Title Track From Without Shoes.
Most of the visuals are references to other songs on the album.
All instruments and vocals by Benjamin New.
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Benjamin New- Without Shoes- Music Video
Title Track From Without Shoes.
Most of the visuals are references to other songs on the album.
All instruments and vocals by Benjamin New.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
New Music - Paper Boys...The Movie
Paper Boys
The Movie
The Movie
All photography (Except Mr. New's Head Shot) is courtesy of Aware Productions who holds all copyrights New Music from the film "Paper Boys" directed by Bryan E. Hall features a soundtrack composed by Benjamin New. Some of the music has been offered as free mp3 downloads for a limited time.
Composer Benjamin New
Father and son Musicians Ben New And Ben New at work on the soundtrack for Paper Boys the movie.
"Working with Bryan (director Bryan E. Hall) was a blast, he had a very good idea of what he wanted and great communication skills to convey these ideas. On top of that the film is superbly shot and has a fantastic screenplay. The ensemble cast is top notch and I particularly liked the humorous undertones sometimes sardonic, sometimes quite subtle. As with most independent films, this is obviously a labor of love. A unique vision of coming of age complete with social ills, a healthy dose of irrepressible human spirit, and the triumph of enduring friendships."
- Benjamin New, composer-musician
Poster
Here are links to some of the music where indeed you can listen for free, download some for free, purchase the soundtrack, or individual tracks. The film will be premiering in Atlanta. The date of the world premier will be Saturday, June 20th, 7:30pm in Atlanta at the beautiful Plaza Theater on Ponce De Leon! So if you can attend by all means please do! If not look for the film in your area in the coming months.
Ben New (son) contributed drums
and "handsonic synthesis" to the music Ben New (composer) wrote for the film.
and "handsonic synthesis" to the music Ben New (composer) wrote for the film.
Two of the more cinematic pieces are "Sean and Leah's Theme" and the "Bicycle Symphony" which is composed entirely of analog tape loops created with guitar, a method favored by Robert Fripp of King Crimson, he had referred to it as "Frippertronix". Essentially 2 reel to reel decks with one acting as the recorder and another as the playback which combines an incoming source with sound being played back creating a layering effect. Also used by Terry Riley in his composition "In C".
3. Sean and Leah's Theme-Benjamin New
The soundtrack also features great tunes by
Jamie Radford, Dear Savannah,
and The Mighty Parrot Band.
Purchase tickets for the premiere and learn more at the director's blog.
The Movie's Myspace page is excellent, I highly recommend a visit.
The collection of stills and behind the scenes photos are simply not to be missed.
Independent film is really the life blood of cinema. Hat's off to the producers, director, cast and crew!
And lets all support the work by attending screenings!
See you at the movies!
All stills from the film and photos of the music production are courtesy of Aware Productions.
All stills from the film and photos of the music production are courtesy of Aware Productions.
Submitted by the editor
Director Bryan E. Hall, Benjamin C. New, And Benjamin E. New
At the composer's studio in Cape May N.J.
At the composer's studio in Cape May N.J.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Vulture Capital and Predatory Politics
As many of you may know I have long advocated the complete absolute outlawing of the practice of political lobbying. Some argue that the lobbyist is guaranteed a job as a part of free speech. The practice is nothing more than bribery. I find this appalling. And I'm confident you will will too after reading this.
Three University of Kansas professors completed a verifiable analysis of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. They studied rates of return for money spent on lobbying. Their data and findings were covered in an article by Dan Eggen in the Washington Post on April 12th . Here is a link to that story . What they discovered was that a cabal of predatory multinational corporations were getting a return of $220 for every 1$ they spent on lobbyists. On top of that they received a gift of a 100 million dollar tax break.
This "law" with a name that defines charlatanism, allowed these vulture capitalists who amassed profits overseas to inexpensively bring that money back into the States. The normal tax rate on such profits was 35 percent. But this repatriation of profits as it is referred to, allowed these predators to haul their money home, paying only 5.25 percent!
This act of treason was a tax holiday was sought by big pharmaceutical and high-technology corporations simply because they didn't want to pay taxes. They concocted a scheme and were quite successful at pulling it off. According to Mr. Egan's article:"The largest recipients of tax breaks were concentrated in the pharmaceutical and technology fields, including Pfizer, Merck, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson and IBM. Pfizer alone repatriated $37 billion, representing 70 percent of its revenue in 2004, the study found. The now-beleaguered financial industry also benefited from the provision, including Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, all of which have since received tens of billions of dollars in federal bailout money."
In 2006, the Washington Post business columnist Allan Sloan wrote about Ford Motor Co.’s abuse of the laughably named act:
"It’s almost enough to make you laugh — bitterly, of course. Here was Ford Motor Co. announcing yesterday that it had cut 10,000 jobs last year and that it will cut up to 30,000 more. But shedding jobs at muscle-car acceleration rates didn’t stop Ford from pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars courtesy of the American Jobs Creation Act. … Hello? How can you simultaneously cut jobs and benefit from the American Jobs Creation Act? Welcome to the wonderful world of Washington nomenclature."
Mr. Sloan said that Ford saved $850 million in taxes, not the $250 million the company suggested in its press release.
So how do vulture capitalists that don’t believe in paying their appropriate share of taxes pull this off?
Mr. Eggen reported:
"The provision was championed in part by the Homeland Investment Coalition, a group of companies and trade associations that was formed to push for the repatriation holiday. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), one of the disbanded coalition’s members, said in a statement Friday that “repatriation of profits provided a new source of investment for American companies.”
“PhRMA supported the legislation four years ago as part of a broad business coalition because of the additional economic benefits the bill would provide,” senior vice president Ken Johnson said. “It meant jobs and skilled training for American workers, as well as a shot in the arm for local economies.”
Well heck, that doesn't sound so bad...
Creating jobs provided the political cover for members of Congress to sign on as a co-sponsors of the bill. But did the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 actually lead to jobs being created?
Flat out no.
How about providing “a new source of investment for American companies”?
Your kidding right?
The profits were simply pocketed.
It was merely a handout to America's most profitable Vulture Capitalists.
And the supporters of this tax holiday tried to get yet another gift from U.S. citizens.
As reported reported in Mr. Eggen's article:
"… the Congressional Research Service and others have since found that many companies cut jobs in the wake of the tax break and that nearly all the money was used for stock buybacks or dividends. Supporters failed in a bid to include a similar tax break in this year’s stimulus legislation, and a Senate subcommittee has launched an investigation into how companies used their tax savings under the 2004 program."So the good news is they weren't successful at getting another round of freeloading at taxpayer expense included in the stimulus package.
How about those big Pharmaceuticals? Did they create any jobs with the profits they got a tax holiday from? Not according to the Associated Press.
Here is their chart showing employment at these firms 2 years after President Bush signed the Job Creation Act into law.
JOB CREATION?
Look how merely one member of this corrupt coalition; the pharmaceutical industry "influenced" members of Congress to work on their behalf.
The Ways and Means Committee is the main tax writing committee of the House of Representatives. The 2004 sad excuse for a bill was primarily a creation of the House.
Former congressman Bill Thomas (R-Calif) served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the run-up to the bill’s passage.
He is listed as the prime House sponsor of the American Jobs Creation Act.
Surprise! Surprise! The pharmaceutical industry gave his campaign more than $407,000.
The bill had 40 sponsors. All but one were Republicans.
A review of the campaign contributions records of these 40 men and women collected by the Center for Responsive Politics showed that since 1998, the pharmaceutical industry gave their campaign committees $4.49 million. Of those 40 co-sponsors, 14 served on the Ways and Means Committee: They have received, since 1998, $2.5 million from Big Pharmaceuticals.
Recall that, thanks to the act’s tax break, Pfizer repatriated $37 billion.
That's some math lesson!
The lone Democrat who conspired to help with the looting was former Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, of Connecticut (where drug-maker Pfizer has a significant presence), received more than $692,000 from Big Pharma. She has since departed from office but...
Surprise! Surprise! She is now a senior public policy adviser (That means lobbyist) for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz and serves on the Pfizer U.S. Health Advisory Board.
The bill had no opposition in Congress.
The Senate voted 69-17 on the bill; The House, 207-16.
Their compliance and submission allowed an average rate of return of 22,000 percent for the corporations who lobbied for this bill, according to the Kansas professors.
If $1 invested in lobbying earns a $220 return,which is what the Kansas study has determined,
then the pharmaceutical industry has invested,
for the 41 sponsors and co-sponsors of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004,
about $4.5 million. That’s a return of $990 million.
Isn't that an enticicing return for buying only 7 percent of the members of Congress?
Now this is only one case study on one bill.
Imagine every K street flim flam artist and every bill.
Outlaw this "pay for play" con.
Turn K Street into a parking lot.
Throw the participants in jail or deport them.
The devastation caused by predatory capitalism is becoming obvious to all but the most obtuse of Americans. This is not a criticism of private ownership, that is a good thing. It's the economic slavery created by a new elite capitalist class of criminal thugs that must go. How do we accomplish this?
To regain our Constitutional freedoms, we must establish and insure equitable economic principles. We can begin by implementing the Second Bill of Rights suggested by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address in January, 1944.
Roosevelt's remedy was to create an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:
- "The right to a useful and remunerative job"
- "The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation"
- "The right of every family to a decent home"
- "The right to adequate medical care and opportunity to enjoy and achieve good health"
- "The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment"
- "The right to a good education"
Roosevelt stated these rights would guarantee American prosperity and security, and that America's place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights were carried into practice. He was dead right.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy President's Day !
Many American Presidents offered their deepest thoughts on the country whose rudder they guided through rough seas. Some had compasses to assist, others navigated by the stars, still some others drilled holes in the keel and ran the craft aground. The words of the best resound and reverberate through the halls of time. The worst tend to speak for themselves and their legacies accurately and succinctly.
George Washington (1789–1797)
"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. "
"Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
"Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!"George Washington wrote this in a note to his gardener at Mount Vernon (1794) from- The Writings of George Washington, Volume 33, page 270 (Library of Congress)
"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth & reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition."
"Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest."
John Adams (1797–1801)
"If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?"
"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
In a letter to Abigail Adams (1780-05-12) Adams wrote:
"I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."
Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be...I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.""Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law."
Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 1, p. 459.
"Fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; … that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; and therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust or emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religions opinion, is depriving him injudiciously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow-citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emolumerits, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminals who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty."
Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes.
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
James Madison (1809–1817)
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
"A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended."
"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?"
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
"Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" (1785)
James Monroe (1817–1825)
"National honor is a national property of the highest value."
"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."
John Quincy Adams (1825–1829)
"America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government."
"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
“The mischief springs from the power which the monied interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining...and unless you become more watchful in your states and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that the most important powers of government have been given or bartered away…."
Farewell Address, 1837
"As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending."
"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."
Comments about his Veto of the Bank of the United States
Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
"There is a power in public opinion in this country—and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers—which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens."
"Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe."
William Henry Harrison (1841) (Harrison resigned from the army in 1814. He had an obscure career in politics ending up 20 years later as a county recorder in Ohio. He was nominated for president in 1835 and billed as a military hero whom the conservatives of the day hoped to control, he ran surprisingly well against Van Buren in 1836 and defeated Van Buren in the following election. He caught pneumonia and died in Washington on April 4, 1841, a mere month after his inauguration. Harrison was the first president to die in office.)
"A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged."
"The strongest of all governments is that which is most free."
John Tyler (1841–1845)
"Patronage is the sword and cannon by which war may be made on the liberty of the human race."
Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.
James Knox Polk (1845–1849)
"No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have
any leisure."
"By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression. "
Zachary Taylor (1849–1850 )
"For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory. . ."
"I have no private purpose to accomplish, no party objectives to build up, no enemies to punish—nothing to serve but my country."
Millard Fillmore (1850–1853)
"The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing
to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit
for public trust."
"God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world."
Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
"The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution."
"States which are exempt from the actual ravages of war, in which the roar of the cannon, and the rattle of the musketry, and the groans of the dying, are heard but as a faint echo of terror from other lands, even here in the loyal States, the mailed hand of military usurpation strikes down the liberties of the people, and its foot tramples on a desecrated Constitution."
James Buchanan (1857–1861)
"The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there."
"I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, and, whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country."
Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."-Speech to Illinois legislature, (January 1837)
"If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong"
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."
Abraham Lincoln : Speeches and Writings 1832-1858
Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
"Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide."
"Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many"
Ulysses Simpson Grant (1869–1877)
"I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."
"As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its people sympathize with all people struggling for liberty and self-government; but while so sympathizing it is due to our honor that we should abstain from enforcing our views upon unwilling nations and from taking an interested part, without invitation, in the quarrels between different nations or between governments and their subjects. Our course should always be in conformity with strict justice and law, international and local. "Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1877–1881)
"He serves his party best who serves the country best."
"It is the desire of the good people of the whole country that sectionalism as a factor in our politics should disappear."
"The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. — How is this?"
James Abram Garfield (1881)
"Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained."
"We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government."
( The Garfield administration had barely started when he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed republican office seeker, in Washington on July 2, 1881. He died in Elberon, N.J., on Sept. 19.)
Chester Alan Arthur (1881–1885)
"Good ballplayers make good citizens."
"Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damn business." Quipped to a temperance reformer. Quoted in Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur, chptr. 8, by Thomas C. Reeves
Stephen Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
"A man is known by the company he keeps, and also by the company from which he is kept out."
"He mocks the people who proposes that the Government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Any intermediary between the people and their Government or the least delegation of the care and protection the Government owes to the humblest citizen in the land makes the boast of free institutions a glittering delusion and the pretended boon of American citizenship a shameless imposition."
Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
"We Americans have no commission from God to police the world."
"God forbid that the day should ever come when, in the American mind, the thought of man as a consumer shall submerge the old American thought of man as a creature of God, endowed with unalienable rights."
William McKinley (1897–1901)
"Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law. It is sometimes sneeringly said by those who do not like free government, that here we count heads. True, heads are counted, but brains also . . ."
"War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed. "
Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
"The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown. ""The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens."
"We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals."
William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
"Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . ."
(I Suppose the SCOTUS decision that eminent domain included corporate interests overriding citizens ownership rights disagrees no?)
"I am a Unitarian. I believe in God. I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe. Letter to Yale University (1899), quoted in Henry F. Pringle, William Howard Taft: The Life and Times, vol. 1, p. 45 (1939)"
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
"Is there any man here... who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry? ... This war, in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war. It was not a political war."
"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers."
Warren Gamaliel Harding (1921–1923)
"Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little."
"There is something inherently wrong, something out of accord with the ideals of
representative democracy, when one portion of our citizenship turns its activities
to private gain amid defensive war while another is fighting, sacrificing, or dying
for national preservation."
John Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final."
Herbert Clark Hoover (1929–1933)
"Prosperity is just around the corner."
"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.""What this country needs is a great poem. John Brown’s Body was a step in the right direction. I’ve read it once...Kipling’s “Recessional” really did something to England when it was published. It helped them through a bad time. Let me know if you find any great poems lying around. "
"I'm the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945)
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.""We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."
"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."
"A nation that destroys it's soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. "
"They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order."
"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people."
Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
"We need not fear the expression of ideas—we do need to fear their suppression."
"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it."
"I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they think it's hell."
"I do not understand a mind which sees a gracious beneficence in spending money to slay and maim human beings in almost unimaginable numbers and deprecates the expenditure of a smaller sum to patch up the ills of mankind."
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
Dwight David Eisenhower (1953–1961)
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing."
The Quotable Dwight D. Eisenhower (1967) edited by Elsie Gollagher, p. 219
"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."
"If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power."
"Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer."
Politics and Diplomacy in Recent American History (1979) by Robert A. Divine, p. 55
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961–1963)
"And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."
"Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man."
"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963–1969)
"If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves."
"I believe the destiny of your generation - and your nation - is a rendezvous with excellence."
"If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it."
"We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. We have truly entered the century of the educated man."
Richard Milhous Nixon (1969–1974)
" Solutions are not the answer. "
"I am not a crook."
"This is a great day for France!"
while attending Charles De Gaulle's funeral
"I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed
to be untrue."
"When the President does it,
that means that it is not illegal"
"The second point is that coming out--coming back and saying
that black Americans aren't as good as black Africans--most
of them , basically, are just out of the trees. Now, let's
face it, they are."
Richard Nixon to Donald Rumsfeld 7-11-1971 White House Tapes
You know what happened to the Greeks.
Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was
a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates."
May 26, 1971White House Tapes Released 3-2002
"What people resent is this business of some colleges
pushing the blacks too far for their own good, making
them doctors and everything else.... you can't talk about blacks like
you once did."
President Richard Nixon Alone In the White House, Pg 110
"Do you know what happened to the Romans?
The last six Roman emperors were fags. . . .
You know what happened to the popes?
It's all right that popes were
laying the nuns."
May 26, 1971, White House tapes Released 3-2002
"I would have made a good Pope."
"Truth is the glue that holds governments together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go."
"If Lincoln was alive today, he`d roll over in his grave."
"Things are more like they are now than they have ever been."
James Earl Carter, Jr. (1977–1981)
"The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation."
" We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."
"human rights are not peripheral to the foreign policy of the United States"
"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America."
Ronald Wilson Reagan (1981–1989)
"I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
"Facts are stupid things."
"One problem that we've had... is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.""Now we are trying to get unemployment to go up and I think
we're going to succeed"
"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."
"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything."
George Herbert Walker Bush (1989–1993)
"I want a kinder, gentler nation."
"Read my lips: no new taxes."
"I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it."
"[The war in Iraq is] a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times...a new world order can emerge."
William Jefferson Clinton (1993–2001)
"There is nothing wrong in America that can't be fixed with what is right in America."
"The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists."
“Politics is not religion and we should govern on the basis of evidence, not theology.”
“If we want to invest in the prosperity of our nation, we must invest in the education of our children so that their talents may be fully employed.”
George Walker Bush (2001–2008)"I have opinions of my own-strong opinions-but I don't always agree with them."
”The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.”
”We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.”
”If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
“I would still invade Iraq even if Iraq never existed”
"Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?"
"You have black people too?"
—speaking to the President of Brazil
”See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
”I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.”
Barack Obama
"There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America . "
"I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."
"You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us – the child who's hungry, the steelworker who's been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this – when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers – it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help."
"We have a stake in one another … what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and ... if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth."
"Whenever I write a letter to a family who has lost a loved one in Iraq , or read an email from a constituent who has dropped out of college because her student aid has been cut, I'm reminded that the actions of those in power have enormous consequences – a price that they themselves almost never have to pay."
"How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be? Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government—divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it—Social Darwinism—every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford—tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job—life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty—pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!” But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity."
"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do. Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."
President Bush Called Former President Clinton one afternoon.
"Hello, Bill? It's Dubya. Say, I've been meanin' ta ask ya sumthin'. How did you do so well with the ladies when you were president?"
"I'll tell ya, George. The trick is to dazzle them with charm and intelligent conversation."
"Yeah, but what can I do?" asked Bush.
Clinton paused. "Well, George, if all else fails, try puttin' a potato down your pants. That works every time."
The next week, Bush called Clinton again.
"Bill? Dubya. Laura was in Crawford over the weekend and I got to go stag to the embassy ball. I tried the potato trick, but all the ladies kept their distance."
"I know, I saw the ball on C-SPAN," laughed Clinton. "Next time, try puttin' the potato down the front of your pants."
Happy President's Day Everyone!
Submitted by the Editor
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Standing on the Whale, Fishing for Minnows
Explorations in the theory which is known as quantum mechanics
has yielded spectacular successes and insights into the nature of the universe ,
among which is describing properties of atomic structures.
Where relativity deals with the largest objects in the universe,
quantum mechanics deals with understanding the very smallest particles
of which all objects are composed.
Quantum physics has shattered the traditional ideas of the physical universe.
Yet it's elegant equations present us not simply with scientific knowledge,
but also with philosophical challenges regarding its interpretation.
It's implications are
vast, mysterious, revolutionary, and wondrous.
After all,
What is a quantum particle?
The dreams that stuff is made of!
He postulated that the energy of the modes
could only come in discrete packets - quanta - of energy: 
There was a further breakdown in classical physics regarding the observed discrete line spectra specific to each atom.
It was widely accepted that this must be due to transitions between atomic energy levels.
But this presented a considerable problem to classical physics as it predicted that accelerating charges emitted radiation.
It would thus seem that the energy orbital would be unstable as the electron slowly spiraled towards the nuclei as it emitted radiation.
There was absolutely no classical model which could explain a stable electron orbital.
In other words:
How could the electrons orbit the nucleus and not lose energy?
Why was this configuration stable?
Niels Bohr
This quantization could not be proven on classical grounds or even justified,
but Bohr showed that when he made these assumptions,
he could predict the spectrum of hydrogen
with unprecedented accuracy.
This magical conjuring act
was able to accurately describe the energy levels
giving the exact energies of the lines actually observed in the atomic spectra.
This is the resultant equation.
Heisenberg
"The more precisely
the
the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known"
This seemingly harmless sounding statement
of the "uncertainty relation" between the position
and the momentum (mass times velocity) of a subatomic particle,
such as an electron sent reverberations
through the hallowed halls of science and philosophy.
The implications are unfathomably infinite.
This relationship has profound effects
on such fundamental notions as causality
and the determination of the future behavior of an atomic particle.
But as we discussed in Anarchs Of The New Paradigm,
the implications in Art, Music, Philosophy,
and essentially all man's endeavors are fundamentally of equal significance.
Consider a particle,
say an electron, moving through space.
We describe the electron's motion in terms
of its position and momentum.
Classically speaking,
we can measure both quantities to infinite precision.
However in Quantum Mechanics,
we can never know both quantities absolutely precisely.
This is because by taking a measurement
we inadvertently have disturbed the system.
"I believe that the existence of the classical 'path'
can be pregnantly formulated as follows:
The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it."
--Heisenberg, in the uncertainty principle paper
If every concept has a meaning only in terms of the experiments used to measure it, we must agree that things that cannot be measured really have no meaning in physics. So for instance, the path of a particle has no meaning beyond the precision with which it is observed. But a basic assumption of physics since Newton has been that a "real world" exists independently of us, regardless of whether or not we observe it. (This assumption did not go unchallenged, however, by some alchemists and philosophers.)
Heisenberg now argued that such concepts as orbits of electrons do not exist in nature unless and until we observe them.
Does this perhaps suggest that all knowledge is unknowable?
There simply are no certainties.
Only probabilities.
Tumblin' Dice...
Quantum theory...
"If we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future"
-it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise."
--Heisenberg, in the uncertainty principle paper
Heisenburg
So we can not be certain Bullwinkle is a moose,
in fact, merely making the inquiry
affects whether Bullwinkle is a moose or not.
Light can be both wave and particle
Some experiments show that light is a particle:
Einstein's Nobel Prize was actually for the photoelectric effect, where he showed that light carries energy in discrete amounts, a certain amount per particle. Yet other experiments also show that light is definitely a wave:
It exhibits interference patterns, which is something that only waves do.
There is however, no experiment which can show both results.
Whether light is a wave or a particle depends on how you're looking with it.
This may seem odd, but there are many examples of this sort of duality, even outside of physics. The same person could be perceived as a father, son, brother, nephew, or uncle, depending on who's perception we are dealing with.
Bullwinkle is a moose and squirrel.
Matter (us and everything else) is of a dual nature.
As discussed in the explanation of the nature of light.
The idea of duality is rooted in the debates over the nature of light and matter dating back to the 1600s, when competing theories of light were proposed by Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton. Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, and many others, current scientific theory holds that all particles also have a wave nature. This phenomenon has been verified not only for elementary particles, but also for compound particles like atoms and even molecules. In fact, wave–particle duality applies to all objects, even macroscopic ones.
We exist as both particles and wave functions.
The wave function of an object represents the probability of finding it in a particular location or with a particular physical property (ie. it's reality) - when the probability of finding an object in a particular location or with a particular property goes to 100%, the wave function collapses and the object assumes physical properties. At this point it becomes "real".
Objects do not have any physical properties until they are observed.
Quantum physics contradicts the belief in an objective world existing independent of observation.
Our observations influence reality by collapsing the wave function of an object.
The point at which the wave collapses is consciousness itself.
An astounding yet mathematically supported reality.
Renee Descartes walks into a bar,
the bartender says 'sir can I get you a martini
'Descartes says
'I don't think...'
and he disappears.
The Tragic End Of Schrödinger's Cat
After a stint in the physics limelight, Schrödinger's cat fell on hard times.
The constant stress of never knowing from one moment to the next whether he was alive or dead took its toll on the cat's psyche. Schrödinger's cat began to drink, and drink heavily!
Often drinking himself into a catatonic stupor. Alcohol abuse began to affect his work.
This was especially evident in his last paper published shortly before his death, "Der Maus Eigenfunctionen im Unendlich-dimensional Hilbertraum", in which he published the following rather cryptic equation for analyzing the momentum of electrically-charged particles:
One by one, Due to his drinking, his sources of funding dried up.
Soon, he found that he was no longer being invited to give seminars.
His scientific colleagues and students expressed uncertainty about whether or not he would even show up at his lectures. Some people even debated whether he was even still alive!
His last work was in telecommunications.
His invention of Cat-5 cable at Bell Laboratories laid the foundations for the Internet.
In his last days he also spent more and more of his time playing with string theory.
R.I.P. Schrödinger's cat
Physical reality is not "real"
It is the minnow we seek to catch
while standing on the whale
The title of this article is a Polynesian saying.
I first encountered it while reading a book by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campell suggested that man's mythology was a powerful tool.
That perhaps we need a modern mythology to help us make sense of the universe
as we experience it in this time.
He postulated that the story of "Star Wars"
could actually be used to this effect in his celebrated interviews with Bill Moyers.
Though he could not not literally subscribe to any particular brand of mythology,
he recognized the importance and indeed the beauty of the stories.
And in his book, "the Hero With A Thousand Faces";
he observed that man's various mythologies were essentially all the same story.
Duct tape is metaphysical.
Duct tape is a metaphor for "the Force".
It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
But what is it ultimately that one seeks?
Campbell suggested "People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about, and that's what these clues help us to find within ourselves."
informs us that there is actually no such thing as physical matter.
That literally everything is energy.
Our greatest physicists
have told us that energy is controlled by consciousness.
What consciousness is, where it is,
and how it functions is the question.
(Please see Anarchs Of The New Paradigm for details.)
The physical universe is a function of "something"
in the non-physical part of reality.
(A something or a no-thing that we call consciousness.)
The source of creation
is in the non-physical consciousness.
The physical experience is the result.
has yielded spectacular successes and insights into the nature of the universe ,
among which is describing properties of atomic structures.
Where relativity deals with the largest objects in the universe,
quantum mechanics deals with understanding the very smallest particles
of which all objects are composed.
Quantum physics has shattered the traditional ideas of the physical universe.
Yet it's elegant equations present us not simply with scientific knowledge,
but also with philosophical challenges regarding its interpretation.
It's implications are
vast, mysterious, revolutionary, and wondrous.
After all,
What is a quantum particle?
The dreams that stuff is made of!
Quantum Mechanics has been described
as the crowning achievement of the 20th Century,
a theory that has been validated with great precision.
The quanta - the idea that at the smallest of scales,
everything is discrete; has devastated classical physics and forced us
to perceive reality in a most unreasonable fashion by conventional standards.
Yet at it's very core, the stuff upon which the physical universe is hung,
is more real than the physical universe itself.
How did we arrive here?
THE ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE
Hop aboard the old "wayback machine"
with Mr.Peabody and Sherman!
(which incidentally, exists courtesy of relativity ...
and/or Jay Ward!
Of course this begs the question,
in a quantum universe,
is Bullwinkle still a moose?) 
as the crowning achievement of the 20th Century,
a theory that has been validated with great precision.
The quanta - the idea that at the smallest of scales,
everything is discrete; has devastated classical physics and forced us
to perceive reality in a most unreasonable fashion by conventional standards.
Yet at it's very core, the stuff upon which the physical universe is hung,
is more real than the physical universe itself.
How did we arrive here?
THE ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE
Hop aboard the old "wayback machine"with Mr.Peabody and Sherman!
(which incidentally, exists courtesy of relativity ...
and/or Jay Ward!
Of course this begs the question,
in a quantum universe,
is Bullwinkle still a moose?)
In the 19th century much of the scientific community was absorbed in the study of heat properties of various objects. An abstract model that was considered was the Black Body, which was an object which absorbs all incidents of radiation and then re-emited the energy again. We can think of the radiating energy as standing waves inside our blackbody cavity. The energy of these radiating waves at a given frequency ½, should be proportional to the number of modes at this frequency. Classical physics states that all these modes have the same energy k T (a result derived from classical thermodynamics) and as the number of modes is proportional to ½ 2 :
We would expect most of the energy at higher frequency, and this energy to diverge with frequency. When we sum the energies at each frequency we find that there is an infinite energy in this system!
This paradox was called the ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE.
Physicist Max Planck resolved this untidy paradox.
He postulated that the energy of the modes
could only come in discrete packets - quanta - of energy:
Using statistical mechanics Planck found that the modes at higher frequency were less likely excited so the average energy of these modes would decrease with the frequency. The exact expression for the average energy of each mode is given by the Planck distribution:
You can see that if the frequency is low then the average energy tends towards the classical result, and as frequency goes to infinity we get that the average energy goes to zero as expected.
We might say this was the birth of quantum mechanical thinking.The Clot Thickens...
Atomic Line SpectraThere was a further breakdown in classical physics regarding the observed discrete line spectra specific to each atom.
It was widely accepted that this must be due to transitions between atomic energy levels.
But this presented a considerable problem to classical physics as it predicted that accelerating charges emitted radiation.
It would thus seem that the energy orbital would be unstable as the electron slowly spiraled towards the nuclei as it emitted radiation.
There was absolutely no classical model which could explain a stable electron orbital.
In other words:
How could the electrons orbit the nucleus and not lose energy?
Why was this configuration stable?
Niels BohrBohr was able to crack this puzzle by invoking the idea developed by Planck.
This quantization could not be proven on classical grounds or even justified,
but Bohr showed that when he made these assumptions,
he could predict the spectrum of hydrogen
with unprecedented accuracy.
This magical conjuring act
was able to accurately describe the energy levels
giving the exact energies of the lines actually observed in the atomic spectra.
This is the resultant equation.
Look here for a brief presentation of the derivation of his theory.
Bohr's success was indisputable.
Unfortunately it only worked on Hydrogen.
Heisenberg
The Uncertainty Principle
"The more precisely 
the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known"
This seemingly harmless sounding statement
of the "uncertainty relation" between the position
and the momentum (mass times velocity) of a subatomic particle,
such as an electron sent reverberations
through the hallowed halls of science and philosophy.
The implications are unfathomably infinite.
This relationship has profound effects
on such fundamental notions as causality
and the determination of the future behavior of an atomic particle.
But as we discussed in Anarchs Of The New Paradigm,
the implications in Art, Music, Philosophy,
and essentially all man's endeavors are fundamentally of equal significance.
Consider a particle,
say an electron, moving through space.
We describe the electron's motion in terms
of its position and momentum.
Classically speaking,
we can measure both quantities to infinite precision.
However in Quantum Mechanics,
we can never know both quantities absolutely precisely.
This is because by taking a measurement
we inadvertently have disturbed the system.
"I believe that the existence of the classical 'path'
can be pregnantly formulated as follows:
The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it."
--Heisenberg, in the uncertainty principle paper
If every concept has a meaning only in terms of the experiments used to measure it, we must agree that things that cannot be measured really have no meaning in physics. So for instance, the path of a particle has no meaning beyond the precision with which it is observed. But a basic assumption of physics since Newton has been that a "real world" exists independently of us, regardless of whether or not we observe it. (This assumption did not go unchallenged, however, by some alchemists and philosophers.)
Heisenberg now argued that such concepts as orbits of electrons do not exist in nature unless and until we observe them.
Does this perhaps suggest that all knowledge is unknowable?
There simply are no certainties.
Only probabilities.
Tumblin' Dice...
Quantum theory...
"If we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future"
-it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise."
--Heisenberg, in the uncertainty principle paper
HeisenburgSo we can not be certain Bullwinkle is a moose,
in fact, merely making the inquiry
affects whether Bullwinkle is a moose or not.
Light can be both wave and particle
Some experiments show that light is a particle:
Einstein's Nobel Prize was actually for the photoelectric effect, where he showed that light carries energy in discrete amounts, a certain amount per particle. Yet other experiments also show that light is definitely a wave:
It exhibits interference patterns, which is something that only waves do.
There is however, no experiment which can show both results.
Whether light is a wave or a particle depends on how you're looking with it.
This may seem odd, but there are many examples of this sort of duality, even outside of physics. The same person could be perceived as a father, son, brother, nephew, or uncle, depending on who's perception we are dealing with.
Bullwinkle is a moose and squirrel.
Matter (us and everything else) is of a dual nature.
As discussed in the explanation of the nature of light.
The idea of duality is rooted in the debates over the nature of light and matter dating back to the 1600s, when competing theories of light were proposed by Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton. Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, and many others, current scientific theory holds that all particles also have a wave nature. This phenomenon has been verified not only for elementary particles, but also for compound particles like atoms and even molecules. In fact, wave–particle duality applies to all objects, even macroscopic ones.
We exist as both particles and wave functions.
The wave function of an object represents the probability of finding it in a particular location or with a particular physical property (ie. it's reality) - when the probability of finding an object in a particular location or with a particular property goes to 100%, the wave function collapses and the object assumes physical properties. At this point it becomes "real".
Objects do not have any physical properties until they are observed.
Quantum physics contradicts the belief in an objective world existing independent of observation.
Our observations influence reality by collapsing the wave function of an object.
The point at which the wave collapses is consciousness itself.
An astounding yet mathematically supported reality.
Renee Descartes walks into a bar,
the bartender says 'sir can I get you a martini
'Descartes says
'I don't think...'
and he disappears.
The Tragic End Of Schrödinger's Cat
After a stint in the physics limelight, Schrödinger's cat fell on hard times.
The constant stress of never knowing from one moment to the next whether he was alive or dead took its toll on the cat's psyche. Schrödinger's cat began to drink, and drink heavily!
Often drinking himself into a catatonic stupor. Alcohol abuse began to affect his work.
This was especially evident in his last paper published shortly before his death, "Der Maus Eigenfunctionen im Unendlich-dimensional Hilbertraum", in which he published the following rather cryptic equation for analyzing the momentum of electrically-charged particles:
p[[p[p[p = <~~fafafaf | 35eeeeeeeeee >
It has been speculated that if properly understood, this strange-looking equation may have profound implications for our understanding of the interactions of particles in an electromagnetic field. Unfortunately, the original manuscript was covered with coughed up fur balls and a green-colored stain that resembled cat vomit.One by one, Due to his drinking, his sources of funding dried up.
Soon, he found that he was no longer being invited to give seminars.
His scientific colleagues and students expressed uncertainty about whether or not he would even show up at his lectures. Some people even debated whether he was even still alive!
His last work was in telecommunications.
His invention of Cat-5 cable at Bell Laboratories laid the foundations for the Internet.
In his last days he also spent more and more of his time playing with string theory.
R.I.P. Schrödinger's cat
Physical reality is not "real"
It is the minnow we seek to catch
while standing on the whale
The title of this article is a Polynesian saying.
I first encountered it while reading a book by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campell suggested that man's mythology was a powerful tool.
That perhaps we need a modern mythology to help us make sense of the universe
as we experience it in this time.
He postulated that the story of "Star Wars"
could actually be used to this effect in his celebrated interviews with Bill Moyers.
Though he could not not literally subscribe to any particular brand of mythology,
he recognized the importance and indeed the beauty of the stories.
And in his book, "the Hero With A Thousand Faces";
he observed that man's various mythologies were essentially all the same story.
Duct tape is metaphysical.
Duct tape is a metaphor for "the Force".
It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
But what is it ultimately that one seeks?
Campbell suggested "People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about, and that's what these clues help us to find within ourselves."
informs us that there is actually no such thing as physical matter.
That literally everything is energy.
Our greatest physicists
have told us that energy is controlled by consciousness.
What consciousness is, where it is,
and how it functions is the question.
(Please see Anarchs Of The New Paradigm for details.)
Universal consciousness
(the source of everything? God? Zappa's "crux of the biscuit?)
is the holy grail of the human quest for meaning.
Now of course we sentient human beings
each have consciousness,
of one sort or another ,
but how does human consciousness relate to cosmic consciousness?
Obviously,
this is a matter of speculation, conjecture, and controversy.
There is certainly a degree of scientific physical evidence
and indeed plenty of religio-philisophic writing that reflects on just this.
That perhaps what we allude to as "God" is not some hairy thunderer
but rather the sum of consciousness.
That each of us is a piece of God
or the cosmic consciousness.
The Hindu truth
that "I am the mystery of the Universe " comes to mind.
In the New Testament the author known as "John"
says that Jesus claimed " I am in the God, and God is in me"
paraphrased numerous times.
How about in Psalms "the kingdom of God is within you"?
Or the phrase "What you do onto the least of your brothers, you do onto me."
Lao Tzu said "at the center of your being you have the answer"
(what is at the center of your being other than consciousness itself?
The point of the wave collapse?)
Lao Tzu also said “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
Might this all imply an attempt
at cosmic awareness of the nature of the universe
rather than some dogmatic mumbo jumbo
completely misinterpreted, mistranslated,
or misrepresented for centuries?
Man's quest for meaning did not begin in the 20th century.
Is it at least possible
that true seekers may have glimpsed the implications
of the quantum universe without actually doing the math?
Is there more than 1 path to ultimate knowledge?
And is man, with his hat on, taller than a taxi cab?
(the source of everything? God? Zappa's "crux of the biscuit?)
is the holy grail of the human quest for meaning.
Now of course we sentient human beings
each have consciousness,
of one sort or another ,
but how does human consciousness relate to cosmic consciousness?
Obviously,
this is a matter of speculation, conjecture, and controversy.
There is certainly a degree of scientific physical evidence
and indeed plenty of religio-philisophic writing that reflects on just this.
That perhaps what we allude to as "God" is not some hairy thunderer
but rather the sum of consciousness.
That each of us is a piece of God
or the cosmic consciousness.
The Hindu truth
that "I am the mystery of the Universe " comes to mind.
In the New Testament the author known as "John"
says that Jesus claimed " I am in the God, and God is in me"
paraphrased numerous times.
How about in Psalms "the kingdom of God is within you"?
Or the phrase "What you do onto the least of your brothers, you do onto me."
Lao Tzu said "at the center of your being you have the answer"
(what is at the center of your being other than consciousness itself?
The point of the wave collapse?)
Lao Tzu also said “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
Might this all imply an attempt
at cosmic awareness of the nature of the universe
rather than some dogmatic mumbo jumbo
completely misinterpreted, mistranslated,
or misrepresented for centuries?
Man's quest for meaning did not begin in the 20th century.
Is it at least possible
that true seekers may have glimpsed the implications
of the quantum universe without actually doing the math?
Is there more than 1 path to ultimate knowledge?
And is man, with his hat on, taller than a taxi cab?
in the non-physical part of reality.
(A something or a no-thing that we call consciousness.)
The source of creation
is in the non-physical consciousness.
The physical experience is the result.
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this article. In an alternate universe, Bullwinkle is the governor of Alaska and has the disembodied head of Sarah Palin hanging on his mantel.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Anarchs Of The New Paradigm
The Theory Of Absolutely Everythingor
The Moon Is not There When No One Looks At It
There were six wise, blind elephants who were discussing what humans were like.
They could come to no agreement, so they decided to determine
what humans were like through direct experience.
The first wise, blind elephant felt the human, and declared, "Humans are flat."
The other wise, blind elephants, after similarly feeling the human, agreed.
It appears that man's march towards the right of the chart, from Neanderthal to Modern, has produced some interesting paradigms that are real, observable and even predictable.
As human consciousness itself, expands,
so too, do the institutions and devices of man, expand in unison.
Clearly the Ptolemaic universe mirrors the theocentric
& monarchic structures of it's heyday.
Just as the Cartesian mechanical universe of Newton
mirrors the "age of reason" and it's emanations;
capitalism, communism, nationalism, democracy etc.
Whether the social implications of rationality are the underlying foundation of an era's view of the universe, or the converse is true, is irrelevant.
They are aligned and adhered to each other in a great Celtic Knot.
Goya- The Sleep Of Reason
Would there be Goya without Voltaire?
Would there Be Voltaire without Newton?
Beethoven without his contemporary Franklin?
Jefferson without Locke?
Dali without Freud?
Einstein without Stravinsky?
John Lennon without Lewis Carroll?
Johnny Rotten without Wagner?
Would there have been a Hubble telescope without Ferlinghetti?
One thing leads to another in the manifestations of sentience.
If Issac Newton had written the joke,
it would have been:
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in motion tend to cross the road.
or
It was pushed on the road.
or
It was pushed on the road by another chicken, which went away from the road.
or
It was attracted to a chicken on the other side of the road.
Ba da bing! Don't forget to tip your quarks and leptons folks.
Neural Network
--Neural nets--
webs spun of the fine fabric of the universe
whose threads reveal their composition
to be of webs of even finer fabrics of universes ad infinitum...
echoes and reflections,
gradients of reverberating colors;
blending seamlessly in a pallet of nothingness,
(Pitch black and white light! Which is all colors? Which is none?)
creating a painting of eternity for we casual observers to perceive,
at least peripherally;
hanging inverted and skewed,
on the walls of voodoo;
without shoes.
There was an old lady called Wright
who could travel much faster than light.
She departed one day
in a relative way
and returned on the previous night.
How Long Is A New York Minute?
If your minute in New York is spent with your hand in a deep fryer,
it's a very long time.
If your minute in New York is spent in a loving embrace in a pub
It's not long enough.
Einstein's universe. Relativity anyone?
It has only recently begun to reflect/be reflected by man's social permutations.
These relations are still somewhat inscrutable, esoterically entwined in multinational conspiracies, sundry emerging telecommunications-based technologies, the metaphysics of modern banking, & international terrorism .
Yet it's implications in the arts were swift and tangible.
The Beat Poets
Jackson Pollack
Bauhaus
Frank Loyd Wright
Charlie Parker
Milton Babbit
To scratch the surface.
A Table of Mankind's Major Paradigm Shifts
Now sure, there are no shortages of crackpot theories and retail snakeoil philosophers publishing on the internet, but the physics discussed here are indeed sound and espoused by the most learned and lauded physicists
of our age. The connection of Quantum Physics with Eastern Mysticism
is nothing new, as Tao of Physics was published in 1975.
I simply believe that like the tail curl fractal illustrates,
similar if not identical patterns emerge in the details of the whole picture, and the closer we examine it; the more patterns and relationships we observe. The synchronicity is obvious. Though Tantric thought and Taoism are from another point in time, imagine our universe as the Tail Curl Fractal. In the part that spirals around itself, imagine two points at the start and one further down the curl. One could follow the curling path through numerous loops to draw a path between the two points or one could draw a straight line from one directly to the other through the curls and have a very short path to connect the 2 points.
The concept of folding space to travel great distances in space is similar.
The line between the Tao and advanced theoretical physics can be seen as similar also.
Take a moment to experiment with the fractal generator on this page.
What is the name of the physics dept.'s baseball team?
The Unified Fielders!
Back to Quantum Reality...
The Moon Is not There When No One Looks At It
There were six wise, blind elephants who were discussing what humans were like.
They could come to no agreement, so they decided to determine
what humans were like through direct experience.
The first wise, blind elephant felt the human, and declared, "Humans are flat."
The other wise, blind elephants, after similarly feeling the human, agreed.
It appears that man's march towards the right of the chart, from Neanderthal to Modern, has produced some interesting paradigms that are real, observable and even predictable.
As human consciousness itself, expands,
so too, do the institutions and devices of man, expand in unison.
Clearly the Ptolemaic universe mirrors the theocentric
& monarchic structures of it's heyday.
Just as the Cartesian mechanical universe of Newton
mirrors the "age of reason" and it's emanations;
capitalism, communism, nationalism, democracy etc.
Whether the social implications of rationality are the underlying foundation of an era's view of the universe, or the converse is true, is irrelevant.
They are aligned and adhered to each other in a great Celtic Knot.
Goya- The Sleep Of Reason
Would there be Goya without Voltaire?
Would there Be Voltaire without Newton?
Beethoven without his contemporary Franklin?
Jefferson without Locke?
Dali without Freud?
Einstein without Stravinsky?
John Lennon without Lewis Carroll?
Johnny Rotten without Wagner?
Would there have been a Hubble telescope without Ferlinghetti?
One thing leads to another in the manifestations of sentience.
If Issac Newton had written the joke,
it would have been:
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in motion tend to cross the road.
or
It was pushed on the road.
or
It was pushed on the road by another chicken, which went away from the road.
or
It was attracted to a chicken on the other side of the road.
Ba da bing! Don't forget to tip your quarks and leptons folks.
Neural Network
--Neural nets--
webs spun of the fine fabric of the universe
whose threads reveal their composition
to be of webs of even finer fabrics of universes ad infinitum...
echoes and reflections,
gradients of reverberating colors;
blending seamlessly in a pallet of nothingness,
(Pitch black and white light! Which is all colors? Which is none?)
creating a painting of eternity for we casual observers to perceive,
at least peripherally;
hanging inverted and skewed,
on the walls of voodoo;
without shoes.
There was an old lady called Wright
who could travel much faster than light.
She departed one day
in a relative way
and returned on the previous night.
How Long Is A New York Minute?
If your minute in New York is spent with your hand in a deep fryer,
it's a very long time.
If your minute in New York is spent in a loving embrace in a pub
It's not long enough.
Einstein's universe. Relativity anyone?
It has only recently begun to reflect/be reflected by man's social permutations.
These relations are still somewhat inscrutable, esoterically entwined in multinational conspiracies, sundry emerging telecommunications-based technologies, the metaphysics of modern banking, & international terrorism .
Yet it's implications in the arts were swift and tangible.
The Beat Poets
Jackson Pollack
Bauhaus
Frank Loyd Wright
Charlie Parker
Milton Babbit
To scratch the surface.
A Table of Mankind's Major Paradigm Shifts
(With Spiritual, Political & Economic Parallels)
Paleolithic -- shamanic -- non-authoritarian -- hunter/gatherer Neolithic -- polytheistic -- authoritarian -- agricultural Earth-centered Cosmology -- theistic -- monarchial/hierarchical theocratic -- urban Sun-centered Cosmos -- monotheistic -- divine right of kings -- colonialism & imperialism Mechanistic universe -- deist or atheist -- democracy, capitalism, communism -- industrial/technological Relativistic universe -- Modernism -- cybernocacy -- post-industrial Quantum universe . . . ? What is a quantum particle?
The dreams that stuff is made of!
Here is where it gets interesting. The advent of Quantum Mechanics and Chaos Theory open doors that could not be remotely fathomed in man's relative reality.
In fact, Quantum Physics places man's individual consciousness in a place overruled by physical science long ago...at the center of the universe!
The metaphors of Taoism, Tantra and alchemy suddenly seem to have a new purpose...as focusing devices and interpreters of the Quantum Universe.
Is this a step backwards? Hardly! We are at a distinctly different point in time and space, and the social necessities that gave rise to these disciplines no longer exist.
But there are new dynamics that our last paradigm simply can't encompass.
Call it Aquarian, if you like. But man's consciousness is changing.
The Mandelbrot Fractal known as the "Tail Curl" is a good way to visualize this.The Tail Curl Fractal
I've often said you find what you seek and seek what you find.
That you can not escape what you design.
But in this fractal image, I see more than I care to acknowledge is actually possible.
Chaos and order are one.
Nature is formulaic.
Ultimate truth.
Beauty
A bit about fractals..."Self-similar fractals (such as the Tail Curl)
are generated by recursively iterating formulas,
which are complex polynomials of the form z=f(z),
and plotting their graphs.
The Mandelbrot Set is the most commonly recognized fractal object, named after the father of fractal mathematics,
Benoit B. Mandelbrot.
It is the graph of the equation Z=Z2+C.
In the equation Z=Z2+C, 'Z' and 'C' are complex numbers.
The complex number 'C' remains a constant value,
while the complex number 'Z' varies each time the function is calculated, since the formula is set equal to Z.
Complex numbers
are numbers that contain the square root of -1,
which is called the imaginary number.
The imaginary number is written as the italics letter i
in mathematical formulas.
A complex number like Z or C isn't actually a single number value,
it represents a formula i*i+r.
That means any complex number contains two actual number values:
i, the coefficient of i, which is the "imaginary" component,
and r, the constant or "real" number that is added to the result."
For the Mandelbrot formula, you have the two complex numbers Z and C, and each of these has two components i and r, resulting in four distinct variables, Zi, Zr, Ci, and Cr.
Because of the nature of complex numbers, Z=Z2+C isn't the actual calculated formula, but an abbreviation for two more "usable" formulas: Zi=(2*Zr*Zi)+Ci;
and Zr=(Zr*Zr)-(Zi*Zi)+Cr; In order to render any mathematical formula as an image, we assign variables to coordinates, like X, Y and Z. Since the Mandelbrot set has four variables, These four variables can be thought of as four separate coordinates. With four coordinates, each complex polynomial containing two complex numbers defines a single fourth dimensional object!
If we could show the entire fourth dimensional object for each function, we would see all of the possible solutions to that function. But, there is no way to accurately depict a 4D object in 3D space, much less on a 2D computer screen, so fractal generators render the second dimensional cross-sections or "slices" of those fourth dimensional objects.
You can think of a fractal generator as working like a MRI scan; as the medical scanner crosses over a patient's body, the doctor sees a computer graphic representation of a 2D cross-section of a 3D object, in that case, a patient. The images from a fractal generator do not represent the appearance of the entire 4D fractal object any more than a single MRI scan image represents an entire human being, or a single slice of bread represents the entire loaf. "source-www.utopiansky.com/labratory
Fractal Geometry shatters the confines of Euclidean Geometry.
Like quantum mechanics reduces relativity to shards.
It begs the question:
If there is a genetic code that is a formula for life,
Is there not also an equation that is the formula for a universe?If it wasn't for Thomas Alva Edison,
we'd all be watching TV to the light of a candle.
Einstein rejected quantum physics. But, as iconoclastic a thinker as he was, he saw a
a cosmic traffic cop, placing a limit on the speed of light. A God of nature who refused to roll dice with the universe. This idea is incompatible with Quantum physics which is like a scientific manifestation of anarchist P. Goodman's "Stone Age Reaction" -- a turning-back so extreme as to constitute a revolution.
Theoretical physics neither suggests nor denies man's notions of God or Gods.
But if one could perceive a Mesopotamian or Judeo-Christian -Muslim type of God laying down the law in Einstein's universe..
in a quantum universe; God would look more like a dancing Shiva rolling dice and improvising jazz music.
Quantum Theory follows behind Quantum facts attempting to explain the reality "behind"them. Unlike Relativity, Quantum Mechanics offers no coherent ideas about "reality,"rather it gives us a set of tools for predicting, and statistical possibilities. The model of Quantum Mechanics "works" but Quantum facts remain inexplicable. The excitement lies in the way it has revived speculative philosophy as an integral component of science. Frankly, theories about Quantum "reality" rival any occultist or mystical excesses for sheer madness & breathtaking incredulity.
The Grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men,
He marched them up to the top of hill,
And he marched them down again.
When they were up they were up,
When they were down they were down.
When they were only half way up,
They were simultaneously up and down,
They were merely obeying the laws of quantum mechanics.
In his book Quantum Reality, physicist Nick Herbert outlines eight views,
"Quantum Realities," all based on Quantum fact but all different.
May Chaos be with you!
Quantum Reality #1"There is no deep reality."
Often called the Copenhagen interpretation. Objects, everyday real things, "float on a world that is not as real." (Bohr, Heisenberg.) The emphasis on uncertainty reminds me of Buddhism, at least the anti-realism aspect of it.
Quantum Reality #2
"Reality is created by it's observer."
We reside in an observer-created reality in which the act of measurement gives rise to observed reality.
"The moon is demonstrably not there when no one looks" -- N.D. Mermin).Quantum Reality #3
"Reality is an undivided wholeness."
The object and subject have become inseparable from each other.
According to David Bohm, "One is led to a new notion of unbroken wholeness which denies the classical analyzability of the world into separately and independently existing parts. . . . The inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality."
"In its phenomenal aspect, the cosmic One is thus intrinsically dynamic, and the apprehension of its dynamic nature is basic to all schools of Eastern mysticism. They all emphasize that the universe has to be grasped dynamically, as it moves, vibrates and dances." (Fritjof Capra)The Eastern mystics see the universe as an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and not static. The cosmic web is alive; it moves and grows and changes continually. Modern physics, too, has come to conceive of the universe as such a web of relations and, like Eastern mysticism, has recognised that this web is intrinsically dynamic. The dynamic aspect of matter arises in quantum theory as a consequence of the wave-nature of subatomic particles, and is even more essential in relativity theory, where the unification of space and time implies that the being of matter cannot be separated from its activity. The properties of subatomic particles can therefore only be understood in a dynamic context; in terms of movement, interaction and transformation. (The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra)
Now sure, there are no shortages of crackpot theories and retail snakeoil philosophers publishing on the internet, but the physics discussed here are indeed sound and espoused by the most learned and lauded physicists
of our age. The connection of Quantum Physics with Eastern Mysticism
is nothing new, as Tao of Physics was published in 1975.
I simply believe that like the tail curl fractal illustrates,
similar if not identical patterns emerge in the details of the whole picture, and the closer we examine it; the more patterns and relationships we observe. The synchronicity is obvious. Though Tantric thought and Taoism are from another point in time, imagine our universe as the Tail Curl Fractal. In the part that spirals around itself, imagine two points at the start and one further down the curl. One could follow the curling path through numerous loops to draw a path between the two points or one could draw a straight line from one directly to the other through the curls and have a very short path to connect the 2 points.
The concept of folding space to travel great distances in space is similar.
The line between the Tao and advanced theoretical physics can be seen as similar also.
Take a moment to experiment with the fractal generator on this page.
What is the name of the physics dept.'s baseball team?
The Unified Fielders!
Back to Quantum Reality...
Quantum Reality #4
"The many worlds interpretation"
Put forth by H. Everett in 1957, it suggests that the wave function never collapses -- that every possible event actually occurs, either in "our" world or in some instantaneously created "alternative universe."
"The many worlds interpretation"
Put forth by H. Everett in 1957, it suggests that the wave function never collapses -- that every possible event actually occurs, either in "our" world or in some instantaneously created "alternative universe."
The Copenhagenists deny reality altogether; Everett offers infinite realities which is indeed an elegant solution.
Quantum Reality #5
"Quantum Logic"
What Einstein did to Euclidean geometry, some Quantum physicist/mathematicians hope to do to Boolean (Classical) Logic. Basically a doctrine of chance. It seems like a good idea.
Quantum Reality #6
"Neo-realism."
Einstein, Planck, Schrodinger, Bohm & de Broglie have all looked for ways to "save the phenomena," to discover & describe Quantum Reality intrinsically, rather than take the pesky step of agreeing with the Copenhagen school of anti-realisms ("Atoms are not things" said Heisenberg. "There is no quantum world" said Bohr.) Reconciling the neo-realist project with Quantum facts leads to some fantastic revelations, such as maintaining that the world is real but "non-local." It's very possible the quarrel between anti-realists & neo-realists arises from a semantic problem about the definition of "reality." Both sides claim that reality means Classical reality. In that sense, the Copenhagen group is forced to deny that ordinary objects exist. The neo-realists are reduced to merely looking for loopholes in Quantum Mechanics, & seem so far to have been foiled. But what if a Quantum Reality & an ordinary reality are both real? Simply modes of a single reality? Dichotomy vanishes. String Theorists appear...everyone runs away!
String Theory - Super Strings - is a panoptic unified theory. Since 1984 string theory has been accepted by the mainstream physics community as a viable candidate to unite quantum mechanics, particle physics and gravity. A bold theory of absolutely everything.
"Quantum Logic"
What Einstein did to Euclidean geometry, some Quantum physicist/mathematicians hope to do to Boolean (Classical) Logic. Basically a doctrine of chance. It seems like a good idea.
Quantum Reality #6
"Neo-realism."
Einstein, Planck, Schrodinger, Bohm & de Broglie have all looked for ways to "save the phenomena," to discover & describe Quantum Reality intrinsically, rather than take the pesky step of agreeing with the Copenhagen school of anti-realisms ("Atoms are not things" said Heisenberg. "There is no quantum world" said Bohr.) Reconciling the neo-realist project with Quantum facts leads to some fantastic revelations, such as maintaining that the world is real but "non-local." It's very possible the quarrel between anti-realists & neo-realists arises from a semantic problem about the definition of "reality." Both sides claim that reality means Classical reality. In that sense, the Copenhagen group is forced to deny that ordinary objects exist. The neo-realists are reduced to merely looking for loopholes in Quantum Mechanics, & seem so far to have been foiled. But what if a Quantum Reality & an ordinary reality are both real? Simply modes of a single reality? Dichotomy vanishes. String Theorists appear...everyone runs away!
String Theory - Super Strings - is a panoptic unified theory. Since 1984 string theory has been accepted by the mainstream physics community as a viable candidate to unite quantum mechanics, particle physics and gravity. A bold theory of absolutely everything.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about string theory is that it works! it is possible to derive (an extension of) the Standard Model (which has been verified experimentally with incredible precision) from a theory of strings. But it should also be pointed out that there is no direct experimental evidence that string theory itself is the correct description of Nature, not yet.
This is mostly due to the fact that string theory is still being constructed. We know bits and pieces of it, to be sure. but the whole picture has not been seen, and we are therefore unable to make reliable predictions. In recent years myriads of exciting developments have taken place, radically improving our understanding of what the theory might be.
Quantum Reality #7
"Consciousness creates reality."
Von Neumann said that only one kind of stuff exists, quantumstuff, & that ordinary objects are "made" of it. At some point the wave function, the all-possible nature of quantumstuff, "collapses" into a single statistical probability, a quantum jump which somehow "creates the world." one must ask just where does this occur? Logic appears to implicate human consciousness as the setting of the wave function collapse. It is with great irony that Von Neumann, the wizard of cybernetics & strategic game theory, should have been forced to develop a math which suggests that human consciousness must be written into any rendering of Quantum Reality. Von Neumann's interpretation is not the same as an "observer-created reality,"as the observer could be seen as a measuring device. Reality exists in Von Neumann's view, but only in conjunction or "unity" with consciousness.
Quantum Reality #8
Heisenberg's "duplex world"
A universe of potentials and actualities, in which real objects appear almost as manifestations or hypostases of a Quantum Reality which is simulteaneously more abstract & "more real" than everyday things.
My groping attempt at a synthesis is suggested by Chaos Theory, which holds to the axiom that reality itself subsists in a state of ontological anarchy. "The one gave birth to the two, the two to the 10,000 things" -- but all this IS the tao & nothing but the tao. Yin & yang have no being in themselves, but act as interpenetrating modalities of the tao. The real/unreal dichotomy enslaves us in false consciousness. Looked at from one point of view, nothing is real; from another point of view, everything is real; from another, "nothing is real except the Real"; from yet another, "I am the Real" (ana'I Haqq, a sufi "koan"). These semantricks create a set of paradoxes -- and the resolution will give us an essentially metalinguistic certainty of being's oneness. Such oneness cannot be structured or defined in any way. It has no "ruler" and no "laws". It is ontological anarchy. I think Chaos theory in a sense "proofs" or at least mirrors eastern philosophies. (Which are not necessarily theistic).
On a mathematical or statistical level, the chaotic nature of reality may manifest itself as randomness; I suspect it manifests in the Uncertainty Principle as well.
Whatever the truth of these speculations, I feel that Chaos Theory & Quantum Theory are moving closer & closer together and in some way reflect my personal beliefs about the nature of the universe, the nature of man's societies, as well as being observable in nature itself in both macro and micro forms.
Neutrinos, Gravitons, Alchemy, and Enlightenment
Is this evidence that the alchemist's "as above, so below" is an even deeper epiphany than it appears to be on the surface? If this is so, then we may be able to predict some social implications of Quantum Theory as a "paradigm".We may in fact answer the questions posed by every seeker and philosopher through the ages. The answers, perhaps to everything, including man's quest for meaning (religion for some) is in Chaos Theory and ontological anarchy!
That's my view and I'm standing by it!
I suppose it begs the question... is Chaos God?.
(Or is God Chaos?)
I will leave that for you decide.
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this article.
Friday, January 2, 2009
One Love, One Voice...
Let's start the New Year off with a positive thought.
That we are all one, that each of us is an ingredient in the primordial recipe.
That regardless of who or where we are, we are threads in the fabric of the universe. This beautiful video sums these thoughts up perfectly.
The video is from the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", This is the first of a series of "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured here is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world, each adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year. You can sign up at http://playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content or join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music.
The best to all this year, may we all appreciate each other just a little bit more
this year.
That we are all one, that each of us is an ingredient in the primordial recipe.
That regardless of who or where we are, we are threads in the fabric of the universe. This beautiful video sums these thoughts up perfectly.
The video is from the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", This is the first of a series of "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured here is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world, each adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year. You can sign up at http://playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content or join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music.
The best to all this year, may we all appreciate each other just a little bit more
this year.
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