quote/thought for the day

ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.

Here's an image of an irregular dwarf galaxy(all irregular galaxies are dwarfs) 16 million light years out.  The Andromeda galaxy is two million light years out.  As with all Hubble space telescope images of galaxies, the surrounding inter galactic space with galaxies spiraling off to infinity is more fun than the individual galaxy highlighted(at least most of the time and in this picture). 


"you become a mathematician so that people should study you, not that you should study Leibniz!" - Paul Erdos

Paul Erdos is referring to some mathematians he found who were studying the metaphysics of Leibniz and not mathematics. I myself am finding that mathematicians today want to study metaphysics and connect it with mathematics Plato/Pythagoras style.  They do so as a social grace; some think that by studying the "Tao of Physic" they can gain some creative insight. I like to say "the dark side of the force is not to be under-estimated." and/or, "the dark side of the force is strong with this one."

A mathematician defines and sweeps away vagueness; it doesn't use it to hide behind like the god believers do.

- Getting on to some other "thought for the day."

I was rereading E.T. Bell's "Magic of Numbers", and in it he pointed out some connections that James Burke didn't find.  E.T. Bell pointed out that musical sounds could have come about by means of the plucking of the strings of the bows that ancients would have used to shoot arrows with. 

Really, we don't know how Pythagoras experimented to see the numbers of musical notes.  But, the fact that the plucking of the bows created a tonal sound is interesting.

I don't see how else Pythagoras could have been inspired to experiment with different length "cords." So, I'm going to have to say this is a highly probable connection.

What's of more importance is that people were plucking their bow strings for thousands of years before Pythagoras, but none ever thought to experiment or apply mathematics to it; to see the connections and a systematic understanding of those sounds.  It was only when someone from the right perspective, a mathematical one, that the connection and inspiration is made.

It's a bit like a strobe light that can't see the airplane's propeller(I used to experiment with this when young in my garage; i'd turn out the lights, spin the propellers of the toy airplance hanging in the garage and turn on the strobelight; you'd get some weird propeller affects depending on whether the the strobelight was going faster or slower than the airplane propellers rotation rate) until you adjust the strobelight to the right frequency of the airplane's propeller.  People have their perspectives(their strobelights), and if it's not on the right frequency, they just don't get or see things starring right in front of them.  One of the mathematicians tricks is to always take the general viewpoint.

I'm amazed at the god believers who don't see the messianic strain in the Jesus Christ tale.  Christians for one have been reading that bible through and through for two thousand years(give or take a few hundred years), and they never notice all the Roman and Herodian bias in the New Testament.  They think it's about . . . love!  I'm amazed at the scientists and mathematians who understand the difference between pseudoscience(god religions) and true mathematical science.  Maybe they do, but for socially bound up reasons, they choose to ignore it.

Humanity is the science and technologically dependent species; it is what defines us from the other life on Earth; this is obvious and easy to see for anyone who has stopped themselves to think about things, yet, it doesn't appear that most people on Earth today have hit on this idea.  We're going into the nanotechnology era; dna-nanomanufacturing is one pathway; recently, Dna-nanotechnology has been given the ability to control chemical reactions, thermodynamic smart material dna-nanomanufacturing .  We're going into the nano era right now, and humanity is not psychologicaly ready.

Consider James Frazer's "The Golden Bough."  As a species that should want the truth, we should welcome this study of magic and religion. Yes, it states the truth that religion is made up.  But, it also shows how mythology was a kind of science of its day; or that was the hope.  Religion developed as each religion proved to be empty.  We should find this fascinating to know of this evolution of thought.  But, James Frazer is considered bad for pointing out that their religions were false and that is why the religions evolved form one stage to another. People have this 'conditioned' strobe light perspectives, a kind of religious zeal, that people's beliefs should not be questioned.  This is the path to the dark side of the force, to Nazyisms.