vol 7: Notes
1999
Sunday 4 April 1999
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Notes
[Notebook BOOK 4/5/94]
[Sunday 9 May 1999 - Saturday 15 May 1999]
Sunday 9 May 1999
Monday 10 May 1999
Tuesday 11 May 1999
[page 282]
We may look at transfinite numbers in terms of subsets (power sets) and permutations.
[Empirical residue] . . . The nature of insight, since it is relative to data and context, means that we cannot definitely assert that a set of facts do not have intelligibility. Lonergan In fact the whole art of Agatha Christie detective stories [and the like] is to bury the relevant evidence in the narrative so as not to call attention to it, so that the reader may be more surprised when the denouement comes.
Quantum Field Theory view of the world. Feynman diagrams = trees of relationships between events.
PATHS through the NETWORK
[page 283]
QFT gives us a glimpse of the transfinite structure of the Universe, in fact UNCERTAINTY does. Have to give this a lot of deep thought and get Lonergan, Weinberg, Dirac, Bell and other authors in harmony.
Model of insight - DECODE = MAP
Model of meaning - MAP = DECODE
This means that what?
Evolution- every little detail from the Planck scale up has been selected from a virtual infinity of possibilities, and so has deep meaning through rich relationships to the selective forces that shaped it.
Once we get the overall picture right, we can proceed brick by brick in full certainty, which is more certain than flimsy but virtuoso structures with little overall planning.
. . .
[page 284]
. . .
With enough observation we can sample almost all the states in a superposition.
Superposition is a parallel representation which can be read out serially (either at random or in an ordered manner (?). This is exciting, ie it allows a state to change to a state of lower energy, releasing that energy, which can move another state or set of states to a higher energy.
. . .
Love of god is love of the superposition of all states (which presumably cancels to the infinite nothing).
[page 285]
BIG BANG?
The full Cantor expansion of the real line is isomorphic to the exploding universe, or less dramatically the growing universe (an explosion being something that grows very fast).
This expansion is decreed by general relativity which must therefore be acting as a bound on the quantum behaviour of the universe (causing the wave function of the universe to evolve in a way that looks to its inhabitants (eg us) as though it is expanding.
Gradually the thought experiments cooked up by the patriarchs of quantum mechanics to give their fanciful equations some contact with reality are being performed in the laboratory, using exquisite control over quantum states to construct specific wave functions and watch them in action. cf QM Picture Book Brandt & Dahmen
Reading Evolution of Mind. Cummins
MIND = [PROCESS]
Modelling insight. To understand is to decode, that is to find the meaning of, that is to find the relationships
[page 286]
to. In this model we model meaning by the set theoretical operation of mapping.
The initial chapter [of MA] takes Lonergan's concepts and maps them onto the computational model.
By insight we see the relationships between the data. Let us look more closely at Lonergan's dramatic instance. Archimedes has a problem. What to do. He seeks a process to solve his problem, that is to make it go away. Such a process was an algorithm. What he needs is a procedure to test whether or not the crown is real gold. How to discriminate? Density. How to measure density? This is the procedure we want. For a start we need a bit of gold of guaranteed purity, a standard. How to compare the crown to the standard? Weight them in and out of water. Why? the denser object will have less volume per unit mass.
Our starting point is Insight.
Wednesday 12 May 1999
[page 287]
Thursday 13 May 1999
Check relationships between empirical residue and computability.
One has only to consider its attitudes to human equality to see that the RCC is too narrow a space to contain the modern human spirit (eg authoritarianism and sexism). Keep cool for the comprehensive demolition and reconstruction of all this.
. . . Consequences of this result for Lonergan's model of the world. It is too small. It sees intellect and intelligence as the outputs of uniprocesses, not parallel processes.
We have introduced elements of a model that can describe intelligence as a parallel process. The structure of this model is very simple but the beauty of it is that it is the natural habitat of computing machines.
The old hierarchy of input/decision/output is converted into a loop. Lonergan correctly perceived the recursive nature of intellect within itself
[page 288]
but failed to see that this recursion continues down into the quantum area at the moment of the big bang and up towards what Teillhard de Chardin called the Omega Point and we might call the aleph of time.
A space has entropy. A point in space carries information.
One space on a CD carries one bit of information. Much more information is carried by the location of that bit among all the other bits on the CD. It is one in an ordered sequence of 600M symbols.
One big result we want is that parallel (network) processes have an intrinsic power beyond that the Turing Machines, so that a network can do creative things beyond the reach of determinism. Davis describes a Turing machine that can accept instructions from outside. Does this add to the universality of the universal computer?
. . .
[page 289]
Intro of the idea that [Lonergan's] idea of intellect and intelligence is too narrow and must be expanded into a network and hierarchical concept seems to be an excellent theme for the thesis.
Empirical Residue resembles the 'end of science' outlook, something that seems firmly rejected by the never ending complexity that each scientific observation yields. Horgan
The running engine is the superposition of all the states that its mechanical and other components can occupy.
Parallel processing is indicated in any situation where people work together to achieve more than they can alone.
Friday 14 May 1999
. . .
And what was it that I thought of on the way out the drive this morning? Each little entity is conscious to me for only a short
[page 290]
time and then flashes by, to be recovered at come indefinite time in the future.
Conscious awareness is a particular observation of the superposition we call mind.
integral superposition d index = personality of the thing.
So are all integrations with respect to a discrete variable, ie are all integrals sums of series (with n, aleph(0), aleph(1) etc terms)
Lesbegue integration only works in a Cantor space since measure(aleph(n)) = 0 in the set aleph(n+1)
In the end all communication must be digital (symbolic) because acts of communication are a) nested and b) of finite duration. See proof the binary is most error resistant in Gatlin(?), maybe Wiener. Gatlin, Wiener
Saturday 15 May 1999
Empirical residue corresponds to prime matter
[291]
nec quid nec quale nec quantum nec aliquid eorum quibus ens determinatur.
Corresponding to the numinous feeling I used to have about the Roman Catholic Church (which we now model as a very long established business deeply encrusted with tradition) is something special about the metaphysical concepts I learnt within the church such as being, act power, in fact the "transcendentals" ens res aliquid unum verum bonum, which now need to be seen naked as symbols in a model, to be manipulated according to the rules of the model. Such a model is the output of insight, which is seen in Lonergan Aristotle and Thomas as an abstraction process revealing the essence of the thing understood (eg that all points on the circumference of a wheel are equidistant from the centre of the axle etc.
Insight into the symbolic.
Books
| Brandt, Siegmund, and Hans Dieter Dahmen, The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics, Springer-Verlag 1995 Jacket: 'This book is an introduction to the basic concepts and phenomena of quantum mechanics. Computer-generated illustrations are used extensively throughout the text, helping to establish the relation between quantum mechanics on one side and classical physics ... on the other side. Even more by studying the pictures in parallel with the text, readers develop an intuition for notoriously abstract quantum phenomena ...' Amazon back |
| Cummins, Denise Dellarosa, and Colin Allen (editors), The Evolution of Mind, Oxford University Press 1998 Introduction: This book is an interdisciplinary endeavour, a collection of essays by ethologists, psychologists, anthropologists and philosophers united in the common goal of explaining cognition. ... the chief challenge is to make evolutionary psychology into an experimental science. Several of the chapters in this volume describe experimental techniues and results consistent with this aim; our hope and intention is that they lead by example in the development of evolutionary psychology from the realm of speculation to that of established research program' Amazon back |
| Gatlin, Lila L, Information Theory and the Living System, Columbia University Press 1972 Amazon back |
| Horgan, John, The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age, Little Brown and Co 1996 Amazon Editorial Review From Publishers Weekly 'Scientific American columnist Horgan here interviews an impressive array of scientists and philosophers, who seem sharply divided over the prospects and possibilities of science. Among the pessimists, molecular biologist Gunther Stent suggests that science is reaching a point of incremental, diminishing returns as it comes up against the limits of knowledge; philosopher Thomas Kuhn sees science as a nonrational process that does not converge with truth; Vienna-born thinker Paul Feyerabend objects to science's pretensions to certainty and its potential to stamp out the diversity of human thought and culture. More optimistic are particle physicist Edward Witten, pioneer of superstring theory (which posits a universe of 10 dimensions); robotics engineer Hans Moravec, who envisions superintelligent creative robots; and physicist Roger Penrose, who theorizes that quantum effects percolating through the brain underlie consciousness. Other interviewees are Francis Crick, Noam Chomsky, David Bohm, Karl Popper, Murray Gell-Mann, Sheldon Glashow, Ilya Prigogine and Clifford Geertz. Despite the dominant doomsaying tone, this colloquium leaves much room for optimism.' Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon back |
| Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '... Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' Amazon back |
| Wiener, Norbert, Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine, MIT Press 1996 The classic founding text of cybernetics. Amazon back |
| Zee, Anthony, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton University Press 2003 Amazon book description: 'An esteemed researcher and acclaimed popular author takes up the challenge of providing a clear, relatively brief, and fully up-to-date introduction to one of the most vital but notoriously difficult subjects in theoretical physics. A quantum field theory text for the twenty-first century, this book makes the essential tool of modern theoretical physics available to any student who has completed a course on quantum mechanics and is eager to go on. Quantum field theory was invented to deal simultaneously with special relativity and quantum mechanics, the two greatest discoveries of early twentieth-century physics, but it has become increasingly important to many areas of physics. These days, physicists turn to quantum field theory to describe a multitude of phenomena. Stressing critical ideas and insights, Zee uses numerous examples to lead students to a true conceptual understanding of quantum field theory--what it means and what it can do. He covers an unusually diverse range of topics, including various contemporary developments,while guiding readers through thoughtfully designed problems. In contrast to previous texts, Zee incorporates gravity from the outset and discusses the innovative use of quantum field theory in modern condensed matter theory. Without a solid understanding of quantum field theory, no student can claim to have mastered contemporary theoretical physics. Offering a remarkably accessible conceptual introduction, this text will be widely welcomed and used. Amazon back |
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