Monday, January 12, 2004

A New (and very Old) Model for Nonlinear Computation Katya Walter writes: Most contemporary gene sequencing programs handle only binary aspects, avoiding nonlinear aspects altogether. But to quote "Hacking the Genome" in the April 1992 Scientific American:"The clarity of the answers will depend on asking the right questions." Asking the right questions for computation now may be to look at DNA and the I Ching and ask, "Why is each essentially a nonlinear model that utilizes the principles of co-chaos?" Probing for these answers may reveal much about the basic patterns in life's physical and mental systems. It may offer a new way to build computers that can imitate the basic number framework that is hidden within life itself its mind and matter, showing how they interact and perhaps even show the universal coding at the root of nature. Number itself forms the root. To find this deeply-embedded root, we do not discard traditional scientific linearity, but instead we add something new - analogs. Analog plus linear gives analinear number. It is not just linear. It combines the chunky lumps of binary sums with the flowing proportions of analog ratios to birth a transcendent new third form. Some call it nonlinear, but Stanislaw Ulam has pointed out this is a rather silly term, since most of life's problems are nonlinear. He said calling something "non-linear" is akin to calling most of the animals in the zoo "non-elephants." Therefore, I prefer to use the term analinear,since it uses both number modes to denote a synergistic third state. Binary number seeks a goal, a solution, the summation of a quantity of units. It is discrete, end-stopped by the goal - the quantity. But analog number does not emphasize a solution, a goal, a final lump sum. Instead, it discusses the quality of relationships along the way. It brings up all kinds of resonant associations that open the doors to further process rather than closing them down into the sum of a final answer. That's the trouble with analogs, from a traditional point of view. Analogs network rather than end-stop. They engender resonances that linearity does not want to deal with because it prefers to stay tidy and neat and hurry to a quick solution - not trigger a network of related resonances that reinforce entrainment. Entrainment is the main signature of analog number. It does not care about summary quantity, but rather, about relative qualities along the way. It compares in shifting ratios, not striving for an end but rather for the consummate trip, so that finally it never get there, because there becomes irrelevant. The end is no goal at all as it instead just keeps on traveling. When analog and linear combine into analinear number, the result can do both - find straight-line solutions and keep traveling in cycles. The result is the spiral of change. The ancient Chinese I Ching provides an astoundingly complete computer model using binary sequencing plus analog flow.  (01/12/04) 7:16:03 PM     Moving Beyond the Talk ECO responds: John Warner asks: I am curious how you are following your own prescriptions for the future by living outside the Global Monetocracy System. ... John, you bring up some very good points here. I can only respond to you by saying that it will take a long, long time before any of us are able to thoroughly extract ourselves from the system, at least as long as the system holds sway. To use a very crude expression, 'the system literally has us by the balls' and as painful as being in the system is, extraction is equally painful since those in charge of the system aim to keep is in it. However, there are growing numbers of people around the world trying to extract themselves and I consider myself to be among these. This growing movement is labeled "The Cultural Creatives" movement by values researchers Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson. It is estimated that there are 50 million of us here in the United States and possibly another 150 million worldwide, as revealed by David C. Korten in his book, "The Post-Corporate World," who want change. ... There are people in every country around the world who are tired of oppression and want to be free. What we need to do is to encourage these people in establishing community learning and information centers where people can come together for discussion in face-to-face meetings at the micro level. Then we need to connect these dots via the Internet so we have a fully integrated world society that acts like a 'global brain' administer to its neural networks and creating a feedback loop that takes into account 'cause' and 'effect'. What is envisioned here is a change from a mechanistic way of life to a more holistic and organic way. You mentioned the word 'leader' here John, and there can be no leaders in this because none of us has the ability to lead -- this challenge is too humongous. What is better is that we are all part of 'co-learning' groups where information is shared and discussed as it is here. Lists like ER serve a very vital purpose and Tom is to be congratulated on his willingness to take over and moderate the list. He does an excellent job here that serves us all well. I am here like everyone else, to learn and share. We've never faced a challenge like this before; we don't know how to handle it -- we can only learn as we go along. In learning, like the baby taking its first steps, we're going to fall down and have to pick ourselves up and begin all over, hopefully using experience as a tool to make the next step better. What is necessary is for us to take action on 'knowledge gained' through co-learning groups, and I believe that can only come about through linking groups like this, which are on the leading edge of discovery, to face-to-face groups in communities around the world. (01/12/04) Deodorant Dangerous? BBC Health -- Chemicals from underarm deodorants and other cosmetics can build up inside the body, according to a study. British researchers have found traces of chemicals called parabens in tissue taken from women with breast cancer. While there is no evidence they cause cancer, the scientists have called for the use of parabens to be reviewed. The cosmetics industry insists the chemicals, which are used as preservatives and are approved for use by regulators, are safe. Dr Philippa Darbre and colleagues at the University of Reading carried out tests on samples of 20 different human breast tumours. Writing in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, they say they found traces of parabens in every sample. Their tests suggested the chemicals had seeped into the tissue after being applied to the skin. "This is the first study to show their accumulation in human tissues," said Dr Darbre. "It demonstrates that if people are exposed to these chemicals, then the chemicals will accumulate in their bodies." Dr Darbre said there may be reason for people to be concerned about the findings. "Their detection in human breast tumours is of concern since parabens have been shown to be able to mimic the action of the female hormone oestrogen," she said. "Oestrogen can drive the growth of human breast tumours. It would therefore seem especially prudent to consider whether parabens should continue to be used in such a wide range of cosmetics applied to the breast area including deodorants." (01/12/04) Reducing Fossil Fuel Use BBC Environment -- Scientists say a national trading scheme in carbon emissions is the UK's best hope for tackling climate change. The Tyndall Centre in Cambridge says that under the scheme every adult would be allocated a fixed number of units of carbon fuel such as petrol and gas. People living "green" lifestyles could sell units they did not use to people who led more polluting lifestyles. This would help the UK slash the carbon emissions which are linked to global warming, the scientists say. The government is committed to dramatic cuts in carbon emissions in the coming years, with a target of a 60% reduction by the year 2050. The researchers say the carbon trading idea would be the best way of doing this. Dr Kevin Anderson, one of the scientists behind the idea, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme how it could work. "Broadly, we'd have a national target for the carbon emissions we'd be permitted to emit in any particular year... This would be split amongst all of the population, all the adult citizens, and it would be an equal allocation per adult citizen. So when you bought your coal or your gas, or when you went to the petrol station, you would pay for the petrol in the normal manner, and then you would actually use your smart card with your allocation on it, and simply have that scanned through and it would remove your units. People who use less than the average amount of carbon fuel could sell those to other people living in larger houses or driving bigger cars." (01/12/04) Orang-utans May Be Gone by 2025 BBC Nature -- The orang-utan, Asia's "wild man of the forests", could disappear in just 20 years, a campaign group believes. WWF, the global environment network, says in the last century the number of apes fell by 91% in Borneo and Sumatra. Globally, it says, there were thought to be somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 orang-utans as recently as 1987. But by 2001 that number had fallen by virtually half, to an estimated 25,000- 30,000 of the animals, more than half of them living outside protected areas. The apes, restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, are regarded as two species, the Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) and the Sumatran orang-utan (Pongo abelii). The Sumatran animal is classified as critically endangered, with possibly no more than 9,000 specimens. Across their range they are at risk because of the fragmentation and destruction of the forests. WWF says: "This is caused by commercial logging, and clearance for oil palm plantations and agriculture. Almost 80% of all forests in Malaysia and Indonesia have now been logged. "The apes are also threatened by hunting and poaching for the bushmeat and pet trade, and by forest fires. Over 60% of orang-utans are living outside reserves, and this catastrophic decline will continue until conservation efforts are scaled up to tackle habitat loss and poaching on privately-owned land." (01/12/04) 7:04:21 AM

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