These Musings are provided for what they are worth, (as little as that may be!) for both my own enjoyment, and that of anyone who wants to read them. The whimsical amongst you may enjoy this personal thought journey. These pages will be added to and changed from time to time to include new reflections or modify existing ones.

Metaphor

All true knowledge is metaphorical in nature. 'Facts' are not knowledge. They are definitions. Knowledge implies meaning and understanding. Metaphor gives us this meaning and understanding. Our most basic assumptions are based on beliefs felt through metaphors, both personal, and culturally shared. More on Metaphor.

Quality

Quality is that essence of something that makes it feel right.  It underlies 'truth' since truth needs a reference to exist. It has been shown mathematically that it is possible to know that certain mathematical conclusions are true even though we can not prove them (Gödel's Theorem). We need a place to stand as we contemplate the world and decide what is true. Quality gives us that reference. It stands on its own as a singularity of rightness. More on Quality.

The Mandelbrot Set The Mandelbrot Set is an object, a mathematical graph, that is defined by an infinitely long line on a finite surface. In this sense, it serves for me as a personal metaphor of the human mind. It shows that it is possible to contain infinity in a finite container. The human mind is like that and that is what gives us our soul and creativity. The Mandelbrot Set is intricately beautiful with its delicately filagreed patterns. It is completely unnecessary to know anything about it in a mathematical sense to gain great enjoyment out of simply playing with a Mandelbrot Set program on your computer. The top picture is the full Set. Imagine zooming into the Set like one of those sequences we have all seen on TV where the scene zooms to street level starting from a full picture of the planet earth from space.

The bottom picture shows an area which would occupy an area the size of an atom in the full Set.  We see that the complexity of the filagreed pattern has not diminished in the least, nor would it for even infinite magnification. The boundary line which describes the Set is infinitely long. It is a wonder to behold the miniature copies of the Set residing as tiny seeds of the parent within its being! Look at the mini-Set at the right and then at the full set above. We Are In The Set More on the Mandelbrot Set Fractal Models of the Universe

Watch a nice mandelbrot set zoom movie

The Internet

The Internet is the most powerful communications force since the printing press. As the printing press destroyed Feudalism and gave birth to the Renaissance, the Internet shall topple the overlords of this age. Politicians are becoming increasingly irrelevant as the Internet is the ultimate tool of Democratization. This is why China is scared to death of the Internet. McLuhan was right; The Medium IS the Message. The content is only superficially important; it is the nature of the medium itself which will shape the world and control its content. To each of us, a lifetime is a long time. The new Renaissance will take lifetimes to complete. We would most likely cringe if we could see the world and its socio/political conditions in 200 years. And the people of that day would likely not understand our cringing. One can only hope that the human race, as a whole, manages to act with high quality, and that whatever the circumstances, the people of that day will consider the human race as having progressed.

God

Regardless of one's beliefs, we all need something to believe in. Anyone who has thought about life at all has considered God. Whether atheist, agnostic, or believer, we have all wondered about God's existence.

More on God

Putting It All Together

Life goes on. Even in light of the wonder of it all, we must earn our way and live each day, through work and daily activity. The ideal way to earn our keep is by doing something we like. When that is the case, the product will have Quality! Everyone gains that way; the person in his work and the rest of the world in what that work produces. All the while, the larger goal is to keep it all on track by remaining aware of and true to the belief that there is truth out there by which we can live and define our lives. There is meaning in the universe.

WHS