The extent of variation

I have a favorite little book , written in a poetic style, called "Dirt",
by William Bryant Logan. In one part, during a discussion of the
composition of humus, the dark organic part of soil, a comment
was made that, there are probably no two molecules of humus
alike on the entire earth. That is how varied soil is, but this amount
of variety is common in the world we live. Crumple up a piece of
paper and spread it out flat on a table, look at the pattern of crease
lines, that exact natural pattern has never existed before in history
and never will again in the future. Use a pencil to blindly scribble a
pattern on a piece of paper, again you have generated a pattern
that has never existed before, measure each line-crossing in degrees,
from 1 to 90 degrees for a perpendicular crossing. If you have 50
line crossings, there will be 90 to the 50th power number
of possible scribbles. That is, 90 multiplied by it's self 50 times.
If you measure more accurately, say, one hundredth of a dregree
then you would have 900 to the 50th power possible scribbles.
Proteins with 20 constituent amino acids are another extremely
varied system.

What do you see with your eyes are closed?

This is a mixed post; personal history, science, and art.
One of my earliest memories, maybe, two or three years old,
is that of me laying in the bed, in the dark with my eyes open.
I was afraid to open my mouth, because I did not want the white
specks, that were going across my eyes, to drop into my mouth.
What were the specks? Here is the science; because of some
querk in evolution, blood vessels in the eye run in front of the
retina, making it possible to see the white blood cells as they
flow through the vessels. The red blood cells are to small to be
seen, but the white cells are large enough to be seen as small
white dots or bubbles. Don't confuse these small bubbles with
"floaters" they are small damaged areas that are at the edge
of your vision, I have two "floaters" myself.
I've seen articles, where patients are taught to focus on the air
between a clear white light and their eyes, so that they can
estimate their white blood count at home. I am doing that right
now with the white part the the computer screen.

I've always loved to look at the patterns that can be made when
you look into a light, close you eyes, and rub them with your hands.
I can make round, bright yellow donuts with fractal edges, lined
with black, that slowly change shape and fade.The patterns on your
eyes, when they are at rest and have not been stimulated, are a pale
dark red on a slightly faded black background. The texture is like,
the bump texture on the skin of an orange. These patterns are
always moving and changing shape. Now, here comes the art!

Last year, in an issue of news week magazine, that I no longer have,
I saw a picture by a modern artist. I said to myself, He is doing what
I have always said I should do, draw a picture of what I see with my
eyes closed. My best recollection of the painting is an example of, the
yellow black-outlined pattern, described above, on top of the pale red
and faded black textured background.

Amazing DNA

What is amazing about DNA?, it's the fact that it folds into
chromosomes. The length of the DNA in a chromosome can be up
to 2mm, and the width of DNA is 2 nano meters, that gives, a
ratio of one million to one. An amazing feat of self assembly. The
DNA folds; with the help a proteins called histones, through a series
of layerers: nucleosomes, 30 nm fibers and looped domains; into
chromosomes. I did a little calculating, and found this level of
folding is like, taking the 1/4 inch wide tape out of a music cassette
and putting it back in, when the length of the tape is 3.946 miles.
Looks like a big job to me!

Using intuitive science

Some time back in the 1970's, I was riding in a car with two other
people. There was a report on the radio, that said microbiologists had
developed a bacterium, that could reduce the amount of radioactive
waste, that had to be disposed of in long term disposal sites. But, the
way the reporter phrased the story made it sound like the bacteria
stoped the radioactive process, and made the waste nonradioactive.
When I heard the report I said; that reporter has the story all wrong,
what he means, is; microbiologists have developed a bactera that is
resistent to radiation and can reduce the volume of waste in a
radioactive environment. The other people said; you think you know
so much, ( the usual ad hominem argument) well, I said; what would
you think if the reporter, reported that a man was startled and
jumped over an office building as a response. I continued; the
bacteria has a metabolism based on chemical processes, the
energies are way below those needed to initiate radioactive
processes. It would be like the person jumping over the office
building if they could convert radioactive waste to none radioactive
waste. Many statements go unchalengened and need to be taken to
their logical conclusion.

Why do "freethinkers" think alike?

Thanks! Xan Shui, for the comment and topic.

Why do freethinkers think so much alike? Freethinkers think
alike because their perception is closer to reality, they do not
have the freedom to think any way they want, because they
follow rules of thought. The more you respect: the fundamental
forces of nature, the direction of time, knowledge derived from
independent verification, and logic; the closer your thoughts will
be to reality. People who have meme centered emotional
mentalities, will diverge form reality in many ways. Examples
of divergence are, religion, cults, post modernist cultural relitivism,
pseudoscience, paranormal, conspiracy theory, and of cource lairs.
There is only one REALITY: the reality that the sun and earth
knew when the solar system formed, the reality that the bacteria
knew in the early seas, the reality of the dinosaurs, and the reality
that will exist when you and I are both dead and gone. For me
meme centered thought is not an option,
"I would do anything for love, but.... I won't do That" Meatloaf.

The Gray Area

The gray area is a wonderful source of variety. Look at the
Yin-Yang symbol, two wind swept drops in a circle, with a black
dot in the center of the white drop and white dot in the center of
black, and what looks like a line between them. If you use a
microscope to take a close look at the line, you will find that the
line is actually not a line at all, but a jumbled series of black dots,
and the dots in the center of the drops have fuzzy edges, where
does the white start?, and where does the black end? If you had
to make the decision, what would you decide?, white or black.
That's the gray area. Stand a pencil on it's tip, hold it upright with
your finger lighty on the eraser, release the pencil, which way
will the pencil fall?, that's the gray area. Look at a bar magnet,
where, in the middle, does the north pole end and the south pole
start. I once saw a beautiful micrograph of the domains of a
magnet, and was surprised to see a few red south pole domains
even at the north pole of the magnet. Finally, an s-shell electron
in an atom has a probability of being in the nucleus of the atom,
that's real gray area.

Self-organized criticality- and Earthquakes

I'm leaving behind the question-answer format, most of the Q&A
statements will be used like axioms later when I talk about
various subjects, eg...time and infinite direction. I've mentioned
complex processes several times in my Q&A statements, now I
will illustrate one of then, Self-organized criticality. The classical
example of self-organized criticality is that of, a pile of sand in an
hourglass. Once the hourglass is rotated, grains of sand fall at a
steady rate, a new pile grows by self-assemby, producing the
familiar cone shape, when the cone rises to a critical height, the
surface of the pile becomes unstable and avalanches of sand fall,
unpredictably, down the sides of the pile. The sizes of these
avalanches follow a power function, a decreasing number of
avalanches as their size increases, many small avalanches and
very few large. In areas of the earth that are prone to earthquakes,
subduction zones, energy builds as the earth's tectonic plates move
producing a critical system, just like the interlocking grains of the
sand pile. The avalanches, in this case, are earthquakes and follow
the same power function, many small earthquakes and very few
large.

Origin of Life

Origin of Life?
Life originated here on the earth , and any where else it has
arisen, by wholly natural processes. Life is an emergent
property of complex chemical processes, no God was
responsible and no design was ever possible. Life was made
possible by the relatively mild physical conditions that exsited
in the vicinity of the earth. It is no accident that life arose where
there were favorable conditions: temperature, liquid water, a
reliable source of energy, and plentiful chemical precursors. The
best description, of the complex processes that could bring about
a whole working metabolism, that I have read, are in
Stuart Kauffman's book, "At home in the universe" Oxford
University Press, 1995. At home in the universe, because we are
not here by accident, but, are the product of nature.
Stuart Kauffman describes sets of natural chemicals, he calls
Autocatalytic sets, that together catalyze each others replication.
When a set grows to a critical size a phase change occures in
the system producing a whole working metabolism, as an
emergent property. Compartmentalization with lipid spheres,
a billion years of evolutionary development and you have an
organism with and impressive history.

Intuitive Science

I am moving the definition of intuitive science from the blog
title and placing it in the body because the blog is more about
variety, intuitive science is the tool of the blog, not the subject.

What is intuitive science?
It is a collection of statements about the universe and the
things in it, stripped of the: mathematics, gobbledygook,
obfuscation, as well as political and religious bias, these
statements stand to be refuted by other clear and concise
statements.

God-Creationism-Intelligent design

Is there a God?
No! why? Requisite variety. He/She would have to have equal
or more variety then the universe to control the universe.

Creationism?
No! why? matter can come out of the vacuum but not
information, information discribes history which is compiled
over time.

Intellignt design?
No! why? The universe is to complex. Physically, it has all the
characteristics of a system developing under the influence of
complex processes. ie...it's fractal structure. Things are designed
to produce a predetermined product, complex systems are not
designed, they have no goals, they are self-assembled by
complex processes. eg...in Douglas Adams's book, "hitchhiker's
guide to the galalaxy", when the people wanted the answer to the
question, what is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
they thought they could get the answer by using a super-computer,
after several centuries they got the answer, which was 7, not a
useful or accurate answer, because the outcome of complex
systems can not be calculated. The white mice, also wanted the same
question answered, however being more intelligent, they constructed
the earth and waited four billion years to get the answer they
wanted.

Time-Information-Direction-History-precognition

What is time?
Time is a wave front of matter and energy, changing under the
influence of complex processes. Time produces a constant increase
in variety.

What is infinite direction?
The infinite number of one dimentional lines radiating from the
center of a sphere, an objects direction is only one of these one
dimentaional lines.

Why is time always forward?
With infinite direction nothing can ever go exactly in reverse.

Precognition? No!, Why?
The universe is made new every instant by complex processes,
the future doesn't exist to send back information, also there is
no means for information to travel into the past, information does
however, travel into the future ie...libraries, evolution, and blogs.

What is information?
Out of the total state space of an object, information is a
discription of those states that now exist eg...in, "beem me up
Scotty" the beem would contain my information and
subsequently my history.

What is history?
History is the surviving information acquired by an object, through
self organization and interaction with other objects sense the
object became stable enough to store information eg...a hot gas
has the emergent properties of pressure and average temperature,
a vast amount of instantaneous information, and no history because
of the lack of stability.

What is evolution?
The accumulation of history over time.

Fundamental particles-Variety

What are the fundamental particles?
The fundamental particles as well as the four forces are emergent
properties in the vacuum, produced by interaction in the
primordial superstring network.

How did the fundamental particles and forces arise?
The first material to enter the universe from the vacuum was at a
very high density and temperature, to high for most of the
particles and forces to exist. As the matter (quark soup) expanded
and cooled the fundamental forces appeared through symmetry
breaking processes, and the particles mass at a phase change.

Why is each subatomic particle indistinguishable from the others
of it's type? As, the temperature at which water freezes is a global
property, and is the same for any water at standard pressure, an
electron or a proton is the same as any other electron or proton
because they themselves are the product of a phase change and
are a global property of the vacuum.

What is variety?
The totaly state space of a system.

What is requisite variety?
a law in the science of cybernetics, a control system must have
equal or more variety then the system under control. eg..try
to type on a two dimentional paper with a one dimentional
typewriter, what do you do when you get to the end of a line?

What is the variety of the universe?
It's equal to large omega, the final infinity of the transfinite
numbers, the infinity that is not in any way comprehensible.
ie..I don't know! The universe we can understand, seems to
increase in variety with time, therefore, the universe we can
understand must be equal to small omega, the infinity that can
still be added to.

Quantum Mechanics- the Universe

The Huygens probe landed on Titan last night, the news is that
everything went well. I congratulate the scientists! I am sure
they are justifiably proud and relieved after a seven year wait.

Now for more basics- once the basics are over I would like to
try a fun topic, that has been with me a long time. What you see
when your eyes are closed?

Quantum Mechanics?
Just get over it! The micro world is not like the macro world, the
macro world is produced by activity and complex processes in the
micro world. I am SICK of hearing about how one electron or one
photon behave. I do not want to talk about shadow worlds and
multiple universes, based on the activity of one photon or electron.
Who cares about Schrodinger's cat or Einstein's thought problems.
Quantum mechanics and classical mechanics are seperate.

Yes, a tree falling in the woods produces a sound when no human
is around, and quantum processes occured before there was ever
a human to "observe them".

Above all, remember the value of Avagadro's number,the number
of molicules in a Mol of a substance, 6.025 times 10 to the 23ed
power, of course we see averages and probability distributions,
what do you expect with a number like one hundred thousand,
billion, billion.Quantum mechanics doesn't need religion or
fantasies.

Is there experimental evidence for quantum mechanics?
Yes, to quote from Richard Feynman's book "QED", "at this
present time I can proudly say that there is no significant
difference between experiment and theory! the magnetic
moment of an electron has been calculated accurately
to, 1.00115965221 with uncertainty of about 4 in the last digit.
The theory puts it at, 1.00115965246 with 5 times the
uncertainty".

What is the universe?
It is energy and condensed energy, fractal in nature, made of
layer upon layer of emergent properties, it is wholly natural
and self assembled, a product of complex processes in the
vacuum.

How big is the universe?
It has been determined that the universe is flat, not curved,
and that the big bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago. Photons
decoupled from the high energy gas one million years after
the big bang and have been traveling at the speed of light ever
sense. That gives us a flat sphere with a radius of 13.7
billion light years.

Cassimi-Huygens

The Cassini spacecraft has released it's Huygens probe, Huygens
well encounter the atmosphere of Titan at 3:06 central standard
time tomorrow, January the14th. I hope that we get good pictures,
the variety in the universe is just amazing, from what I've read,
Titan has hydrocarbon in it's atmosphere and we could see
methane rain with lakes of oily ethane. Why turn to mysticism?
when the physical universe is so amazing and varied.

Reality-Vacuum-Big bang

What is the most common answer to a concise question about
the universe or things in it?
The most common answer is, I don't know.

What is reality?
Reality is that which exists when you and I are both dead and gone.

What is the corner stone of science?
Independent verification.

What is real?
The active agents (superstrings) that exist
in a network at the level of 10 to the minus 33 centimeters,
are the only "real things", every thing above 10 to the minus
33 centimeters is an emergent property of their activity.

What is the extent of the superstring network?
the superstring network always existed and always will, it is
also infinite for the same reasons. Start, finish, beginning,
and end are human concepts, there is no, sufficient
or logical reason for a start or finish, a beginning or an
end. Also, "nothing" can not be demonstrated experimentally
or philosophically.
"always will", is a violation of the rule, that there are no
future facts, but I'm sticking with this one at the superstring
level.

What is the vacuum?
It is an emergent property, at the atomic level of the
primordial superstring network, it is produced by the
superstring network being active.

What is the connection between the underlying superstring
network and the vacuum?
Complex processes produce global and local effects from the
different modes of interaction between the agents of the network.

Is the vacuum infinite?
It is if the underlyling network produces the vacuum as a
global effect or has the vacuum as it's basic emergent property.

What is energy?
It's an effect in the vacuum caused by an imbalance in any one
of the four fundamental forces: electro-magnetic, weak, strong,
and gravitation. It also exists in the form of mass kinetics.

What was the big bang?
The big bang was a quantum mechanical event in the vacuum,
ultimitly it was a superstring network change. Two
membrains colliding in 10 or 11 dimentional space, I guess, is
as good an explanation as any.

Why did the big bang occur?
Because it could! in quantum mechanics if something can
happen, it will given enough time.

Will the big bang happen again?
yes, when the conditions are right. There is no logical reason
for only one of a possable type of quantum mechanical event
to occcur. Also, 13.7 billion years is a very small number of years
compaired to 1,000 or 1,000,000 billion years.

What prevents a big bang now?
As a matter of conjectur, I think that it could be a feedback
relationship with the density of energy and matter being
the salient factor.

What was the size of the initial big bang?
I like the explanation that it was a false vacuum that formed,
"in a region of space" ie..a preexisting vacuum. I also think the
idea of an infinitly small point is a mathematical habgoblin

Pseudo Science

Before I start with the basics, I would Like to mention that I was
born in 1943. When I started this blog I said, that it would in no
way be mystical, I may discuss things that are considered mystical,
but I do not promote pseudo science or the paranormal in any way.
When I presented a few facts about myself in the blog profile,
I was surprised to see that I was listed as being a "Scorpio". This
shows how pervasive pseudo science and mysticism are in our
culture. As an example, An Atheist will say, "Oh My God! look at
that" and think nothing of it.

Why a Blog?

Why a Blog? Because my mind will not shut up! When I drive or read,
I am always explaining and thinking of examples for the principles I
read about, Complexity, physics, variety. It's time to write these
muses down, I have lost so many good examples of variety because
I did not write them down. Fifteen years or so ago, when I decided
that I would not be going back to school, and would probably never
further or review my mathematics, I decided to pursue intuitive
science (science with out the mathematics) by reading popular
science books and science magazines. Over the years, I've read
books on: chaos, complexity, fractals, cosmology, evolution,quantum
mechanics, origin of life, fuzzy logic etc......In short, I need an outlet
for my ideas, whether or not anyone reads them. I will feel better
for putting my ideas in writing and posting my thoughts on the ills
of society and the society of science, from time to time. This blog
will in no way be mystical in nature, I will endeavor to make clear,
concise, unproven statements. I feel no burden to prove anything
mathematically, good logic will prevail at all times and every
statement is open to be reviewed and rejected. There is nothing
sacred here, nothing would make me happer then to be disproved
and I learn something in the process. I don't "believe" anything,
this is 0nly what I think could be true. For anyone that reads this
blog and feels that they have wasted their time, I would like
to quote, God's final message to his creation, from
Douglas Adam's book, "So long, and thanks for the fish"
........"we apologize for the inconvenience".