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( 3 / 134 )I wonder if us A-levelled Brits can appreciate the freedom Mathematica offers for us to think beyond the western science paradigms. One way in is the weirder bits of quantum physics, relativity and cosmology. What Hawkins tried in the beautiful pictures of his glossy coffee table book, perhaps the makers of Wolfram demonstrations can do in their animatable models. Hopefully models of the different electron behaviours in Feynmann’s quantum electrodynamics will teach us more about the different things the same electron is doing. Traditionally the younger modellers, those closer to the changes, will be the quicker understanders. Sadly, we are already beyond the centenary of the light quantum that gave young Albert his Nobel, moving through general relativity with its deformation of space by mass, and already over eighty years away from Godel’s theorem on the problems built into many maths systems. Suffice that the writer has little understanding or gut feel for these topics. Certainly I’ve tried, especially when teaching them. Even the 'correct' standard model of the basic particles, discovered since I was undergraduate, leaves me feeling that something is missing. The bits we teach in schools hang together, just, but with bright students I found myself twisting the model and hoping they would stop asking questions before I ran out of answers. This on a dumbed-down syllabus, and I don't think I'm thick. Blind spots, yes, but not thick, I hope.
In cellular automata, we have a model that satisfies my gut feel about all the systems I have read about. I cannot speak for its completeness, but am comfortable that it is more likely to give answers that fit observed behaviour than our conventional wisdoms. I don’t think this is just us Gauls seeking new things. For me it is a chance to mathematise the ‘ologies, an unachievable dream since mid teaching career.
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( 3 / 135 )Thank heaven for global heating - the unfolding tragedies may just be enough to unite us in doing something about it. Judging by our reaction to wars so far, as ways of reducing both foreign and in-house opposition, that is a slim chance though until at least a couple of billion of us have been snuffed. The joy of this one, like Iraq where we can blame terrorists, is we will finger Gaia for doing all that nasty killing. Our ruling networks of family trusts will as always use the War on Wanters to reclaim ground they failed to acquire or hang on to in previous generations, so long as it is well above sea level.
Pleas for a Jubilee year will go unmade except by the TUC and unheard. Reasons such as poor people breed too fast will be adduced. Perhaps our best hope is that a Mandela we can trust will become a global celeb, show us a viable promised continent, and learn how to pass the parcel to another while a team we can trust keeps the music going.
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( 3.1 / 153 )Whoever repeats things valuable to life thrives and breeds truer. In physics a repeatable process often involves pleasing resonance as in musical notes, in yoga a repeated posture brings repose, in many buddhisms a mantra develops oneness, in western religion a repeated prayer brings holiness, team skills are built on communal exercise, and practice makes perfect. To paraphrase Gary Player of the golf world: I win on luck, but the more I practise, the better my luck.
From the repeats in molecules and DNA which gave evolutionary advantage to the cells they control, to the learners of medical terms, repeats are us.
Google repeat behaviour gives causes from Behaviourism (Pavlov’s dog salivating, and Skinner’s Given time, I can teach any child to do any thing) to ..
My sixpence today is from the history of Egypt and Istanbul: to understand it, think, overlay. Our brain overlays run from brainstem through split reptile mind, early mammal layers with their family structures in the limbic system, then the outer cortex of the higher apes to our pre-frontal cortex for emotions, decisions and finer feelings.
Easy to explain is the ref’s inability to spot offside while he focuses on other things: survival bred for the main chance by shutting down the higher functions. Altruism is a higher function: if my child is on the road, I’ll run through traffic to save it.
The same model works for repeated and neurotic behaviours like denial and smoking. Once the pattern embeds, it is hard to shift. Doubly so when triggered by glossy advertisement.
The mind model that best fits this is serotonin reuptake and inhibitors. The best tool at present is fMRI looking at blood flows to bits of the brain as they are used, or just after they are used.
Perhaps understanding these things is what lets hypno-therapists channel thoughts away from the unwanted. Replacement therapy needs no therapist: imagine a television screen with an empty frame on it, think a bad thought in the frame, then shrink the frame to zero. At the same time imagine a garden of delights in another but tiny frame. Expand this to fill the screen fully, over-placing the evil image. Repeat until fully cured, topping up the cure at the slightest recurrence.
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( 3 / 157 )The effect of legally carrying a weapon, as enshrined in say the American constitution or urban guerrilla code, is very similar to that of drugs: mind control by part per trillion quantities of happy brain chemicals. To cope with stress, we need a powerful useable tool. If the pen-pushers are right, the mind is the most powerful tool of all, but that thought is suspect as just another opium for the intellectual bourgeoisie. While we are a species of rampant individuals, this paradox will rule. One way out is to accept a more collective nature, as a Nordic social state. Ruled by those of mental ability. Like the body, ruled by immune system and nerve system from the extremities, voting by the daily email of those prepared to nudge and hassle government. No longer the nine wise men of the bank, we are the nine million or so who like voting every day. Transparency guaranteed by leak. Follow up guaranteed by public analysis of reasons behind policy change, an electronic private eye available by google to all online.
So the development of this tool for all of us becomes an issue as divisive as giving women the vote, freeing slaves, and public education for all. We’ve made it, so let the trailer trash and the gypsies, the untermensch and the immigrants co-exist by all means, and join us in control if they can and wish to, but give ‘em too much and they exert a disastrous control. Our American English will remain the state language even when the majority speak Spanish. Is this why state schooling makes the grade as political battleground but never yet as leader of society for greatness. Until the humblest college becomes as well endowed as Oxbridge, that is.
Then every graduate might just be armed and enabled to solve the other problems.
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