23 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Why Do We Like Certain Tunes or Understand Certain Senten...
Contrast two answers to the question, Why do we like certain tunes?
Because they have certain structural features.Because they resemble other tunes we like.
The first answer has to do with the laws and rules that make tunes pleasant. In language, we know some laws for sentences; that is, we know the forms sentences must have to be syntactically acceptable, if not the things they must have to make them sensible or even pleasant to the ear. As to melody, it seems that we only know som... 1 
notes
notes05 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Monte Carlo Method and Evolutionary Algorithms
Back then, I thought of one thing: Have you heard of the Monte Carlo method? Ah, it’s a computer algorithm often used for calculating the area of irregular shapes. Specifically, the software puts the figure of interest in a figure of known area, such as a circle, and randomly strikes it with many tiny balls, never targeting the same spot twice. After a large number of balls, the proportion of balls that fall within the irregular shape compared to the total number of balls used to hit the ci...Folksonomies: algorithms evolutionary algorithms
Folksonomies: algorithms evolutionary algorithms
1 notes
notes21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Understanding is Music
Sure there is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid Strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. For there is music wherever there is harmony, order and proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres; for those well ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. 1 notes
notesKnowledge brings us harmony everywhere.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Lord Bacon's Apology for Atheism
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and createth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore Atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we see the times inclined to Atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times: but superstition hath been the confusion o...Folksonomies: atheism spirituality
Folksonomies: atheism spirituality
1 notes
notesHe makes the case that the source of Atheists' inspiration informs their virtues and moral conduct.
31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Science Manipulates Language to Make it More Precise
Let us consider two spheres moving in different di-
rections on a smooth table. So as to have a definite
picture, we may assume the two directions perpendicu-
lar to each other. Since there are no external forces
acting, the motions are perfectly uniform. Suppose,
further, that the speeds are equal, that is, both cover
the same distance in the same interval of time. But
is it correct to say that the two spheres have the same
velocity? The answer can be yes or no ! If the speedo-
mete...
1 The example is "velocity" which in common parlance is the same as "speed," but in science it means "speed and direction."
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Geometry Seems Disconnected from Reality
Why is geometry often described as 'cold' and 'dry?' One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline, or a tree. Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line... Nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an altogether different level of complexity. Folksonomies: complexity geometry
Folksonomies: complexity geometry
1 notes
notesIt deals with orbs and squares, but clouds and trees are much more complex.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
1420 megahertz
In the Next Generation episode “Galaxy's Child,” the Enterprise stumbles upon an alien life-form that lives in empty space, feeding on energy. Particularly tasty is radiation with a very specific frequency 1420 million cycles per second, having a wavelength of 21 cm.
In the spirit of Pythagoras, if there were a Music of the Spheres, surely this would be its opening tone. Fourteen hundred and twenty megahertz is the natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircle... 1 notes
notesThe natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircles the atomic nucleus of hydrogen, it is the tone of the universe.
16 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
Copernicus on Gravity
I myself consider that gravity is merely a certain natural inclination with which parts are imbued by the architect of all things for gathering themselves together into a unity and completeness by assembling into the form of a globe. It is easy to believe that the Sun, Moon and other luminaries among the wandering stars have this tendency also, so that by its agency they retain the rounded shape in which they reveal themselves, but nevertheless go round their orbits in various ways. If then t... 1 notes
notesHe correctly surmises that the force pulls heavenly objects into spheres.
16 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
Copernicus' Hypothesis
After I had addressed myself to this very difficult and almost insoluble problem, the suggestion at length came to me how it could be solved with fewer and much simpler constructions than were formally used, if some assumptions (which are called axioms) were granted me. They follow in this order.
There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
All the spheres revolve about... 1 notes
notesThat the Earth revolves around the Sun.
19 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Uniformity, Non-Uniformity, and Irreversibility
We must make the following remark: a proof, that after a certain time t1, the spheres must necessarily be mixed uniformly, whatever may be the initial distribution of states, cannot be given. This is in fact a consequence of probability theory, for any non-uniform distribution of states, no matter how improbable it may be, is still not absolutely impossible. Indeed it is clear that any individual uniform distribution, which might arise after a certain time from some particular initial state, ...Folksonomies: thermodynamics
Folksonomies: thermodynamics
1 notes
notesA heavy passage from Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann on the probability of non-uniform states.
