vol VII: Notes
2019
Notes
Sunday 10 March 2019 - Saturday 16 March 2019
[Notebook: DB 83: Physical Theology]
[page 149]
Sunday 10 March 2019
The existence of black holes shows that the local structure of the universe is contingent rather than necessary. In the case of sufficiently large masses of matter, the phase of burning nuclear fuel delays its collapse into a black hole by maybe millions or billions of years depending on its size.
[page 150]
A one line theory of everything: every act, at every scale, annihilates p and creates not-p.
Perhaps there is a scale near the beginning where potential and kinetic energy bifurcated and they have stayed separate but equal ever since, and their orthogonality is only destroyed by singularities. Perhaps all the energy of antimatter got absorbed in potential, which is why we have plenty of potential and almost no antimatter.
Quantum measurement is a message source, a communication that results in some outcome, like the absorption of a photon changes the state of an atomic electron. The eigenvalues that we measure correspond to the letters in the source output which represent in turn eigenfunctions, that is stationary points in the evolution of the tensor product space of the Hilbert spaces of the particles involved in the interaction. Like a communication source, quantum interactions have an alphabet of letters ai whose probabilities of emission pi are computed by the Born rule. Like the letters of a communication source, the sum of the pi is normalized to 1, ie ∑i pi = 1.
Where are the letters physically stored? In theory they are elements of the linear superposition of the eigenfunctions of the wave equation. Are they real or just possibilities? How does this match my head full of words that I could say? The Born Rule yields probabilities for independent events. When I speak the 'letters' I emit are not independent but are correlated into a sentence which expresses something more than the independent words. The words I say (or write here) are in effect entangled. Can we understand sequences of observations on a quantum
[page 151]
source as similarly entangled to express complex sequences of operations like the acquisition and release of an oxygen molecule by a molecule of haemoglobin. Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen: Can the Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?
In the current world quantum mechanical processes are very complex as we see in the perturbation series represented by Feynman diagrams, but back near the beginning thing were much simpler, perhaps because working in the time dimension alone like a track of recorded music, which is nevertheless (in effect) a sequence of phonemes entangled by the linear structure of the track.
I am trying to invent a simple thing like a wheel. The parts of my wheel are bosons, fermions, [photons, electrons,] the velocty of light in Minkowski space coupled together with a little computer network that consumes energy and momentum and gives certain outputs given certain inputs. This network may be a single computer represented by something like the Dirac equation which communicates with many other elements of Minkowski space also represented by Dirac equations, which are themselves constructed from Schr&oum;dinger equations coupled by a fixed relationship, ie one clock, our definition of a single computer. A computer network, on the other hand, has asynchronous elements [eg independent Dirac spaces].
What we are looking for is self-bootstrapping systems constructed by random events but which once they come into existence are capable of maintaining themselves. An instance of variation and selection. Just as I am a somewhat random emergence which is able to maintain my existence in my socioeconomic niche.
I have to just go along like this ignoring the detailed calculations of current physics, but respecting the phenomena as Heisenberg suggested in his article about the new quantum mechanics. In a way I
[page 152]
am working from phenomena to digital mechanism rather than from a mathematical mechanisms to explain the phenomena. Werner Heisenberg: Quantum-theoretical re-interpretation of kinematic and mechanical relations
We can build a computer with just three elements not (= an action), and (representing bosons) and not-and (fermion) the Sheffer stroke. Sheffer stroke - Wikipedia
A one sentence theory of everything: action ≡ not ≡ creation of orthogonality.
Velocity of light: phase measured in cycles per second locked to phase measured in cycles per metre.
Misner Thorne and Wheeler: Special relativity: measure distance in units of time; measure time in units of distance [I prefer time, it seems more primitive and simpler]. MTW want to do everything in distance, cm. Misner, Thorne and Wheeler: Gravitation
MTW page 42: Gab = 8πTab. The Einstein equation shows how the stress-energy of matter [Tab] generates curvature in its neighbourhood. G is a sort of average of Riemann [tensor] over all directions.
Physics describes the world in terms of geometric objects. I want to describe it in terms of logical objects, How do we do the conversion? How do we get from geometry to logic, from matter to mind? [by digitization, through Shannon's theorem which tells us that communication is digitized arithmetic, and Turings theorem that tells us that computation is also digitized logic. Logic and arithmetic meet in Boolean algebra]. Claude Shannon: Communication in the Presence of NoiseAlan Turing: On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Boolean algebra - Wikipedia
MTW page 48: '. . . geometric objects in spacetime are entities that exist independently of coordinate systems and reference frames.
Logical objects are inherently coordinate free since no
[page 153]
no metric is involved. Everything comes down to applications of truth tables and we can draw logic circuits to describe what is happening in more complex systems. Shannon. A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Logic Circuits - Wikipedia
MTW page 187: 'An argument by Schild . . . yields an important conclusion - the existence of gravitational redshift shows that a consistent theory of gravity cannot be constructed within the framework of special relativity . . .. '
page 189: '. . . all the effects of a uniform gravitational field are identical to the effects of a uniform acceleration of the coordinate system.' Equivalence.
The general difficulty with understanding things is to get far enough away to see [the broad picture] of what is really going on, to find a frame of reference, in effect a symmetry, where everything falls into place. This it would seem is the power of the logical approach which abstracts from the details of differential geometry etc [because at the logical level, differential geometry does not exist yet]. What is the logical foundation of inertial space, ie how can we imitate it with a digital mechanism, exercising the minimum control equivalent to the maximum symmetry, trying to apply the [principle of] heuristic simplicity. So what is controlled at the fundamental level? h and c [and we must not forget the information encoded in their dimensions, which remain in place at the macroscopic scale, and are therefore a symmetry applying to all layers of the universe from the birth of h and c on up].
One wonders why it takes a 1300 page booklet to describe a structure which has been with the universe since the very beginning when it had no size, but had enough orthogonal elements to be small machine. The first machine (God) had just one part (the one line theory of
[page 154]
everything, page 250).
MTW page 308: My note (2006): 'Einsteins geometry is descriptive rather than explanatory [and the same is pretty much true of the standard model]. It does not actually tell us what makes things tick [energy of course!] This is true of all continuous theories. We need discrete logiical computational mechanisms to explain how things work.
Monday 11 March
In electrodynamics there are four potentials, one corresponding to each dimension of space-time, the electro-magnetic four potential which combines the electric scalar potential and the magnetic vector potential into a single four vector. In gravitation ten potentials are united in the metric tensor.
MTW page 364: 'The boundary of a boundary is zero"
367: The one central point is a law of conservation (conservation of charge, conservation of momentum-energy0. The other central point is the "automatic fulfillment of the conservation law. "Automatic conservation" requires that source not be an agent free to vary from point to point and instant to instant [we guess that conservations come from bifurcations into equivalent positive and negative quantities of something. How does this equate to logic? Through a quantum of action for each logical operation, every act creates and annihilates].
Tuesday 12 March 2019
[page 155]
Wittgenstein's last sentence in the Tractatus underlines the fact that genes do not say enough to fully control the structure of the brain. Wittgenstein: Major Works
Combat laziness by getting into almost impossible situations (intellectually) and then trying to find a consistent way out of them.
Borel Set Borel set - Wikipedia
MTW 1208: Pregeometry [see also Noyes] Noyes & Van Den Berg: Bit-String Physics: A Finite and Discrete Approach to Natural Philosophy
Thomas Mann 1937: "Science never makes any advance until philosophy authorizes and encourages it to do so."
[Bastin &] Kilmister; Bastin & Kilmister: Combinatorial Physics
Third walk of the day and no ideas. Must crash through, so let us make a two dimensional Schrödinger equation to take care of 2D energy and momentum, is kinetic and potential, and a photon, and then phase lock two of these together to make electrons, positrons and a 4D element of Minkowski space. This is the plan now we need to work on the details expressing them logically and then making them into a continuum with the help of the law of large numbers.
Wednesday 13 March 2019
Why does energy curve space? General relativity explains this geometrically, but what is the real reason? Or is there no real reason. Then in some way energy and geometry must be identical, at root, being interpreted differently at higher layers which give new meaning to the two
[pagr 256]
representations.
Thursday 14 March 2019
Every layer of the universal network is a new interpretation, a new moment, a new meaning.
Friday 15 March 2019
Mechanism conquers scepticism. Watching a bike rider in the distance we see pedals going around and the wheels going around. Hume and his ilk would see this as an interesting conjunction with no rational connection. As the cyclist came closer, however, he would see the bike chain running from the pedals to the back wheel providing a mechanical and rational explanation of their coupling and the friction on the road as explaining why the front wheel is rotating in phase with the back wheel. We can carry this line of reasoning down into the depths of quantum mechanics where we see bosons carrying messages between fermions and establishing mechanical correlations, and up into the heavens where we find space itself, as described by general relativity, coupling moons to planets, planets to stars, stars to galaxies, galaxies to clusters and the whole lot to the overall structure of the universe. Then we can take the sceptics one by one and provide mechanical arguments against their arguments against the coherence of the world, undoing their claims of incoherence.
[page 157]
Overall, adequate resolution beings certainty until we reach the quantum level of certainty, where a certain vagueness sets in. Nevertheless the quantum of action is very precisely fixed, like the velocity of light, so there is no uncertainty in the uncertainty principle [any more than there is in the standard metre].
We can think of the transfinite numbers growing something like a light cone which has a spectrum of velocities within it ranging from 0 to c-ε, bounded by null gedesics whose particlesm prtotons, move at c
A heuristic principle (missed by Lonergan?) Explanation is physical, mechanical and logical, like a bike chain or a crankshaft. Once we can resolve the mechanism scepticism and uncertainty become impossible, or at least unreasonable. From the point of view of Shannon's theory of communication, since information is carried in discrete orthogonal units whose minimum content on the world is a quantum of action.
Hume says that we can never actually perceive that one event causes another, but this is simply a lack of resolution. Once we can see the bike chain we know for sure why the pedals turn the wheels It is a constant conjunction of events with an obvious causal explanation.
Kierkegaad: 'the fact that Christianity is contrary to reason . . . is the necessary precondition for true faith.'
Saturday 16 March 2019
[page 158]
Epistemology needs to be based on ontology. Our knowledge depends on the nature of our systems of gathering knowledge. Our ontology is shaped by evolution so that our acquisition of knowledge is shaped for survival. Survival itself is determined by the selective process which is in turn shaped by the available niches. So survival in the business world depends on different criteria from survival in the scientific or academic world.
Kinetic energy is visible. We see things move. Potential energy is invisible. I do not see the potential that is responsible for my weight. Kinetic energy is realtively easy to measure.In everyday life the kinetic energy of a moving object like a cricket ball is given by the formula KE = ½mv2, where m is the mass of the ball and v is its velocity relative to the playing field. The potential energy of the ball also has a definite measure, PE = mgh where h is its height above the playing field and g is the acceleration arising from the local gravitational potential. Both measures are relative to the playing field that serves as a frame of reference and would have different values if referred to some other frame. We might call this the classical picture.
What of the quantum mechanical picture which we take to be closer to the truth than the classical picture? Here the fundamental expression E = hf applies identically to both kinetic and potential energy. One beauty of quantum mechanics is that its outcomes are determined by the linear superposition of frequencies so that it is the difference of the frequencies involved in an event rather than their absolute values that matters, so there is no need to define a 'fundamental' frequency, that is a fundamental energy level. On the cosmic
[page 159]
scale we cannot define the energy (frequency) characteristic of the universe since there is no outside system (like the cricket field above) to give a baseline or standard frame of reference. This is consistent wth the general theory of relativity and physics in general that sees frames of reference as useful tools for measurement and computation but not part of reality and so able to be arbitrarily introduced without (when done properly) distorting reality.
It is nice to be able to occupy the borderline just this side of being too excited to write.
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Further readingBooks
Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)
Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harvest Books 1973 'Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. With The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound—therefore the most valuable—political theoretician of our times" (New Leader).'
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Bastin, Ted, and C W Kilmister, Combinatorial Physics, World Scientific 1995 About this book (World Scientific) 'The authors aim to reinstate a spirit of philosophical enquiry in physics. They abandon the intuitive continuum concepts and build up constructively a combinatorial mathematics of process. This radical change alone makes it possible to calculate the coupling constants of the fundamental fields which — via high energy scattering — are the bridge from the combinatorial world into dynamics. The untenable distinction between what is ‘observed’, or measured, and what is not, upon which current quantum theory is based, is not needed. If we are to speak of mind, this has to be present — albeit in primitive form — at the most basic level, and not to be dragged in at one arbitrary point to avoid the difficulties about quantum observation. There is a growing literature on information-theoretic models for physics, but hitherto the two disciplines have gone in parallel. In this book they interact vitally.'
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Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code, Doubleday 2003 From Publishers Weekly:
'Brown's latest thriller . . . is an exhaustively researched page-turner about secret religious societies, ancient coverups and savage vengeance. The action kicks off in modern-day Paris with the murder of the Louvre's chief curator, whose body is found laid out in symbolic repose at the foot of the Mona Lisa. Seizing control of the case are Sophie Neveu, a lovely French police cryptologist, and Harvard symbol expert Robert Langdon, reprising his role from Brown's last book. The two find several puzzling codes at the murder scene, all of which form a treasure map to the fabled Holy Grail. As their search moves from France to England, Neveu and Langdon are confounded by two mysterious groups-the legendary Priory of Sion, a nearly 1,000-year-old secret society whose members have included Botticelli and Isaac Newton, and the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Both have their own reasons for wanting to ensure that the Grail isn't found. Brown sometimes ladles out too much religious history at the expense of pacing, and Langdon is a hero in desperate need of more chutzpah. Still, Brown has assembled a whopper of a plot that will please both conspiracy buffs and thriller addicts.'
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Cantor, Georg, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers (Translated, with Introduction and Notes by Philip E B Jourdain), Dover 1895, 1897, 1955 Jacket: 'One of the greatest mathematical classics of all time, this work established a new field of mathematics which was to be of incalculable importance in topology, number theory, analysis, theory of functions, etc, as well as the entire field of modern logic.'
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Casti, John L, Five Golden Rules: Great Theories of 20th-Century Mathematics - and Why They Matter, John Wiley and Sons 1996 Preface: '[this book] is intended to tell the general reader about mathematics by showcasing five of the finest achievements of the mathematician's art in this [20th] century.' p ix. Treats the Minimax theorem (game theory), the Brouwer Fixed-Point theorem (topology), Morse's theorem (singularity theory), the Halting theorem (theory of computation) and the Simplex method (optimisation theory).
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Feferman, Solomon, and John W Dawson, Stephen C Kleene, Gregory H Moore, Robert M Solovay, Jean van Heijenoort (editors), Kurt Goedel: Collected Works Volume 1 Publications 1929-1936, Oxford UP 1986 Jacket: 'Kurt Goedel was the most outstanding logician of the twentieth century, famous for his work on the completeness of logic, the incompleteness of number theory and the consistency of the axiom of choice and the continuum hypotheses. ... The first volume of a comprehensive edition of Goedel's works, this book makes available for the first time in a single source all his publications from 1929 to 1936, including his dissertation. ...'
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Hill, Raymond, A First Course in Coding Theory, Oxford University Press, USA 1990 Amazon Editorial Reviews Book Description: 'Algebraic coding theory is a new and rapidly developing subject, popular for its many practical applications and for its fascinatingly rich mathematical structure. This book provides an elementary yet rigorous introduction to the theory of error-correcting codes. Based on courses given by the author over several years to advanced undergraduates and first-year graduated students, this guide includes a large number of exercises, all with solutions, making the book highly suitable for individual study.'
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Hoose, Phillip, Mooonbird: A Year on the Windwith the Great Survivor B95, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012 'Moonbird is a nickname scientists have given to a small Eastern shorebird known for both his unusually long life and his enormously long annual migration. Hoose intertwines the story of this bird's remarkable survival with detailed accounts of the rufa red knot's physical changes through its yearlong cycle of migrating from the bottom of the world (usually Tierra del Fuego) to its Arctic breeding grounds and back again at summer's end-a round trip of some 18,000 miles. Moonbird, known usually by the identifying label "B95" on his orange leg band, was first banded in 1995, when it was thought that he was at least three years old, and Hoose notes sightings of him through early 2011 just as the book was reaching completion. At that point it was estimated that over 20 years' time, B95 had flown "more than 325,000 miles in his life-the distance to the moon and nearly halfway back." The feat is particularly celebrated among bird scientists because this species is rapidly declining as humans use and misuse its feeding grounds and food supply. The threatened state of the species and the personal work being done by scientists and conservationists are strong themes throughout the book. Hoose describes his own experiences participating in study trips and introduces children and teens engaged in study, conservation, and lobbying projects in Canada, the United States, and Argentina. This deeply researched, engaging account is a substantial and well-designed package of information illustrated with handsome color photographs, ample maps, appended descriptions of the conservation work, and thorough source notes.' -Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Bostonα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC
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Huizinga, Johan, The Waning of the Middle Ages, University Of Chicago Press 1997 Amazon editorial review:
'In 1919, Johan Huizinga revealed in the original version of this book that the ideals, aspirations, and behaviors of humanity in history were dramatically different from those in present day. In Herfsttjj der Middeleeuwen, he recalled the waning years of the Middle Ages--the low countries in northern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries--and argued against those who claimed that human belief systems remain the same even if contexts change. His account rested not on historical fact, but on the emotions and ambitions of the people as expressed through the art and literature of their culture. Many people treated the book as groundbreaking work, and it was translated into English in 1924. This new translation is a complete, more direct version of the original and allows modern readers a full appreciation of life in an era rarely revisited.'
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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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Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Holt Paperbacks 2004 'The term “blowback,” invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia’s financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster.
In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.
'
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Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. . . . this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity. . . . '
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Montgomery, Sy, and Temple Grandin (foreword), Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Austism and Changed the World, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children 2012 'When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. Years later she was diagnosed with autism.
While Temple’s doctor recommended a hospital, her mother believed in her. Temple went to school instead.
Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her world-changing career revolutionized the livestock industry. As an advocate for autism, Temple uses her experience as an example of the unique contributions that autistic people can make.
This compelling biography complete with Temple’s personal photos takes us inside her extraordinary mind and opens the door to a broader understanding of autism.'
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Noyes, H. Pierre, and J. C. Van Den Berg, Bit-String Physics: , World Scientific 2001 'We could be on the threshold of a scientific revolution. Quantum mechanics is based on unique, finite, and discrete events. General relativity assumes a continuous, curved space-time. Reconciling the two remains the most fundamental unsolved scientific problem left over from the last century. The papers of H Pierre Noyes collected in this volume reflect one attempt to achieve that unification by replacing the continuum with the bit-string events of computer science. Three principles are used: physics can determine whether two quantities are the same or different; measurement can tell something from nothing; this structure (modeled by binary addition and multiplication) can leave a historical record consisting of a growing universe of bit-strings. This book is specifically addressed to those interested in the foundations of particle physics, relativity, quantum mechanics, physical cosmology and the philosophy of science
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Shannon, Claude E, and A D Winter, Neil J A Sloane, Collected Papers, Wiley-IEEE Press 1993 Jacket: 'This collection contains all of Claude Elwood Shannon’s published works, as well as many that have never before been published. The published papers include his classic papers on information theory and switching theory. Among the unpublished works are his once-secret war-time reports, his Ph.D. thesis on population genetics, unpublished Bell Labs memoranda, and a paper on the theory of juggling.'
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West, Morris L, Shoes of the Fisherman, 1988256 pages Amazon customer review: '. . . What makes this book and its attendant film so remarkable is that it was released a full decade before the election of another pope from the communist block. In the 1960s it was considered very shocking to consider a non-Italian pope, much less one coming from behind the Iron Curtain. This of course had the prophetic ring when Karol (not Kiril) from Poland became pope.
Another prophetic instance is in the ecclesiastical trial of the radical theologian -- during his defense, this theologian even uses the words that later theologians would use, who were silenced by the Roman order, and who finally had to leave the church to remain true to their convictions in some instances. . . . ' Fr Kurt Messick
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Wittgenstein, Ludwig, and (Tractatus) Translator C. K. Ogden, (On Certainty) Editors G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright, Translators Denis Paul and G.T.M. Amscombe , Major Works: Selected Philosophical Writings, Harper Collins 2009 ' Jacket: Major Works is the first single volume anthology of influential philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's important writings. Featuring the complete texts of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the Blue and Brown Books for Philosophical Investigations and On Certainty this new collection selects from the early, middle and late career of this revolutionary thinker, widely recognised as one of the most profound minds of all time.'
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Papers
Aspect, Alain, P. Grangier, G. Roger, "Experimental Realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell's Inequalities", Physical review Letters, 49, 2, 12 July, 1982, page 91-94. The linear-polarization correlation of pairs of photons emitted in a radiative cascade of calcium has been measured. The new experimental scheme, using two-channel polarizers (i.e., optical analogues of Stern-Gerlach filters), is a straightforward transposition of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm gedankenexperiment. The present results, in excellent agreement with the quantum mechanical predictions, lead to the greatest violation of generalized Bell's inequalities ever achieved.'. back |
Links
A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Logic Circuits - Wikipedia, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Logic Circuits - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits is the title of a master's thesis written by computer science pioneer Claude E. Shannon while attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1937. In his thesis, Shannon, a dual degree graduate of the University of Michigan, proved that Boolean algebra could be used to simplify the arrangement of the relays that were the building blocks of the electromechanical automatic telephone exchanges of the day. Shannon went on to prove that it should also be possible to use arrangements of relays to solve Boolean algebra problems.' back |
Al Jazeera and News Agencies, 'Shame for humanity': Turkey urges China to close Uighur camps, ' Turkey has condemned China's treatment of its Muslim ethnic Uighur people as "a great cause of shame for humanity" and asked it to close the "concentration camps".
In a statement on Saturday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uighurs. . . .
"It is no longer a secret that more than one million Uighur Turks, who are exposed to arbitrary arrests, are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in concentration centres and prisons," Aksoy said.
"We invite Chinese authorities to respect fundamental human rights of the Uighur Turks and shut down concentration camps," he said.' back |
Alan Turing, On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, 'The "computable" numbers may be described briefly as the real numbers whose expressions as a decimal are calculable by some finite means. Although the subject of this paper is ostensibly the computable numbers, it is almost equally easy to define and investigate computable functions of an integral variable of a real or computable variable, computable predicates and so forth. . . . ' back |
Battle of Omdurman - Wikipedia, Battle of Omdurman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'At the Battle of Omdurman (2 September 1898), an army commanded by the British Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, . . . It was a demonstration of the superiority of a highly disciplined European-led army equipped with modern rifles and artillery over a vastly larger force armed with older weapons . . . Around 10,000 Mahdists were killed, 13,000 wounded and 5,000 taken prisoner. Kitchener's force lost 47 men killed and 382 wounded, the majority from MacDonald's command. One eye-witness described the appalling scene:
They could never get near and they refused to hold back . . . It was not a battle but an execution . . . The bodies were not in heaps—bodies hardly ever are; but they spread evenly over acres and acres. Some lay very composedly with their slippers placed under their heads for a last pillow; some knelt, cut short in the middle of a last prayer. Others were torn to pieces . . . [3]
Controversy over wounded Mahdist killed after the battle began soon afterwards.[4] Churchill thought Kitchener was too brutal in his killing of the wounded.' back |
Boolean algebra - Wikipedia, Boolean algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is the branch of algebra in which the values of the variables are the truth values true and false, usually denoted 1 and 0 respectively. Instead of elementary algebra where the values of the variables are numbers, and the main operations are addition and multiplication, the main operations of Boolean algebra are the conjunction and, denoted ∧, the disjunction or, denoted ∨, and the negation not, denoted ¬. It is thus a formalism for describing logical relations in the same way that ordinary algebra describes numeric relations.' back |
Borel set - Wikipedia, Borel set - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, a Borel set is any set in a topological space that can be formed from open sets (or, equivalently, from closed sets) through the operations of countable union, countable intersection, and relative complement. Borel sets are named after Émile Borel.' back |
Born rule - Wikipedia, Born rule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Born rule (also called the Born law, Born's rule, or Born's law) is a law of quantum mechanics which gives the probability that a measurement on a quantum system will yield a given result. It is named after its originator, the physicist Max Born. The Born rule is one of the key principles of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. There have been many attempts to derive the Born rule from the other assumptions of quantum mechanics, with inconclusive results. . . . The Born rule states that if an observable corresponding to a Hermitian operator A with discrete spectrum is measured in a system with normalized wave function (see bra-ket notation), then
the measured result will be one of the eigenvalues λ of A, and
the probability of measuring a given eigenvalue λi will equal <ψ|Pi|ψ> where Pi is the projection onto the eigenspace of A corresponding to λi'. back |
Claude Shannon, Communication in the Presence of Noise, 'A method is developed for representing any communication system geometrically. Messages and the corresponding signals are points in two “function spaces,” and the modulation process is a mapping of one space into the other. Using this representation, a number of results in communication theory are deduced concerning expansion and compression of bandwidth and the threshold effect. Formulas are found for the maximum rate of transmission of binary digits over a system when the signal is perturbed by various types of noise. Some of the properties of “ideal” systems which transmit at this maximum rate are discussed. The equivalent number of binary digits per second for certain information sources is calculated.' back |
Clement V - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vox in excelsis, 'Born at Villandraut in Gascony, France, 1264; died at Roquemaure, 20 April, 1314. He was elected, 5 June, 1305, at Perugia as successor to Benedict XI, after a conclave of eleven months, the great length of which was owing to the French and Italian factions among the cardinals. Ten of the fifteen (mostly Italian) cardinals voting elected him.; back |
Codec - Wikipedia, Codec - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder-decoder or, less commonly, compressor-decompressor.' back |
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - Wikipedia, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - Wikipedia, the fre encyclopedia, 'The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) (Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei), previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and sometimes simply called the Holy Office is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Among the most active of these major Curial departments, it oversees Catholic doctrine. The CDF is the modern name for what used to be the Holy Office of the Inquisition.' back |
Crowdsourcing.org, Croudfunding, 'Financial contributions from online investors, sponsors or donors to fund for-profit or non-profit initiatives or enterprises. Crowdfunding is an approach to raising capital for new projects and businesses by soliciting contributions from a large number of stakeholders following three types of crowdfunding models: (1) Donations, Philanthropy and Sponsorship where there is no expected financial return, (2) Lending and (3) Investment in exchange for equity, profit or revenue sharing.' back |
Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen, Can the Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?, A PDF of the classic paper. 'In a complete theory there is an element corresponding to each element of reality. A sufficient condition for the reality of a physical quantity is the possibility of predicting it with certainty, without disturbing the system. In quantum mechanics in the case of two physical quantities described by non-commuting operators, the knowledge of one precludes the knowledge of the other. Then either (1) the description of reality given by the wave function in quantum mechanics is not complete or (2) these two quantities cannot have simultaneous reality. Consideration of the problem of making predictions concerning a system on the basis of measurements made on another system that had previously interacted with it leads to the result that if (1) is false then (2) is also false, One is thus led to conclude that the description of reality given by the wave function is not complete.' back |
Entropic force - Wikipedia, Entropic force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, an entropic force acting in a system is a macroscopic force whose properties are primarily determined not by the character of a particular underlying microscopic force (such as electromagnetism), but by the whole system's statistical tendency to increase its entropy.
A standard example of an entropic force is the elasticity of a freely-jointed polymer molecule: if the molecule is pulled into an extended configuration, the fact that more contracted, randomly coiled configurations are overwhelmingly more probable (i.e. possess higher entropy) will result in the chain eventually returning (through diffusion) to such configurations. To the macroscopic observer, the precise origin of the microscopic forces that drive the motion is irrelevant: The observer simply sees the polymer contract into a state of higher entropy, as if driven by an elastic force.' back |
First Council of Nicea - Wikipedia, First Council of Nicea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day İznik in Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in A.D. 325. The Council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom.' back |
Gideon Levy, Outlaw Israel's Arabs, ' You don’t need to cite the occupation to expose the lie of democracy – now it’s also apparent at home, within. From Benny Gantz to Bezalel Smotrich – all of them are Ben-Zion Gopsteins. The laws against racism and all the rest are only lip service. The Israeli Knesset has 107 lawmakers; thirteen of them, most of them among the best there are, are outside the game, they have less say than the ushers.' back |
Gospel of Mary - Wikipedia, Gospel of Mary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Gospel of Mary is an apocryphal book discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex. The codex Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 was purchased in Cairo by German scholar Karl Reinhardt. . . . Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, also known as the Akhmim Codex, also contains the Apocryphon of John, the Sophia of Jesus Christ, and a summary of the Act of Peter. All four works contained in the manuscript are written in Sahidic in the Subakhmimic dialect.' back |
Gospel of Philip - Wikipedia, Gospel of Philip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the 3rd century but lost to modern researchers until an Egyptian peasant rediscovered it by accident, buried in a cave near Nag Hammadi, in 1945' back |
Haaretz Editorial , A State for Some of Its Citizens, ' Even though nobody disputes that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, Netanyahu has now admitted that the nation-state law enshrines Jewish supremacy in law and declares that the state belongs more to a Jew who’s an American or Belgian citizen than it does to an Arab citizen born in this country. Through his post, he has revealed the real reason why the law, in contrast to the Declaration of Independence, didn’t cite the principle of equality as one of Israel’s foundational principles. And he has pulled the rug out from under the foundations of Israel’s democratic system of government.' back |
History of the Knights Templar - Wikipedia, History of the Knights Templar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Knights Templar trace their origin back to shortly after the First Crusade. Around 1119, a French nobleman from the Champagne region, Hugues de Payens, collected eight of his knight relatives including Godfrey de Saint-Omer, and began the Order, their stated mission to protect pilgrims on their journey to visit the Holy Places. They approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who allowed them to set up headquarters on the Temple Mount. . . . In 1139, even more power was conferred upon the Order by Pope Innocent II, who issued the papal bull, Omne Datum Optimum. It stated that the Knights Templar could pass freely through any border, owed no taxes, and were subject to no one's authority except that of the Pope. . . . ' back |
Jihad - Wikipedia, Jihad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Jihad . . . an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". . . . There are two commonly accepted meanings of jihad: an inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle. The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties. This non-violent meaning is stressed by both Muslim and non-Muslim authors.
The "lesser jihad" is the physical struggle against the enemies of Islam. This physical struggle can take a violent form or a non-violent form. ' back |
Kevin Donnelly, Our schoolkids just doing as they're told, ' The Australian Education Union’s decision to endorse students wagging school and taking to the streets for the climate day strike on Friday illustrates, once again, how education has been captured by the cultural Left and how politically correct ideology rules the classroom.
The AEU says students as young as 10 have a democratic right to “take direct action” and that they must be taught to “become innovators and agents of change in a rapidly changing world”.' back |
King's College London, Research Institute in Systematic Theology, 'The primary aim of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology (RIST) is to provide a framework within which postgraduate theological research can be pursued.
It holds regular seminars for staff and postgraduate students, and conferences on chosen topics. The seminars provide students with the opportunity to hear and discuss papers presented by visitors, staff and students. The conferences, which provide further opportunity for selected postgraduates to present papers, enable students to discuss matters of mutual interest with others engaged in theological research.' back |
Maurice Newman, Climate kids mere pawns in a bid to undermine capitalism, ' “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden, you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet.”
These are the words of Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish student who last year, according to CNN, “shamed” negotiators at the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland. ' back |
Melissa Etehad, Iran sentences human rights lawyer to 38 years in prison — and 148 ashes, ' A prominent Iranian lawyer who defended women arrested for protesting the country’s mandatory head scarf law has been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her husband.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been imprisoned since being taken from her home in June, is already serving a five-year sentence.
The 55-year-old human rights lawyer was sentenced to an additional 33 years — and the 148 lashes — after being convicted of several more national security crimes this month, her husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook on Monday.'
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Mithraic mysteries - Wikipedia, Mithraic mysteries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. . . . Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in underground temples (called mithraea), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome. . . . ' back |
Nadia Wager, Michael Jackson: as an expert in child sexual abuse here's what I thought when I watched Leaving Neverland, ' Very few children disclose sexual abuse at the time that it is occurring. Where disclosures do occur, these tend to be where the abuse is a one-off incident perpetrated by a stranger with little by way of grooming. So the abuse is more readily conceptualised as an unwanted assault by both the child and others to whom the child discloses.' back |
Plato - Wikipedia, Plato - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Plato (. . . Greek: . . . Plátōn, "broad" 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of natural philosophy, science, and Western philosophy. Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.' back |
Rachael Sharman, The psychological reason some cannot believe the evidence against George Pell and Michael Jackson, ' Have you ever experienced disbelief when someone you cared for betrays you?
Perhaps a long-time, trusted friend sold you a lemon but rather than tarnish this important friendship you tried anything to think your way out of the dilemma: "They must have been misled themselves"; "There is no way they would have done this deliberately"; "They must not have realised…".
The feeling of pain when something contradicts long-held beliefs is called cognitive dissonance.' back |
Sheffer stroke - Wikipedia, Sheffer stroke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In Boolean functions and propositional calculus, the Sheffer stroke, named after Henry M. Sheffer, written "|" . . . denotes a logical operation that is equivalent to the negation of the conjunction operation, expressed in ordinary language as "not both". It is also called nand ("not and") or the alternative denial, since it says in effect that at least one of its operands is false.' back |
Sol Invictus - Wikipedia, Sol Invictus - Wikipedia, the feee encyclopedia, 'Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. In 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol,[1] a revival of the cult of Elagabalus[2] or completely new.[3] The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine.[4] The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD[5] and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.' back |
Spontaneous symmetry breaking - Wikipedia, Spontaneous symmetry breaking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a mode of realization of symmetry breaking in a physical system, where the underlying laws are invariant under a symmetry transformation, but the system as a whole changes under such transformations, in contrast to explicit symmetry breaking. It is a spontaneous process by which a system in a symmetrical state ends up in an asymmetrical state. It thus describes systems where the equations of motion or the Lagrangian obey certain symmetries, but the lowest energy solutions do not exhibit that symmetry. back |
Thomas Mann - Wikipedia, Thomas Mann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Paul Thomas Mann (German: [paʊ̯l toːmas man]; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. ' back |
Tony Abbott, Covert brainwashing of our kids is taking its toll, 'What are our kids actually being taught? It’s almost impossible to know because students won’t usually tell and their teachers will normally reveal only what they think we want to hear.
If the stats are to be believed, Australia is falling down the international league tables of school performance, despite ever higher levels of government funding. And while a couple of our universities figure in the top 50 rankings, there seem to be more and more students doing variants of lifestyle studies and fewer and fewer doing the hard disciplines. back |
United States Congress, Declaration of Independence, 'Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.' back |
Waleed Ali, This is why we don't leave justice in the hands of vistims, ' As County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd methodically went about sentencing George Pell this week, it occurred to me that he took a position very few have taken, at least in public. In this most polarised of public dramas, Chief Judge Kidd was a meticulously moderate character: a mix of just rage and compassion – not just for Pell’s victims, but for the convicted cardinal himself.' back |
Werner Heisenberg, Quantum-theoretical re-interpretation of kinematic and mechanical relations, 'The present paper seeks to establish a basis for theoretical quantum mechanics founded exclusively upon relationships between quantities which in principle are observable.' back |
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