vol VII: Notes

1982

Notes

Sunday 26 December 1982 - Saturday 1 January 1983

notebook DREAMING DB1

[page 102]

Sunday 26 December 1982

A short dream of you. Was sitting in a library/lecture hall (seemed old, wood panelled) and you came up and nuzzled my cheek gently. Then another woman came on the other side and started licking my ear. I squirmed and asked her to stop. She said (somewhat archly) that if you could touch me she could too. (Seemed to be J) You reached across and pulled our three heads together. Later, oustide (now seemed to be Taree) we were standing at a pedestrian crossing, and hugged around the traffic light.

More images: How pale you looked when I picked you up from the place; changing your home made rag in the bush; telling me how to make the fire burn (I had to blow it this morning), making your corduroy skirt; so proud of chicken casserole, electric frypan, your drawings. Your big shoes and feet. The time of missing is passing, and reconscrution must begin. Life goes on indefinitely, let the cicle not be broken.

Reading Human Sacrifice Nigel Davies. Gives some interesting angles on the old religion, the unity of religions. Universe sacrifices life to beget life, and so did many religions in the interests of promoting selected life. Perhaps similar to weeding garden. Christianity, by providing a permanent haven for life (which requires no natural substancem and therefore not subject to conservation laws) was able to invent the notion of one sacrifice for all, communicated through the ages symbolically. Represents transition from matter/energy to information which only the west has made. [?]

The thought of you dying had never crossed my mind until told me what happened. I came home, fed the child and then went and sat in the river for a while.

Selective advantage of ritual suicide? Maybe an aberration of conscious mind. - Payoff like homosexuality. Social esteem for relatives.

Was it failed magic that you both died? What did you do to T's car? Why did it happen just after you fixed your Kombi. Was it surttee? Were you stoned? Do/did you really believe in rebirth/life after death. Will we meed again?

[page 104]

Can you read all this? Or are you too interested in other things? Met any interesting people yet?

I have played Keith Jarret's Koln concert through many times since you died. It seems more strongly reminiscent of you than any of your other tapes.

Hopes of love and cooperation dashed by death. You are gone, A great gap in The creativity of the Universe Like honeysuckle, We will grow larger To fill yourplace. But the pain It still new, And sharp. I loved you. I love your memory And will honour you In my life and death.

[page 105]

Exquisite beauty Vital grace Passionate longing Ceaseless search We were gowing together In a mysterious Universe Now I am alone Suffering, uninspired. Why does love elude me? Why is there no peace? Are you there To talk to me? Or have you gone Forever?

Noone Has captivated me as you did No such fascinating blend Of love and music, Mind and desire Has ever come my way before. Will it everhappen again?

Monday 27 December 1982

Went to bed last night thinking of building a bigger house with larger library capacity, say 20 000 books. Then long and complex dream sequence. Phone call to Milo Dunphy, interrupted by call to parents on other phone. Went to stay in Dunphy mansion, which, it seems, was being held hostage by servants. I had [daughter], and met a female who was attempting to solve the hostage problem. One day we were walking in garden, which had walls, embankments, trellises etc, when she saw one of them in front of her with a gun. Saw others surrounding her and advised that we surrender. Went downstairs to some sort of control centre. Found myself (for a second time) driving a diesel bus up the stairs. Some misgivings but it went up easily. Told Dunphy this was worst stay in a country mansion I had ever experienced. Broke a large piece of banister in anger, and then apologies to mother for doing it. and attempted to replace it. Then wondered how to solve this problem, since house bugged and at least one member of the family held captive at all times.

[page 107]

Another dream: C and S seemed to own a big department store, and were putting together an advertisement which was a sort of production number of the company song using lines of identically uniformed male and female staff.

Another dream: (I feel sure Ihave written this down already, but where?) I am sitting reading in a panelled room. Maybe old library or lecture hall of British Institutions say (where I went to inaugural lecture of ISES Britain), or an old British library. B came up on one side of me (the right) and nuzzled my cheek. Another woman, . . . came on the other side and started licking my ear. I asked her to stop and then B put her hand out and pulled all three of our heads together.

Later we were outside, in Taree, at the pedestrian crossing opposite the Wales Bank. B and I hugged, with the cold steel traffic light post between us. It was very warm, but we could not get very close.

We hadhoped to go to England together, but a fatal traffic accident stopped us. . . .

[page 108]

The whole is greater than the parts. The parts of theUniverse are nothing. It is something.

. . . Love her more as I think of her. I too must take my life seriously. We all have a little to add. I have a trust to give the worls that I learnt from her. How best to act? Careful consideration seems to answer stay here and work, Use money to communicate. Purchase and sell information

Tuesday 28 December 1982

. . . No recalled dreams.

. . .

Tears still come, but in the end, if we are to understand death we must celebrate it. It is inherent in the information processing system, in a negative way. We will never avoid crashed systems. What we need to make technologically are more backups.

[page 109]

Wednesday 29 December 1982

Hardly a dream, more of a presence, a feeling of boundless warmth. . . . Funny how I have begun to speak of B in the third person, . . . after almost convincing myself on the dream that she was still alive. In memory or reality? What is what?

Thursday 30 December 1982

Friday 31 December 1982

Saturday 1 January 1983

Copyright:

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.

Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Anonymous, and Juan Mascaro (translator), The Upanishads, Penguin Classics 1965 Amazon.com Review 'The poetic backbone of Hinduism, the millennia-old Upanishads transcend time. The selections offered here illuminate a path that is as "narrow as the edge of a razor" but pregnant with freedom and bliss. Through vivid metaphors and timeless prose, learn how the path of yoga leads beyond the treacherous web of karma to the final, blissful union of the personal soul, atman, with the universal soul, Brahman.'  Amazon   back

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'  Amazon   back

Cantor, Georg, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers (Translated, with Introduction and Notes by Philip E B Jourdain), Dover 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.'  Amazon   back

Davis, Martin, Computability and Unsolvability, Dover 1982 Preface: 'This book is an introduction to the theory of computability and non-computability ususally referred to as the theory of recursive functions. The subject is concerned with the existence of purely mechanical procedures for solving problems. . . . The existence of absolutely unsolvable problems and the Goedel incompleteness theorem are among the results in the theory of computability that have philosophical significance.'  Amazon   back

de Soto, Hernando, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else, Basic Books 2000 'The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph is its hour of crisis. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended more than a century of political competition between communism and capitalism. Capitalism stands alone as the only feasible way to rationally organise a modern economy. . . . As a result, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Third World and former communist nations have balanced their budgets, cut subsidies, welcomed foreign investment, and dropped their tariff barriers. Their efforts have been repaid with bitter disappointment. . . . In this book I intend to demonstrate that the major stumbling block that keeps the rest of the world from benefiting from capitalism is its inability to produce capital. . . . The poor . . . do have things, but they lack the process to represent their property and create capital. The have houses but not titles, crops but not deeds, businesses but not statutes of incorporation. It is the unavailability of these essential representations that explains why people who have adapted every other Western invention, from paper clips to nuclear reactors, have not been able to produce sufficient capital to make their domestic captialism work.' pages 1-7  Amazon   back

Descartes, Rene, Rules for the direction of the mind: Discourse on the method, Encyclopaedia BritannicaB0006AU8ZG 1955   Amazon   back

Galilei, Galileo, and Stillman Drake (translator), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: Including the Starry Messenger (1610 Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina), Doubleday Anchor 1957 Amazon: 'Although the introductory sections are a bit dated, this book contains some of the best translations available of Galileo's works in English. It includes a broad range of his theories (both those we recognize as "correct" and those in which he was "in error"). Both types indicate his creativity. The reproductions of his sketches of the moons of Jupiter (in "The Starry Messenger") are accurate enough to match to modern computer programs which show the positions of the moons for any date in history. The appendix with a chronological summary of Galileo's life is very useful in placing the readings in context.' A Reader.  Amazon   back

Gibson, William, Idoru, 2011 'Tokyo, post-event: After an attack of scruples, Colin Laney's skipped out on his former employer Slitscan - avoiding the rash of media lawyers sent his way - and taken a job for the outfit managing Japanese rock duo, Lo/Rez. Rez has announced he's going to marry an 'idoru' by the name of Rei Toi - she exists only in virtual reality - and this creates complications that Laney, a net runner, is supposed to sort out. But when Chai, part of Lo/Rez's fan club, turns up unaware that she's carrying illegal nanoware for the Russian Kombinat, Laney's scruples nudge him towards trouble all over again. And this time lawyers'll be the least of his worries . . .'  Amazon   back

Jech, Thomas, Set Theory, Springer 1997 Jacket: 'This book covers major areas of modern set theory: cardinal arithmetic, constructible sets, forcing and Boolean-valued models, large cardinals and descriptive set theory. . . . It can be used as a textbook for a graduate course in set theory and can serve as a reference book.'  Amazon   back

Joachim, Howard H, and Errol E Harris, Descartes' Rules for the Directionof the Mind, Thoemmes Press: New Ed edition 1997 Product Description: Taken from the original manuscripts of Joachim's lectures on the Regulae of Descartes, this volume was reconstructed after his death from notes taken by his pupils Errol Harris and John Austin. A critical examination of the main rules for the direction of the mind and the expositions by which Descartes explains them, the work contains commentary on five main topics: the power of knowing, the nature of the intellect, Descartes's account of induction and deduction, Descartes's method of analysis and synthesis, and the notice of vera mathesis. Joachim then goes on to criticize Descartes's method and to expound his own doctrine of philosophical analysis. The last chapter offers his own concrete organic unities in opposition to the Cartesian complex natures.' Amazon  Amazon   back

Lifton, Robert Jay, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: a study of 'brainwashing' in China, 1989 Jacket: 'Brainwashing has often been described in sensational terms; but Dr Lifton's painstaking investigation of Thought Reform is based on psychological studies (with follow up interviews) of Western civilians and Chinese intellectuals who underwent the process in a variety of prisons, universities and other settings."   Amazon   back

Mascaro, Juan, and (translator), The Bhagavad Gita, Penguin Books 1962-1968   Amazon   back

Robins, R H, A Short History of Linguistics, Routledge 1997 'This complete revision and updating of Professor Robins' classic text offers a comprehensive account of the history of linguistic thought from its European origins some 2500 years ago to the present day. It examines the independent development of linguistic science in China and Medieval Islam, and especially in India, which was to have a profound effect on European and American linguistics from the end of the eighteenth century.'  Amazon   back

Thiering, Barbara, Jesus of the Apocalypse: The life of Jesus after the crucifixion, Doubleday 1996 Introduction: 'It is now possible to show that ... the bizarre images of the [Book of Revelation] were deliberately constructed ... to read like fantastic images but to convey through this form actual historical information. ... Above all the Book of Revelation contains evidence, supplied by the early Christians themselves, that Jesus survived the crucifixion and remained active for many years afterwards. ... " vi  Amazon   back

Papers

Barasch, Jonathan, Kiyosho Mori, "", Nature, 432, 7019, 16 December 2004, page 811-812. 'Bacteria have many ways of stealing iron from the organisms they infect. But this thievery is not one-sided, and a newly discovered device in the mammalian tool kit does a good job of keeping bacteria in check.. back

Dobson, Christopher M, "Chemical Space and Biology", Nature, 432, 7019, 16 December 2004, page 824-828. 'Chemical space - which encompasses all possible small organic molecules, including those present in biological systems - is vast. So vast in fact that so far only a tiny fraction of it has been explored. Nevertheless, these explorations have greatly enhanced our understanding of biology, and have led to the development of many of today's drugs. The discovery of new bioactive molecules, facilitated by a deeper understanding of the nature of the regions of chemical space that are relevant to biology, will advance our knowledge of biological proceses and lead to new strategies to treat disease. '. back

Narashima, Roddam, "Essay Concepts: Divide, conquer and unify", Nature, 432, 7019, 16 December 2004, page 807. 'Werner Heisenberg said that Prandtl had "the ability to see the solution of equations without going through the calculations". Prandtl demurred, "No, I strive to form in my mind a thorough picture . . . the equations come only later when I believe I have understood . .. [and are] good means of proving my conclusions in a way that others can accept." His papers have a simplicity and directness born of supreme self-confidence. They do not trumpet their success or criticize others, but just get on with solving the central problems using all the tools available - observation (plenty of it), mathematics, calculation and modelling. Prandtl's methodological eclecticism set the style of fluid dynamics reseach in the twentieth century. No wonder G. I. Taylor called him 'our chief' and helped nominate Prandtl for the Nobel prize he never won.'. back

Shannon, Claude E, "The mathematical theory of communication", Bell System Technical Journal, 27, , July and October, 1948, page 379-423, 623-656. 'A Note on the Edition Claude Shannon's ``A mathematical theory of communication'' was first published in two parts in the July and October 1948 editions of the Bell System Technical Journal [1]. The paper has appeared in a number of republications since: • The original 1948 version was reproduced in the collection Key Papers in the Development of Information Theory [2]. The paper also appears in Claude Elwood Shannon: Collected Papers [3]. The text of the latter is a reproduction from the Bell Telephone System Technical Publications, a series of monographs by engineers and scientists of the Bell System published in the BSTJ and elsewhere. This version has correct section numbering (the BSTJ version has two sections numbered 21), and as far as we can tell, this is the only difference from the BSTJ version. • Prefaced by Warren Weaver's introduction, ``Recent contributions to the mathematical theory of communication,'' the paper was included in The Mathematical Theory of Communication, published by the University of Illinois Press in 1949 [4]. The text in this book differs from the original mainly in the following points: • the title is changed to ``The mathematical theory of communication'' and some sections have new headings, • Appendix 4 is rewritten, • the references to unpublished material have been updated to refer to the published material. The text we present here is based on the BSTJ version with a number of corrections.. back

Turing, Alan, "On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem", Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, 2, 42, 12 November 1937, page 230-265. 'The "computable" numbers maybe described briefly as the real numbers whose expressions as a decimal are calculable by finite means. Although the subject of this paper is ostensibly the computable numbers, it is almost as easy to define and investigate computable functions of an integrable variable or a real or computable variable, computable predicates and so forth. The fundamental problems involved are, however, the same in each case, and I have chosen the computable numbers for explicit treatment as involving the least cumbrous technique. I hope shortly to give an account of the rewlations of the computable numbers, functions and so forth to one another. This will include a development of the theory of functions of a real variable expressed in terms of computable numbers. According to my definition, a number is computable if its decimal can be written down by a machine'. back

Links

Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron - Wikipedia, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 1731-17 January 1805) was the first professional French scholar of Indian culture. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the Ecole francaise d'extreme orient a century after his death and, later still, the founding of the Institut francais de Pondichery.' 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 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 or a real or computable variable, computable predicates, and so forth. The fundamental problems involved are, however, the same in each case, and I have chosen the computable numbers for explicit treatment as involving the least cumbrous technique.' 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

Allegory of the cave - Wikipedia, Allegory of the cave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Plato has Socrates describe a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to designate names to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.' back

Claude E Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, 'The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem. The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages.' back

Clive Irving, Air France 447 Report: How the Plane Went Down, 'A new report mostly blames pilot error for the tragic 2009 airplane crash. Clive Irving asks why pilots should be faulted for having to cope with serious technical failures.' back

Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 12:12: . . . of makingmany books there is no end, 'King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.' back

Justin Romberg, Nyquist Theorem, The Connections Project, Rice University: 'The fundamental theorem of DSP [digital signal processing]' back

King James Bible, Psalms 82:6 I have said . . . , 'Viewing the 1769 King James Version. Click to switch to 1611 King James Version of Psalms 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High. - 1769 Oxford King James Bible 'Authorized Version' back

Laurence Frost & Heather Smith, Air France Crash Criminal Probe Shows Scope of Crew Errors, 'Air France Flight 447’s crew reacted badly to an autopilot shutdown and misread instruments showing the plane’s rapid descent before it plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people aboard, a report shows.' back

Priscian - Wikipedia, Priscian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia, 'Priscianus Caesariensis (fl. 500 AD), commonly known as Priscian . . . was a Latin grammarian. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae ("Grammatical Foundations") on the subject. This work was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages and provided the raw material for the field of speculative grammar.' back

Psalm 82, Psalms, chapter 82, 6I declare: “Gods though you be,*d offspring of the Most High all of you, 7Yet like any mortal you shall die; like any prince you shall fall.” back

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