[Notebook: TURKEY DB 55]
[Sunday 1 June 2003 - Saturday 31 June 2003]
Sunday 1 June 2003
TAOIST vs CONFUCIAN
MYSTIC vs PRAGMATIST
What we need in society is recognized superposition of all possible states, plus a mechanism for recognizing and reducing
'undesirable' states. Such states are defined by the peer index. An undesirable state at a given peer level is one that breaks links.
It may be that the distinction between mysticism and pragmatism went further in the East and this perhaps inhibited the growth of the scientific method of the assessment of planning and action. The Western God, existing as pure act and creating with infinite wisdom (not always apparent to us) serves as a paradigm for well regulated human action as a means of survival. This became concrete in monasteries that served as prototypes of organization responsive to to the will of God, the cycle of the seasons and the needs of human life. In the east the Taoist and Buddhist monasteries had this same role, though perhaps less involved in government than the Christian establishment (monasteries plus secular clergy). On the other hand in China and elsewhere, the theory of right organization in family and government developed as Confucianism with a more political mystical foundation. While the Taoist heaven seems to be the vision of ineffable wholeness, as in Christianity, the Confucian heaven is the perfectly well organized state upon [which] earthly administrators are encouraged to model their activity. This approach served among other things to justify the hierarchical structure of society, rendering the poorer classes invisible to the upper classes. In a Christian society, streets lines with beggars are indications of failure rather than of eternal law. For this reason, Christianity is called 'meliorist', and this seems to be a desirable trait. At my social level (artisan) I feel that I have a better life in my present time and place than I can imagine anywhere else in past human spacetime. Of course, the wealthy and powerful (when they exist) may have a better life than the masses, but one can see that historical and natural constraints act on rich and poor alike at a given peer level, ie a given level of technical complexity.
Needham Vol II. Needham
Russell: 'I think that if we are to feel at home ion the world . . . we shall have to admit Asia to equality in our thoughts, not only politically, but culturally. What changes this will bring about I do not know, but I am convinced that they will be profound and of greatest importance.' History of Western Philosophy (1946) page 420. Russell
Needham page 3: '[Confucius] spent his life in developing a philosophy of just and harmonious social relationships' [accepting feudalism?]
page 4: [C] 'uncrowned Emperor of China'.'
page 5: '[Confucianism] was a doctrine of this-worldly social mindedness.'
'Confucius called himself a transmitter, not an originator.' thereby rejecting both responsibility and credit for his work.
page 7: 'Confucius appears to have believed that the true aim of government ought to be the welfare and happiness of the whole people, and that this would be brought about not by rigid adherences to enacted arbitrary law. but by subtle administration of customs generally accepted as good and having the sanction of natural law.'
page 12: 'Confucius . . . believed that heaven knew and approved of his activities.
page 16: Shu Ching 'Heaven sees according as the People see, Heaven hears according as the people hear.
page 19: Evolution is symmetric/invariant with respect to complexity. Peer: particle and environment have equivalent complexity.
'Nature of man is evil' Individuals are ipso facto inconsistent, insofar as we want the same (limited) pool of resources.
A network is possible when individuals can be considered in different pairings ie correspondences.
Needham page 23: West: Homo sapiens
East: Homo justus.
FREEDOM = CHOICE = flat potential surface with > 1 point, ie 'level playing field'.
Making linguistic (expressive) rather than foundational (proof theoretic) use of mathematics as a physicist or artist might use it or any other means of expression.
Skolem-Lowenheim: We can model the Cantor Universe with the natural numbers - the theorem itself is an example of that. We can also place natural numbers into correspondence (in a consistent way) with every possible measurement (Turing-Church hypothesis?) We are here trying to expand abstract ideas in terms of concrete operational (actual) reality.
If there are ℵ1 expressions of length ℵ0 there must be ℵ0 [ℵ1?] different Gödel numbers, ie the Gödel numbers form a continuum with respect to the naturals.
We can test transfinite dynamics by applying it to human affairs. Let us assume for the moment that a religion is the outermost control loop of a human community. How do we interpret this statement?
How hard do you want to work to live? This is a question with many dimensions, from productivity to pleasure, crossing, in its path justice, environment, and every other fact of existence. How do we make sense of all this? Concentrate on the physical constraints and let freedom take care of itself.
We need two things to design a system. First a need (dream) to be provided by the system, and second, the means (technology) to meet that need.
I've seen the current regime and I am openly subversive.
A significant fraction of my working time is caused by lost motion, that is actions (like going for something and not remembering what I came for when I get there) which could have been avoided with adequate attention. We can explore this by thinking of 'adequate attention' as good craftsmanship or tradesmanship or professional, where by professional we mean achieving worthwhile ends in an ethically sound manner. In practical terms it means getting things practically perfect, that is within the bounds of the state of the relevant arts, Good art requires good vision and understanding, the sort of thing supplied by science. Science learns from art, and art from science in a loop which enables the system to survive.
The transfinite network is a layered communication and control system which, like any organism, tries to ensure its own survival, growth and reproduction.
Theory defines something that we can measure and givers a method for making the measurement. So we seek to measure peace. Once a parameter is measurable, the theory of the parameter may also show how it is related to other parameters which may be changed to change the parameter of interest, ie it will reveal means of increasing the peace parameter.