Digital Cloud or Digital Fog?

     The Digital age has transformed the way we communicate, the way we educate, the way we shop, manufacture, design, and think.

      Digital information, (on or off ) sequences is not new. Nature has been coding information this way since the Big Bang. Life is coded for duplication by genetic microscopic chemical chains of (on or off) sequences and we think using (on or off) activations of complex electro-chemical neural pathways.
     What is new is tools that mimic nature's information storage and propagation methods. At first these were as simple as beads on wires placed in an on or off position, switch boards with lighted arrays, and punch cards. Now, silicon chips using microscopic printing techniques can store and manipulate vast amounts of digital information and, most importantly, can translate alpha numeric languages into digital information for storage and manipulation and then reverse translate to a language humans can understand.
        Our success as a species is credited to upright walking and an opposable thumb, but just as important were advanced communicative skills resulting from an articulate tongue. Our communicative  skills were made possible by a combination of a voice box set back and down and an ability to manipulate lips tongue and air flow to produce a great variety of symbolic sounds. With sounds representing objects, (nouns), and sounds representing actions, (verbs), humans gained dominance in the biosphere through the use of these communicative skills and the cooperation these symbolic sounds made possible. Most of human history was oral but as cooperative associations became larger another symbolic level emerged; visual symbolism.
      Early crude representations of animals and events drawn in the dirt and on cave walls were quickly associated with the sound symbols for the common object or action both represented and written languages began to form. At first the visual symbol and the sound symbol for a common object were not associated directly, but the advantage of being able to combine these symbolic steps by having a sound for each visual symbol allowed any voice sound to be represented as a visual symbol and suddenly, for those privy to the code, the scratches in the dirt could be made to speak and sound symbols could be scratched into rocks to make spoken words permanent.
     Humans took their first step away from a direct sense and react association with their environment when they began using symbolic sounds. They took their second step away from a direct cognizant connection with their environment when they began using visual symbols to represent, sound symbol thinking and now they have found a way to augment their use of both symbolic steps by using an intervening symbolic system that captures and allows the manipulation of  all symbolic representations in digital form to create a new level of language and logic and a new interface with reality that serves as an intermediary between memory, reason and conclusions buried in the nuance of our sound and visual symbols that may be bringing us closer to an understanding of the reality around us or separating us further from the answers we seek. The advantages of our new digital approach seem obvious but it has had a greater impact on the cooperative structures that form our and sustain modern civilization than any in history and until we appreciate this shift and are willing to adapt, our economies and governments and our interpersonal, societal and international relationships are adrift
     Have we created a benificial cloud of information or a fog?                 

Infinities, Large and Small

     Infinities are enigmas that hide in the formulae of theoretical physicists waiting to pop out near the end of lengthy calculations making their efforts meaningless. Infinities stymie our investigative efforts and poison our logic yet we  give them status by assigning them their own mathematical symbol and by giving them names like singularities and black holes to make their embarrassing snubs appear to be logical conclusions.
     My keyboard has no infinity symbol but we all know that it looks like a twisted circle creating an intersection of lines at its center. The symbol was supposedly chosen to point out the fact that when one reaches the end they are back at the beginning, an appropriate reprimand for mathematicians and physicists that have followed their symbols to a dead end.  The pursuits leading to infinities seems to have become a game played by theorists that is lost whenever one wins.
     There are many functions that lead to infinities. Some take a diminishing path to reach the absurdity while others take an expansive path. Are there, then, large and small infinities?

       comments welcomed, especially in mathematical form     

    

Gravity <=> Acceleration ///////// pq - qp = x ///////// f(x) = 1/x

      
     Until recently, we held these truths to be self evident:
              Gravity is the product of matter
              Acceleration is the result of changing the velocity or position of matter
              Time is a fourth dimension represented by the constant (t)
              The speed of light through space is a universal constant; +- 297,000 km/second
        
     We have observed:
              That there appears to be a lot more gravity than can be accounted for by visible matter or
              by a lack of equivalence between the centrifugal and centripetal forces in spinning
              galaxies
              That time becomes a variable in gravitational fields and during accelerated
              displacements
              That light can be deflected and slowed by gravitational fields.
              That the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate

     We now suspect:
              That the 'ether' permeating space we have long denied may exist as energy fields far more
              powerful and pervasive than the visible matter we observe using the
              electromagnetic spectrum and high energy particles.
              That Newton, Einstein and Heisenberg may have all missed an essential piece of
              the puzzle

     And have concluded::
              That our investigative efforts to resolve the inconsistency of galactic rotational
              acceleration and an accelerating expansion of the universe should be focused on finding
              a mysterious dark matter and a dark energy.

    But what if the dilemma is not the result of new mysterious forces or of new states of matter but a misinterpretation of our observations due to one or more false assumptions that have become a part of our formulizations. Scientific advances are based on careful observations, carefully thought out theories and many experiments and observations to verify any new understanding, and these efforts build on each other over time. But this wouldn't be the first time long established scientific principles have been tripped up by a new observation nor would it be the first time new observations were proved unreliable.
     We can and should search for the newly implied dark matter and dark energy but we should also be looking for an error in our established formulization of cause and effects at macro scales where {t}, time, and (c), the speed of light, are determinant factors. Treating time as a mental construct added for convenience rather than as a quantitative constant, and by treating the speed of light as a universal variable dependent upon the expanded state of the universe, may create more acceptable perspectives.

Persistant Perceptions

      As you view and interpret the first word of this blog it slips into the past while you view and interpret the next word, and so on, until you get to a little dot that tells you to recall all the words in the sentence and form them into a connected whole of subjects predicates and conclusions. This synaptic exercise is then stored and compared to other stored synaptic groupings as a part of your expanding record of all your perceptions, everything you have ever experienced.
      We often confuse the duration of what we call the "present" with a collection of recently recorded perceptions, the time it has taken to read this far in this blog for example. The duration of the present is arbitrarily assigned by every living active awareness and to each new set of perceptions. In reality the present is much more fleeting. (see my blog, "Between the Past and the Future") What gives our thoughts continuity is the persistence of our perceptions as synaptic captures that gives them a temporary permanence that can be carried forward from one fleeting moment to the next.
     The material world around us, and of which our bodies, sensory organs and synaptic organs are made, also posses this ability to persist as the thin event horizon moves forward in tiny flickering jumps and gives us the illusion of permanence and of a wide present. In fact change occurs much more rapidly than our perception of permanence and although not obvious from our limited perspective alters everything around us at macro and micro scales at a dizzying pace.
     We have begun to recognize this gap between our perceptive limitations and the flickering reality between the past and the future as quantum effects and are struggling to reconcile the two by reconciling quantum mechanics and relativity.
      This effort to join the two most effective approaches to understanding the universe around us is beyond most of us conceptually but the concept that we live primarily in the immediate past and control the future only by fleeting synaptic choices and recorded perceptions is easier to comprehend. As you walk from one room to another you put one foot in front of the other with the direction of your travel dictated by a decision made in the recent past. As you transfer your weight from your left foot to your right as you walk your last step is now in the past and your next step in the future but we overcome the necessity of providing synaptic oversight and micro moments of perceptions to every step by creating the illusion of an extended present moment lasting from several steps at a time to the entire trip into the next room to the entire day, at our discretion.
      The practical world of our existence is created by our perceptions and their ability to transcend the transition of many flickering present moments. The past is gone forever as soon as the electrons in an atom change position or the Earth turns a fraction of an inch and the future state and position of all things would be predictable if the number of atoms, objects and interactive forces were not nearly infinite and if matter become animate had developed awareness and choice.
     We, and all living things, perceive permanence only because our perceptions, like this blog, are recorded and move into the next fleeting moment of reality, a thin slice between a past that is gone forever and a future that is yet to exist.

         See blog:  Between the Past and the Future
     

Vindication

     My interest in science and technology began in my youth and has persisted into my declining years. I have been fortunate to live during a period of great discoveries and technological advances. Being able to remember life before television and computers and before relativity and quantum mechanics were widely accepted has given me a before and after perspective.  There has been a dramatic shift in human relations, and our relationship to the Universe around us. Attempting to follow these advances as science and cosmology delved ever deeper into the secrets of nature has been a great adventure, but it has also been humbling.. As great minds introduced concepts and theories that I could only partially understand, presented in mathematical formulas that were beyond my abilities, I felt excluded from the joy of discovery and the true meaning of the secrets that the geniuses of the day were sharing with their peers. But as theory began to reach beyond experiment and experiments began to produce conflicting results, my reverence for the privileged few who understood began to diminish. Could it be that the long chain of theories and discoveries had weak links?. Could it be that my own thought experiments into the nature of space, time and matter might be as valid as those that now fill the text books?
     As great mathematicians and visionaries presented nature's truths as closing arguments to our search for a theory of everything, I wanted to be one of them but I was excluded by my lack of understanding; And then a miraculous thing happened. With the help of new observational tools our nearly perfected theories ran into an old nemesis; "gravity".
     We have been able to describe and measure gravitational effects in detail since Newton and have based most of our cosmological conclusions on an, assumed, understanding of gravity's relationship to visible matter and mass. But when careful measurements of the visible mass and rate of rotation of galaxies revealed that there wasn't enough visible mass to hold them together at observed rates of spin we couldn't, or wouldn't argue with the math. At the rate they were spinning the galaxies could only remain intact if there was much more gravity than the observable mass of the galaxy could provide. Unwilling to give up the dependent connection between mass and gravity scientists have begun a search for invisible matter in the form of ephemeral atomic particles and I feel vindicated.
     The great minds of our time never claimed omnificence but I assumed it, and now that I know it isn't true, I can continue my own thought experiments and continue to blog on such matters with less intimidation.
      
    

A Privileged Access To Reality

     We have assumed a privileged place in the universe since we became self aware and appointed ourselves to a divine position. Unfortunately our inflated self importance has clouded a realistic assessment of our actual status for most of our history and still separates us from the reality around us by assuming we have a special access to reality that is all inclusive and of a different order than other living forms. We are beginning to penetrate our egoistic fog using scientific tools that are revealing a reality that is complex beyond our ability to assess and more amazing than our best collection of miraculous occurrences. The view we get through our scientific tools and manipulations is, without assessment, a jumble of astronomical radiation and movements, genetic puzzles, quantum surprises and biological mysteries. As we step down from our self appointed throne in the clouds, however, we are learning that our past assumptions of a privileged access to reality through our senses alone is unrealistic in the extreme We are also learning that the only way we can deal with the blaze of a total electromagnetic spectrum, unexplained gravitational anomalies and strange atomic structures is to create visual and mathematical analogies that we can process in our synaptic net molded to  accommodate sensory inputs only. We are explaining the reality being exposed using visual cartoons, digital reductions and symbolic manipulations. We are incapable of a total interaction with reality because we, like all other living forms, have had our attributes of awareness naturally selected in a long term, random "best fit" survival test that has sorted and resulted in our current  limited aware state. The wide view of reality we have opened with our tools is easily seen as threatening because we have not been equipped to deal with the broad perspectives and unfamiliar information from sources outside the range of our senses. Recognizing our disconnect with actual reality opens several doors, some beneficial and some detrimental.
      Our escape from a self assumed privileged ability to access reality through our senses alone or through revelations from a higher power has led to an organized examination of the reality around us and many resulting technological benefits. It is also slowly leading us to a recognition that all living forms possess some level of awareness each with their special advantages and many beyond basic human abilities and that this realization is fostering a greater empathy and appreciation of all life.
      On the detrimental side, by pointing out our disconnect from total reality and by challenging the idea of privileged access, the door is opened for those threatened by such notions to reach out to others feeling displaced from a universal center and through rhetoric radicalize their discomfort into narrow and extreme religious views. The fear and discomfort fostered by a sense of no longer belonging to or understanding a universe being exposed by investigatory tools and scientific methods is  fostering attempts to return to a pre-scientific era using revolt and violence..We cannot, however, undo a civilization built on new understandings without destroying ourselves and most other life on our small planet. We are the product of a universe with more stars than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on earth, and of matter becoming animate and alive through natural processes, and have become what we are through the same random process that has produced every other living thing from microbes to mollusks to man, each one aware of the reality around it in its own special way.
       Moral codes formed in the fog of our egocentric past are still relevant but no longer sufficient. We now control, and must use wisely the fusion power that is the energy of stars and have the ability to intervene and control the future of life through genetic manipulations. If we turn back civilization will collapse and if we wish to survive the current imbalance between the powers we have gained by observing nature and our inability to act in accord with natural processes we must recognize new mandates imposed by our advanced evolved state. We can survive our petty perspectives and egocentric views  only by continuing to explore and learn, recognizing the sanctity of language and by always being of good council, and by being good stewards. All living things have access to reality and our access is not privileged nor complete, only more encompassing and with greater responsibilities.



     .

Finding order in a push-pull Universe

   Two men have influenced our modern perspectives more than any others by describing the motions going on around us. One, on a break from the formal curriculum at Oxford to escape the plague, pondered and described the motion of falling objects. The other, influenced by the relative motion of trains, pondered and described the effect of objects moving at high speeds relative to one another. Both men invented mathematical systems to measure and compare the motions they described and have had a profound influence on advances in science, technology, and living standards. Both men described and created comparative systems for the motions they studied but neither explained them. Explaining them awaits further discoveries and the serendipitous conjunction with an alert mind.
   Gravity  is one of those constants that goes unnoticed because it is always there, seemingly immutable and innate. Newton asked why and came up with the idea that all objects with mass attract each other with a force dependent on their combined mass and the distance between them. The answer he go t to his  "why" question was only a "how". We still don't know why. If we did we could explain the gravitational effects holding the galaxies together and determining their spin when there is no visible mass to explain it. We call this phenomena "dark matter", assuming it is some kind of hidden mass but all we really know is that we are observing unexplained gravitational effects. Using Newton's concept and formulae we can forecast movements in gravitational fields and extrapolate its effects in unusual circumstances. For example; the gravitational effect is zero, because of equal mass in all directions at the center of a massive object, like the Earth. At the center of the earth things are weightless. (what kind of  pressures result from this effect and does the Earth's core float weightless at the center of our planet?)  Another strange extrapolation is that a large hollow sphere with a massive crust will have a positive gravity on the outside surface of the sphere proportional to the mass of the sphere that keeps everything stuck to its surface but inside the hollow sphere everything will be weightless. A human standing on the surface will feel the gravity but a human standing just opposite on the inside surface of the sphere will be weightless.
    Newton also described but did not explain inertia.. Matter at rest tends to remain at rest and matter in motion tends to remain in motion. This observation, like "things fall down", (gravity) are DUH! statements. We all know these things without it being pointed out. What Newton added was the concept of mass as the cause of gravity and inertia and a mathematical way to measure them. At first glance gravity and inertia appear to be related because they both are a measure of mass, but they are quite different. Place a small mass inside the hollow sphere we discussed above and it will float freely. Give the hollow sphere a push however and the small mass inside will not notice the push and the sphere will move but the small mass will remain stationary as the sphere moves around it until the small mass hits the approaching inside wall of the sphere where it picks up a small proportional part of the push and begins to move with the sphere. If the push is continuous the small mass now sticks to the inside wall as if acted on by gravity and an object exactly opposite on the outside of the hollow sphere will experience a decrease in the pull of gravity.
    Before Einstein one could hypothetically carry these gravitational pulls and inertial push effects to infinity but Albert put the brakes on  by exposing a speed limit set by nature, (the speed of light). Extending his relative speed experiences on trains to the motion of micro and macro objects he exposed a universe of endless interacting motions exchanging their inertial energies through gravitational and physical pushes, pulls and collisions, changes in inertial mass at extreme velocities, and conversions of mass to energy and vice versa. Even duration (time) becomes a variable in this concept but it is all still a description, not an explanation.
    One other interactive force plays on the same stage as gravity and inertia is buoyancy. If we fill our hollow sphere with water it is no longer hollow but if we follow the reasoning above there is a zero gravity state at the center of our water filled sphere where there is an equal amount of mass in all directions whose gravity is pulling in opposite directions cancelling each other. Now place a cork in the water. On the surface of our sphere it will bob to the surface because it is buoyant. If we place the cork near the center of our water filled sphere will it bob to the center weightless point? What if we place it toward the outer shell? A similar easy experiment to illustrate the relationship between inertia and buoyancy is to tie a helium filled party balloon in a car so it is free to move back and forth Close the windows and turn off the heater fan. Step on the accelerator. Which way does the balloon lean? Now step on the brake.
     Aside from being similar are inertia, gravity and buoyancy cousins? Is there a micro limit below which gravity does not exist? Can buoyancy partially offset inertia?