Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 107.March 08, 2020 continued . . .
The God Problem
Light is EnFormAction
In the chapter on Einstein’s theories that turned classical physics upside-down, Bloom makes a dramatic prediction. “There are signs that a science of the supersized surprise, a science able to predict emergent properties, is within reach.” He’s referring to his own Axiomatic Metaphorical science. But first, he has to make a distinction between “two kinds of causality . . . Bottom up and top down.” That’s because his axiomatic method is currently banned from mainstream science. The reason for the banishment is the same as the 17th century enlightenment reaction to medieval Catholic Scholasticism, with its philosophical reasoning from general rules (biblical or Aristotelian dogmas) to particular applications. Instead, the new science was supposed to reason from specific facts (bottom) to general conclusions (top). But today, mainstream Science has dogmas of its own. So, Bloom argues that “constructing systems from axioms is a bottom-up approach. So is constructing universes from simple rules. . . . Metaphor and big pictures, on the other hand, are top down.” Divine creation by fiat is likewise a top-down method. But my own theory of Intelligent Evolution21 is a combination of both approaches : G*D designs the system of simple rules (top down), then allows it to create the world via evolution, from the bottom up. Is this the new science of the 21st century?
For his theory of Relativity, Einstein created a new axiom : “That the only constant in the universe is the speed of light”. At first this may sound like an arbitrary assumption. Yet, light speed in a vacuum is indeed steady, because there’s no obstacles to slow it down. But it does slow down when passing through a medium like water. Nevertheless, it’s about as constant as anything in this constantly changing space-time universe. Hence, I assume Albert realized that everything in space-time must be moving & changing relative to an absolute standard, something infinite-eternal. Just as some ancient astrologers viewed God or the Sun as the Eternal center about which everything else revolves, Einstein chose the speed of light, measured relative to Earthlings, to serve as a mathe-matical constant to which other things can be compared. I don't know if he was thinking of the Sun/Light analogy, but it makes a nice Metaphor, and Axiom22.
Establishing light-speed as the absolute reference point for the cosmos, ties in well with the hypothesis of EnFormAction. Like light energy, EFA is the origin & cause of everything in the universe, as well as all changes to things. Therefore, EFA is analogous to physical Energy. But it’s also commensurate with my definition of “Generic Information”23. In computer program-ming, a “constant variable” is a value that can’t be changed during execution. So, it functions like an enzyme or catalyst, which facilitates change without being changed itself. In the Enformationism thesis, everything in the world is relative to EFA. As Bloom said about Light, “it refused to act like every other sensible substance, object, or moving thing in the cosmos”. That may be because, like Light & Energy, EFA comes from outside the system; it makes the rules, but is not subject to them. It is the universal governor or reference point for the world system. It’s the basic operating system for the computation of evolution.
23. Generic Information : (Latin “gen-” : to beget) By definition, Information is the ratio of meaningful order to meaningless disorder. It imposes a pattern upon randomness. It limits the freedom of possibilities. By eliminating the unnecessary, it leaves only the essence. Like a sculptor, it is a Form Generator, Any physical Form change is caused by an exchange of Energy.So energy is, in that sense, an enforming agent. Likewise, a meta-physical change-of-mind, is due to an input of Information. Hence, EnFormAction. is both the physical and metaphysical act of enforming. Generic Information is the cause of all forms: it is creative: it begets all things.
21. Intelligent Evolution : My theory of how the hypothetical Creator of the Enformationism worldview programmed a physical universe that could in-effect create itself from scratch. By that, I don't mean from absolutely nothing, but from a metaphorical seed or egg of cosmic mathematical potential that cosmologists call the Singularity. From that point of beginning, Evolution began, not with a literal bang, but with a magical "voila!" of instant inflation. Since then, our world has been emerging from potential to actual more-or-less as scientists have documented. http://gnomon.enformationism.info/Essays/Intelligent%20Evolution%20Essay_Prego_120106.pdf http://bothandblog3.enformationism.info/page23.html
22. Axiom : A first principle is an axiom that cannot be deduced from any other within that system, so it is not provable, but must be taken on faith.
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