Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Quantum Mechanics & Chaos Theory
Anarchist Meditations on N. Herbert's Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics
By Hakim Bey
1. Scientific worldviews or "paradigms" can influence -- or be influenced by -- social reality. Clearly the Ptolemaic universe mirrors theocentric & monarchic structures. The Newtonian/Cartesian/mechanical universe mirrors rationalistic social assumptions, which in turn underlie nationalism, capitalism, communism, etc. As for Relativity Theory, it has only recently begun to reflect -- or be reflected by -- certain social realities. But these relations are still obscure, embedded in multinational conspiracies, the metaphysics of modern banking, international terrorism, & various newly emergent telecommunications-based technologies.
2. Which comes first, scientific paradigm or social structure? For our purpose it seems unnecessary to answer this question--and in any case, perhaps impossible. The relation between them is real, but acts in a manner infinitely more complex than mere cause-&-effect, or even warp-&-weft.
3. Quantum Mechanics (QM), considered as the source of such a paradigm, at first seems to lack any social ramifications or parallels, almost as if its very weirdness deprives it of all connnections with "everyday" life or social reality. However, a few authors (like F. Capra, or Science-Fictioneers like R. Rucker or R. Anton Wilson) have seen Quantum Theory both as a vindication of certain "oriental philosophies" & also as prophetic of certain social changes which might loosely & carelessly be lumped under the heading "Aquarian."
4. The "mystical" systems evoked by our contemplation of Quantum facts tend to be non-dualist and non-theocentric, dynamic rather than static: Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Tantra (both Hindu & Buddhist), alchemy, etc. Einstein, who opposed Quantum theory, believed in a God who refused to play dice with the universe, a basically Judeo-Protestant deity who sets up a cosmic speed limit for light. The Quantum enthusiasts, by contrast, prefer a dancing Shiva, a principle of cosmic play.
5. Perhaps "oriental wisdom" will provide a kind of focusing device, or set of metaphors, or myth, or poetics of QM, which will allow it to realize itself fully as a "paradigm" & discover its reflection on the level of society. But it does not follow that this paradigm will simply recapitulate the social complexes which gave rise to Taoism, Tantra or alchemy. There is no "Eternal Return" in the strict Nietzschean sense: each time the gyre comes round again it describes a new point in space/time.
6. Einstein accused Quantum Theory (QT) of restoring individual consciousness to the center of the universe, a position from which "Man" was toppled by "Science" 500 years ago. If QT can be accused of retrogression, however, it must be something like the anarchist P. Goodman's "Stone Age Reaction" -- a turning-back so extreme as to constitute a revolution.
7. Perhaps the development of QM and the rediscovery of "oriental wisdom" (with its occidental variations) stem from the same social causes, which have to do with information density, electronic technology, the ongoing collapse of Eurocentrism & its "Classical" philosophies, ideologies & physics. Perhaps the syncresis of QT & oriental wisdom will accelerate these changes, even help direct them.
8. Table of Paradigms
With Their Spritual, Political & Economic Parallels
- Paleolithic -- shamanic -- non-authoritarian -- hunter/gatherer
- Neolithic -- polytheistic -- authoritarian -- agricultural
- Earth-centered Cosmos -- theistic -- monarchial/theocratic (hierarchical) -- urban
- Sun-centered Cosmos -- monotheistic -- divine right of kings -- colonialism & imperialism
- Mechanistic universe -- deist or atheist -- democracy, capitalism, communism -- industrial/technological
- Relativistic universe -- Modernism -- cybernocacy -- post-industrial (electronic)
- Quantum universe . . .
9. Just as Modernism here parallels Relativity Theory as a sort of spiritual concomitant, so "oriental wisdom" seems to attach itself to QT. But what political systems, what economics would derive from this amalgamation?
10. QT, which attempts an explanation of the reality "behind" Quantum facts, lags far behind QM itself. Unlike Relativity, QM offers no coherent ideas about "reality," only a set of statistical possibilities, tools for prediction. QM "works" -- but Quantum facts remain unexplained. The excitement of the science for non-scientists lies in the way it seems to have revived speculative philosophy as an integral part of the scientific endeavor: at present, competing theories about Quantum "reality" rival any occultist or mystical excesses for sheer madness & breathtaking incredibility. In Quantum Reality, physicist Nick Herbert outlines eight philosophies or world views, "Quantum Realities," all based on Quantum fact but all different.
11. Quantum Reality Number One (QRI) - -the
12. QR3 -- "Reality is an undivided wholeness." Developed by
13. Capra's popularization of this stance in Tao of Physics explores possible leads in Far Eastern mysticism. But none of the "orientalists" have so far noted a much more relevant metaphysics in sufism, especially Ibn Arabi's doctrine of the oneness of being (wahdat al-wujud). My intuition says that Ibn Arabi might prove a goldmine to Quantum Theorists, but the "mingling of two oceans" conjured up by such an imagined confrontation would involve decades of hard labor to grasp & contain -- & so I leave it to someone else to follow up.
14.
15. QR4 -- "The many worlds interpretation" (H. Everett, 1957) suggests that the wave function never collapses -- that every possible event actually occurs, either in "our" world or in some instantaneously created "alternative universe." The Copenhagenists deny reality altogether;
16. QR5 - -Quantum Logic. What Einstein did to Euclidean geometry, some Quantum physicist/mathematicians hope to do to Boolean (Classical) Logic. Other than making it easier to think about, I'm not sure how this new logic would relate to QR -- but it sounds like a good idea.
17. QR6 -- "Neo-realism." Einstein, Planck, Schrodinger, Bohm & de Broglie have all looked for ways to "save the phenomena," to discover & describe Quantum Reality per se, rather than take the disagreeable step of agreeing with Copenhagian anti-realisms ("Atoms are not things" -- Heisenberg. "There is no quantum world" -- Bohr.) Reconciling the neo-realist project with Quantum facts leads to some very peculiar positionssuch as maintaining that the world is real but "non-local."
18. Could it be that the quarrel between anti-realists & neo-realists arises from a semantic problem about the definition of "reality?" It looks to me as if both sides are maintaining that reality means Classical reality. Thus the Copenhagenists are forced to deny that ordinary objects exist -- an absurdity - -while the neo-realists are reduced to looking for loopholes in QM, & seem so far to have been utterly frustrated. But if QR & "ordinary reality" are both real, modalities of the same one reality, then the dichotomy vanishes like a delusion caused by bad grammar. The only problem then remaining is that of Quantum measurement, which asks in effect how "quantumstuff" "becomes" "ordinary objects?"
19. QR7 -- "Consciousness creates reality." Von Neumann posits that only one kind of stuff exists, quantumstuff, & that ordinary objects are "made" of it. At some point the wave function, the all-possible nature of quantumstuff, "collapses" into a single statistical probability, a quantum jump which somehow "creates the world." Where does this occur? The only logical answer appears to implicate human consciousness as the setting of the wave function collapse. Ironic that Von Neumann, the wizard of cybernetics & strategic game theory, should have been forced to develop a math which suggests that human consciousness must be written into any complete explanation of QR. Von Neumann's interpretation is not the same as QR2, "observer-created reality," in which the observer could as easily be a measuring device as a human being; QR2 tacitly accepts a basic dualism between a real "Classical" measuring device, and Quantum unreality itself. Nor does QR7 necessarily imply Buddhist-style anti-realism or Idealism: reality exists, but only in conjunction or "unity" with con- sciousness.
20. On one hand this trend leads to a kind of neo-Aristotelian neo-Platonism -- such as QR8, Heisenberg's "duplex world" of potentials and actualities, in which real objects appear almost as manifestations or hypostases of a Quantum Reality which is both more abstract & yet "more real" than everyday things.
21. On the other hand however Von N's "all-quantum" explanation of QR harks back to & strengthens the "taoist" arguments of QR3. Here, rather than a platonic modified non-dualism we get a strong & radical monism, in which "matter" & "consciousness" cannot be distinguished except as modalities of a single reality.
22. In effect, might one not say (as in QR4) that the wave function never collapses -- but that there still remains only one reality? That there has never been a "fall" from one into two? If QR is non-local, if "phase interference" & Bell's proof mean that all Quantum-particles which connect hologrammatical instantaneous connections with each other -- if all "matter" was originally (before the Big Bang) one dimensionless macro-particle/wave -- then all particles are implicated in all waves, & vice versa. The universe is (as Capra says, quoting Hindu sources) a seamless net of jewels, every jewel reflected in every other. The wave function collapse in this case would constitute a mathematical description of a mode of individual consciousness & its awareness of the world, its inherent implicatedness in the totality & oneness of that world -- in fact, its virtual identity with that world. The wave function collapse would then not actually describe a physical event at all; in effect, it would have never happened. The universe is now what it was & ever shall be: one reality.
23. As far as I know, this synthesis of QR3 and QR7 (lucky numbers!) violates current thinking in Quantum Theory -- & perhaps even the "Quantum facts" as well. Still . . . science marches on; things may change & become even weirder. I have a strong hunch that the ongoing study of randomicity (e.g. at thermonuclear temperatures) may shed light on QR philosophy in the near future. Another source for the next breakthrough in physics may well come from brain physiology -- provided it can tear itself away from rat-running & linguistic rat-holes & address itself to the problem of consciousness. New work on the "morphogenetic field" in biology looks promising; personally, I feel less enthusiasm for cognitive philosophy & AI research.
24. My groping attempt at a synthesis is suggested by what I call Chaos Theory, which holds to the axiom that reality itself subsists in a state of ontological anarchy. "The one gave birth to the two, the two to the 10,000 things" -- but all this IS the tao & nothing but the tao. Yin & yang have no being in themselves, but act as interpenetrating modalities of the tao. The real/unreal dichotomy enslaves us in false consciousness. Looked at from one point of view, nothing is real; from another point of view, everything is real; from another, "nothing is real except the Real"; from yet another, "I am the Real" (ana'I Haqq, a sufi "koan"). These semantricks create a set of paradoxes -- and the resolution will give us an essentially metalinguistic certainty of being's oneness. Such oneness cannot be structured or defined in any way. It has no "ruler" and no "laws" -- hence, ontological anarchy.
25. On a mathematical (or statistical) level, the chaotic nature of reality may manifest as randomicity; I suspect it manifests in the Uncertainty Principle as well. Whatever the truth of these speculations, I feel that Chaos Theory & Quantum Theory are moving closer & closer together. If this is so, then we may be able to predict some social implications of Quantum Theory as a "paradigm" -- and thus answer the questions posed in paragraph nine -- by looking at the social programme of Chaos Theory or ontological anarchy.
26. Chaos Theory, like any good theory, can be applied to anything, from physics to literary criticism -- just as it can absorb energy from any kind of source, from the heretical spiritual teachings of sufis, Ismailis, Ranters, shamans or sorcerers -- to QM itself. Thus it may provide the link, yoke, nexus or connection between QM & "oriental wisdom," & help define the paradigm we're looking for.
27. Chaos Theory predicts that Quantum Theory will fail to turn up any "hidden laws," hidden variables that restore some privileged class of objects or perceptions to a status of objective reality at the expense of other objects & perceptions. The anti-realists who recognize only the measuring device as real, & the neo-realists who yearn for a "Classical" resolution of QM's paradoxes, are simply proposing different ways of "saving the phenomena" -- or metaphorically, of preserving reality as we know it. Consensus Reality. This project seems doomed from the start -- at least, to us chaotes. The new paradigm will shatter Consensus Reality, & with it all authoritative representatives of scientific "truth."
28. This is not to claim that the "solving" of Quantum Theory will somehow result in an anarchist Utopia. The predictive power of Chaos Theory seems to falter here. After all, total destruction is as much a "type" of chaos as the most benign visions of Bakunin or Stirner. In effect the social & economic results of the new paradigm depend on forces other than those described or controlled by the paradigm, whatever its claims to absoluteness. For instance, an economy which mirrors this paradigm will almost certainly involve the abolition of "work" as we know it (a relic of Classical physics) -- but what replaces it may either enslave us more miserably than "work" could ever accomplish, or it may liberate us in harmony with the visions of "zero-work" radicals, neo-situationists & anarchists.
29. Similarly Chaos Theory can make no predictions about the development of technologies which mirror the paradigm, such as telepathic signaling, FTL spaceships, ansibles, controlled ESP or other fancies indulged in by fantasists (including me). Social change resists all such sibylline seductions, since it involves the incalculability of consciousness itself, & of human history. I can foresee Quantum dystopias as easily as Utopias.
30. Given all these caveats however. Chaos Theory still envisions a Quantum-Social-Paradigm with distinctly anti-authoritarian implications -- in one sense a reprise of the Paleolithic/shamanic worldview, in another sense wildly post-postmodern. Such a "movement" or change would transcend all current definitions of Anarchism, whether communist, syndicalist, libertarian-capitalist or individualist. So far there is no name for what I'm talking about.
31. Like Quantum Theory itself, this politique/poetique is still emergent. It can only be sensed as it emerges or begins to emerge from the "facts" of everyday life, just as Quantum Theory peeps out of the strangeness of Quantum facts. Somewhere in the welter of Quantum Theory & Chaos Theory the paradigm is already bom, & waits for us to assist at the mystery of its naming, of its transmutation from potentiality to actuality. In this action poets & physicists may play equal parts, for the glory of Quantum Theory is that by restoring consciousness to its theorems it has turned science once again into a type of "Natural Philosophy" -- or alchemy.
32. Fleshing out the vision of a world somehow based on the mind-boggling perceptions of QM linked with the alien realizations of "oriental wisdom" - -a world which lives with ideas such as non-locality, particles which travel backwards in time, alternative universes, randomicity at the heart of creation, etc. etc. . . . this is properly the work of Utopian Science Fiction -- at this point in history. Perhaps within a few years it will become the province of revolutionaries, artists, philosophers -- the unacknowledged legislators of a lawless future -- anarchs of the new paradigm.
33. QM is said to be "complete" -- but then so are all scientific systems in their moment of power. QM should by no means be fetishized either by scientists or poets, since Quantum Theory itself may hold the seeds of a paradigm which overthrows even QM. The tao which can be spoken is not the tao; the moment Quantum Theory presents itself as "complete," it must be at once attacked. Chaos theory seems to predict that Quantum Theory will flourish as long as it remains "incomplete," not tied down on any Classical (or even non-Boolean) procrustrean beds-metalogical, metalinguistic, essentially unstructured -- "free," like reality itself -- which is a state not of Anarchism but of anarchy, even to the very roots of being.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Hurricane Poem by Max Reif
Spirit Photos
Monday, August 29, 2005
The Book Of Noodles, 1888
ANCIENT GRECIAN NOODLES . . . 1-15
GOTHAMITE DROLLERIES:
Reputed communities of stupids in different countries--The noodles of Norfolk: their lord's bond; the dog and the honey; the fool and his sack of meal--Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham: Andrew Borde not the author--The two Gothamites at Notts Bridge--The hedging of the cuckoo--How the men of Gotham paid their rents--The twelve fishers and the courtier--The Gúrú Paramartan--The brothers of Bakki--Drowning the eel--The Gothamite and his cheese--The trivet--The buzzard--The gossips at the alehouse--The cheese on the highway--The wasp's nest--Casting sheep's eyes--The devil in the meadow--The priest of Gotham--The "boiling" river--The moon a green cheese--The "carles of Austwick"--The Wiltshire farmer and his pigs . . . 16-55
GOTHAMITE DROLLERIES (continued):
The men of Schilda: the dark council-house; the mill-stone; the cat--Sinhalese noodles: the man who observed Buddha's five precepts--The fool and the Rámáyana--The two Arabian noodles-- The alewife and her hens--"Sorry he has gone to heaven"--The man of Hama and the man of Hums--Bizarrures of the Sieur Gaulard--The rustic and the dog . . . 56-80
GOTHAMITE DROLLERIES (continued):
The simpleton and the sharpers--The schoolmaster's lady-love--The judge and the thieves--The calf s head--The Kashmírí and his store of rice--The Turkish noodle: the kerchief; the caftan; the wolfs tail; the right hand and the left; the stolen cheese; the moon in the well--The good dreams--Chinese noodles: the lady and her husband; the stolen spade; the relic-hunter--Indian noodles: the fools and the mosquitoes; the fools and the palm-trees; the servants and the trunks; taking care of the door; the fool and the aloes-wood; the fool and the cotton; the cup lost in the sea; the fool and the thieves; the simpletons who ate the buffalo; the princess who was made to grow; the washerman's ass transformed; the foolish herdsman--Noodle-stories moralised--The brothers and their heritage--Sowing roasted sesame . . . 81-120
THE SILLY SON:
Simple Simon--The Norse booby--The Russian booby--The Japanese noodle--The Arabian idiot--The English silly son--The Sinhalese noodle with the robbers--The Italian booby--The Arab simpleton and his cow--The Russian fool and the birch-tree--The silly wife deceived by her husband--The Indian fool on the tree-branch--The Indian monk who believed he was dead--The Florentine fool and the young men--The Indian silly son as a fisher; as a messenger; killing a mosquito; as a pupil--The best of the family--The doctor's apprentice . . . 121-170
THE FOUR SIMPLE BRÁHMANS:
Introduction 171 Story of the first Brahman 176 Story of the second Brahman 178 Story of the third Brahman 181 Story of the fourth Brahman 185 Conclusion 190
THE THREE GREAT NOODLES . . 191-218
JACK OF DOVER'S QUEST OF THE FOOL OF ALL FOOLS ...... 219
INDEX . . . . . 225
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Ministry of Reshelving
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Kiss Assassin by Wanton Vixxxen
Friday, August 26, 2005
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Musical Interlude
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Lost Lyrics, History & Origins of Old Nursery Rhymes
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley
"MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with the Will."
Monday, August 22, 2005
The Dream Town Show, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
*
Here is an island in
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Sunday, August 21, 2005
Rosicrucian Library
| Landmarks of the Rose Cross Fama Fraternitatis Confessio Fraternitatis The Chymical Wedding of C.R.C. Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th & 17th Centuries (text and diagrams). Commentaries on the Landmarks of the Rose CrossCommentaries on the Chymical Wedding of C.R.C. by Jack Courtis Commentaries on the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians by Jack Courtis Contemporary Writings Benedict Spinoza - Philosopher, Mystic, Rosicrucian by Gary L. Stewart Determining Rosicrucian Affiliation René Des-Cartes (1596 - 1650) by Gary L. Stewart Ella Wheeler Wilcox - Writer & Mystic Rosicrucian by Dr. John Palo Perspective: The Importance of Versatility by Gary L. Stewart Simon Studion, 1543-1605 ( ? ) by H.C.A. Pass The R+C Legacy: Dr.John Dee by: Linda S. Schrigner The Tomb of CRC - The Symbolism of the Seven Sides by: Jack Courtis Expanded Collection Essays, bibliographies, contemporary articles dealing with Rosicrucianism, mysticism, western esoteric traditions and kabala. |
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Laughing Record, 1923
Friday, August 19, 2005
A Tough Dance, 1902
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Sunshine Jim's Website
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Word
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
The Economic Tendency of Freethought
Monday, August 15, 2005
Candide by Voltaire
- Chapter 1 - How Candide Was Brought Up in a Magnificent Castle and How He Was Driven Thence
- Chapter 2 - What Befell Candide among the Bulgarians
- Chapter 3 - How Candide Escaped from the Bulgarians and What Befell Him Afterward
- Chapter 4 - How Candide Found His Old Master Pangloss Again and What Happened to Him
- Chapter 5 - A Tempest, a Shipwreck, an Earthquake, and What Else Befell Dr. Pangloss, Candide, and James, the Anabaptist
- Chapter 6 - How the Portuguese Made a Superb Auto-De-Fe to Prevent Any Future Earthquakes, and How Candide Underwent Public Flagellation
- Chapter 7 - How the Old Woman Took Care Of Candide, and How He Found the Object of His Love
- Chapter 8 - Cunegund's Story
- Chapter 9 - What Happened to Cunegund, Candide, the Grand Inquisitor, and the Jew
- Chapter 10 - In What Distress Candide, Cunegund, and the Old Woman Arrive at Cadiz, and Of Their Embarkation
- Chapter 11 - The History of the Old Woman
- Chapter 12 - The Adventures of the Old Woman Continued
- Chapter 13 - How Candide Was Obliged to Leave the Fair Cunegund and the Old Woman
- Chapter 14 - The Reception Candide and Cacambo Met with among the Jesuits in Paraguay
- Chapter 15 - How Candide Killed the Brother of His Dear Cunegund
- Chapter 16 - What Happened to Our Two Travelers with Two Girls, Two Monkeys, and the Savages, Called Oreillons
- Chapter 17 - Candide and His Valet Arrive in the Country of El Dorado-What They Saw There
- Chapter 18 - What They Saw in the Country of El Dorado
- Chapter 19 - What Happened to Them at Surinam, and How Candide Became Acquainted with Martin
- Chapter 20 - What Befell Candide and Martin on Their Passage
- Chapter 21 - Candide and Martin, While Thus Reasoning with Each Other, Draw Near to the Coast of France
- Chapter 22 - What Happened to Candide and Martin in France
- Chapter 23 - Candide and Martin Touch upon the English Coast-What They See There
- Chapter 24 - Of Pacquette and Friar Giroflee
- Chapter 25 - Candide and Martin Pay a Visit to Seignor Pococurante, a Noble Venetian
- Chapter 26 - Candide and Martin Sup with Six Sharpers-Who They Were
- Chapter 27 - Candide's Voyage to Constantinople
- Chapter 28 - What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc.
- Chapter 29 - What Manner Candide Found Miss Cunegund and the Old Woman Again
- Chapter 30 - Conclusion
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Christopher Walken 2008 for President 2008
Friday, August 12, 2005
The Greatest Fucking Quotes Ever
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Musical Interlude
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Experiencing Intuition
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Zen
Monday, August 08, 2005
The Trans-Quantum Mechanical Hypothesis of Consciousness
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Fuck Today and Fuck You
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