vol VII: Notes

2015

Notes

[Sunday 18 October 2015 - Saturday 24 October 2015]

[Notebook: DB 79: Galileo Wins]

[page 113]

Sunday 18 October 2015

Computation is necessary for error resistant coding. Error resistant coding is necessary for successful computation. This circuit can become a virtuous circle if the error rate can be kept low enough. Quantum computation faces this problem, since although we think that the underlying quantum process is continuous and deterministic, reading the results is subject to the uncertainty principle which degrades the theoretically perfect results of the perfect analogue computer to something akin to a binary computer with limited memory and word length. Here we have the fundamental problem facing the quantum computation industry, which they must try to solve with some sort of bootstrapping toward precision. Quantum computing - Wikipedia

I've collected 70 years of data now I give myself 20 years to make some sense of it and create a new theology, a new theory of everything.

The key to communication and computation is orthogonality, ie a set of orthogonal basis vectors as in an observable measurement operator. The measure of the entropy of a space is its dimension, ie the number of orthogonal (linearly independent) vectors (symbols, packets) it can contain. So entropy of 3 space is 3 and bandwidth is 3f, where f is the transmission rate of dimensions, ie letters of the alphabet, each of which serves the functions of a basis state,

Coding theory tells us how much delay is necessary to send a message at a certain degree of fidelity, which is a product of the rate of emission of symbols from the source and the length of the packet necessary to defeat the noise in the channel. This delay in turn controls the rate at which a computer can work at the chosen level of fidelity.

Recursive error reduction tending towards a limit.

[page 114]

Noisy neighbours, noisy aeroplanes. The radio is much more disturbing because it carries a signal.

Zero point energy of bosons vs fermions. Stenger, Klauber. Victor J Stenger, Robert D Klauber

Agatha Cat . . . : 'it isn't evidence. Mot yet. But its interesting, and if your feling gets any more definite, Miss Rich, I'd be glad to hear about it.' Christie

From the general relativistic point of view (and special) events are characterized by the space-time and/or energy-momentum parameters. Energy and momentum, however, are not localized in time or space (since they are conserved) but concrete events are localized by a specific time and a specific place and the interval between two events is invariant from the point of view of inertial observers.

Monday 19 October 2015

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Quantum mechanics is considered to be reversible. This is true of spatial dimensions, we can go north and south, but not true of the time dimension, which moves always in one dimension [direction].

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Thursday 22 October 2015

The longer the shot, more faith is required. The Catholic story is so weird that the Church must demand absolute faith from its members, that is complete suspension of disbelief.

The force awakens: natural theology : science awakes; we begin to follow reality, not fantasy.

[page 115]

Time travel? Memory

Friday 23 October 2015

Home again. Why does time always move forward? Some say it is the product of the second la, since the universe is conserved to be reversible in the realm of probability amplitudes. [yet actual events are motivated by increasing entropy Feynman, Leighton & Sands: FLP III:7-1

The Christian God is impenetrable because there is nothing there. God, the Cloud of Unknowing is absolutely simple. It has no sensible or observable features, it is in a sense a classical relativistic black hole, an impenetrable symmetry. That much is widely agreed. Aquinas 20: Is God altogether simple?

The trouble starts when we try to couple the model of God to our everyday concrete experiences of life. One coupling, promoted by Christianity among others, is that this God exists outside the universe and uses its powers of omniscience and omnipotence to manipulate the world. This is the role of creator and sustainer existing outside the world but in some way coupled to it.

The alternative view, promoted here, is that God and the Universe are identical. Christian dogma claims that this is impossible. To show that it is possible one must show how to do it, This is what the Wright Bros did and what I want to do. Modern logic, mathematics and physics, the modern equivalent of Aristotle's logic, shows us the way.

We begin, where Aristotle and Thomas began, with the first unmoved mover.

The politicisation of fiction; the fictionalization of politics.

[page 116]

Quantum mechanics teaches that you can't just use numbers to describe the world, you must use infinite arrays of numbers which interact with one another according to the axioms of linear algebra. Linear algebra - Wikipedia

A transfinite computer network is the phase space for the fixed points of the divinity. The fixed points of the universe interact in both computable and incomputable ways. Computation maks the network possible, but as son as the network exists it logically goes transfinite.

A metaphysical discussion of fixed points. All the steps in the discussion are tentative, but they give closure, that is they form a group, something like a Rubik's cube which has a huge number of possibilities all of which arise from a series of [stepwise] rotations around three orthogonal axes.

I spent the five best years of my youth in the Dominican Order learning how shaky are the intelectual foundations of Catholic dogma. Having (then) the welfare of the Church at heart, and in the prevailing spirit of aggiornamento, I spoke about my problem and was eventually asked to leave. What I discovered, in effect, is that the Catholic model of God is partly false. This model is represented in the work of Thomas of Aquino, which remains the foundation of orthodox Catholic theology.

The beauty of erotic depictions is enhanced by one's apprehension of the pleasure being enjoyed by the participants, or not being enjoyed by those players acting under duress.

Everything is cryptic until it is decoded and decoding may take various times. In everyday speech it is usually almost

[page 117]

instantaneous. Writing may be harder to decide, mathematics even more so, and messages deliberately encoded to maintain privacy may be effectively unbreakable, even with almost unlimited resources. Pretty Good Privacy - Wikipedia

Life = doing stuff / input, output.

For me, I think the first crack in the Aristotelian facade is the pendulum, which demonstrates that actual and potential energy are equivalent. The world is in effect pure act or pure potential, they are of equivalent power and Aristotle's axiom falls down. Potential energy - Wikipedia, Kinetic energy - Wikipedia

We follow Thomas and propose that the Universe is pure act, as Thomas thought, but quantum mechanics and quantum computation have broadened our view of what it means to act, that is to participate in the divine action of the universe [every act is a message, and every message is quantized to prevent error].

A modern name for pure act is quantum dynamics. We propose that quantum dynamics can des[cribe divine revelation].

Any consistent formal system has fixed points [is fixed points] A network of instances of Turing machines ie processes.

Computers and societies hang up for the same reason. they get caught in a loop and cannot get out of it. Insofar as a computer is a deterministic machine once it gets into a loop it may tend to stay in the loop until some creative action breaks the circuit.

All writing is an appeal to readers, even if it is only oneself.

The network is the revelation.

Transfinite numbers are a state space for the fixed points of God.

Auyang page 17: 'In quantum cosmology, the entire universe is represented by a quantum state.

page 19: 'An operator A is a linear transformation of the Hilbert space H onto itself.

Saturday 24 October 2015

Comment to Commonweal:

Jeffrey Nicholls, Subscriber October 24, 2015 - 11:13am

The commentators here seem to be worried that decentralizing the Church will lead to loss of doctrinal unity. They should perhaps take heart by looking at science. Science is effectively decentralized but scientists all agree on a basic core of truth because they are all looking at the same world. The basic article of scientific faith is that the world is one and consistent and when we see inconsistency it is because we are not looking right. Insofar as Catholic doctrine conforms to reality, we should expect it to survive decentralization.

The problem is that the church is not a scientific but a political organization. Its hierarchy has declared itself infallible and remains fixed on the idea that politics takes precedence to scientific truth. So he have bishops arguing over purely political issues like who is entitled to take communion which have no basis in reality. It is pretty difficult in these days of quantum mechanics to take real transubstantiation seriously. Communion is symbolic of membership. How can the hierarchy of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church honestly reject some people from membership on purely arbitrary grounds?

The Church is doomed unless it connects to reality. The first step in this contact is to recognize that God is real and identical to the Universe we inhabit. All the fantastic 'History of Salvation" that the Catholic monarchy relies upon to consolidate its power must be subjected to critical examination.

Real pastoral care is based on the reality of human nature, not some ancient ideas cooked up by self styled prophets who knew almost nothing about the world we now inhabit. Francis is going in right direction. I will be happy when the Church ditches all the political ideas it has inherited from the barbarous Roman Empire and becomes an compassionate, intelligent, perceptive, democratic and scientific citizen of the world. Robert Mickens: Letter from Rome: "Healthy Decentralization" Gone Awry

Submission to Eureka Street:

Is the Universe divine?

[24 October 2015]

God is absolutely simple. That much is widely agreed, at least in a mystical context. Aquinas: Summa I, 2, 7: Is God altogether simple?

The next question: is How do we couple this model of God to our everyday concrete experiences of life? Christianity holds that this God exists outside the Universe and uses its powers of omniscience and omnipotence to manage the world.

The alternative view, suggested here, is to make God and the Universe identical. The Catholic Church claims that this is impossible. To show that it is possible one must do it. This is what the Wright Bros did and what I want to do. Modern logic, mathematics and physics, the modern equivalent of Aristotle's science, show us the way.

We begin about 2500 years ago with Parmenides. He wanted to know how can we have certain knowledge of a changing world. This is a fundamental scientific question. Parmenides decided that true knowledge is only possible if there is an unchanging reality behind the appearances of change.

Parmenides' idea was taken up by Plato, who placed real reality in an invisible world of 'forms'. He interpreted the observable world as a pale shadow of that invisible world. Plato's ideas entered the mainstream of ancient thought, and, along with the Hebrew Bible, contributed much to the theoretical development of early Christianity. It became official doctrine, frozen in the ancient Christian Creeds, that God is absolutely other than the world.

Sixteen hundred years after the death of Plato, the work of his student Aristotle entered Christian Europe from the Arabic world. Plato was a literary man in a family of politicians. Aristotle was much more scientific and empirical than Plato, a voracious collector of data who inspired the fusion of medieval theology and the science of the day. Scholasticism - Wikipedia

Thomas of Aquino rebuilt Catholic theology on an Aristotelian foundation of logic and observation. In particular, Thomas took over almost verbatim Aristotle's proof for the existence of a first unmoved mover and used it to prove the existence of God. Thomas Aquinas: Does God exist?

His first proof is a classic, taking us from the observed fact of motion to the existence of a God whose prime characteristic is pure actuality. Aquinas then goes on to use the properties of pure act to prove the simplicity, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence and other traditional attributes of God. Aristotle understood the divine first mover to be part of the Universe. Thomas, faithful to the Church, placed his God outside the Universe.

The distinction between God and the Universe is unnecessary. To see this we must repeat Thomas's work using modern logic, mathematics and science in place of Aristotle. I have spent about fifty years elaborating this position. Here I want to make just one point: that fixed points are an integral part of dynamics.

These days we think of motion in a space as a transformation which maps the space onto itself. This very general idea embraces all sorts of motion. There are many mathematical theorems that tell us that the mapping of a space onto itself necessarily has fixed points which remain unmoved by the mapping: points x for which f(x) = x, where f is any motion or transformation.

The existence of these fixed points answers Parmenides question, but it also tells us that the fixed points are not outside the motion, as Parmenides, Plato and Christian theologians thought. The fixed points are simply parts of the motion that do not move. We can therefore imagine a purely actual and dynamically simple living God which nevertheless has the vast number of fixed points which constitute the Universe of our experience.

Quantum mechanics is our mathematical system for computing the fixed points of the world. In many cases quantum mechanical computations and observation agree to parts per billion or better, and there is no reason to think that many of permanent fixed points of the world are not defined perfectly, as we would expect from God. These fixed points are the foundation of all life and engineering.

The fixed points in the divine dynamics are revelation. Every experience is a message from God, and it is through our experience of the fixed points in the divinity that we form our ideas from God. Science in general is the critical study of the revelation we receive from the divine Universe. The scientific method is an example of evolution: dream up ideas then select the ones that best fit reality for further examination.

If we assume that the Universe is divine, theology can become a real science and serve as the intellectual foundation for credible religion. If it is to survive as a useful citizen of the modern Catholic Church must become democratic and scientific instead of an authoritarian purveyor of ancient unverifiable fictions. This, it seems, is the direction in which the spirit guiding Pope Francis is taking us.

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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!)

Christie, Agatha, The Cat Among the Pigeons, Putnam Publishing Group 1986 Amazon Book Description: 'Welcome to Meadowbank, an exclusive school for privileged young ladies. A fine lot. A dangerous one, too. Two teachers have already bitten the dust. It's obvious to Hercule Poirot that someone is out to scratch Meadowbank's respectable veneer.'  Amazon   back

Lakatos, Imre, Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, Cambridge University Press 1976 Amazon Editorial Review 'For anyone interested in mathematics who has not encountered the work of the late Imre Lakatos before, this book is a treasure; and those who know well the famous dialogue, first published in 1963-64 in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, that forms the greater part of this book, will be eager to read the supplementary material ... the book, as it stands, is rich and stimulating, and, unlike most writings on the philosophy of mathematics, succeeds in making excellent use of detailed observations about mathematics as it is actually practised.' Michael Dummett, Nature  Amazon   back

Polanyi, Michael, and Amaryta Sen (foreword), The Tacit Dimension, University Of Chicago Press 2009 Amazon product description: '“I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell,” writes Michael Polanyi, whose work paved the way for the likes of Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper. The Tacit Dimension argues that tacit knowledge—tradition, inherited practices, implied values, and prejudgments—is a crucial part of scientific knowledge. Back in print for a new generation of students and scholars, this volume challenges the assumption that skepticism, rather than established belief, lies at the heart of scientific discovery.'  Amazon   back

Papers

Balazs, Anna C, Irving R Ep[stein, "Emergent or Just Complex", Science, 325, 5948, 25 September 2009, page . 'Efforts toward creating artificial cells are shedding light on how live may have emerged. back

Mann, C, R Crease, "Interview with John Bell", Omni Magazine, , 85, May 1988, page 84-121. back

Zhang, Ying, et al, "Three Dimensional Structural View of the Central Metabolic Network of Thermotoga maritima", Science, 325, 5947, September 2009, page 1544-49. Abstract: 'Metabolic pathways have traditionally been described in terms of biochemical reactions and metabolites. With the use of structural genomics and systems biology, we generated a three-dimensional reconstruction of the central metabolic network of the bacterium Thermotoga maritima. The network encompassed 478 proteins, of which 120 were determined by experiment and 358 were modeled. Structural analysis revealed that proteins forming the network are dominated by a small number (only 182) of basic shapes (folds) performing diverse but mostly related functions. Most of these folds are already present in the essential core (~30%) of the network, and its expansion by nonessential proteins is achieved with relatively few additional folds. Thus, integration of structural data with networks analysis generates insight into the function, mechanism, and evolution of biological networks.'. back

Links

Aquinas 20, Summa I, 3, 7: Whether God is altogether simple? , 'I answer that, The absolute simplicity of God may be shown in many ways. First, from the previous articles of this question. For there is neither composition of quantitative parts in God, since He is not a body; nor composition of matter and form; nor does His nature differ from His "suppositum"; nor His essence from His existence; neither is there in Him composition of genus and difference, nor of subject and accident. Therefore, it is clear that God is nowise composite, but is altogether simple. . . . ' back

Asian Metal Inc, Asian Metal - The World, 'Asian Metal has powerful and complete international trade access platform system, as well as independent and personalized trade information distribution and negotiation platform, which offers supports to tap potential business, search partners, expand consumer opportunity channel on the basis of Asian Metal's strong global client network.' back

Feynman, Leighton & Sands, FLP III:7 The Dependence of Amplitudes on Time, 'We want now to talk a little bit about the behavior of probability amplitudes in time. We say a “little bit,” because the actual behavior in time necessarily involves the behavior in space as well. Thus, we get immediately into the most complicated possible situation if we are to do it correctly and in detail. We are always in the difficulty that we can either treat something in a logically rigorous but quite abstract way, or we can do something which is not at all rigorous but which gives us some idea of a real situation—postponing until later a more careful treatment. With regard to energy dependence, we are going to take the second course. We will make a number of statements. We will not try to be rigorous—but will just be telling you things that have been found out, to give you some feeling for the behavior of amplitudes as a function of time.' back

Julian Burnside, Terror laws: Extreme laws an attack on what we hold dear, 'It's time for politicians to recognise that our anti-terror legislation is already more draconian than the scale of the problem justifies. It's time for them to think about devoting much-needed resources to a real problem, even if it does not promise them much political benefit. Australia has some of the most extreme anti-terror legislation in the world. As it is brought to bear on 14-year-olds, we should reflect on the fact that our society – with its assumptions of freedom and justice – is less threatened by terrorism than it is by laws like these.' back

Ken Wharton, The Ultimate Physics Experiment, Essay Abstract 'The ultimate limit of physics is not a theoretical limit, but rather an experimental one; without testable results (at least in principle), any purported theory could not be said to be physical, or even an application of the scientific method. Using a few basic tools from modern physics, this essay is an attempt to deduce those ultimate experimental limits. This analysis ascribes a central importance to the very successful variational principles (VPs) used in both general relativity and quantum theory. Applying such VPs in some measureable 4D region of spacetime requires one to constrain partial-information boundary conditions on the 3D (hypersurface) boundary of that 4D region. Given the key premise that the constrained, mathematical boundary conditions in VPs directly correspond to values constrained by actual external measurements, one can build up a probabilistic block-universe framework that seems capable of encompassing future developments towards a general theory of measurement and quantum gravity. A general analysis of the ultimate experiments explainable by such a theory yields a reasonable estimation of the limits of physics.' back

Kent A Peacock, The No-Signalling Theorems: A Nitpicking distinction, Essay Abstract 'The impossibility of using quantum nonlocality for controllable signalling is widely accepted in the literature. However, a critical examination of the proof strategies used to establish this claim shows that they are circular, in the sense that they depend upon locality assumptions that grant what needed to be proven in order to establish no-signalling, or which were embedded ad hoc in the formalism of quantum theory precisely in order to block predictions of signalling. We conclude that forty-five years after the publication of Bell's Theorem, the question of signalling remains open.' back

Kinetic energy - Wikipedia, Kinetic energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body in decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest.' back

Linear algebra - Wikipedia, Linear algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning vector spaces and linear mappings between such spaces. It includes the study of lines, planes, and subspaces, but is also concerned with properties common to all vector spaces. The set of points with coordinates that satisfy a linear equation forms a hyperplane in an n-dimensional space. The conditions under which a set of n hyperplanes intersect in a single point is an important focus of study in linear algebra. Such an investigation is initially motivated by a system of linear equations containing several unknowns. Such equations are naturally represented using the formalism of matrices and vectors.' back

Peter Lynd, What is ultimately possible in physics depends on foundations and philosophy, Essay Abstract 'I argue that what is ultimately possible in physics will ultimately depend on the willingness and ability of individual physicists to seriously concern themselves with the question of whether a theory's physical foundations and assumptions actually correspond to Nature or not. Several examples in modern physics related to the topics of time and space-time are discussed where I feel this issue to be especially pertinent, including the existence of spacetime, the theory of cosmic inflation, the standard interpretation of the 'block' view of time provided by relativity, the theory that time and space are quantized, and thermodynamic time reversal. I conclude with some comments about Albert Einstein, a physicist I believe physics can today still learn much from, not just for his theories and ideas, but also from his approach to physics.' back

Potential energy - Wikipedia, Potential energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, potential energy is the energy of an object or a system due to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system. The SI unit for measuring work and energy is the joule (symbol J). The term potential energy was coined by the 19th century Scottish engineer and physicist William Rankine although it has links to Greek philosopher Aristotle's concept of potentiality. Potential energy is associated with a set of forces that act on a body in a way that depends only on the body's position in space.' back

Pretty Good Privacy - Wikipedia, Pretty Good Privacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia, 'Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications. It was created by Phil Zimmermann in 1991. PGP and similar software follow the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880) for encrypting and decrypting data.' back

Quantum computing - Wikipedia, Quantum computing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Quantum computing studies theoretical computation systems (quantum computers) that make direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.[1] Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), each of which is always in one of two definite states (0 or 1), quantum computation uses quantum bits (qubits), which can be in superpositions of states. A quantum Turing machine is a theoretical model of such a computer, and is also known as the universal quantum computer.' back

Robert D Klauber, Mechanism for Vanishing Zero-Point Energy, 'IIn addition to the two standard solutions of the quantum field equations having the form e^{+/-(iwt-ikx)}, there exist two additional solutions of the form e^{+/-(iwt+ikx). By incorporating these latter solutions, deemed "supplemental solutions", into the development of quantum field theory, one finds a simple and natural cancellation of terms that results in an energy VEV, and a cosmological constant, of zero. This fundamental, and previously unrecognized, inherent symmetry in quantum field theory shows promise for providing a resolution of the large vacuum energy problem, simply and directly, with little modification or extension to the extant mathematics of the theory. In certain scenarios, slight asymmetries could give rise to dark energy.' back

Robert D. Klauber, Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory, 'Book/Website Aim This book and this website aim to make learning, and teaching, quantum field theory (QFT) easier, and thus, more efficient and fulfilling. Both the book and the website are products of extensive student input, incorporate innovative teaching methodologies, and avoid conciseness in favor of elaborate explanations. Every step-by-small-step is included in derivations, and big picture, conceptual overviews (called “wholeness charts”) are provided at every level.' back

Robert Mickens, Letter from Rome: "Healthy Decentralization" Gone Awry, 'Whether the Roman Church can and should allow remarried Catholic divorcees (and others in “irregular” unions) to return to full sacramental life has been a hotly debated question these past few weeks, just as it was at last year’s extraordinary Synod assembly and during the twelve months in between. Obviously, this is not the only issue the bishops were asked to address concerning marriage and family life (as it’s been said before, “there’s far too much meat on the fire”), but it has remained one of the most critical. And judging by the reports the thirteen discussion groups each issued this past Tuesday evening, the Synod Fathers are not of one mind on how to proceed on this question.' back

Rubik's Brand Ltd., The Home of Rubik's Cube, back

Scholasticism - Wikipedia, Scholasticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics ("scholastics," or "schoolmen") of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100 to 1700, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending dogma in an increasingly pluralistic context. It originated as an outgrowth of, and a departure from, Christian monastic schools at the earliest European universities. . . . .' back

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I, 2, 3: Whether God exists?, 'I answer that, The existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . ' back

Victor J Stenger, A Case Against the Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos, ' we need not invoke multiple universes to provide plausible natural explanations for the anthropic coincidences. Published studies show that some form of life should be possible over a wide range of parameters. However, a claim has been made that five parameters in physics and cosmology are so exquisitely fine - tuned that even the tiniest change in any one of these would have made any conceivable kind of life impossible. Here it is shown that these five parameters have exactly the values they should have or are within a wide range allowed by known physics.' back

William Chen, Lecture Notes: Linear Algebra, 'This set of notes has been compiled over a period of more than 30 years. Some chapters were used in various forms and on many occasions between 1981 and 1990 by the author at Imperial College, University of London. The remaining chapters were written in Sydney. The material has been organized in such a way to create a single volume suitable to take the reader to a reasonable level of linear algebra. Chapters 1 - 4 cover very basic material. The concept of vector spaces is then introduced in Chapters 5 - 7. More advanced topics, including the concept of linear transformations from one vector space to another and the concept of inner products, are covered in Chapters 8 - 12.' back