As I said in my last post, why is it that we view things as having a beginning and an end. Why do we view things hierarchically? Why must there be two sides to a strip of paper? (See Mobius Strip) Why does there have to be an inside and an outside? (See Klein Bottle). Our understanding of things is based on what we observe, learn, and experience. Think about it. Everything that you know to be true today is based on past experiences. Remember the sensation of learning something existed that you never knew before? You've never experienced it before so you never thought it was possible. Imagine you lived in a world where doors always open inwards (I suppose that's relative); let's say in one direction. You would be quite staunch in your approach and would tell someone that doors can only be opened one way. Then imagine you encounter a door that opens the opposite way. How could this be? How are we to understand this strange phenomenon? It so clearly violates the way the world works and yet there is the evidence standing right in front of you. The awesome part is that we now assimilate that experience into our understanding of how the world works and we are now ok with it. Innovators have an uncanny way of pushing the boundaries of their "complete" world and discovering new and exciting things.
This is simply Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. The theorem basically says that a system (your perception in this instance)cannot be both complete and consistent. Everything you know is based on past experiences and they are all true because that's how the world works. We'll say our world is consistent. Everything makes sense and there are no anomolies. We believe that it is complete but then we learn something new that challenges the way our world works and discover our system isn't complete. We could ignore this fact and say that its false and maintain our consistency but then we can't say that our world is complete because there is something new out there that isn't part of our system. Conversely, if we accept this newly learned truth, then we believe that our system is now complete but its not consistent because doors now open in two directions instead of one. So what do we do as humans? We have to change the rules of the game. We have to change our perception and understanding (our system) so that the new information is assimilated and we are again both consistent and complete. Or are we?
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Random Thought #130
A member of our ward came up to me the other day and mentioned that he could relate to what I had said in my testimoney a couple of weeks before about a friend of mine who didn't quite see the point in organized religion. This friend felt that he was a good person, believed in God, and generally tried to do what was right. He didn't see the need for all of the structure and rules and limitations and guidelines, etc. etc. I tried to tell him about the necessary ordinances and the priesthood authority but none of that really seemed to work. This fellow member came up to me and said that he had felt the same exact way earlier in his life and was inactive for a time. He relayed his feelings and experiences and we had a good conversation but what struck me most about that encounter was the fact that someone was able to relate so closely to my friend's situation.
I'm sure we've all been in some situation in which either we experience the exact same feelings, thoughts, or experiences as others or they have experienced much the same thing as we have. If you ever need advice, who do you go to? Someone who has been through something similar. If you have a question about how to do something, who do you ask? Someone who has already figured out the answer. It seems that there are cycles of patterns of thoughts, experiences, and/or feelings that different sets of people go through. Not everyone's experience is the same, but there always seems to be someone who we can relate to or who can relate to us.
As parents we teach our children, but what is the source of our teaching? Things we have already experienced or encountered or feel we have a good grip on. When we encounter a new or unfamiliar situation, we often refer to work colleagues, friends, or family. What makes us think they have the answer? I think this speaks deeply to the fact that we are all here to take the same test, we all just have different variations of the test. Remember how in grade school, they would use the same questions on the test but they weren't always in the same order or not all of the questions were on everyone's test. Different questions were left off of different people's tests. All of this was to prevent cheating and give everyone a fair shake. That's what life seems to be like. We all have the same basic test and there are of course similar questions and there are of course certain right answers, but not everyone has the exact same test. It makes one wonder how long this test has been around. I mean, there are other worlds with other spirits and Heavenly Father and Jesus both had to take the test to get to where they are. Our hierarchical understanding of beginning and end isn't able to understand this concept as there much (in our view) be some ultimate test maker. This process has to be recursive somehow. If it is recursive though, we are only looking at some point in time along the loop but we're unable to get outside the system to see who might have created this recursive loop. That leads me to another interesting thought about how our perceptions are constructed based on our surroundings and experiences but I'll go into more depth in the next post.
I'm sure we've all been in some situation in which either we experience the exact same feelings, thoughts, or experiences as others or they have experienced much the same thing as we have. If you ever need advice, who do you go to? Someone who has been through something similar. If you have a question about how to do something, who do you ask? Someone who has already figured out the answer. It seems that there are cycles of patterns of thoughts, experiences, and/or feelings that different sets of people go through. Not everyone's experience is the same, but there always seems to be someone who we can relate to or who can relate to us.
As parents we teach our children, but what is the source of our teaching? Things we have already experienced or encountered or feel we have a good grip on. When we encounter a new or unfamiliar situation, we often refer to work colleagues, friends, or family. What makes us think they have the answer? I think this speaks deeply to the fact that we are all here to take the same test, we all just have different variations of the test. Remember how in grade school, they would use the same questions on the test but they weren't always in the same order or not all of the questions were on everyone's test. Different questions were left off of different people's tests. All of this was to prevent cheating and give everyone a fair shake. That's what life seems to be like. We all have the same basic test and there are of course similar questions and there are of course certain right answers, but not everyone has the exact same test. It makes one wonder how long this test has been around. I mean, there are other worlds with other spirits and Heavenly Father and Jesus both had to take the test to get to where they are. Our hierarchical understanding of beginning and end isn't able to understand this concept as there much (in our view) be some ultimate test maker. This process has to be recursive somehow. If it is recursive though, we are only looking at some point in time along the loop but we're unable to get outside the system to see who might have created this recursive loop. That leads me to another interesting thought about how our perceptions are constructed based on our surroundings and experiences but I'll go into more depth in the next post.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Random Thought #129
I think its pretty evident by now that the US is not heading in a good direction and much of what made this country great has either already disappeared or will soon with the generations of my parents and grandparents. I've often thought, what would I do if things got really really bad. What is my backup plan? I've thought about moving to a different country and gaining citizenship there. I'd like to move somewhere that is still modern but isn't constantly wrapped up in everything that is going on in the world and feels like it has to be center stage. I thought about Australia or New Zealand. If things got really bad, where would you move to? or would you? Lemme know in the comments.
Random Thought #128
I was going through my usual batch of TED videos when this one caught my eye. Its pretty cool because someone is actually using social media for something good. It also showcases the absurdidty that is government. Deep down, people are great.
http://www.ted.com/talks/israel_and_iran_a_love_story.html
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