Platt et al, some of the material on the atom awareness thread is a joke
showing a total lack in understanding of fundamentals. However, if you wish
to go off into ga-ga land that is your 'right' (if at an expense to the
culture, 'good' brains wasted ....)
I am off this list but as a goodbye below is something to think about ...
although you will need to 'get into' some neuroscience/cognitive science and
I think that might be too much for some of you! .... for those who ARE
interested note that a qualitative sense is tied to our emotions and the
interpretation of emotions where are emotions are in turn 'attuned' to
frequency/wavelength data associated with our senses, especially the
harmonics of those sense e.g. colours etc...
have fun,
Chris.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Lofting [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, 14 April 2001 4:15
To: Quantum Approaches to Consciousness
Subject: quantum mechanics as an example of topological thinking
From: Chris Lofting [EMAIL PROTECTED]
14, April 2001
when we analyse the human brain we find particular elements that are biased
to processing topological concepts. These concepts include exagerations,
distortions etc where all senses used to detect 'out there' are 'points' on
a surface, like a rubber sheet that each of us 'wears'. In our brain this is
in the form of the sensory cortex. As we interact with our environments,
both internal and external, so these interactions 'stretch', 'squeeze',
'tug', 'bend' our sensory 'sheet'. (Diagrams of this cortex, found in most
introductory texts on neurology, physiology, psychology, include the
distortions in the senses where we see a HUGE pair of lips representing
their exagerated sensitivity when compared to, say, the lower back etc. Note
that the process of thinking abstractly can utilise these areas (as does
thinking in images activates visual cortex etc etc))
The topological realm is a realm of approximations, distortions,
exagerations, and seemingly 'random' expressions and as such, the realm is
cardinality biased to a degree where it is possible to have concepts that
have NO ordinal elements (as in cause-effect) or else a hidden element and
so as yet 'undefined'.
There is a strong suggestion that the emphasis we find in Science, the
emphasis on quantitative precision and cause-effect and so the concept of
ordinality ('first', 'fundamental', 'before/after' etc), is in fact DERIVED
from the world of the cardinal where a 'general' expression is sensed and
passed to ordinal biased system to identify details and that includes
cause-effect. (See section at end of this article for links re neural
prisms and sequences and so a sense of continuity as derivations of
topological processes)
The act of ordinalisation is an act of discretisation, of objectification,
where 'whatever' is 'cut out' of the sheet and given a 'life' (and so a
'begin-end'. Note that we use nominalisation to 'give life' where a painful
arm etc is converted to 'that pain' and as such manifests a form of
'alienation' of pain from 'self'.)
Properties of the topological realm also include states which are
ordinal-free and being such we have states where the strongly ordinal
concepts of past-present-future do not exist. When we try to interpret
'time' concepts we have to deal with hypertime, a concept outside of
'spacetime' where all past-present-future is knowable 'now' (noting that
even using the term 'now' shows an ordinal bias in my thinking!).
Properties of the abstract topological realm include spacial/temporal
distortions where points in 'spacetime' can join and from that can emerge
such concepts as 'timewarps', 'wormholes', 'blackholes' etc etc Furthermore
the possible states of 'pure' cardinality, pure expression of something,
when seen from an ordinal perspective, are identified as 'random' processes;
this need not be so since in the cardinal realm there is no such concept of
'randomness' since the realm includes no sense of ordinality! (Reflect on
Cantor's work with transfinite numbers and the sharp distinctions of
ordinal from cardinal).
In the human brain the more 'topologically' attuned parts, besides the
particular sensory cortex spanning both hemispheres, include the right
hemisphere of the neocortex. This part is more developed in new borns than
the future ordinal biased left hemisphere (in most - genetic diversity
ensures 'differences').
The function of the newborn is to 'fit' into the current context and as such
requires a lot of distortion and exageration, a need for flexibility and so
a lot of 'twisting' and 'bending' the sensory sheet mentioned above,
especially so with the sensory cortex. The additional right hemisphere bias
is more in the form of that part of the human brain that is sensitive to
sensory harmonics in general.
As the infant develops, especially as they develop language skills, so the
cardinal bias gives way to an ordinal bias to such a degree that the
'clarity' of the ordinal, the emphasis on the particular and LOCAL, is
preferred and deemed to be the more 'normal' perspective; the cardinal
'side' (right brain, general, NON-LOCAL) remains specialised in topological
issues but interpreted more as in a support role to the ordinal; there is a
right-brain emphasis on what COULD be rather than what IS or WILL be.
However, as the above has shown (and the articles linked-to below)
ordinality is DERIVED and as such reflects INTERNAL linkage of any concept
where the search for details moves us 'into' the bounds of whatever we are
studying. The moment we try to move 'out' of that something, whether it is a
particular object or a whole discipline (and so still an object), we move
from ordinality BACK into cardinality. The problem here is that in the realm
of the cardinal we are in the realm of topology and that sensory 'sheet'. In
this world of 'rubber sheet geometry' all meaning is 'filtered' through
topological patterns some of which I have mentioned above. In other words
THINKING in a statistical, 'right brained' way guarantees that concepts such
as 'instant' aka 'spacelike' communications will emerge since they are
properties of the thinking and so do not necessarily reflect 'reality'
outside of our senses.
Included in this topological realm is the concept of 'all is linked
together' which reflects the 'rubber sheet' in that any point, when
distorted or exagerated, will influence the WHOLE sheet such that a point
influence can be detected as a subtle distortion somewhere/somewhen on the
sheet. From a sensory context, from a PARTICULAR sense context, so all
points on the sheet linked to the same sense are 'correlated' and as such
ANY correlated point will 'resonate' with all others when there is a
disturbance/exageration of that point regardless of the 'distance' of
seperation. (in amputees we find that points previously mapped to a limb etc
can be taken-over by nearby points associated with the face - thus touching
the face can make the individual feel as if their now amputated limb has
been touched. Topological processes at work, but 'independent' of conscious
recall)
The point (!) here is that concepts derivable from topological thinking,
rooted in the development of our sensory cortex etc, exist as 'basics' in
quantum mechanics, suggesting that quantum mechanics reflects the shift from
ordinality back to cardinality thinking and the 'shock' is in the
realisation that ordinality 'does not work' in the realm of the cardinal in
that that realm includes 'pure' expression that is free of ordinal concepts
(and that includes the identification of something as 'random').
To summarise, as newborns our brain develops topologically and this 'sense'
of the topological is in the form of our sensory cortex and other areas of
the brain (we can in fact trace this down to the level of the neuron -- see
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/neuron1.gif as well as
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/hemis.JPG ) These areas based on topological
processing are recruited later in abstract idea processing and as such have
a consequence re the structure and content of those ideas where the source
is at the unconscious level of sensory experiences.
The success of the ordinal in the development of lifeforms, and our species
in particular, shows the benefit in this sort of process but at the same
time the fact that it is 'rooted' in cardinality, is DERIVED from
cardinality, now points us into a direction that includes no points and no
directions, there are states of pure 'expression'; correlations; resonances.
Our sensory sheet is the cloak that we all wear and as such is the cloak of
the species. Since we have adapted to our environment by 'internalising'
that environment's characteristics so the cloak we wear 'says' something
about 'out there'. However the original intent of the topological emphasis
was on the more physiological processes required for us to adapt to any
given extreme.
It seems that these topology processes have been abstracted to become the
source of abstract thoughts such that all we can ever detect 'out there' is
already identified by 'in here'; our struggles with topology at the hidden,
sensory level, become our struggles with disciplines/philosophies
unconsciously abstracted from that sensory level in that we use these
disciplines as sources of interpretation. (after all isnt all of the
experiment equipment the extention of our senses and as such the extention
of the 'sensory sheet' of our species into 'out there'? Our topological
viewpoint reflects the projection of our 'sensory sheet'.)
To fully understand quantum mechanics we need to understand HOW 'in here'
processes data, how we process the LOCAL and when we have done that move to
the NON-LOCAL and so the TOPOLOGICAL. We need to understand the CONSEQUENCES
of this shift, where properties of the METHOD of analysis can get confused
with properties of what is under analysis.
Some recent work outside of the QM context has shown that the seemingly
ordinal can in fact be shown to be rooted in cardinality and expresses the
development of information processing where the too general cardinal bias
attempts to get more details by applying recursion/prisming. For more on
neural prisms see http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/prisms.html as well as
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/btree.JPG
To see an outcome of applying an interpretation of sequences as in fact
'artifacts' of cardinal processing see in particular
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/cracked.html The emphasis in the latter is
the discovery of a 'vertical' process, recursive dichotomisation, leading to
the emergence of a 'sequence' horizontally. The failure to recognise the
method of derivation has left us a 3000 year old 'mystery' now solved.
This 'local' discovery is generalised to noticing the 'horizontal/vertical'
oscillations we use in processing sequences (see Chomsky's hierarchy of
grammars) and so making our maps. These processes inevitably lead from a
rigid ordinality to an increasing shift 'back' to cardinality and the
topological. As a consequence our thinking shifts as well and we allow-in
'un-ordinal' thoughts as we try to 'map' reality.
(for a perspective on this ordinal/cardinal 'shift' in focus and the
consequences of confusing ordinal/cardinal etc in QM also see
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting/bits.html )
best regards,
Chris.
------------------
Chris Lofting
websites:
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ddiamond
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