Pilgrim For Truth

Biography

2008-05-14T03:16:00.000-07:00

First cause formed in physics the knack;
Cybernetic effects fed it back.
But our needs led to want;
We collapsed to a quant.
Hence theology's back on the track.

This limerick is an autobiography and whimsical biography of the universe, a kind of Theory of Everything in panentheism (the theistic worldview holding God to be both transcendent and immanent). It describes my own studies in physics and cybernetics, followed by my material desires leading me into my current position as a quant (financial quantitative analyst), and finally my interest in theology in an effort to find my way back to meaning and purpose.

The allegorical aspect of the five lines is more complex:

Line 1 — A first cause started a world in which evolution (the "knack") would eventually emerge;
Line 2 — By means of feedback mechanisms, intelligence emerged and became self-aware;
Line 3 — Mankind chose to serve their own material needs;
Line 4 — As a result of this, humans are conscious of themselves as individuals rather than as beings coherent with the universal wave function;
Line 5 — God guides us in the search to rediscover a selfless worldview.

Theories of Everything

2008-05-14T03:08:00.000-07:00

The constituent notes of reality,
Are they: vibrating string musicality?
Or a resonant cavity —
Based on loop quantum gravity?
Perhaps thought conducts universality?

Amongst the competing theories of what represents the ultimate constituent of the universe's reality are:

String theory (e.g., Super-string theory, M-theory) - often described as vibrating strings of energy. The Japanese-American physicist Michio Kaku says, "... the universe is a symphony and the laws of physics are harmonies of a super-string." Parallel Universes, BBC Science & Nature, Horizon, 2002.
Loop Quantum Gravity theory (e.g., LQG theory) - sometimes modeled in terms of a quantization of space-time into resonant energetic "cavities".
Idealism - Our consciousness causes collapse of the universal wave function to bring perceived reality come into being.

Boldness

2008-05-14T02:54:00.000-07:00

If you dream you can do it, begin it.
There is power and magic within it.
For the genius of Man
Is his boldness — he can
Bring to life such a dream and then win it!

In his 1951 book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, William Hutchinson Murray (1913–1996) said, "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.'"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is often quoted as saying this final couplet, as a loose paraphrase of some words that Goethe did write in Faust : "Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, lasst mich auch endlich Taten sehn!", i.e., "Enough words have been exchanged; now at last let me see some deeds!" Nevertheless, if you're bold enough to believe it, perhaps the spirit of the phrase is Goethean!

Thinking Outside of the Box

2008-05-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

"You just cannot think outside the box,
Since you have no perspective," he mocks.
But that's harsh and not fair
Since I live as a Square —
Depth perception gives hypercubes shocks!

The English schoolmaster and theologian Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926), in his 1884 satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions wrote about a world (Flatland) of two-dimensional beings. Abbott, in part, intended its use as an allegory of certain emerging mathematical, sociological and metaphysical ways of thinking.

The hero of the novella is the Square who has a dream about Lineland (a one-dimensional space) and his conversations with its inhabitants who cannot perceive of a world of two dimensions. This opens his mind and the Square is then visited by the Sphere, a three-dimensional being of Spaceland. To the Flatlander's concept of nature the Sphere is a supernatural entity.For a conventional Flatlander that lived as a Square, the description of a Box would be metaphysical nonsense, according to his natural perception of reality. To entertain the concept of a Box requires the ability to transcend the limitations of two-dimensional perception (in this case depth perception). The Square's real three-dimensional shape might be a Cube (a 3D Box).

George Berkeley

2008-05-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

Bishop Berkeley subjectively thought
That objective existence is naught.
And he therefore conceived:
"That which is, is perceived."
Thus God's forming power is wrought.

George Berkeley (BARK-lee, 1685–1753) was an Irish philosopher who developed the theory now known as subjective idealism. He summed this up in his dictum, "Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived"). In this he states that individuals can only directly know sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter". For the bishop, the sustaining power of subjective existence was evidence for God.

Causality Loops

2008-05-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

If causality loops have recurred
Consequential-based logic's abjured.
Links acausal confuse
What begins, what ensues —
Life's a paradox, strange and absurd!

Causality loops are hypothetical constructs based on speculation that future events, if allowed to impact their own past causes, will lead to logical paradox, and are thus sometimes used to posit that acausal connection cannot therefore exist. Science fiction has many instances of such fanciful implications (they are collectively referred to as the predestination paradox). However, if one does not make the assumption that time-lines (an individual observer's past-present-future chain of causal events) are fixed for all observers (this is technically called an assumption on non-locality); and that if it is possible to revisit and change the past through an acausal connection; then perhaps subsequent events from that point on are within a new time-line for the acausal observer. Non-participating observers on other time-lines will be unaffected, though from then on exist in other worlds, inaccessible to the acausal observer (and vice versa). The implication here is that many time-lines (and thus worlds) may coexist.

However, an individual observer only perceives the time-line he is on. He is responsible — because of his acts and observations — for the world he exists in. Thus, a time-traveler can go back in time and kill his own grandfather and still exist, because the world from that point on unfolds differently to his prior recollection. He is on a new time-line. As such, there is no paradoxical causality loop in such a formulation, and the concept of free-will is preserved. Strange as it may sound, such many world interpretations of quantum mechanics are serious candidates explaining the underlying reality of the observable universe.

Consciousness Causes Collapse

2008-05-14T02:27:00.000-07:00

Many worlds may exist, and perhaps,
If our consciousness causes collapse
Of the total wave function —
From states of conjunction —
The chosen emergent path snaps

Consider the problem of precognition of the result from throwing a die in a game. If at the point of a game-player's anticipation multiple realities are possible (following the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory), and the conscious choice of the player determines the path of his time-line (according to the quantum-mind theory), then a normal player visualizes multiple scenarios of equal probability (e.g., when casting a die he sees six scenarios each with one sixth likelihood – this is the conjunction, or superposition, of all possible states and can be represented as a total, or universal, wave function).

Precognition in such a model would be assumed if the player is able to collapse the future time-line to just one scenario (e.g., predict a result and then throw it – this is called the collapse of the wave function to an observable state) by an act of will. If the future is aligned to his choice it will look like a conscious act of will; if the player sees the future scenarios, but has no control over selection, it will look like an unconscious act of will. If a person believes in his unconscious that future choice is random, then that is what he sees, even if he consciously wishes it to be otherwise (he unconsciously manifests a random world).

To gain conscious control of the collapse (perhaps through the Law of Attraction) he needs to align his conscious and unconscious will by removing his unconscious doubt, through assent in faith — one issue remains — faith in what?

Anti-Matter

2008-05-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

An electron's the anti, in fact,
Of a positron (to be exact).
But if time is then flipped,
Then the symmetry's tipped —
Does it matter? If not, you're abstract!

One way of viewing anti-matter is that it is normal matter traveling backwards though time (flipped, or tipped over, in symmetrical terms). The two would be then indistinguishable from each other. As the American physicist Michio Kaku says "...if we push an electron with an electric field, it moves, say, to the left. If the electron was going backward in time, it would move to the right. However, an electron moving to the right would appear to us as an electron with positive, not negative, charge. Therefore an electron moving backward in time is indistinguishable from antimatter moving forward in time." (Beyond Einstein; The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe) It brings to mind a quote from Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventure in Wonderland:"… 'I don't understand you,' said Alice. 'It's dreadfully confusing!' 'That's the effect of living backwards,' the Queen said kindly: 'it always makes one a little giddy at first.'"

The Law of Attraction

2008-05-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

Having positive cognitive attitude
Can stem from, some say, real gratitude.
When you visualize need,
Don't materialize greed,
Else the Law of Attraction burns latitude.

The Law of Attraction is that by training our minds to think positively about our desires we can make them manifest, that mind controls the material reality we experience.Having, or offering latitude, means giving a degree of freedom from normal restraints, limitations, or regulations. For example the scientific method has requirements for rigor in empirical and verifiable evidence. Similarly ethics, such as mercy, compassion and selfless love of ones neighbor, imply we should shun systems of belief that promote excessive material greed that focus on the individual.

The proposed Law of Attraction in the recent movie and book The Secret is neither a secret, nor has it passed scientific analysis as a law of nature, and has an ethical basis that for some gives cause to pause. Nevertheless, being positive and affirmitive in life is generally a good thing, and many people believe in the power of prayer, meditation and synchronicity. At some level, the Law of Attraction may indeed work. Some interpretations of the quantum theory of physics do give some credit to the association of matter and mind, but these are not mainstream models and they remain at the fringe of science.

Archetype

2008-05-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

Could an archetype form in the mind,
Through collective unconscious enshrined?
Might archaic man sense
What some men will see hence?
So says Jung; "we're acausal entwined."

An archetype is the original pattern or form from which all things of the same kind are based; they are a model or a prototype. Archetypes have been present in mythology and literature for thousands of years. The use of archetypes in analytic psychology was advanced by C. G. Jung. He speculated that the mechanism for communication of these patterns could be due to synchronicity (an acausal connecting principle) between cultures made manifest by a process described by his concept of the collective unconscious.Such archetypes can be found in certain religious traditions with frequent recurrence of self-similar imagery, e.g., sacrificial imagery and cross cultural mythological symbols, such as the Summerian Ningishzida, the earliest known symbol based on snakes entwined around an axial rod. This pattern is common across Hellenistic and Judaic cultures; indeed this self-similar pattern is strongly reminiscent of the double helix spiral of DNA today.

Synchronicity

2008-05-14T02:08:00.001-07:00

Carl Jung's theory of cause and effect
Was: acausal events can connect.
This assumption he named
Synchronicity, aimed
To endorse déjà vu with respect.

In our "real life" we occasionally encounter events that cannot be easily reconciled naturalistically, e.g., déjà vu episodes or improbable synchronicity events. In modern times we have learned to treat such events skeptically, to write them off as memory glitches. Most of the time this is probably valid. It's very easy for humans to be deluded and see patterns when none exist. However, not all events can be so easily dismissed.

Such improbable events received attention from the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung (1876–1961). Jung spoke of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle and formally introduced the concept in his 1952 paper of the same name. One of Jung's favorite quotes was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."

Civilisation

2008-05-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

In his art man seeks forms of perfection
Through order imposed by selection.
This creative expression
Leaves a telling impression
In man's civilisation's complexion.

The British art historian Kenneth Clark (1903–1973), was the author and presenter of the BBC landmark television series Civilisation. In the episode, The skin of our teeth he reflects, "It means that at certain epochs man has felt conscious of something about himself — body and spirit — which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection — reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium. He has managed to satisfy this need in various ways — through myths, through dance and song, through systems of philosophy and through the order that he has imposed on the visible world. The children of his imagination are also the expressions of an ideal."

Though Clark's series was focused on the the role of art in man's civilisation, this expression "children of imagination" may apply equally to how science has supported the ascent of man.

The Ascent of Man

2008-05-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Through the ages of man has grown thought,
The ascent has been hard and close fought.
First we fell then arose,
Climbing paths that we chose.
At this peak, this "New-Age" appears fraught.

The Ascent of Man (1973) was a landmark BBC documentary series, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. The book and the series explored the cultural evolution of mankind, centered on science. It was depicted as an ascent through man's ages of understanding and thought.

In a sense it was Bronowski's challenge to the emerging "New-Age" thinking; Bronowski's view was that man be understood to have his proper place in the natural world. However threatened the individual may feel, he must "accept the subtle but closely woven evidence that man is not different in kind from other forms of life; that living matter is not different in kind from dead matter; and therefore that a man is an assembly of atoms that obeys natural laws of the same kind that a star does." Bronowski realized the profound impact of this statement, "the crisis of confidence that springs from each man's wish to be a mind and a person, in the face of the nagging fear that he is a mechanism . . . can man be both a machine and a self?"

Perhaps "New-Age" thought is a reaction from extreme skpetical claims that seek to deny mankind has any spiritual identity. For many this is a bleak outlook that conflicts with their experience and results in a retreat into pre-Christian (in some cases pre-Abrahamic traditions). What is needed is a reconciliation between science and religion, a Post New-Age Age.

Conscience

2008-05-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

A true conscience begins when one's fear,
Or one's hope, does not selfishly steer
Your decisions and acts:
When behavior's drive lacks
Such brute guides, then your spirit's sincere.

"True conscience only begins where the fear of punishment, or the hoping and longing for reward, is no longer a determinant or the reason on which you built your decision to behave morally." Viktor Frankl, -- On Reductionism (interview, San Francisco, 1984)

Abiogenesis

2008-05-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Can you calculate odds, for a start,
DNA would by chance life impart?
It's a big leap to say,
That it's just nature's way —
Is this abiogenesis smart?

It's too much, it just beggars belief,
Such farfetched ideas cause grief.
To have faith is perverse
When there's evidence scarce.
There's not been time enough, to be brief.

Abiogenesis (A-bi-o-GEN-e-sis) is the supposed development of living organisms from nonliving matter (also called autogenesis or spontaneous generation). It is the consensus opinion amongst mainstream science that life first developed between 4.4 billion years (since isotopes of molecules required by biochemistry became stable) and 4 billion years ago (with the likely first microbial algaes).

What is being said is that within some 400 million years, the essential components necessary for evolution of species by DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) replication developed from scratch — the subsequent 4 billion years of evolution being footnotes in the "playing-out" of this mechanism (autopoiesis).

However, the hypothetical random-process based models, put forward to explain how the DNA's mechanisms might originate within this time frame, are based on assumptions that have limited credible supporting evidence at this time (April 2008). This does not mean that these hypotheses are thus proven untrue, just that significant further study is required to support their viability.

But to accept that they are likely to be true is merely an article of faith. That said it's important not to "leap from the frying pan into the fire", i.e., not all faith-based hypotheses are equally valid — rather we need to be humble as to what we do and do not know and continue searching for truth.

Beauty's Core

2008-05-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

At heart's core winds a thread that sustains,
Binds the centre, unites and remains,
Giving constant support
Throughout lives, though cut short,
In which love that is true and good reigns.

"That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty which runs through all and doth all
unite." James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal, Part 1st.

The Omega Point

2008-05-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Omega Point's near the world's end
Where complexity/consciousness tend.
We are singular points
That the alpha anoints;
We're aware that our beings transcend.

The French Jesuit and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) came up with the expression the Omega Point. In his theory, the universe is evolving towards higher levels of physical and mental complexity, which Teilhard called the Law of Complexity/Consciousness. For Teilhard, this is only possible if a higher form of consciousness is attracting the universe to itself. Thus Teilhard postulates the Omega Point as the critical point (or complex) of consciousness — in chaos theory terms a strange attractor giving rise to fractal self-similar images.

Similar expressions are used by the American mathematical physicist Frank J Tipler (b. 1947); his 1994 book The Physics of Immortality describes a Singularity, a point in the future of infinite computational facility. Both Teilhard and Tipler see their theories as underpinning a rational understanding of certain mysteries of Christianity. In their terms, the Omega Point is for all intents and purposes God; indeed, the expression alpha and omega, "the first and last", is frequently used to signify God's eternity.

Fractals

2008-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Mandelbrot set was derived —
In its complex quadratic-contrived
Polynomial form —
To repeat as a norm:
With self-similar fractals revived.

These irregular shapes are a set.
As each fractal is plotted, you get
Geometrical art
That reflects in each part
Its original — small — smaller yet.

So they go, on and on; there's no end
To recursions that make your mind bend!
As you pass through these levels,
Your consciousness revels:
Are we just a fractal God penned?

•••

The Franco-American (Polish-born) mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot (MAN-duhl-broht) (b. 1924) studied parameter spaces of complex quadratic polynomials. With modern information technology he was able to plot their point sequences to form images of complex fractals. Partly because of his work, fractals have been introduced into many practical as well as aesthetic applications today.

(Co-Authored with Carol June Hooker)

Caduceus

2008-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ningishzida (Caduceus) sign;
Round an axial staff snakes entwine.
The Asclepius Rod,
Moses raises for God —
The Nehustan — a symbol divine

The Sumerian image of the Ningishzida (ning-ish-ZI-da) is the earliest known symbol of snakes entwined around an an axial rod (reminiscent of a double helix). It predates the Greek image of Caduceus (ca-DU-ce-us) of Hermes, the Asclepius Rod (a-SKLE-pi-us) and the Hebrew Nehustan (ne-HUSH-tan) staff of Moses (these later two symbols having just one snake). All are used as images in traditions of medical practice.

In the case of the Nehustan in the Biblical story of Exodus Moses, to relive the Israelites from snake bites, prays for deliverance. God directs him to create a staff with a symbol of a snake coiled around it, and raises it up and those who see it are cured. Christian theology assigns significance to the event as prefiguring the crucifixion of Christ, who was raised up to cure mankind from the curse of sin (a concept that itself harks back to the Genesis story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden).

Autopoiesis

2008-05-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

With God's infinite scope and potential,
Intervention is just nonessential.
Evolution's His law
That will form in us awe:
Autopoiesis — means providential.

Autopoiesis (au-to-POY-es-sis) means: auto-creation (from the Greek: auto - αυτό and poiesis - ποίησις for creation or production).For some theologians posing a God who would intervene in evolution creates more problems than it solves.

Two examples:

Why would God choose to design a world that requires his occasional maintenance actions to achieve his purpose when a more efficient design might be opted for?
If God chooses to give us free will to love and believe in Him, would he not ensure circumstances to be such that faith in His existence is not compelled by scientific evidence?

With this said, it still may be true that God has created the universe with autopoietic potentiality for all that's within it. He utilizes the evolutionary process as an efficient cause. This has an effect that inexorably leads to sentience; giving rise to quests for meaning. Thus, we arrive at a pre-destined free choice to have faith in a God of Love, or not.

Cosmic Joke

2008-05-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

Can you laugh at the great cosmic joke?
I'm long gone; If I tried I would choke.
When I look through these eyes
I see old empty lies.
Love's infernal spring — clockwork that's broke!

I'd get down on my knees so to pray.
But can't find any Hope there's a way.
All my dreams are but smoke,
Sure it's time I awoke,
But this nightmare goes on — where's the day!

I would like to have Faith that prevails
But in what? To my sense it assails.
I'll just waste what time's left
In mere games (though bereft
Of all meaning). I'm lost — my heart quails!

In these dark nights of the soul, even the strongest hearts shake, minds doubt, bodies shiver and spirits shrivel. When in those times, the best you can do is to laugh at the cosmic joke that is man's apparent condition! There is light to be found in the new dawn -– but you must pass the test of the long night's journey into the day.

Cold Dark Matter

2008-05-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

Are there forces of virile attraction
Guiding all of creation? His action
Seen in fractal-based forms
Emerges and warms
Cold dark matter (a MACHO abstraction).

But expansion rates still seem to rise.
Mass of MACHOs and WIMPs can comprise
Only 20%
(Normal stuff makes no dent),
Plus new forms in dark energy's guise.

It takes faith to believe in such stuff.
As they're not seen directly, it's tough.
We're just asked to accept,
Since some men are adept
With such leaps — could it be just a bluff?

virile: characteristic of a potent and active male figure

The cold dark matter (or CDM) assumption of the standard model of cosmology is that most of the matter in the universe consists of material that cannot be observed by its electromagnetic radiation. However, CDM is inferred through its gravitational attraction and warping of space-time. One prediction of the theory is the existence of MACHOs (massive compact halo objects), whereby much of the CDM consists of condensed objects such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, very faint stars, or other non-luminous objects.

In addition to MACHOs there are thought to be weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs); these particles are elusive and as of March 2008 remain unobserved.However, the observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe cannot be accounted for by the effects of CDM alone. CDM accounts for some 20% of the mass-energy required (and "regular" matter of familiar atoms accounts for some 5%).

The remaining curvature of space-time is thought to be contributed by "dark energy", which makes up the remaining 75%.There are contending theories that require less multiplication of entities, but at the expense of tinkering with the equations of general relativity.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

2008-05-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

Ludwig Wittgenstein famously taught
About language, its meaning and thought:
"Whereof speech will not serve,
Thereof silence preserve."
Of yourself it is best to say naught.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was an Austrian philosopher who, after completing his major work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) outlining a theory he labelled logical atomism, considered philosophy to be a finished piece and so he became a gardener. Finding that too hard, he went back to Uni. His famous expression "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen" translates as "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Wittgenstein's view was that no meaning could be taken from language of a personal, subjective nature—that is, about one's inner dialog (for example, expressions such as "I believe in God" or "I am in love").

Perhaps this is so - yet a poet, through his art, attempts to communicate this inner dialog on the assumption that we have a common nature. The web the words weave is one that holds us all together.

Constancy

2008-05-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

I appreciate constancy's hold,
It is steadfast, it keeps your heart bold.
When the critics assail
Some friends flap and some flail.
Less fainthearted won't fail, they're like gold!

Inspired by the poem New Friends and Old Friends, by the Welsh poet and composer Joseph Parry (1841–1903): "Make new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold. New-made friendships, like new wine, Age will mellow and refine...."

A New Beginning

2008-05-13T03:50:00.000-07:00

A catastrophe's when our hearts shake;
Our fond dreams now have gone. We forsake
These, but hope that the dark
Silver-lined clouds will spark
Eucatastrophic joy to awake.

Sentiments such as "When one door closes another opens," "Every dark cloud has a silver lining," and Kipling's poem "If" underpin something significant in man's spirit. Or so thought J.R.R. Tolkien; he termed this eucatastrophe, meaning the sudden turn of events at the end of a mythic story which results in the protagonist's ultimate well-being. He developed just such an ending for his epic book The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien recognized this recurrent, fractal-like theme throughout mythic tales of many civilizations, and believed they prefigured the actual incarnation of Jesus Christ as the eucatastrophe of human history, and in turn Christ's resurrection as the eucatastrophe of the incarnation.