"natural theology > notes > 1999

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Bateson, Gregory, and Mary Catherine Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution and Anthropology, University of Chicago Press 2000 Jacket: 'This collection amounts to a retrospective exhibition of a working life. ... Bateson has come to this position during a career that carried him not only into anthropology, for which he was first trained, but into psychiatry, genetics, and communication theory. He ... examines the nature of the mind, seeing it not as a nebulous something, somehow lodged in the body of each man, but as a network of interactions relating the individual with his society and his species and with the universe at large.' D W Harding, New York Review of Books
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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.'
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Guareschi, Giovanni, and Una Vicenzo Troubridge (transpator), The Little World of Don Camillo, Image (Doubleday) 1986 Amazon Customer Reiew Humorous lessons in tolerance, October 7, 2000 By Guillermo Maynez 'I first read Don Camilo when I was 13. The thing that I have always liked the most about this book is its central lesson: it is possible to fight about ideologies, but when the community is in danger, we must forget the fight and help our neighbors. We'll continue the fuss later. Episode after episode, Don Camilo, the local priest, and Peppone, the communist mayor, confront each other, sometimes in a serious and violent way. But every time, both men negotiate their way out of trouble. That is a related lesson: public enemies / private friends. When you finish the book, indeed, you get a feeling that these two enemies and rivals have developed, over the years and innumerable shared experiences, a friendship that is deeper than most people's relationships. I like very much the parts when, in the midst of a crisis, Peppone and Don Camilo run secret negotiations in the middle of the night. But if you think this is a "rosy" book, full of childish situations, you are wrong. The problems that both characters have to solve are often deep and painful. This is the best kind of educational book, because it does not really have a "moral". The intelligent reader -and most children are- gets his own conclusions in a funny and humorous way. Those are the lessons likely to stay for life. A lovely book.'
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Hawking, Steven W, and G F R Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time , Cambridge UP 1975 Preface: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity ... leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing these two results.'
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Hofstadter, Douglas R, and Daniel C Dennett, The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul, Bantam 1985 Jacket: 'In this unique, mind-jolting book, DH, the author of Gädel, Escher, Bach, the intellectual best seller that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize, and Philosopher Daniel Dennett, author of the widely acclaimed Brainstorms, explore the meaning of self and consciousness through the perspectives of literature, artificial intelligence, psychology and much more. ... '
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Marks, John , The Search for the 'Manchurian Candidate': The CIAand mind control, W W Norton & Co 1991 Amazon: 'This book is probably the most quoted book I've seen on the topic of government experimentation on mind control. However, John Marks only follows the trail of the CIA. Many other branches/units of the government and military were involved in MK-Ultra. The Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, DOD, DOE. Would be nice to see all resources pooled together to have one complete story of these experiments instead of just one small segment of it. In spite of the single focus, it is the best information out there for documentation...especially since many of the other agencies involved destroyed all or most of their MK-Ultra documents (which is another conspiracy in itself). Thank heavens for the persistence of John Marks to find these documents! ' A reader from Pennsylvania.
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West, Morris, The Ambassador, New English Library 1970 Jacket: 'Out of every international crisis comes at least one great book. From the explosive, bitter and savage battlefront of Vietnam comes THE AMBASSADOR. . . . "
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Links

Cantor's theorem - Wikipedia, Cantor's theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In elementary set theory, Cantor's theorem states that, for any set A, the set of all subsets of A (the power set of A) has a strictly greater cardinality than A itself. For finite sets, Cantor's theorem can be seen to be true by a much simpler proof than that given below, since in addition to subsets of A with just one member, there are others as well, and since n < 2n for all natural numbers n. But the theorem is true of infinite sets as well. In particular, the power set of a countably infinite set is uncountably infinite. The theorem is named for German mathematician Georg Cantor, who first stated and proved it.' back

Computable function - Wikipedia, Computable function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Computable functions (or Turing-computable functions) are the basic objects of study in computability theory. They make precise the intuitive notion of algorithm. Computable functions can be used to discuss computability without referring to any concrete model of computation such as Turing machines or register machines. Their definition, however, must make reference to some specific model of computation.' back

Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, 'Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that establish inherent limitations of all but the most trivial axiomatic systems capable of doing arithmetic. The theorems, proven by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the philosophy of mathematics. The two results are widely, but not universally, interpreted as showing that Hilbert's program to find a complete and consistent set of axioms for all of mathematics is impossible, giving a negative answer to Hilbert's second problem. The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an "effective procedure" (e.g., a computer program, but it could be any sort of algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the relations of the natural numbers (arithmetic). For any such system, there will always be statements about the natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness theorem, a corollary of the first, shows that such a system cannot demonstrate its own consistency.' back

Hausdorff space - Wikipedia, Hausdorff space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. Of the many separation axioms that can be imposed on a topological space, the "Hausdorff condition" (T2) is the most frequently used and discussed. It implies the uniqueness of limits of sequences, nets, and filters. Intuitively, the condition is illustrated by the pun that a space is Hausdorff if any two points can be "housed off" from each other by open sets.' back

Information theory - Wikipedia, Information theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Historically, information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on compressing and reliably storing and communicating data. Since its inception it has broadened to find applications in many other areas, including statistical inference, natural language processing, cryptography generally, networks other than communication networks — as in neurobiology, the evolution and function of molecular codes, model selection in ecology, thermal physics, quantum computing, plagiarism detection and other forms of data analysis.' back

Satori - Wikipedia, Satori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for "enlightenment." The word literally means "understanding." "Satori" translates as a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment, and while satori is from the Zen Buddhist tradition, enlightenment can be simultaneously considered "the first step" or embarkation toward nirvana.

Satori is typically juxtaposed with a related term known as kensho, which translates as "seeing one's nature." Kensho experiences tend to be briefer glimpses, while satori is considered to be a deeper spiritual experience. Satori is as well an intuitive experience and has been described as being similar to awakening one day with an additional pair of arms, and only later learning how to use them.' back

Thanu Padmanabhan, Thermodynamical Aspects of gravity: New Insights, '(Submitted on 26 Nov 2009 (v1), last revised 19 Jan 2010 (this version, v2)) The fact that one can associate thermodynamic properties with horizons brings together principles of quantum theory, gravitation and thermodynamics and possibly offers a window to the nature of quantum geometry. This review discusses certain aspects of this topic concentrating on new insights gained from some recent work. After a brief introduction of the overall perspective, Sections 2 and 3 provide the pedagogical background on the geometrical features of bifurcation horizons, path integral derivation of horizon temperature, black hole evaporation, structure of Lanczos-Lovelock models, the concept of Noether charge and its relation to horizon entropy. Section 4 discusses several conceptual issues introduced by the existence of temperature and entropy of the horizons. In Section 5 we take up the connection between horizon thermodynamics and gravitational dynamics and describe several peculiar features which have no simple interpretation in the conventional approach. The next two sections describe the recent progress achieved in an alternative perspective of gravity. In Section 6 we provide a thermodynamic interpretation of the field equations of gravity in any diffeomorphism invariant theory and in Section 7 we obtain the field equations of gravity from an entropy maximization principle. The last section provides a summary.' back

Tony Abbott MHR, Federal Member for Warringah - Tony Abbott MHR, 'Tony Abbott was elected Member for Warringah at a by-election in March 1994. Prior to entering Parliament he was Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1993-94. From 1990-93 he was press secretary and political advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson. His previous career was in journalism, where he wrote as a feature writer for 'The Bulletin' and 'The Australian'.' back

Voltaire, If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him @ Everything2.com, 'A famous quote by Voltaire.' back

vol VII: Notes

1999

Notes

Sunday 24 January

Monday 25 January

Tuesday 26 January

Wednesday 27 January

Thursday 28 January

Friday 29 January

Saturday 30 January

Further reading

Books

Links