vol VII: Notes
1982
Sunday 23 May 1982 - Saturday 29 May 1982
Sunday 23 May 1982
Monday 24 May 1982
notebook DREAMING DB1
[page 55]
Tuesday 25 May 1982
. . .
Dreams. Lovely cuddly encounter with M. She gradually changes into
X - again.
Dream conversation with N. Intellectually wary but warm,
discussiong whether there is advantage in her pleading pregnancy as
mitigating circumstance in her activites. Walked arm in arm for some
time.
Wednesday 26 May 1982
Last night - read and wrote till late . . . Dream back in monastery again. This
morning remembered vividly. Now, evening, getting dim. In St
Dominic's, Melbourne, something to do with space above choir,
following on from chapter room. Some sort of chapter confession.
Feeling about playing organ in choir loft at Wahroonga - usually get
lost in Wahroonga coming home from Sydney. Found Billyard Ave once.
Had a penchant to visit priory in Canberra but never got round to it.
Wanted to get antiphonarium, matutinum and other music books. Am
[page 58]
thinking of getting back to some music after all these years - an
explosion of creativity would go down well but the emotional climate
here makes it difficult. Antoninus again? Serving at the altar again?
Some connection with religious ritual, maybe because thinking about
witchcraft. Prehistoric footsteps - quasars redshift 3.5. Suppression
of feelings to protect others? to protect self? Ashamed of my feeing.
Yes and no. Frustrated. . . .
Thursday 27 May 1982
Friday 28 May 1982
. . .
Quid est hoc quod est vivere?
Civilisation matures as it is able to transcend the genetic and
evolutionary constraints placed on it by its history, not physically,
because that is impossible, but in art and technology, which are not
so constrained. Each higher level of emergence carries with it less
of the restrictions of the system from which it arose, by virtue of
its greater diversity.
I have a certain amount of self control, but it has its limits. In
the end, genetic constraints will assert themselve over maladaptive
cultural mechanisms. This is what survival is about. You must eat
before you can think, even if you think thinking is more important.
Saturday 29 May 1982
S dreamt of a pile of books walking around and talking to
itself.
Me, cannot remember.
The psychic space intense, a web of communication, snapped,
forceful, full. Move free, possession kills, driven oscillators are
uncomfortable. Let her go, let her come to me, not in rejected pain,
but in joy, love. Desire, loss, emotion, intellect. You four
circling, sitting, standing, smoking, coming and going, what are you
doing. Finding a new form, a new pattern, in pain bonds breaking
bonds forming, life force redirected by force - the force of
information, animate spirituality, power projected. Biology, reflected
in psychology, unstable relationships breaking to form more stable,
nurturing, supportive. . . .
The conscious space wherein we move is a stage of light surrounded
by the dark unknown forces of the Universe, the laws, physical,
chemical, biological, which constrain us more or less perceptibly to
modes of behaviour. Like the moon floating serene on its orbit,
obeying
[page 61]
every second without a second thought the structure imposed upon
it by gravity, so we move on a course controlled by all that is, and
our genes, leaving us only the possibilities of human nature to
explore on our stage.
Darkness generates fear. Like the explorers of old, we seek
endlessly to expand the lighted space available to us.
Come to me, come to me.
Is this what prayer is.
Pure wish, the image of
Future events,
Desired, Become, that
Which cannot be made
Happier, that whose outcome
Is indeterminate.
A mind matched
To a Universe of chance.
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Further reading
Books
Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)
Aristotle, and H Rackham (translator), Aristotle, XIX, Nichomachean Ethics, Loeb Classical Library 1934 ' . . . This book opened my eyes to the true meaning of "Philosophy". The translation is in modern English, free from the back-to-front syntax of the Ancient Greek text (which makes it impossible to understand the meaning of a sentence until you reach the end of it!).
The subject matter is "Ethics". However, a modern author may have called it something more akin to "The Meaning of Life" or "The Art of Living". Aristotle proceeds with simple and clear logic, to reveal the objective of human struggle in this life. He demonstrates a deep understanding of the Human Being, what we are and what we are not, what makes us act in one way or another and what makes us feel joy or distress. He addresses anxienties of the modern human, such as the question of nature or nurture, the moral action versus the practical, violence versus non-violence. His recommendations for living this life in a manner that is meaningfull and rewarding are profound yet simple.. . . ' Agis Liberakis
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Ashby, W Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen 1964 'This book is intended to provide [an introduction to cybernetics]. It starts from common-place and well understood concepts, and proceeds step by step to show how these concepts can be made exact, and how they can be developed until they lead into such subjects as feedback, stability, regulation, ultrastability, information, coding, noise and other cybernetic topics'
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Feferman, Anita Burdman, and Solomon Feferman, Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic, Cambridge University Press 2004 Review
"A chain smoker, a heavy drinker, a frequent user of 'speed', a relentless womaniser, and a man of Napoleonic self-regard and worldly ambition. This is not how one pictures an eminent Professor of Logic. And yet, this is how the great logician, Alfred Tarski, emerges from this marvellous biography. The Fefermans, of course, are uniquely qualified to lead the reader through the intricacies of Tarski's work, which they do very engagingly and with great expository skill. Tarski's colourful personality is conveyed with prose that is economical, superbly readable and extremely vivid, and the whole book is a joy to read."
Ray Monk, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southampton
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Feynman, Richard P, and Albert P Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals, McGraw Hill 1965 Preface: 'The fundamental physical and mathematical concepts which underlie the path integral approach were first developed by R P Feynman in the course of his graduate studies at Princeton, ... . These early inquiries were involved with the problem of the infinte self-energy of the electron. In working on that problem, a "least action" principle was discovered [which] could deal succesfully with the infinity arising in the application of classical electrodynamics.' As described in this book. Feynam, inspired by Dirac, went on the develop this insight into a fruitful source of solutions to many quantum mechanical problems.
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Fowles, John, The Collector, Back Bay Books 1997 Amazon Product Description
'The Collector (1963) is disturbing, engrossing, unforgettable -- the story of an obsessive young man and the girl he kidnaps and holds prisoner in his cellar.'
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Kolmogorov, A N, and Nathan Morrison (Translator) (With an added bibliography by A T Bharucha-Reid), Foundations of the Theory of Probability, Chelsea 1956 Preface: 'The purpose of this monograph is to give an axiomatic foundation for the theory of probability. . . . This task would have been a rather hopeless one before the introduction of Lebesgue's theories of measure and integration. However, after Lebesgue's publication of his investigations, the analogies between measure of a set and mathematical expectation of a random variable became apparent. These analogies allowed of further extensions; thus, for example, various properties of independent random variables were seen to be in complete analogy with the corresponding properties of orthogonal functions ... '
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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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| Maxwell, James Clerk, The Scientific Papers of JamesClerk Maxwell Volume 2, Dover Phoenix Editions 2003 Amazon Product Description
'One of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 19th century, James Clerk Maxwell is best known for his studies of the electromagnetic field. These 101 scientific papers, arranged chronologically in two volumes, testify to Maxwell's scientific legacy and offer modern students of mathematics and physics stimulating reading. 197 figures. 39 tables. 1890 edition.'
'Though in the course of ages catastrophes have occurred and may yet occur in the heavens, through ancient systems may be dissolved and new systems evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which these systems are built -- the foundation stones [states] of the universe remain unbroken and unworn. They continue this day, as they ere created, perfect in number and measure and weight.' pp 376-77
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McKeon, Richard, and (editor), The Basic Works of Aristotle, Random 1941 Introduction: 'The influence of Aristotle, in the ... sense of initiating a tradition, has been continuous from his day to the present, for his philosophy contains the first statement, explicit or by opposition, of many of the technical distinctions, definitions, and convictions on which later science and philosophy have been based...' (xi)
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Nixon, Richard Milhous, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Buccaneer Books 1994 Amazon editorial review: 'Former President Richard Nixon's bestselling autobiography is an intensely personal examination of his life, public career, and White House years. With startling candor, Nixon reveals his beliefs, doubts, and behind-the-scenes decisions, and sheds new light on his landmark diplomatic initiatives, political campaigns, and historic decision to resign from the presidency.
Throughout his career, Richard Nixon made extensive notes about his ideas, conversations, activities, and meetings. During his presidency, from November 1971 until April 1973, and again in June and July 1974, he kept an almost daily diary of reflections, analyses, and perceptions. These notes and diary dictations, which are quoted throughout this book, provide a unique insight into the complexities of the modern presidency and the great issues of American policy and politics.'
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Pais, Abraham, 'Subtle is the Lord...': The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford UP 1982 Jacket: In this . . . major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire ouvre. . . . Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography . . . including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before.'
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Pais, Abraham, Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World, Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press 1986 Preface: 'I will attempt to describe what has been discovered and understood about the constituents of matter, the laws to which they are subject and the forces that act on them [in the period 1895-1983]. . . . I will attempt to convey that these have been times of progress and stagnation, of order and chaos, of belief and incredulity, of the conventional and the bizarre; also of revolutionaries and conservatives, of science by individuals and by consortia, of little gadgets and big machines, and of modest funds and big moneys.' AP
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Rawson, Philip, Tantra: Indian Cult of Ecstasy, Crescent 1988 Jacket: 'Suggesting as its final goal a vision of cosmic sexuality, Tantra embodies fundamental patterns of symbolic expression in a view of life which offers a uniquely successful antidote to the anxieties of our time. The act of creation is continuous: therefore sexual intercourse between human beings can be a microcosmic representation of the creative process -- a symbolic tribute to the great Goddess from whose womb, and through whose wisdom, all things in the Universe are manifested in Time.'
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Tarski, Alfred, Cardinal Algebras, Oxford University Press 1949 'This book is an axiomatic investigation of the novel types of algebraic systems which arise from three sources: the arithmetic of cardinal numbers; the formal properties of the direct product decompositions of algebraic systems; the algebraic aspects of invariant measures, regarded as functions on a field of sets. ... The book is replete with novel algebraic notions; it is written in logical style; all theorems (important and unimportant) are explicitly stated, and the proofs are carefully cross-referenced.' Saunders MacLane
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Tymoczko, Thomas, New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology, Princeton University Press 1998 Jacket: 'The traditional debate among philosophers of mathematics is whether there is an external mathematical reality, something out there to be discovered, or whether mathematics is the product of the human mind. ... By bringing together essays of leading philosophers, mathematicians, logicians and computer scientists, TT reveals an evolving effort to account for the nature of mathematics in relation to other human activities.'
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van der Waerden, B L, Sources of Quantum Mechanics, Dover Publications 1968 Amazon Book Description: 'Seventeen seminal papers, dating from the years 1917-26, in which the quantum theory as wenow know it was developed and formulated. Among the scientists represented: Einstein,Ehrenfest, Bohr, Born, Van Vleck, Heisenberg, Dirac, Pauli and Jordan. All 17 papers translatedinto English.'
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Papers
| Born, Max, Werner Heisenberg and Paul Jordan, "Zur Quantenmechanik II (On quantum mechanics II)", Zeitschrift fur Physiks, 35, , received November 16, 1925, page 557 - . Translation available in van der Waerden, B L, Sources of Quantum Mechanics, Dover Publications 1968 . back |
| Callen, Herbert B, Tjheodore A Welton, "Irreversibility and generalized noise", Physical Review, 83, 1, 1951, page 34-40. 'A relation is obtained between the generalized resistance and the fluctuations of the generalized forces in linear dissipative systems. This relation forms the extension of the Nyquist relation for the voltage fluctuations in electrical impedances. The general formalism is illustrated by applications to several particular types of systems, including Brownian motion, electric field fluctuations in the vacuum, and pressure fluctuations in a gas.'. back |
| Nyquist, Harry, "Thermal Agitation of Electric Charge in Conductors", Physical Review, 32, 1, 1928, page 110-113. 'The electromotive force due to thermal agitation in conductors is calculated by means of principles in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The results obtained agree with results obtained experimentally.'. back |
Links
| Aristotle, , The Internet Classics Archive | On Generation and Corruption by Aristotle, 'Written 350 B.C.E , Translated by H. H. Joachim. ... 'Our next task is to study coming-to-be and passing-away. We are to distinguish the causes, and to state thedefinitions, of these processes considered in general-as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature. Further, we are to study growth and 'alteration'. We must inquire what each of them is; and whether 'alteration' is to be identified with coming-to-be, or whether to these different names there correspond two separate processes with distinct natures.'' back |
| Being There - Wikipedia, Being There - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , 'Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted from the 1971 novella written by Jerzy Kosiński. The film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A. Dysart, and Richard Basehart. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This was the last Peter Sellers film to be released while he was alive.' back |
| Dakini - Wikipedia, Dakini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A dakini (Sanskrit: डाकिनी ḍākinī; Tibetan: མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ khandroma, Wylie: mkha' 'gro ma, TP: kandroma; Chinese: 空行女) is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'.' back |
| Fluctuation dissipation theorem - Wikipedia, Fluctuation dissipation theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical physics, the fluctuation dissipation theorem is a powerful tool for predicting the non-equilibrium behavior of a system — such as the irreversible dissipation of energy into heat — from its reversible fluctuations in thermal equilibrium. The fluctuation dissipation theorem applies both to classical and quantum mechanical systems. Although formulated originally by Nyquist in 1928, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem was first proved by Herbert B. Callen and Theodore A. Welton in 1951.
The fluctuation dissipation theorem relies on the assumption that the response of a system in thermodynamic equilibrium to a small applied force is the same as its response to a spontaneous fluctuation. Therefore, there is a direct relation between the fluctuation properties of the thermodynamic system and its linear response properties. Often the linear response takes the form of one or more exponential decays.' back |
| Piety - Wikipedia, Piety - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The word piety comes from the Latin word pietas, the noun form of the adjective pius (which means "devout" or "good"). Pietas in traditional Latin usage expressed a complex, highly valued Roman virtue; a man with pietas respected his responsibilities to other people, gods and entities (such as the state), and understood his place in society with respect to others.' back |
| Pontifical Catholic University of Chile - Wikipedia, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile - Wikipedia,.the free encyclopedia, 'The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC or PUC) (Spanish: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and one of the most recognized educational institutions in Latin America. Since it is a Pontifical University, it has always had a strong and very close relationship with the Vatican. It was founded on June 21, 1888 through a decree issued by the Santiago Archbishop. Its first chancellor was Monsignor Joaquín Larraín Gandarillas, and at the very beginning, the university only taught two subjects, law and mathematics. It is part of the Universities of the Rectors' Council of Chilean Universities, and although it is not state-owned, a substantial part of its budget is given by state transferences under different concepts.' back |
| René Thom - Wikipedia, Rene Thom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, René Frédéric Thom (September 2, 1923 – October 25, 2002) was a French mathematician. He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he became world-famous among the wider academic community and the educated general public for one aspect of this latter interest, his work as founder of catastrophe theory (later developed by Erik Christopher Zeeman). He received the Fields Medal in 1958.' back |
| Rudolf Clausius - Wikipedia, Rudolf Clausius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (Born Rudolf Gottlieb,[1] January 2, 1822 – August 24, 1888), was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founders of the science of thermodynamics.[2] By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he put the theory of heat on a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, On the mechanical theory of heat, published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy.' back |
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