"natural theology > notes > 2017

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Axelrod, Robert, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, Reised Edition 2006 'The Evolution of Cooperation provides valuable insights into the age-old question of whether unforced cooperation is ever possible. Widely praised and much-discussed, this classic book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists-whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals-when there is no central authority to police their actions. The problem of cooperation is central to many different fields. Robert Axelrod recounts the famous computer tournaments in which the “cooperative” program Tit for Tat recorded its stunning victories, explains its application to a broad spectrum of subjects, and suggests how readers can both apply cooperative principles to their own lives and teach cooperative principles to others.'
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Berger, Peter, A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural, Anchor/Doubleday 1990 'This book deals with the state of theological and religious thought in the modern world, where the availability of several options for individuals to think and believe has caused a challenge to theological thought and religious institutions. He makes the case that a complete understanding of this is important for both religious and non-religious individuals, and also for theologians and scholars of religion.' Roland
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Feynman, Richard P, and Robert B Leighton, Matthew Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume 3) : Quantum Mechanics, Addison Wesley 1970 Foreword: 'This set of lectures tries to elucidate from the beginning those features of quantum mechanics which are the most basic and the most general. . . . In each instance the ideas are introduced together with a detailed discussion of some specific examples - to try to make the physical ideas as real as possible.' Matthew Sands
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Khinchin, Aleksandr Yakovlevich, Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory (translated by P A Silvermann and M D Friedman), Dover 1957 Jacket: 'The first comprehensive introduction to information theory, this book places the work begun by Shannon and continued by McMillan, Feinstein and Khinchin on a rigorous mathematical basis. For the first time, mathematicians, statisticians, physicists, cyberneticists and communications engineers are offered a lucid, comprehensive introduction to this rapidly growing field.'
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Lonergan, Bernard J F, and Robert M. Doran, Frederick E. Crowe (eds), Verbum : Word and Idea in Aquinas (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan volume 2), University of Toronto Press 1997 Jacket: 'Verbum is a product of Lonergan's eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan's theology ... . Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan's work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind.'
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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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Siegel, Warren, Introduction to String Field Theory, World Scientific 1988 Introduction: 'The experiments that gave us quantum theory and general relativity are now quite old, but a satisfactory theory which is consistent with both of them has yet to be found. ... Strings ... offer a possibility of consistently describing all of nature. However, even if strings eventually turn out to disagree with nature, or to be too intractable to be useful for phenomenological applications, they are still the only consistent toy models of quantum gravity ... so their study willbe useful for discovering new properties of quantum gravity.' page 1.
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Weber, Max, Economy and Society, University of California Press 2013 'Published posthumously in the early 1920's, Max Weber's Economy and Society has since become recognized as one of the greatest sociological treatises of the 20th century, as well as a foundational text of the modern sociological imagination. The first strictly empirical comparison of social structures and normative orders conducted in world-historical depth, this two volume set of Economy and Society—now with new introductory material contextualizing Weber’s work for 21st century audiences—looks at social action, religion, law, bureaucracy, charisma, the city, and the political community.'
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Yourgrau, Wolfgang, and Stanley Mandelstam, Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory, Dover 1979 Variational principles serve as filters for parititioning the set of dynamic possibilities of a system into a high probability and a low probability set. The method derives from De Maupertuis (1698-1759) who formulated the principle of least action, which states that physical laws include a rule of economy, the principle of least action. This principle states that in a mathematically described dynamic system will move so as to minimise action. Yourgrau and andelstam explains the application of this principle to a variety of physical systems.
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Zee, Anthony, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton University Press 2003 Amazon book description: 'An esteemed researcher and acclaimed popular author takes up the challenge of providing a clear, relatively brief, and fully up-to-date introduction to one of the most vital but notoriously difficult subjects in theoretical physics. A quantum field theory text for the twenty-first century, this book makes the essential tool of modern theoretical physics available to any student who has completed a course on quantum mechanics and is eager to go on. Quantum field theory was invented to deal simultaneously with special relativity and quantum mechanics, the two greatest discoveries of early twentieth-century physics, but it has become increasingly important to many areas of physics. These days, physicists turn to quantum field theory to describe a multitude of phenomena. Stressing critical ideas and insights, Zee uses numerous examples to lead students to a true conceptual understanding of quantum field theory--what it means and what it can do. He covers an unusually diverse range of topics, including various contemporary developments,while guiding readers through thoughtfully designed problems. In contrast to previous texts, Zee incorporates gravity from the outset and discusses the innovative use of quantum field theory in modern condensed matter theory. Without a solid understanding of quantum field theory, no student can claim to have mastered contemporary theoretical physics. Offering a remarkably accessible conceptual introduction, this text will be widely welcomed and used.
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Papers

Wigner, Eugene P, "The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences", Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13, 1, February 1960, page 1-14. 'The first point is that the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it. Second, it is just this uncanny usefulness of mathematical concepts that raises the question of the uniqueness ofour physical theories.'. back

Links

Alan Collins and Andrew Merdith, A map that fills a 500-million year gap in Earth's history, 'Along with our colleagues, we have published the first whole-Earth plate tectonic map of half a billion years of Earth history, from 1,000 million years ago to 520 million years ago. The time range is crucial. It’s a period when the Earth went through the most extreme climate swings known, from “Snowball Earth” icy extremes to super-hot greenhouse conditions, when the atmosphere got a major injection of oxygen and when multicellular life appeared and exploded in diversity.' back

Anne Applebaum, How U.S. presidents missed the Russia threat - until it was much too late, 'Nobody in Western politics paid much attention, but many others in the West were eager to aid that transformation. In particular, many were eager to help a cabal of revanchist former KGB officers, in league with Russian organized crime, to steal money that belonged to the Russian state, launder it abroad, bring it back and use it to take power. While Western presidents and prime ministers were distracted by other things, Western lawyers, accountants, unscrupulous offshore bankers and even mainstream bankers were happily taking cuts.' back

Barney Zwartz, Cardinal George Pell: Charges of historical sex offences will define Vatican official's legacy, 'Certainly, the charges this week owe nothing to media witch-hunts. Victoria Police would have deliberated long and hard before deciding to prosecute, with doubtless a passing thought for the political and media ramifications. But in the end, their decision must have been based on their assessment of the probability of conviction.' back

Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, Soundtrack for a Revolution, 'Tells the story of the American civil rights movement through its powerful music - the freedom songs protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality. Features new performances of the freedom songs by top artists; archival footage; and interviews with civil rights foot soldiers and leaders.' back

Daniel K. Williams, The Democrats' Religion Problem, '. . . secular Democrats need to study the religious language of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. They need to take the time to learn the religious values of their audience. They need to be honest about their own secularity, but acknowledge their debt to the religious traditions that have shaped their progressive ideology. Only through a willingness to ground their policy proposals in the religious values of prospective voters will they be able to convince people of faith that they are not a threat to their values but are instead an ally in a common cause.' back

Daniel Lippman, 'Its the End of Small Talk in Washington', back

David Brooks, The G.O.P. Rejects Conservatism, 'First, conservative policy intellectuals tend to have accepted the fact that American society is coming apart and that measures need to be taken to assist the working class. Republican politicians show no awareness of this fact. Second, conservative writers and intellectuals have a vision for how they want American society to be in the 21st century. Republican politicians have a vision of how they want American government to be in the 21st century.' back

David Ignatius, What happens when the whole world becomes selfish?, 'Trump’s critics, including me, have been arguing that this selfish stance is actually weakening America by shredding the network of global alliances and institutions on which U.S. power has rested. . . . Nobody wants to seem like a chump in Trump world. When the leader of the global system proclaims that he won’t be bound by foreign restraints, the spirit becomes infectious. Call the global zeitgeist what you will: The new realism. Eyes on the prize. Winning isn’t the most important thing, it’s the only thing.' back

David W. Dunlap, How The Times Gave 'Gay' Its Own Voice Again , 'I’m gay. I could not have written those words in The New York Times 30 years ago. Not out of fear. My family, friends and colleagues had known for quite a while. No, I could not have written those words because our Manual of Style and Usage prohibited it: gay. Do not use as a synonym for homosexual unless it appears in the formal, capitalized name of an organization or in quoted matter. Liberation arrived on June 15, 1987, in a note to the staff from Allan M. Siegal, who was then an assistant managing editor. “Starting immediately,” he stated, “we will accept the word gay as an adjective meaning homosexual.” ' back

Eugene Wigner, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, 'The first point is that the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it. Second, it is just this uncanny usefulness of mathematical concepts that raises the question of the uniqueness of our physical theories.' back

Exodus, 20:16, False witness, 'Exodus 20:16 King James Version (KJV) 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.' back

IEA, WEI 2016 - Fact Sheet, 'Electricity generation spending reached USD 420 billion, with renewables accounting for the about 70% of the total, or USD 288 billion. Gas generation investment plummeted by 40% to USD 31 billion, while coal investment rose by nearly a quarter to USD 78 billion, largely due to China. The vast majority of electricity investments occurred under business models of fully regulated revenues or mechanisms (e.g. power purchase agreements) to manage revenue risk . Only 5% of power generation investment was based solely on competitive wholesale market pricing.' . back

International Energy Agency, Key World Energy Trends, 'World energy production was 13 800 Mtoe in 2014 – 1.1% more than in 2013. Fossil fuels accounted for 81.2% of it- a 0.4% decrease compared to 81.6% in 2013. Oil production increased the most (+2.1%), followed by coal and natural gas (+0.8% and 0.6% respectively). Together the production of these three fossil fuels increased by +1.3% in 2014' back

ISES Conference Paris 1973, UNESDOC Conference Papers, ' International Congress on the Sun in the Service of Mankind; Paris; 1973 Moumouni, Abdou; Hima, Abdoulaye Etude, fabrication, vulgarisation de chauffe-eau solaires adaptés au climat du Sahel Publ: 1973; 10 p., illus., tables; EH65.' back

Jason Samenow, I worked on the EPA's climate change website. Its removal is a declaration of war, 'This spring, political officials at the Environmental Protection Agency removed the agency’s climate change website, one of the world’s top resources for information on the science and effects of climate change. To me, a scientist who managed this website for more than five years, its removal signifies a declaration of war on climate science by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.' back

John Church,Christopher Wason Mstt King, Xianyao Chen and Xuebin Zhang, Contributions to sea-level rise have increased by half since 1993, largely because of Greenand's ice, 'Contributions to the rate of global sea-level rise increased by about half between 1993 and 2014, with much of the increase due to an increased contribution from Greenland’s ice, according to our new research. Our study, published in Nature Climate Change, shows that the sum of contributions increased from 2.2mm per year to 3.3mm per year. This is consistent with, although a little larger than, the observed increase in the rate of rise estimated from satellite observations.' back

John Lennon, On violence, “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.” back

John Lennon, Give Peace A Chance, 'The song was written during Lennon's Bed-In honeymoon: when asked by a reporter what he was trying to achieve by staying in bed, Lennon answered spontaneously "All we are saying is give peace a chance"; Lennon liked the phrase and set it to music for the song.[citation needed]. He sang the song several times during the Bed-In, and finally, on 1 June 1969, in Room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, recorded it using a simple setup of four microphones and a four-track tape recorder rented from a local recording studio.' back

John Lennon_2, Give Peace A Chance, 'The song was written during Lennon's Bed-In honeymoon: when asked by a reporter what he was trying to achieve by staying in bed, Lennon answered spontaneously "All we are saying is give peace a chance"; Lennon liked the phrase and set it to music for the song.[citation needed]. He sang the song several times during the Bed-In, and finally, on 1 June 1969, in Room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, recorded it using a simple setup of four microphones and a four-track tape recorder rented from a local recording studio.' back

Joseph Berger, Peter Berger, Theologian Who Fought 'God Is Dead' Movement, Dies at 88, 'Peter L. Berger, an influential, and contrarian, Protestant theologian and sociologist who, in the face of the “God is dead” movement of the 1960s, argued that faith can indeed flourish in modern society if people learn to recognize the transcendent and supernatural in ordinary experiences, died on Tuesday at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 88.' back

Karl Tuyls, Footballing androids of RoboCup are vital players in our robotic future, 'football demands many of the characteristics that make robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in general challenging. It requires robots to work together and at the same time compete against other opponents. It involves dealing with a large amount of uncertainty about the environment in terms of those other robots. It also places high demands on the technology robots use to interact with the world – their ears, eyes, hands and feet – and puts them in situations where their hardware can easily fail or even break.' back

Kurdaitcha - Wikipedia, Kurdaitcha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Bone pointing The expectation that death would result from having a bone pointed at a victim is not without foundation. Other similar rituals that cause death have been recorded around the world. Victims become listless and apathetic, usually refusing food or water with death often occurring within days of being "cursed". When victims survive, it is assumed that the ritual was executed faultily.' back

Leonardo (ISAST), The International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology, 'This is an evolving list of artists, scientists, art/science collaborations, projects and organizations who are working on issues related to the intersection of art, science and the environment. If you have suggestions to add to the list, please send them to isast@leonardo.info.' back

Maxwell's equations - Wikipedia, Maxwell's equations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In addition, E and B are mutually perpendicular to each other and the direction of wave propagation, and are in phase with each other. A sinusoidal plane wave is one special solution of these equations. Maxwell's equations explain how these waves can physically propagate through space. The changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field through Faraday's law. In turn, that electric field creates a changing magnetic field through Maxwell's addition to Ampère's law. This perpetual cycle allows these waves, now known as electromagnetic radiation, to move through space at velocity c.' back

Michael West, Rumours of the death of multinational tax avoidance are greatly exaggerated, 'The Australian government took out newspaper ads earlier this month boasting of unequivocal victory in the fight against multinational tax avoidance. It is no small irony that taxpayers have forked out for this bald-faced lie. “Multinational corporations earning Australian dollars now pay their fair share of Australian tax,” decreed the ad. The Australian government advertisement falls a long way short of telling the whole truth about multinationals’ tax. Commonwealth of Australia Hardly. While it is true that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and the federal government have reaped more income tax from multinationals this year than they had earlier anticipated, this is a fight that has only just begun.' back

Natural monopoly - Wikipedia, Natural monopoly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A natural monopoly is a monopoly in an industry in which high infrastructural costs and other barriers to entry relative to the size of the market give the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, an overwhelming advantage over potential competitors. This frequently occurs in industries where capital costs predominate, creating economies of scale that are large in relation to the size of the market; examples include public utilities such as water services and electricity.' back

New York Times Editorial Bard, The Torturers Speak, 'It’s hard to watch the videotaped depositions of the two former military psychologists who, working as independent contractors, designed, oversaw and helped carry out the “enhanced interrogation” of detainees held at C.I.A. black sites in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The men, Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, strike a professional pose. Dressed in suits and ties, speaking matter-of-factly, they describe the barbaric acts they and others inflicted on the captives, who were swept up indiscriminately and then waterboarded, slammed into walls, locked in coffins and more — all in the hunt for intelligence that few, if any, of them possessed. One died of apparent hypothermia. Many others were ultimately released without charge.' back

Ocean heat content - Wikipedia, Ocean heat content - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Oceanic heat content (OHC) is the heat stored in the ocean. Oceanography and climatology are the science branches which study ocean heat content. Changes in the ocean heat content play an important role in the sea level rise, because of thermal expansion. It is with high confidence that ocean warming accounts for 90% of the energy accumulation from global warming between 1971 and 2010.' back

Religious conversion - Wikipedia, Religious conversion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'At the fundamental level conversion is the awakening of religious knowledge or understanding within a human being who had previously no belief in or concern with religious or spiritual matters. This awakening to moral and spiritual realities thus precedes a transformation of lifestyle and thought patterns often taking place over a long period of time and requiring a significant level of effort and commitment as described in the spiritual teachings of the world's great religions.' back

Sarah Hayes, Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today, 'As the slow movement, anti-consumerism and concerns over sustainability gather pace, a new brand of cultural capital may emerge. A cheap polyester jumper and a disposable coffee cup may become a sign of inappropriate excess. A minimal wardrobe of ethically produced clothes and a reusable coffee cup could become the ultimate marker of status.' back

Self-licking ice cream cone - Wikipedia, Self-licking ice cream cone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In political jargon, a self-licking ice cream cone is a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself. The phrase appeared to have been first used in 1992, in On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones, a paper by Pete Worden about NASA's bureaucracy. back

Sheila Pinkel, Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) in Laos, 'Laos has the distinction of being, per capita, the most heavily bombed nation in the world. More bombs were dropped on Laos than were dropped by all parties during the Second World War. . . . The equivalent of a planeload of bombs was dropped every eight minutes for nine years. Roughly 30 percent of this ordnance failed to detonate. In many areas of Laos, people were forced to live in caves during the day and farm only at night. ' [ Volume 3, Issue 1: The Aftereffects of War in Asia: Histories, Pictures and Anxieties; Guest Edited by Young Min Moon, Fall 2012 Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.7977573.0003.107] back

Theory of Forms - Wikipedia, Theory of Forms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. When used in this sense, the word form or idea is often capitalized. Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only true objects of study that can provide us with genuine knowledge; thus even apart from the very controversial status of the theory, Plato's own views are much in doubt. Plato spoke of Forms in formulating a possible solution to the problem of universals.' back

Tim Weiner, How Donald Trump Misunderstood the F.B.I., ' To the agents who were present at the time, it was first and foremost an F.B.I. story. ‘‘We were the people who did the work,’’ Magallanes told me. ‘‘It was we, the F.B.I., who brought Richard Nixon down. We showed that our government can investigate itself.’’' back

William Blake (Archive), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Copy A), The William Blake Archive GALLERY MODE The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Copy A (Printed 1790) back

vol VII: Notes

2017

Notes

Sunday 25 June 2017

Monday 26 June 2017

Tuesday 27 June 2017

Wednesday 28 June 2017

Thursday 29 June 2017

Friday 30 June 2017

Saturday 1 July 2017

Further reading

Books

Papers

Links