Posts Tagged ‘Rome’

About the Good, the Bad and the Nothing

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Sometimes You want to do the Good Thing and the result is a Bad Thing.

Sometimes You start an Activity with a Good Intention but the Activity runs completely Out of Hand because You were unable to Predict all the effects.

Sometimes an Activity starts with a Good Intention and Ends with a Good Result but much later You discover that you have started a Chain of Activities and the Result of the Chain is Bad.

Good and Bad are Context Dependent.

Look at this little Story:

A Chinese farmer awoke one morning to find a horse grazing in one of his fields. Since nobody came to claim the horse, the farmer used it to plow his uncultivated land. “What a good this horse is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer. Soon after, the farmer’s 18-year-old son was riding the horse when it shied at a snake. The youth fell off and broke his leg. “What an evil this is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer. Soon after, the warlord’s agents combed the village, conscripting young men for his army. Because of his broken leg, the farmer’s son was not taken. “What a good this is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer.

The Devil in the TAROT

The Tarot Card the Devil: The Devil, the God Pan, is the Force of Desire. On the Card we can see that Humans are able to Lift the Chains of Desire.

About the Golden Rule of Ethics

The big problem is that we attach a Value to the Intentions or the Consequences of an Activity and this Value has just two Names named: “Good” or “Bad“.

When the E-Valuation is “Good” we Feel Good. When the E-Valuation is “Bad” we feel Anger, Sadness, Guilty, Depressed or Worse. The Names of the Evaluation trigger the Emotions Deeply.

Most of the time we feel Guilty without any need to feel Guilty because we are not in Control of Everything that Happens.

The Ego, our Identity, is not able to stand the Lack of Control it has on the Outside World.

Humans need the “Illusion of Control” to sustain their Identity. Deep within they don’t want to believe that Other Human Beings or the Forces of Nature (“the Acts of God“) are also Active Agents.

The Science that is trying to define the Good and the Bad is called Ethics.

Ethics is the Philosophical Study of  “the Moral Value of Human Conduct and of the Rules and Principles that ought to govern it” or “the principles concerning the distinction between Right and Wrong or Good and Bad Behavior’

The most important Rule of Ethics is the so called Golden Rule : ” We should do to others what we would want others to do to us” or “do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you“.

The Golden Rule of Empathy and Forgiving is the most important Ethical Rule in many Cultures all around the World.

The Golden Rule uses the Principle of Self-Reference. Something is Applied on Itself.

When we apply the Principle of Self-Reference to the Bad, we move into the Domain of Lady Justice.

Lady Justice

Lady Justice: An Eye for an Eye (Revenge)

About Justice and Revenge

When Bad People don’t want to use the Good Golden Rule some cultures use the Rule “An Eye for an Eye” (Revenge) to do Justice to the Bad Ones. When you do Bad to a Person, the Bad Behavior is Applied to Yourself. “Eye for an eye” is used to make Bad People Aware of the Good Golden Rule.

The interesting point is that the combination of the Golden Rule and the “Eye for an Eye“-Rule  (called Tit-for-Tat) is the best way to solve the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma, a Chain of Conflicts.

Strangely enough The Good (now called Cooperation)  is Accomplished when you just Imitate the Behavior of the Others.

There is One (fatal) Exception to the Strategy of Tit-for-Tat. If you want to operate On Your Own and You think You don’t need the Others to Survive the best Way to Operate is to Betray Every Body. Bad Behavior provides you with a Huge Economic Win but also with a  Huge Social Loss.

When you Betray the others, You have To Protect Yourself for the Revenge of the Others.

To Compensate your Social Loss You have to Buy the Others (Lawyers, Mercanaries, ) or (worse) you have to Force the Others with Violence to Cooperate with You.  In the first Case you lose a lot of Money and in the last case the Amount of Revenge increases exponentially.

To Survive you always have to Balance the Social (“the Other“) and the Economic (“the Ego“). The “easy way’ is to do the Good and the “difficult way“ is to do the Bad.

Cooperation is a highly Effective and Efficient Method to accomplish the Good for Your Self and the Others because Good Behavior attracts Good Behavior and Bad Behavior attracts  Bad Behavior.

Seven Virtues

The Seven Virtues

About the Seven Virtues.

To do Good or to do Justice you have to Apply the Same to the Same because The Same Attracts the Same.

The Same not only Attracts the Same. The Same Repels the Not-the-Same.

The Same Law:  ”Look-A-Likes Like Each Other and Repel the Organisms that are not looking alike” (called Genetic Similarity Theory) also explains Evolution. This rule was detected by Charles Darwin when he wanted to explain the huge amount of Cooperation in Nature.

When you Apply the Same to the Same (Self-Reference) it generates a Fractal Structure in which the Same Structure Repeats Itself on Every Level (“As Above, So Below“).

It Looks Like there is a Universal Moral Law that explains  Behavior on Every Level of the Universe.

Some Scientists believe the Moral Laws are Eternal Truths. This believe has a long History that goes back to Ancient Rome (Cicero), Ancient Greece (Plato, Socrate) and Ancient Egypt (Ma’at).

During the Renaissance (“Rebirth“) the Moral Principles of Rome, Greece, and Egypt were reborn and transformed into Moral Systems based on the Four (Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude) or the Seven Virtues (The Four Virtues & Faith, Hope and Love).

When you understand and apply the Universal Moral Laws you use the Virtue of Prudence (Wisdom, Knowledge).  To Apply the Golden Lesson you need to have Courage and a Strong Will, the Virtue of Fortitude. When you keep the three Virtues (Wisdom, Justice and Will) in the right Balance you are practising the virtue of Temperance.

They last three virtues are derived out of the First Letter to the Corinthians written by Paul:

“If I speak in the tonguesof men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”.

Balance of Ma'at

The Golden Rule of Ma'at (Forgiving and Empathy)

About the Temperance of Ma’at

Ma’at (later  named Sophia ) was one of the (3×3) Nine Egyptian Neteru . She represented the Virtues of Truth, Balance, Justice, and Order. Just like Lady Justice she uses a Scale.

The dead person’s Heart was placed on the scale, balanced by the Feather of Ma’at. If the Heart weighed the same as the Feather of Ma’at, the deceased was allowed to go on to the Eternal Afterlife and gained Immortality (Heaven).

If the deceased had been found not to have followed the concept of Ma’at during his life (if he had lied or cheated or killed or revenged) his heart was devoured by a demon and he died the final death and was Reincarnated (Hell).

The Human,  the Talking Baboon,  had to start all over again to Learn and Apply the most important Golden Lesson of the Universe.

The way of Ma’at was to Act out of the Center of Conscioussness, the Heart. Acting out of the Heart is called the Virtue of Love.

Ma’at was also the God of Balance, Rythm and the Cycles. The Good and the not-Good moved the Cycles of the Universe.

The Good and the not-Good came out of the Same Source, the Void, the Sekhem, the Source of Infinite Potential and Love.

The Tree Faces of Shiva

The Tree Faces of Shiva (Creator, Destructor and Brahman (Void, Love, Infinite Potential))

About the Trinity of the Mind

In the Eastern (Gnostic, Egyptian, Indian, African, Mystic) Believe System the Good and the Bad are both created by the Demiurg (or the Logos, “In the beginning was the Word and Word was God“) one of the Creations of the Void. The Void exists outside our Level of Existence. The Void is a Mystery.

The Good and the not-Good, the Bad, are Complementary Opponents. Their Union is the Whole. They Share the Void, the Empty Set. The Empty Set contains Everything that is Impossible.

The Good and the Bad Move the Cycles of the Universe. They represent the E-Motions (Expansion (Desire, Creation) and Contraction (Control, Destruction)) of the Void.

The Good and the Bad Cooperate by Competing to bring the Lonely Souls back to the Void.

The Good, the Creator, and the Bad, the Destructor, are Two Faces of the Same Entity, the Spiritual Trinity, who came out of the Nothing.

The connection with the Void can be found in the Middle (the Golden Mean) of the Body, the Heart, the Link between the Triangel of the Material World (the Body) and the Triangel of the Spiritual World (The Mind).

The Heart, the connection with the Void,  is the Seat of Consciousness. It is also the Seat of the Emotions (Soul).

When the Heart Weights like a Feather, the Upper (Mind) and the Lower Trinity (the Body) connected by the Emotions are in Balance.

The Bad and the Good are Attractors. When the Attraction becomes too High you get Addicted to the Bad or the Good. A huge Expansion is compensated by a huge Contraction to Balance the Cycle. When you want to avoid the Pain of Contraction you have to Balance your Life.

The Two Triangels with the Heart in the Middle are the Same As the Seven Chakra’s (2×3+1) and the Seven Virtues of the Renaissance.

The Seven Chakra’s together with the Spiritual Trinity are Similar to the Tree of Life, The Egyptian Pesedjet/Neteru and the Jewish Sephirot (3×3+1).

The Seven Chakra's

The Seven Chakra's

About the Trinity of the Body

When Body and Mind are in Balance, the Ideas of the Spiritual Trinity are received by the Trinity of the Mind and are Implemented by the Trinity of the Material Body in the Material World (Earth).

When the Mind is not connected to the Body and the Spirit, the Ideas become Abstractions (only Words) or the Impulses of the Desire of the Body Takes over Control.

When the Mind is not connected to the Spirit Innovation stops and Old Ideas (the Seeds) Repeat Themselves All the Time. The Human becomes a Machine Caught in the Wheel of the Good and the Bad.

The One, the Spiritual Trinity, who is The Void, the Good (the Creator) and the Bad (the Destructor), uses the Strategy of Tit-for-Tat, the Trickster.

The Trinity Imitates the Behavior of the Humans or We the Humans Copy their Behavior (“We are made in the Image of God“)!

The One wants to make the Humans Aware of the Fact that the only way to Survive the Infinite Chain of Conflicts (Dilemma’s, Contradictions), which is Life, is to Cooperate (Live out of the Heart) with the Infinite Potential, the God of Love.

Implosion

The Big Implosion

About Destruction

The Golden Rule of Ethics tries to avoid the Negative Emotions, the Emotions of Loss. It wants to Create a situation were Everybody is Happy.

The Golden Rule of Ethics helps a lot to Evaluate our Intentions and the Consequences of our Intentions but the effect of our Collective Actions on the Bigger Structures is almost Unpredictable.

It would help a lot if we could Expand our View from the Emotional Human Other to “all the Other Life-Forms” that are in Existence.

In this case we have to Understand the Effects of our Behavior on the Negative Emotions of the Bacteria, the Plants, the Animals, Earth and even the Universe.

It is not clear if our Emphatic System is able to Imagine the Inner World of the other Life Forms.

If the Act of Destruction is felt the same by all these Organisms it will be simply impossible to Live.

We have to Destroy Others to stay Alive.

The Universe Destroys to Stay Alive.

The Destruction of the Old is needed to Create the New.

At this moment we are confronted with a World-Wide Crisis on many Levels of Existence. The Collective Behavior of the Human Race is Destroying our Environment.

The Collective Desire to Create and Expand has reached the Limits of the System we Live in.

It is almost impossible to Control this Expansion. The Control Systems have also reached their Limits.

The Two Complementary Forces, The Good and the Bad, Expansion and Contraction, Desire and Control,  have both reached their Outer Limits.

If they both reach the Limits the Expanding Balloon of our Outer Universe will Explode in Itself (Implode) and move through the Void to another State. There is Simply no Space Left to Expand.

If this happens the Expansion of the Outer World will be Transformed into an Expansion of the Inner World.

The Big Bang, the Big Explosion, the Sublime Act of Creation, will Repeat itself and the Big Implosion will Create a New Universe.

The Flow of Time

The Flow of Time

About Not-Acting

Wu Wei (Not Acting, Acting without Effort) is an important concept of Taoism.

When you want to apply this concept you have to Know Everything There is to Know about the Cycles and the Forces of Nature. Wu Wei is only possible when you have aquired the Knowledge and the Wisdom of Ma’at/Sophia.

Most of the Time the Power of the Cycle is so Strong that it is impossible for Us to influence the Flow of Time.

Sometimes on a Rare Moment on a Special Place the Cycles can be Influenced.

Only at that Special Magic Moment the Human is able to do the Good or the Bad.

At all the other Moments History Takes its Course. The Good and Bad Forces, the Acts of God, Act without our Consent on the Higher Levels of Our Universe. It is a Waste of Time and Energy to Oppose these Forces.

Most of the Time we are Pushed by the Forces of Nature. We Act without Effort.

In Ancients Times the Forces were called Gods, Angels or Devils. At this moment we Name these Forces with Different Names (Gravity, the Strong and Weak Force and the Electro-Magnetic Force) but the Effect of the Forces on our Field of Existence stays the Same.

At a Magic Moment Everything, even the Impossible, is Possible. At such a moment we are ”in Tune with“  the Empty Set, the Void, the Sekhem, the Tao, the Field, the Love, the Mystery, the Unspoken.

The Emotions of Loss are created when we Lose Something.

If you Own Nothing You have Nothing to Lose.

If you Expect Nothing, Every Thing will Happen.

When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.

Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other
.

Therefore the Master
can act without doing anything
and teach without saying a word.
Things come her way and she does not stop them;
things leave and she lets them go.
She has without possessing,
and acts without any expectations.
When her work is done, she takes no credit.
That is why it will last forever
.

(Tao Te Ching,  Chapter II)

LINKS

About Game Theory and Ethics

About Cybernetics and Ethics

About Social Balance Theory

About Addiction

How to Resolve a Conflict

About the Seven Virtues

About the Illusion of Control and other Human Biases

About Morality and Ethics

About Ethical Dilemma’s

About Tit-for-Tat

About Tit-for-Tat and World Politics

About Genetic Similarity Theory

About the Renaissance

About Ma’at and the Measure of the Heart

About the Nine Egyptian Concepts (the Neteru)

About Plato and the New Harmony

About Socrate and the Golden Rule

About the Demiurg

About the Mystic Experience

About the Heart

About the Void

About the Sekhem

About the Trinity

About the Trickster

About Magic and the Memory Palace

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

In the 5th century AD, Martianus Capella defined the Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and (Musical) Harmony. The System of Capella became the model of the Medieval University.

The term liberal means “appropriate for free men“.  The Liberal Arts represented the kinds of skills and general knowledge needed by the Elite. The Servile Arts represented Specialized Tradesman Skills and knowledge needed by persons who were employed or owned by the Elite.
liberal arts

The Seven Liberal Arts

The Number Seven was not taken by Accident. This number represented the Seven Days of the Week, the Seven Spheres, the  Seven Planets, the Seven Notes and the Seven Colors.

The Seven Planets of the old cosmology included the Sun (Sol) and the Moon (Luna), which we now don’t regard as planets at all.   The other Five were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the 7th planet and the Son of the Sun.

seven planets of Ptotelemy

The Seven Planets in the System of Ptolemy

In Ancient Babylonia,  the Seven Spheres were represented by a Building , A Ziggurat, that looked like the Tower of Bable. This Babylonian Step Tower was a Visual Model of the StairWay to Heaven.  The Seven Spheres were divided in three Heavens and three Hells with the Earth in the Middle. The Pyramids in Egypt are based on the same model.

The Seven Heavens

Dante and The Tower of Bable

The Three Heavens contained Three Hierarchies of Angels, Nine in total. At the Top, the Eight Step,  the Creator was situated. Again the Creator consisted of three Entities, The Father, The Son and The Holy Gost (The Trinity).

As You can See the Number Three plays a very important role in the Ancient Models. The main reason could be that this number is the most efficient number when you want to create a Number System.

If you use this number as the Base System the Universe could be explained as Triangels within Triangels. With the help of the Trinity-Fractal Ancient models like the Tree of Life, and the Egyptian Pesedjet are easy to understand. The Trinity-Fractal comes back in modern Physics as the Triangel of Pascal.  In Ancient China the Triangel of Pascal was called the Wei Chi. The Wei Chi was used to play the Game of GO.

The The Three Levels and the Nine Hierarchies of Angels

Earth (the Grave), The Three Heavens and the Nine Hierarchies of Angels

In 1275 Raymond Lull designed a tool to Classify and Generate all the Knowledge of the Universe based on a Set of  Nine (3×3) Concepts.  His invention was described in his book Ars Magna (“The Ultimate General Art”).

Lull’s logic machine consisted of a stack of concentric disks mounted on an axis where they could rotate independently. The disks, made of card stock, wood, or metal, were progressively larger from top to bottom. As many as 16 words or symbols were visible on each disk. By rotating the disks, random statements were generated from the alignment of words. Lull’s most ambitious device held 14 disks.

The disk contained the Nine most important (Christian) Concepts of the Universe:  Bonitas (Goodness), Magnitudo (Greatness), Eternitas (Eternity), Potestas (Power), Sapientia (Wisdom), Voluntas (Will), Virtus (Virtue), Veritas (Truth), and Gloria (Glory).

Lull’s fame as a Mystic spread throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Centuries later, the German mathematician Leibniz acknowledged the importance of Lull’s Machine.

The idea for the machine came to Lull in a Mystical Vision that appeared to him after a period of fasting and contemplation. In reality, Lull may owe his Divine Inspiration to the Magi. They used a Device called the Zairja, an Idea Generator that used the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet to represent the 28 Categories of Thought in Arab Philosophy.

Ramon_Llull_-_Ars_Magna

In 1516 Thomas Moore published his book Utopia, a description of an Ideal State. Much later Tommaso Campanella (The City of the Sun), Francis Bacon (The New Atlantis) and Johannes Valentinus Andreae (Description of the Republic of Christianopolis) wrote comparable books. The books were based on Plato’s Republic. All of the books contained Architectual Designs based on Ancient Geometries.

Utopia Moore

Utopia Thomas Moore

Around 1300 Wealthy and Powerfull Merchants (de Medici) in Italy regained interest in the Ancient Knowledge of the Egyptians, the Arab, the Greek and the Romans. This knowledge was almost completely destroyed by the Church of Rome.

Scientists, Poets and Artists (Petraca, Dante, Boccaccio) visited Byzantium and discovered ancient manuscripts written in Greek and Latin.  Greek scholars were encouraged to come from Byzantium to Italy. Byzantium and Europe was ransacked for copies of the long unused Latin classics and copyists multiplied them.

Libraries were founded, and schools for the study of both Greek and Latin in their classic forms were opened at Rome, Mautua, Verona, and many other towns. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the proces gained a further impetus because of a number of Greek humanists who moved from Byzantium to Italy.

In 1462 the Platonic Academy was opened in Florence under the patronage of Florentine Duke Cosimo de’ Medici. Its leader became Marcilio Ficino.

Around 1463 Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned Marsilio Ficino to translate a book called the Pimander with high priority  into Latin from a Greek manuscript brought from Macedonia. This book contained the Corpus Hermeticum that was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

Hermes Trismegistus “Thrice-Wise“was named Thoth or Djehuti in Ancient Egypt. The Djed of Djehuti represents the Power of the Snake (the Kundalini) in the Spinal Column. Thoth was the Scribe of the Gods, the inventor of writing, and was usually depicted in hieroglyphics with the head of an Ibis Bird. This head of the IBIS carried the Moon, the Planet of the Mother God, The Night and of Magic.

Thoth and the Human represented by the Ape. The Ape uses the Eye of Horus (the third Eye) to look at Thoth

Thoth, the Ibis with the Moon on his Head and the Human represented by the Ape. The Ape uses the Eye of Horus (the third Eye) to look at Thoth. The Eye of Horus is the Pineal Gland, the Seat of the Imagination in the Brain.

At that time Scientists believed that the Older the Truth the Bettter. They believed there was once a Golden Age in which the Eternal Truth was known. From that time on History was in a Downfall until the time of the Resurrection.

Marsilio Fucino dated Hermes Trismegistus “long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph“. His dating of the Corpus “proved” that the writings of Hermes contained the Primal Source of Wisdom.

In 1945 Coptic fragments of the Corpus Hermeticum together with many other Gnostic Writings were found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

At this moment we know that the Corpus Hermeticus just like the Emerald Tablet ,another text dedicated to Hermes, was written in Alexandria around 200 BC.

Alexandria, created by Alexander the Great, was the place where the Ancient Knowledge of Heliopolis ,the City of the Sun, was stored in its immense libraries after its destruction. A part of this library was later moved to Byzantium, the Center of the East when the library of Alexandria was destructed.

The most important message of Hermes is that the Physical World is the Manifestation of the Spiritual World. This is summarized in the Hermetic adage “As above, so below.” At this moment we would name the concept of “As Above, So Below” a Self-Reference or a Fractal.  The old Scientists knew that one Concept returned on every Level of Our Inside and Outside Reality.

The Corpus Hermeticus provided a seminal force in the development of Renaissance thought and culture. After the Dark Middle Ages, controlled by the Rule System of the Church of Rome, the Scientists started to do their Own Research and  Thinking.

The Cycle of Culture moved from the Stage of Order to the Stage of Imagination.

Hermes Trismegistus in the Cathedral of Siena

Hermes Trismegistus in the Cathedral of Siena

One of these Scientists was Giordano Bruno. Bruno was born in 1548. At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order, was trained in the Liberal Arts of that time  and became an ordained priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples he became known for his skill with the Art of Memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his System before Pope Pius V and Cardinal Rebiba.

The Art of Memory belonged to the rhetoric tradition as a technique which enabled the orator to deliver long speeches from memory with unfailing accuracy.

giordano_bruno

Giordano Bruno

At that time people had to Learn a lot of information by Heart. To do this they used a Mnemonic System called a Memory Palace. The memory images were linked with visualized locations that could be found in architecture, books, sculpture and painting, which were seen by practitioners of the Art of Memory as Externalizations of Internal Memory.

Artists used the Images that were part of the Memory Palace as a reference. The Images were linked with Universal Concepts. In the time of Middle Ages and the Renaissance people knew the Meaning of every Image that was used. Geometric Structures, Paintings, Poems and Buildings were carriers of many Levels of Meaning. Some of these levels were only known by the Inner Circle of Ancient Secret Societies.

In the old days the Inside World was seen as the most important place to Explore. The Outside was nothing but a Projection of the Inside.

Examples of Ancient Memory Palaces are Ancient Egypt, the City of Meru (Sri Yantra), the City of Heliopolis, the Babylonian Ziggurat, the Egyptian Pyramid, The Temple of Solomon,  and the most important Memory Palace,  the Zodiac. In the Middle Ages Cathedrals (Chartres), Palaces (Alhambra) and Temples (Taj Mahal) were designed and used as Memory Palaces.

new jerusalem coming down out of heaven
The New Jerusalem

One of the most important Christian Memory Palaces is the New Jerusalem. It is a Vision about the New Earth that will arise after the Seven Seals are Broken and the Seven Trumpets have Sounded.

The Seven Trumpets are a symbol of the Seven Chakra’s. The Apocalyps, the opening of the Seventh Seal, is a symbol of the Jump of the Kundalini to the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.

A large portion of the final two chapters of the Bible deals with John of Patmos’ Vision of the New Jerusalem. He describes the New Jerusalem as “‘the bride, the wife of the Lamb’“.  After John witnesses the new heaven and a new earth “that no longer has any sea“, an angel takes him “in the Spirit” to a vantage point on “a great and high mountain” to see the New Jerusalem’s descent.

According to John, the New Jerusalem is “pure gold, like clear glass” and its “brilliance [is] like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” The New Jerusalem is a Symbol of  the Renewal of Religion that will take place and which secures the Prosperity of the Human World.

Alhambra
Alhambra

“Some place is chosen of the largest possible extent and characterised by the utmost possible variety, such as a space house divided into a number of rooms. Everything of note therein is carefully committed to the memory…The next step is to distinguish something [to be remembered] by some particular symbol which will serve to jog the memory…. These symbols are then arranged as follows. The first thought is placed, as it were, in the forecourt; the second, let us say, in the living-room; the remainder are placed in due order all round… and entrusted not merely to bedrooms and parlours, but even to the care of statues and the like. This done, as soon as the memory of the facts requires to be revived, all these places are visited in turn and the various deposits are demanded from their custodians, as the sight of each recalls the respective details” (Quintilian Institutio Oratoria, Book XI).

The Temple of Solomon

The Temple of Solomon

The Art of Memory was a very important Art because Manuscripts were very rare and the use of Manuscripts and Symbols was seen as the major cause of the detoriation of society. Books produced “fake” scientists who are not wise but only appear to be wise.

For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practise their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are not part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise” (Plato, Phaedrus).

Chartres

Chartres

Giulio Camillo was one of the most famous men of the 16th century. With a commission of 1200 ducats from the King of France, Francois I, he created a theatre that contained divine powers: whoever entered the theatre would emerge with a complete memory of all the knowledge that had ever existed. The design of his theatre is described in his book L’idea del teatro written in 1554, the last year of his life. The theatre consisted of Seven Levels and contained the complete Knowledge of the Corpus Hermeticum.

Borobudur (Meru Temple) contains the Sri Yantra

Borobudur (Meru Temple)

Following the order of the creation of the world, we shall place on the first levels the more natural things…those we can imagine to have been created before all other things by divine decree. Then we shall arrange from level to level those that followed after, in such a way that in the seventh, that is, the last and highest level shall sit all the arts… not by reason of unworthiness, but by reason of chronology, since these were the last to have been found by men” (Guilio Camillo).

meru

The Design of the City of Meru is based on the Sri Yantra-generator. This Generator generates Quasi-Crystals and Penrose Tilings.

At the time of Gordiano Bruno Copernicus detected that the Sun was the Center of our Planetary System. His discovery was in conflict with the Theories that were educated at the Universities that were controlled by the Church of Rome.

Gordiano Bruno saw that the new theories were in line with the teachings of the Corpus Hermeticum in which the Sun (of Heliopolis) was in the Center. Bruno started to Fuse the Knowlegde of the Corpus Hermeticum with his already highly advanced Memory System.

At that time the power of the Church of Rome was going down rapidly. Europe was divided by religious wars between Catholics and Protestants. The merchants, bankers and artisans of Europe’s largest cities and towns resented the fact that local bishops of the Church controlled all of their commercial and economic activities.

Priests married and then took mistresses, holy offices were bought and sold for the highest price, incompetence among the clergy became the rule, the congregation of more and more people in towns and cities perhaps exposed the amorality and immorality of the clergy.

Taj Mahal (Shiva Temple)

Taj Mahal (Shiva Temple)

Gordiano Bruno believed he had to create a new Religion based on the Ancient foundation of Religion he found in Egypt.

Gordiano was a free-thinker and he never stopped expressing his own believes. When he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled the convent and started to travel Europe.  He visited the French King Henry III, the English Queen Elizabeth, Wittenburg , the Center of the Protestant Movement, the city of Prague and Emperor Rudolf II.

At every place he came he started to educate the others in his Expanding (forbidden) Vision of the Infinite Universe. At every place his free-thinking brought him into a conflict and he had to move on.

In 1592 he was lured to Venice, arrested by the Inquisition and transported to Rome. In 1600 he was convicted and publicly burned at the Campo de’ Fiori in Rome. In 1889 a Statue was erected at the place of his execution.

The Statue of Giordano Bruno at the Campo Fiero

The Statue of Giordano Bruno at the Campo de' Fiori

At the time of Gordiano Bruno many of the important people where highly interested in Magic, Alchemy and Astrology. One of the people Gordiano visited,  the Emperor Rudolf II,  practised Alchemy in his own private laboratory and spared no expense in bringing Europe’s best alchemists to court, such as John Dee, the personal alchemist of Queen Elizabeth.

There is no evidence that Giordiano Bruno met John Dee when he was in England but he was in contact with the most important people that were part of the “Hermetic Circle” of John Dee. There is a lot of evidence that Bruno was the creator of the Rosicrusians.

Queen Elizabeth and John Dee

Queen Elizabeth and John Dee

Bruno’s books on the Art of Memory were in reality Courses in the Solar Magic taught by Hermes Trismegistus.

Bruno knew that the most important tools of the Magician are the Power of his Imagination and the Connection with the Major Powers in the Hierarchy in the Heavens, the ArchAngels and the Demiurg, the Creator of the Matrix.

The System of Bruno was created to make is possible to generate powerfull images and Magical Rituals to make the Right Connection (Bonding) with the Major Creators of the Universe we live in.

There are three gates through which the hunter of souls (the Magician) ventures to bind: vision,  hearing and mind or imagination. If it happens that someone passes through all three of these gates, he binds most powerfully and ties down most tightly.” “He who enters through the gate of hearing is armed with his voice and with speech, the son of voice. He who enters through the gate of vision is armed with suitable forms, gestures, motions and figures. He who enters through the gate of the imagination, mind and reason is armed with customs and the arts.” (Giordano Bruno, Theses de Magia, Vol. LVI).

An Image to make a connection with the Power of the Sun

An Astrologial Image of Bruno. It contains the Lyre of David (an Ancient Pole Star).

Robert Fludd was born in England in 1574,  thirty years after Giordano Bruno was born. Between 1598 and 1604, Fludd studied the Liberal Arts on the European mainland. Robert Fludd was one of the last Hermetic Scientists of the Renaissance. In his life he tried to describe everything that was known until that day. Robert Fludd was a Rosicrucian.

One of his products is a Musical Memory Palace and a Memory Theatre, the Globe, that was used by Lord Chamberlain’s company to which Shakespeare belonged. In the view of Fludd a theatrical play was a Projection of a part of a Memory Palace.  The Theatre was a tool to educate the Elite (and the Masses) into the Hermetic Whole.

Robert Fludd, The Temple of Music

The work of Bruno and Fludd was taken over by many other Scientists but the relationship between the Art of Memory and Magic slowly faded away.

At the end of the Renaissance Reason, Logic, became much more important than the Seven Liberal Arts.  The Scientists of the Age of Enlightment wanted to get rid of the Delusions of the Imagination. The only thing that counted were Facts observed by the Senses.

Leibniz (1646-1716) was one of the exceptions. He was an Old Fashioned Renaissance Magician and believed in the Harmony of the Spheres. He invented many theories that proved his Point of View and are now proven to be Right.

He believed that scholarship or “perfect knowledge of the principle of all sciences and the art of applying them ” could be divided into three equally important parts : the Art of Reasoning, the Art of Inventing (Combinatorics) and the Art of Memory and the Imagination (Magic). He even wrote an unpublished manuscript about the Art of Memory.

Leibniz got into a big conflict with Newton about the Role of the Imagination and Scientific Discovery in Society. Afther his death Newton and his Protectors, the Medici of Florence, started an effective campaign to prove that Newton was the inventor of the Theories of Leibniz. This is the reason why Newton became the major Scientist of his time.

Rosicrucian_Rose

The Rosicrucian Rose with the Trinity of the Chained Lion of the Sun, the Unicorn of the Moon and the Crossed Triangels of the Center, the Heart Chakra.

After the Renaissance, the Stage of the Imagination, the Cycle of Culture moved to the Stage of the Emotions, the Time of the French Revolution. The Old Social Structures of Europe started their big Transformation.

Around 1740 the Industrial Revolution started in England and the Theories of Newton, Descartes and Kant about the Cold Mechanical Reasoner without Feeling and Imagination took the Lead. The ultimate products of the Industrial Revolution, the Computer and the related Factory-Model are now the Leading Paradigm.

The link between the Machine that Controls and Generates our Universe (the Yantra), the Ideas/Concepts that govern our Universe and the related mostly Astronomical Symbols is now completely lost.

Almost nobody is able to understand and value the Ancient Knowledge of Heliopolis that Scientists like Gordiano Bruno and Robert Fludd were trying to reconstruct during the Renaissance.

The Medici and their Successors, the Big Bankers and Merchants, finally succeeded in the Destruction of the Imagination and the Emotions.

Starting 1950 the Cycle is moving into a new Renaissance.

After the Invention of Quantum Mechanics (inspired by Robert Fludd) it becomes clearer and clearer that The Imagination is the Major Power that Creates and Sustains our Universe.

The Ideas of Bruno, Fludd, Plato, the Corpus Hermeticum and the Ancient Knowledge of Heliopolis are coming Back.

One of the most interesting scientists of the Art of Memory is Alan Turing. He constructed a very simple machine now called a Turing Machine that contained a Memory and a Writing Device that could move backwards and forwards. With the help of this simple Device Turing was able to solve many Mathematical Problems. At the end of his Life just before he committed suicide he started to research Morphology, the Science of the Forms.

What to Do?

The Current University System is highly fragmented. It needs a general principle to Unite all the now diverging Subjects of Investigation. The complexity of our Science is enormous. The link between Science, Art and Religion is gone.  We are in the same state as the World was at the end of the Middle Ages.

Perhaps we could introduce the Memory Palace again. It would certainly help to improve the Memory of the Students who are now Copying and Pasting the Internet.

Behind The Memory Palace lies the theory of the Fractal Universe (“As Above, So Below“) and the Trinity-Pattern. The Same Pattern Repeats itself on every Level of Existence.

The Fractal Universe simplifies Science enormously!

Perhaps the Modern Scientists could start to look for Repeating Structures on many Levels and Exchange these Structures. They could start to listen to the Scientists of Physics and Mathematics who have already found the fractal patterns.

LINKS

An English translation of the Pimander

About the Power of the Imagination

About the Nine Concepts of Egyptian Science

About Alan Turing and the Art of Memory

About the Egyptian Djed

About the 7th Planet, Saturn

Why the Trinity is the Most Efficient Number Base

Why Leibniz was a Magician

About the Triangle of Pascal

About the Power of Reason

About Plato and Harmony

How Robert Fludd influenced Quantum Mechanics

About the War between Newton and Leibniz

How Socrate changed the Cycle of Western Culture

Why the World is one big Memory Palace

About the Renaissance

Why the Industrial Revolution was really a Social Revolution

About Epigenetics and the Power of the Imagination

About the Placebo Effect

Arthur Zajonc: Catching the Light

About the Matrix

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

The Matrix

The Movie the Matrix states an ancient belief that we are living in a Dream World.

In the old Gnostic version the Matrix is created by the Demiurg, the Creator of our Material Universe.

In the new version the Dream World is created by a Computer Simulator.

At this moment Physicists and Mathematicians are exploring the Concept of the Matrix and are achieving remarkable results.

One of these scientists is Reginald Cahill. He has developed a challenging theory called Process Physics.

One of the most important experiments in Physics was the Michelson and Morley experiment in 1887. The aim of this experiment was to discover the speed of the Ether. At that time the physicists believed space (ether) was moving. The result of the experiment was spectacular.

MichelsonMichelson and Morley found that the speed of Light was a constant (now called c) and the Ether (Space) was empty and static.

Cahill (and many others) analyzed the experiments and many other comparable experiments and detected a fatal error. The fatal error was a scientific “script”, the theory of Newton.

At that time Quantum Mechanics was not invented. Cahill found what they were looking for, the Absolute Motion of Space.

The result of the Michelson and Morley Experiment was used by Einstein in 1905 to create his Special Theory of Relativity.

This theory has been verified by many experiments so almost nobody started to question the theory of Einstein. Cahill proved that the absolute motion of space is not contradictory to the experiments that verified the theory of Einstein. Einstein was totally wrong!

einstein

Albert Einstein

Everything that is, is Space itself and Space is generating Space. This statement is a “self-reference” and can be formulated as an iterative function Space (i) = Function (Space (i-1)) + Randomness.

This Randomness is the result of Quantum Mechanics.

Every Self-Propelling Extension of Space has a Free Will to choose a “direction”. This “direction” can be organized as a causal system in which case Time appears. In general “space” is trying to create a Space-Time that is the most predictable to give the objects in Space-Time a change to survive and grow.

Cahill found the “Function” and suddenly many disjoint fields of physics were united. Like every other big “paradigm shift” the theory of Cahill is officially banned.

Attacking Einstein is “not-done” because when the foundation of Einstein falls the new (old) Physics falls apart

The paradigm shift of Cahill is not really a paradigm shift at all. It brings Physics back to a very ancient track that was abandoned a 100 years ago.

What is happening?

quantum foam

Quantum Foam

Space now called Quantum Foam is creating Space. In this process of continuous creation every possible form is created.

Space is Relational, a connector of forms, and the connectors have a lot in common with the cells in our body. The fabric of Space is self-referential which means that the creative pattern behind every form is basically the same.

Cahill shows that the creation of space, the creation of the Stars and the Planets, the creation of the body and the cells is based on the same iterative process.

This process can be seen as the calculation of a very fast quantum-computer that is creating itself. Cahill has discovered the software-design of the Matrix.

The interpretation of the output of the quantum-computer is done by a conscious mind but the conscious mind is also the output of the quantum computer.

The feedback-loops in the cell-like structures of self-propelling space can be seen as a giant mind (a neural network) that is split in many (in)dependent minds. One of these minds is the mind of the Human but cells, the body, the brain, earth, our galaxy and the universe are also mindful.

What we are able to see depends on what we are able to see. If we want to look through the lens of Special Relativity we are able to get a long way. At some point we get stuck.

Our interpretation system is desperately trying to fit our experiments with our theory. We measure what we want to see and we are able to get a long way. We develop instruments that contain our current theory and we prove the theory we want to prove.

Is there an end to our Interpretation System?

Quantum Foam made out of triangles

Quantum Foam made out of triangles

Our interpretation system fails if we don’t see a structure anymore. At that moment we think our interpretation system is seeing Chaos but Chaos is non-existent. Chaos is an interpretation of something we don’t understand.

The Limits of Chaos are just like Space extending every time we embrace a new form. Our Knowledge of our Reality expands just like the creator of forms, space, is expanding.

There is a Limit to our Understanding. This limit is the smallest self-referential pattern that is able to generate every form there is. Finding this pattern, the Essence, is the Quest of Mathematics.

One of the most briljant mathematicians, Stephen Wolfram, the founder of Mathematica, a software package to program mathematics has spend many years, playing with his own software, to find this pattern. He even created a complete new science, a New Kind of Science, to explore this issue.

The mathematician Chaitin has proved that we, the Humans, are unable to find this pattern, with the help of programming languages and computers. He proves that we are able to get a long way but at a certain moment Time is going to bother us. We will simply not be able to beat the speed of the creative wave of ever expanding Space.

Is there an end to the expansion of space?

Quantum Foam

Quantum Foam

In our current thinking space looks like a bubble and bubbles can be expanded into eternity. The new forms of space are different.

The interpretation of space is changing and space could be expanding until eternity in a closed system.

Space could be bounded by itself. It is not impossible that space could find another form to expand again and again.

If space is creative and mindful it could create every space that is possible but we the Humans have no idea what this could be because we are moving behind space itself.

If we could become space itself we could imagine everything we wanted.

How could we move out of the Matrix?

Quantum Foam

Quantum Foam

We are a part of the consciousness that contains the consciousness that..

If we merge the splits in our simulated consciousness and merge the splits between our consciousness and the conscioussness of the other simulated consciousnesses and ….we could move out of the Matrix.

What are we doing in the Simulator?

Quantum Foam

Quantum Foam

The ancient Gnostic Mystics believed that Our Universe was created by the Demiurg, the Great Architect. The Demiurg was a “high level’ Consciousness who was allowed by the Creator (The Light, The Void) to create a Universe that would speed up the awareness of many “splitted” consciousnesses, The Sparks of the Light.

The Earth Simulator is a Learning Device and every Soul is allowed to enter the Simulator to (re-)play a Game.

When the Soul enters the Matrix his memory of past lives, other games playd, is erased (the Veil). On Earth we are playing the Games we have chosen. When you are aware of the Game you are able to move out of the Simulator to move to another place to play different games of creation.

What are the possibilities when you leave the Simulator?

Quantum Foam

Quantum Foam

Create Your Own Universe. You don’t need to be a Game Designer to do this. The Simulator is already in place and Old Designs are never repeated in the Multi-Universe.

LINKS

Are we Living in the Matrix?

Reginald Cahill, About the Michelson and Morley Experiments

Why Tine fills Space

About Tesla and the Ether

Constructur Theory of David Deutsch

About the Ether

A lot of documents about Process Physics

An explanation of his theory by Cahill

About the Limits of Interpretation

About Leibniz and the Limits of Interpretation

How to Merge Your Consciousness

The POWER of Habit

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

 

John Dryden famously said, “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”

Confucius said, “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.”

And Aristotle noticed that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

 

It’s pretty clear that the habits you adopt will shape who you are. What are your habits?
Do you eat the same thing for lunch, go through the same exercise routine, and fall into bed at the same time each night?
Or maybe you’ve made a habit out of eating something sweet before bed, avoiding the gym, and staying up as late as possible.

When it comes to your fitness, the two habits that define you are your eating and exercise habits. In fact, everyone that you know who is in great shape has dialed in these two important habits. Check these amarose reviews.

If you aren’t happy with your current state, then simply adjust your eating and exercise habits.

 

Here’s how to adopt a habit:

1) Decide on the ONE habit that you would like to develop. It’s tempting to pick up 3 or 4 healthy habits but choosing just one new habit is realistic and doable. Here are some healthy habit ideas:

• Do not eat after 7pm each night.
• Bring your lunch to work instead of eating fast food.
• Exercise 4 times a week before or after work for 45 minutes each time.
• Only eat fruits and veggies as your afternoon snack (mostly veggies).
• Get up early and exercise for an hour each morning.
• Workout with me 3 times a week.

 

2) Write your new habit down on paper. Also include your 3 main motivators for developing this new habit, the obstacles you’ll face, and your strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Here’s an example:

• My new habit is to work with a personal trainer 3 times each week. Learn more about protetox.
• My 3 main motivators are 1) to feel confident in my bathing suit this summer, 2) to have more energy, and 3) to fit into my skinny jeans.
• The obstacles I will face are 1) not having the energy to go to my session after work, 2) not having enough money to pay for sessions, and 3) not having my spouse’s support.
• I will overcome these obstacles by 1) doing my workouts before work instead of after work, so I have more energy, 2) cutting down on frivolous spending to ensure that I can afford it, and 3) asking my spouse to join me so we can get in shape together.

 

3) Commit fully to your new habit, in a public way. This could mean posting it on social media, or simply announcing it at the dinner table. Put yourself in a position where you’ll be less likely to give up on your new habit. Visit https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/561560/six-best-testosterone-booster-for-muscle-growth-to-try-in-2022/.

 

4) Keep track of your progress. You could keep a detailed journal or simply make a check mark on each calendar day that you successfully exercise your new habit. Once your new habit becomes second nature, usually in about 30 days, feel free to add a second habit by going through the same steps. I’d love for my fitness program to become your new healthy habit!

The Age of Commercial Space Exploration is Near

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

I am involved in a new company that is selling a new product of Richard Branson called Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is selling suborbital spaceflights for the price of $200.000.

Our principal aim behind this is not to make money. The principal aim is to reinvest any money we make into space exploration,” Branson said. “We expect to double, triple, quadruple the number of astronauts in the next few years that have currently experienced space,” he said.

To date, Branson said, about a 100 pioneers have been willing to pay $200,000 to be the first people to go into space via Virgin Galactic. “These are the kinds of people who are going to enable us to bring the cost of space travel down,” he stated.

Space Tourism is not the primary target of the Company. It wants to be the first commercial company involved in Space Exploration.

Space Exploration is a major theme of Science Fiction. When I was young I read all the books in this Genre I could find. Science Fiction has stimulated Science extensively. Many Scientist got their inspiration out of explorations of the Future. When the Theme was set it was only a matter of time when somebody would realize the Inspiration of the Author.

The step from Idea to Realization is mostly not the issue of a Science Fiction novel. In most cases we have realized all the technology and our just “doing it”. Most of the time the final realization takes much longer than the writer could imagine. Jules Verne put a Man on the Moon about a hundred years ago.

The major theme of Space Exploration in Science Fiction is War. We meet Extraterrestrials and they or we don’t like each other. We are part of a Federation (mostly the Good Ones) and in the end we beat the Bad Ones. Interesting enough many of the Stories related to UFO’s look a lot like the Science Fiction Stories. The only difference is that THEY are visiting US.

In the Renaissance the people in the West started to explore Earth like we want to explore Space. After The Renaissance the Age of Exploitation started, The Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution followed by the Age of Information made Space Exploration finally possible.

History repeats itself so I can imagine what will happen next. Both stages are part of a bigger cycle, the Cycle of Culture. It takes about 1250 years to turn around.

At this moment we are in a situation comparable to the year 758. The only thing that is different from that time is that we have moved to another Level, Earth.

What happened around 750?

At 750 we are in the Middle of the Middle Ages called the Dark Ages. It was the time when the Great Empire of Rome was collapsing because of a huge movement of hungry people. The world was struggling with a sudden change of the Climate. Everywhere States were fighting to expand and defend their territories. Around this time a new Spiritual Leader, Mohammed, created a new Religion. It was the start of the expansion of the Arab World and the Arab Empires..

Conditions in Western Europe slowly began to improve after 700 as Europe experienced an agricultural boom caused by a substantial increase in solar radiation. About 600 years later the Renaissance started.

The Great Empire of the West is currently collapsing because of a huge movement of hungry people. Just like the Roman Empire we are really not aware of the collapse. In the last days Romans spend all their time playing very expensive games and were enjoying life to the extremes. They forced all the other states to pay enormous amounts of taxes to keep the Entertainment Business running. In the End their stable infrastructure collapsed.

I hope you see the relationship.

Replace the Arab Expansion in the Middle Ages by the coming Chinese Expansion in you will know Who’s gone Win.

Millions of people are waiting for the Coming of the new Messiah, the new Spiritual Leader of the World. According to the Cycle He (or She!) will come soon.

In the West we are playing Games. Leslie Benzies, the producer of Grand Theft Auto IV recently revealed in an interview that the amount of money spent on the development of the game was right around $100 million. The budget of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was $300 million. The development costs of all the movies and games exceeds the budget of the World Food Organization with ease.

Why do we need to move into Space?

The first reason could be to escape Earth. We need another place to live because life on earth is not the way it was. If we do this and Science Fiction is Right at the long term we will move into a comparable situation, Competition on the Level of the Galaxy. We have to learn who are our friends and who are our enemies.

The second reason could be “Spin-Off”. Space Exploration has boosted Science and Technology.

The last reason could be to see Earth as it is. A Beautiful Blue Slowly Turning Globe without any Borders. From Space Earth looks like a Paradise. I imagine the Extraterrestials are seeing this also! This could be the reason they are here!

The Cycle of Civilization is a slow cycle but there are cycles with a much longer periodicity. Many “Old Civilizations” found the Cycle of the Precession of the Equinox and “calculated” the Center of this Cycle, The Mother Goddess situated in the Pleiades.

The coming Years the Very Long Cycle and the Cycle of Civilization are coming into a Conjuction. The Effect of this Conjunction is unknown. Human Civilization has not gathered enough data to make an understandable prediction. The only thing we know is that we are living in a Very Special Time of History.

One of the people that analyzed the very Long Cycle (Terrence McKenna) predicted Time/Space-Travel as a major Novelty that would soon appear. Just like the Mayas and many other Civilizations he knew there is a very cheap alternative, DMT (a psychedelic drug).

The Old Civilizations predicted a return of the (Virgin!) Mother Goddess of the Pleiades (Ises, Mary Magdalene, The Black Madonna, Alcyone). Perhaps She is the New Spiritual Leader many religions are waiting for. I hope the Male Religions don’t mind She is a Female!

Perhaps Richard Branson should start a new Company soon, Virgin TimeTravel. She Will Love It.

Wait and See.

About the Renaissance

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

The Renaissance was a Cultural Movement that spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. It started in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of Western Europe.

 After the Dark Middle Ages, controlled by the Church of Rome, aimed at the Inside (Spirit and Soul), many people wanted to discover the Outside.

The Renaissance is the Age of Discovery. It is the time of Columbus.

T704836_23The printing press, invented in 1450, made it possible to distribute all the new knowledge all over the known world.

The new knowledge is in reality very old knowledge. Renaissance means re-birth and the Renaissance is the re-birth of the knowledge (and wisdom) of the Greek and the Romans.

This knowledge was forbidden and destroyed by the Rulers in Rome. It came back because of renewed contacts with the Arab Culture. At that time Arab Culture was at the top of its cycle.

Art (Leonardo Da Vinci) and Science (Copernicus (1514)) exploded. Both of them were funded by the rich merchants (Medici, Venice).

Scientists started to experiment and used advanced tools (Microscope, Telescope) to study the external world and the internal world (the Body). They looked with their own Eyes and not with the Eyes of the Bible.

renaissanceperIn the Arts the Perspective was invented. Artist used advanced tools (“camera’s) to support their own eyes to project the outside world on a flat surface.

Another Re-Birth was the Reformation (Luther, 1517). The Bible was translated in many languages and distributed by the printing press to many people.

For the first time people outside the Church could read and study Religious documents and compare them with Scientific Evidence  from Greece, Arabia and Rome.

columbus_taking_possessionThe need to convert others to the Christian faith was huge. Many expeditions, Crusades,  were send out to unknown territory to find convertible humans.

The missionaries used the old fashioned trick learned from the Huns to force people to accept  the Faith by violence. Millions of people were tortured and killed.

At the outside of the Christian Empire the Arabs were attacking all the time. They were also very wealthy.

The search for Gold stimulated the weapon-industry of the west.

Not only the weapon industry flourished also the transport industry (Maps, Navigation, Big Ships) made a lot of progress.

The combination of both of them (The Navy, “War-Ships”) helped the West to Rule the Sea.

mercatorProduction in the Renaissance was carried out by the Guilds, a Cooperation of Craftsman. They were almost in total control of every craft in the big cities.

The Renaissance (Creation) is part of the Cycle of Western Culture.

In this Cycle it was preceded by the rule of Roman Church (Control) and followed by the Industrial Revolution (Social).

The rebirth was fuelled by an Expansion Phase (Fire).

In this phase not only Arabic Culture expanded and rose to a high point also the new rulers of the West (Celts, Germans), the descendants of the Huns, created new Kingdoms and build the Cathedrals. The Cathedrals contained all the occult knowledge of that time (Sacred Geometry, The Spiral, The Light, The Four Forces,.).

On a macro level we see an interesting pattern.

The phase of Fire (Expansion, Practice, Summer, Sensory, …) fuels the phase of Creation (Up, Spirit, Idea, Eye, Winter, Mythic,…).

Ideas are put into Practice or Practice generates Ideas. The combination of Sensory and Mythic (A Game) is called Invention or Exploration by Will McWhinney.

The game of Exploration is an Infinite Game. Infinite games are about continuing the Game.

Going Back to Jump to another Level is also a pattern that is visible in the most advanced theory about ecologies promoted by the Resilience Alliance (RA).

The Ecology of the Roman Church dominant in the Dark part of the Middle Ages collapsed. It collapsed because of many factors.

In this time the Plague killed millions of people. The Climate was very instable (An Ice-Age) and the new Kingdoms of the Huns and Celts were heavily expanded. They started to fight for dominance.

According to the theory of RA a collapsing ecology reverts to a previous stage to rise again.

What does this say about Innovation?

Innovation is fuelled by an earlier (expansion) stage in history. It is triggered by a collapse of an Ecology.

If we look at the current state of the world we see a Collapse (a Compression) of the World Wide Ecology. It will certainly generate a stage of Ideas and Creativity.

This is needed to solve the current problems. In contrary to many ideas about Innovation the only way to solve the problems is to Look Back and Learn from History.

We can learn from the Control Stage of the Middle Ages where one paradigm was enforced. At this moment Science is enforcing again one paradigm, the paradigm of Control, Abstraction, Technology, the Computer, Statistics and the Factory.

They were created during the Industrial Revolution that was aimed at creating Unity (Every Thing is the Same).

At this moment we are moving into the stage of the Center, Balance and Harmony.  In this stage we always jump to a new level of Conscioussness. In the last Center-Stage the Religion of the Islam was born so the chances are high that a new World Religion will appear or re-appear.

People that explore contradicting paradigms are excluded from the scientific community. This community controls the world of Inspiration just like the Guilds were controlling the crafts in the Renaissance. To innovate we need Freedom of Paradigm.

We can learn from the Idea stage of the Renaissance. It teaches us that a Union of Art, Science and Spirituality is needed to support real innovation.

We can also learn from a comparable phase in the Cycle, the phase of Harmony. In this phase the old is completely destroyed by an invasion of people outside its territory (The Huns).

The West is trying with all its force to block a huge part of the Earth (the “Under-Developed” countries) to take part in its innovation. It creates (Economic and Legal) Walls just like the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire created Walls to protect their territory from the Huns and The Celts when they were in their end-stage.

The Under-Developed countries are of a Lower Culture. Perhaps these cultures carry something the West desperately needs. In these cultures the collective is more important than the individual. In these cultures the sick, the poor and the old are still taken care of.

Funny.

I believe this was the message Christianity wanted to bring to the World.

Something went wrong in the West don’t you think?

LINKS

About the Perspective

Lectures about the Renaissance part 1

Lectures about the Renaissance part 2

Lectures about the Renaissance part 3

Too Many Insights about IT-Architectures and IT-Strategy

Monday, November 19th, 2007

I have been responsible for IT-Architectures and IT-Strategy between 1984 and 1997. From 1997 until now I have reviewed many Architectures and Strategies when I was part of Meta Group (now Gartner).

An IT-Architecture is a System that describes the components of a Software System on an Abstract Level.

An IT-Strategy is a Process that contains Stages. In every Stage a new version of the IT-Architecture is implemented.

A Well-Formed IT-Strategy is able to Adapt the Old Version of the Architecture. When you’re Strategy has failed You have to Start All over Again.

There are two types of Systems. The first type contains Systems. The second type I call a Foundation. It is the level where we think “the Real Things are Happening”. The major problem is to define the Level of the Foundation.

If you look at your Own computer the Foundation lies deeper than you think. It depends on “What You Understand About a Computer“.

We could define the Foundation as the Operating System of Your Computer (most likely a Microsoft Operating System) but below this Foundation other Foundations are in Existence.

At a more abstract level you can see the real Problem. The problem is Containing.

If you use the Containing Metaphor you Never Stop but You Have to Stop Somewhere.

The level where you Stop is the level where you give the responsibility to An-Other. This can be an Organization, A Person or when we dig deep enough even Nature.

When you give the responsibility for something to an-other you have to Trust the Other and the Other has to take Care of You.

The reason why Architectures fail is that they are based on a Foundation that is not stable on the long term.

Suddenly somebody starts to tinker with the Foundation and suddenly everything goes wrong. This happens all the time. The others leave you alone and you have to take care of yourself.

A solution was to create a Foundation that was able to withstand every Change at the Lower level.

This layer was called Middleware. It is situated somewhere between the UP and the DOWN of all the Layers. History has proven that this solution is not helpful.

Everything changes all the time.

I want to give you a Model to understand the complexity of the problem. I use a Horizontal and a Vertical layer, A Matrix. Layered architectures can be mapped on a Matrix, a Cube or a higher dimensional Structure, N-Dimensional Space.

Every component can be described by a point that is connected to N-variables. The links between the components are lines connecting the points.

The first thing we could do is use one dimension to describe the “type” of the component (software, hardware, database, form, etc). If we create a picture of this dimension we have created a System Diagram. There are many types of System Diagrams invented. They were called a Method or a Modeling Language. Every new Method created a “Method War” because the Users always thought that their Method was the Best.

I participated in many activities of the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing). We tried to find a way to find the “Best Method” to Improve the Practice. It was proven that there was no best method.

Many roads lead to Rome. See “Information Systems Design Methodologies: Improving The Practice“, T.W. Olle, H.G. Sol and A.A. Verrijn-Stuart, (Eds.), North-Holland.

At the end the major Method Wars ended with a Compromise, UML. Compromises are always the worst solution for a problem. UML is a very complicated method.

If we start the Diagram with an Event and we have chosen the right Modeling Language, now called a Programming Language, we are able to “simulate” the System or to “generate” the software. There are many Tools, Modelers, Simulators, Languages and Generators developed.

They also created wars (called Competition) between all kinds of Vendors. In the end many Tools were taken out of the market by the Vendors and the Users got stuck. They were unable to convert the old tools to the new tools or they simply did not take the time to do this. This problem is called the Legacy Problem.

The Market invented something to solve this problem called Reverse Engineering. Reverse Engineering proved to be a failure because the semantics, the meaning, of the software was gone.

When you deconstruct a car and you show an engineer all the parts he knows the parts belonged to a car. When you do this with something nobody ever knew it existed the only engineer that is capable to reconstruct the original is the engineer who constructed it.

When the software is old the original programmer is gone and nobody is able to understand what he was doing. Sometimes the software contains documentation. The programmer has written a Story about the Meaning of the Software. Programmers never took (and take) the time to do this.

I want to get back to N-Dimensional Space. I hope you understand that we when we use enough dimensions we are able to Model Everything.

We are also able to MAP Everything to Everything. Mapping or Converting could solve many problems.

There were Systems on the market that helped you to MAP one Structure to another Structure. An example was Rochade. I implemented Rochade when I was responsible for IT-Architectures and I know Rochade solved many problems with Legacy Systems.

Rochade used something called a Scanner or Parser. A Parser is a “piece of software” that translates a “piece of software” into another “piece of software”. It stored the data of the software (the meta-data) in a “general” format that could be translated to other formats.

When you program in a Software Language the code is translated to another Language. This happens many times until the software reaches the Lowest Level, The Processor or the CPU.

The CPU uses a Cycle to process a very simple language that consists of binary numbers. These numbers are real numbers or operations. The simplest operations are operations on a Set.

The whole concept of the CPU was invented by John von Neumann and is therefore named the Von Neumann Architecture.

The architecture of von Neumann has a big disadvantage called the Von Neumann bottleneck. The CPU is continuously forced to wait.

The Von Neumann Computer is Wasting Time and Energy.

An alternative is the Parallel Architecture. Parallel computing has recently become the dominant paradigm in computer architectures. The main reason is the Rise of the Internet.

The Rise of the Internet started the Fall of Centralized IT-Architectures and Centralized IT-Strategy.

At this moment we need another approach to Manage or Control the sofware-production of a big company.

This approach can be found in the Open Source Movement.

If we use the Matrix Approach we can answer interesting questions.

First I introduce a Rule.

When we increase the amount of Dimensions we are able to make every point and connection between a point Unique. If we do the opposite we are able to make every point and connection The Same.

When people talk about the Reuse of a Component we are looking for a Dimension were some points and their connections are the Same.

I hope you see that it is possible to Reuse Everything and to Reuse Nothing. The Choice is Yours.

This also the Practice in Software. When I discovered that the Year-2000 problem could lead to a disaster I started a research-project with the CWI. The CWI develop a very intelligent parser that could create Software-Maps.

When we studied the maps we saw that some pieces of software came back all the time. These were “citations”. One programmer invented a new construct and others reused the construct all the time. The major difference with the Theory of Reuse was that MANY Parts were the Same.

When you dig deep enough you always find “The Same”.

The CPU is handling binary codes and when you would come from another planet you would not understand why all these zero’s and 1′s are creating a DIVERSITY. They create a DIVERSITY because Something is Interpreting the Sequence. This Something is also a Program. This program uses a Theory about Languages. Most of the time it supposes a Context Free Language. A Context Free Language is a language where the interpretor always moves in one direction. It processes a List.

The Diversity a Computer Produces is based on one long List of Binary patterns. If we could analyze all the possible patterns we could find all the possible software-programs that could be build until Eternity. Because the binary codes can be mapped to the Natural Numbers. We need only one dimension (A line) to classify all the possible software-components in the World.

In 1931 Gödel’s stated the so called incompleteness theorems. He uses the Natural Numbers to prove that a part of our Human Reality cannot be described by a Computer Program.

There is something “left for us” that the Machines cannot take over. This part is related to the Emotions and the Imagination. We cannot Automate them. If we do this we stop Innovation and Commitment.

Now I want to come back to IT-Architectures.

When You start an IT-Architecture Out of Nothing you start with a Small Amount of Dimensions. The world looks very simple to you. When you add detail you have to increase the amount of dimensions. The effect of this is that Everything Changes. New Possibilities arise. If you go on using the Top-Down Approach you will move into a State of Huge Complexity. Always start in the Middle!

At a certain moment You have to move to Reality.This means Programming Software. At that moment You encounter something you never thought of. The Software Legacy!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you increase the Scope of your System and you leave the Boundaries of Your Company (the World of the Internet) the Complexity increases also.At that moment You encounter something you never thought of, Open Source. Millions of Possibilities arise and You don’t Know what to do!

Behind the Software are People. Some of them are creating Small Companies and they are doing things you’re company is also doing but they do it much cheaper and faster.

What to do?

If You Can’t Beat them Join Them.

About The Rose

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

What is defensive driving and how it helps fleet managers

Defensive driving is the key mindset that will keep your fleet safe, vehicles in order and drivers in check. And it will save you and all fleet drivers the embarrassment of a typical dressing down by the interstate and highway police.

Being a mindset, defensive driving incorporates a set of driving behaviors that enables drivers achieve a daily routine that is as uneventful as possible. And that is preponderantly important in the life of a fleet manager.

 

What is defensive driving?

Defensive driving is a mindset that enables a motorist to identify and anticipate driving hazards. That said, it requires certain driving skills that enable the motorist to control their speed, expect the unexpected and always remain alert. It also requires respecting all drivers, as well as weather and road conditions, leveraging adjustability.

According to Wikipedia, there is a standardized way to look at it. To that end, the “Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations” standard, defines it as a set of defensive driving skills, where you —the driver — are aiming to “save lives, time, and money, in spite of the conditions around you and the actions of others”.

The basic principles of defensive driving

In 1937, Mark Everard Pepys introduced the roadcraft system of car or motorcycle control. Interestingly, it’s purpose was to educate motorists on how to operate their vehicles safely. A lot has changed since this first attempt at safe driving; all for the better. Especially since the number of vehicles increased from a few thousand in the 1900s to around 1.32 billion in 2016. Without a doubt, driving safely is all the more important in 2020. To that end, certain principles were developed, to describe and support the efforts in fostering defensive driving. Get the most professional assistance from the best ny defensive driving course.

  • Always respecting the minimum and maximum speed limits
  • Being alert and distraction free at all times, so that if faced with a difficult situation you can anticipate an odd predicament and avoid the danger
  • Being respectful and pay attention to other drivers
  • Maintaining a safe distance from the preceding vehicle
  • Looking ahead, expecting the unexpected, as other motorists might not behave as you ordinarily would. This includes both motorists and pedestrians.
  • Always keeping weather and road conditions in mind, adjusting driving behavior accordingly
  • Adjusting speed before entering a bend, avoiding the need to hit the brakes in the middle of a bend.
  • Observing all driving regulations

Defensive driving: Pros and Cons

The obvious advantage of defensive driving is, of course, road safety. Today, modern fleets tend to incorporate defensive driving programs as one of the core aspects of their business. Not only is it beneficial on the road, but it brings a few business advantages, as well.

Pros

  • It’s easy to learn and adopt
  • It’s a very good way to prevent accidents
  • Leverages fuel economy and savings
  • Keeps maintenance costs as low as possible
  • Keeps insurance costs as low as possible

We have covered this subject more extensively, with 5 key defensive driving behaviors your fleet drivers need to adopt.

And, of course, there is always a flip side to the coin. Sure enough, there are a couple of cons in trying to adopt the defensive driving mindset. Undoubtedly, they’re hard to countermand, as they’re mostly related to some kind of involuntary behavior. But, it’s certainly worth the effort.