vol 7: Notes
2005
8 May
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Notes
[Notebook: DB 57 Language]
[Sunday 24 July 2005 - Saturday 30 July 2005]
[page 179]
Sunday 24 July 2005
I sit here feeling hungry but I cannot think of anything I want to eat. The hunger is a potential which can be reduced by an appropriate motion, ie change of energy state from hungry to not-hungry.
Energy = time rate change of state = ability to do work
Quantum mechanics: no change of state is possible without communication, hence the system is a network.
The core problems of religion surround birth and death. Religion = quantum field theory on the human domain.
The search for literary form is the search for stationary states (like this text) which can be used as basis states for constructing an 'energy matrix' (transformation matrix) which is isomorphic to the situation whose literary capture is sought. The procedure is isomorphic to the discovery of a suitable basis and Hamiltonian to give a quantum mechanical description of physical systems.
'On the similarities of quantum field theory and natural human language.'
String theory? String = sentence.
Monday 25 July 2005
Tuesday 26 July 2005
We wish to exclude 'action at a distance', so that everything is intelligible locally, ie all the relevant actors are present. Quantum mechanics is the result of such local peace. It tells us that local peaceful states can be represented as eigenvectors of a system of vectors and matrices, all of which are represented by ordered sets of symbols (strings)
LOCAL PEACE : LOCAL CONSISTENCY
LOCAL (all the relevant actors are present.
'Our mystic symbols, exp( -i omega), exp ( -1 / lambda)
[page 181]
We decode these symbols using infinite series, beginning with a definition of e, e = (1 + 1/n) n, as n approaches infinity.
Binomial expansion gives us ...
exp ( -i n) describes a normalized little rotating arrow spiralling through space and/or time (Feynman QED). Feynman
Like an science, linguistics has its particular set of social, political, ethical and moral questions.
The probability of survival is biassed by a variable called fitness, values of which may be passed from generation to generation.
Sharp (specific, designed) tools require a minimum of force to be effective, and minimize collateral damage. This serves as a definition (ordering of words) to be tested ultimately by observation.
States interfere, that is they excite and inhibit one another. This excitation and inhibition is represented by the addition of two dimensional vectors represented as complex numbers.
One may either surf on speculative shares (which may or may not be better than a lottery) or widen one's interest to portfolios of portfolios ... with sufficient breadth to track the overall growth (or not growth) of the system. Our abstractions can be couched in statistical terms. Statistics is our means of renormalization so that we can gain a finite view of an (effectively) infinite
[page 184]
problem. General strategies can be worked out statistically, but when we get down to individual instances, there is a probability that some cases will be far from the norm.
We observe quantum mechanical phenomena each of which is unique in the space {spacetime, form}, where form is the nature of the beast (electron, cyclone, galaxy ... ) and spacetime is the 'volume' in which it is to be found. This ;volume' depends on both the spatial dimensions and the lifetime of the creature (particle) in question.
To express itself at any point, the world must solve the eigenvalue equation for that point. A solution of the eigenvalue equation is a vector (sentence) which responds to an operator (matrix, translation) as thought he operation were simply a number rather than a complex two dimensional symbol.
[picture of a matrix]
Every state has a complexity which is measured by the number of basis states (ie the dimensionality of the relevant Hilbert space). A further level of complexity is contained in the (continuous) set of complex numbers which serve at the answer to the question <i | psi>, where psi is any state vector and I is the vector (sentence) of a basis state. In this language, we may say that natural semantic metalanguage is a search for a set of stationary basis states which describe vectors in the space of human communication.
[page 183]
Teilhard de Chardin: Milieu and the Way of the Cross. Teilhard de Chardin The origin of consciousness brought with is awareness that life is tough, from which some have concluded that anything good must be bought with suffering.
Certainly we may see that people will not move unless motivated. Motivation comes as both sticks and carrots, way to get out of the fire and into the frying pan and from thee to somewhere as a physiologically optimum temperature. Optimum temperature = optimum energy per particle = stationary state. Optimum temperature is a function of both energy and entropy - how much energy is distributed over how many states.
I am reliable because I know I am unreliable ad therefore have a comprehensive error correcting system in place witch basically consists in a complete system of texts and the discipline necessary to keep them effectively up to date, ie I have to be able to pay all my debts as they fall due.
We would like to derive all physical laws form the properties of networks alone.
Our archetypal function is ?
Exstasis = standing outside, as the word stands outside the letter. Unlike de Chardin, the letter is in no way belittled, abased or emptied by being part of the word.
[page 184]
Pain, endurance vs productivity, skill. There are moments at any level of productivity, when maximum effort is required, but their frequency varies as 1/productivity.
The communication model sits perfectly with special relativity, since thee is delay in any communication due to the processing involved. As Lonergan noticed, some encodings and decodings (insights) require a long time (a lot of searching and reasoning - we use reason to constrain our searches) whereas others are so quick as to convince some (like Lonergan) that they are an entirely distinct species of process from the slow varieties. Quantum mechanics tells us, however, that even speed differences between 10 E -23 seconds and ten billion ears do not change the basis nature of encoding (emission) and decoding (absorption) processes.
Non relativistic quantum mechanics deals with process that are essentially instantaneous, where propagation delay is of no importance. This is rather lie the world of writers communicating by letter and working at such a pace that postal delays are irrelevant. Communication delays become important when time is of the essence and introduce uncertainties where the relevant features are changing faster than they can be dealt with. This situation serves to decouple source and sink, so localizing communication and causality. So it was in the old days of sailing ships, when a letter from the Viceroy in India to the King in England took six months to arrive and the reply six months to return, leaving the Viceroy to wait for direction and the king a year for replies to his questions.
[page 185]
It pisses me off a bit that I write more easily when I am stoned. Drug addiction? An interesting physio-psychological phenomenon? But so it is and I am resigned to sacrificing my lungs somewhat for free expression as to sacrificing the smoothness of my hands to my need for income and physical activity leading to certain satisfaction in achievement while my literary ambitions remain unfulfilled, while yet appearing to move with undiminished speed toward a desirable goal.
To make a mathematical theory we need a space, objects in that space and interactions between these objects. Thus we have a space of natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, objects in that space (in this case, the individual numbers themselves, and he arithmetical operations by which two numbers may interact to give a third.
Quantum mechanics exists in function space. Consider a set of natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc which we write N = {1, 2, 3, ... n ...|}. Such a set has a natural order - given any two natural numbers, one familiar with the numbers knows which comes first in the counting order. Now we may permute such a set by changing its order, so that instead of 1, 2, 3, we place 3 in the first place (for instance) and 1 in the second and two in the third. Such a permutation may also be called a mapping of the set onto itself, or a function.
A function on the natural numbers, then, consists of a set of correspondences between the natural numbers in their natural order (sometimes called the abscissa, x axis) and some other ordering of the numbers (the ordinate, y axis)
[page 186]
ORDER = ORDINAL
MEASURE = CARDINAL.
We take all units to be the same size (no matter how large the cardinal or complex their ordinal rank) so that we can assign a cardinal number or size to an ordinal number. The complex numbers have a two ply order which can be abstracted to 1 ply by taking the absolute value. In quantum mechanics, these absolute values represent probabilities.
We draw an analogy between speech and the emission of a photon; listening and the absorption of a photon.
NATURAL RELIGION : Theocracy II The Network, = 'Democratic'
The Hierarchy = 'Fascist"
Path integral method in Quantum mechanics : all paths are equal, but what about the phase, Feynman
PHASE can be integrated (counted). 4-momentum describes the rate of change of phase, which is measured by action : omega = Energy/Planck's constant.
Language and religion: quantum mechanic and networks both contain the idea that hidden processes govern the observable phenomena, and this view seems common to most religions.
A Turing machine models a function, converting elements from its input domain to its output range.
Resonance = union
Wednesday 27 July 2005
Thursday 28 July 2005
Friday 29 July 2005
Saturday 30 July 2005
Books
| Feynman, Richard P , and Albert P Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals, McGraw Hill 1965 Preface: 'The fundamental physical and mathematical concepts which underlie the path integral approach were first developed by R P Feynman in the course of his graduate studies at Princeton, ... . These early inquiries were involved with the problem of the infinte self-energy of the electron. In working on that problem, a "least action" principle was discovered [which] could deal succesfully with the infinity arising in the application of classical electrodynamics.' As described in this book. Feynam, inspired by Dirac, went on the develop this insight into a fruitful source of solutions to many quantum mechanical problems. Amazon back |
| Feynman, Richard, QED: The Strange Story of Light and Matter, Princeton UP 1988 Jacket: 'Qunatum electrodynamics - or QED for short - is the 'strange theory' that explains how light and electrons interact. Thanks to Richard Feynmann and his colleagues, it is also one of the rare parts of physics that is known for sure, a theory that has stood the test of time. ... In this beautifully lucid set of lectures he provides a definitive introduction to QED.' Amazon back |
| Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The Future of Man (translated by Norman Denny) , Borgo Pr ess 1994 Amazon product description: 'Pierre Teilhard De Chardin was one of the most distinguished thinkers and scientists of our time. He fits into no familiar category for he was at once a biologist and a paleontologist of world renown, and also a Jesuit priest. He applied his whole life, his tremendous intellect and his great spiritual faith to building a philosophy that would reconcile Christian theology with the scientific theory of evolution, to relate the facts of religious experience to those of natural science. The Phenomenon of Man, the first of his writings to appear in America, Pierre Teilhard's most important book and contains the quintessence of his thought. When published in France it was the best-selling nonfiction book of the year.' Amazon back |
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Related sites:
Concordat Watch
Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty
