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We Are In The Set |
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Order from chaos silicon pictures explain Fractalized clouds mandelbrot mountains, and rain Quantum decay, random delay even pain Knowing we cannot know Yes Infinity lives in the brain |
 As mankind attempts to explain the workings of the universe, the scientific models
developed to this end become increasingly more complex and numerous.Sitting on a dock overlooking a river today, I looked at the sparkles reflecting off of a certain patch of the water where the sun and my location required the sparkles to appear. I thought about the physics of the situation. Whether we look at it from a classical or a quantum physics perspective, these beautiful sparkles are exceedingly complex in their behavior, and any attempt to model them will produce a tremendous number of equations, and any such model will have built into it certain assumptions which are not true of the actual reality. I became super-aware of my surroundings, trying to imagine some super model that could be used to recreate all I observed. The trees and grass in their complex existence exchanging nitrogen and oxygen with the air and taking in sunlight, the waves in the water, the unbelievably complex machine that is a bird, my existence itself, as I contemplated these wonders with my self-awareness. Awesome is not adequate as a word to describe such a feeling. In fact, there are no words to convey the awe when one thinks about the wonder of what is going on in every microsecond throughout the universe. It all just WORKS... in REAL TIME... real time as we know it, that is. We would need all the computer power in the world working on the same algorithm to recreate even the simplest, highly localized situations that occur all by themselves constantly, throughout the universe. But, nature's computer runs the universal algorithm effortlessly with no hardware. It simply is! The ultimate questions seem unavoidable. What is the source of this universal algorithm? How do things know how to work? Just why are there "Laws of Nature?" Where does the order that creates this universe that "works" come from? What is the true nature of this order and how is it imposed on the universe? That such an order exists is beyond question. That we are here and able to ask the questions proves this. The universal algorithm just... works! 
Alas, we can never know the answers to such questions. Knowing something in this sense
requires being able to share the knowledge with others to prove that we are all sharing
the same 'knowledge' (thoughts). Such
questions must be answered using symbolic logic in order that all who look can
understand the answers in the same manner. This is the way of all objective 'knowledge'.
Science and objectivism require proof, which means the ability to produce a model that
can be used to explain what we observe, and even better, to predict new and unknown
effects based on the model. With the advent of understanding fractals and the realization that chaos is
deeply rooted in all physical processes, the old linear equations go down the drain, and new
incomputable equations take their place. We cannot even describe the simplest systems such as a swinging
pendulum let alone more complex systems! The order that
comes out of the non-linear systems of the real world is unknowable. Just as the weather unfolds
and is knowable only as it happens in real time as it defies any attempt at detailed prediction,
all processes in nature seem to possess this fractal nature. As a heart
beats, its rhythm is controlled by these same forces, and its beat is not regular. It cannot
be any other way. A heart required to beat at a steady beat rate could not work. Such is
the nature of reality.The Laws of Nature work in real time as each state of the universe grows from the feedback of prior states. In classical physics, and in our intuition, it is possible to imagine being able to compute the future state of the universe by being able to solve enough equations with enough variables. But, this is not possible, not only because of the size of the task, but, because of the incomputable nature of reality as a fractal universe. We are In The Set of all that is. The only truth we have to start with is that there is an order of some kind in the universe. This is our only crack in the wall and we must exploit this one given truth. We cannot objectively get outside the set to look in and gain the understanding that can only be gained by being able to take in the complete picture from outside. Any understanding of the deepest realities must ultimately be an intuition personal to ourselves; our own personal, (and unsharable) metaphor. Gödel's Theorems show us that there are truths we know to be true which are not provable from within the Set. But these truths are possible to know, even though they are not provable. Modern science, mathematics, and philosophy are slowly converging on the truth that there are no ultimate explanations (that is, models) of the universe that we can all share objectively. Each individual must, in his or her own way, work the inner magic of briefly leaving the Set once in a while in order to come to their own understanding and beliefs. This ties in with the concept of Quality, in that, given the simple fact that there IS order, whatever its nature, our quests as individuals to come to terms with that order must be carried out in a manner harmonious with the order. In other words, our quest must be carried out in a high quality manner. - WHS |