Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 107.  March 08, 2020 continued . . .

  The God Problem

   Patterns Without Meaning

 Now 2500 years later, Claude Shannon has again updated the notion of Platonic Forms in his theory of Information, in which he separated Meaning from Number Relationship. His axiomatic ratio is 1/0, something or nothing. This abstraction had enormous practical value in the emergence of “thinking” machines (computers), but eventually became an impediment in the development of Artificial Intelligence. Human intelligence is all about meaning, but strings of 1s and 0s must be interpreted from abstract values to personal values in order to be meaningful. Ironically, one application of the all or nothing ratio, has been found to be a necessary step toward meaning in Nature : cycles and waves. Babylonian astrologers observed what Bloom calls “zig-zag” patterns in the sky. These up & down, back & forth oscillations were “a primal pattern, the wobble between opposites, the wobble between extremes”. When viewed on edge, these patterns appeared to be back & forth movements, but they turned-out to be planetary orbits, as they cycle around the sun. But in other settings, those zig-zags could be the crests & troughs of ocean waves, the ups & downs of electromagnetic waves, or even the dialectic patterns of Hegelian history3.

In the era of Greek philosopher Pythagoras, pragmatic methods of land measurement had been developed into a doctrine of theoretical Geometry. With this new-found power, his successor, Thales “dismissed the gods from the realm of explanation and concentrated on god-less patterns. Perfect patterns, like circles, were deemed to be “shapes that existed in a virtual world, a world of imagination, in the realm of abstraction. Shapes that existed in the airy realm of reason. And Thales had given this new way of explaining things a name : philosophy.” Thus, mathematics became a practical  method of predicting and controlling Nature — an alternative to reading the will of gods in star patterns. “Said Aristotle, the Pythagoreans ‘maintained that Number was the beginning of things, the cause of their material existence’.” And abstract numbers could explain the puzzle of unity and duality in the concrete world. Consequently, Bloom asserts that “Reality is a mask . . . Behind it is another reality. A more profound reality. A reality of simple rules. A reality of ideal shapes and ratios. . . . An abstract reality.”4 That hidden state of being is what Plato called the realm of Ideas or Forms, and what I call simply “Ideality”.

Bloom is developing the idea that “deep structures underlie the cosmos”. So, he introduces Aristotle’s version of Plato’s Ideal Forms : “Archetypes5 are perfect forms. Perfect forms of which real things are mere imitations.” Then, he recounts the allegory of the Cave of Illusions. It portrays the perceived world as  “a pale shadow. A pale shadow of what? Of a far more real world. A perfect world. An eternal world.” This ancient worldview has been updated by Don Hoffman in his book : The Case Against Reality6, which uses the icons on a computer screen to illustrate that we interact with superficial appearances instead of fundamental reality. In accordance with the theory of evolution, he says that what we take for True Reality is an interface with Fundamental Ideality. Bloom may not be aware of this novel metaphor of ideal Forms, but his own cosmology is essentially a modern reformulation of ancient Idealism, with Axioms in place of Forms.

                   Post 107 continued . . . click Next

Intelligence
from
Mechanism?

Occult vs Overt Reality

   The invisible realm of Numbers envisioned by Pythagoras was mystical & magical & supernatural. But, the Occult (hidden) Reality of Spiritualism  may be related to the Overt Reality of Science in a mundane  manner similar to that of Consciousness and Sub-consciousness.
   We are directly aware of primary conscious thought, but only know the sub-conscious through mysterious feelings and urges. The ultimate nature of those vague impressions may be mis-interpreted as other-worldly, even though they originate in the brain.
   So, I’m sure that Bloom imagines his “hidden state” as purely natural, but merely beyond the limitations of our perception. Numbers and Ratios and Axioms are like the foundation (deep structures) of your house, unseen but upholding the super-structure that you see.

3. Hegelian History :
  A back & forth dialectic pattern that oscillates between extremes of political polarization. The dominant opinion (thesis) at one time is soon opposed by a different view (Anti-thesis), but the result is a com-bination of both extremes in a moderate form (Synthesis). One 20th century example is regressive Nazism opposed by progressive Communism, which eventually settled into the compromise of Capitalist Socialism in most of Europe.

4. Hidden Reality :
   Bloom doesn’t develop this idea of an abstract realm of Numbers & Forms, so I assume he accepts the ancient theories, even though they lend credence to spiritual beliefs. See “Occult” sidebar.

5. Archetypes :
   Greek – first mold, original form. Equivalent to Plato’s Forms.

6. Case Against Reality :
   See blog post 105.
http://bothandblog6.enformationism.info/page21.html

The God Problem

How a Godless Cosmos Creates

Howard Bloom

Psychology; Sociology; Political Science

The Problem of Existence