vol VII: Notes

1999

Notes

[Notebook MA, DB 51]

[Sunday 19 September 1999 - Saturday 25 September 1999]

[page 287]

Sunday 19 September 1999

[page 288]

Monday 20 September 1999

We see the action of Cantor space on each word, stretching it from a concrete meaning, breath, to an abstract meaning (spirit) see Jaynes. Jaynes: The Origin of Consciousness

The WORLD is the INTERACTION of a the POSSIBILITIES of the CANTOR UNIVERSE.

. . .

[page 289]

We're following here the scientific method, which is basically try t assemble al the data you have so far into a consistent model, and use this model to design and implement the search for critical data. Fortun & Bernstein: Muddling Through

The model builder is free to pick any consistent (ie realisable) structure, and the proof is in the eating. How to find a model is one's own business, but the history of science throws up a few principles. First, the model will be mathematical. This is because natural languages do not have the 'bandwidth' to capture the complex nature of physical reality, Einstein et al have reflected long on this point.

Tis model built in a scientific spirit.

Parliamentary standing orders.

Groups, symmetric groups and matrices. Weyl

Tuesday 21 September 1999

Navigation through life.

. . .

NEURAL NETWORK adjusts the model to fit the data. TRANSFORM (eg FOURIER), UNITARY Fourier analysis - Wikipedia, Unitary group - Wikipedia

Algorithm for transformation encoded in a matrix. matrix element = matrix.

CYBERNETICS of a MEETING

SENSOR = FEATURE RECOGNTION I see them. There's two blokes and a woman. Do they look like cops? Gender is recognized with relative ease, Role may be harder to detect.

. . .

One would think I had it ready to spill it all out but new problems must still be arriving. The situation looks quite good,however. But how can I ever know?

[page 291]

Only by propagation and criticism. Exciting / painful.

SENSOR — feature recognition
LINK — encoding and error free transmission.
COMPUTER — seeks to otimize use of resources to achieve given state in given state and environment (also changing)

Such a control network is implemented in our bodies and forms the hardware substrate for assimilation to a culture.

It seems clear how scientific mental qualities could ead to fitness, And what about nn-scientific ideas?

I'm not as demanding as a supernova, but how do we measure this?

Wednesday 22 September 1999

GENOTYPE = ROM, MEMOTYPE = RAM

[page 292]

Thursday 23 September 1999

Friday 24 September 1999

Angrily disappointed with O'Murchu. Why? So much internal contradiction and inconsistency with received physics.

Why do such shonky things survive? Because people need them and uncritical people accept them and use them as a guide for action, This is because the worst thing for a control system is to be unable to respond to an error signal. EG East Timor. History of East Timor - Wikipedia

Hindu / Muslim — Christian interface. I cannot get my Muslim men to stop killing Christians.

The way ahead is pointed to by abstract structures. I am imobilized because I do not know what to do next, How do I route the

[page 293]

rainwater pipes through the house? This gives rise to aesthetic, cost, safety and other issues. At least U can see that the output from the N kitchen gutter can come over the rod into the NE verandah gutter.

Meanwhile I am working my way around O'M, wh has muddied my waters with all his new age speak. It is effective because it has a powerful placebo effect, which tends to obscure the data from the underlying issues.

Model transfinite duality on tensors, vectors and forms.

The test for the theory is to handle the noise coming from all the O'Ms of the world and go on seeking the algorithms necessary to make our spiritual operations a physical reality, This requires modification of the physical word (ie vehicles, roads, housing, food etc etc.

We have no trouble with wealth if it is adequately decoupled from environment and politics, Where there are high tensions there must be strong insulators.

[page 294]

Insight is gained by exploring all the permutations of the possibilities. But this permutation is not flat, a combinatorial situation that soon escapes the power of any processor. Instead, the symmetry is broken (E-Theorem) so that sticking to the high probability route we can hope to arrive at a first order solution, which can then be perturbatively corrected to get more precise results. . . . Zwicky

All knowledge is ordained to a practical end. Although my speculations seem rather abstract, they have the totally practical purpose of helping to decide what is passed onto to the children by way of culture, We do not have a lot of control over this, children learn from their peers, but I believe the adults hav a big say in creating the environment in which children download their culture.

[page 295]

. . .

So we bring social engineering down to the determination and implemntation of the simplest countable [computable] algorithms necessary to provide an environment for 'spiritual growth, ie transfinite growth [creation]. . . .

All abstract dat generated by government operations must be in the public domain. Fundamental government operation is establishing clear and publicly accountable payments system.

. . .

[page 296]

Noble page 49: Bacon meant 'science as technology' which we all do since collecting and processing new data usually needs a new technological skill which both drives and feeds the technological environment.

'the relief of man's estate'.

TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT = {ENTERPRISE}.

Noble page 48: Spiritual and industrial growth;
Milton: 'So at length when the universal learning has completed its cycle, the spirit of man, no longer confined within this dark prison house, will reach out far and wide, till it fills the whole world and the space far beyond with the expansion of its divine greatness.

Milton: 'Nature . . . would surrender to man as its appointed overnor, and his rule would extend from command of the earth to dominion over the stars.'

Since then we have begun to learn to leave things alone.

Francis Bacon: writings came to attain almost\

[page 297]

scriptural authority.

'Truth and utility are here the very same thing' - and claims to be producing useless abstract truth [bonum honestum] have no right to an income based on utility. We know of course that any piece of knowledge is potentially useful.

Mikhail Aleksandrovitch Bakunin EB 2:607 'The passion for destruction is also a creative passion.' Encyclopedia Britannica

Bacon: 'For so long as the object of meditation and inquiry is merely to know, the understanding . . . finds in the very uncertainty of conclusion and variety of choice a certain pleasure and delight; but when they pass from muses to Sphinx . . . whereby there is a necessity to present action, choice and decision they begin to be powerful and cruel; and unless they be cowed, they strangely torment and worry the mind.

'Command nature by way of obeying her.' Francis Bacon - Wikiquote

[page 298]

. . .

The upshot of my upbringing was an overwhelming pressure to enter the religious life, This pressure seemed to act as a solid wall across my whole future. There was no way round it. Later I realized that entering the Order of preachers exempted me from the draft to the Vietnam war, I was to be a soldier of Christ, at much less risk to life and limb, although I imagine I believed that martyrdom seemed to me to be a good thing, the ultimate in religious masochism.

Saturday 25 September 1999

Noble page 50: Bacon: 'Mean and even filthy things.'

page 53: 'Bacon. . . informed emerging mentality of modernity.'

One must take culture as a whole in the same way that have aken genetics as a whole.

page 56: education = cultural download. [page 299]

We must recognise that events such as East Timor are part of the human behavioural repertoire to be taken into account in such situations and prevented if possible. REEFS OF NATURE.

Kill or be killed

page 58: Royal Society 'to improve practical and experimental knowledge.'

page 61: Boyle: 'empirical investigation was a form of spiritual experience.'

We tend to avoid the infinite future by populating it with artificial apocalyptic terminations.

Waking up these mornings feeling like the cat that ate the cream, but still not able to identify in my ife or work the source of this feeling except perhaps that the network and whole cultural approach does seem to be working out well and will happily work out in the next essays and the thesis.

page 63: 'constructive theory of knowledge'. knowledge = active result of making or doing something.

[page 300]

GOD — FIELD — WHOLE
PERSON — PARTICLE — PART

An important feature of the model is an explanation of the structures and aberrations of human culture.

card( { culture }) = ℵ_?

Fearture extraction = ℵ_n —> ℵ_{m < n}

It is very hard to do nothing though it be the green and spiritual thing
green and promised land.

Infanticide: a grimly realistic appreciation of malthusian reality.

A leading order history of humanity can be written in purely ecological terms. Guns, germs and steel Diamond

E-theorem Khinchin

What is an error? Can only be understood in context of not-error.

[page 301]

noble page 84: Compte 'theoligcal, metaphysical, positivist.' Initial singularity = empty memory.

page 100: epidemics of insane excitement [irrational exhuberance]

page 104: Contents of unconscious also culturally downloaded.

Umberto Eco, The Search for the Perfect Language (London, Blackwell)

Sometimes my baby seems ready to go. We just have to close the circuit and she will begin to rotate.

We look at two transfinite trees joined at the sem to make a circuit like the blood/air interface in the lungs and the oxygenated/deoxygenated interface in the body. We may imagine some sort of current

[page 302]

through the system which manifests in events between two laves. We are looking [at] the comfortable geometric interface here.

What we are trying to say is that the downloading of culture to a new leaf (individual) on the net is an exemple of the universal process by which the transfinie network produces new particles, that is new things with a structure symmetric in time, ie with fixed energy = fixed processing rate.

Technology lengthens the production cycle (eg glass containers) so much through the development of complex algorithms (CAPITALIZATION) that need religion (sub specie aeternitatis) to show us how to forego instant gratification for later greater gratification,

Noble page 148: 'the development of a thinking machine

<>[page 303]

was aimed at rescuing the immortal mind from its mortal prison [really?].

[New notebook DB52A Mathesis]

[page 3]

John Archer: The Nature of Grief: The Evolution and Psychology fo reactions to Loss Archer

grief, kinship, age, sex

Alexander Shand: laws of sorrow

[page 4]

Capital investment is useless until it comes into production, and if it fails to produce, becomes a kloss to be charged against the survival account, It is necessary if my work is not to be wasted, to reduce it to a plan of action.

What is required then is testing and implementation that is building, The task is to create heaven on earth for all people.

a) environmental responsibility in physical production
b) distributive justice.

Capital: structure deigned to increase productivity.

Hardware communication requires two things to change at once. Inherent dualism of notion, The world is full. The little one said roll over.

[page 5]

. . .

I was voted out by the councils of the Order of Preachers, requested to leave and my vows were annulled. This transient in my life . . . seemed to me at the time . . . because I failed to hold the received version of the teaching of Thomas Aquinas.

The pressure placed on me by the Church has caused the extrusion of this sring of words.

5 get the idea: third person.

[page 6]

PROCESS EXPERIENCE INTO SCIENCE = FORMALISE

Conversion

Abstract version of my personal conversion. But this sounds polemical.

DE POLEMICIZE

The mythic language of religion allows us to speak in the third person about personal feelings, So the doings of the gods are a representation of the thoughts that go through ur heads ranging from love \to violence and in many other dimensions.

DIMENSION <—> DUALITY

Am stuck in the polemical, which is the source of the energy to make the purely formal third person.

Teilhard de Chardin The within of things. This revealed in Ulysses. Odysseus - Wikipedia

[page 7]

I conceive of my life as a personal narrativ a fraction of which is captured in this book. This narrative is the data . . . for a theory of personal change in the area of theology. But though based on personal information, the theory can be depersonalized, realizing that each point in the [human] network [is an element of a symmetry].

. . .

Explanatory analogies from the building trade.

. . .

. . . generalise from a particular perspective to a common perspective.

Homo sapiens : birth and nurturing process.

[page 8]

. . .

The conceptualization of the human person as a union of body and mind is very old, appearing in the work of the Greeks and the Books of the Bible 700 - 500 BC respectively.

Like the boy and the fez [?], the formalism itself abstracts from the excitement and stress of collecting and interpreting the data. This is precisely why we have gone for the mathematical language, So give the impression that it is all dead easy.

[page 9]

The scientific subjugation of the I has a lot in common with the spiritual theories of many mystics, to submerge oneself in the waters of life as an anonymous participant in the flow. This is to look at the outside o things. The experience of the inside each of us has of ourselves and extrapolates from that [a] model of others,, so that I am my model of you.

Design of machines to pass the Turing test. Turing test - Wikipedia

. . .

Suppression of personal experience is OK if we want to produce an abstract low resolution picture of the human landscape. Such a picture suppresses individuality and so fails to capture the full variety of humanity. However, it is possible to produce a space with sufficient cardinality to capture every detail of humanity (entropy = log(cardinality))

Cardinal number grows exponentially with the number of symbols.

g f e d c b a . Let the base each subsequent digit be the umber formed by the previous digits.

The progress of scholarship depends largely on the trnsmission of ideas from person to person encoded in language, writing, text narrative, data.

What is remarkable abou this writing is that I have worked so long at it and produced so little that is publishable or useful to the rest of the world, To this extent, I am a failure, one who has taken many chances and not yet seen any of them bear ruit, This is the aim of university education, to learn the idiom of academic communication.

The origin of human consciousness, whenever it occurred (Jayne) opened the way for a fruitful dua;ism in human thought: the distinction between matter and spirit. Though this distinction dates back to ancient times, we will start the history here from Descartes. Spirit - res cogitans; not-spirit = matter = res non-cogitans.

. . .

[page 11]

. . . Turing (like Newton) broke the barrier between matter and spirit. We now have the tools to model a res cogitans. The purpose of this thesis is to exhibit such a model and propose tests for its veracity.

This model suggests that there is on this definition no matter in the universe, since the whole thing seems to fit the abstract definition of res cogitans. There is, however, a feature of the universe which introduces into the universe the features tht the ancients explained by 'matter'. The exploration of these constraints or symmetries in the universe is physics, It is physical law, in one form or another, which imposes Procrustean (or Malthusian) constraints on human dreams, The key to happiness, I believe, is to confine one's dreams to areas which are not constrained by physical reality.

Physics is in reality (we have assumed) the operation of the laws of data processing in the res cogitans.

[page 12]

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!)

Archer, John , The Nature of Grief : The Evolution and Psychology of Reactions to Loss, Routledge 1999 Jacket: 'The Nature of Grief is an innovative and provocative new synthesis of material from evolutionary psychology, ethology and experimental psychology on the process of grief. It argues that grief is not an illness or a disorder but a natural reaction to losses of many kinds.'  Amazon   back

Boff, Clodovis, Theology and Praxis: Epistemological Foundations, Orbis 1987 Jacket: 'In this book Clodovis Boff rigorously and passionately erects the methodological scaffolding that is necessary to construct a true methodology of the political, a true theology of liberation.'  Amazon   back

Borg, Marcus J., The heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, HarperOne 2004 Amazon Editorial Review From Booklist 'Christianity appears to be at a crossroads, and religious historian Borg draws a distinction between what he calls an emerging paradigm and an earlier paradigm. The distinction is important because Christianity, he says, still makes sense and is the most viable religious option for millions. He contends the earlier paradigm, based upon a punitive God and believing in Christianity now for the sake of salvation later, simply doesn't work for many people. It also doesn't take into account the sacramental nature of religious belief; that is, religion as a vessel wherein the sacred comes to the faithful. Borg's emerging paradigm is based upon the belief that one must be transformed in one's own lifetime, that salvation means one is healed and made whole with God. He feels the new paradigm allows more people to be and become Christians. In his compelling proposal Borg consistently aligns the emerging paradigm with God, Jesus, the Bible, tradition, and religious practice, which constitute the heart of Christianity.' Donna Chavez Copyright © American Library Association.  Amazon   back

Cohen, Paul J, Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis, Benjamin/Cummings 1966-1980 Preface: 'The notes that follow are based on a course given at Harvard University, Spring 1965. The main objective was to give the proof of the independence of the continuum hypothesis [from the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms for set theory with the axiom of choice included]. To keep the course as self contained as possible we included background materials in logic and axiomatic set theory as well as an account of Gödel's proof of the consistency of the continuum hypothesis. . . .'   Amazon   back

Cox, Harvey, The Future of Faith, HarperOne 2009 Amazon editorial review from Publishers Weekly Starred Review. What shape will the Christian faith take in the 21st century? In the midst of fast-paced global changes and in the face of an apparent resurgence of fundamentalism, can Christianity survive as a living and vital faith? With his typical brilliance and lively insight, Cox explores these and other questions in a dazzling blend of memoir, church history and theological commentary. He divides Christian history into three periods: the Age of Faith, during the first Christian centuries, when the earliest followers of Jesus lived in his Spirit, embraced his hope and followed him in the work he had begun; the Age of Belief, from the Council of Nicaea to the late 20th century, during which the church replaced faith in Jesus with dogma about him; and the Age of the Spirit, in which we're now living, in which Christians are rediscovering the awe and wonder of faith in the tremendous mystery of God. According to Cox, the return to the Spirit that so enlivened the Age of Faith is now enlivening a global Christianity, through movements like Pentecostalism and liberation theology, yearning for the dawning of God's reign of shalom. Cox remains our most thoughtful commentator on the religious scene, and his spirited portrait of our religious landscape challenges us to think in new ways about faith.' Copyright © Reed Business Information  Amazon   back

Cox , Harvey , The Secular City: Secularisation and Urbanisation in Theological Perspective , Collier Books 1990 Amazon Customer review: A scholarly proposal for mordernizing the church., May 11, 1997 By A Customer 'Dr. Cox hits hard at church convention. He does an excellent job of exposing some flaws in the dogma of the church, and offers ways he thinks the flaws can be repaired. Some of his more controversial suggestions conflict with biblical standards, and pose implementation problems. Overall, the work is informative, innovative and inspiring.'  Amazon   back

Deutsch, David, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes - and its Implications, Allen Lane Penguin Press 1997 Jacket: 'Quantum physics, evolution, computation and knowledge - these four strands of scientific theory and philosophy have, until now, remained incomplete explanations of the way the universe works. ... Oxford scholar DD shows how they are so closely intertwined that we cannot properly understand any one of them without reference to the other three. ...'  Amazon   back

Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, W W Norton and Co 1997 'Diamond's book is complex and a bit overwhelming. But the thesis he methodically puts forth--examining the "positive feedback loop" of farming, then domestication, then population density, then innovation, and on and on--makes sense. Written without favor, Guns, Germs, and Steel is good global history.' Amazon.com  Amazon   back

Eco, Umberto, The Search for the Perfect Language, Wiley-Blackwell 1997 'The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history.   Amazon   back

Einstein, Albert, and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics: The growth of ideas from the Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta, Simon and Schuster 1967 Preface: 'Our intention [is] to sketch in broad outline the attempts of the human mind to find a connection between the world of ideas and the world of phenomena. We have tried to show the active forces which compel science to invent ideas corresponding to the reality of our world.' Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld  Amazon   back

Fortun, Mike, and Herbert J Bernstein, Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the Twenty-First Century, Counterpoint 1998 Amazon editorial review: 'Does science discover truths or create them? Does dioxin cause cancer or not? Is corporate-sponsored research valid or not? Although these questions reflect the way we're used to thinking, maybe they're not the best way to approach science and its place in our culture. Physicist Herbert J. Bernstein and science historian Mike Fortun, both of the Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies (ISIS), suggest a third way of seeing, beyond taking one side or another, in Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the 21st Century. While they deal with weighty issues and encourage us to completely rethink our beliefs about science and truth, they do so with such grace and humor that we follow with ease discussions of toxic-waste disposal, the Human Genome Project, and retooling our language to better fit the way science is actually done.'  Amazon   back

Hopkins, Gerard Manley, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works , Oxford University Press, USA 2009 Amazon Product Description 'This authoritative edition brings together all of Hopkins's poetry and a generous selection of his prose writings to explore the essence of his work and thinking. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was one of the most innovative of nineteenth-century poets. During his tragically short life he strove to reconcile his religious and artistic vocations, and this edition demonstrates the range of his interests. It includes all his poetry, from best-known works such as "The Wreck of the Deutschland" and "The Windhover" to translations, foreign language poems, plays, and verse fragments, and the recently discovered poem "Consule Jones". In addition there are excerpts from Hopkins's journals, letters, and spiritual writings. The poems are printed in chronological order to show Hopkins's changing preoccupations, and all the texts have been established from original manuscripts.'  Amazon   back

Jaspers, Karl, and (Translated from the German by E B Ashton), Philosophical Faith and Revelation, Harper and Row 1967 Jacket: 'The importance of this book can hardly be overrated. It is the onluy authentic philosophy of religion written in the twentieth century, and it appears at the very moment when the modern crisis of bnelief in revelation and hence of Vhjristian theology has come to a head. . . . ' Hannah Arendtback

Jaynes, Julian, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Mariner Books 2000 Jacket: 'At the heart of this book is the revolutionary idea that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but is a learned process brought into being out of an earlier hallucinatory mentality by cataclysm and catastrophe only 3000 years ago and still developing.'  Amazon   back

Khinchin, A I, Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory (translated by P A Silvermann and M D Friedman), Dover 1957 Jacket: 'The first comprehensive introduction to information theory, this book places the work begun by Shannon and continued by McMillan, Feinstein and Khinchin on a rigorous mathematical basis. For the first time, mathematicians, statisticians, physicists, cyberneticists and communications engineers are offered a lucid, comprehensive introduction to this rapidly growing field.'  Amazon   back

Mantel, Hilary, Wolf Hall, Henry Holt and Co. 2009 'Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn't stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays--even past Henry himself--confident in the knowledge that to recast history's most mercurial sovereign, it's not the King she needs to see, but one of the King's most mysterious agents. Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King's right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell has little interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry's marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it's the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose. The opening cast of characters and family trees may give initial pause to some readers, but persevere: the witty, whip-smart lines volleying the action forward may convince you a short stay in the Tower of London might not be so bad... provided you could bring a copy of Wolf Hall along. '--Anne Bartholomew  Amazon   back

Moltmann, Jurgen, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribuition to Messianic Ecclesiology, Fortress Press 1993 Amazon Product Description "This book, which in my opinion is Moltmann's best, can be recommended on the basis that it contains challenging and creative insights that can be used by the discriminating reader in the service of church renewal…Moltmann represents the theology of liberation at its best, and those who wish to know more about this theology would do well to study this creative and searching theologian." --Donald G. Bloesch Christianity Today  Amazon   back

Moulakis, Anathasios, Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial, University of Missouri 1998 Amazon Product Description 'Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial delivers what no other book on Weil has—a comprehensive study of her political thought. In this examination of the development of her thought, Athanasios Moulakis offers a philosophical understanding of politics that reaches beyond current affairs and ideological advocacy. Simone Weil—philosopher, activist, mystic—unites a profound reflection on the human condition with a consistent and courageous existential and intellectual honesty manifest in the moving testimony of her life and her death. Moulakis examines Weil's political thought as an integral part of a lived philosophy, in which analysis and doctrine are inseparable from the articulation of an intensely personal, ultimately religious experience. Because it is impossible to distinguish Weil's life from her thought, her writings cannot be understood properly without linking them to her life and character. By situating Weil's political thought within the context of the intellectual climate of her time, Moulakis connects it also to her epistemology, her cosmology, and her personal experience. Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial presents the unfolding of Weil's philosophical life against the backdrop of the political and social conditions of the last days of the Third French Republic, the Spanish Civil War, and the rise and clash of totalitarian ideologies. The ideological climate of the age—of which Weil herself was not quite free—was indeed the major "obstacle" in the struggle against which she fashioned her critical, intellectual, and moral tools. Weil has been categorized a number of ways: as a saint and a near convert to Roman Catholicism, as a social critic, or as an analytic philosopher. Moulakis examines all aspects of Weil's thought in the indissoluble unity in which she lived them. This thorough investigation pursues the particular intellectual affiliations and the social and political experiential stimuli of Weil's work while simultaneously teasing out the timeless themes that her own timely analysis was intended to reveal.'  Amazon   back

Otto, Rudolf, and John W Harvey (translator), The idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non Rational Factor in the idea of the Divine (1926), Kessinger Publishing 2004 Foreword by the Author: 'In this book i have ventured to write of that which may be called 'non-rational' or 'supra-rational' in the depths of the divine nature. I do not therefore want to promote in any way the tendency of our time towards an extravagant and fantastic 'irrationalism;, but rather to join issue with it in its morbid form. The 'irrational' is today a favourite theme of all which are too lazy to think or are too ready to evade the arduous duty of clarifying their ideas and grounding their convictions on a basis of coherent thought. This book, recognizing the profound import of the non-rational fro metaphysics, makes a serious attempt to analyze all the more exactly the feeling which remains where the concept fails, and to introduce a terminology which is not any the more loose or indeterminate for having necessarily to make use of symbols.  Amazon   back

Reid, John, Man without God: An introduction to unbelief, Corpus 1971 'Jacket: Man Without God examines the historical and philosophical bases and forms of atheism with the object of opening the way to dialogue with the unbeliever. Such a dialogue brings out the essence of Christian commitment and also points clearly to the task that Chrisians of the twentieth century have to face. The world is gradually being divided into those who have faith in God and those who reject that faith. Father Reid does not give any facile theological answers, but throws new light on one of the most fundamental issues of our day.'   Amazon   back

Unamuno, Miguel de, and Paul Burns (translator), Salvador Ortiz-Carboneres (translator), Unamuno: Saint Manuel Buena, Aris & Phillips 2009 Amazon Product Description 'Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was born in Bilbao on 29th September 1864. He wrote novels, essays, poems and plays, and in addition to these he played an important part in the political and intellectual life of Spain - an involvement that led to his exile to Fuerteventura in 1924. San Manuel Bueno, matir (1930) was his last novel before his death in 1936. It tells the story of a heroic priest who has lost his faith in immortality, a theme that had interested Unamuno for many years. The setting of the novel is atmospheric and significant, the characters shadowy and symbolic. The book overall is a synthesis of Unamuno's philiosophy.'  Amazon   back

Walker, Geoffrey de Q, The Rule of Law: Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, Melbourne University Press 1988 Jacket: 'The author argues that the survival of any useful rule of law model is currently threatened by distortions in the adjudication process, by perversion of law enforcement (by fabrication of evidence and other means), by the excessive production of new legislation with its degrading effect on long-term legal certainty and on long-standing safeguards, and by legal theories that are hostile to the very concept of rule of law. In practice these trends have produced a great number of legal failures from which we must learn.'  Amazon   back

Weil, Simone, Oppression and Liberty, Routledge 2001 Amazon Product Description 'The remarkable French thinker Simone Weil is one of the leading intellectual and spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores inOppression and Liberty its political and social implications. Analysing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responsesand presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil.'  Amazon   back

Weyl, Hermann, and translated by H P Robertson, The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics, Dover 1950 Jacket: 'This book is devoted to the consistent and systematic application of group theory to quantum mechanics. Beginning with a detailed introduction to the classical theory of groups, Dr Weyl continues with an account of the fundamental results of quantum physics. There follows a rigorous investigation of the relations holding between the mathematical and physical theories.'  Amazon   back

Wuthnow, Robert, Sharing the Journey: Support Groups and the Quest for a New Community, Free Press 1996 From Kirkus Reviews 'Forty percent of all Americans meet regularly in support groups such as AA or Bible Study. Princeton's chronicler of religious life Wuthnow (Christianity in the Twenty-first Century, Acts of Compassion) interviews 1,000 support-group members to find out why--and comes up with some intriguing conclusions in this thoughtful, well-written work. Most Americans, Wuthnow claims, lead lives not of quiet desperation but of turbulent upheaval; the average family moves at least once every three years, and half of those families are ripped apart by divorce. Many people--like 26-year-old mother-of-two Karen, whose parents divorced and remarried while she was still in high school, who has herself changed jobs 6 times and moved 11 times in the past 12 years--look to small groups (Karen belongs to a women's Bible Study group that meets once a week) to provide a sense of family and community. But while support groups can be many things to many people--helping members become more spiritually disciplined, building self-esteem, and providing forums for the narration of individual stories--such groups are no substitute for the multi-textured ties that families create over decades in the dailiness of private life. Nor, posits Wuthnow, can support groups be expected to eliminate crime and poverty, create jobs, recast foreign policy, or reduce the national debt. Still, these gatherings--many take place in church basements--are clearly one of the most vital forces in American ecclesiastical life; in fact, the traditional Sunday morning churchgoer may well be replaced by the Monday or Wednesday evening support-group member. Sensitive, well-reasoned, and insightful--with valuable commentary on the much-maligned ``culture of victimhood.'' '-- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP.  Amazon   back

Zwicky, Fritz, Discovery, Invention, Research Through the Morphological Approach, The Macmillan Company 1969 back

Links

Basil Fernando, Asian Human Rights Commission, Vatican: Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Lifted, 'Vatican: The Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Lifted AHRC UA980117 Vatican 17 January 1998 ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION URGENT APPEAL [PRESS RELEASE] The Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Is Lifted A Farce Ends as a Farce A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission The excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya in January 1997 was one of the biggest farces of the Vatican - perhaps ever in its not so glorious history. There was no reason at all for this excommunication, and this has been the position of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and thousands of others, including, priests, nuns and lay people.' back

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

Didascalia Apostolorum - Wikipedia, Didascalia Apostolorum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Didascalia Apostolorum (or just Didascalia) is a Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. It presents itself as being written by the Twelve Apostles at the time of the Council of Jerusalem, however, scholars agree that it was actually a composition of the 3rd century CE, perhaps around 230 CE. The Didascalia was clearly modeled on the earlier Didache. The author is unknown, but he was probably a bishop. The provenience is usually regarded as Northern Syria, possibly near Antioch.' back

Emerging church - Wikipedia, Emerging church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The emerging church (sometimes referred to as the emergent movement or emergent conversation) is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st century that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants can be described as evangelical, protestant, roman catholic[1], post-evangelical, anabaptist, adventist[2], liberal, post-liberal, reformed, charismatic, neocharismatic, post-charismatic, conservative, and post-conservative. Proponents, however, believe the movement transcends such "modernist" labels of "conservative" and "liberal," calling the movement a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature, its vast range of standpoints, and its commitment to dialogue. Participants seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a "postmodern" society. What those involved in the conversation mostly agree on is their disillusionment with the organized and institutional church and their support for the deconstruction of modern Christian worship, modern evangelism, and the nature of modern Christian community.' back

Encyclopedia Britannica, Mikhail Aleksandrovitch Bakunin, 'Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, (born May 30 [May 18, Old Style], 1814, Premukhino, Russia—died July 1 [June 19], 1876, Bern, Switzerland), chief propagator of 19th-century anarchism, a prominent Russian revolutionary agitator, and a prolific political writer. His quarrel with Karl Marx split the anarchist and Marxist wings of the revolutionary socialist movement for many years after their deaths.' back

Ernst Bloch - Wikipedia, Ernst Bloch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Ernst Simon Bloch, (July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977) was a German Marxist philosopher.' back

Fourier analysis - Wikipedia, Fourier analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Fourier analysis, named after Joseph Fourier's introduction of the Fourier series, is the decomposition of a function in terms of a sum of sinusoidal basis functions (vs. their frequencies) that can be recombined to obtain the original function. That process of recombining the sinusoidal basis functions is also called Fourier synthesis (in which case Fourier analysis refers specifically to the decomposition process).' back

Francis Bacon - Wikiquote, Francis Bacon - Wikiquote, 'Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.' back

Harry Emerson Fosdick - Wikipedia, Harry Emerson Fosdick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878-October 5, 1969) was an American clergyman. Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. While at First Presbyterian Church, on May 21, 1922, he delivered his famous sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”, in which he defended the modernist position. In that sermon, he presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God’s will, not as the literal Word of God. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change. To the fundamentalists, this was rank apostasy, and the battle lines were drawn.' back

History of East Timor - Wikipedia, History of East Timor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'East Timor declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975, but was invaded by neighboring Indonesia nine days later. The country was later incorporated as the province of Indonesia afterwards. During the subsequent two-decade occupation, a campaign of pacification ensued. Although Indonesia did make substantial investment in infrastructures during its occupation in East Timor, the dissatisfaction remain widespread. Between 1975 and 1999, there were an estimated about 102,800 conflict-related deaths (approximately 18,600 killings and 84,200 'excess' deaths from hunger and illness), the majority of which occurred during the Indonesian occupation.' back

Joachim of Fiore - Wikipedia, Joachim of Fiore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Blessed Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – March 30, 1202), was the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore (now Jure Vetere). He was a mystic, a theologian and an esoterist. His followers are called Joachimites.' back

Left Behind - Wikipedia, Left Behind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation Force against the Global Community and its leader Nicolae Carpathia—the Antichrist. Left Behind is also the title of the first book in the series. The series was first published 1995-2007 by Tyndale House, a firm with a history of interest in dispensationalism.' back

Leon Trotsky - Wikipedia, Leon Trotsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Leon Trotsky 7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1879 – 21 August 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo. back

Meister Eckhart - Wikipedia, Meister Eckhart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. (c. 1260 – c. 1327), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in Thuringia. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Friars Preachers, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition. Tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his seasoned arugala to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. . . . ' back

Odysseus - Wikipedia, Odysseus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Odysseus (Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς ), also known by the Roman name Ulysses (Latin: Ulyssēs, Ulixēs), was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and a hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same Epic Cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and is hence known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (mētis, or "cunning intelligence"). He is most famous for the ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War.' back

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Wikipedia, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Pierre Teilhard de Chardin . . . 1 May 1881, Orcines, France 10 April 1955, New York City) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man.' back

Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jeus Christ the bearer of the Water of Life - A Christian reflection on the New Age, 'The study is a provisional report. It is the fruit of the common reflection of the Working Group on New Religious Movements, composed of staff members of different dicasteries of the Holy See: the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Interreligious Dialogue (which are the principal redactors for this project), the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.' back

Priscillian - Wikipedia, Priscillian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Priscillian (died 385) was bishop of Ávila and a theologian from Roman Gallaecia (in the Iberian Peninsula), the first person in the history of Christianity to be executed for heresy (though the civil charges were for the practice of magic). He founded an ascetic group that, in spite of persecution, continued to subsist in Hispania and Gaul until the later 6th century. Tractates by Priscillian and close followers, which had seemed certainly lost, were recovered in 1885 and published in 1889.' back

Redox - Wikipedia, Redox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Redox (shorthand for reduction-oxidation) reactions describe all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation number (oxidation state) changed. This can be either a simple redox process, such as the oxidation of carbon to yield carbon dioxide (CO2) or the reduction of carbon by hydrogen to yield methane (CH4), or a complex process such as the oxidation of sugar(C6H12O6) in the human body through a series of complex electron transfer processes.' back

Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia, Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (/ˈraɪnhoʊld ˈniːbʊər/; June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American theologian, ethicist, public intellectual, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Also known for authoring the Serenity Prayer,[1] Niebuhr received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.[2] Among his most influential books are Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man, the latter of which was written as the result of Niebuhr's delivery of the Gifford Lectures. back

Saddleback Church - Wikipedia, Saddleback Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Saddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren. Weekly church attendance averages nearly 20,000, currently making it the eighth-largest church in the United States (this ranking includes multi-site churches).' back

Scott Shane, Global Forecast by American Intelligence Expects Al Qaeda's Appeal to Falter, 'Published: November 20, 2008 WASHINGTON — A new study of the global future by American intelligence agencies suggests that Al Qaeda could soon be on the decline, having alienated Muslim supporters with indiscriminate killing and inattention to the practical problems of poverty, unemployment and education.' back

Soka Gakkai - Wikipedia, Soka Gakkai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Sōka Gakkai (創価学会?) (literally, "Value-Creation Society") is a lay Nichiren Buddhist organization based in Japan.[1] There are more than 23 million members of Sōka Gakkai International in 192 countries and territories.It is also a non-profitable organization promoting the values of peace,culture and education.' back

Tissa Balasuriya - Wikipedia, Tissa Balasuriya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Tissa Balasuriya (born 1924) is a Sri Lankan Roman Catholic priest and theologian.' back

Turing test - Wikipedia, Turing test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. In the original illustrative example, a human judge engages in natural language conversations with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All participants are separated from one another. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test. ' back

Unitary group - Wikipedia, Unitary group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, the unitary group of degree n, denoted U(n), is the group of nxn unitary matrices, with the group operation that of matrix multiplication. The unitary group is a subgroup of the general linear group GL(n, C). In the simple case n = 1, the group U(1) corresponds to the circle group, consisting of all complex numbers with absolute value 1 under multiplication. All the unitary groups contain copies of this group.' back

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - Wikipedia, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG, from Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, also known as UCKG HelpCentre) is a Pentecostal Christian organisation established in Brazil on July 9, 1977, with a presence in many countries. According to a major Christian newspaper the UCKG has 13 million members worldwide and in Brazil alone has reached 5000 temples and 15.000 pastors.' back

Venn diagram - Wikipedia, Venn diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Venn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams that show all hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets (groups of things). Venn diagrams were invented around 1880 by John Venn. They are used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.. back

Willow Creek Community Church - Wikipedia, Willow Creek Community Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Willow Creek Community Church (or simply Willow Creek Church) is a non-denominational, multi-generational Evangelical Christian megachurch located in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois. It was founded on October 12, 1975 by Bill Hybels, who is currently the Senior Pastor. The church has three weekend services averaging 24,000 attendees, making it the third-largest church in the United States (this ranking includes multi-site churches). The church has been listed as the most influential church in America the last several years in a national poll of pastors.' back