse of the wave function to the act of insight.

The Platonic approach requires unlimited memory and unlimited precision of representation, ie the transfinite space. This is cut down to size by the physical limits of the Universe, ie the number of distinguishable physical states, eigenfunctions and corresponding values [which we assume starts at 1 and increases without limit].

Insight --> orgasm. The path to a sexy religion / theology.

The Word: a product of lust incarnate, generation.

Metaphysical lust = potential.

First step os to map Hilbert space onto computer network and explain quantum mechanics in network terms. Then we go to the transfinite network to extrapolate from quantum mechanics to quantum field theory and the Universe of experience.

Death is inevitable because no system can repair all possible faults which may occur within it and remain in running condition. We can overhaul an

[page 75]

engine when it is not running but not when it is running.

Dauben page 200: Jourdain; ' "we may attempt to define an inconsistent aggregate as an aggregate of which it is impossible to think as a whole without contradiction.

page 265: '. . . Cantor's conclusion that the system of all powers was inconsistent. It was an unfinished set.' Driven dynamically by the Cantor force which represents a static potential, a fixed point in the computer network. [static causes dynamic and vice versa]

page 267: 'Mathematics for the logician concerned only the proper use of symbols.' 'Proper use' depends on the interpretation of the symbols, numbers, operations, punctuation [order] etc.

Monday 14 January 2013

The permutation of commutative operation has no influence on the outcome and may therefore be seen as a symmetry operation. Permutation of non=commutators, on the other hand, has an observable effect.

Dauben page 280: '. . . underlying even [Cantor's] earliest decisions was a sense of destiny, a feeling that unknown forces were at work and that they were propelling him toward a career that he felt he could not deny.'

We suspect it to be a feature of a network process that it eventually leads to a conclusion consistent with most of the data stored ion the network, examples of which are the collapse of the wave function, human insight and the gradual approach of scientific communities to agreed models of various phenomena.

[page 76]

Dauben page 291: 'The theological side of Cantor;'s set theory, though perhaps irrelevant for the understanding of its mathematical content is nevertheless essential for full understanding of his theory and the development he gave it. Cantor believed that God endowed the transfinite numbers with reality, making them very special/' ie the fixed points in the dynamics of the divine "Actus Purissimus" (?) (Dauben Cantor page 290).

Here we see clearly the confusion between geometric and logical continuity. The Universe is logically continuous, descended in a transfinite logical tree from the initial singularity, and geometrical continuity is jut an abstraction (renormalization) of the discrete logical processes that underlie all observed (discrete) events. Cantor's whole idea of constructing a continuum from a large number of points is a (very common) mistake, as Cohen has shown by developing a suitable logical continuum (proof). Cohen

card(corporeal monads) ≈ ℵ0
card(ethereal; monads) ≈ ℵ1

Tuesday 15 January 2013
Wednesday 16 January 2013

[page 77]

One can control feelings of depression to some extent but not in evry case, which may be seen as evidence of the layering of our mental hardware. (genetically derived) and software (absorbed from our environment). One can imagine that different layers that evolved at different times have become embedded in epigentic 'firmware' Thee layers tailored to siffeent circumsances, have different expectations and if these are not met may induce a feling of depression in the more consciouslayers above them, a sort of material determinist which becomes less relevant as the development of humanrights makes our human environment more benevolent, just in the nick of time too, since we need to cooperate to deal with our impact on the environment.

I have a tendency to wake up feeling depressed and also feet that a significant proportion ofmy deams are more defpressing that my experience when I am awake. This I understand to be because I now understand myself to be living in a divine environment which is as good as can be, and over which I as an individual have some control and over which we as a community have even more control, and can improve our lot of we use our controlling power prudently. Here is where theology comes in, since as the theory of everything it describes the context in which we operate and the possibilities provided by that contxt. We divine into to extreme foups, every person for themselves, with the stock of guns and canned food and we are all in this together, riding the wave of history.

On being a sugar daddy. Passing on old wisdom [accumulated capital]

page 78]

in return for sensual pleasure. Molles carne bene aptes mente. You are trading your youth, beauty, sensuality, energy and omnivorous intelligence for input from an older being that has a collection of valuable resources. Sugardaddy

Thursday 17 January 2013
Friday 18 January 2013
Saturday 19 January 2013

This morning woke up feeling good and in a dreamlike way attributed it to my relationship with the divine world. So maybe my theoretical ideas are penetrating to my unconscious processes and may yet endow me with the strength of feeling necessary to become a 'preacher', an advocate for the divine Universe as the solution to all our problems. Christianity offers eternal life after death in a world of bliss. All natural religion can offer is heaven on earth, something often deeply compromised by the hell on earth, particularly disease and death, that many people suffer.

Pain and suffering. Christian theology is deeply false, no more so [than] in its glorification of pain as a means to obtain an eternal life of bliss. Why do Christians tolerate abusive relationships - because they think this is earning them merit in heaven. The beauty of the world is that most pain is avoidable by goodf prudent management, as is demonstrated by the fact that it usually requires extraordinarily bad management to create disaster. Yang Jisheng, Tombstone Jisheng

In a nutshell the quantum mechanical energy equation encapsulates the Church-Turing hypothesis.

Get rhythm when you['ve got] the blues. Johnny Cash

[page 79]

Johnson Dismantling page 34: 'As a form of government imperialism does not seek or require the consent of the governed. It is a pure form of tyranny. This American attempt to combine domestic democracy with such tyrannical control over foreigners is hopelessly contradictory and hypocritical. A country can be democratic or it can be imperialistic, it cannot be both.' Johnson

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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!)

Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics: An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism, Shambala 1991 'First published in 1975, The Tao of Physics rode the wave of fascination in exotic East Asian philosophies. Decades later, it still stands up to scrutiny, explicating not only Eastern philosophies but also how modern physics forces us into conceptions that have remarkable parallels. Covering over 3,000 years of widely divergent traditions across Asia, Capra can't help but blur lines in his generalizations. But the big picture is enough to see the value in them of experiential knowledge, the limits of objectivity, the absence of foundational matter, the interrelation of all things and events, and the fact that process is primary, not things. Capra finds the same notions in modern physics. Those approaching Eastern thought from a background of Western science will find reliable introductions here to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism and learn how commonalities among these systems of thought can offer a sort of philosophical underpinning for modern science. And those approaching modern physics from a background in Eastern mysticism will find precise yet comprehensible descriptions of a Western science that may reinvigorate a hope in the positive potential of scientific knowledge. Whatever your background, The Tao of Physics is a brilliant essay on the meeting of East and West, and on the invaluable possibilities that such a union promises.' Brian Bruya  
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Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics: An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism, Shambala 1991 'First published in 1975, The Tao of Physics rode the wave of fascination in exotic East Asian philosophies. Decades later, it still stands up to scrutiny, explicating not only Eastern philosophies but also how modern physics forces us into conceptions that have remarkable parallels. Covering over 3,000 years of widely divergent traditions across Asia, Capra can't help but blur lines in his generalizations. But the big picture is enough to see the value in them of experiential knowledge, the limits of objectivity, the absence of foundational matter, the interrelation of all things and events, and the fact that process is primary, not things. Capra finds the same notions in modern physics. Those approaching Eastern thought from a background of Western science will find reliable introductions here to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism and learn how commonalities among these systems of thought can offer a sort of philosophical underpinning for modern science. And those approaching modern physics from a background in Eastern mysticism will find precise yet comprehensible descriptions of a Western science that may reinvigorate a hope in the positive potential of scientific knowledge. Whatever your background, The Tao of Physics is a brilliant essay on the meeting of East and West, and on the invaluable possibilities that such a union promises.' Brian Bruya  
Amazon
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Cohen, Paul J, Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis, Benjamin/Cummings 1966-1980 Preface: 'The notes that follow are based on a course given at Harvard University, Spring 1965. The main objective was to give the proof of the independence of the continuum hypothesis [from the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms for set theory with the axiom of choice included]. To keep the course as self contained as possible we included background materials in logic and axiomatic set theory as well as an account of Gödel's proof of the consistency of the continuum hypothesis. . . .'  
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Everett III, Hugh, and Bryce S Dewitt, Neill Graham (editors), The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 1973 Jacket: 'A novel interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed in brief form by Hugh Everett in 1957, forms the nucleus around which this book has developed. The volume contains Dr Everett's short paper from 1957, "'Relativge State' formulation of quantum mechanics" and a far longer exposition of his interpretation entitled "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function" never before published. In addition other papers by Wheeler, DeWitt, Graham, Cooper and van Vechten provide further discussion of the same theme. Together they constitute virtually the entire world output of scholarly commentary on the Everett interpretation.' 
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Feynman, Richard, Feynman Lectures on Gravitation, Westview Press 2002 Amazon Editorial Reviews Book Description 'The Feynman Lectures on Gravitation are based on notes prepared during a course on gravitational physics that Richard Feynman taught at Caltech during the 1962-63 academic year. For several years prior to these lectures, Feynman thought long and hard about the fundamental problems in gravitational physics, yet he published very little. These lectures represent a useful record of his viewpoints and some of his insights into gravity and its application to cosmology, superstars, wormholes, and gravitational waves at that particular time. The lectures also contain a number of fascinating digressions and asides on the foundations of physics and other issues. Characteristically, Feynman took an untraditional non-geometric approach to gravitation and general relativity based on the underlying quantum aspects of gravity. Hence, these lectures contain a unique pedagogical account of the development of Einstein's general theory of relativity as the inevitable result of the demand for a self-consistent theory of a massless spin-2 field (the graviton) coupled to the energy-momentum tensor of matter. This approach also demonstrates the intimate and fundamental connection between gauge invariance and the principle of equivalence.' 
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Gellert, Walter, and et al (eds), The VNR Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics , Van Nostrand Reinhold 1994 Preface: '... there is a wide demand for a survey of the results of mathematics ... Our task was to describe mathematical interrelations as briefly and precisely as possible. ... Colours are used extensively to help the reader. ... Ample examples help to make general statements understandable. ... A systematic subdivision of the material, many brief section headings, and tables are meant to provide the reader with quick and reliable orientation. The detailed index to the book gives easy access to specific questions. ...' The Editors and Publishers  
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Hallett, Michael, Cantorian set theory and limitation of size, Oxford UP 1984 Jacket: 'This book will be of use to a wide audience, from beginning students of set theory (who can gain from it a sense of how the subject reached its present form), to mathematical set theorists (who will find an expert guide to the early literature), and for anyone concerned with the philosophy of mathematics (who will be interested by the extensive and perceptive discussion of the set concept).' Daniel Isaacson. 
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Jisheng, Yang, Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012 'An estimated thirty-six million Chinese men, women and children starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s. One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, the famine is poorly understood, and in China is still euphemistically referred to as the “three years of natural disaster.” As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang Jisheng spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Finding no natural causes, Yang lays the deaths at the feet of China’s totalitarian Communist system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human life over ideology and self-interest.' 
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Johnson, Chalmers, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic, Metropolitan Books 2004 'In Sorrows of Empire, Johnson discusses the roots of American militarism, the rise and extent of the military-industrial complex, and the close ties between arms industry executives and high-level politicians. He also looks closely at how the military has extended the boundaries of what constitutes national security in order to centralize intelligence agencies under their control and how statesmen have been replaced by career soldiers on the front lines of foreign policy--a shift that naturally increases the frequency with which we go to war. Though his conclusions are sure to be controversial, Johnson is a skilled and experienced historian who backs up his claims with copious research and persuasive arguments. His important book adds much to a debate about the realities and direction of U.S. influence in the world.' --Shawn Carkonen Copyright © Reed Business Information 
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Nielsen, Michael A, and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2000 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002. 
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Stone, Irving, Lust for Life, Plume 1984 Amazon book desciption: 'LUST FOR LIFE is a fictionalized biography of the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh and is based primarily on Van Gogh's three volumes of letters to his brother, Theo. Van Gogh was a violent, clumsy and passionate man who was driven to the extremity of exhaustion by his fervor to get life -- the essence of it -- into paint. Irving Stone treats the artist with great compassion and gives us a portrait that is sympathetic but fair.' 
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Links
Ergodic hypothesis - Wikipedia Ergodic hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In physics and thermodynamics, the ergodic hypothesis says that, over long periods of time, the time spent by a particle in some region of the phase space of microstates with the same energy is proportional to the volume of this region, i.e., that all accessible microstates are equally probable over a long period of time.' back
Interpretation of quantum mechanics - Wikipedia Interpretation of quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'An interpretation of quantum mechanics is a statement which attempts to explain how quantum mechanics informs our understanding of nature. Although quantum mechanics has received thorough experimental testing, many of these experiments are open to different interpretations. There exist a number of contending schools of thought, differing over whether quantum mechanics can be understood to be deterministic, which elements of quantum mechanics can be considered "real", and other matters.' back
Lagrangian - Wikipedia Lagrangian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The Lagrangian, L, of a dynamical system is a function that summarizes the dynamics of the system. It is named after Joseph Louis Lagrange. The concept of a Lagrangian was originally introduced in a reformulation of classical mechanics by Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton known as Lagrangian mechanics. In classical mechanics, the Lagrangian is defined as the kinetic energy, T, of the system minus its potential energy, V. In symbols, L = T - V. ' back
No cloning theorem - Wikipedia No cloning theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The no cloning theorem is a result of quantum mechanics which forbids the creation of identical copies of an arbitrary unknown quantum state. It was stated by Wootters, Zurek, and Dieks in 1982, and has profound implications in quantum computing and related fields.' back
Phase space - Wikipedia Phase space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In mathematics and physics, a phase space, introduced by Willard Gibbs in 1901, is a space in which all possible states of a system are represented, with each possible state of the system corresponding to one unique point in the phase space. For mechanical systems, the phase space usually consists of all possible values of position and momentum variables. , , , back
Qubit - Wikipedia Qubit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'A quantum bit, or qubit . . . is a unit of quantum information. That information is described by a state vector in a two-level quantum mechanical system which is formally equivalent to a two-dimensional vector space over the complex numbers. Benjamin Schumacher discovered a way of interpreting quantum states as information. He came up with a way of compressing the information in a state, and storing the information on a smaller number of states. This is now known as Schumacher compression. In the acknowledgments of his paper (Phys. Rev. A 51, 2738), Schumacher states that the term qubit was invented in jest, during his conversations with Bill Wootters.' back
Shangri-La - Wikipedia Shangri-La - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia—a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient. The story of Shangri-La is based on the concept of Shambhala, a mystical city in Tibetan Buddhist tradition' back
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