Author Topic: Systemic Isolation (Read 237348 times)

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #150 on:** October 17, 2016, 05:06:31 AM »

As I have indicated that in HIOTTOE Siddharttha Gotama (563 BC to 483 BC) could be represented as a fully realized dimple in our current kalpa (the bhadrakalpa or Auspicious aeon, representing one of about 10X⁵³⁰ different potential evolved free-will information network configurations); I present the following relevant Pali Cannon extracts:

"All we are is the result of what we have thought, it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him." Dhammapada, 1, 2

“The mind and body are dependent on each other the way two sheaves stand up by leaning against each other.” Samyutta Nikaya 2.14

“Bhikkhus, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. There comes a time, bhikkhus, when the great oceans dry up and evaporates and no longer exists, when the earth burns up and perishes and no longer exists, but still I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving.” Samyutta Nikaya 22.99

"He recalls to mind his various temporary states in days gone by – one birth, or two or three or four or five births, 10 or 20, 30 or 50, a 100 or a 1,000 or a 100,000 births, through many cycles of cosmic contraction and cosmic expansion . . . Now there comes a time, when sooner or later, after the lapse of a long, long period of contraction, this world-system passes away. And when this happens beings have mostly been re-born in the World of Radiance, and there they dwell made of mind, feeding on joy, radiating light from themselves, traversing the air, dwelling in glory; and thus they remain for a long, long period of time. Now there comes also a time, friends, when sooner or later, this universe begins to re-evolve by expansion." Brahmajala Sutta, Digha Nikaya, Sutta Pitaka

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #151 on:** October 19, 2016, 12:58:13 AM »

Albert Einstein once said: "Science without religion is lame; Religion without science is blind." Therefore, I provide the following words of wisdom from the Pali Canon:

"Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much, not even your father or your mother." Dh., chapter 3

"One for whom these teachings are accepted thus after being pondered to a sufficient degree with wisdom is called a dhamma-follower, one who has entered the fixed course of rightness, entered the plane of superior persons, transcended the plane of the worldlings. He is incapable of doing any deed by reason of which he might be reborn in hell, in the animal realm, or in the domain of ghosts; he is incapable of passing away without having realized the fruit of stream entry." Samyutta Nikaya 25.10

"Bhikkhus, a noble disciple who possesses four things is a stream-enterer, . . . He possesses the virtues dear to the noble ones, unbroken." Samyutta Nikaya 55.2

"There are, O monks, these blessings in realizing the fruit of stream-entry: One is firm in the good Dhamma. One is unable to fall back." Anguttara Nikaya 6.97

"Consider the person who is accomplished in the precepts, and is moderately successful in concentration, moderately successful in wisdom – by destroying the three hindrances, he becomes one, who will be reborn seven times at most [stream entrant]" Anguttara Nikaya 9.12

"The stream winner, with virtues dear to noble ones endowed, which are unbroken and without a rent, untarnished and without a blemish, purifying, praised by the wise, uncontaminated and conducive to concentration." Anguttara Nikaya 9.27

"Therein, bhikkhus, the meditator who is both a thorough worker and a persistent worker regarding concentration is the chief . . . the most excellent of the kinds of meditators." Samyutta Nikaya 34.53

"It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles." (Dh., chapter 8 )

"Hate never ceases by hatred, only love dispels hate. This is an ancient and timeless law." (Dh., chapter 1)

Edit: See attached image

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #152 on:** October 19, 2016, 03:05:24 PM »

The linked SkS article is entitled: "Finance for deep-rooted prosperity is coming". The article indicates that both public & private financial institutions are learning to how to better measure factors that could help resist systemic isolation in socio-economic systems:

https://www.skepticalscience.com/finance-deep-rooted-prosperity.html

Extract: "We are entering a new age in the life of Earth systems, and in the evolution of human civilization, but also in the way we conceive of finance—its purpose, its vulnerabilities, and its power to generate good outcomes. As we see more and more clearly that universal education, gender equality, food and water security, and climate resilience, are macrocritical drivers on which all other value ultimately depends, major financial institutions, both in the public and private sector, are learning how to measure their performance against macrocritical indicators."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #153 on:** October 19, 2016, 06:41:06 PM »

In Reply #115 I provide links to references discussing the relationship of dark energy to "Holographic Dark Information Energy" that indicate that "… algorithmic entropy of the universe always increases because the extra states produced by the accelerating expansion compensate for the loss of entropy from star formation." Furthermore, the reference in Reply #148 provides specific mathematics as to how Holographic information theory accounts for dark energy.

With this in mind I reiterate that HIOTTOE is based on an evolving free-will information network that cyclically (and timelessly) reconfigures itself into different configurations (depending on the free-will choices) that metaphorically correspond to the dimples (baby universes) in the String Theory Landscape. In this regards dark energy can be calculated based on changes in information entropy. Furthermore, dark matter can be related to significantly, but partially realized, free-will information dimples, or arahants ranging from stream dippers: pakati-savaka, maha-savaka, agga-savaka, to pacceka-hodhisatta. Finally, the baby universes are sub-divided based on the maha-bodhisatta associated with these free-will information network configurations.
In this regards, the configuration of the free-will information network associated with the observable universe results in 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter and 5% normal matter (see the following Forbes article); which can be used to help characterize the specifics of how the free-will information network is currently configured:

The linked article is entitled: "No Number Of Additional Galaxies Can Prevent The Universe From Needing Dark Matter"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/10/19/no-number-of-additional-galaxies-can-prevent-the-universe-from-needing-dark-matter/#64fa290a4fe1

Extract: "Those same sources of data that tell us the normal matter density — plus many others — can all be combined to paint a single cohesive picture of the Universe: 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter and 5% normal matter, with no more than 0.1% of anything else like neutrinos, photons or gravitational waves. It’s important to remember that the “5% normal matter” doesn’t just include stars or other light-emitting forms of matter, but rather everything that’s composed of protons, neutrons and electrons in the entire Universe. More stars, more galaxies or more sources of light might be a remarkably interesting discovery, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t need dark matter. In fact, to obtain the Universe as we observe it to be, dark matter is an indispensable ingredient."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #154 on:** October 21, 2016, 05:06:46 AM »

As I have referred to the Holographic Principle (which is still being formalized) many times in this thread, I provide the following Wikipedia link & associated extract for those who are interested:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

Extract: “The holographic principle is a principle of string theories and a supposed property of quantum gravity that states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary to the region—preferably a light-like boundary like a gravitational horizon. First proposed by Gerard 't Hooft, it was given a precise string-theory interpretation by Leonard Susskind who combined his ideas with previous ones of 't Hooft and Charles Thorn. As pointed out by Raphael Bousso, Thorn observed in 1978 that string theory admits a lower-dimensional description in which gravity emerges from it in what would now be called a holographic way.

In a larger sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe can be seen as two-dimensional information on the cosmological horizon, the event horizon from which information may still be gathered and not lost due to the natural limitations of spacetime supporting a black hole, an observer and a given setting of these specific elements, such that the three dimensions we observe are an effective description only at macroscopic scales and at low energies. Cosmological holography has not been made mathematically precise, partly because the particle horizon has a non-zero area and grows with time.

The holographic principle was inspired by black hole thermodynamics, which conjectures that the maximal entropy in any region scales with the radius squared, and not cubed as might be expected. In the case of a black hole, the insight was that the informational content of all the objects that have fallen into the hole might be entirely contained in surface fluctuations of the event horizon. The holographic principle resolves the black hole information paradox within the framework of string theory. However, there exist classical solutions to the Einstein equations that allow values of the entropy larger than those allowed by an area law, hence in principle larger than those of a black hole. These are the so-called "Wheeler's bags of gold". The existence of such solutions conflicts with the holographic interpretation, and their effects in a quantum theory of gravity including the holographic principle are not yet fully understood.”

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #155 on:** October 22, 2016, 04:30:08 PM »

The linked commentary piece is entitled: "The Space Between Two Worlds"; and addresses how to take the "middle path" in a universe where all too often unwanted things keep happening and wanted things happen too infrequently.

https://the-macroscope.org/the-space-between-two-worlds-bc75ecc8af57#.jvaz1fo7u

Extract: "I’ve come to believe that the best place to live is precisely between two worlds — between the world of despair and frustration, which reminds us of the work we must do and the stakes involved, and the world of awe, wonder, hope, inspiration, and love, which refuels our minds and our hearts, and keeps us going.

Living between two worlds is uncomfortable. And hard. And sometimes it’s tempting to live in just one of these worlds, instead of having a foot in both.

…

But, for me, the best place is to be exactly in the middle: to feel both the hope and the anguish, the joy and the suffering, of our moment of history. We need both to fuel us, steer us, and keep our paths true.

I think we need the gravitational pull of both worlds to keep us on track, locked on a good and righteous path. Without both worlds pulling equally on us, we would crash into one, or simply lose our way, hurtling through the universe on our own, intersecting nothing, helping no one.

Gandhi once said, “Anything that exists is possible.” And with possibility begins hope. And with hope, we can change the world."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #156 on:** October 22, 2016, 06:00:53 PM »

This post is a follow-up to Reply #142 about the "Constructor Theory of Probability", see also:
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1507/1507.03287.pdf

The first linked article is entitled: "Turing, and Constructor Theory, and The Logic of Universal Survivors". This discussion on Constructor Theory & Universal Survivors is very much in line with the Buddha's evolving universe and his comments in the linked image:

http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/universal-computers-replicators-survivors

Extract:
"8. Having “Turingized” quantum computers, Deutsch is now building Constructor Theory (CT), with Chiara Marletto.

9. Constructors are theoretical objects that can reliably and repeatedly perform discrete transformation tasks. “Factories, robots and living cells are good approximations to constructors.”"

The second linked article is entitled: "A Meta-Law to Rule Them All: Physicists Devise a “Theory of Everything”"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-meta-law-to-rule-them-all-physicists-devise-a-theory-of-everything/

Extract: "“Constructor theory” unites in one framework how information is processed in the classical and quantum realms.
…
Rickles believes that constructor theory has the potential to prescribe meta-laws that general relativity and quantum theory must obey. “The meta-laws are more stable creatures, they survive scientific revolutions,” he says. “Having such principles in hand gives us a better grasp of the nature of reality. I’d say that’s a pretty good advantage.”"

For more on the Constructor Theory, see also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory
&
http://constructortheory.org/

The next linked reference is entitled: "The Logic of Experimental Tests, Particularly of Everettian Quantum Theory":

David Deutsch (9 Jul 2016), "The Logic of Experimental Tests, Particularly of Everettian Quantum Theory", Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2016.06.001

http://constructortheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/logic-experimental-tests-paper.pdf

Abstract: "Claims that the standard procedure for testing scientific theories is inapplicable to Everettian quantum theory, and hence that the theory is untestable, are due to misconceptions about probability and about the logic of experimental testing. Refuting those claims by correcting those misconceptions leads to an improved theory of scientific methodology (based on Popper׳s) and testing, which allows various simplifications, notably the elimination of everything probabilistic from the methodology (‘Bayesian’ credences) and from fundamental physics (stochastic processes)."

The last linked reference is entitled: "The Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics":

Chiara Marletto (2016), "The Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics"

http://constructortheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Thd-ArXiv-2.pdf

Abstract: "The laws of thermodynamics, powerful for countless purposes, are not exact: both their phenomenological and their statistical-mechanical versions are valid only at ‘macroscopic scales’, which are never defined. Here I propose a new, exact and scale-independent formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, using the principles and tools of the recently proposed constructor theory. Specifically, I improve upon the axiomatic formulations of thermodynamics (Carathéodory, 1909; Lieb & Yngvason, 1999) by proposing an exact and more general formulation of ‘adiabatic accessibility’. This work provides an exact distinction between work and heat; it reveals an unexpected connection between information theory and the first law of thermodynamics (not just the second); it resolves the clash between the irreversibility of the ‘cycle’-based second law and time-reversal symmetric dynamical laws. It also achieves the long-sought unification of the axiomatic version of the second law with Kelvin’s."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #157 on:** October 22, 2016, 10:12:29 PM »

It is a fundamental position in HIOTTOE that the free-will information network is timeless. The linked reference notes that quantum theory can explain such timeless in terms of entanglement; and then generalizes this so that it can be applied to theory beyond quantum theory (such as the Constructor Theory, or for that matter for HIOTTOE).

Chiara Marletto, Vlatko Vedral (15 Oct 2016), "Evolution without evolution, and without ambiguities"; arXiv:1610.04773v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.04773

Abstract: "In quantum theory it is possible to explain time, and dynamics, in terms of entanglement. This is the timeless approach to time, which assumes that the universe is in a stationary state, where two non-interacting subsystems, the clock and the rest, are entangled. As a consequence, by choosing a suitable observable of the clock, the relative state of the rest of the universe evolves unitarily with respect to the variable labelling the clock observable's eigenstates, which is then interpreted as time. This model for an evolution without evolution (Page and Wootters, 1983), albeit elegant, has never been developed further, because it was criticised for generating severe ambiguities in the dynamics of the rest of the universe. In this paper we show that there are no such ambiguities, we also update the model, making it amenable to possible new applications."

Extract: "We have shown that the PW timeless approach to time in quantum theory has no ambiguities, thus vindicating it as a viable proposal for the emergence of time in a time-less universe described by the unitary quantum theory. The non-interacting property of the clock is crucial to establish that result: a good clock is not just a system with a large set of orthogonal states, such as good memory; it must be non-interacting while it is used as a clock. We have also updated the model so that it becomes possible to apply to more general theories, including the successor of quantum theory. One possible development is to investigate under what conditions the PW logic could apply to different theories than quantum theory (e.g., generalised probabilistic theories or constructor theory’s super-information theories). The challenge there is to understand what relative states would be, as well as in what form the clock ambiguity might appear. Another interesting application could be to recast this model in terms of pseudo-density matrices, where time and space are treated in a unified framework. Finally, it is worth speculating about how the PW approach might provide observable consequences, when combined with cosmological models."

Next, I note that if when the timeless approach is more fully understood/generalized, speculations regarding both F-Theory and loop quantum gravity indicate that it should be possible to develop computers that are faster than quantum computers (see the following link to a Wikipedia article on Quantum Computing)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing

Extract: "It has been speculated that theories of quantum gravity, such as M-theory or loop quantum gravity, may allow even faster computers to be built. Currently, defining computation in such theories is an open problem due to the problem of time, i.e., there currently exists no obvious way to describe what it means for an observer to submit input to a computer and later receive output."

Also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch

Extract: "David Elieser Deutsch, FRS (born 18 May 1953), is an Israeli-born British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation (CQC) in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer. He is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #158 on:** October 23, 2016, 02:31:39 AM »

If my last post did not make it clear, Shape Dynamics conforms with the Constructor Theory of Information (and also with HIOTTOE), and the following linked reference indicates that progress is being made w.r.t. verifying that Shape Dynamics is a viable alternative to General Relativity (which is important because HIOTTOE makes different projections that General Relativity regarding the details of black holes & dark matter):

Daniel C. Guariento, Flavio Mercati (3 June 2016), Self-gravitating fluid solutions of Shape Dynamics”, arXiv:1606.01215v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01215

Abstract: “Shape Dynamics is a 3D conformally invariant theory of gravity which possesses a large set of solutions in common with General Relativity. When looked closely, these solutions are found to behave in surprising ways, so in order to probe the fitness of Shape Dynamics as a viable alternative to General Relativity one must find and understand increasingly more complex, less symmetrical exact solutions, on which to base perturbative studies and numerical analyses in order to compare them with data. Spherically symmetric exact solutions have been studied, but only in a static vacuum setup. In this work we construct a class of time-dependent exact solutions of Shape Dynamics from first principles, representing a central inhomogeneity in an evolving cosmological environment. By assuming only a perfect fluid source in a spherically symmetric geometry we show that this fully dynamic non-vacuum solution satisfies in all generality the Hamiltonian structure of Shape Dynamics. The simplest choice of solutions is shown to be a member of the McVittie family.“

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #159 on:** October 23, 2016, 11:47:13 AM »

For convenience I provide the following extracts from "The Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics"; which clarify how HIOTTOE conforms to the logic structure of the Constructor Theory of Information:

Chiara Marletto (2016), "The Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics"

http://constructortheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Thd-ArXiv-2.pdf

Extract: "In constructor-theoretic physics the primitive notion of a ‘physical system’ is replaced by the slightly different notion of a substrate, which is a physical system some of whose properties can be changed by a physical transformation brought about by a constructor, which is in turn a substrate that undergoes no net change in its ability to do this. The other primitive elements are tasks (as defined below), and the statements about their being possible/impossible. Intuitively a task specifies the states of all the substrates allowed at the beginning and end of the transformation, except those of the constructor(s) bringing it about.

…

For any substrate, a subsidiary theory must provide its states, attributes and variables. These are physical properties of the substrate, which are represented in several interrelated ways. An attribute of a substrate is formally defined as a set of all the states in which the substrate has that property.

…

A task is the abstract specification of a set of physical transformations on a substrate, which is transformed from having one attribute to having another.

…

A constructor for the task A is defined as a physical system that would cause A to occur on the substrates and would remain unchanged in its ability to cause that again.

…

A task T is impossible (denoted as T✗) if there is a law of physics that forbids its being carried out with arbitrary accuracy and reliability by a constructor. Otherwise, T is possible, (denoted by T✓ ). This means that a constructor capable of performing T can be physically realized with arbitrary accuracy and reliability (short of perfection).

…

Non-probabilistic, counterfactual properties – i.e. about what does not happen, but
could – are the centrepiece of constructor theory’s mode of explanation…

…

As a consequence of laws being stated in terms of possible/impossible tasks, the emergence of an arrow of time and the second law of thermodynamics appear as entirely distinct issues (Barbour, et. al 2014; Marsland et. al., op. cit.). The former is about the spontaneous evolution of isolated physical systems …

…

I shall now summarise the principles of the constructor theory of information (Deutsch & Marletto, 2015), which I shall use in sections 5 and 6 to define ‘work media’ and ‘heat media’, and to distinguish work from heat. The principles express the exact properties required of physical laws by the theories of (classical) information, computation and communication. An important point here is that nothing that follows is probabilistic or ‘subjective’. Information is understood in constructor theory in terms of objective, counterfactual properties of substrates (‘information media’) – i.e. about what tasks are possible or impossible on them. The logic of the construction is that one first defines a class of substrates as those on which certain tasks are possible/impossible. In the constructor theory of information these capture the properties of a physical system that would make it capable of instantiating what has been informally referred to as ‘information’. Then, one expresses principles about them. First, a computation medium with computation variable V …"

Also the following reference discusses how the Constructor Theory of Information addresses the Anthropic Principle:

Chiara Marletto (14 January 2015), "The Constructor Theory of Life", Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Volume 12, Issue 104, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.1226

http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/12/104/20141226

Abstract: "Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory explains how the appearance of purposive design in the adaptations of living organisms can have come about without their intentionally being designed. The explanation relies crucially on the possibility of certain physical processes: mainly, gene replication and natural selection. In this paper, I show that for those processes to be possible without the design of biological adaptations being encoded in the laws of physics, those laws must have certain other properties. The theory of what these properties are is not part of evolution theory proper, yet without it the neo-Darwinian theory does not fully achieve its purpose of explaining the appearance of design. To this end, I apply constructor theory's new mode of explanation to express exactly within physics the appearance of design, no-design laws, and the logic of self-reproduction and natural selection. I conclude that self-reproduction, replication and natural selection are possible under no-design laws, the only non-trivial condition being that they allow digital information to be physically instantiated. This has an exact characterization in the constructor theory of information. I also show that under no-design laws an accurate replicator requires the existence of a ‘vehicle’ constituting, together with the replicator, a self-reproducer."

Extract: "Constructor theory is a new fundamental theory of physics. First, it provides a paradigm where the other laws of physics are expressed solely as statements about which transformations are possible, which are impossible and why. Guesses at those laws—e.g. general relativity and quantum mechanics—it calls subsidiary theories. In addition, it also proposes new laws, principles, constraining the subsidiary theories.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #160 on:** October 24, 2016, 03:04:07 AM »

The linked article about dark energy indicates that quintessence (which is predicted by the Holographic Universe) is a space-filling fluid (as predicted by Shape Dynamics). So if dark energy is found to be related to quintessence instead of the cosmological constant, this would help support the position that the universe is based on information (as predicted by HIOTTOE):

Stephen Battersby (29 September 2016), “Dark energy: Staring into darkness”, Nature, 537, S201–S204, doi:10.1038/537S201a

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v537/n7622_supp/full/537S201a.html

Extract: “So, although the cosmological constant remains the front-runner, theorists have been busy devising alternative forms of dark energy. Some have created new theories of gravity, similar to general relativity, but generating repulsion on very large scales. Others posit some kind of space-filling fluid, sometimes called quintessence, which acts a little like the cosmological constant, but slowly changes in density. Whatever the answer, dark energy is key to opening a window on “a completely unexplored region of fundamental physics,” says Mark Trodden, a theoretical cosmologist and director of the Penn Center for Particle Cosmology in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Finding the answer would not only change the view of nature, but also foretell the fate of the Universe.

…

Physicists are fond of weirdness, so most will probably be hoping for the other outcome: that most of the substance of our Universe is an evolving thing that is even stranger than vacuum energy. If the source of acceleration is found to be either a new energy field or a modification of gravity, the consequences will be profound. “It could cause us to rethink how gravity and particle physics interact,” says Trodden. Finding a particle-based description of gravity has obsessed theoretical physicists since Einstein. To finally manage it, we may have to abandon his cosmological constant for the second time.”

See also:
Stephen Battersby, (October 5, 2016), “Blinded by the Dark (Energy)”, SciAm.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blinded-by-the-dark-energy/

&

http://www.nature.com/nature/outlook/dark-universe/index.html

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #161 on:** October 24, 2016, 03:34:44 PM »

I note that the QBism approach addresses uncertainty from the bottom-up; while the Constructor Theory of Information, addresses uncertainty from the top-down; and the following reference by Li et al (2016) addresses the joint probability distribution associated with uncertainty. Looking at uncertainty from different points of view, helps to better understand issues like: entropy and quintessence and holographic information and their relationships (among others, see Replies # 107, 115, 138, 141, 142, 148, 157, 158, 159 & 160).

Li, et. al. (October 24 2016), "Optimal Universal Uncertainty", Scientific Reports 6, Article no. 35735, doi: 10.1038/srep35735.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep35735

Abstract: "We study universal uncertainty relations and present a method called joint probability distribution diagram to improve the majorization bounds constructed independently in {Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 230401 (2013)] and [J. Phys. A. 46, 272002 (2013)]. The results give rise to state independent uncertainty relations satisfied by any nonnegative Schur-concave functions. On the other hand, a remarkable recent result of entropic uncertainty relation is the direct-sum majorization relation. In this paper, we illustrate our bounds by showing how they provide a complement to that in [Phys. Rev. A. 89, 052115 (2014)]."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #162 on:** October 25, 2016, 03:49:34 PM »

I have previously indicated that in HIOTTOE black holes can be used a computers and information storage devices due to their condensate behavior. The following linked references provide supporting information on this position.

Dvali et. al. 2015 indicates that every black hole is a quantum computer. And not just any quantum computer, but a quantum computer made of a Bose-Einstein condensate that self-tunes to the quantum critical point.

Dvali et al 2015 discuss shared properties between black holes and condensates, including the relation between entropy and mass (BH entropy), the decrease in entropy during evaporation (Page time), and the ability to scramble information quickly (scrambling time), and they found that certain condensates do exactly this.

They conjecture that black holes themselves are condensates – condensates of gravitons, whose quantum criticality allows the fast scrambling. The gravitons equip black holes with quantum hair on horizon scale, and hence provide a solution to the black hole information loss problem by first storing information and then slowly leaking it out.

Bose-Einstein condensates on the other hand contain long-range quantum effects that make them good candidates for quantum computers. The individual q-bits that have been proposed for use in these condensates are normally correlated atoms trapped in optical lattices.

Dvali et al 2016 discuss limitations of using black holes as computers based on condensate behavior:
Gia Dvali, Cesar Gomez, Dieter Lüst (7 Sep 2015), “Classical Limit of Black Hole Quantum N-Portrait and BMS Symmetry”, arXiv:1509.02114v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.02114

Abstract: “Black hole entropy, denoted by N, in (semi)classical limit is infinite. This scaling reveals a very important information about the qubit degrees of freedom that carry black hole entropy. Namely, the multiplicity of qubits scales as N, whereas their energy gap and their coupling as 1/N. Such a behavior is indeed exhibited by Bogoliubov-Goldstone degrees of freedom of a quantum-critical state of N soft gravitons (a condensate or a coherent state) describing the black hole quantum portrait. They can be viewed as the Goldstone modes of a broken symmetry acting on the graviton condensate. In this picture Minkowski space naturally emerges as a coherent state of infinite-N gravitons of infinite wavelength and it carries an infinite entropy. In this paper we ask what is the geometric meaning (if any) of the classical limit of this symmetry. We argue that the infinite-N limit of Bogoliubov-Goldstone modes of critical graviton condensate is described by recently-discussed classical BMS super-translations broken by the black hole geometry. However, the full black hole information can only be recovered for finite N, since the recovery time becomes infinite in classical limit in which N is infinite.”
See also:

Gia Dvali, Cesar Gomez, Dieter Lust, Yasser Omar, Benedikt Richter (4 May 2016), “Universality of Black Hole Quantum Computing”, arXiv:1605.01407v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.01407

Abstract: “By analyzing the key properties of black holes from the point of view of quantum information, we derive a model-independent picture of black hole quantum computing. It has been noticed that this picture exhibits striking similarities with quantum critical condensates, allowing the use of a common language to describe quantum computing in both systems. We analyze such quantum computing by allowing coupling to external modes, under the condition that the external influence must be soft-enough in order not to offset the basic properties of the system. We derive model-independent bounds on some crucial time-scales, such as the times of gate operation, decoherence, maximal entanglement and total scrambling. We show that for black hole type quantum computers all these time-scales are of the order of the black hole half-life time. Furthermore, we construct explicitly a set of Hamiltonians that generates a universal set of gates for the black hole type computer. We find that the gates work at maximal energy efficiency. Furthermore, we establish a fundamental bound on the complexity of quantum circuits encoded on these systems, and characterize the unitary operations that are implementable. It becomes apparent that the computational power is very limited due to the fact that the black hole life-time is of the same order of the gate operation time. As a consequence, it is impossible to retrieve its information, within the life-time of a black hole, by externally coupling to the black hole qubits. However, we show that, in principle, coupling to some of the internal degrees of freedom allows acquiring knowledge about the micro-state. Still, due to the trivial complexity of operations that can be performed, there is no time advantage over the collection of Hawking radiation and subsequent decoding.”

See also:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/black-hole-computers-2007-04/

&

https://aeon.co/essays/is-the-black-hole-at-our-galaxy-s-centre-a-quantum-computer

&

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limits_to_computation

Extract: “It may be possible to use a black hole as a data storage and/or computing device, if a practical mechanism for extraction of contained information can be found. Such extraction may in principle be possible (Stephen Hawking's proposed resolution to the black hole information paradox). This would achieve storage density exactly equal to the Bekenstein Bound. Professor Seth Lloyd calculated the computational abilities of an "ultimate laptop" formed by compressing a kilogram of matter into a black hole of radius 1.485 × 10⁻²⁷ meters, concluding that it would only last about 10⁻¹⁹ seconds before evaporating due to Hawking radiation, but that during this brief time it could compute at a rate of about 5 × 10⁵⁰ operations per second, ultimately performing about 10³² operations on 10¹⁶ bits (~1 PB). Lloyd notes that "Interestingly, although this hypothetical computation is performed at ultra-high densities and speeds, the total number of bits available to be processed is not far from the number available to current computers operating in more familiar surroundings."”

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #163 on:** October 27, 2016, 04:52:08 AM »

As HIOTTOE is short for Holographic Cybernetic Organizational (or Holoborg) Interpretation of the Theory of Everything, I provide the following link about Holographic data storage technology and I emphasize that "... holographic data records information throughout the volume of the medium", as is also the case in the free-will information network:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_data_storage

Extract: "Holographic data storage is a potential technology in the area of high-capacity data storage currently dominated by magnetic data storage and conventional optical data storage. Magnetic and optical data storage devices rely on individual bits being stored as distinct magnetic or optical changes on the surface of the recording medium. Holographic data storage records information throughout the volume of the medium and is capable of recording multiple images in the same area utilizing light at different angles.

Additionally, whereas magnetic and optical data storage records information a bit at a time in a linear fashion, holographic storage is capable of recording and reading millions of bits in parallel, enabling data transfer rates greater than those attained by traditional optical storage."

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics

Extract: "Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems, their structures, constraints, and possibilities. In the 21st century, the term is often used in a rather loose way to imply "control of any system using technology."

Cybernetics is relevant to the study of systems, such as mechanical, physical, biological, cognitive, and social systems."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #164 on:** October 28, 2016, 08:53:07 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Relax, the expansion of the universe is still accelerating", and it reconfirms that the universe's expansion is still accelerating (as predicted by the Standard Model, the Holographic Universe, and HIOTTOE), however it does leave room for a new theory of gravity like Shape Dynamics:

http://phys.org/news/2016-10-expansion-universe.html

Extract: "There's been a whirlwind of commentary of late speculating that the acceleration of the expanding universe might not be real after all.

It follows the publication this month of a new look at supernovae in our universe, which the researchers say give only a "marginal detection" of the acceleration of the universe.

This seems to be a big deal, because the 2011 Nobel Prize was awarded to the leaders of two teams that used supernovae to discover that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.
But never have I seen such a storm in a teacup. The new analysis, published in Scientific Reports, barely changes the original result, but puts a different (and in my opinion misleading) spin on it.

So why does this new paper claim that the detection of acceleration is "marginal?"
Well, it is marginal if you only use a single data set. After all, most big discoveries are initially marginal. If they were more obvious, they would have been discovered sooner.
…
The supernova data show something genuinely weird is going on. The solution might be acceleration, or a new theory of gravity. Whatever it is, we will continue to search for it."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #165 on:** October 29, 2016, 06:19:48 PM »

The linked reference & associate article are classical examples of how frequently modern scientists get the science right but the interpretation entirely wrong (as 90% of modern climate scientists are getting the interpretation of they climate models wrong so that they can error on the side of least drama, thus making their own lives more comfortable).

In this thread I have gone to some lengths to demonstrate that most likely we live in an evolving holographic universe; which entails natural selection including the competitive exclusion sighted in the Dominy & Yeakel research. To applaud Dr. Frankenstein for interfering with competitive exclusion is the same thing as denialism (including climate change denialism); as it inhibits mankind's chances of improving itself via evolution to become something that has a chance to survive the coming horrors of disruptive climate change.

Nathaniel J. Dominy and Justin D. Yeakel (2016), “Frankenstein and the Horrors of Competitive Exclusion”, BioScience, doi: 10.1093/biosci/biw133

http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/10/19/biosci.biw133

Extract: “The bicentennial celebration of the inception of Frankenstein invites the present view of Victor Frankenstein and his fateful decision to destroy an unfinished female creature. The act itself was impulsive (caused by a “sensation of madness”), but it was preceded by agonized reasoning that would be familiar to any student of ecology or evolutionary biology. Here, we present a formal treatment of Frankenstein's reasoning and show that his rationale for denying a mate to his male creation has empirical justification. Our results suggest that the decision was prudent because it averted our own extinction by competitive exclusion. We conclude by suggesting that the central horror of Mary Shelley's novel lies in its prescient command of foundational concepts in ecology and evolution. “

See also the linked article entitled: “How Frankenstein saved humankind from probable extinction”

http://phys.org/news/2016-10-frankenstein-humankind-probable-extinction.html

Extract: “"The principle of competitive exclusion was not formally defined until the 1930s," said Nathaniel J. Dominy, a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at Dartmouth. "Given Shelley's early command of this foundational concept, we used computational tools developed by ecologists to explore if, and how quickly, an expanding population of creatures would drive humans to extinction."

The authors developed a mathematical model based on human population densities in 1816, finding that the competitive advantages of creatures varied under different circumstances. The worst-case scenario for humans was a growing population of creatures in South America, as it was a region with fewer humans and therefore less competition for resources. "We calculated that a founding population of two creatures could drive us to extinction in as little as 4,000 years," said Dominy. Although the study is merely a thought experiment, it casts new light on the underlying horror of the novel: our own extinction. It also has real-word implications for how we understand the biology of invasive species.

"To date, most scholars have focused on Mary Shelley's knowledge of then-prevailing views on alchemy, physiology and resurrection; however, the genius of Mary Shelley lies in how she combined and repackaged existing scientific debates to invent the genre of science fiction," said Justin D. Yeakel, an Omidyar fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and an assistant professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of California, Merced. "Our study adds to Mary Shelley's legacy, by showing that her science fiction accurately anticipated fundamental concepts in ecology and evolution by many decades."”

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #166 on:** October 30, 2016, 02:36:23 AM »

Quote from: AbruptSLR on October 13, 2016, 07:07:14 PM

As I have previously mentioned (See Replies #110, #117, #119, and others), the perception of time is related to different factors such as: changes in entropy; symmetry breaking, observation/measures, etc. (see the attached image). Therefore, one would expect time to be perceived to behave differently at extremely low temperatures (with very little changes in entropy), as has been reported in the following linked reference by Zhang et al (2016):

Zhang et. al. (2016), "Observation of a Discrete Time Crystal", arXiv:1609.08684v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.08684

Zhang et. al (2016)'s observation of a discrete time crystal implies that due to Heisenberg's Generalized Uncertainty Principle the systems of quantum mechanics require adjustments as indicated by the first linked reference by Faizal et. al. (2016):

Mir Faizal, Mohammed M. Khalil, Saurya Das (Submitted on 29 Dec 2014 (v1), last revised 20 Jan 2016 (this version, v2)), “Time Crystals from Minimum Time Uncertainty”, arXiv:1501.03111v2

https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.0311

Abstract: “Motivated by the Generalized Uncertainty Principle, covariance, and a minimum measurable time, we propose a deformation of the Heisenberg algebra and show that this leads to corrections to all quantum mechanical systems. We also demonstrate that such a deformation implies a discrete spectrum for time. In other words, time behaves like a crystal. As an application of our formalism, we analyze the effect of such a deformation on the rate of spontaneous emission in a hydrogen atom.”

Separately, the delayed choice experiment discussed in the following linked reference illustrates how what happens in the present can change what happens(ed) in the past. It also shows how time can go backwards, how cause and effect can be reverted, and how the future caused the past.

A. G. Manning, R. I. Khakimov, R. G. Dall & A. G. Truscott (2015), “Wheeler's delayed-choice gedanken experiment with a single atom”, Nature Physics, Volume: 11, Pages: 539–542, doi:10.1038/nphys3343

http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v11/n7/full/nphys3

Abstract: “The wave–particle dual nature of light and matter and the fact that the choice of measurement determines which one of these two seemingly incompatible behaviours we observe are examples of the counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics. They are illustrated by Wheeler’s famous ‘delayed-choice’ experiment, recently demonstrated in a single-photon experiment. Here, we use a single ultracold metastable helium atom in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer to create an atomic analogue of Wheeler’s original proposal. Our experiment confirms Bohr’s view that it does not make sense to ascribe the wave or particle behaviour to a massive particle before the measurement takes place. This result is encouraging for current work towards entanglement and Bell’s theorem tests in macroscopic systems of massive particles.”

These findings are in keeping with HIOTTOE.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #167 on:** October 30, 2016, 08:02:36 PM »

In Reply #111 I stated: "The preceding information indicates that quantum theory can be treated as a subset of string theory & quantum gravity, and I posit that string theory & quantum gravity can be treated as a subset of the HIOTTOE. Consequently, propose that the Hilbert Space used in quantum mechanics can be used as an approximation of the Nibbanic Plane in order to relate entanglement (the vectors) with information networks to produce calculations of: space, fields, particles/waves and time. Indeed, if this is the case then the following linked reference: "Space from Hilbert Space: Recovering Geometry from Bulk Entanglement"; does all of the calculations for me, by calculating the entropy associated with information networks in Hilbert Space …"
ChunJun Cao, Sean M. Carroll, Spyridon Michalakis (5 Jul 2016), "Space from Hilbert Space: Recovering Geometry from Bulk Entanglement", arXiv:1606.08444v2; and I point-out

To follow-up on this line of thinking I provide the following linked article by one of the co-authors Sean Carroll (July 18, 2016), "Space Emerging from Quantum Mechanics"; which states that:
"Perhaps the most interesting and provocative feature of what we’ve done is that we start from an assumption that the degrees of freedom corresponding to any particular region of space are described by a finite-dimensional Hilbert space."

As the free-will information network is a finite information system, Cao et. al. (2016)'s work allows HIOTTOE to do away with the Standard Model's quantum field theory with its use of infinities. Furthermore, Carroll (July 18 2016) states: "… geometry emerging from quantum information, obeying a version of Einstein’s equation in the classical limit …"; which might mean that the evolved Holographic Information Universe may someday be proven to obey Shape Dynamics, which can be considered a version of Einstein's theories in the classical limit.

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2016/07/18/space-emerging-from-quantum-mechanics/

Extract: "Like almost any physics paper, we’re building on ideas that have come before. The idea that spacetime geometry is related to entanglement has become increasingly popular, although it’s mostly been explored in the holographic context of the AdS/CFT correspondence; here we’re working directly in the “bulk” region of space, not appealing to a faraway boundary. A related notion is the ER=EPR conjecture of Maldacena and Susskind, relating entanglement to wormholes. In some sense, we’re making this proposal a bit more specific, by giving a formula for distance as a function of entanglement. The relationship of geometry to energy comes from something called the Entanglement First Law, articulated by Faulkner et al., and used by Ted Jacobson in a version of entropic gravity. But as far as we know we’re the first to start directly from Hilbert space, rather than assuming classical variables, a boundary, or a background spacetime. (There’s an enormous amount of work that has been done in closely related areas, obviously, so I’d love to hear about anything in particular that we should know about.)
…
Perhaps the most interesting and provocative feature of what we’ve done is that we start from an assumption that the degrees of freedom corresponding to any particular region of space are described by a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. In some sense this is natural, as it follows from the Bekenstein bound (on the total entropy that can fit in a region) or the holographic principle (which limits degrees of freedom by the area of the boundary of their region). But on the other hand, it’s completely contrary to what we’re used to thinking about from quantum field theory, which generally assumes that the number of degrees of freedom in any region of space is infinitely big, corresponding to an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. (By itself that’s not so worrisome; a single simple harmonic oscillator is described by an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, just because its energy can be arbitrarily large.) People like Jacobson and Seth Lloyd have argued, on pretty general grounds, that any theory with gravity will locally be described by finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces.

That’s a big deal, if true, and I don’t think we physicists have really absorbed the consequences of the idea as yet. Field theory is embedded in how we think about the world; all of the notorious infinities of particle physics that we work so hard to renormalize away owe their existence to the fact that there are an infinite number of degrees of freedom. A finite-dimensional Hilbert space describes a very different world indeed. In many ways, it’s a much simpler world — one that should be easier to understand. We shall see.

Part of me thinks that a picture along these lines — geometry emerging from quantum information, obeying a version of Einstein’s equation in the classical limit — pretty much has to be true, if you believe (1) regions of space have a finite number of degrees of freedom, and (2) the world is described by a wave function in Hilbert space. Those are fairly reasonable postulates, all by themselves, but of course there could be any number of twists and turns to get where we want to go, if indeed it’s possible. Personally I think the prospects are exciting, and I’m eager to see where these ideas lead us."

Also, in Reply #86 I included the following quote: "Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind have suggested in ER=EPR that the outgoing and infalling particles are somehow connected by wormholes, and therefore are not independent systems; however, as of 2013, this hypothesis is still a "work in progress"." In this regards, the following linked reference Bryan et. al. (2016) provides support that ER=EPR is still a viable solution to the black hole "fire wall" problem.

K.L.H. Bryan, A.J.M. Medved (24 March 2016), Black holes and information: A new take on an old paradox", arXiv:1603.07569v1

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.07569.pdf

Abstract: "Interest in the black hole information paradox has recently been catalyzed by the newer "firewall" argument. The crux of the updated argument is that previous solutions which relied on observer complementarity are in violation of the quantum condition of monogamy of entanglement; with the prescribed remedy being to discard the equivalence principle in favor of an energy barrier (or firewall) at the black hole horizon. Differing points of view have been put forward, including the "ER=EPR" counterargument and the final-state solution, both of which can be viewed as potential resolutions to the apparent conflict between quantum monogamy and Einstein equivalence. After reviewing these recent developments, this paper argues that the ER=EPR and final-state solutions can - thanks to observer complementarity - be seen as the same resolution of the paradox but from two different perspectives: inside and outside the black hole."

As many readers may have lost track of the ER=EPR conjecture, I provide the linked Wikipedia article discusses the ER=EPR conjecture by Leonard Susskind and Juan Maldacena:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ER%3DEPR

Extract: "They backed up their conjecture by showing that the pair production of charged black holes in a background magnetic field leads to entangled black holes, but also, after Wick rotation, to a wormhole.

Susskind and Maldacena envisioned gathering up all the Hawking particles and smushing them together until they collapse into a black hole. That black hole would be entangled, and thus connected via wormhole, with the original black hole. That trick transformed a confusing mess of Hawking particles — paradoxically entangled with both a black hole and each other — into two black holes connected by a wormhole. Entanglement overload is averted, and the firewall problem goes away.

— Science News, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/entanglement-gravitys-long-distance-connection

This conjecture sits uncomfortably with the linearity of quantum mechanics. An entangled state is a linear superposition of separable states. Presumably, separable states are not connected by any wormholes, but yet a superposition of such states is connected by a wormhole.
The authors pushed this conjecture even further by claiming any entangled pair of particles — even particles not ordinarily considered to be black holes, and pairs of particles with different masses or spin, or with charges which aren't opposite — are connected by Planck scale wormholes. A similar idea was actually first proposed by Friedwardt Winterberg without a violation of quantum mechanical linear superposition of separable states as in the conjecture by Maldacena and Susskind.

The conjecture leads to a grander conjecture that the geometry of space, time and gravity is determined by entanglement."

I conclude that as the ER=EPR conjecture creates all of space, time and gravity as entanglement of information in a Holographic Universe, then when this work is developed sufficiently to time into Shape Dynamics (possibly via either the Constructor Theory and/or QBism) that the HIOTTOE could demonstrate that black holes are related to arahantship.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #168 on:** October 30, 2016, 11:29:42 PM »

In an evolved Holographic Information Universe the laws of physics (or laws of dhamma in HIOTTOE ) evolve with "time". In my last post I noted that the Constructor Theory, QBism, Shape Dynamics and other work might serve to help establish & extend the ER=EPR conjecture into a firmer understanding of a Holographic Information Universe. Furthermore, if the Holographic Information Universe is a subset of HIOTTOE then it is also possible that a clearer understanding of the wisdom conveyed by the Buddha Gotoma might also help to establish a firmer understanding of a Theory of Everything. In this regards in Reply #117, I noted that per the Pali Canon the present kalpa is called the bhadrakalpa, or Auspicious aeon; which has (or will have depending on how you think about time) five Great (Maha-) Bodhisattas (which are of three types: panna, saddha and viriya) who are: Kakusandha, Koṇāgaman, Kassapa, Gotoma & Metteyya; and who are associated with the parity horizon between our universe and the others in the Nibbanic equivalent of the String Theory Landscape. Also, in my last post I reiterated that arahantship could be associate with black holes and their event horizon (I note that as content inside of a black hole's event horizon occurs in the future, that the arahants for Metteyya already affect the observable universe). As arahantship is associated with abhijna/abhinna, I provide the following Wikipedia link on this topic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhij%C3%B1%C4%81

Extract: " Abhijñā (Skt., Pali, abhiññā; Tib., mngon shes, མངོན་ཤེས་) has been translated generally as "knowing," "direct knowing" and "direct knowledge" or, at times more technically, as "higher knowledge" and "supernormal knowledge." In Buddhism, such knowing and knowledge is obtained through virtuous living and meditation. In terms of specifically enumerated knowledges, these include worldly extra-sensory abilities (such as seeing past and future lives) as well as the supramundane extinction of all mental intoxicants (āsava).

In Pali literature, abhiññā refers to both the direct apprehension of dhamma (translated below as "states" and "qualities") as well as to specialized super-normal capabilities.
In SN 45.159, the Buddha describes "higher knowledge" (abhiññā) as a corollary to the pursuit of the Noble Eightfold Path:

[A] monk who cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path, who assiduously practices the Noble Eightfold Path, comprehends with higher knowledge those states that are to be so comprehended, abandons with higher knowledge those states that are to be so abandoned, comes to experience with higher knowledge those states that are to be so experienced, and cultivates with higher knowledge those states that are to be so cultivated.

What, monks, are the states to be comprehended with higher knowledge?
They are the five groups of clinging. Which five? The body-group, the feeling-group, the perception-group, the mental-formation group, the consciousness-group...
What, monks, are the states to be abandoned with higher knowledge?
They are ignorance and the desire for [further] becoming. And what, monks, are the states to be experienced with higher knowledge?
They are knowledge and liberation. And what, monk, are the states to be cultivated with higher knowledge?
They are calm and insight.

Such direct knowledge, according to the Buddha, is obscured by desire and passion (chanda-rāga):

Monks, any desire-passion with regard to the eye is a defilement of the mind. Any desire-passion with regard to the ear... the nose... the tongue... the body... the intellect is a defilement of the mind. When, with regard to these six bases, the defilements of awareness are abandoned, then the mind is inclined to renunciation. The mind fostered by renunciation feels malleable for the direct knowing of those qualities worth realizing.

In the Pali Canon, the higher knowledges are often enumerated in a group of six or of three types of knowledge.

The six types of higher knowledges (chalabhiññā) are:
1.   "Higher powers" (iddhi-vidhā), such as walking on water and through walls;
2.   "Divine ear" (dibba-sota), that is, clairaudience;
3.   "Mind-penetrating knowledge" (ceto-pariya-ñāṇa), that is, telepathy;
4.   "Remember one's former abodes" (pubbe-nivāsanussati), that is, recalling one's own past lives;
5.   "Divine eye" (dibba-cakkhu), that is, knowing others' karmic destinations; and,
6.   "Extinction of mental intoxicants" (āsavakkhaya), upon which arahantship follows.

The attainment of these six higher powers is mentioned in a number of discourses, most famously the "Fruits of Contemplative Life Discourse" (Samaññaphala Sutta, DN 2). The first five powers are obtained through meditative concentration (samadhi) while the sixth is obtained through insight (vipassana). The sixth type is the ultimate goal of Buddhism, which is the end of all suffering and destruction of all ignorance. According to the Buddha, indulgence in the abhinjas needs to be avoided, as they can distract from the ultimate goal of Enlightenment.

Similarly, the three knowledges or wisdoms (tevijja or tivijja) are:
1.   "Remember one's former abodes" (pubbe-nivāsanussati);
2.   "Divine eye" (dibba-cakkhu); and,
3.   "Extinction of mental intoxicants" (āsavakkhaya).

The three knowledges are mentioned in numerous discourses including the Maha-Saccaka Sutta (MN 36) in which the Buddha describes obtaining each of these three knowledges on the first, second and third watches respectively of the night of his enlightenment. These forms of knowledge typically are listed as arising after the attainment of the fourth jhana.

While such powers are considered to be indicative of spiritual progress, Buddhism cautions against their indulgence or exhibition since such could divert one from the true path of obtaining suffering's release."

Furthermore, as the Buddhavamsa is the portion of the Pali Canom most associated with Maha- Bodhisattas and their "supernormal knowledge", I provide the following Wikipedia link about this matter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhavamsa

Extract: "The Buddhavamsa (also known as the Chronicle of Buddhas) is a hagiographical Buddhist text which describes the life of Gautama Buddha and of the twenty-four previous Buddhas who had prophesied his attainment of Buddhahood. It is the fourteenth book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, which in turn is the fifth and last division of the Sutta Piṭaka. The Sutta Piṭaka is one of three pitakas (main sections) which together constitute the Tripiṭaka, or Pāli Canon of Theravāda Buddhism.

Along with the Apadāna and the Cariyāpiṭaka, the Buddhavamsa is considered by most scholars to have been written during the 1st and 2nd century BCE, and is therefore a late addition to the Pāli Canon.

The first chapter tells how Gautama Buddha, to demonstrate his supernormal knowledge, creates a jewelled walkway in the sky. In seeing this display, Sāriputta asks the Buddha:

"Of what kind, great hero, supreme among men, was your resolve? At what time, wise one, was supreme Awakening aspired to by you? ... Of what kind, wise one, leader of the world, were your ten perfections? How were the higher perfections fulfilled, how the ultimate perfections?"
In response, the Buddha relays the remainder of the Buddhavamsa."

See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakusandha_Buddha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%E1%B9%87%C4%81gamana_Buddha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassapa_Buddha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #169 on:** November 08, 2016, 08:01:13 PM »

The linked reference uses the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory in order to use incompatibility and mutually exclusiveness to tighten the uncertainty relationship bounds:
Yunlong Xiao & Naihuan Jing (Nov 8 2016), "Mutually Exclusive Uncertainty Relations", Scientific Reports 6, Article Number: 36616, doi: 10.1038/srep36616.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep36616

For other recent developments in quantum information science see also:
"Co-designing a scalable quantum computer with trapped atomic ions"
http://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi201634
&
"Practical challenges in quantum key distribution"
http://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi201625
&
"The role of master clock stability in quantum information processing"
http://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi201633

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #170 on:** November 13, 2016, 08:32:00 PM »

The title of this thread is "Systemic Isolation" as there are currently about 7.5 billion people on Earth and at any moment they all think that they "know the truth", even if in the next moment they "know" a different "truth". Obviously, all of these different momentary truths are what they are, but clinging to such transient truths (and aversion from other transient truths) as well as ignorance of the greater whole, creates "Systemic Isolation" which results in increased suffering as pointed-out by the Buddha (& Vipassana & HIOTTOE & Information Theory [via entropy]).
With the election of Donald J. Trump, the probability of climate disruption this century has increased dramatically, and thus I plan to refocus this thread to threat that anthropogenic "Systemic Isolation" presents to the global socio-economic systems and to Earth Systems. Furthermore, to do this, in future posts, I plan to use more metaphors from The Games of Thrones to try to better convey the role of "Systemic Isolation" in causing suffering in the framework of "Man vs Man" and "Man vs Nature".

Unfortunately, many progressives and scientists have been somewhat blinded by "Frequentist" thinking from the "Age of Reason" where in reaction to such events as the "Inquisition" much of modern science (including the IPCC and the scientific consensus on climate change) has adopted a "Scientism" based process on how to address uncertainties. "Bayesian cognitive science" and "Subjective Bayesian / Science Bayesianism" offer a balance to this "Scientism" bias that has allowed conservatives/Trumpist to claim that their opposing to fighting climate change is an ethical/moral issue:

See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_cognitive_science
&
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bayesianism

I begin my discussion of "Man vs Man" by linking to George Lakoff's article on "Understanding Trump", which uses Bayesian systemic thinking to understand how politics & marketers (like Trump) manipulate the public, and how this can be reframed to better address the impacts of "Systemic Isolation" in complex systems. To this end Lakoff uses the language of "Direct causation" vs "Systemic causation" so I begin with the first extract below on this topic, followed by a longer extract that helps to explain how Trump manipulated the media & the public to defeat Hillary Clinton:

https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/

Extract1: "Direct causation is dealing with a problem via direct action. Systemic causation recognizes that many problems arise from the system they are in and must be dealt with via systemic causation. Systemic causation has four versions: A chain of direct causes. Interacting direct causes (or chains of direct causes). Feedback loops. And probabilistic causes. Systemic causation in global warming explains why global warming over the Pacific can produce huge snowstorms in Washington DC: masses of highly energized water molecules evaporate over the Pacific, blow to the Northeast and over the North Pole and come down in winter over the East coast and parts of the Midwest as masses of snow. Systemic causation has chains of direct causes, interacting causes, feedback loops, and probabilistic causes — often combined.
Direct causation is easy to understand, and appears to be represented in the grammars of all languages around the world. Systemic causation is more complex and is not represented in the grammar of any language. It just has to be learned."

Extract2: "How do the various policy positions of conservatives and progressives hang together? Take conservatism: What does being against abortion have to do with being for owning guns? What does owning guns have to do with denying the reality of global warming? How does being anti-government fit with wanting a stronger military? How can you be pro-life and for the death penalty? Progressives have the opposite views. How do their views hang together?
The answer came from a realization that we tend to understand the nation metaphorically in family terms: We have founding fathers. We send our sons and daughters to war. We have homeland security. The conservative and progressive worldviews dividing our country can most readily be understood in terms of moral worldviews that are encapsulated in two very different common forms of family life: The Nurturant Parent family (progressive) and the Strict Father family (conservative).
What do social issues and the politics have to do with the family? We are first governed in our families, and so we grow up understanding governing institutions in terms of the governing systems of families.
In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says, which is taken to be what is right. Many conservative spouses accept this worldview, uphold the father’s authority, and are strict in those realms of family life that they are in charge of. When his children disobey, it is his moral duty to punish them painfully enough so that, to avoid punishment, they will obey him (do what is right) and not just do what feels good. Through physical discipline they are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. What if they don’t prosper? That means they are not disciplined, and therefore cannot be moral, and so deserve their poverty. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you; society has nothing to do with it. You are responsible for yourself, not for others — who are responsible for themselves.
As the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, said,
“Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” In a world governed by personal responsibility and discipline, those who win deserve to win. Why does Donald Trump publicly insult other candidates and political leaders mercilessly? Quite simply, because he knows he can win an onstage TV insult game. In strict conservative eyes, that makes him a formidable winning candidate who deserves to be a winning candidate. Electoral competition is seen as a battle. Insults that stick are seen as victories — deserved victories.
…
The Moral Hierarchy
The strict father logic extends further. The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above nonChristians, Straights above Gays.
We see these tendencies in most of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as in Trump, and on the whole, conservative policies flow from the strict father worldview and this hierarchy
Family-based moral worldviews run deep. Since people want to see themselves as doing right not wrong, moral worldviews tend to be part of self-definition — who you most deeply are. And thus your moral worldview defines for you what the world should be like. When it isn’t that way, one can become frustrated and angry.
There is a certain amount of wiggle room in the strict father worldview and there are important variations. A major split is among (1) white Evangelical Christians, (2) laissez-fair free market conservatives, and (3) pragmatic conservatives who are not bound by evangelical beliefs.
White Evangelicals
Those whites who have a strict father personal worldview and who are religious tend toward Evangelical Christianity, since God, in Evangelical Christianity, is the Ultimate Strict Father: You follow His commandments and you go to heaven; you defy His commandments and you burn in hell for all eternity. If you are a sinner and want to go to heaven, you can be ‘born again” by declaring your fealty by choosing His son, Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior.
…
Pragmatic Conservatives
Pragmatic conservatives, on the other hand, may not have a religious orientation at all. Instead, they may care primarily about their own personal authority, not the authority of the church or Christ, or God. They want to be strict fathers in their own domains, with authority primarily over their own lives. Thus, a young, unmarried conservative — male or female —may want to have sex without worrying about marriage. They may need access to contraception, advice about sexually transmitted diseases, information about cervical cancer, and so on. And if a girl or woman becomes pregnant and there is no possibility or desire for marriage, abortion may be necessary.
Trump is a pragmatic conservative, par excellence. And he knows that there are a lot of Republican voters who are like him in their pragmatism.
…
Laissez-faire Free Marketeers
Establishment conservative policies have not only been shaped by the political power of white evangelical churches, but also by the political power of those who seek maximally laissez-faire free markets, where wealthy people and corporations set market rules in their favor with minimal government regulation and enforcement. They see taxation not as investment in publicly provided resources for all citizens, but as government taking their earnings (their private property) and giving the money through government programs to those who don’t deserve it. This is the source of establishment Republicans’ anti-tax and shrinking government views. This version of conservatism is quite happy with outsourcing to increase profits by sending manufacturing and many services abroad where labor is cheap, with the consequence that well-paying jobs leave America and wages are driven down here. Since they depend on cheap imports, they would not be in favor of imposing high tariffs.
But Donald Trump is not in a business that makes products abroad to import here and mark up at a profit. As a developer, he builds hotels, casinos, office buildings, golf courses.
…
Direct vs. Systemic Causation
Direct causation is dealing with a problem via direct action. Systemic causation recognizes that many problems arise from the system they are in and must be dealt with via systemic causation. Systemic causation has four versions: A chain of direct causes. Interacting direct causes (or chains of direct causes). Feedback loops. And probabilistic causes. Systemic causation in global warming explains why global warming over the Pacific can produce huge snowstorms in Washington DC: masses of highly energized water molecules evaporate over the Pacific, blow to the Northeast and over the North Pole and come down in winter over the East coast and parts of the Midwest as masses of snow. Systemic causation has chains of direct causes, interacting causes, feedback loops, and probabilistic causes — often combined.
Direct causation is easy to understand, and appears to be represented in the grammars of all languages around the world. Systemic causation is more complex and is not represented in the grammar of any language. It just has to be learned.
Empirical research has shown that conservatives tend to reason with direct causation and that progressives have a much easier time reasoning with systemic causation. The reason is thought to be that, in the strict father model, the father expects the child or spouse to respond directly to an order and that refusal should be punished as swiftly and directly as possible.
Many of Trump’s policy proposals are framed in terms of direct causation.
…
Political Correctness
There are at least tens of millions of conservatives in America who share strict father morality and its moral hierarchy. Many of them are poor or middle class and many are white men who see themselves as superior to immigrants, nonwhites, women, nonChristians, gays — and people who rely on public assistance. In other words, they are what liberals would call “bigots.” For many years, such bigotry has not been publicly acceptable, especially as more immigrants have arrived, as the country has become less white, as more women have become educated and moved into the workplace, and as gays have become more visible and gay marriage acceptable.
…
Biconceptuals
There is no middle in American politics. There are moderates, but there is no ideology of the moderate, no single ideology that all moderates agree on. A moderate conservative has some progressive positions on issues, though they vary from person to person. Similarly, a moderate progressive has some conservative positions on issues, again varying from person to person. In short, moderates have both political moral worldviews, but mostly use one of them. Those two moral worldviews in general contradict each other. How can they reside in the same brain at the same time?
Both are characterized in the brain by neural circuitry. They are linked by a commonplace circuit: mutual inhibition. When one is turned on the other is turned off; when one is strengthened, the other is weakened. What turns them on or off? Language that fits that worldview activates that worldview, strengthening it, while turning off the other worldview and weakening it. The more Trump’s views are discussed in the media, the more they are activated and the stronger they get, both in the minds of hardcore conservatives and in the minds of moderate progressives.
This is true even if you are attacking Trump’s views.
…
Why His Lack of Policy Detail Doesn’t Matter
I recently heard a brilliant and articulate Clinton surrogate argue against a group of Trump supporters that Trump has presented no policy plans for increasing jobs, increasing economics growth, improving education, gaining international respect, etc. This is the basic Clinton campaign argument. Hillary has the experience, the policy know-how, she can get things done, it’s all on her website. Trump has none of this. What Hillary’s campaign says is true. And it is irrelevant.
Trump supporters and other radical Republican extremists could not care less, and for a good reason. Their job is to impose their view of strict father morality in all areas of life. If they have the Congress, and the Presidency and the Supreme Court, they could achieve this. They don’t need to name policies, because the Republicans already have hundreds of policies ready to go. They just need to be in complete power.
How Trump Uses Your Brain to His Advantage
Any unscrupulous, effective salesman knows how to use you brain against you, to get you to buy what he is selling. How can someone “use your brain against you?” What does it mean?
All thought uses neural circuitry. Every idea is constituted by neural circuitry. But we have no conscious access to that circuitry. As a result, most of thought — an estimated 98 percent of thought is unconscious. Conscious thought is the tip of the iceberg.
…
The mechanisms are:
1. Repetition.
…
2. Framing: Crooked Hillary.
…
3. Well-known examples: When a well-publicized disaster happens, the coverage activates the framing of it over and over, strengthening it, and increasing the probability that the framing will occur easily with high probability.
…
4. Grammar: Radical Islamic terrorists:
…
5. Conventional metaphorical thought is inherent in our largely unconscious thought. Such normal modes of metaphorical thinking are not noticed as such.
Consider Brexit, which used the metaphor of “entering” and “leaving” the EU.
…
…
Is the use of the public’s brain mechanisms for communication necessarily immoral? Understanding how people really think can be used to communicate truths, not Big Lies or ads for products.
This knowledge is not just known to cognitive linguists. It is taught in Marketing courses in business schools, and the mechanisms are used in advertising, to get you to buy what advertisers are selling.
…
How Can Democrats Do Better?
First, don’t think of an elephant. Remember not to repeat false conservative claims and then rebut them with the facts. Instead, go positive. Give a positive truthful framing to undermine claims to the contrary. Use the facts to support positively-framed truth. Use repetition.
Second, start with values, not policies and facts and numbers. Say what you believe, but haven’t been saying. For example, progressive thought is built on empathy, on citizens caring about other citizens and working through our government to provide public resources for all, both businesses and individuals. Use history. That’s how America started. The public resources used by businesses were not only roads and bridges, but public education, a national bank, a patent office, courts for business cases, interstate commerce support, and of course the criminal justice system. From the beginning, the Private Depended on Public Resources, both private lives and private enterprise.
…
Private enterprise and private life utterly depend on public resources. Have you ever said this? Elizabeth Warren has. Almost no other public figures. And stop defending “the government.” Talk about the public, the people, Americans, the American people, public servants, and good government. And take back freedom. Public resources provide for freedom in private enterprise and private life.
The conservatives are committed to privatizing just about everything and to eliminating funding for most public resources. The contribution of public resources to our freedoms cannot be overstated. Start saying it.
And don’t forget the police. Effective respectful policing is a public resource.
…
Third, keep out of nasty exchanges and attacks. Keep out of shouting matches. One can speak powerfully without shouting.
…
Values come first, facts and policies follow in the service of values. They matter, but they always support values.
Give up identity politics. No more women’s issues, black issues, Latino issues. Their issues are all real, and need public discussion. But they all fall under freedom issues, human issues. And address poor whites! Appalachian and rust belt whites deserve your attention as much as anyone else. Don’t surrender their fate to Trump, who will just increase their suffering.
And remember JFK’s immortal, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Empathy, devotion, love, pride in our country’s values, public resources to create freedoms. And adulthood.
Be prepared. You have to understand Trump to stand calmly up to him and those running with him all over the country."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #171 on:** November 13, 2016, 09:00:32 PM »

In my last post I linked to an article where George Lakoff provided a conceptual framework to explain how Trump manipulated people for example by playing on their concerns at their level of the family by raising fears about "others"; which conservatives addressed directly by offer guns as the solution to those fears. Progressives need to reframe such conservative reasoning by identifying the whole country (and/or world) as an extension of one's family, rather than by creating "others".

In my last post I also said that I would use metaphors from the Game of Thrones and if we take Donald J. Trump as the Game of Thrones' Night's King (see the first & second images), then per the linked Mother Jones article about Trump's Cabinet, it looks like Newt Gingrich may be the "Hand of the King".

The linked article is entitled: "Trump's Cabinet Is Going to Be as Bonkers as You Thought – Buckle Up"

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/what-donald-trumps-cabinet-might-look-like

Extract: "After Mike Pence was picked for the veep spot, Gingrich commented, "I said I want to be the senior planner for the entire federal government, and I want a letter from you that says Newt Gingrich is authorized to go to any program in any department, examine it, and report directly to the president." In other words, he wants to be—in Game of Thrones parlance—the Hand of the King. Maybe that's because Gingrich, with his decades of outlandish remarks, controversies, and scandals, might not want to go through what could be a bruising confirmation process.

While Trump's likely cabinet picks confirm George Martin's "man vs man" theme, Martin's themes of "fire & ice" and "man vs nature" can be illustrated by the concept that global warming (represented by fire dragons) may lead to misfired geoengineering and/or a nuclear winter that could create an "ice dragon" (see the third image) that could plunge a collapsed socio-economic world order into another ice age. The fourth image shows how Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism could result in a collapse of the thermohaline oceanic circulation system once GMSTA is between 2.5 & 2.7C due to a collapse of the WAIS; which could reduce GMSTA just at the time when panicking world governments implement geoengineering (& start wars) in response to global warming, thus driving the world into another ice age.

SteveMDFP · « **Reply #172 on:** November 13, 2016, 11:21:14 PM »

Quote from: AbruptSLR on November 13, 2016, 08:32:00 PM

The title of this thread is "Systemic Isolation" as there are currently about 7.5 billion people on Earth and at any moment they all think that they "know the truth", even if in the next moment they "know" a different "truth".
...
In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says, which is taken to be what is right. Many conservative spouses accept this worldview, uphold the father’s authority, and are strict in those realms of family life that they are in charge of.
. . .
Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you; society has nothing to do with it. You are responsible for yourself, not for others — who are responsible for themselves.
…
The Moral Hierarchy
The strict father logic extends further. The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above nonChristians, Straights above Gays.
We see these tendencies in most of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as in Trump, and on the whole, conservative policies flow from the strict father worldview and this hierarchy
Family-based moral worldviews run deep.
. . .

Both are characterized in the brain by neural circuitry. They are linked by a commonplace circuit: mutual inhibition. When one is turned on the other is turned off; when one is strengthened, the other is weakened. What turns them on or off? Language that fits that worldview activates that worldview, strengthening it, while turning off the other worldview and weakening it. The more Trump’s views are discussed in the media, the more they are activated and the stronger they get, both in the minds of hardcore conservatives and in the minds of moderate progressives.
This is true even if you are attacking Trump’s views.
…
How Can Democrats Do Better?
First, don’t think of an elephant. Remember not to repeat false conservative claims and then rebut them with the facts. Instead, go positive. Give a positive truthful framing to undermine claims to the contrary. Use the facts to support positively-framed truth. Use repetition.
Second, start with values, not policies and facts and numbers. Say what you believe, but haven’t been saying. For example, progressive thought is built on empathy, on citizens caring about other citizens and working through our government to provide public resources for all, both businesses and individuals. Use history. That’s how America started. The public resources used by businesses were not only roads and bridges, but public education, a national bank, a patent office, courts for business cases, interstate commerce support, and of course the criminal justice system. From the beginning, the Private Depended on Public Resources, both private lives and private enterprise.
…
Private enterprise and private life utterly depend on public resources. Have you ever said this? Elizabeth Warren has. Almost no other public figures. And stop defending “the government.” Talk about the public, the people, Americans, the American people, public servants, and good government. And take back freedom. Public resources provide for freedom in private enterprise and private life.
The conservatives are committed to privatizing just about everything and to eliminating funding for most public resources. The contribution of public resources to our freedoms cannot be overstated. Start saying it.
And don’t forget the police. Effective respectful policing is a public resource.
…
Third, keep out of nasty exchanges and attacks. Keep out of shouting matches. One can speak powerfully without shouting.
…
Values come first, facts and policies follow in the service of values. They matter, but they always support values.
Give up identity politics. No more women’s issues, black issues, Latino issues. Their issues are all real, and need public discussion. But they all fall under freedom issues, human issues. And address poor whites! Appalachian and rust belt whites deserve your attention as much as anyone else. Don’t surrender their fate to Trump, who will just increase their suffering.
And remember JFK’s immortal, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Empathy, devotion, love, pride in our country’s values, public resources to create freedoms. And adulthood.
Be prepared. You have to understand Trump to stand calmly up to him and those running with him all over the country."

I think this is a brilliant synthesis. It's not just analysis, it pulls together many different lines of thought -- from philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, neural science, and more.

Though long, it should be required reading for every activist.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #173 on:** November 14, 2016, 02:22:52 AM »

To be honest I know relatively little about either the books, or the HBO series, about "The Game of Thrones", so if some of my attempts to connect Donald J. Trump with the machinations of that story's "man vs man" theme may (or may not) seem awkward at times, please be patient.

Nevertheless, the first image of a quote from Lord Petyr Baelish (aka Littlefinger), seems to match Trump's strategy of keeping his opponents in the dark until he strikes; while the second image of a Littlefinger quote seems to match how Trump feeds off of chaos; and the third quote seems to match how Trump manipulates people (see his book "The Art of the Deal") ; and the fourth image seems to match how Trump would happily burn the system down so that he could be king of the ashes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petyr_Baelish

In this regards the first linked article is entitled: "Trump looking at fast ways to quit global climate deal: source"; which indicates that he will happily burn the world to increase his own narcissistic self-importance.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-climatechange-accord-idUSKBN1370JX

Extract: "Trump, who has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement, was considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to the source, who works on Trump's transition team for international energy and climate policy.
"It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before the election" on Tuesday, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Paris Agreement won enough backing for entry into force on Nov. 4.
Alternatives were to send a letter withdrawing from a 1992 Convention that is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement, voiding U.S. involvement in both in a year's time, or to issue a presidential order simply deleting the U.S. signature from the Paris accord, he said."

The second linked article presents some recent evidence of Trump's mob connections (which are not dissimilar to Littlefinger's):

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/2/1590081/-Another-Donald-Trump-recording-emerges-and-this-time-it-s-a-mob-connection

Extract: "Sure, Donald Trump has connections to the Russian mafia—but don’t forget his ties to the plain old American variety. Those connections included deals with mob-owned concrete companies to build Trump Tower.
…
In a nutshell, Donald Trump violated the law to hang with a mobster, served up racism and sexism on request, reneged on a business deal, and tried to seduce a married woman."
See also the third linked article is entitled: "Here's Video of Trump and an Alleged Mobster at Wrestlemania"

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/videos/a50251/video-trump-mob-figure/

Also, the fourth linked article is entitled: "The Many Times Donald Trump Has Lied About His Mob Connections"

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/donald-trump-lies-about-dealings-mafia-figures

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #174 on:** November 14, 2016, 02:36:34 AM »

To carry on with The Game of Throne's theme of man vs man, I offer the following re-posting of references about man's violent nature and possible approaches to directing this nature towards good:

The first linked reference demonstrates that human lethal violence has phylogenetic roots, but that civilization has reduced the expression of this lethal violence. Thus if/when socio-economic collapse occurs, the is little doubt that we will return to our violent roots with a vengeance. For example, modern humans now kill each other on a rate of 13 in 1000; while during the medieval period that deadly rate shot up to about 120 per 1000:

José María Gómez, Miguel Verdú, Adela González-Megías & Marcos Méndez (2016), "The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence", Nature, doi:10.1038/nature19758

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature19758.html

Extract: "The psychological, sociological and evolutionary roots of conspecific violence in humans are still debated, despite attracting the attention of intellectuals for over two millennia. Here we propose a conceptual approach towards understanding these roots based on the assumption that aggression in mammals, including humans, has a significant phylogenetic component. By compiling sources of mortality from a comprehensive sample of mammals, we assessed the percentage of deaths due to conspecifics and, using phylogenetic comparative tools, predicted this value for humans. The proportion of human deaths phylogenetically predicted to be caused by interpersonal violence stood at 2%. This value was similar to the one phylogenetically inferred for the evolutionary ancestor of primates and apes, indicating that a certain level of lethal violence arises owing to our position within the phylogeny of mammals. It was also similar to the percentage seen in prehistoric bands and tribes, indicating that we were as lethally violent then as common mammalian evolutionary history would predict. However, the level of lethal violence has changed through human history and can be associated with changes in the socio-political organization of human populations. Our study provides a detailed phylogenetic and historical context against which to compare levels of lethal violence observed throughout our history."

See also:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/10/01/humans-are-descended-from-murderous-beasts-but-civilization-has-tamed-us.html

Extract: "Humans are “in a position within a particularly violent mammalian clade, in which violence seems to have been ancestrally present,” the study in the journal Nature says. That means that based on other rather murderous species closely related to us, humans have “inherited their propensity for violence.”
As a group, mammals average a lethal violence rate against their own of about three killings of their own species in 1,000 deaths. The “root” violence rate of early humans and many of our closer primate cousins is about 20 in 1,000, said study lead author Jose Maria Gomez at the University of Granada in Spain. But in the medieval period, between 700 and 1500 A.D., that deadly rate shot up to about 120 per 1000.
But we’ve gotten less murderous.
On average, modern humans now kill each other on a rate of 13 in 1000, Gomez said, basing his calculations on World Health Organization data. But he says the exact numbers are rough and depend on many technical variables, so what is more accurate is to say “violence has decreased significantly in the contemporary age.”
…
Pinker praised the Gomez study as creative and thorough.
“Based on three biological facts — we are apes, we are social and we are territorial — one would predict that humans should engage in lethal violence in our natural conditions,” Pinker wrote in an email. “Modern societies have developed, especially the rule of law, that have reduced rates of lethal violence below what would expect for a mammal with our ancestry and ecology.”
Harvard biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham, who studies the roots of violence, praised the breadth Gomez study, but said there some issues remain. He’s especially concerned about too closely linking primates killing their own, which is more the murdering of infants, to humans whose killing their own mostly involves adults.
Few species beyond humans and some social territorial carnivores like wolves and lions are part of the “adult-killing club” of their own species, Wrangham said. “Humans really are exceptional.” "

The next linked article discusses evidence that as mankind left the hunter-gather stage (& entered the agricultural stage that allowed for higher population densities) that well-connected social networks blossomed as more aggressive male (genetic) behavior diminished. Another recent study (see the second link, & that attached image) found that at this same transitional stage the average ratio of genes passed down to subsequence generations indicated that on average the successfully reproductive man had 17 mates; which is a clear sign that social-networks (including organized farming, mining, trades & crafts) allowed more social males (whether cad-types or dad-types) to accumulate sufficient wealth to maximize their reproductive success. It would seem logical that natural selection will further promote more social (empathic) behavior as we transition from the industrial age (dominated by fossil fuels) to the information age (which in my opinion will facilitate sustainable behavior with less externalization of dis-benefits like pollution and GHGs).

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Science-Notebook/2015/0416/Why-do-humans-have-chins

Extract: "Humans are the only primate with a chin, an adaptation that reflects the emergence of complex social networks among our ancestors.

…
Beginning about 80,000 years ago, and accelerating about 20,000 years later following another wave of human migration out of Africa, human faces changed. Our brow ridges became less prominent, and most parts of our faces shrank, except for the chin, which then appeared more prominent.

The hormonal changes were associated with behavioral changes. As population density increased, small bands of hunter-gatherers began to encounter one another more frequently. As the number of interactions with outsiders increased, those who were less aggressive and more empathetic toward unfamiliar people – which tended to be men with relatively lower levels of testosterone – finally began to see success, cooperating to obtain food and sharing techniques to make tools, for instance.
"What we're arguing is that modern humans had an advantage at some point to have a well-connected social network, they can exchange information, and mates, more readily, there's innovation," says Franciscus in the press release, "and for that to happen, males have to tolerate each other.
Over time, these original economic girlie men had more reproductive success than their more hostile and aggressive counterparts. Even greater social tolerance led to greater population density, and eventually more gracile faces came to dominate the gene pool.
And it all happened, the researchers argue, because humans started developing wider social networks.
…
Behavioral modernity – a term used by anthropologists to mean basically everything that humans have done for the past fifty or sixty millenniums – does not have a single cause. But, if these researchers are correct, the origins of our civilization, and of our ability to improve it over time, are written on your face."

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-wealth-power-stronger-role-survival.html
Extract: "Melissa Wilson Sayres, a leading author and assistant professor with ASU's School of Life Sciences, said, "Instead of 'survival of the fittest' in biological sense, the accumulation of wealth and power may have increased the reproductive success of a limited number of 'socially fit' males and their sons."
It is widely recognized among scientists that a major bottleneck, or decrease in genetic diversity, occurred approximately 50 thousand years ago when a subset of humans left Africa and migrated across the rest of the world. Signatures of this bottleneck appear in most genes of non-African populations, whether they are inherited from both parents or, as confirmed in this study, only along the father's or mother's genetic lines.
"Most surprisingly to us, we detected another, male-specific, bottleneck during a period of global growth. The signal for this bottleneck dates to a time period four to eight thousand years ago, when humans in different parts of the world had become sedentary farmers," said senior author Toomas Kivisild from the Division of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge."

The next study indicates that by the end of the Pleistocene that mankind's facial signals uniquely qualified us to take advantage of the technological revolutions that occurred during the Holocene/Anthropocene (where mankind began to dominate nature), as indicated by the findings of the second linked research (see the attached image).

The following linked references indicate that not only did wealth allow for a genetic bottleneck of male genes in Europe about 5500 years ago, but it also allowed for large-scale displacement of one cultural group by another (certainly including by means of warfare & enslavement):

Nature, Volume: 522, Pages: 140–141Date published:
(11 June 2015), doi:10.1038/522140a

http://www.nature.com/news/dna-data-explosion-lights-up-the-bronze-age-1.17723

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/06/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians

Extract: "The Bronze Age came to Europe and Asia 5000 years ago, leaving a trail of metal tools, axes, and jewelry that stretches from Siberia to Scandinavia. But was this powerful new technology an idea that spread from the Middle East to European and Asian people, or was it brought in by foreigners? Two of the largest studies of ancient DNA from Bronze Age and Iron Age people have now found that outsiders deserve the credit: Nomadic herders from the steppes of today's Russia and Ukraine brought their culture and, possibly, languages with them—and made a relatively recent and lasting imprint on the genetic makeup of Europeans and Asians.
In the studies, published online today in Nature, two rival teams of geneticists analyzed the DNA from 170 individuals who lived at key archaeological sites in Europe and Asia 5000 to 3000 years ago. Both teams found strong evidence that a wave of nomadic herders known as the Yamnaya from the Pontic-Caspian, a vast steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea and as far east as the Caspian Sea, swept into Europe sometime between 5000 and 4800 years ago; along the way, they may have brought with them Proto-Indo-European, the mysterious ancestral tongue from which all of today’s 400 Indo-European languages spring. These herders interbred with local farmers and created the Corded Ware culture of central Europe, named for the twisted cord imprint on its pottery. Their genes were passed down to northern and central Europeans living today, as one of the teams posted on a preprint server earlier this year and published today.
But in a new twist, one of the studies also found that the Yamnaya headed east from their homeland in the Eurasian steppelands, moving all the way to the Altai Mountains of Siberia, where they replaced local hunter-gatherers. This means that this distinctive culture of pastoralists, who had ox-driven wagons with wheels and whose warriors rode horses, dominated much of Eurasia, from north-central Europe to central Siberia and northern Mongolia. They persisted there until as recently as 2000 years ago. “Now we see the Yamnaya is not only spreading north into Europe; they’re also spreading east, crossing the Urals, getting all the way into central Asia, all the way into the Altai, between Mongolia, China, and Siberia,” says evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, author of one study.
Archaeologists have long noticed connections between the steppe cultures such as the Yamnaya and Bronze Age people to the east, who lived in the Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia and Mongolia about 5500 to 4500 years ago. Like the steppe people, these eastern cultures, such as the Afanasievo of the Altai, buried their high-status people in a supine flexed position, covered in ochre with animal remains in their graves, beneath mounds (or stone kurgans in the steppe). They also made pointed-based pots, censers (circular bowls on legs), and were among the first people to drive carts with wheels and tame horses. All of these traits also link them to people in central and eastern Europe, including the Yamnaya and Corded Ware people, who are thought to have spoken early Indo-European languages."

Now that I have established that modern people have both Cad-like and Dad-like genetic propensities, and which behavior is expressed more is a function of not only wealth/power but also by socio-economic guarantors (such as facial micro-expressions) that promote group cohesion; I would like to turn to modern psychology findings about human nature that will support not only improved future socio-economic interactions but will also allow for faster and more beneficial programming of AI and of human (cyborg) interaction with AI (in the coming decades):

I begin by referencing the Book "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life" by Dacher Keltner, W.W. Norton & Co., 2009

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393337138?ie=UTF8&tag=gregooscicen-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393337138

Extract: "…. Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short,” why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Illustrated with more than fifty photographs of human emotions, Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy. Positive emotions, Keltner finds, lie at the core of human nature and shape our everyday behavior―and they just may be the key to understanding how we can live our lives better."

Archimid · « **Reply #175 on:** November 14, 2016, 02:52:48 AM »

I think this whole thread is required reading. Thank you ASLR.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #176 on:** November 14, 2016, 04:20:44 AM »

Quote from: Archimid on November 14, 2016, 02:52:48 AM

I think this whole thread is required reading. Thank you ASLR.

Archimid,

Thank you. I learn a lot while researching my various posts in all the different threads of this forum, but especially in this thread.

Best regards,
ASLR

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #177 on:** November 14, 2016, 04:56:43 AM »

I imagine that Trump will settle as many lawsuits as possible, but who knows maybe some will proceed into his presidency (the attached image shows a trial in "The Game of Thrones"):

The linked Wikipedia article is entitled: "Legal affairs of Donald Trump"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump

Extract: "An analysis by USA Today published in June 2016 found that over the previous three decades, Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal courts and state court, an unprecedented number for a U.S. presidential candidate. Of the 3,500 suits, Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900; defendants in 1,450; and bankruptcy, third party, or other in 150. Trump was named in at least 169 suits in federal court. A number of other cases (over 150) were in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (covering Broward County, Florida) since 1983"

See also:
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37956018

Extract: "Donald Trump is heading to the White House with numerous private lawsuits. What are they and how might they affect his presidency?
Even by the standards of billionaire businessmen, Donald Trump is an unusually litigious man who has been involved in thousands of lawsuits - both those he has launched and those he has defended - over the years.
The president-elect has been party to some 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years and is currently facing 75 active lawsuits, according to analysis by USA Today newspaper.
By far the most pressing - and potentially embarrassing for the newly elected leader - are several lawsuits launched over the now-defunct Trump University, which centre on former students claiming they were charged tens of thousands of dollars for courses that promised to unlock the secrets of real estate entrepreneurship - and didn't. Mr Trump denies the claims.
Because these were launched long before he assumed office, no presidential immunity statutes apply and Mr Trump will have to attend court when required."

Also see:

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #178 on:** November 14, 2016, 12:08:26 PM »

Perhaps the Game of Throne's Ice Wall (see first image) can be taken as a metaphor for the ice plugs for the Antarctic marine glaciers, the lose of which DeConto & Pollard (2016) indicate could result in a collapse of major portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (see the last three image); resulting in both abrupt sea level rise and in Hansen's ice-climate feedback:

Edit: This post both matches the Game of Thrones theme of "man vs nature" and of systemic isolation as AR5 does not formally recognize either DeConto & Pollard's hydrofracturing & cliff failure mechanisms for abrupt ice sheet collapse nor Hansen's ice-climate feedback.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #179 on:** November 14, 2016, 06:24:42 PM »

In keeping with both the "man vs man" and "man vs nature" themes of The Game of Thrones the attached quotes remind me of the coming Donald J. Trump transition to power:

Edit: This post matches the systemic isolation theme as none of the IPCC RCP scenarios recognize the likely consequences of a Trump presidency combined with high climate sensitivity.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #180 on:** November 14, 2016, 07:52:45 PM »

Further to Reply #177, the first linked article is entitled: "‘Prediction professor’ who called Trump’s big win also made another forecast: Trump will be impeached".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/11/prediction-professor-who-called-trumps-big-win-also-made-another-forecast-trump-will-be-impeached/

&

https://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/is-there-any-way-donald-trump-wont-become-president-430165.html

Extract: ”Law professor Christopher Peterson of the University of Utah wrote a 23-page essay before Trump was even elected summarising the reasons Trump should be impeached and it still applies since his victory. Peterson highlights several legal complaints of fraud and racketeering from Trump but focuses on Trump University – for which Trump is due to go on trial this month, unless it’s settled out of court.

“In the United States, it is illegal for businesses to use false statements to convince consumers to purchase their services,” wrote Peterson. “The evidence indicates that Trump University used a systemic pattern of fraudulent representations to trick thousands of families into investing in a programme that it can be argued was a sham. Fraud and racketeering are serious crimes that legally rise to the level of impeachable acts.”

Some might take the impeachment idea with a pinch of salt however. In the event of Trump’s impeachment his vice-president Mike Pence would most likely take power – a man who reportedly advocated spending public money on conversion therapy for gay people.

History isn’t on the side of this idea. The last president to face impeachment proceedings was Bill Clinton, who faced charges of perjury and obstructing the course of justice after he lied about having an extramarital affair with a White House intern – something he was acquitted of. The only other president to be impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868 and no US commander-in-chief has ever lost office because of it.

Verdict – Although unprecedented, expert opinion deems it well within the realms of possibility."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #181 on:** November 14, 2016, 09:03:18 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "John Oliver, Activist - “We need to stay here and fight,” he told his audience on Sunday evening." The parallel between John Oliver's monologue & Cersei's act of desperation speaks for itself:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/john-oliver-activist-comedian/507599/

Extract: "For the last eight years, we’ve had a president we could assume would generally stand up for the rights of all Americans. But that is going to change now. So we’re going to have to actively stand up for one another."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #182 on:** November 14, 2016, 11:54:05 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "The U.S. will become a pariah when Trump pulls out of the Paris Climate Agreement - And the trade war he campaigned on will be all but guaranteed."

https://thinkprogress.org/pariah-nation-when-trump-exits-paris-climate-fe8c6884b654#.orz7gmyzx

Extract: "Since the United States was a leader in making Paris happen, when the country pulls out (and then works to kill climate action at home and abroad), it will suddenly become a global pariah. Think of the sanctions against Putin’s Russia — or, think about a massive, global boycott, like the one against apartheid South Africa, times 10.

Consider how a United States exit will look.

The world will rightly blame the United States for destroying humanity’s last, best hope to avoid catastrophic warming. We will be blamed for the multiple ever-worsening catastrophic climate impacts that befall the planet in the coming years (and decades and beyond)."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #183 on:** November 15, 2016, 05:39:57 PM »

In a world where Myron Ebell will likely be the next head of the US EPA, it is a clear sign of systemic isolation that IPCC scientists have made RCP 8.5 as an upper bound scenario. In a man vs. man world the iron throne is made of swords and many innocents will die:

The linked article is entitled: "Trump's attack dog on climate", and discusses Myron Ebell who is the leading candidate to be Trump's new head of the US EPA.

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/11/trumps-attack-dog-on-climate-000231

Extract: "In the seven weeks since reporters confirmed that climate-change skeptic Myron Ebell would be the head of President-elect Donald Trump's EPA transition team, environmental websites have lit up with worry, and reporters have started to unpack the views of someone referred to as a “climate contrarian” and free-market “public-policy wonk.”"
…
He views the scientific community as deeply flawed, an arrogant profession prone to sloppy mistakes. Critics views his position on science as mirroring that of the tobacco industry decades ago and they note that Ebell worked on tobacco issues at the ALRA in the 1990s.
“If he deserves credit for anything—I would call it a black mark—it would be taking the tobacco playbook and applying it to climate change,” said Jeremy Symons, the assistant vice president for climate political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund who has clashed with Ebell over the years.
…
“Myron is a true believer that climate change isn’t real, that corporations left to their own devices will do the right thing and the EPA is the problem, not part of the solution,” said Symons. Moylan called Ebell a “ring leader in the libertarian wing” who is fully convinced that alarmist environmentalists are using the specter of climate change to push through their Big Government agenda.
…
“The climate denialist world is a very small echo chamber which is almost hermetically sealed from the rest of the climate arena,” said Taylor. He added, “It’s not that different from the alt-right world writ large that we’ve been learning about recently. They have not crossed the radar screens of serious people. But through that neglect, they have grown steadily and increasingly on the right.”
…
“I got a sick feeling in my gut,” said Symons. “I can’t believe we got to the point when someone who is as unqualified and intellectually dishonest as Myron Ebell has been put in a position of trust for the future of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate we are going to leave our kids.”"

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #184 on:** November 16, 2016, 01:35:35 AM »

The linked article is entitled: "Power battles bog down Trump transition". Maybe in a few years, to save money, Trump can replace our judicial system with "trial by combat"; which is how he seems to be selecting his cabinet.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-cabinet-transition-battles-231442

Extract: "One week after winning the presidency in a stunning upset, Donald Trump is already botching the transition, insiders say.

The daunting task of filling top Cabinet posts appears to be a chaotic scramble inside Trump Tower, with competing power centers jockeying for position and influence as a steady stream of names both realistic and not gets floated to a baffled media.

“It’s an absolute knife fight,” said one Trump insider. “But that just makes it Tuesday.”"

Edit, see also the following linked article entitled: "Trump Transition Shake-Up Part of 'Stalinesque Purge' of Christie Loyalists":

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-transition-shake-part-stalinesque-purge-christie-loyalists-n684081

Extract: "The Donald Trump transition, already off to slow start, bogged down further Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of former Congressman Mike Rogers, who had been coordinating its national security efforts.

Two sources close to Rogers said he had been the victim of what one called a "Stalinesque purge," from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #185 on:** November 17, 2016, 07:17:34 PM »

The linked Wired article is entitled: "America's Top Spy Talks Snowden Leaks and Our Ominous Future". While covert intelligence operations have been going on since the begin of our species, with the rate of increase of intelligence and Trump taking the helm, we should all be concerned that our leaders are ill-equipped to deal with the pace of change of our current reality:

https://www.wired.com/2016/11/james-clapper-us-intelligence/

Extract: "One of the things Clapper does profess to enjoy about his job is meeting with the men and women who make up his covert empire of 17 agencies, which range from brand names like the CIA, NSA, DEA, and FBI to lesser-known units like the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
…
Rather than worry whether his spies have gone too far, Clapper worries that leaders in Washington are ill-equipped to tackle the multiplying, metastasizing set of threats that face America. His annual appearances on Capitol Hill—filled with discussions about ISIS, cyberwar, North Korea’s nuclear program, and new Russian and Chinese aggression—have been so routinely pessimistic that he refers to his yearly global threat assessment as the Litany of Doom. Unpredictable instability has been a constant for this administration and will be, he says, for the next one too.
…
The nation’s first director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, opened shop in 2005 with a staff of 11 crammed into a small office close to the White House—filling a new post created in the aftermath of 9/11 in recognition that the country needed a single figure to oversee its intelligence efforts. By the time Clapper arrived in the job five years later, the staff occupied a 51-acre complex in McLean, Virginia.
…
Thanks to the documents leaked by Snowden, the American public now knows that Clapper’s empire encompasses more than 107,000 employees, roughly equivalent to the population of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Their combined budget exceeds $52 billion, including $10 billion for the NSA and $14 billion for the CIA, $2.6 billion of which goes for covert action programs like drone strikes and sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program.
…
In his mind the adverse reaction stemmed in part from the fact that, in the era after 9/11, the Bush administration claimed too much power for its sprawling war on terror in secret. More should have been publicly debated and authorized by Congress, he says, including the sweeping domestic surveillance program that lay at the heart of Snowden’s explosive disclosures.
…
In fact, he says, while the legislative changes after Snowden’s revelations made the process slower for the NSA, it greatly boosted the total amount of data the agency could legally access. “Instead of the NSA storing the data, we go to the companies and ask them for it,” he says. “It actually gave us broader access across a broader range of providers than the original programs. If people think their civil liberties and privacy are going to be better protected by the providers, OK.”
…
One of the biggest projects of Clapper’s tenure post-Snowden has been to declassify thousands of the top-secret intelligence dossiers, known today as the President’s Daily Brief, that have been delivered to the Oval Office every morning since the Kennedy administration. Over the past year, Clapper and CIA director John Brennan have disclosed the majority of them up through the Ford administration.
…
Clapper has little faith in encryption as a bulwark against cyberattacks. Instead he thinks the answer lies in a strategy of deterrence.

That’s why it doesn’t bother him that America inaugurated the era of cyberwarfare. “I’m glad, if we were in fact the first,” he says. He hopes that the use of weapons like Stuxnet—and their demonstrated power to wreak real-world havoc—will eventually help keep the peace between state adversaries and perhaps even engender a strategic analogue to the cold war’s mutually assured destruction doctrine. If nations recognize that any act of cyberaggression is certain to result in retaliatory strikes that will wipe out their own critical systems, then they won’t act. “Until we create the substance and psychology of deterrence, these attacks are going to continue,” he says. He has little idea what that strategic deterrence looks like, though. “People understood nuclear deterrence. Cyber’s much harder to grasp.” That’s one problem for which he’s happy to pass the buck to his successor: “I don’t want that homework assignment.”
In other respects too, he says, the nation needs to look further ahead. America is too preoccupied with terrorism and not focused enough on the most troubling long-range threats—from war in space, as China and Russia build antisatellite capability and threaten America’s dominance of technologies like GPS, to the ways in which artificial intelligence and human genomic modification could endanger national security. I ask him if the American people should just get used to terrorism attacks like those in Paris or San Bernardino, California. “I do,” he replies, his words clipped. “Got used to the cold war—went on a long time. Decades.”"

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #186 on:** November 17, 2016, 09:19:04 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Trump Scores His First Win in Congress", which means that Congress will only pass a stopgap spending bill until March 2017, at which time Trump will have a say in the 2017 federal budget, and at which time the GOP will be able to roll back many regulations ordered by Obama. Follow the money trail …

http://www.thewire.com/politics/2011/04/political-history-donald-trumps-publicity/36777/

Extract: "The president-elect wants an immediate say in how money is spent once he takes office, and Republicans are granting his wish."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #187 on:** November 17, 2016, 09:48:31 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Trump Camp's Talk of Registry and Japanese Internment Raises Muslim Fears". If the GOP Congress were to declare war on say ISIS then Donald J. Trump would be granted wartime authority to inter US citizens. Maybe it is time to pay more attention:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/japanese-internment-muslim-registry.html?_r=0

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #188 on:** November 19, 2016, 06:11:47 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Donald Trump’s first staff picks all deny the threat of climate change"; and so the end has a beginning …

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-top-picks-climate-denial-record-d9e6f438b104#.auscn8pl0

Extract: "Introducing the Five Horsemen of the Climate Apocalypse"

Also see the following article entitled "Climate change worries escalate as Trump elevates top deniers":

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/16/politics/climate-change-donald-trump/

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #189 on:** November 20, 2016, 05:12:40 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Most people are wildly underestimating what Trump’s win will mean for the environment". Soon the pillaging will begin:

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/14/13582562/trump-gop-climate-environmental-policy

Extract: "So the biggest question is whether Republicans in Congress can revamp the laws that underpin and guide the EPA. And here, the only thing stopping them is the Senate.

There will be 47 Democrats in the Senate in 2017. If 41 of them can stick together, they can filibuster Republican environmental legislation. (Ending a filibuster requires a cloture vote by a supermajority of 60 senators.)

Will Republican leaders let that happen? Or will they get rid of the filibuster? They would need only 50 votes to do so. Jonathan Chait thinks the filibuster is toast. Jonathan Bernstein thinks there’s a chance it could survive, since there are some old-school institutionalists on the right, like Jeff Flake and John McCain, who prefer to keep it.

If the filibuster survives, Republicans will be significantly constrained in what they can do, though they still have options. They could, for instance, try to slip environmental measures that affect the federal budget into budget reconciliation bills — those only need 51 votes to pass. (Paul Ryan suggested that strategy in a presser in January.)

Here are 11 top environmental priorities for Trump and a GOP Congress
1) Kill Obama’s Clean Power Plan
…
2) Withdraw from the Paris climate agreement
…
3) Dismantle US environmental rules around coal power
…
4) Weaken fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks
…
5) Open up new public lands to oil and gas drilling
…
6) Scale back federal support for wind and solar power
…
7) Dramatically limit the EPA’s ability to regulate in the future
…
8 ) Reverse the White House’s climate guidance to federal agencies
…
9) Make the Supreme Court more hostile to environmental regulation
…
10) Pack the executive branch with industry-friendly appointments
…
11) A flurry of anti-EPA budget bills that will emerge every year, without end
…
What’s more, the GOP has become much more radicalized since the Bush years, and the country much more partisan. “Negative partisanship” — hatred of the other side — is increasingly the prime motive force in US politics, with less and less willingness on either side to compromise or even negotiate. There is virtually no Republican support left for environmental or climate policy, other than to dismantle it.

While there is always some chance Trump could lunge off in an unexpected direction (he is Trump, after all), the overwhelming likelihood is that GOP operatives and industry lobbyists will control energy and environmental policy for the next four years. What lies ahead now is triage, a long string of terrible choices, desperate battles, and wrenching losses, the consequences of which could reverberate for millennia. "

budmantis · « **Reply #190 on:** November 20, 2016, 06:15:01 PM »

In addition to McCain and Flake, two other Republican senators that I know of are against getting rid of the filibuster, Orrin Hatch and Lindsey Graham. Despite that, Mitch McConnell and the leadership are looking for the means to circumvent the filibuster with regards to Supreme Court appointments. Dark days ahead. I tend to be optimistic but looking down the road, it's difficult finding that silver lining in those dark clouds.

I just finished watching season one of Game of Thrones. I'm hooked!

be cause · « **Reply #191 on:** November 20, 2016, 06:35:40 PM »

haven't seen a minute of GoT but keep bumping into cast as they seem to most filming here in N. Ireland .

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #192 on:** November 20, 2016, 07:16:59 PM »

The linked article is entitled: "Federal Reserve Chair Throws Cold Water On Trump's Economic Plan"; which provides an economic example of how Trump is an opportunist with very little wisdom:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/17/502480053/federal-reserve-chair-throws-cold-water-on-trump-economic-plan

Extract: "President-elect Donald Trump has pledged a $1 trillion infrastructure spending program to help jump-start an economy that he said during the campaign was in terrible shape.
Speaking on Capitol Hill Thursday, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen warned lawmakers that as they consider such spending, they should keep an eye on the national debt. Yellen also said that while the economy needed a big boost with fiscal stimulus after the financial crisis, that's not the case now.

"The economy is operating relatively close to full employment at this point," she said, "so in contrast to where the economy was after the financial crisis when a large demand boost was needed to lower unemployment, we're no longer in that state."

Yellen cautioned lawmakers that if they spend a lot on infrastructure and run up the debt, and then down the road the economy gets into trouble, "there is not a lot of fiscal space should a shock to the economy occur, an adverse shock, that should require fiscal stimulus."
…
Another target of Trump's during the campaign came up at the hearing: the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, cited Trump's criticism that the Dodd-Frank banking rules were stifling lending and stunting the economy. But Yellen gave her support to Dodd-Frank, saying:

"We lived through a devastating financial crisis, and a high priority for all Americans should be that we want to see put in place safeguards through supervision and regulation that result in a safer and sounder financial system, and I think we have been doing that and our financial system as a consequence is safer and sounder and many of the appropriate reforms are embodied in Dodd-Frank."

Yellen added, "We wouldn't want to go back to the mortgage lending standards that led to the financial crisis.""

See also:

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-decision-on-electric-car-incentives-wont-hurt-tesla-2016-11

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #193 on:** November 20, 2016, 09:25:52 PM »

To take a brief break from GoT analogies; one of the key messages of this thread is that in a free-will information network signals can easily become corrupted; which then exposes the common good to narcissists like Trump who have fallen in love with their own self-deception (see the first image). Trump's election victory has already encouraged populists to seek to return to a past where they imposed their beliefs on others as indicated in the second image of the "Captain" lectures Cool Hand Luke that: "What we've got here is failure to communicate"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_we've_got_here_is_failure_to_communicate

As much of this thread addresses how information theory can work to decrease entropy/suffering, I provide the following link to Shannon's paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" that underpins much of information theory (and where entropy "H" is used as a measure of information contained in the signals):

C. E. SHANNON (July, October, 1948), "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 379–423, 623–656.

http://worrydream.com/refs/Shannon%20-%20A%20Mathematical%20Theory%20of%20Communication.pdf

Extract: "In the present paper we will extend the theory to include a number of new factors, in particular the effect of noise in the channel, and the savings possible due to the statistical structure of the original message and due to the nature of the final destination of the information.

The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.
…
If the number of messages in the set is finite then this number or any monotonic function of this number can be regarded as a measure of the information produced when one message is chosen from the set, all choices being equally likely. As was pointed out by Hartley the most natural choice is the logarithmic function.
…
The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey.
…
We have represented a discrete information source as a Markoff process. Can we define a quantity which will measure, in some sense, how much information is “produced” by such a process, or better, at what rate information is produced?

Suppose we have a set of possible events whose probabilities of occurrence are p1; p2; : : : ; pn. These probabilities are known but that is all we know concerning which event will occur. Can we find a measure of how much “choice” is involved in the selection of the event or of how uncertain we are of the outcome? If there is such a measure, say H(p1; p2; : : : ; pn), …
…
The only H satisfying the three above assumptions is of the form:

{See the Formula in the third attached image}

where K is a positive constant.

This theorem, and the assumptions required for its proof, are in no way necessary for the present theory. It is given chiefly to lend a certain plausibility to some of our later definitions. The real justification of these definitions, however, will reside in their implications. Quantities of the form H="summation of" pi log pi (the constant K merely amounts to a choice of a unit of measure) play a central role in information theory as measures of information, choice and uncertainty.
…
The quantity H has a number of interesting properties which further substantiate it as a reasonable measure of choice or information.

1. H==0 if and only if all the pi but one are zero, this one having the value unity. Thus only when we are certain of the outcome does H vanish. Otherwise H is positive.
2. For a given n, H is a maximum and equal to logn when all the pi are equal (i.e., 1n). This is also intuitively the most uncertain situation.
…
Consider a discrete source of the finite state type considered above. For each possible state i there will be a set of probabilities pi( j) of producing the various possible symbols j. Thus there is an entropy Hi for each state."

To provide a better understanding of the importance of Shannon's work I provide the linked article entitled: "Without Claude Shannon's information theory there would have been no Internet" (see also the associated fourth attached image).

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/22/shannon-information-theory

Extract: "Shannon showed the true power of these bits, however, by putting them into a mathematical framework. His equation defines a quantity, H, which is known as Shannon entropy and can be thought of as a measure of the information in a message, measured in bits.

In a message, the probability of a particular symbol (represented by "x") turning up is denoted by p(x). The right hand side of the equation above sums up the probabilities of the full range of symbols that might turn up in a message, weighted by the number of bits needed to represent that value of x, a term given by logp(x). (A logarithm is the reverse process of raising something to a power – we say that the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 – written log10(1000) – is 3, because 103=1000.)

A coin toss, for example, has two possible outcomes (or symbols) – x could be heads or tails. Each outcome has a 50% probability of occurring and, in this instance, p(heads) and p(tails) are each ½. Shannon's theory uses base 2 for its logarithms and log2(½) is -1. That gives us a total information content in flipping a coin, a value for H, of 1 bit. Once a coin toss has been completed, we have gained one bit of information or, rather, reduced our uncertainty by one bit.
A single character taken from an alphabet of 27 has around 4.76 bits of information – in other words log2(1/27) – because each character either is or is not a particular letter of that alphabet. Because there are 27 of these binary possibilities, the probability of each is 1/27. This is a basic description of a basic English alphabet (26 characters and a space), if each character was equally likely to turn up in a message. By this calculation, messages in English need bandwidth for storage or transmission equal to the number of characters multiplied by 4.76.

But we know that, in English, each character does not appear equally. A "u" usually follows a "q" and "e" is more common than "z". Take these statistical details into account and it is possible to reduce the H value for English characters to less than one bit. Which is useful if you want to speed up comms or take up less space on a hard disk."

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #194 on:** November 21, 2016, 03:07:10 AM »

The linked article is entitled: "How to Avoid Stephen Hawking's Dark Prediction for Humanity"; and the article speculates that the probability whether we whether we survive as a race or not, is not something to be calculated "… but is a choice to be made".

http://www.livescience.com/56926-stephen-hawking-humanity-extinct-1000-years.html

Extract: "Stephen Hawking thinks humanity has only 1,000 years left of survival on Earth and that our species needs to colonize other planets.
…
"While I respect Stephen Hawking enormously, speculating on how long Homo sapiens will survive before extinction is foolish," said John Sterman, director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. "Whether we survive and thrive or descend into chaos is not something to predict or lay odds on, but a choice to be made.""

However, as I have noted previously in this thread the Buddha indicated that the first Noble Truth is that suffering exists and that we suffer because of both ignorance, aversion and clinging/addiction. However, the second linked article indicates that addiction in America is increasing not because of our flawed characters but because of our collective mental illness.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/78-people-die-day-opioid-overdose-surgeon-general-says-landmark-n685366

Extract: "Addiction is taking a stunning toll on America and must not be thought of as a "character flaw," the U.S. surgeon general said in a landmark report published Thursday."

Therefore, if we collective are going to choose to avoid human extinction, we had better start working on over-coming our collective mental illness by learning to face the reality of the evolved free-will information universe that we all live in.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #195 on:** November 21, 2016, 08:32:29 PM »

The first linked reference reports an experimentally observed violation of the Born rule; which may provide evidence for a theory of quantum gravity and a holographic universe.

James Q. Quach (2016), "Which-way double slit experiments and Born rule violation"

https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.06401v1
&
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.06401v1.pdf

Abstract: "The double-slit experiment is used as the archetypal interference experiment to dramatically demonstrate the quantum weirdness of wave-particle duality. It is a long-held assumption that whether which-way detectors are placed at one slit or both will yield the same results, rendering the second detector redundant. Here we show that the presence of the second detector can have measurable effects on the interference pattern, violating this assumption. We show that this effect forms the basis for a new measure of Born rule violation which is correct to all orders. It opens new experimental opportunities for the accurate testing of the Born rule."

See also:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230983-200-classic-quantum-experiment-could-conceal-theory-of-everything/
Extract: "Quach shows that if you account for interference between all three paths, the probabilities will be different from what the Born rule predicts …"

Such finding indicate that scientists have an incomplete understanding of probability and thus I again note that: "… Khrennikov (2016), cited in Reply #141, QBism is a subpart of Science Bayesism, SB, which are both subjective, with QBism treating Born's rule as a quantum generalization of the formula of total probability (FTP)

Extract: "QBism refers to the irreducible role of a mental element in decision making about the outcomes of quantum experiments.
…
Thus QBism is just a part of de Finetti’s SBism (where ‘S’ is from ‘Science’). Another good source on interrelation of QBism and CBism (the latter is about the private agent perspective for classical physics) is Mermin’s paper.
…
QBists treat Born’s rule as quantum generalization of FTP. We remind that classical FTP functionally connects the probability distribution of one observable, say A, with probability distribution of another observable, say B, by using the conditional probabilities p(B|A) …"

Thus QBism (and SBism) appear(s) to be related to the "Constructor Theory of Probability" presented in the linked reference & following discussion article. All of these findings support HIOTTOE:

Chiara Marletto. "Constructor theory of probability." Proceedings of The Royal Society A. DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2015.0883

http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/472/2192/20150883
&
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1507/1507.03287.pdf

Extract: "Unitary quantum theory, having no Born Rule, is non-probabilistic.""

Finally, I conclude this post by reiterating that in an evolved free-will information universe (such as proposed by HIOTTOE), egotistical choice is an illusion and probabilities of events occurring is a function of the evolved information network, which is in-turn a function of the effort/work undertaken by the free-will dimples. This is consideration of the nature of probabilities in an evolved information network is "… discussed in the second linked Wikipedia article on Gausian adaption) to the physical parameters that resulted from the self-organization of such a free will network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_adaptation

Extract: “Gaussian adaptation as an evolutionary model of the brain obeying the Hebbian theory of associative learning offers an alternative view of free will due to the ability of the process to maximize the mean fitness of signal patterns in the brain by climbing a mental landscape in analogy with phenotypic evolution.

Such a random process gives us lots of freedom of choice, but hardly any will. An illusion of will may, however, emanate from the ability of the process to maximize mean fitness, making the process goal seeking. I. e., it prefers higher peaks in the landscape prior to lower, or better alternatives prior to worse. In this way an illusive will may appear. A similar view has been given by Zohar 1990. See also Kjellström 1999.
...

The efficiency of Gaussian adaptation relies on the theory of information due to Claude E. Shannon (see information content). When an event occurs with probability P, then the information −log(P) may be achieved. For instance, if the mean fitness is P, the information gained for each individual selected for survival will be −log(P) – on the average - and the work/time needed to get the information is proportional to 1/P. Thus, if efficiency, E, is defined as information divided by the work/time needed to get it we have:

E = −P log(P).

This function attains its maximum when P = 1/e = 0.37.
…
A point of view that also may be of interest in this context is that no definition of information (other than that sampled points inside some region of acceptability gives information about the extension of the region) is needed for the proof of the theorem. Then, because, the formula may be interpreted as information divided by the work needed to get the information, this is also an indication that −log(P) is a good candidate for being a measure of information. “"

See also the attached plot from Shannon (1948)

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #196 on:** November 22, 2016, 01:30:13 AM »

The linked article is entitled: “NASA Team Claims 'Impossible Space Engine Works – Get the Facts”. The authors of the peer reviewed paper propose that their findings may support the pilot-wave theory.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/nasa-impossible-emdrive-physics-peer-review-space-science/

Edit: For background on the modern version of the pilot-wave theory see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie%E2%80%93Bohm_theory

Extract: “The de Broglie–Bohm theory, also known as the pilot-wave theory, Bohmian mechanics, the Bohm or Bohm's interpretation, and the causal interpretation, is an interpretation of quantum theory. In addition to a wavefunction on the space of all possible configurations, it also postulates an actual configuration that exists even when unobserved. The evolution over time of the configuration (that is, the positions of all particles or the configuration of all fields) is defined by the wave function via a guiding equation. The evolution of the wave function over time is given by Schrödinger's equation. The theory is named after Louis de Broglie (1892–1987), and David Bohm (1917–1992).

The theory is deterministic and explicitly nonlocal: the velocity of any one particle depends on the value of the guiding equation, which depends on the configuration of the system given by its wavefunction; the latter depends on the boundary conditions of the system, which in principle may be the entire universe.

The theory results in a measurement formalism, analogous to thermodynamics for classical mechanics, that yields the standard quantum formalism generally associated with the Copenhagen interpretation. The theory's explicit non-locality resolves the "measurement problem", which is conventionally delegated to the topic of interpretations of quantum mechanics in the Copenhagen interpretation. The Born rule in Broglie–Bohm theory is not a basic law. Rather, in this theory the link between the probability density and the wave function.”

See also the Wired article entitled: “New Evidence Could Overthrow the Standard View of Quantum Mechanics”:

https://www.wired.com/2016/05/new-support-alternative-quantum-view/

Edit: If it is not clear in HIOTTOE the evolved free-will information network eliminates the need for a pilot-wave, while manifesting much of the same perceptions of the observed universe.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #197 on:** November 23, 2016, 08:13:14 PM »

I have made many posts on the fact that the majority of decision makers (which is anyone who chooses to take personal responsibility) are seriously underestimating the risks of our current global situation, and are particularly underestimating climate change related risks. In the first linked article George Lakoff explains that "we are neural beings" and that 98% of our thoughts are unconscious and dominated by the use of metaphors. Lakoff then explains how the media (and progressives) are easily tripped-up and manipulated by conservatives who excel at using the logic of frames, metaphors and narratives to dominate public perceptions and associated emotional decision making

http://aminotes.tumblr.com/post/7191027430/george-lakoff-on-metaphors-explanatory-journalism

Extract: "“Metaphor is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are “metaphors we live by”—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. (…)
We are neural beings, (…) our brains take their input from the rest of our bodies. What our bodies are like and how they function in the world thus structures the very concepts we can use to think. We cannot think just anything – only what our embodied brains permit. (…)
The mind is inherently embodied. Thought is mostly unconscious. Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.”
"For Lakoff, language is not a neutral system of communication, because it is always based on frames, conceptual metaphors, narratives, and emotions. Political thought and language is inherently moral and emotional. (…)
The way people really reason — Real Rationality — coming new understandings of the brain—something that up-to-date marketers have already done. Enlightenment reason, we now know, was a false theory of rationality.
“Most thought is unconscious. It doesn’t work by mathematical logic. You can’t reason directly about the world—because you can only conceptual what your brain and body allow, and because ideas are structured using frames.” Lakoff says. “As Charles Fillmore has shown, all words are defined in terms of conceptual frames, not in terms of some putative objective, mind-free world.”
“People really reason using the logic of frames, metaphors, and narratives, and real decision making requires emotion, as Antonio Damasio showed in Descartes’ Error.”
“A lot of reason does not serve self interest, but is rather about empathizing with and connecting to others.”
People Don’t Decide Using ‘Just the Facts’
Contemporary explanatory journalism, in particular, is prone to the false belief that if the facts are presented to people clearly enough, they will accept and act upon them, Lakoff says. “In the ‘marketplace of ideas’ theory, that the best factually based logical argument will always win. But this doesn’t actually happen.”
“Journalists always wonder, ‘We’ve reported on all the arguments, why do people vote wrong?’” Lakoff says. “They’ve missed the main event.”
Many journalists think that “framing” a story or issue is “just about choices of words and manipulation,” and that one can report factually and neutrally without framing. But language itself isn’t neutral. If you study the way the brain processes language, Lakoff says, “every word is defined with respect to frames. You’re framing all the time.” Morality and emotion are already embedded in the way people think and the way people perceive certain words—and most of this processing happens unconsciously. “You can only learn things that fit in with what your brain will allow,” Lakoff says.
A recent example? The unhappy phrase “public option.”
“When you say public, it means ‘government’ to conservatives,” Lakoff explains. “When you say ‘option,’ it means two things: it’s not necessary, it’s just an ‘option,’ and secondly it’s a public policy term, a bureaucratic term. To conservatives, ‘public option’ means government bureaucracy, the very worst thing you could have named this. They could have called it the America Plan. They could have called it doctor-patient care.”
According to Lakoff, because of the conservative success in shaping public discourse through their elaborate communication system, the most commonly used words often have been given a conservative meaning. “Tax relief,” for example, suggests that taxation is an affliction to be relieved.
Don’t Repeat the Language Politicians Use: Decode It
Instead of simply adopting the language politicians use to frame an issue, Lakoff argues, journalists need to analyze the language political figures use and explain the moral content of particular words and arguments.
That means, for example, not just quoting a politician about whether a certain policy infringes or supports American “liberty,” but explaining what he or she means by “liberty,” how this conception of liberty fits into the politician’s overall moral outlook, and how it contrasts with other conceptions of liberty.
It also means spelling out the full implications of the metaphors politicians choose. In the recent coverage of health care reform, Lakoff says, one of the “hidden metaphors” that needed to be explored was whether politicians we’re talking about healthcare as a commodity or as a necessity and a right.
…
A Dictionary of the Real Meanings of Words
What would a nonpartisan explanatory journalism be like? To make nonpartisan decoding easier, Lakoff thinks journalists should create an online dictionary of the different meanings of words—“ not just a glossary, but a little Wikipedia-like website,” as he puts it. This site would have entries to explain the differences between the moral frameworks of conservatives and progressives, and what they each typically mean when they say words like “freedom.” Journalists across the country could link to the site whenever they sensed a contested word.
A project like this would generate plenty of resistance, Lakoff acknowledges. “What that says is most people don’t know what they think. That’s extremely scary…the public doesn’t want to be told, ‘You don’t know what you think.’” The fact is that about 98 percent of thought is unconscious.”
But, he says, people are also grateful when they’re told what’s really going on, and why political figures reason as they do. He would like to see a weekly column in the New York Times and other newspapers decoding language and framing, and analyzing what can and cannot be said politically, and he’d also like to see cognitive science and the study of framing added to journalism school curricula.
Ditch Objectivity, Balance, and ‘The Center ‘
Lakoff has two further sets of advice for improving explanatory journalism. The first is to ditch journalism’s emphasis on balance. Global warming and evolution are real. Unscientific views are not needed for “balance.”
…
What Works In the Brain: Narrative & Metaphor
As for creating Explanatory Journalism that resonates with the way people process information, Lakoff suggested two familiar tools: narrative and metaphor.
The trick to finding the right metaphors for complicated systems, he said, is to figure out what metaphors the experts themselves use in the way they think. “Complex policy is usually understood metaphorically by people in the field,” Lakoff says. What’s crucial is learning how to distinguish the useful frames from the distorting or overly-simplistic ones.
As for explaining policy, Lakoff says, “the problem with this is that policy is made in a way that is not understandable…Communication is always seen as last, as the tail on the dog, whereas if you have a policy that people don’t understand, you’re going to lose. What’s the point of trying to get support for a major health care reform if no one understands it?”
One of the central problems with policy, Lakoff says, is that policy-makers tend to take their moral positions so much for granted that the policies they develop seem to them like the “merely practical” things to do.
Journalists need to restore the real context of policy, Lakoff says, by trying “to get people in the government and policy-makers in the think tanks to understand and talk about what the moral basis of their policy is, and to do this in terms that are understandable.”"

I also note that in the second linked article (focused on understanding Trump, see also Reply #170) Lakoff explains that conservatives publicize well-known (but otherwise infrequent/"left-tailed") examples of cases that suit their objectives to bias public perception in their favor. Unfortunately, science (and progressives) inherently underplay the importance of examples of "right-tailed" PDF cases that could be used to balance the risks that the conservative bias is creating:

https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/

Extract: "Well-known examples: When a well-publicized disaster happens, the coverage activates the framing of it over and over, strengthening it, and increasing the probability that the framing will occur easily with high probability. Repeating examples of shootings by Muslims, African-Americans, and Latinos raises fears that it could happen to you and your community — despite the miniscule actual probability. Trump uses this to create fear. Fear tends to activate desire for a strong strict father — namely, Trump."

The first attached image indicates that science is fundamentally a moral enterprise as it follows the moral imperative to seek the truth; and I note that the scientism adopted by the IPCC in their climate change Assessment Report abdicates responsibility to pursue the whole truth. The second image emphasizes that we use neural brains that have internalized patterns/metaphors based on bodies interaction with the world; & I note that if we are going to deal with the real risks of the world that we now live in we need to accept the ways that our minds have been pre-programmed. The third image indicates that people's thought, action and language are dominated by metaphors; thus you should be aware that AI programmers are keenly aware of this fact and are training their programs to deal with people at this metaphorical level. The fourth image presents Lakoff's Paradox as to why progressive fail, when they win the first three bullet points because they trip over the last bullet point of how to communicate important messages metaphorically.

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #198 on:** November 24, 2016, 12:00:38 AM »

The linked reference & associate Wired article extend some of the concepts discussed in Reply #137:

Dmitriy Podolskiy & Robert Lanza (26 September 2016), "On decoherence in quantum gravity", Annalen der Physik, Volume 528, Issue 9-10, Pages 663–676, DOI: 10.1002/andp.201600011

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/andp.201600011/full

Abstract: "It was previously argued that the phenomenon of quantum gravitational decoherence described by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is responsible for the emergence of the arrow of time. Here we show that the characteristic spatio-temporal scales of quantum gravitational decoherence are typically logarithmically larger than a characteristic curvature radius R^-1/2 of the background space-time. This largeness is a direct consequence of the fact that gravity is a non-renormalizable theory, and the corresponding effective field theory is nearly decoupled from matter degrees of freedom in the physical limit M_P goes to infinity. Therefore, as such, quantum gravitational decoherence is too ineffective to guarantee the emergence of the arrow of time and the “quantum-to-classical” transition to happen at scales of physical interest. We argue that the emergence of the arrow of time is directly related to the nature and properties of physical observer."

See also the article entitled: "Time Might Only Exist in Your Head. And Everyone Else's".

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/arrow-of-time/

AbruptSLR · « **Reply #199 on:** November 26, 2016, 11:08:58 PM »

The first linked reference & associated article indicates that it is now practicable to test whether the speed of light is variable:

Niayesh Afshordi and João Magueijo (Nov 18 2016), “Critical geometry of a thermal big bang”, Phys. Rev. D 94, 101301(R), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.101301

http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.101301

Abstract: “We explore the space of scalar-tensor theories containing two nonconformal metrics, and find a discontinuity pointing to a “critical” cosmological solution. Due to the different maximal speeds of propagation for matter and gravity, the cosmological fluctuations start off inside the horizon even without inflation, and will more naturally have a thermal origin (since there is never vacuum domination). The critical model makes an unambiguous, nontuned prediction for the spectral index of the scalar fluctuations: nS=0.96478(64). Considering also that no gravitational waves are produced, we have unveiled the most predictive model on offer. The model has a simple geometrical interpretation as a probe 3-brane embedded in an EAdS2×E3 geometry. “

The associated linked article is entitled: “SCIENTISTS ARE READY TO CHALLENGE EINSTEIN'S PHYSICS”

http://www.i4u.com/2016/11/118114/scientists-are-ready-challenge-einsteins-physics

Extract: “The physicists have employed a heuristic to put a numerical value on this spectral index. This was all published in a journal recently. The prediction will soon be put to the test too.

The figure amounts to 0.96478. This is very near the cosmic microwave background. There is a slight margin of error here though. This theory, which was introduced in the late 90s, has currently achieved calibration. Now finally the prediction could be tested in reality.

The fact that the speed of light could be variable shows that the laws of nature are not the same everywhere in the mysterious cosmos. “

See also the related second reference:

Moffat, J.W. (March 9, 2016)“Variable speed of light cosmology, primordial fluctuations and gravitational waves”, Eur. Phys. J. C 76: 130. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-3971-6

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-3971-6

Abstract: “A variable speed of light (VSL) cosmology is described in which the causal mechanism of generating primordial perturbations is achieved by varying the speed of light in a primordial epoch. This yields an alternative to inflation for explaining the formation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large scale structure (LSS) of the universe. The initial value horizon and flatness problems in cosmology are solved. The model predicts primordial scalar and tensor fluctuation spectral indices ns=0.96ns=0.96 and nt=−0.04nt=−0.04, respectively. We make use of the δNδN formalism to identify signatures of primordial nonlinear fluctuations, and this allows the VSL model to be distinguished from inflationary models. In particular, we find that the parameter fNL=5fNL=5 in the variable speed of light cosmology. The value of the parameter gNLgNLevolves during the primordial era and shows a running behavior.”

News:

Author Topic: Systemic Isolation (Read 237348 times)