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Sep. 15th, 2003 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobearOK.. my first night on 24 hour call. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope that the phone works. Apparently some prisoner is calling the office... I hope that it won't be a problem for me to deal with tonight. I'm already a little paranoid that the phone will ring when I'm in the shower tomorrow morning. (That's really the only time I'll be even remotely apart from the phone.
Holy cow! I already got a call on a recover... 5:01pm. I'm a little jumpy with the phone going off... an unusual noise in the house. I'm sure that I'll adapt by the next ring or two. 5:18 - Just got my tenth call from the inmate, in nearly as many minutes. I wonder if it's a sexual predator that is trying for some sort of payback, a wrong number, or just some jerk?
The trip to the doctor was fair to middling.. he really couldn't do anything for me until I visit the neuro later this month.
I was looking through some old stuff, and I came across an old post by AR. I think it makes a good starting point, and rather than paraphrase him, I've copied the pertinent passage.
Each of these metaphors can be useful. Metaphors are tools for simplifying complex subjects. While you are struggling to comprehend electronics, it is useful to view electrical circuits as plumbing, with voltage as water pressure, resistance the pipe diameter, and current as the water. Water comes out of the tank (battery) and flows to the drain (ground). Thinking of the circuit as plumbing let's the mind "see" the electrons "flowing through" the wire. After you understand the process through the metaphor, you can go into detail about tricky stuff like capacitance and inductance. You will "see" the relationship between the numbers you are crunching and the circuit they describe.
The only change I would make to the models is the word "like." The universe is like a machine, an animal, a human mind, a computer or a quantum computer. It depends on what you are trying to understand. It would probably be more useful to use the machine model to understand how an engine works. You probably don't need to consider the sub-atomic ramifications of changing your spark plugs.
That pretty much covers the metaphors for understanding Universe.
So why is anyone trying to understand Universe? Well, understanding is generally pro-survival. But once you are warm and your belly is full, you still try to understand (unless you watch Fox News) because you want The Answer. The Truth!
Most of the answers humans have settled on for the Big Question ("Hey! Like, so what's it, y'know, all about? Huh?") can be summed up with five models or metaphors.
EVERYTHING IS A DREAM
Not bad. The physics work out. Some experiments are reproducible. But it doesn't make any statements about what is different when you are awake. That's why I put it at the beginning.
EVERYTHING IS AN ILLUSION/SIMULATION
Adds complexity by implying a faction that cast the illusion or runs the simulation. Still no details, so it could be magic or science, secular or sacred. Motivation or agenda is unknown.
EVERYTHING IS A GAME/WAR
The concept of simulation begs for a motive, so start with a fundamental one: to win. We don't know the goal or rules or even what the game is, but we do know that there is a reason for doing something, anything.
EVERYTHING IS A STORY
Role-playing games have scripts, arcade games have a context and back-story.
Even Pac-Man has a face, a goal, and a setting with peripheral characters. He has enemies, and can die but be resurrected. A mate was created for him, and they had offspring that went out and became other formats.
EVERYTHING IS A JOKE
It's like a story, but has to be understood in a special way to be appreciated. When you get the joke, you laugh and remember that thou art God. But the punchline isn't funny and doesn't make any kind of sense until you have gone through the setup.
Once you start with trinities, it's easy to start seeing patterns. So, there is Father-Son-and Holy Ghost (now Spirit), there is Virgin-Mother-Crone, there is Atropos-Clothos-Lachesis, Yes-No-Maybe, and there is also Id-Ego-Superego. Azathoth as Id, Nyarlathotep as Ego, and Hastur as Superego. If you use the neo-solipsist(tm) "Thou art God" model - when you click your heels together and say "There's no place like reality," you wake up and those guys go back to being aspects of your personality. And thou art God., and thbdee-thbdee-ththat's all folks.
Anyhow, that's what I think the Warchowski brothers are driving at in The Matrix. They've certainly dropped enough clues.
Hee... But Mark Twain was way ahead of them. He wrote that stuff back in 1910, and he didn't need CGI or Hong Kong wirework. Check out The Mysterious Stranger from Project Gutenberg.
today's eats -
Points: 34
Water: 6 Veg/Fruit: 0 Milk: 0
Points: 34.6 Adj: 0 Act: 2.7 Rem: 2.1
Bank: 35.0 Adj: 35
Bank Max: 35 Point: 0 Act: 0
Bank Method: Start on Monday
Vitamins: Yes
Lunch: 4.2 points
0.0: Mixed veggies
0.9: Tofu; soft; 1/4 cup
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
0.2: Soy sauce made from soy & wheat (shoyu)
Dinner: 16.8 points
1.4: Peas sweet; 1 can; solids & liquids
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
Snack: 13.6 points
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
5.1: ice cream ; low fat fudge ripple - 1 cup
3.5: Goldfish
Activity Log: (Min:Int:Points Desc)
25:M:2.7 Bus-walk
Holy cow! I already got a call on a recover... 5:01pm. I'm a little jumpy with the phone going off... an unusual noise in the house. I'm sure that I'll adapt by the next ring or two. 5:18 - Just got my tenth call from the inmate, in nearly as many minutes. I wonder if it's a sexual predator that is trying for some sort of payback, a wrong number, or just some jerk?
The trip to the doctor was fair to middling.. he really couldn't do anything for me until I visit the neuro later this month.
I was looking through some old stuff, and I came across an old post by AR. I think it makes a good starting point, and rather than paraphrase him, I've copied the pertinent passage.
> Let's reprise some basics.Elegant. That pretty much sums up the basic POVs. Don't get hung up on which one is "right," because it would be a pretty shoddy and boring universe that settled for only one interpretation. Thinking of the universe as a machine is good enough to get you off your planet and into your solar system. Newton (Isaac, not the orange kitty) will suffice for the overwhelming majority of things you will encounter. Thinking of the universe as a machine puts the the metaphor in the realm of engineering. You don't need the final decimal of Pi to make wheels and ball bearings and Saturn V boosters.
>
> 1) Classical Scientists have a model of the universe.
> The universe is a *machine*.
>
> 2) Shamens have a model of the universe.
> The universe is an *animal*
>
> 3) Alchemists have a model of the universe.
> The universe is a *mind*
>
> 4) So where do quantum physicists stand? They, too, have a model of
> the universe.
> The universe is a *computer*
>
> To be more exact, the universe is a *quantum* computer -
>
> One which holds a myriad universe states at once and acts on them all at the same time in parallel.
Each of these metaphors can be useful. Metaphors are tools for simplifying complex subjects. While you are struggling to comprehend electronics, it is useful to view electrical circuits as plumbing, with voltage as water pressure, resistance the pipe diameter, and current as the water. Water comes out of the tank (battery) and flows to the drain (ground). Thinking of the circuit as plumbing let's the mind "see" the electrons "flowing through" the wire. After you understand the process through the metaphor, you can go into detail about tricky stuff like capacitance and inductance. You will "see" the relationship between the numbers you are crunching and the circuit they describe.
The only change I would make to the models is the word "like." The universe is like a machine, an animal, a human mind, a computer or a quantum computer. It depends on what you are trying to understand. It would probably be more useful to use the machine model to understand how an engine works. You probably don't need to consider the sub-atomic ramifications of changing your spark plugs.
That pretty much covers the metaphors for understanding Universe.
So why is anyone trying to understand Universe? Well, understanding is generally pro-survival. But once you are warm and your belly is full, you still try to understand (unless you watch Fox News) because you want The Answer. The Truth!
Most of the answers humans have settled on for the Big Question ("Hey! Like, so what's it, y'know, all about? Huh?") can be summed up with five models or metaphors.
EVERYTHING IS A DREAM
Not bad. The physics work out. Some experiments are reproducible. But it doesn't make any statements about what is different when you are awake. That's why I put it at the beginning.
EVERYTHING IS AN ILLUSION/SIMULATION
Adds complexity by implying a faction that cast the illusion or runs the simulation. Still no details, so it could be magic or science, secular or sacred. Motivation or agenda is unknown.
EVERYTHING IS A GAME/WAR
The concept of simulation begs for a motive, so start with a fundamental one: to win. We don't know the goal or rules or even what the game is, but we do know that there is a reason for doing something, anything.
EVERYTHING IS A STORY
Role-playing games have scripts, arcade games have a context and back-story.
Even Pac-Man has a face, a goal, and a setting with peripheral characters. He has enemies, and can die but be resurrected. A mate was created for him, and they had offspring that went out and became other formats.
EVERYTHING IS A JOKE
It's like a story, but has to be understood in a special way to be appreciated. When you get the joke, you laugh and remember that thou art God. But the punchline isn't funny and doesn't make any kind of sense until you have gone through the setup.
Once you start with trinities, it's easy to start seeing patterns. So, there is Father-Son-and Holy Ghost (now Spirit), there is Virgin-Mother-Crone, there is Atropos-Clothos-Lachesis, Yes-No-Maybe, and there is also Id-Ego-Superego. Azathoth as Id, Nyarlathotep as Ego, and Hastur as Superego. If you use the neo-solipsist(tm) "Thou art God" model - when you click your heels together and say "There's no place like reality," you wake up and those guys go back to being aspects of your personality. And thou art God., and thbdee-thbdee-ththat's all folks.
Anyhow, that's what I think the Warchowski brothers are driving at in The Matrix. They've certainly dropped enough clues.
Hee... But Mark Twain was way ahead of them. He wrote that stuff back in 1910, and he didn't need CGI or Hong Kong wirework. Check out The Mysterious Stranger from Project Gutenberg.
today's eats -
Points: 34
Water: 6 Veg/Fruit: 0 Milk: 0
Points: 34.6 Adj: 0 Act: 2.7 Rem: 2.1
Bank: 35.0 Adj: 35
Bank Max: 35 Point: 0 Act: 0
Bank Method: Start on Monday
Vitamins: Yes
Lunch: 4.2 points
0.0: Mixed veggies
0.9: Tofu; soft; 1/4 cup
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
0.2: Soy sauce made from soy & wheat (shoyu)
Dinner: 16.8 points
1.4: Peas sweet; 1 can; solids & liquids
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
Snack: 13.6 points
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
5.1: ice cream ; low fat fudge ripple - 1 cup
3.5: Goldfish
Activity Log: (Min:Int:Points Desc)
25:M:2.7 Bus-walk
