Comments on: About Me http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com He had bought a large map representing the sea, / Without the least vestige of land: / And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be / A map they could all understand. Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:14:49 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Jeffrey Morton http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/about-me/#comment-562 Jeffrey Morton Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:14:49 +0000 http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/#comment-562 Charlie: One has to be careful with words like this. If "topos" and other words are used in both mathematics and literary criticism, we can attribute it to etymology - it's a Greek word for "place" after all - but in both cases it has some specific meaning derived from that. It would be a bit of a stretch to suppose it means the same thing. Likewise, "coincidence" refers to two things coinciding - i.e. both happening at the same time/place. "Synchronicity" usually has the implication of "meaningful coincidence", which is not something that quantum theory (or most any materialist view of the world) has anything much to say about. Jung and Pauli played with those ideas at a time when there was still a lot of confusion and disagreement about what concepts like "measurement" or "observation" mean in quantum mechanics, and what "state reduction" is. It was quite common to suppose they necessarily have something to do with human consciousness. There's still a lot of confusion about exactly how to interpret them, but I think the idea that they're related to consciousness is usually regarded as too much anthropomorphizing. If you believe Penrose, for example, state reduction (the choosing of one particular state out of a superposition) happens when the states being superimposed differ by enough that the distributions of mass mean they live on different spacetime geometries. That's just a question of size - differences involving masses bigger than about the Planck scale (ten micrograms or so) would automatically lead to state reduction whether or not consciousness is involved. So: if synchronicity is a significant concept, modern quantum theory doesn't have much of anything to say about it that I can see. Cognitive science or something else that deals with the ability to perceive meaning might possibly, I don't know. Charlie: One has to be careful with words like this. If “topos” and other words are used in both mathematics and literary criticism, we can attribute it to etymology – it’s a Greek word for “place” after all – but in both cases it has some specific meaning derived from that. It would be a bit of a stretch to suppose it means the same thing.

Likewise, “coincidence” refers to two things coinciding – i.e. both happening at the same time/place. “Synchronicity” usually has the implication of “meaningful coincidence”, which is not something that quantum theory (or most any materialist view of the world) has anything much to say about. Jung and Pauli played with those ideas at a time when there was still a lot of confusion and disagreement about what concepts like “measurement” or “observation” mean in quantum mechanics, and what “state reduction” is. It was quite common to suppose they necessarily have something to do with human consciousness.

There’s still a lot of confusion about exactly how to interpret them, but I think the idea that they’re related to consciousness is usually regarded as too much anthropomorphizing. If you believe Penrose, for example, state reduction (the choosing of one particular state out of a superposition) happens when the states being superimposed differ by enough that the distributions of mass mean they live on different spacetime geometries. That’s just a question of size – differences involving masses bigger than about the Planck scale (ten micrograms or so) would automatically lead to state reduction whether or not consciousness is involved.

So: if synchronicity is a significant concept, modern quantum theory doesn’t have much of anything to say about it that I can see. Cognitive science or something else that deals with the ability to perceive meaning might possibly, I don’t know.

]]> By: Charlie Mitton http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/about-me/#comment-561 Charlie Mitton Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:37:39 +0000 http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/#comment-561 I am intersted in how quantum theory relates to everyday reality through synchronicity and have written a book which to some extent follows from ideas by Jung and Pauli, I learnt from your site to how Lucien Hardy uses the word 'coincidence'.There are words like topos and 'ontic states' which converge with literary criticism. I could say more but need some kind of feedback. I am intersted in how quantum theory relates to everyday reality through synchronicity and have written a book which to some extent follows from ideas by Jung and Pauli, I learnt from your site to how Lucien Hardy uses the word ‘coincidence’.There are words like topos and ‘ontic states’ which converge with literary criticism. I could say more but need some kind of feedback.

]]> By: saij http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/about-me/#comment-15 saij Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:10:01 +0000 http://theoreticalatlas.wordpress.com/#comment-15 Congrats on the blog. I'm in my last year as an undergrad in Mathematics at Portland State University. And I plan to continue there as a grad student. While I'm not (by any means) the greatest mind on the planet, what mind I do have seems to be quite in line with yours on the interesting connections between Mathematics and Philosophy. Mathematics is possibly the ultimate form of Philosophy. For me, it's the connection between mathematical order and political and moral philosophy. We as a species have always been hell-bent on imposing the kind of order we attribute to Math on society at large. I am not making a value judgment there. But, the way our minds work is interesting. We're so chaotic, an overgrown chimp out of it's league, and yet, math is something that came from us. Amazing. Welcome to the Blogo-hyper-sphere. But, beware ... blogging is highly addictive! :) PS. I have heard that Ontario is a great. Congrats on the blog. I’m in my last year as an undergrad in Mathematics at Portland State University. And I plan to continue there as a grad student.

While I’m not (by any means) the greatest mind on the planet, what mind I do have seems to be quite in line with yours on the interesting connections between Mathematics and Philosophy.

Mathematics is possibly the ultimate form of Philosophy.

For me, it’s the connection between mathematical order and political and moral philosophy. We as a species have always been hell-bent on imposing the kind of order we attribute to Math on society at large. I am not making a value judgment there. But, the way our minds work is interesting. We’re so chaotic, an overgrown chimp out of it’s league, and yet, math is something that came from us. Amazing.

Welcome to the Blogo-hyper-sphere. But, beware … blogging is highly addictive! :)

PS. I have heard that Ontario is a great.

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