Late morning. Carol has been washing clothes
and readying for her luncheon with her retired younger colleagues at Blue Ash
Elementary (Sycamore Community Schools) at the Silver Spring House Restaurant
on the corner of Kemper and Snyder Roads at twelve thirty. You just finished
reading the November issue of Consumer Reports and before that the October
issue of National Geographic for a change in the daily pace. – Amorella
1118 hours. I read them both cover to cover, something of a rarity.
The day is gray cast and rainy, a good morning for reading; and both magazines
arrived yesterday, so they are fresh news, so to speak. The most interesting
N.G. article is “Mystery Man” about the Homo naledi of the Rising Star Cave in South Africa. The best in C.R. is
“Lies, Secrets and Scams” on how senior citizens are taken by hucksters of all
sorts. Some seniors lose their life savings by fraud. Both magazines (their varied
articles) mirror major aspects of our modern cultures.
1134
hours. I wonder what my character Yermey would find interesting and think upon
by reading both magazines today? What if there was nothing left of Homo sapiens on the Earth but these two newly
dated magazines? What could be inferred from their pages about our species and
our cultural ways by just the contents of the October issue of National
Geographic and the November issue of Consumer Reports?
Carol is leaving for her younger-oriented
retirees. Her luncheon on Thursday, the Blue Ash Retired Teacher’s (BART),
meet. These are mostly older retired teachers that the younger one’s never
taught along side of. Carol began her teaching when the original Blue Ash School
was at the corner of Kenwood and Cooper Roads. It was replaced some decades ago
with a shopping mall. – Amorella
1204 hours. We are all replaceable, Amorella.
1319 hours. I did something rather foolish by posting a
comment on shamanism on a FB page I cannot remember. I didn’t agree with what
the writer and had written. I don’t even remember what I wrote, but it is not
my place to say what is and what it is not, particularly uninvited, and even
worse, when I do not know what the truth is about shamanism. – rho
You asked me internally if you should leave
your comment on the page. I did not respond. Who knows why you did? Now you can’t
find the page though it is one recommended by the Facebook page, Conscious
Standpoint, whose video you recently shared from your Facebook artist friend,
Robert Frank. – Amorella
1329 hours. I like the abstract pictures/painting I
discovered on ‘Conscious Standpoint’. I use words to depict the esoteric, others,
like C.S and Robert Frank use visuals. Visuals are refreshing to me.
Post. – Amorella
Mid-afternoon. You are over at the Mason
Community Center waiting for Carol to walk her mile at the indoor track as it
is still raining, and rain is what the community needs this month. – Amorella
1521 hours. I watched most of the recent “Vicious” while
eating fat free cottage cheese for lunch before Carol arrived home; she worked
on the mail; I went upstairs. Jadah followed and we had an unscheduled
forty-five minute nap. I probably needed it as much as she did.
You are a bit under the weather today,
literally as well as figuratively. The news has died down about discovering
flowing Martian saltwater and aliens are no longer a topic in mind. – Amorella
1541 hours. I don’t think of you as an alien, Amorella.
From my perspective no one or thing is alien
anywhere. – Amorella
1542 hours. I suppose that is right. If you feel as though
you are an – if forget the word. Not a good day for conversation, Amorella.
You and Carol are home with plans to go to
Panera for supper later.
**
**
From
Your Quora Digest
Why is Schrodinger's cat alive and dead instead of
alive or dead?
Viktor Toth, IT pro,
part-time physicist
Schrödinger's
cat is not alive and/or dead. This is a decades-old mischaracterization
of a whimsical thought experiment.
Before
I explain, let me bring up another thought experiment: an apparatus (e.g., a
two-slit experiment) in which a particle, say an electron, can take two
different paths to get to its destination (e.g., a screen). The interference
pattern that we observe on the screen tells us that individual electrons did
not follow definite paths; rather, they took both paths simultaneously,
which an electron can do so long as it is not "caught in the act",
i.e., not observed. And just looking at the point of impact of an individual
electron does not allow us to reconstruct a specific path either... the
electron was really in two (or more) places at once. The electron has no
well-defined position until it interacts with its environment (that is to say,
a macroscopic apparatus) that measures its position.
In
the famous kitty-cat thought experiment, something similar to the electron, a
quantum system that can exist in a superposition of two states, is used to
trigger a mechanism to kill a cat. The cat, the fable goes, exists in both
states at once until the box is opened, at which point it collapses into a
well-defined (alive or dead) state.
Nonsense.
When I open the box and I find a live cat, I have zero doubt in my mind that
the cat was alive all along. Similarly, when I open the box and the cat is
dead, I can solicit the help of a qualified veterinarian and ascertain the
exact time the cat died (or better yet, just put a camera set to record into
the box along with the cat.) Unlike the two-slit particle experiment, in which
case no definite path can be reconstructed even after the particle impacts the
screen and is measured, for the cat, its history can be reconstructed
unambiguously. The wavefunction of the particle triggering the mechanism
decohered when it interacted with a large, complex system with many degrees of
freedom (namely, the cat); it did not have to wait for the box to be opened.
Yes,
quantum mechanics can be counterintuitive and sometimes difficult to reconcile
with everyday experience. But not this difficult. The "cat is alive and
dead" thing is just nonsense that stands in the way of understanding; it
does not improve understanding. (Of course Schrödinger was no fool either; he
offered this thought experiment as a means to ridicule certain ideas,
now somewhat outdated in the light of quantum field theory, about the
interpretation of quantum mechanics.)
Selected
and edited from - quoraDOTcom
**
**
You wonder on the article, as it were. What
else can be done? Post. - Amorella
You could save some time by first defining a metaphysical event. Something to sleep on, boy. - Amorella
2208 hours. I have come up with two definitions of 'metaphysics' but not yet a contextual 'event'.
Add and post. - Amorella
Some
errands and a stop at Chipotle/Panera for supper, then a stop at Carter’s and
Hallmark before heading home. Carol mentioned she didn’t feel up to sorts today
also and blames it on your flu shots yesterday afternoon. You agree. – Amorella
After
a couple more errands and supper you arrived home to watch NBC News a half hour
late and then last night’s new “NCIS-LA”. – Amorella
2043 hours. I feel much better knowing that my ‘off day’ is probably
caused by the senior flu shot. I don’t have a reaction every year but
sometimes. I asked Carol earlier about staying at the condo a second week if
the weather’s good. She thinks it’s a good idea. I’ll have to see what Chris
and Larry (the owners of the condo) say.
Time for bed, early tonight for a change.
Post. – Amorella
2138 hours. I wonder what would be the Metaphysical Equivalent of a Physical Quantum Entangling Event?
2208 hours. I have come up with two definitions of 'metaphysics' but not yet a contextual 'event'.
Add and post. - Amorella
**
**
metaphysics
Definition of metaphysics in English:
plural noun
[USUALLY TREATED AS SINGULAR]
1
The
branch of philosophy
that deals with the first principles
of things, including abstract
concepts
such as being, knowing, substance, cause,
identity,
time, and space.
Metaphysics
has two main strands:
that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued
by Plato), and that which holds that objects of experience constitute
the only reality
(as argued
by Kant, the logical
positivists,
and Hume). Metaphysics has also concerned itself with a discussion of whether
what exists is made of one substance or many, and whether what exists is inevitable
or driven by chance
Origin
Mid
16th century: representing medieval Latin
metaphysica (neuter plural), based on Greek ta meta ta phusika
'the things after the Physics', referring to the sequence of Aristotle's works:
the title came to denote the branch of study treated in the books, later
interpreted as meaning 'the science of things transcending what is physical or
natural'.
Definition
of metaphysics in:
British & World English
dictionary
Selected
and edited from oxforddictionariesDOTcom
** **
A second
definition of metaphysics from emporiaDOTedu:
** **
“1. Metaphysics, a definition.
A beginning definition of metaphysics involves the word itself.
Meta-physics is Greek for "after-nature." Thus metaphysics is
concerned with the question of what exists beyond nature, or does something
invisible support the visible world? For example, we do see part of the world
before us. Is this all there is to it? Is there more that we cannot see? If so,
how can we know about it?
Metaphysics is far more complicated than asking the question of
what exists beyond nature. It is interested in the nature of nature, space,
time, number of basic elements in the world, motion, change, causality, and
other issues.2
One of the early definitions of metaphysics was that of
Aristotle, who wrote:
There is a science, which investigates being qua being
and what belongs essentially to it. This science is not the same as any of the
so-called "special sciences"; for none of these sciences examine
universally being qua being, but, cutting off some part of it,
each of them investigates the attributes of that part, as in the case of the
mathematical sciences.3
Aristotle proceeds to talk about being as distinct from various
disciplines. Similarly, metaphysics has been called "the science of
sciences"4 because it is not merely interested in the accumulation of
facts only, but in systematic reflection on these facts uncovered by various
scientific disciplines. The inadequacy of traditional discipline lines is
indicated by the crossing of the lines such as biochemistry, biophysics,
astro-physics, and others.
Metaphysics has overtones of another discipline, religion.
Religion is also interested in what it means to be, and whether there is
reality beyond the natural world. However, religion suffers severe criticism from
a number of modern metaphysicians. A.E. Taylor, who is quite sympathetic to
religion in many ways, claims that metaphysics deals with ultimate questions
"in a purely scientific spirit; its object is intellectual satisfaction,
and its method is not one to appeal to immediate intuition or unanalyzed
feeling, but of the critical and systematic analysis of our conceptions."5 Taylor's view
relegates all religious thinkers to the level of romantics or irrationalists.
Heidegger similarly rules out an appeal to the God of the Bible, because
"a believer cannot question without ceasing to be a believer."6
In both Taylor and Heidegger there is the feeling or presumption
that believers are not thinkers. But what about the atheist who begins his
thought with only nature and after examining the alternatives concludes that
the God of the Bible makes more sense in his attempt to understand the
metaphysical issues? Neither Taylor nor Heidegger are true to the spirit of
metaphysics. They rule out beforehand a possible answer that might be of great
help.
One of the traditional criticisms against metaphysics is that it
demands too many presuppositions to begin. The ideal is always to begin without
presuppositions. Can metaphysics be systematic and conclusive if it omits an area
of investigation for help? Metaphysics is not religion, but if metaphysics is
to seek an understanding of the totality of nature, it would seem that it
should not deliberately ignore religion. If metaphysics is to be the science of
the sciences, or the science of being, then nothing should be ruled out and
everything will be examined with equal fervor.”
Selected from - CHAPTER VI Metaphysics: Definitions and Issues
Part I - http://www.emporiaDOTedu/socsci/research-and-teaching-links/philosophy-book/chp6.html
** **
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