Notes
Sunday 11 April 2021 - Saturday 17 April 2021
[Notebook: DB 86: Hilbert / Minkowski]
[page 179]
Sunday 11 April 2021
Two weeks back at the old country home. It is clear that I left at an auspicious time and now I am part of a city that takes care of almost every aspect of my life, leaving me to capitalize, if possible, on the 40 yeas of theology in the country. My principal problem now is to rehouse all the books and tools that enabled this work in the interstices between everything else. Fortunately I always carry my head around with me. In it is an image of myself and the world in which I live which serves as the background to all my plans and actions, so I am always on the job criticizing and developing the background as the face of god gradually emerges for me in the kaleidoscope of events that surround me.
Portia de Rossi: Thank god my life never got that bad. Disconnection from the land (real god). Portia de Rossi; Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain
[page 180]
I feel that i have chosen the path that chose me and I will happily devote the rest of my life to it, making such progress as chance decides in this inherently probabilistic world. The boundary between past and future cannot be determinate because the future exists potentially in the past and the future is bigger, so the universe expands in terms of degrees of freedom. Classical mechanics, deterministic and not creative, is inherently unitar., working at constant entropy in a milieu where causality reigns and one cannot cause two and maintain control [of both]. Classical statistics hides ignorance; quantum statistics measures the boundary between past and future, following Gödel and Cantor (via Whitehead and Russell, who made the connection between mathematics and logic). How many people had this idea but were not motivated to write Principia? Kurt Gödel: Kurt Gödel: Collected Works Volume 1 Publications 1929-1936, Georg Cantor: Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, Whitehead & Russell: Principia Mathematica, John von Neumann: Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
de Rossi page 286: Naomi Wolf Beauty Myth ' "O my God, I fell for it".' I fell for Catholicism, but now I am better, replacing it with the standard scientific model but seeking to see this as revelation to feed theology.
What is a periodic function? Something that can only go so far and then comes back again, an instance of the circle group. Why do we have physical periodicity? Binding by potential, as in a potential well? How do potential wells form? Can potential exist without space? The work definition of energy requires space, or at least distance, E = F.s
Zee page 123: 'In the path integral formalism, [spin ½] Ψ is to be treated not as an ordinary complex number but as a novel kind of mathematical entity known as a Grassman number.' Anthony Zee (2010): Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Grassman Number - Wikipedia
[page 181]
Zee page 125: '. . . the vacuum energy of s spinor field turns out to have the opposite sign to the vacuum energy of the scalar field, a sign that ranks among the "top ten" of theoretical physics.'
page 129: 'fermions [make] a negative contribution to vacuum energy'. And it might be nice if fermion + boson vacuum energy = 0, fermion potential, boson kinetic.
page 144: '. . . one of the most important observations in the history of physics. The Lagrangian is left invariant by gauge transformation:
ψ(x) = ei Λ(x)ψ(x) . . .
In contemporary theoretical physics gauge invariance is regarded as fundamental and all important.'
page 157: '. . . special relativity and quantum mechanics mandate antimatter . . . special relativity allows for different time ordering, so you see an electron going from a to b, I see a positron going from b to a.'
page 161: '. . . starting in the 1970s a better understanding of quantum fiewld theory was developed. . . . Field theorists gradually came to realize that there is no problem of divergence in quantum field theory at all. . . .
page 162: '. . . these days it is thought that as we go to higher and higher energies the whole edifice of quantum field theory will eventually turn out to be an approximation to a theory whose identity we don't yet know.'
[page 182]
Zee page 167: '. . . when physical amplitudes are expressed in terms of physical coupling constant the cutoff dependence disappears.'
page 195: Dirac on electron magnetic moment.
page 196: Schwinger and the anomalous magnetic moment.
page 200: III.7 A photon can fluctuate into an electron and a positron [maintaining the sum of electric charge at 0].
page 225: Zero point energy of harmonic oscillator is not observable.
Vacuum: no particles present. So where does the energy come from to make a permanent mass of particles.
page 226: Emergence of massless boson.
Here I am living alone in a forested farm for a few days minding 2 cats and a dog and two ponies that look after themselves. And of course I am assessing my ability to realize my theological dream. The broad picture is there, now I would like to introduce the ideas of quantum field theory to explain the inevitable creativity of the divinity when it is defined as actus purus (in modern terms, a quantum of action). The big clue, to me, is the ubiquity of (quanta) of action in the universe, the driving force creating the vacuum of boson and fermion states, acting as representatives of
[page 183]
kinetic and potential energy so that the integrated energy of a vacuum of fermions is zero, that is it is from a quantum mechanical point of view eternal.
All the variables we introduce into quantum field theory are subject to arithmetic in various fields ranging from natural numbers to infinite [complex] matrices.
The product of 2 n × n matrices is an n × n matrix of pairwise dot products of corresponding elements of the multiplicands. This we might imagine as entangling the multiplicands.
Zee page 270 Chiral anomaly.
'We have a symmetry of classical physics if a transformation ψ → ψ + ∂ψ leaves the action S(ψ) invariant. We have a symmetry in quantum physics of the transformation leaves the path integral
Z = ∫ Dq(t)eiS(q)
invariant [ie preserves probabilities / amplitudes / propagators].
Late 1960s discovered quantum fluctuations can break classical symmetries. 'Anomaly' poor word choice.
page 271: 'theory of single massless fermion L = ψ i γμ ∂μ ψ
Monday 12 April 2021
[page 184]
What do we have to throw away to make progress in physics?
Zee page 521: 'In all previous revolutions in physics a formerly cherished concept had to be jettisoned.' Lets get rid of continuity and locality and replace it with logical continuity, the 'middle term'. Creation by joining two entities and bringing out two different ones, eg electron + positron = two photons.
The idea behind my plan, based on Cantor's idea, symmetry with respect to complexity (illustrated by the transfinite computer network) means that we should be able to map everyday life to the initial singularity and every step on the way to the present because they are all extensions and transformations of the operators and and not and the process of evolutionary generation of more complex structures. Thus we bind physics to theology. So as it was in the beginning year 12 (me 16) 1961 when I first met Cantor and discussed transfinite numbers with my friend [Fogg]. Quantum theology has now reached a statement of purpose and the path we must integrate to get from then to now. So much of physics is integrating, superposing wave functions to get new wave functions. This interpretation is basically the addition of complex numbers which are samples of wave functions. What we need here is to replace arithmetic addition with 'boolean addition' to give us boolean integration which is implemented with groups and matrices, but may also be written out as code (I would like to think) which implements representations of the quanta of action in the real world and models their behaviour. At the 'hardware' (fundamental) level this is physics, an algorithm to operate the world embedded in a communication network with memories and processes that transform the state of the memory.
[page 185]
How do we arrive at a method to derive quantum statistics? The bins for these statistics are all the different bins into which particles can be matched and counting the rate of interaction between the contents of one bin and another, finding the resulting traffic looks like a communication network and we imagine a metric (a 'distance' between states) that measures the bandwidths of the communications between the bins. This distance may be measured as the number of operations necessary to process oneself from an initial to a final state. Sometimes particles can process themselves but usually a process is initiated by two particles meeting and communicating (Zurek again). 'Close' means high bandwidth.
The methods of quantum field theory are effective and the product of centuries of work by thousands of people, but the interpretation of what is actually going on is difficult to understand. We ride horses by learning their behaviour and imagining that their inner workings are something like ours, responding in different ways to different stimuli. I go to install a flue, cutting metal, gluing and screwing, a three or four hour sequence of operations beginning with measurement and marking out. It works without quantum mechanics but there is quantum mechanics embedded in my self and the materials I use and the whole job could be looked upon as a complex quantum interaction.
Is there such a think as transfinite renormalization? In an ordinary comuter the details of a process, the software, can be run at different speeds (energies) in different machines but the results are the same. In physics, however, different energy levels give different results. To me this is the strongest
[page 186]
argument against the network model of everything, although it does give a foundation to the notion of symmetry with respect to complexity [reflected in Cantor's algorithm for creating transfinite numbers of any size] but we need another degree of freedom (perhaps) to describe the differences between high and low energy processes We have that in the idea that particles have embedded software that explains their responses to one another and the swapping and transformation of snippets of software to explain the family likenesses in the particle zoo.
The gap between linear and non-linear marks the transition from Hilbert to Minkowski space. Linear structures can 'go through' each other [like waves] while maintaining their structure, like overtones or ghosts. This happens in the time domain.
Zee page 316: Fractional statistics - breaking the quantum of action into pieces? Is this possible? No, the parts of a quantum of action are quanta of action and we imagine the unit quantum to be Planck constant of angular momentum. (2 + 1) d spacetime is part of the family (0, 0), (1, 0), (1,1), (1,2) (1,3), time makes action into energy. In (1 + 1) we can have momentum,
page 317: Anyon statistics fits QFT.
I love it when time goes slowly. I feel that I am getting value for eistence.
page 318: 'The Chern-Simons theory does not know about clocks and rulers. It only knows about the topology of spacetime and is rightly known as a topological field theory.'
[page 187]
Zee page 319: 'The energy momentum tensor is defined by variation with respect to gμν but . . . the action here does not depend on gμν. The energy and momentum and hence the Hamiltonian are identically zero . . . that is to define the Hamiltonian we need rods and clocks.'
'ground state degeneracy' depends only on the topology of the manifold M.
page 323: '1. Even though an electron is pointlike it takes up a finite amount of room . . . an area of the order of πr2 = 2π2/eB.
2. Electrons are fermions and want to stay out of each other's way → Hall effect.
Tuesday 13 April 2021
Zee passim: 'now let us calculate'. Insofar as this works it is evidence for an arithmetic (logical) universe. All the group structures etc are the unique locations in the random system where trial does not lead to error.
Moving further to the far side, we might like to identify the graviton with the initial singularity and dream up a set of properties that compels the structure of the universe, boson and fermion for instance. If the graviton is a boson, we need some fermions, and since they all need to keep away from one another the simplest structure which allows 'uncrossed wires' is 3D, so that all the fermions can happily repel one another one to one by communicating through the graviton.
Zee page 448: 'I come now to the most egregious paradox of twentieth century physics . . . the root origin of the paradox of the cosmological constant. The graviton is not just another particle. It knows too much.'
[page 188]
Zee page 449: 'Thus the "cosmological constant" Λ describes a constant energy or mass per unit volume permeating the universe, and of course gravity knows about it . . . off by about 124 orders of magnitude [which to my mind invalidates the whole story that bases quantum field theory on the supposed nature of the "vacuum"].
I am a theology and physics dilettante but I nevertheless feel that my project has value, and my skim through Zee has inspired me to take quantum field theory seriously while trying to see it from a theological perspective on creation, both process and the product. The cosmological constant problem suggests that there is an enormous error at the root of the theory. In a nutshell, it would seem that the actual 'vacuum' is much less violent and energetic than many imagine.
Implicit in the high energy physics community is the belief that going to higher energy will take us closer to the heart of the matter. On the whole current theory seems to obscure the initial simplicity of the universe. The natural selection approach relies on chaos to create many trials and selection to separate out the consistent (meaningful) instances.
page 453: 'Low energy is not sensitive to what happens at high energies and we are able to parametrize our ignorance of high energy physics in terms of a few physical constants.'
page 461: Supersymmetry: relate bosons to fermions [possibly the first bifurcation in the initial symmetry].
Wednesday 14 April 2021
[page 189]
Every idea is a liberation, the key to unlock a difficulty that had been standing in the way. The archetype of an idea is a quantum of action, a move forward against whatever was inhibiting it. Ideas are the generalized geodesics I dreamt of when I got Misner, Thorne and Wheeler. Big ideas are made of smaller ideas as bigger actions are made of smaller actions right down to Planck;s quantum, but not beyond, although the proponents of a continuous universe feel that they can go there. Misner, Thorne & Wheeler (1973): Gravitation
The idea that the universe is divine is the greatest liberation of all because it enables us to put theology on a realistic basis by studying ourselves and the stars and all the other elements of divinity. Because it is a big move it is a big job which means that it comprises a large number of actions in many fields ranging from science itself to all of its applications, religion, the technology of peace, which embraces politics. We have seen the current breach between religion and politics, groups who fervently spouse religion working away from god towards absolutism and violent political behaviour. From little things, big thins grow. I am a little thing, but over the course of 76 years of application I now have a clear vision of the direction in which the theology of my youth can be expanded to embrace the universal god. So my intellectual story began in the monastery with Aristotle and Aquinas. Now I just have to bite the bullet and such all the juice I can out of Zee.
We imagine the basic content of an idea is a circle or a closure. The work of a surveyor, for instance, is validated if they survey their way around a closed circuit and arrive exactly back at the starting point. This idea accounts for the recursive structure of the universe,
[page 190]
a large number of closed loops that form the ideological foundation of the harmonic approach to quantum field theory. Computation is also a periodic process but the periods are logically rather than geometrically continuous. Nevertheless complex processes that proceed stepwise are open to Fourier analysis to see how frequently [particular] events occur.
Lost the next sentence. Will it come around again?
This is not the next sentence. But the mass scale of particles in the universe is a frequency scale. We have learnt to describe the frequency scale of black bodies and atoms. Is there meaning in the frequency scale [spectrum] of particles? Thomas Kuhn (1987): Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity 1894-1912
For every language there is a religion and the Catholic Church tried to cut babel down to Latin so there would be but one religion, sending thousands extinct in its imperial progress.
This is not the next sentence either, but I can tell you what I saw of the next sentence as it flitted through my mind. It looked good, valuable and helpful but I could not capture it. Probably a bit to do with the relationship between logic, mathematics, physics and theology. When we make everything continuous structureless plane waves we blur out the detail and then set out to recover the details (particles) by superposing infinite spectra to generate something that looks like Dirac's delta.
Thursday 15 April 2021
[page 191]
The basic reason for fiddling with particle physics is to establish that the universe may be identified with god insofar as it can do everything possible, ie everything that does not involve a contradiction, that is, in Thomistic terms, it is omnipotent.
Words enable us to create fantastic world like heaven and hell, pure love and pure hatred which are at best subsets of reality. It is reminiscent of the need to use thousands of Feynman diagrams to capture the full complexity of a relatively mundane quantum event. It could be that mathematics has the power to create fantasies, like language.
Johnson had genius but crippling acedia. I have no lack of enthusiasm, but no genius, which is probably worse. John Wain (1980): Samuel Johnson
Friday 16 April 2021
We are trying to digitize the universe on the ground that Planck's quantum of action is an indivisible atom of action. Many feel that the processes in the universe are continuous and Mach and many other seem to believe that we can understand the world by working from infinitesimal assumptions by integrting to find the reality. Almost all the mathematics of continuity begins digitally and then we go to the continuous limit. This process is based on an assumption of symmetry that as we go to smaller and smaller intervals nothing changes. The classic epsilon-delta argument is circular from this point of view because it only works if epsilon and delta
[page 192]
are themselves continuous. In reality, however, as we make actions smaller we eventually come to the quantum of action which is, by definition, a break in the symmetry. Something happens. Ernst Mach (1988); The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of Its Development, (ε, δ)-definition of limit - Wikipedia
Back to Adelaide.
Saturday 17 April 2020
The United Staes versus Billie Holliday. The United States vs. Billie Holiday - Wikipedia
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Further readingBooks
Axelrod, Robert, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, Revised 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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Bin Laden, Osama, and Bruce Lawrence (editor), James Howarth (translator), Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, Verso 2005 From Publishers Weekly
'Notable for its scope and comprehensiveness, this collection of 24 newly translated public statements by Osama bin Laden offers a nuanced and revealing view of Public Enemy No. 1. Best suited for those whose knowledge of bin Linden is based upon brief, pixilated clips or quotes gleaned from news accounts, the book will provide those who have studied the man and his rarified interpretation of Islam with little, if anything, that is new. Tracing bin Laden's ascendancy from the disgruntled Saudi exile of 1994 whose letters of complaint had a nearly timid tone (in a December 1994 letter to a Saudi judicial leader, bin Laden addresses the recipient as "Honorable sheikh" and writes, "we pray that you do not take these words out of turn or consider them to overstep the limits of etiquette.") to the bombastic jihadist leader in hiding with a $50-million bounty on his head, his statements depict not only a fiery communicator with a knack for manipulating traditional Islamic beliefs, but a revolutionary figure whose romanticized view of himself and his cause carries echoes of iconic revolutionaries past. Familiarity with the Koran will help readers contextualize and evaluate bin Laden's claims (footnotes citing Koranic passages accompany each invocation), though even the uninitiated will have no trouble in identifying arguably willful misinterpretations. (Bin Laden cites, for instance, a verse that concludes, "God has endless bounty and knowledge," to support cautioning "Muslims to be very wary and careful about befriending Jews and Christians.") Those looking for a comprehensive and unexpurgated explanation of the man behind contemporary radical Islam have a powerful reference here.'
Copyright © Reed Business Information
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Butler, E M, The Myth of the Magus, Cambridge University Press 1993 Amazon product description: 'The Magus, a legendary magician of superhuman powers, is an archetype central to myth and religion across many cultures. Identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed by a shaman or wizard to ensure the prosperity of his tribe, E. M. Butler goes on to trace its subsequent development in pre-Christian religious and mystic philosophers, in medieval sorcerers and alchemists, and finally in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century occult revival. From Zoroaster to Solomon, Merlin to Faust, Cagliostro to Rasputin, legends of the Magus are explored and where possible compared with the historical record in this fascinating account, first published in 1948, of one of the major figures in religious and occult mythology.'
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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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Coll, Steve, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, Penguin (Non-Classics) 2009 From The Washington Post
Reviewed by Milton Viorst
'Change the names and locations, and Steve Coll's marvelous book about the bin Laden family would begin like a familiar American saga. An illiterate youth arrives in a land of opportunity from his impoverished homeland and, by dint of ambition, talent and hard work, becomes immensely rich and powerful. He collects properties, airplanes, luxury cars and women -- tastes he passes on to his sons. He earns a niche in the pantheon of great builders of his adopted country.
The youth is Mohamed bin Laden, justly venerated in Saudi Arabia. But collective memory plays funny tricks, and in the West he will be permanently remembered as the father of Osama. The bin Ladens, though their Horatio Alger story overlaps Western experience, emerge as unmistakably Middle Eastern -- to the point of being torn asunder by today's religious struggles. Coll, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Washington Post managing editor, leaves the psychology to his readers. He prefers writing on economics and politics, leavening them with anecdotes and gossip; the result is a fascinating panorama of a great family, presented within the context of the 9/11 drama. . . . '
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Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin 2006 Amazon Editorial Review
From Publishers Weekly
'The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish gene, anticipates this criticism. He says it's the scientist and humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions—fundamentalist Christianity and Islam come in for the most opprobrium—that close people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a scientific scaffolding for atheism, such as using evolution again to rebut the notion that without God there can be no morality. He insists that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful without it.' Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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de Rossi, Portia, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Atria Books / Simon & Schuster 2011 'In this searing, unflinchingly honest memoir, actress Portia de Rossi shares the truth of her long battle to overcome anorexia and bulimia while living in the public eye, and details the new happiness and health she has found in recent years--including her coming out and her marriage to Ellen DeGeneres.'
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Gödel, Kurt, and Solomon Feferman et al (eds), Kurt Gödel: 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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Koestler, Arthur , The Act of Creation, Penguin (Non-Classics) 1990 Preface to the Danube Edition: '... this book proposes a theory of art and of creation - of the conscious and unconscious processes underlying scientific discovery, artistic originality, and comic inspiration. It endeavours to show that all creative activities have a basic pattern in common, and to outline that pattern.'
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Kuhn (1987), Thomas S, Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity 1894-1912, University of Chicago Press 1987 Jacket: '[This book] traces the emergence of discontinuous physics during the early years of this century. Breaking with historiographic tradition, Kuhn maintains that, though clearly due to Max Planck, the concept of discontinuous energy change does not originate in his work. Instead it was introduced by physicists trying to understand the success of his brilliant new theory of black-body radiation.'
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Lippman, Thomas W, Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia, Basic Books 2005 Amazon.com Review
'The discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia led to a relationship between the Saudis and Americans that made all the sense in the world and, at the same time, no sense at all. Economically, it was a dynamic and effective model. The Americans were able to purchase more oil as car ownership in the United States escalated throughout the 20th century, meanwhile the Saudis were able to take that money and use it to buy all the latest products and technology from the Americans and transform their country from a pre-industrial kingdom a bustling modern civilization (complete, today, with Starbucks, McDonalds, and shopping malls). Making all this happen, however, meant situating thousands of American civilians in a country in which they simply did not fit. Veteran Middle East scholar and journalist Thomas Lippman's Inside the Mirage examines the 70-year history of the Saudi-American relationship. While he touches on the troubling issues that came to light after the events of 9/11, Lippman's exploration of the quasi-suburban world inhabited by American employees and their families proves most fascinating. Many Americans profiled seem to have been transported out of an old episode of Leave it to Beaver and dropped, intact, in the middle of a desert nation, dwelling in cordoned off communities and having little contact with the Saudis outside of what was professionally necessary. Cultural and religious differences provide stark contrast between the Americans and the fundamental form of Islam practiced by the Saudi royal family and prevalent throughout the kingdom. These differences combined with the inherent pressures of great wealth and big business to form a relationship that is vitally important to both countries but that was tenuous to begin with and, as Lippman explains has remained so ever since.' --John Moe
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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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Mach (1988), Ernst , The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of Its Development, Open Court 1960, 1988 ' This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.'
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Misner (1973), 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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Noble, David F, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, Penguin Books 1999 Introduction: 'It is the aim of this book to demonstrate that the present enchantment with things technological ... is rooted in religious myths and ancient imaginings. Although today's technologists, in their sober pursuit of utility, power and profit, seem to set society's standard for rationality ... their true inspiration lies elsewhere, in an enduring, other-worldly quest for transcendence and salvation.'
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Wain (1980), John, Samuel Johnson: A Biography, Macmillan 1980 Jacket: 'This universally acclaimed book, first published in 1974, is about every aspect of Samuel Johnson: a discussion of his ideas, a criticism of his writings, an historical placing of the man within the social and intellectual landscape of the day, and a personal story—above all a personal story. ... '
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Whitehead, Alfred North, and Bertrand Arthur Russell, Principia Mathematica (Cambridge Mathematical Library), Cambridge University Press 1910, 1962 The great three-volume Principia Mathematica is deservedly the most famous work ever written on the foundations of mathematics. Its aim is to deduce all the fundamental propositions of logic and mathematics from a small number of logical premisses and primitive ideas, and so to prove that mathematics is a development of logic. Not long after it was published, Goedel showed that the project could not completely succeed, but that in any system, such as arithmetic, there were true propositions that could not be proved.
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Woodward, Rob, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981 - 1987, Simon & Schuster 2005 From Library Journal
'Woodward's books on Watergate, the Supreme Court, and John Belushi were not so controversial as Veil. His deathbed visit to William Casey, former CIA head, has been disputed by Casey's wife. What Woodward knew about Casey's Iran-contra role was apparently withheld from Congress. All this smoke has drawn attention from the fire. Woodward's tale of attempted murders, payoffs to foreign leaders, covert contra aid, covert aid to Britain in the Falklands War, and anti-terrorist squads is formidable. He presents Casey's CIA as a dangerously illegal loose cannon on the deck of U.S. foreign policy.' Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
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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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Zee (2010), Anthony, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton University Press 2010 ' Since it was first published, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell has quickly established itself as the most accessible and comprehensive introduction to this profound and deeply fascinating area of theoretical physics. Now in this fully revised and expanded edition, A. Zee covers the latest advances while providing a solid conceptual foundation for students to build on, making this the most up-to-date and modern textbook on quantum field theory available. This expanded edition features several additional chapters, as well as an entirely new section describing recent developments in quantum field theory such as gravitational waves, the helicity spinor formalism, on-shell gluon scattering, recursion relations for amplitudes with complex momenta, and the hidden connection between Yang-Mills theory and Einstein gravity. Zee also provides added exercises, explanations, and examples, as well as detailed appendices, solutions to selected exercises, and suggestions for further reading.'
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Links
Ada Lovelace - Wikipedia, Ada Lovelace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is sometimes regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a "computing machine" and the first computer programmer' back |
Armageddon - Wikipedia, Armageddon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Armageddon is the site of an epic battle associated with the end time prophecies of the Abrahamic religions. back |
ASA: Rob van Gerwen, American Society for Aesthetics, 'Welcome to the official web site of the American Society for Aesthetics. The ASA sponsors an annual conference and three divisional conferences, and publishes the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, the American Society for Aesthetics Graduate Ejournal, and the ASA Newsletter. It also funds projects that promote the goals of the Society, through its Major Project Initiative Grants program. back |
BAS: Laura Harris, British Society of Aesthetics, 'The British Society of Aesthetics (BSA) aims to promote study, research and discussion of the fine arts and related types of experience from a philosophical, psychological, sociological, historical, critical and educational standpoint.' back |
Catherine Pepinster, Five years on, Poe Francis has failed to deliver on his promises, 'Two issues above all remain a problem for him: child abuse and the role of women. Francis’s creation of a special commission to examine the global problem of children being abused by priests was considered a breakthrough. Four years down the line, and with the two abuse victims who were members having resigned, it seems no nearer to producing new ways of dealing with the issue. And despite Francis’s own zero-tolerance comments about abuse, there have been occasions when he has seemed unwilling to take action against those involved.' back |
Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, Catholic Press Association, 'Founded in 1911, the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada offers all who work in the Catholic media field the opportunity to be part of something bigger than their own communication vehicle. With more than 600 member organizations, the CPA reaches over 26 million people, giving voice to the church and witness to the presence of God in the 21st century. back |
David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 'There are some subjects, however, to which dialogue-writing is peculiarly adapted, and where it is still preferable to the direct and simple method of composition.
Any point of doctrine, which is so obvious, that it scarcely admits of dispute, but at the same time so important, that it cannot be too often inculcated, seems to require some such method of handling it; where the novelty of the manner may compensate the triteness of the subject, where the vivacity of conversation may enforce the precept, and where the variety of lights, presented by various personages and characters, may appear neither tedious nor redundant.' back |
(ε, δ)-definition of limit - Wikipedia, (ε, δ)-definition of limit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In calculus, the (ε, δ)-definition of limit ("epsilon-delta definition of limit") is a formalization of the notion of limit. It was first given by Bernard Bolzano in 1817. Augustin-Louis Cauchy never gave an (ε, δ) definition of limit in his Cours d'Analyse, but occasionally used ε, δ arguments in proofs. The definitive modern statement was ultimately provided by Karl Weierstrass.' back |
Grassman Number - Wikipedia, Grassman Number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematical physics, a Grassmann number, named after Hermann Grassmann (also called an anticommuting number or supernumber), is an element of the exterior algebra over the complex numbers.[1] The special case of a 1-dimensional algebra is known as a dual number. Grassmann numbers saw an early use in physics to express a path integral representation for fermionic fields, although they are now widely used as a foundation for superspace, on which supersymmetry is constructed.' back |
John von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, ' Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics by John von Neumann translated from the German by Robert T. Beyer (New Edition) edited by Nicholas A. Wheeler. Princeton UP Princeton & Oxford.
Preface: ' This book is the realization of my long-held intention to someday use the resources of TEX to produce a more easily read version of Robert T. Beyer’s authorized English translation (Princeton University Press, 1955) of John von Neumann’s classic Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Springer, 1932).'This content downloaded from 129.127.145.240 on Sat, 30 May 2020 22:38:31 UTC
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Lowenheim–Skolem theorem - Wikipedia, Löwenheim–Skolem theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematical logic, the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem states that if a countable first-order theory has an infinite model, then for every infinite cardinal number κ it has a model of size κ. The result implies that first-order theories are unable to control the cardinality of their infinite models, and that no first-order theory with an infinite model can have exactly one model up to isomorphism.
The (downward) Löwenheim–Skolem theorem is one of the two key properties, along with the compactness theorem, that is used in Lindström's theorem to characterize first-order logic. In general, the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem does not hold in stronger logics such as second-order logic.' back |
Military Junta - Wikipedia, Military Junta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, A military junta (pronounced /ˈhʊntə/ or /ˈdʒʌntə/) is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors. Sometimes it becomes a military dictatorship, though the terms are not synonymous.' back |
Mustafa Bayoumi, How we all learned the wrong lessons from 9/11, Comment fairley7 Guardian Pick: 'The US reaction to 9/11 was everything Osama Bin Laden could have wished for and more. Rather than treating it as a crime committed by a handful of extremists, the US started the War on Terror, blindly lashing out with wars, torture and illegal detentions -- exposing the hypocrisy of its supposedly sacred principles of human rights and respect for law. The US has fallen greatly in the eyes of much of the world, with many of the world's citizens seeing it as the world's most dangerous country. What seems clear is that the US reaction, with its violence and failure to understand the other side, which was intended to make it safer has, in fact, made the US less safe.'
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Roger White, Fine-tuning and multiple universes, 'John Leslie ~ 1989! argues vigorously that the fact that our universe meets the extremely improbable yet necessary conditions for the evolution of life, supports the thesis that there exist very many universes. The view has found favor
with a number of philosophers such as Derek Parfit (1998) , J. J. C. Smart (1989) and Peter van Inwagen (1993. My purpose is to argue that this is a mistake. First let me set out the issue in more detail.' back |
Rolf Landauer, Information is a Physical Entity, 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back |
Simon Friederich (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Fine-Tuning, back |
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - Wikipedia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century. Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies which were distributed throughout the United States in the 1920s.' back |
The United States vs. Billie Holiday - Wikipedia, The United Stat vs. Billie Holiday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a 2021 American biographical film about singer Billie Holiday, based on the book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. Directed by Lee Daniels, the film stars Andra Day in the titular role, along with Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne and Garrett Hedlund. . . . n the 1940s, Billie Holiday is targeted by the government in an effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial song "Strange Fruit".' back |
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