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Enlightenment
You are a seeker. You must struggle to find enlightenment. The arduous climb symbolizes that struggle. In dress befitting the nakedness of your soul and your readiness to become a devotee you ascend the mountain. And, finally, just over the last ledge your struggle is to be rewarded. You will meet the enlightened one, an…
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Why Is There Anything?
I am thinking about the functions of religion. What does organized religion give to people that drives them to suspend reason. What is the nature of man that religion exists? I conclude that people need guided ceremony. And they need prayer: something to offer consolation in times of despair and celebration in times of joy.…
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Encyclopedists
I applaud three truly remarkable men who are so bold as to categorize and explain, mostly in their own words, vaste stores of knowledge. They are David Darling, Glyn Hughes and Frank Smitha: internet encyclopedists. David Darling offers us his INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE. Because he, himself, writes many entries and passes judgement on the…
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What is Measurement?
The Law of Happen I am reading some papers on the Measurement Problem. What strikes me is how measurement is visualized. It is visualized as taking place in a laboratory. The system – an isolated state – encounters a macroscopic measuring device. In doing so the Hilbert Spaces of the two become entangled. A pointer…
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on Wavelet Transforms
In the October 2007 issue of Physics Today beginning on page 78 there is an article on Wavelets by Ivan Selesnick, son of my friend Stephen Selesnick. He must be a very proud father. I read the article. I wish I understood what I read. What does sparse mean? Here is my picture of the…
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From Mud, the Lotus
Out of the Mud Comes the Lotus “May all that have life be delivered from suffering” Gautama Buddha “Is it possible to conquer all suffering? Is that conquest even a rational idea?” Marvin Chester The foundational structure of Buddhism is enunciated in THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS: The world is full of suffering (dukkha). Suffering is…
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Measurement Problem
A commonplace computational practice in quantum mechanics generates the most profound conceptual challenge to the theory. The challenge is called the measurement problem. Here are some quotes summarizing the problem. “The quantum measurement parodox.. stated succinctly… In quantum mechanics all possibilities… are left open whereas in … experience a definite outcome always (occurs).” A. J.…
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The Problem of Evil
Is there a “Problem of Evil” when there is no God? i.e. Is there evil in the world? Can any act be said to be evil, the concept being completely subjective? Do people who do evil agree that they are doing evil? Why then do they do it? What does evil mean? David Hume, the…
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Ant’s World View
The interesting thing about suicide bombers is this: that they are so dedicated to their community – islam, anarchism in a former time – that they kill themselves for it. Let us distinguish the practice – facing death – from the mechanism which drives that practice. The drive is spiritual. A world view is required…
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Is Life Worth Living?
Is Life Worth Living? asks William James In Is Life Worth Living? by William James (1896), James says: “Pessimism is essentially a religious disease.” He clarifies thusly: This “is why I call pessimism an essentially religious disease. The nightmare view of life [arises from] the contradiction between the phenomena of Nature and the craving of…