thought for the day/ the way we think about numbers and geometry is culturally influenced

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Study_finds_twist_to_the_story_of_the_number_line_999.html

This article says on the one hand, there is no universal mathematics, and on the other that we do so based on our cultural upbringing.

Yes, there's different cultures that have their kids grow up thinking about things(almost as if the mind comes with ingrained notions); and yes, mathematics is probably not 'out there'; but, we do learn from the very beginning from our current perspective.

When mankind first starting thinking about the universe, they thought the earth was the center of the universe, that the earth was flat because that's what our senses show us when we first start looking at it.
Genius is overcoming our cultural upbringing!(like religion)

thought for the day/buddhas and Easter Island statues

What do all those Buddhas and all those faces on Easter Island have in common?  Blank stares at wisdom and the heavens.  There is no other thought coming other than "this is as far as we go as far as thought and mathematics goes!"  Well, I'm sure they didn't think it out quite like that.  I mean there's denotation and then connotative definitions; one is "point to" definitions(denotation), and the other is at least some kind of language description of the structure and behavior of a thing(connotation).  The commonality above between the two cultures is that of denotative.

I would further argue that after they get bored with this stage of human development, they start coming up with ethics and spirituality of it all - religion.  Then, when somebody does do science and mathematics, the religious reaction is one of hate and fear; people have their social power because of the religion; engrained institutions that get their sex, money, and social power because of it.  Untill a dark ages comes to free peoples minds(because the old science is lost and forgotten), people's minds are not free to think factually and logically.   The god concept is further generalised to the heavens(from all the mountains, waters, animals and other such gods) and then to infinity, then higher dimensions; anywhere but somewhere that science can touch it.  Finally, the god concept is made unknowable by various vague statements.  This is ultimately what the god concept is; a vague statement that can prove everything without explaining anything; so, no matter what happens, they can just say, "well, god works in mysterious ways."

quote for the day

"Praised be this science!  Praised be the men that do it! And praised be the human mind, which sees more sharply than does the human eye." - Aaron Bernstein(author of "The People's Books on Natural Sciences" which had influencial thought experiments of traveling close to the speed of light to Albert Einstein).

I like the last point; praide the human mind which sees more sharply than does the human eye.

thought for the day/ megalithic Swedish temple

Scandinavia, Ireland have many more megalithic ruins than Stonehenge.  I've seen golden chariots with female sungods from Norway, Scandinavian smaller stonehenges; the amount of activity before even Egyptian pyramid building is rather striking.  One really wonders what happened to these people. What happened?

I'd speculate once again that people only believe what is socially cool to believe; they don't try to question what would destroy the society and not get them their money, sex and social power.  The signs are everywhere . . . ;

youtube for the day/ Human expansion into space looks to finaly happen!

astro picture for the day

ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image; to think the Hubble astronomers could top the previous Hubble space telescope, planetary nebula pictures!

astro picture for the day

Nasa Hubble Space telescope; the latest Hubble of the LMC(large megellanic cloud)'s star forming region(one of the largest in this sector of the universe!

astro picture for the day

ESA/Nasa Hubble space telescope image; it's a large megallanic irregular galaxies pleides star cluster!

astro picture for the day

The smaller a given star starts out in life, the longer it can live.  With the universe only being 13.7 billion years old, we should potentially be able to find stars that have lived the entire age of the universe(well, there's qualifications like the 400,000 years after the big bang when the energy was so high, that photons couldn't stay bound up with a given atom; because of this, atoms couldn't clump together to form even molecules). 

Well, the picture above is of a white dwarf twelve billion years old; it is also only one hundred light years away!(astronomers have also found a neutron star only like 200 light years away).

With the coming nanotech era, people's lifespans could be drastically increased; some people may live to see space probes at least go to these places and bring back images of white dwarfs and neutron stars in a single lifetime!

quote for the day

"a philosophy is characterized more by the formulation of its problems than by the solution of them" - Susanne K Langer

more christianity is a sungod and roman fabrication youtubes

Romans 16:11 has Paul clearly stating that he's a Herodian.  What in the world is a Herodian being the main guy to go around spreading christianity around?  That's right; one ring to rule them all.  If you read Robert Eisenman, you'll see further that Paul was in competition a bit with James the Just and that Jesus Christ is just a sungod overwright for James the Just(who's James the Less in the Gospel of Mark).  One clearly sees after reading Robert Eisenman's works that there was no Jesus Christ; why?  Because even with all the correspondences between the dead sea scrolls, Josephus, and Pauline epistles, there is no Jesus Christ in the dead sea scrolls!  Paul, the Herodians, and the Romans were clearly trying to pascify the messianic jews(as was Josephus and many other diasporan jews who wanted to take part of the roman culture and saw that the Jewish messianism and intolerance of everyone elses religion, was what brought the wrath of the romans).

quote for the day/ and some thought for the day

"Logic is to the philosopher what the telescope is to the astronomer." Suzanne K Langer

Suzanne K. Langer's "Introduction to Symbolic Logic" was one of my first favorite mathematics books.  I thought it revealed all secrets to the origin and nature of mathematics.  Her book shows how to derive symbolic logic from language alone.  This i hoped was the key tools to being a mathematician.  I started rereading it recently since 1) it's been a long time, and 2) i've made connections between James Burke's connections and Jacob Bronowski's "Origin of Knowledge and Imagination."  Suzanne's book is unique amongst Symbolic Logic books; and despite her coming close, she doesn't have Jacob Bronowski's ideas to see that even her book doesn't encompass all the secrets to mathematical creativity(it's not her fault; Jacob Bronowski's ideas comes later in the twentieth century). 

Still, in rereading, I've found much to review and rethink.  I also found perhaps a possible proof of Jacob Bronowski's ideas.  Like the way you won't find a number two, or an imaginary number, or even a set of zero dimensional points all aligned as a straight line lying around on the ground, you won't find a relation lying around on the ground.  Nature comes at you as a whole; we make the dividing lines. For instance, the sun; there's no dividing line between the matter and the energy of the sun.  Yes, there's some things that seem to have hard dividing lines like the tree from the air; but, this is a perception of scale.  On other scales, you can see the thermodynamic energy flowing between me, the air, and the tree.  I noted this when rereading chapter 2.1 of Suzanne's book.

I assumed that those who've read my ideas about the origin and nature of mathematical concepts(2nd or 3rd post of this blog); you should see the logical connections of what I'm suggeting as a proof of my and Jacob Bronowski's ideas.  If Jacob Bronowski's ideas are wrong, then why don't you find bare relations on the ground?(much less negative numbers, the square root of two, one dimensional lines composed of zero dimensional points and so on and so forth)

just found a pretty good image of her youth days.  She was born in 1895 and lived to 1985!

youtube for the day/ Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" about Johannes Kepler

I don't recall posting this before. I post it now.  It's an important lesson that 'it's easier to destroy than create.'  It's easier to be irrational than rational. The irrational are always, "respect my religion"(a religion that doesn't respect anybody elses religion; neither christianity and the Koran . . . i'm forgetting the name of the relgion . . . respect each other; the old testament didn't respect everyone elses religion - the baalims, the Asheras(god's wife in the old testament), the Egyptians, and the Babylonians; i've seen in the pauline epistles Paul saying gentiles, heathens, basically, everyone else but his religion. I've seen the Koran say gentiles, christians, and everyone elses religion needs to go).  The truth is we need to understand that no knowledge is sacred; it's all updatable.  The only sacred truth is there is no sacred truth.  I'm shocked that scientists today don't understand that we should have a social group that is willing to criticize . . . everything, and to face facts and logic.

The spirit of science is always having trouble with the irrational mind as Carl Sagan's episode about Kepler shows.

I've shown my gospel of truth to many christians; always, it's met with 1 corinthians;

"

1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

Wernher von Braun: Rocket Man for War and Peace

Werner Von Braun was inspired to a scientific technological adventure into space from Herman Oberth(not from nazies as many would like to imagine).  It should futher be said that Goddard over in the United States couldn't get the American leadership to understand the significance of what he was doing; his research went to Herman Oberth and Werner Von Braun for pennies!  Because humanity in general is not about scientific adventure, Werner Von Braun had to get money to pursue his hobby from the military(the German military was just that when Werner Von braun signed on with them; only when the Nazy party took over was the military turned into the nazy military; in fact, Werner Von Braun never wore a Nazy uniform till like 1939, and full six years, till Hitler started taking an interest in what Werner Von braun was doing; before then, Hitler didn't think much of what Werner Von Braun was doing).

I've read a book about Peenemunde; the author mentions that General Dornburger was Werner Von Braun's buffer between Wnerner Von Braun's space dreams community of engineers and Hitler and the Nazies.

When the war went bad for Hitler's nazy germany, Werner Von Braun chose america - not the Soviets. When he came to american, he ended up making miiltary rockets again - not space rockets; not till the Soviets launched Sputnik did the american leadership see Werner Von Braun's vision - at least a little bit.

Today, there's still movements to try to cast Werner Von Braun as a manager of Hitler; as if he had time to go around and perform political rally parties for Hitler; no, he spent all his time in Peenemunde balancing his research to make space travel possible and the fact that he had to make a military weapon to hold up his end of the bargain.  People try to say that he launched those missles at England; no he didn't; he just built the V-2 rocket; the Nazies chose the destination.

It's amazing how one can point all this out, and people just keep on going.  It's just like the ufo crowd, those who deny the moon landings, and those who believe in god, jesus christ and so on and so forth.  People dont' wake up till war; usually, change only comes after those old stuckup people eliminate themsevles.  I believe space expansion is the only peacefull way with dealing with irrationalists; or, it's the most peacefull way.  One must find the unified syntheses that is true of all knowledge, and just leave those who want to play all kinds of political games.

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Mathematical creativity is often combining algebra and geometry and filling in the conceptual vacuums that result; for instance, fractions when making the number line.  Poetry is about analogy as well; but, as I've tried to argue before, mathematics is constructive analogy.  A given mathematical concept is a structural relation - kind of like a sentence. A sentence has a verb and nouns that make sense with that verb.  In mathematics, things are analogous when two different structures share say a noun element in common or maybe a verb relation in common.  In poetry, you don't have these precise structural matching up.  It's about vagueness manipulation.  This is fine on a poetry level; but, when it gets to mythology and religion; well, see my blog!

I bring up the differences between poetry and mathematics analogy again here because some things match; it's right to make a constructive analogy say the number sequence and a geometric line; but, when you combine things that don't belong - like science, mathematics and vague philosophy, religion such as the nazies did and most states from times gone by; you get Werner Von Braun; you get nazies, you get misunderstandings; you get social groups that only think what the social group they've been taken in thinks; you get the dark ages(christianity is actually combining platonic ideas; see jesus christ is the 'word' of god in the gospel of john with mythology and saying real greek knowledge is foolish(see 1corinthians1).  Really, check out my gospel of truth(first post of this blog).

Once again, I champion space expansion to overcome all these socially bound up irrationalists; i would also say that I've always wanted nanomanufacturing so that those who want to do science unhindered by irrationalists of the past can do so. They don't have to ask irrationalists for money to go to mars, build a particle accellerator, and so on and so forth.

thought for the day/Saturn V rocket perspective

For some reason, getting a picture of the rear end of the Saturn V with a few people scattered about gives the best scale perspective of just how big it was!

You really have a hard time seeing the very end of the Saturn V rocket in this picture!

This is a picture of the dome cap of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket(the Werner Von Braun stage).  It's of course an arch to distribute forces evenly!

Maybe a few more pictures of the Saturn V's rear end!

The Saturn V rocket remains the largest most powerfull space rocket ever built!

quote for the day

"If I were at the outside, say at the heaven of the fixed stars, could I stretch my hand or my stick outwards or not? To suppose that I could not is absurd; and if I can stretch it out, that which is outside must either be body or space(it makes no difference which it is, as we shall see). We may then in the same way get to the outside of that again, and so on, asking on arrival at each new limit the same question; and if there is always a new place to which the stick may be held out, this clearly involves extension without limit. If now what so extends is body, the proposition is proved; but even if it is space, then, since space is that in which body is or can be, and in the case of eternal things we must treat that which potentially is as being, it follows equally that there must be body and space(extending) without limit." - Archytas

We even have a bust of Archytas(from roman times to be sure; these are suppose to be Roman copies of Greek origins; you can take it or leave it I suppose!).

I remember thinking of these problems of whether space is infinit or not and thinking much the same thing when young(as Archytas clearly did in the quote above). I find the quote interesting because it shows 1) consciousness to wonder, and 2) reasoning ability.  This wonder at whether space in infinit or not also goes to the general building of Pyramids of all kinds.

Well, maybe the Egyptian pyramids were built more for the King to go to heaven, but the Ziggurats and the Mayan pyramids seem to me to be about people trying to build the highest structure they can to maybe reach out with their bare hands and touch the heavens!  I wonder what they thought when they reached the top, reached out and found out that, well, things are not so simple!

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I should say more about Archytas.  He was considered by Vitruvius(a Roman engineer; not a mathematician; note, there seems to be no roman mathematicians in their thousand years; if they needed one, they just went to the Greeks) the first mechanical engineer; legend says he made a flying machine(a questionable statement!  Not to mention, considered the tunnel at the Island of Samos built long before his time; well, clearly there were some mechanical engineers before Archytas time). 

Archytas major contribution was a mathematical one; he found a way of doubling the cube(one of the three delian problems; squaring the circle, trisection of an angle, and doubling of the cube).