Archive for the ‘Mathematics’ Category

About the Hyperdiamond

Thursday, February 21st, 2008
The Monster

The Hyperdiamond

The beauty of our Universe is highly related to what mathematicians call symmetry. A structure is symmetric when it is possible to find a function that maps the structure unto itself.

A simple example is mirror-symmetry. In this case the structure looks the same when it is reflected in a mirror. Another example is rotational symmetry. The structure returns when it is rotated.

The symmetries can be combined to create more complex symmetries. For more than a century mathematicians are trying to create a periodic table of elements of all the possible symmetries called symmetry groups.

The “classification theorem” of such groups, also known as the “enormous theorem” (requiring over 15,000 pages to “prove”), states that the periodic table can be classified completely into 5 groups.

In two dimensions the symmetry-group contains 17 types of symmetrical transformations. All of them are visible around the walls of the Alhambra.

One of the five groups is made up of exceptions to the regularity of the others. These exceptional sub-groups are known as sporadic groups.

Attention has long been focused on these 26 exceptional sporadic groups. The largest of these, incorporating 20 of the others, has been named the Monster — the most exceptional finite symmetry group in mathematics.

bolletjes

Packing spheres

It is a giant (hyper)Diamond in 196,884 dimensions composed of more elements than there are supposedly to be elementary particles in the universe (approx. 8 x 10**53).

The Monster is something special but what makes the Monster spectacular is that it showed a strange connection (called Moonshine) with a very different part of Mathematics called Number Theory.

Recently I read a book about this subject by Mark Ronan called Symmetry and the Monster.

Kissing-3d

The maximum of 12 spheres can be packed in the 3rd dimension

Mathematics and especially Number- and Group theory are very hard to understand even for mathematicians. It is a very special specialization.

Number Theory was one of the most important issues in the Mystical Schools of the Old Scientists.

Pythagorus and of course the mystics in the East were very interested in the patterns behind the Beauty of the Universe. Number was the unifying concept necessary for understanding everything from planetary motion to musical harmony.

They believed the Universe was based on integer numbers (1,2,3,..) and the Monster shows that this could be the case.

One of the magic numbers that would have exited Pythagoras is 24. It is a magic number because the sum of the square-roots of all the numbers 1 to 24 is equal to the square of 70.

The sequence of 1 to 24 is part of a 26-dimensional Lorenz-space that is highly connected to the monster and moonshine. A Lorenz-space is an extension of the space Einstein used called Minskowski space. This space connects space with time. The Monster suggests that we could live in a space of 24 dimensions instead of 3.
24-cell

The kissing number in 4 dimensions is 24. The cells can be connected to the 24d hyperdiamond.

The interpretation of all this in normal language can be found by the relationship of the Monster to a special surface called the Leech Lattice. The Leech Lattice is created when we package spheres.

The Leech Lattice has the highest Kissing Number. This number is 12 in 3 dimensions. In the third dimensions we are able to package spheres that touch other spheres at 12 places.

The Monster connected by Moonshine to Physics (String Theory) shows that our Universe consists of an enormous amount of Bubbles called Quantum Foam. We live in the Universe where the bubbles are touching with the highest kissing number possible. 

LINKS

About the Universe of Bubbles

About the Symmetry of the Sri Yantra

About Third Order Cybernetics

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

escher-heaven-hell-1The Cybernetics Movement has gathered a spectacular amount of Knowledge and Wisdom. The most important Scientists in the World came out of Cybernetics. The basic theory behind Cybernetics is very easy to understand. Every System is controlled by a Feed-Back Cycle.

Cybernetics was defined by Norbert Wiener as the study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.

When the control engineering and computer science disciplines had become fully independent, the remaining cyberneticists focused on Autonomy, Self-organization and the Role of the Observer in modeling a system.

This movement became known as Second-Order Cybernetics.

At this moment Cybernetics has moved to the Third Order. To define the third order the Cybernetic Movement had to find out what a new order was about. It was easy to see that the Observer of the Observer was still an Observer. This path ended soon.

One solution is to analyze observers and systems co-evolve across different social systems but many other perspectives are possible.

When I read this website I found one Perspective that related to my own research. It states that the higher orders of self-reflexivity may be related to Beauty. I cite “The organism is a self-song“, “Gaia (Earth) is not a big compound individual, nor a song sung by an individual, but a song sung by a chorus or choir of all sentient beings. That choral song, alas, is being sung off key, it is out of harmony, due to one species singing off-key loudly“.

The path of Beauty refers to another article (Cultivating the Songlines of the Noosphere: from presentations by representatives to embodying presence in transformation, 1996).

I cite again “”Language grounded in music is grounded thereby on context dependency; any tone can have any possible relation to other tones, and the shift from one tone to another, which alone makes melody possible, is a shift in perspective which the singer himself embodies. Any perspective (tone) must be “sacrificed” for a new one to come into being; the song is a radical activity which requires innovation while maintaining continuity and the “world” is the creation of the singer, who shares its dimensions with the song.”

My advice:

When you want to Control everything use First Order Cybernetics. It is focused on Software and Machines. Building Software is an Art. If you don’t have aquired this Talent do something else that is related to Your Talent.

If you want to move into Flow start to use Second Order Cybernetics. It teaches you how to Observe and accept Self-Organization.

If you want to find Rest move to the Third Level. This is the Level of Harmony.

Start to sing in a Choir. You will learn a lot about your Voice, your Body, Resonance and Cooperation. Singing helps you to Relax and have FUN.

If you have learned enough start to sing with Eight Different Voices. This teaches you How to Listen to the Other and to Start and Maintain a Dialogue.

The last step is Chanting or Toning.

Find out how people that are not controlled by a Director and a Script are able to produce Beautiful Patterns by becoming ONE VOICE.

LINKS

About Beauty and Harmony

About Third Order Cybernetics

About Resonance

About Synchronization of Crowds

The Relationship between Chaos Theory, Fractals, Lyapunov, Minkowski and the TAO

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

chaotic attractorChaos theory is the theory of Dynamic (Non-Linear) Systems. Dynamic systems converge to a state called an Attractor.

A fractal is a shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is a copy of the whole. This property is called Self-Reference.

Self-Referencial Dynamic Systems are represented by a Strange Attractor .

I want to start with a few citations of HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF CHAOS THEORY: Consciousness, Physiology, Perception, and Psychology by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney, ©1992.

Chaos underlies the ability of the brain to respond flexibly to the outside world and to generate novel activity patterns, including those that are experienced as fresh ideas (also fresh behavior, emotions, belief systems, mythologies, etc.).

Chaos results in meaning-laden perception, a gestalt, that is unique to each individual.

Chaos is implicated in human perception as a multi-sensory phenomenon. The controlled chaos of the brain is more than an accidental by-product, like “putting your brain in neutral.”

Indeed, it may be the chief property that makes the brain different from an artificial-intelligence machine. One profound advantage chaos may confer on the brain is that chaotic systems continually produce novel activity patterns“.

Research may reveal that assessments of personality or a personality trait over time generate data that leads to a fractal correlation dimension. Such evidence would confirm that personality or that a particular personality trait may be desribed as a strange attractor of associated behavior”.

In the article they apply Chaos Theory and Fractals to the Human. What they are showing is that Self-Reference (A Fractal) is the Result of a Chaotic Process.

Out of the Chaos of Creativity a Repeating Pattern Emerges.

Chaos is not total randomness, but implies an implicate, “hidden”, or occult order within the nature of reality“.

point attractorThe Repeating Patterns looks Chaotic but when we find the Right Fractal behind the Order in Chaos we can know where the Path is Moving to (the Attractor).

To dig deeper into Chaos we have to dig deep into mathematics. We have to dig so deep that the language becomes almost incomprehensible but let us have a try.

A citation out of More than Synchrony: Chaoticity may be necessary for conscious brain functioning (Juergen Fell ea): “Indeed, estimation of nonlinear EEG characteristicslike dimensions and Lyapunov exponents revealed a pronounced decrease not only of complexity, but also of chaoticity during unconscious states like deep sleep”

 ” Sufficient dynamical complexity of brain activity, seems to be one more necessary condition.

Without chaoticity our brains might be unable to switch immediately between different oscillatory patterns and thereby different modes of operation”. 

A citation out of Some Thoughts on Time, Quantum Mechanics, Geometry and Free Will (Linas VEPSTAS) : “The strange thing for us is, we live in this hyperbolic Minkowski space, but we don’t seem to notice much positive Lyapunov exponents in our lives.

 Other than that nature all around us seems to be fractal and self-similar … other than that, we don’t notice.

I sometimes wonder if the quantum-entanglement problems of quantum-mechanics are really some manifestation of life in Minkowski space, some deep connection we haven’t noticed just yet“.

The Lyapunov exponents determine the predictability of a dynamical (Chaotic) system. When we don’t seem to notice much positive Lyapunov exponents in our life we experience life as a “random” process. The main reason that we don’t notice the self-reference is that we are stuck with our own attractor. We are repeating our own patterns all the time and are unable to resonate with the pattern of the Universe.

When the exponents decrease Life become simple again. This happens when we dream. So dreaming is a way “to make things simple“, to “understand what is happening“.

Minkowski space is a four-dimensional space. It was used by Einstein to describe space/time (The Chronotope).

When Space/Time contains positive Lyaponov exponents Space/Time is highly predictable.

This happens when Quantum Entanglement takes place.

cycle attractorQuantum Entanglement (QE) is the Union of seperate Parts into a Whole. QE makes it possible to be in Two or more States at the same moment.

It even makes it possible to Unite with Everything.

QE gives us the feeling that there is something that is connecting us to an Entity on a Higher Level.

When QE happens we are in the AND-state and experience a feeling of Harmony.

When we are not in the AND-state we are in the OR-state.

In this OR-state there are Four “Fractal Attractors” possible. They also give us a “feeling”.

We feel we are Stuck” (Point-Attractor) or

we feel we are “Going Round in Circles (Cycle-attractor)” or

Spirals (Torus-Attractor).

The most Attractive Fractal Attractor, the AND-attractor gives us the feeling that “We are in the Flow (Tao) or in The Now (Chaos)”.

Our Universe is “looking” for Quantum Entanglement. This state of Harmony cannot be perceived in our current 4D-Reality (The Minkowski-Space).

According to Tiller our Unconsciousness connects to another 4D-Reality that is highly related to what the Scientists call Dark Matter.

Out of this Reality The Force of Life (Chi, Prana) is moving into our Body.

If we look at the current state of our World it does not feel as a Strange Feeling that we have to connect to the Force of Life again.

Connecting to this Force is Difficult for us (and me).

Strange attractorThe knowlegde about it is hidden in old “Mysteries” and “Magical practices“.

Many people don’t believe in this or even don’t want to believe in it because it is connected to the Dark Forces.

Strangely enough the Force is also connected to Dark Matter.

It seems we need to enter the Dark to find the Light.

We have to fight and embrace our Dark Shadow (Jung).

 

 

LINKS

About Chaostheory & Evolution

About Chaostheory & Psychology

 

 

About Pan and Anarchy

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

panIn 2002 the book Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, (Gunderson, L.H and Holling, C.S (eds)) was published. To my knowledge this is one of the most important books of our time.

Panarchy is the first theory that is able to explain the behavior of complex ecosystems. It is an integration of many former theories in economics, biology, ecology, sociology, mathematics, psychology and other sciences.

Have a look at RA to learn more about Panarchy. You will be surprised by the amount of interesting articles and insights.

In this blog I will use long citations: “The world has not collapsed because natural ecological systems have the resilience to experience wide change and still maintain the integrity of their functions.

The world also has not collapsed because of human behavior and creativity. People do learn, however spasmodically. Change and extreme transformations have been part of humanity’s evolutionary history. People’s adaptive capabilities, have made it possible not only to persist passively, but to create and innovate when limits are reached.

The controls determined by each set of biotic structuring processes within terrestrial ecosystems are remarkably robust and the behaviors resulting are remarkably resilient. That robustness comes from functional diversity and spatial heterogeneity in the species and physical variables that mediate the key processes that structure and organize patterns in ecosystems and landscapes.

The stability domains that define the type of system (e.g. forest, savanna, grassland, or shrub steppe) are so large that external disturbances have to be extreme and/or persistent before the system flips irreversibly into another state. Except under extreme climatic conditions, Mother Nature is not basically in a state of delicate balance. If She were, the world would indeed have collapsed long ago“.

panarchy model

The books starts with a description of the five metaphors or world-views that are used to look at Nature. These metaphors are the same metaphors Bhaktin uses to describe the proces of the evolving narratives in human culture.

The World-Views are connected to Mathematical Models that are commonly used in Science to explain an Ecology. The authors show that every model has its consequences. The most beautifull thing they show is that these models are not wrong. They are needed to keep the Cycle of the Ecology running.

panarchy levels

What they also show is that a Panarchy-cycle uses a memory when the Ecology is collapsing. Somewhere a small area is preserved. It contains the “seeds” of the new Cycle. We have to look back when we want to move foreward. We also have to look back to learn feom our mistakes. “People do learn, however spasmodically”. Learning is not copying. We have “to create and innovate when limits are reached”.

Somewhere in History the Seeds of the New Cycle are available. A beautifull example is the Sacred Groove. It is a place where very old trees are preserved by the local community. They need the trees to aquire medicine to cure deseases or snake bites.

Because the new Cycle has to be based on Harmony I feel you have to have a look at China. China is not only the Economy Power that is able to destroy the World when it moves on the way it moves. It is also the Culture where Harmony was the basic Concept. When you read my blogs you will see that I use many Chinese Concepts to explain.

The theory is a Self-Referencial (“Fractal“) theory and uses the Moebius Ring as the central concept. You understand why I was flabbergasted when I found Panarchy on the Internet.

The last thing that made me very enthousiastic is the name Panarchy. It is based on the name of the Old Greek God of Joy and Nature, Pan.

Pan was “Goat-legged, enthusiastic, a lover of ectacy, dancing among the stars, weaving the harmony of the Cosmos into playfull song” (The Orphic Hymns). The myth was told in Early Creece that he had left the Earth. It is of a high urgency that we ask Pan to come back. We can only save Mother Nature when we become enthusiastic again to weave Harmony all over the World.

Pan is also the God of Dance and Rythm:

Complex natural systems work in rhythms – with a front-loop phase of slow, incremental growth and accumulation, and a back-loop stage of rapid reorganisation leading to renewal, to, collapse. The front-loop phase is more predictable with higher degrees of certainty.

In both the natural and social worlds, it maximises production and accumulation. The consequence of this is an accumulation and concentration of wealth, but also emergence of greater vulnerability, due to the increasing number of interconnections that link that wealth, and those that bear it, in efforts to sustain it.

Little time and few resources are available for alternatives that explore different visions or opportunities. Emergence and novelty is inhibited. This growing connectedness leads to increasing rigidity in its goal to retain control, and the system becomes ever more tightly bound together. This reduces resilience and the capacity of the system to absorb change, thus increasing the threat of abrupt change.

We can recognise the needs for change but become politically stifled in our capacity to act effectively. Wealth and broadening wealth accumulated to lead to our present vulnerability on a world stage.

We are entering the back loop of re-organisation that entails the collapse of accumulated connections, the release of bound up knowledge and capital. But it also opens a creative potential and the opportunity for ‘creative destruction“.

The World and Our Society is now in the non-predictable back-loop stage of rapid reorganisation, creative destruction, collaps and renewal. It will soon jump back to an early stage where the Seeds of the New Cycle of Creation are Stored.

Because the Long Term Cycle of Earth is now Collapsing we have to look back for a long time to find the Seeds. The most impressive collaps of our World happened when the Great Flood appeared at 3117 BC.

Strangely enough 3117 BC is the start of the Mayan Calendar and the Indian Kali Yuga (“The Dark Age“).  Before that time the Humans lived in the Green Sahara also called Paradise. At that time Pan, the God of Nature,  was still there.

Do we have to move back to Paradise to Start All over Again?

LINKS

About Panarchy

About the Great Flood

About Social Cohesion

About World View

About Chinese Concepts

About the Fractal Universe

About the Green Sahara and Paradise

The Sad (?) Insight of Ludwig Wittgenstein

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

In 1921 Wittgenstein thought that the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus had solved all the problems of philosophy.

Later in his life (The Philosophical Investigations, published 1951) he came to the conclusion that he was utterly wrong.

He found out that language itself is the problem.

Language is woven into the fabric of life, and as part of that fabric it works relatively unproblematically.

Philosophical problems arise when language is forced into an abstract environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are absent. The tragedy is that almost nobody understood Wittgenstein at that time.

One of his students in Cambrigde when he still believed in abstraction was Alan Turing. He invented the Turing Machine, one of the foundations of computers and computer languages.

Computer Languages and everything created by a Computer Languages suffers the Problem Wittgenstein identified.

I was a witness to an important part of the history of computing. I was responsible for many what I now would call abstraction-projects.

I have been extremely busy with the creation of E-Learning, Knowledge-Management, Centers of Expertise, Educational Games based on Story Telling etc.

They all failed in the end but the creation-process was fun.

One of the inspiring persons I spoke was Mr. Ikujiro Nonaka. His book The Knowledge-Creating Company was just published.

He showed that knowledge could be divided into formal (again abstract) and informal knowledge.

He defined a 2X2 matrix of the knowledge-tranfer process.

The most difficult of course was the transfer of informal-informal knowledge.

My big mistake was to believe that informal/informal knowledge-tranfer could be supported by a Computer System.

The Computer System itself is formalizing everything. Many years later (about 5 years ago) I came to the same (sad?) conclusion as Wittgenstein (and Bahktin).

What can we do? The only way to transfer “knowledge” is to talk person-to-person in a secure environment.

Some people will understand each other and become friends. They are a small Centre of Expertise.

Many people will think(!) they understand the other. They will go their own way until they realize, perhaps when they are 56 (like me), that in the end your mostly wrong and sometimes right.

Keep meeting and talking! And realize The Creation Process is always Fun.

LINKS

About the War of Words

About the Foundations of Mathematics

How the Proof of the Pudding is Really in the Eating

How to Analyze a Context