web analytics

Stephen Pickering

Author: Stephen Pickering

  • Want to Travel Through Space and Time? Don’t Collapse Your Wave Function!

    Technology is like stealing fire from the Gods, that’s one interpretation of the fire theft metaphor you see in mythology, most notably the Prometheus story, but it never satisfies because it is piecemeal, and the second we observe it, it freezes, its wave function collapses. So the more we get, the more we want, and the void is never filled. Part of the symbolism of the Cross is that the horizontal bar represents the divide between the conscious and unconscious, logic and emotion, and they have inversely proportional relationships. The more “Leviathans” that Logic destroys, the Dragon of the Ego grows and further suppresses the unconscious energies, spontaneity.

    But an important step in the “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” developed at the turn of the 20th century with the discovery of Relativity, Hubble’s observations of an expanding Universe, and Quantum Mechanics. Overthrowing “determinism,” the prevailing theory at the turn of the century, these discoveries and their validation gave birth to most of the “magical” things in our lives today: radio, TV, computers, the internet, and on and on, all wonders of the mysterious Planck Length world making themselves known, felt, and realized in our “macro” conscious world of everyday living. This is one way that the horizontal cross and its barrier starts to be dissolved.

    But also, ironically, the sense of Science being the great Antithesis of Religion, also was cut through like a lightening bolt from Zeus or Indra. In fact, beginning with Special Relativity and up to this day, the more Science digs and discovers, the more Mystery it finds. We find that Science is actually coming to the aide of Religion, at least religion in the since of Metaphysics and Mysticism, although even to this day this sense doesn’t not have much mindshare. Mostly because of the institutionalizing of the arts and sciences and their systems which produce “walled gardens” that can’t nourish each other. I talked about this a little bit in another article, “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters.”

    It’s important to realize that without a wave function you couldn’t be reading this message, PC’s couldn’t exist, the internet couldn’t exist, because its all based on the ability of the electron to exist simultaneaously at every point in space. Fortunately we can’t “observe” an electron, so its wave function doesn’t collapse, and our Micro Processors still compute, and our emails go through. Even more fortunate still for our bodies’ sake, or it would collapse. The electron cloud keeps all of our bodies’ trillions of molecules that are constantly colliding, stable. The electron cloud is based on the electron’s ablity to be in an infinite number of points around the nucleus, simultaneously. Fortunately, someone wishing to do us harm has not the sensory organs to observe our electrons and collapse their wave function!
    Every object, including your body has a wave function. In fact the probability of the wave function's statistic looks exactly like you, your actual wave function, which is real, seeps into space and actually occupies the entire Universe. That is until you or someone else observes you. Then your wave function collapses, and you become frozen in space in time at the point they or you observe you. Want to travel or be in an infinite number of places simultaneouly like a God? Don't collapse your wave function! How do we do that? I don't know!!!!! But I have a few ideas. (Of course having an idea, itself, especially attached to the idea of myself having it, is automatically collapsing my wave function!) Until we get the engineering prowess, which will be at least thousands if not millions of years, to build Star Trek like devices, we are going to have to look at the Mystical route. I can't stop my neighbor from observing me. I can't stop even my dogs or cat from observing me, but if I were alone in a room, could I stop ME from observing ME? It seems to me (even saying "me" collapses my wave function) that observing myself, either in a mirror, or looking at parts of my body is very analogous, if not the same thing, to Ego. I. Look at your hand. The whole Universe is behind it, and when you look at it, it "freezes" it as separate from that Universe. MY HAND. Not the Universe's. It seems there would be one easy solution for not observing yourself: Close your eyes. But even when your eyes are closed, your other senses are involved with observing YOU, your sense of touch, smell, sound and even without those, your mind has only images of yourself as you have seen yourself for years, since you were born. That's a very ingrained image, one that perhaps gives birth to the Ego itself, and then once born, the Ego's needs, desires, and fears, propels one's body towards actions that keep it (the Ego) fed. This lock is not easily broken. Years upon years of habit are like mounds of soil and a rusty padlock in an indistinguishable field, on top of the treasure chest that is your Authentic Self (Self in the Eastern tradition as distinguished from Ego). The practice of Meditation and Yoga (re-linking, ie 're-ligio' to source or unseparation consciouness) are the only two practices I've encountered that show, perhaps, a way or solution to stop observing yourself and collapsing your wave function. Actually its been a long time since I've engaged these practices, so maybe I am writing this post to remind myself of their value and not the World. But the successful moments, even if fleeting, that I have had with these practices were very freeing in the sense that the gap between thought was achieved and these frozen architectures of the mind, these complexes as Jung would say, that have been years of memories in the making, seem to collapse in an instant. Can the simple act of meditation and yoga keep my Wave function alive and have me or you traveling to any point in the Universe (and perhaps time) instaneously, while at the same time keep one part of you, grounded, here on Earth, keeping your day job, keeping the bills paid? I don't know, but the feeling just occurred to me now, reading Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos and coming across a passage about Quantum Mechanics:
    "To resolve the discrepency between waves of probability and our commonsense notion of existence, Bohr and Heisenberg assumed that after a measurement is made by an outside observer, the wave function magically "collapses," and the electron falls into a definite state-that is, after looking at the tree, we see that it is truly standing. In other words, the process of observation determines the final state of the electron. Observation is vital to existence. After we look at the electron, its wave function collapses, so the electron is now in a definite state and there is no more need for wave functions." - page 152 "Before an observation is made, an object exists in all possible states simultaneously. To determine which state the object is in, we have to make an observation, which "collapses" the wave function, and the object goes into a definite state. The act of observation destroys the wave function, and the object now assumes a definite reality. The wave function has served its purpose: it has given us the precise probability of finding the object in that particular state." - page 153
    If I'm thinking of Eastern philosophy, the "Third Eye" represented as the red dot on the forehead of many Indians, is a symbol of observing without collapsing the wave function. "Seeing the infinite" as Blake would say. So before I walked into my bathroom and see my cat reclining on the chair, was he really on Mars and every other place in the Universe for that matter? Yes, according to Quantum Mechanics, which though is still just a theory, is the most successful scientific theory of all time and is responsible for the microchip and this Mac I'm writing on. So one must take pause. So if you want to travel through space and time, don't collapse your wave function! And one of the ironies is in order not to collapse it, you have to stop wanting not to collapse it! How else do you do it? I don't exactly know. My path might be different from yours and everyone else's. The Authurian Romances tell us "Each adventurer entered the forest in a different place and made his own path which had never been made before. To follow another's would have been a disgrace." So no one knows exactly, but mythologies give us hidden clues. The rest we have to find for ourself, and in our own way. What are your thoughts on this topic? Am I on to something, am I completely wrong, or somewhere in between? Love to have a conversation with you about it. Related Posts: 

  • Fear = Holding to Your Ego

    Above   are the figures of Angyou and Ungyou, which stand as gate guardians outside Japanese Buddhist temples. They look pretty scary don’t they? What they are, are symbols of one’s own fear, which if held onto keeps one’s psychologically out of the “Temple” which is the symbol of peace, joy, exuberance, beauty where the Buddha (your authentic self) sits under the tree of Immortal Life. One can choose to live life on “This Side of Paradise” or that. Fear is exactly attachment to your ego. In order to break this lock, one must dissolve the attachment. There are many practices to do this. I’ll talk about this more in future posts.

    “That is a symbol of your own fear and holding to your ego which is what’s keeping you out of the Garden where the Buddha sits under the Tree (of Immortal Life) and his right hand says, “Don’t be afraid of those guys, come through”

    “A transcendent energy consciousness informs the whole world and informs you.”

    “The Hero is the one who responds to the call to adventure.”

    “There’s something about the integrity of a life, and the world moves in and helps.” – Joseph Campbell

    By the way, I think a good definition of Ego is the feeling, the sense of yourself being separate from others, from the world around you, from which you were born.


  • Pat Buchanan is Wrong: There Will Be No Inflation with Recovery

    I love Pat Buchanan. He’s the main reason I watch The Mclaughlin Group, and the only reason I watch MSNBC. His knowledge of history and foreign policy is impeccable. He’s sincerely interested in politics, and he’s just plain fun to watch.

    But like a lot of great political commentators inside the Beltway and out, I won’t go so far as to say he knows little to nothing about economics, he knows a great deal about economics, but his fundamental principles about the subject are just plain wrong. They are upside down, totally the opposite of how the economic world works. Take Foreign Trade for example. As a country YOU WANT a trade deficit. Why? Because your economy is so much larger than the other country’s they cannot possibly import from you as much as you import from them. Believe me, we will rue the day that we have even equal, much less more exports to China or any other country, as imports. Take a second and think about what that means.

    But let’s concentrate on a subject that’s been on Pat’s mind a lot lately: Inflation, specifically inflation as the result of a booming economy. Look, on the face of it, it seems to make sense: The Fed has doubled their balance sheet since last fall to quote unquote “Bail out the financial sector” although such a ploy was a total red herring, and only a grab for power masked as such, but that debate is for another blog post. Also, with the prospect, God forbid, of a booming economy on the horizon, Inflation would seem to be a Tiger waiting in the wings to tear our figurative buying power’s heads off. But this is wrong headed thinking because precisely the opposite is the case:

    Growth economies soak up excess liquidity like the Amazon rainforest soaks up Carbon Dioxide.  The truth about economics is that conventional wisdom is turned on its head, just as in 1906 Relativity turned the conventional wisdom about Reality (determinism, logic) on its head. Growing economies put downward pressure on inflation, not upward, by soaking up liquidity.

     

    Look, I am no fan of the Fed.  It is an unconstitutional, Quasi Government/Private Corporation, that literally prints money that it sells through its distribution channels of partner shareholder banks, to a gullible, unquestioning public. And it does this while not only NOT fulfilling its Government Charter of providing a stable currency (which a de facto Gold Standard would do for free) but by actively (surreptiously or not is unknown) making the currency upon which we live swing wildly back and forth in value, causing the devastating inflations and deflations we have experienced for the first time in history since the 1971 closing of the Gold Window by President Nixon. I am a total libertarian, totally for Ron Paul 2012, and think it should be abolished, or have its reigns pulled in tightly with a Executive Order that it will not let the open market Gold price swing beyond a tight range.

    But in the months ahead, if we are lucky enough to have a economic recovery, and I believe we will although the unprecedented “stimulus” (which is actually a pork bag full of free money to people who provide no value or production to our economy, but instead scam the people, by virtue of having power in legislative halls) will be a furious headwind not in our favor, inflation is the last thing one needs to worry about. Happy days will be here again, and the punch bowl can be brought out. To use a horse racing analogy, as I am in love with horse racing, the “Class” of technological innovation and productivity will over come the grueling pace duel with governmental regulation and confiscations that line pockets of political power brokers. In short Technology is the only thing propping our Economy up, but it is indeed a Secretariat, a Tiger Woods, and has the strength of Atlas.

    I wish too that the government would not shrug Atlas, but Governments from time immemorial until today and forever more, simply have only one purpose: Internal and External Plunder. It’s time to get over that, unless we indeed can have a Libertarian Revolution.

    But for now lets hope and expect a recovery. And with it there will be no signs of inflation on the horizon. The Gold Standard provides stable currency for free, and so does economic growth, with the only threat in such a situation being Inflation’s horrible ugly sister: Deflation, which is the real threat with the prospect of recovery, as the Fed is inclined (will) raise rates and starve the Growth engine’s main fuel supply: liquidity.

    And then back on the Roller Coaster we shall all go. But if we can’t have a Libertarian Revolution and have a real democracy and a real free market we might as well adopt the Grateful Dead’s attitude (if not take the same contraband) and “enjoy the ride.”

     

    Stephen Pickering. May, 2009

  • The Phenomenon of Combustion

    By Robert Scoble

    I imagine the idea of a dress
    was stolen from a flower
    in the year fire was discovered.
    But no one is positively sure.

    So desire is a controlled explosion
    in which need is faster than light
    and more precise than fire.

    If that sets a dress on fire
    or flowers explode, who cares?
    It’s Spring and this is just
    an idea for a love poem.

    Although I’ve never seen her,
    I make pieces of devotion
    fill the darkness of her sleep.
    She smiles to herself, I think.
    It’s an eclipse. But who hasn’t been
    blinded by someone lifting up her dress?

    Such great danger and awe of beauty.
    I’m unsure, the way children are
    in the presence of a candle.
    Intuitively they whisper, then-
    well, I don’t wish to blow it out.

    All our lives, wet logs in a fire,
    desire is under control.
    I’ve allowed myself to ask for beauty
    and like beauty it’s unfair.
    Good, we’re even.

    The phenomenon of combustion means
    no one is positively sure.

    -Jack Myers from the volume “I’m Amazed That You’re Still Singing”

  • Businesses: Destroy Your “Us Versus Them” Mentality

    I wrote this comment tonight on a very intriguing blog post by Robert Scoble entitled “Exploring the 2010 Web” All businesses and organizations should read this post and follow Scoble in general and Chris Brogan to learn how to apply Social Media effectively and to take your business into this next age of the “Telecosm” as George Gilder labeled it, in other words the Telecommunications Revolution. There is reason to be hopeful. Businesses embraced the “Microcosm” or the Micro Electronics Revolution beginning the 70’s, and this lead to the 80’s and 90’s being one of the greatest legal creations of wealth in the history of the World. The Wealth of the country as measured by the value of the Nation’s Capital stock, increased some 20 times. The productivity increases of the Telecom revolution will be of a magnitude 10 times larger. The Bandwidth revolution is indeed infinite because the number of colors of light are infinite, and each color can carry an infinite amount of data at wirespeed. The Exobyte floods are coming. Question is, will you and your business be riding it or fighting it?

    This is interesting and comes to the heart of the matter. I think the crux of the matter psychologically is that businesses and organizations have to “tear down” “destroy” this “Us against Them” mentality. Not only Us against our Competitors but Us against our Customers. I owned and ran a furniture store for a number of years so I have some knowledge of this. When you have a store and a staff of employees there’s this tendency to see and treat the guy walking in off the street, a potential customer, as separate, somebody you don’t trust and who doesn’t trust you. That’s a normal initial, almost lizard part of the brain, reaction. But the trick is to break past that, and to really “schmooze” with people, not in a fake, acting kind of way, but being really interested in who they are, what they like, etc.
    And one of the best features of these social media tools is a way to engage, to build that level of trust. I read a lot of books back then on sales and the best ones taught me this principle, and when I applied it, the sales just seem to come effortlessly, almost as an aftermath of a real connection being made.
    And you see this everywhere. Business websites, especially large corporations, give off this impression of such intimidation, they almost act as a wall between the business and the potential customer, the exact opposite intention of the site.
    Amazon is a great example of a great, maybe the best business site. It feels like it wants you there. Very inviting, very warm, very personalized. Heck they even want you to be an associate right on the spot.
    The NYtimes on the other hand feels like this wall or veil. There’s so many new exciting things they could be doing with this new media, to make it fun, engaging, making you want to be there. But they remain huddled up, preaching down to us.
    People have to want to be doing what they are doing. If they are doing it just for money, they’re not going to have happiness, and usually not money either because they aren’t going to be interesting enough, cutting edge enough. You get the sense that most businesses are just plodding along doing it this way because “this is the way we’ve always done it” kind of mentality.

  • The Future of the News? A Video Camera

    Today, Robert Scoble just did his second live broadcast of an event he participated in, a distinguished panel discussing the future of traditional media. OK, I know you are already asleep. Only the truly geeky, geeky, longest of long tails, C-Spaners would watch such a thing. Right? Probably. But you must admit that it is an important topic. Almost a day doesn’t go by that we don’t hear about a newspaper in some city or other that is going broke. But here’s what I found most interesting about the event:

    At an invent about the future of journalism, in our new media world, Scoble, laptop camera and mic pointed at the room, was THE ONLY PERSON JOURNALIZING! And he was journalizing LIVE!

    Attention traditional media: HELLO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

    The future of news is a Video Camera. And two hands carrying it that are halfway interested enough in the subject actually be there. It’s not that hard. Really. Except no one’s doing it.

    If an event or piece of news that you are interested in is happening, which would be your first choice, to see it or to read about it? And if you had the choice of seeing it in real time or recorded which, again, would you choose? You may not trust Wikipedia, but I do think you trust your own eyes and ears.