Notes
2001
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
[Notebook TTC, DB 54]
[Sunday 22 July 2001 - Saturday 28 July 2001]
[page 90]
Lonergan, Verbum p 37. Lonergan.
Substantia/accidens. Thomas saw the world as a collection of independently existing entities (substances) and dependent properties (accidents), all held together from outside by god. We like to see the world as one divine substance (process)
[page 91]
manifesting itself in a multitude of activities such as myself and all the other independent entities which are in fact the tips of icebergs rooted in the world. As Lonergan says 'the possibility of exact expression of a philosophical position arises only long after the philosopher's death when his influence has moulded the culture which is the background and vehicle of such expression'.
'quod quid est is at the very centre of Aristotelian and Thomistic thought' (vector in transfinite Hilbert Space?)
p 42: 'etiam Deus cognoscitur a nobis per phantasma [measurement] sui effectus, inquantum cognoscimus Deum per negationem vel per causalitatem vel per excellentiam' [my underline]
p 44 'We do have occasional flashes of insight, but angelic, and still more divine knowledge is exclusively that sort of thing, as continuous blaze of the light of understanding ... .'
We are always understanding, sometimes
[page 92]
instantaneously (from a subjective point of view), sometimes after long processing.
Motivation: We are looking for heaven, and we conceptualize it as an ideal region in human 'parameter space', ie where we are happiest, whatever that means. Such judgments are personal and relative, and we can only generalize about them by counting how many individuals choose each of the available states of being. Such a measure is meaningful only on a level playing field (where every state is equally accessible to every individual). Otherwise we need some sort of transformation which converts values on the actual playing fields to values on a level playing field and vice versa, giving us a little insight into the bureaucratic (deterministic) implementation of justice.
We want JUSTICE and POWER to be orthogonal, instead of parallel.
Feeling for an engine engendered by the
[page 93]
realization that it has a finite lifetime that can be extended or reduced by how it is treated is analogous to our feelings for ourselves and our peers.
Putting love one another into practice in the world we have inherited from our evolutionary past.
Why this deep excursion into mathematics and the study of the infinite? Because it is the only model big enough to embrace the world of feeling and parametrize the axes of feeling like self-esteem, security, happiness, energy, contentment, etc etc all the binaries lassitude-energy etc etc.
In a curved space there is a preferred direction along each dimension (or on some) eg down rather than up is preferred by gravitational curvature.
p 47 The fundamental premiss: 'natures act intelligibly, not because they are intelligent, for they are not, but because they are concretions of divine ideas and a
[page 94]
divine plan.'
Intelligence decodes. When the code is known (as in angels) intelligence becomes a purely routine deterministic operation that can be carried out by a Turing Machine (eg DES). Electronic Frontier Foundation. When the code is not known a search is necessary through all possible encodings to find the set of encoding/decoding that yields meaningful texts. The optimum search starts in the most probably zones. If there are none such, it must work its way through the whole space.
Bayesian probability. Each clue allows is to narrow the search space by excluding certain spaces.
Sunday 22 July 2001
Monday 23 July 2001
Tuesday 24 July 2001
Wednesday 25 July 2001
Thursday 26 July 2001
[Verbum] p 52 'The fact of indefinite human progress precludes the possibility of beatitude being placed in this life.'
[page 95]
All communication is physical and language becomes meaningless if it does not ultimately rest on physical (observable) meanings.
Salvation is possible when foresight (measured in say, seconds) is greater than the system response time.
The concept of love has been greatly debased by the distinction between eros and agape/caritas, coupled with the contention that one is better (or more virtuous, or at least preferable) to the other. This, like the distinction between potency and act, matter and form, matter and spirit, etc etc are all model dependent and the model upon which they depend (ie universe not self actualizing, but must be driven by a being whose authority is full and eternal) is a mistake. The actuality of the universe we inhabit is full and constant, but it may change form, giving us the vast and complex world we inhabit.
PROSTITUTION : DISEASE (REDUCED COMPLEXITY)
[page 96]
COMPLEXITY = F(1/error rate)
Disease = high error rate = reduced complexity, security etc etc.
Start at the bottom on an environmental science degree. Theology is the ultimate environmental science.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE VS NON-ES
{ES} U {NON-ES} = TOTAL SCIENCE
We can consider either that particle or its environment (the field)
[Human Health and the Environment]
Friday 27 July 2001
Saturday 28 July 2001
Books
| Electronic Frontier Foundation, , Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Policies and Chip Design, O'Reilly and Associates 1998 Jacket: 'Sometimes you have to do good engineering to straighten out twisted politics. The Electronic Frontier Foundaiton has done so by exploding the government-supported myth that the Data Encryption Stanbdard (DES) has real security. National Security Agency and FBI officials say our civil liberties must be curtailed because the government can't crack the security of DES to wiretap bad guys. Bu somehow a tiny nonprofit has designed and built a $200 000 machine that can crack DES in a week. Who's lying and why? For the first time, the book reveals full technical details on how researchers and data recovery engineers can build a working DES Cracker. Amazon back |
| Lonergan, Bernard J F, Verbum : Word and Idea in Aquinas (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan volume 2) , University of Toronto Press 1997 Jacket: 'Verbum is a product of Lonergan's eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan's theology ... . Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan's work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind.' Amazon back |
Click on an "Amazon" link in the booklist at the foot of the page to buy the book, see more details or search for similar items
Related sites:
Concordat Watch
Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty
