Monday, April 28, 2014

astro picture for the day/ Star Trek - The original series


ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image

Good Sci-Fi is rare. There's only a handful - Things to Come, 2001, War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet.  One could name a few more here and there, but things get questionable after awhile. Star Trek multiplies the number of good Sci-Fi by more than two! I don't suppose that I've watched all the Star Treks and have said everything about it and every episode; but, I'm posting now.
 
  Star Trek was a great Sci-Fi series because it made scientific puzzle stories, and stories about rationality versus irrationality.

Sometimes they made stories about primitive cultures, sometimes about advanced. Sometimes, they just made stories that were like scientific puzzles.  The Man Trap is one such scientific puzzle episode.  If otherwise, this would have been some bad 1950s B movie as they call them.

Star Trek also had a great dynamic about the military versus the scientific viewpoints. Farely recently, there was an effort that appears to have fallen on its face; the effort was to set up a government system that keeps business, military, and science from influencing one another.  I agree with this.  I would further state that part of the American success has been the splitting of church and state.  Star Trek makes this split in the characters of Spock, Bones, and Captain Kirk.

Somemore that should be said about Star Trek is the technologies.  Star Trek had a variety of technologies that seemed impossible - hand held lasers.  The 'phasers' had a stun mode to indicate social progress from dealing with people violently to only using violence in the most peaceful of ways.  Other impossible technologies were faster than light travel and "beam me up' technologies. Quantum physicists have over the last few decades suggest that wormholes are possible.  These wormholes would be stabilized by negative energy from the cassimir affect.

The beam me up scotty technology may be possible.  But this technology will still be a hard/advanced technology even in the approaching quantum computer and nanomanufacturing future. I'm sure I've lost track of an article that tried to see what it could see about making beam me up technology using today's entanglement technology.  All I remember was the possibility of entangling all the atoms of a human and beaming the information somewhere else is immense.


In the Man Trap, changelings need salt.  The crew of Star Trek are initially confused because all they see is an old woman and man who couldn't possibly suck salt out of a human body like that.

Where No Man Has Gone Before, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXuRfmApREc

Where no man has gone before was one of two 'pilot' episodes for Star Trek, when they were first establishing the cast/characters.  The first pilot episode was classic - the Cage.  Unfortunately, it's not currently availably on youtube.  It used to be available and all the Star Treks were not available!

'Where no man has gone before' is a contrast between friends/love and scientific power.

- What Are Little Girls Made Of?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2Xe5J5UgM

'What are little girls made of? is a pretty good Star Trek about robots.



The Menegerie parts 1 and 2 are a Captain Kirk redo of the first Star Trek episode "the cage".  The first Captain Kirk actor chose to go back to Broadway; he died in an accident(something simple like falling down a stairs). 

- The Conscience of the King, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMcqnRwhW8


A routine mission goes wrong.  The Doctor "Bones" and the Volcan Spock argue about rationality while they fight off cavemen throwing Neolithic spears at them.  They take a great gamble to solve their problems; an altogether underrated episode, imo!


An Extraterrestrial puts different species(including the human species) in a contest to see who can innovate from an almost stone age state of technology to beat the other)


One of many going back to the future Star Treks.  This one is a kind of inverse ufo movie where humans encounter humans from the future(the ufos).  Star Treks have comedies like "Shore leave" "Trouble with Tribbles" and "Mudd's women".  For various reasons, I choose the more serious versions.  This episode has both serious and comedy aspects.

- The Return of the Archons, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kPkgBq8eew

Return of the Archons considers pre-science cultures and societal conformity.  The culture uses technology to play out older cultures.


Two cultures are fighting a nuclear war.  Captain Kirk uses logic once again to open their minds to the problems.



Khan is a genetically engineered human.  He was also someone who tried to take over the Earth back in the 20th century.  He's found by Captain Kirk centuries later. The story explores issues of charismatic leadership and dictatorship from a very distant perspective(time and space).


Klingon's are taking over a humble troublesome people; or are they something more?


- The City on the Edge of Forever, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNNQMIjjWgQ


- Mirror, Mirror, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbSXjZlZ7U

Star Trek has great dramas about rationality versus irrationality.  Usualy, they find primitive and sometimes advanced irrational cultures that they have to outwit.  Here, Star Trek turns makes an alternative U.S.S. Enterprise crew against each other. 

Star Trek also has lots of alternative realities shows; but, this episode combines and is the best of those, imo.

The Changling, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ml2_FkNR90

The U.S.S. Enterprise crew encounters an advanced alien robot.  This show is the has often been considered the for-runner of the first Star Trek movie, which was about a space cloud that comes back after collecting knowledge all through the universe.

- The Apple, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5CrXN-Hg_U

Another great episode about primitive cultures and brainwashing

- Friday's Child, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSx-_R_PMRA

- A Piece of the Action, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNqYdg6Muk

- Patterns of Force, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYYCqZFaiEM

- The Omega Glory, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgFtWmtirtI

- Bread and Circuses, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-haqB1dhQ

- The Cloud Minders, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysjYoL-F3r4

- All Our Yesterdays, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5syWDGHkoSQ

- For the World Is Hollow... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47ye7pncaPI
 
- That Which Survives, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVnlgF9A2FA

Another good Star Trek: the Original Series is "A private little war." But, I cannot find it on youtube.
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Sunday, April 27, 2014

astro picture for the day



Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh

- Science/Technology extra,

Superconducting Qubit Array Points the Way to Quantum Computers - See more at: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014074/superconducting-qubit-array-points-way-quantum-computers#sthash.R175ooNW.dpuf . There's been all kinds of quantum computer advances reported since the last time I reported quantum computer advances. This one has D-Wave enthusiasts thinking that D-Wave's modern day 'Eniac' could be obsolete sooner than they thought!

Found this video that was posted a year ago; so, you know they're that much further along!


This is the best quantum computing talk I've seen yet!

There's also dna-nanotech advances as well. It's been almost a month; I haven't heard yea or nay; so, I'll not mention the idea here yet.  I'll say this much; I know one guy who refused to work on Dna-nanotechnology ever again, saying it will never be able to bootstrap to a more robust nanomanufacturing system.  He's the one going to work on this.


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Friday, April 18, 2014

Astro video for the day/ Moses thought for the day extras


This video is better than I remember it.  It's a video of a descent module from the Cassini spacecraft.  The Cassini spacecraft is still orbiting around the Saturn system.

- There's some linguistic comparison of Moses to other cultures lawgivers.  This evidence casts doubt in the very existence of Moses. Indian lawgiver- Menu.  Syria and Egypt law giver - Mises/Menes. Minos is the Crete/Minoan law giver. - Acharya S/D.M. Murdock - "Did Moses Exist? The Myth of of the Israelite lawgiver", page 16

- Some more about Philo, who I mention in my "Gospel of Truth"(first post of this blog) . . . Philo's brother Alexander the Alabarch was the builder of the Jerusalem temple.  The very one who Philo's nephew Tiberias Julius Alexander helped Emperor Vespasian destroy and is mentioned in the Gospel of Mark(hence dating the Gospel past 66 A.D.). Related to Moses, Philo wrote a book about Moses to popularize him because the Pagan Roman world didn't know him so well.  Because of Philo's influence(once again, see my Gospel of Truth), there arose at the time all kinds of mythologized books about Moses - "Eighth book of Moses", "Key of Moses", and "The Hidden book of Moses on the great name, that for everything, in which is the name of the one who rules all."  These books combined Moses with various pagan gods, pre-Christian gospels. - Acharya S/D.M. Murdock - "Did Moses Exist? The Myth of of the Israelite lawgiver", page 12

- Jewish books before the Babylonian exhile, Amos, Habakkuk, Hosea, Isaiah, Jerimiah, Johah, Michah, Naham, and Zephaniah don't mention a Moses.  Well, Isaiah does; but, in a Psalm passage, it's revealed that Moses name is about a mythology water bringer. This link suggests that Isaiah is a play on a 'song of Moses.'  Just scroll down to the Isaiah section.  This is like Moses describing his own death(Dueteronomy Chapter 34), which is another piece of evidence that Moses is made up. Isaiah is a play on Moses mythology - Acharya S/D.M. Murdock - "Did Moses Exist? The Myth of of the Israelite lawgiver", pages 30-31

- Another biblical tidbit unrelated to Moses, is Psalm 78-2, "I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old" Parable is metaphor; mythology is analogy.  They will make up mythology.  It also says dark sayings of old.  This reminds me of an Egyptian mathematical papyrus which says it points out 'dark knowledge.'  Somehow knowledge is dark secrets.

Also in Isaiah 78 is a story similar to the Moses story of dividing the seas, but this does not have Moses.  It has God/Jehovah(whatever you want to call him) doing the dividing of the seas.  From 78-13 on, one sees a proto book of Exodus, only a God version and not a Moses version. This suggests the Exodus story is an elaboration of Isaiah 78. In fact, archaeologistsw have found that Canaanite stories are similar. So, the Hebrews clearly took this Canaanite mythology and recast it just like they did with the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh" and everything else(the ten commandments for instance were taken from the Egyptians; see my "Gospel of Truth"). The original Canaanite version of the Exodus story would be the 'dark sayings of old.'
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Astro picture for the day/ quote/thought extras


Credit & Copyright: T. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage) & H. Schweiker (WIYN, NOAO, AURA, NSF)

Quote for the day,

"The moving finger wrights and having writ moves on. Nor all your piety nor whit can cancel half a line.  Nor all your tear wash out  a word of it." - Omar Khayyam


In episode 30 of the Mechanical Univese(Potential and Capacitance), David L. Goodstein mentions how come lightning rods have round nobs on them instead of a sharp point as Benjamin Franklin thought. The reason is because of King George(of the British/American revolutionary war fame) thought they should be round instead of a sharp point. These are the types of connections that James Burke seems to be most in to. But, he makes some other connections.  I make some connections between these other connections and Jacob Bronowski's understanding of the nature of mathematics here,

http://wwwscientifichumanism.blogspot.com/2011/04/origin-and-nature-of-mathematical.html

Mathematics is the real connections. It's the underlying structural connections found by questioning assumptions - like the way questioning the assumptions of the flat Earth because that's what it looks like on first appearance.

Mathematics is an abstraction.  Abstraction is a common form that many other structures have.  For instance, two apples and two oranges both have the similar structure of the number two. Or the way differencial equations can be used to describe chemical, mechanical, electrical phenomenon. Yet, James Burke is proudly quoted as saying,

“Learners may study either history or physics, or perhaps only Renaissance history and astrophysics. People tend to become experts in highly specialized fields, learning more and more about less and less.” –James Burke

It happens(James Burke connections like) that legitimate things are done for illegitimate reasons.  For instance, Brahmagupta comes up with the general form solution of the linear Diophantine equation(Diophantus doesn't solve this in his collection of 'Diopantine equations.') to fix the stats of planetary motions collected by generations of Indian(India indian) astronomers. James Burke shows that the major historical events of Western civilization at least can be mapped out and clarified by the history of science and technology.  But, as the quote above indicates, he doesn't understand the connections of mathematics(the fundamental knowledge) to everything else.
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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

astro picture for the day/ Quote for the day/thought for the day . . . Greek Philosophy


Image Processing: Oliver Czernetz - Data: Digitized Sky Survey (POSS-II)

Quote for the day,

"Concepts without precepts are empty. but precepts without concepts are blind." - Immanuel Kant


Thought for the day . . . Aegean collapse and Greek philosophy,

My initial exporation of the Greek period focused more on Greek mathematics; i've recenlty learned some of the value of their philosophy.

The word Renaissance makes most people today(21st century through the past to the Renaissance) think of the European 1500s Renaissance.  Before then, there's what the Renaissance people called 'the dark ages.' But, another dark ages has become the greatest archaeological mystery of the last hundred years or so. This dark ages led to the Greek renaissance from 600 B.C. to the Athens golden age.  The Athenian high point really only lasted a generation or two before the Spartans ganged up with the Persians, other Greek city-states that didn't like being taxed to put up the Parthenon.  And then, the Macedonians of Alexander the Great led to the beginning of the Hellenistic Roman period which really made Athens just a city in the Hellenistic mediterraenean.

Before this dark ages before the Greeks and the Israelites, there was the world of the Egyptians, Hittites, and Minoans(also Babylonians). A recent book about the Aegean collapse is getting a little popular. Eric Cline's "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed."  I'm not going to explain what the conclusion is; really, the conclusion is complex and inconclusive.  I'll say that their world became to big to administer.  One could say much the same happened with the Romans.  I've of course argued for a certain religious anti-science that took over.  I don't think this happened with the late bronze age. But, I do think that because they didn't spend their time and wealth(whether you want to call it money back then or not) on science and technology to make everything from agricultural to dealing with pirates, they collapsed.

Because of the collapse of these hugh empires, more people were able to learn on their own and what they wanted to learn.  As everyone notes, the Greeks before the Athenian period were a bunch of city-states. These city states evolved in a diversity of ways.  The contrast between the Spartans and Athenians is particularly striking. But, the fact is the Greeks diversity allowed a certain amount of questioning of various assumptions/beliefs. The video below talks about some interesting Greek philosophy.  Rebecca Goldstein mentions the Greek tragedies argued for doing science/art to make life worth living.


Some more Greek philosophy that I've learned about recently, through Peter Pesic's "Abel's Proof"(chapter one), is Plato, Socretes, and Thaetateous{who made certain generalisations of irrational numbers beyond the Pythagorean proof of the irrationality of the square root of 2; There's infinit series, and with different proportionalities like arithmetic, geometry(addition and multiplicative respectively); Thaetateous made this connection and defined different types of irrationality.  Eudoxus then was able to calculate the precise number angles of the Platonic solids . . .)} is how doing mathematics stings you're assumptions.  Kind of like how learning the Earth is round and not flat which is what your initial perception is.  The Greeks valued this sting as what should happen.  Religion tries to prevent this sting.
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astro picture for the day / G. Lame quote


Credit: ESO(European southern Observatory)

This is a supernova remnant with a chance alignment with a star.

"Should anyone find it singular that we have been able to found a Course of Mathematics on the sole concept of a system of coordinates, he may be reminded that it is preciselly these systems which characterize the phases and stages of science. Without the invention of rectangular coordinates, algebra might still be where Diophantus and his commentators left it, and we should lack both the infinitesimal calculus and analytic mechanics. Without the introduction of spherical coordinates, celestial mechanics would be absolutely impossible; and without elliptic coordinates, illustrious mathematicians would have been unable to solve several important problems of this theory . . . . Subsequently the reign of general curvilinear coordinates supervened, and these alone are capable of attacking the new problems[of mathematical physics] in all their generality. Yes, this definitive epoch will arrive, but tardily: those who first recognized these new implements will have ceased to exist and will be completely forgotten-unless some archaeological mathematician revives their names. Well, what of it, provided science has advanced?" - G. Lame(French)

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astro picture for the day / Geminus/Proclus quote


ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image

"It is essential that such a treatise should be rid of everything superfluous(for this is an obstacle to the aquisition of knowledge); it should select everything that embraces the subject and bring it to a point(for this is of supreme service to science); it must have great regard at once to clearness and conciseness(for their opposites trouble our understanding); it must aim at the embracing of theorems in general terms(for the piecemeal division of instruction into the more partial makes knowledge difficult to grasp)." - Geminus through Proclus
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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

astro picture for the day/ Throught for the day - 3102 B.C!


Image credit ESO/MUSE consortium/R. Bacon

This astronomy picture of the Orion nebula is from the ESO's new 'Muse' 3d spectrograph.  They're pretty excited about it.  I must say it's pretty close and maybe better than the Hubble Space Telescope image.  There may be details that my eye anyways, can't see.

- Thought for the day,

3102 B.C.

I don't want to get into too much large numbers and technicalities, but the Indians divided up time into cycles of various thousands and millions of years. The fundamental return of all planets is called Mahayuga which is 4,320,000 years long. It is divided into 4 quarteryugas of equal duration, and the last quarteryuga is Kaliyuga which starts according to the Indians around Friday, Febuary 18, 3102 B.C!

There was a sunrise and midnight system, they tried to calculate the number of revolutions. Aryabhata, around 510 A.D. The mean(average) motions motions of the sunrise and midnight calculations did not agree. Brahmagupta tried to make corrections of these. He did so by making the general solution to linear Diophantine equations.

Kind of like there's a quadratic equation that allows you to solve all second degree equations just by plugging in, there's were efforts to solve number theory, and make a closed form solution. The linear Diophantine general form equation was arrived at first, as far as I can tell, by Brahmagupta. He used Euclid's algorithm. There's actually two forms of it. One is a subtraction form(real easy, just subtract the smaller of two numbers of a number couple . . . repeatedly till you can't calculate anymore), and a division version; the division form is expressed as a=bx+r, r is the remainder. After the first division of a by b, you divide b by r. This is a slight change from regular division. You can repeat this and solve say G.C.D problems. Most people learn how to calculate G.C.D. by prime factor trees today. That's a later more sophisticated way. Euclid's algorithms turns out to still be interesting and valuable for number theory purposes that most people never see, like the linear Diophantine equation. There's a few more things to arrive at the linear Diophantine equation though. One performs the Euclidean algorithm till you get to 1. Then you rearrage one of the Euclidean algorithms to get 1 on one side. Then you rearrange another to get a remainder term that is analogous to the previous algorithm calculation, and then substitute. Do some simplifiying, and one gets the linear Diophantine equation. I'm just describing it.

Brahmagupta didn't correct Aryabhata empiracly. He did so assuming the date of 3102 B.C.

But, here's the kicker, a Kaliyuga is one tenth a Mahayuga, or 432,000 which equals 2x60^3. 60 is a common number of Babylonian mathematics. This number occurs in some Berossos, a Babylonian astrologer who moved to Greece to found a school of astrology around 300 B.C.

Berossos tells of a conflagration will take place at conjuctions in cancer, and a deluge when they come together in Capricorn. In Persian sources, a deluge is said to take place whenever the planets come together in the space between Pisces and Aries; the last time this happened was on Febuary, 3102 B.C.!(at least according to astrology, not scientific fact; this is a date long enough ago, that they could just say there was a conjunction back then).

We don't know whether Berossos got his 3102 from the Indians or the other way around, but in some quotes mentioned by Van Der Waerden in his "Geometry and Algebra of Ancient Civilizations", he suggests the end of the world predicted by astrological means was a common idea. He mentions one quote from the "Laws of Manu."

----------------- more astronomy for the day

Spitzer infrared space telescope 360 degree panorama of our entire Milky Way galaxy!



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