tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18355417440837923722024-03-05T23:06:16.981+00:00Time TriangleFrancesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-14780979713977323382018-01-13T12:07:00.000+00:002018-02-07T14:50:07.863+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, "MS sans serif";">The word "time" is the most common noun in the English language, according to the Oxford dictionary. </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif , "ms sans serif"; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oxford University Press researchers looked on the internet at newspapers, journals, fictions and weblogs to take a snapshot of our everyday language.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The top 5 nouns are: 1) time 2) person 3) year 4) way 5) day.</span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-46161854154802086862017-01-02T16:43:00.000+00:002017-01-03T07:59:44.762+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVq5smowXyehtwCl-LVs7wuyhXejji7tgs-QLRWyU8oheJ5PwuSZpcHCAahmRRgdEfXUwK0JJMxs4Y-9_vnk6xVjIhiHmvWbNP6QrjlEmIPxr3LIOaYI45TQtS66xqw5Rm84CQT81frs/s1600/Giorno+e+Notte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVq5smowXyehtwCl-LVs7wuyhXejji7tgs-QLRWyU8oheJ5PwuSZpcHCAahmRRgdEfXUwK0JJMxs4Y-9_vnk6xVjIhiHmvWbNP6QrjlEmIPxr3LIOaYI45TQtS66xqw5Rm84CQT81frs/s320/Giorno+e+Notte.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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La Notte e Il Giorno - Michelangelo (1524)</div>
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I looked at the date of my last post; September 2013. Over three years have passed since then, what happened ? Well, I met a girl... we got engaged and a few months later we married, we had a baby boy and 18 months later, a baby girl. We moved cities 3 times and after working for 2 years in Jewellery I went back to my banking career...</div>
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The four of us Live in Florence now and when I have a little free time I like to visit some of the monuments and museums this beautiful city has to offer. </div>
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Michelangelo's Day and Night sculptures are an allegory (together with his Dawn and Dusk) for Time.</div>
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I believe that inspired by this city and by the joy of my beautiful family I will find a little time to write about "time". </div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-21421814905906847192013-09-10T18:12:00.000+01:002013-09-10T18:18:27.194+01:00Interview - Giangaetano Patanè<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">TRA NOI - BETWEEN US</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just went to see the new
exhibition of Giangaetano Patanè at the </span><a href="http://chiostrodelbramante.it/info/giangaetano_patane_self_made_man/"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Chiostro del Bramante</span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> <span lang="EN-GB">in Rome. I was particularly
moved by a sense of anguish or helplessness emanating from his works of art, in
fact I felt this particular exhibition was more mature, something the artist
has been nurturing over time and was now ready to reveal.. In the following
short interview I asked him to tell us a little about his alchemic quest:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">F.Ruspoli: what are the
elements within your art?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">G.Patanè: my artistic
search has two elements; one is a particular type of </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">aestheticism</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> and the second element is Time<o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">F.R.: could you expand on
that ?<o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">G.P.: The first is the uncodifiable
</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">aestheticism, undefinable and
capable of transforming an object into “attractive substance”, the second is a
representation of time, sometimes it can take the shape of a face dissolving in
the air or it can take the shape of a tree but it’s always there: that eternal
conflict between man and the incredible pain of the escaping present. My artistic
search stands sustained by these two legs.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The exhibition is programmed to
close on the 18<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup> of September so if you are in Rome I strongly
recommend you take a moment to see it. The Chiostro del Bramante is by Bar della Pace at Via Arco
della Pace, 5 it is open every day from 10am to 8pm.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-3194231420148069592013-03-16T19:03:00.001+00:002013-03-16T19:09:26.515+00:00Shakespeare on Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have written about time in poetry last year in my “<a href="http://timetriangle.blogspot.it/2012/05/time-in-poetry-haiku.html">Time in Poetry – Haiku</a>”, but
after re-watching<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Ran</i> by Kurosawa and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Titus</i> by Taymor (both films are
pretty wild interpretations of Shakespearian plays) I came across this verse
from Macbeth regarding time:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To-morrow,
and to-morrow, and to-morrow,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creeps
in this petty pace from day to day,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the
last syllable of recorded time;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And all
our yesterdays have lighted fools</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The way
to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then
is heard no more. It is a tale</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Told by
an idiot, full of sound and fury,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Signifying
nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I liked
the idea of time being a succession of meaningless syllables uttered by a
passing shadow and was intrigued to discover more of Shakespeare’s vision of
time which always seem so linked to fate and the inevitability of death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I found
the following:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">...Things
without all remedy</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Should
be without regard: what’s done, is done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With these
words Lady Macbeth tries to reassure her husband and later herself by muttering
“What’s done cannot be undone”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Othello
Shakespeare writes of “the vale of years” not to be confused with the vale of
tears though the echo is suggestive. In the 15<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century the Vale
came to be a metaphor for the span of life between the peaks of birth and death
in which we live our careworn lives. "Vale of trouble and woe,"
"vale of weeping," "vale of misery," and "vale of
tears" illustrate typical uses of the word before Shakespeare. Othello's
phrase, however, seems intended in a more neutral sense; the "vale of
years" is the broad, flat stretch of middle age beyond the slope of youth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’d like
to conclude with 2 sonnets; XII and LX (like the hours and minutes...)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SONNET
XII</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I do count the clock that tells the time,<br />
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;<br />
When I behold the violet past prime,<br />
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white; <br />
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,<br />
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,<br />
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,<br />
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,<br />
Then of thy beauty do I question make,<br />
That thou among the wastes of time must go,<br />
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake<br />
And die as fast as they see others grow;<br />
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence<br />
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SONNET
LX</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm -7.15pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">So do our minutes hasten to their end;</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Each changing place with that which
goes before,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">In sequent toil all forwards do
contend.</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Nativity, once in the main of light,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Crawls to maturity, wherewith being
crown'd,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory
fight,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And Time that gave doth now his gift
confound.</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Time doth transfix the flourish set on
youth</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And delves the parallels in beauty's
brow,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Feeds on the rarities of nature's
truth,</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And nothing stands but for his scythe
to mow:</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And yet to times in hope, my verse
shall stand</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Praising thy worth, despite his cruel
hand.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-69513636916934625262013-03-13T03:33:00.000+00:002013-03-13T03:36:47.596+00:00Different visions of time<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is an
incredible variety of ways people perceive the flow of time. Linear time for
example is pretty straight forward (no pun intended), it can be seen as a straight
line in which time flows forward, but many questions arise with this model; why
can we only perceive the present? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is it
possible to jump to a different part of this line ? can time flow backwards on
this line ?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We often
assume the past is behind us and the future lies ahead but recent studies have
found that not everyone perceives time in this way. The Aymara people in the Andes
for example point in front of them to indicate the past and wave behind to
indicate the future. Probably because the past was seen but the future is
unseen. The Pormpuaaw people in Australia perceive a timeline running east (past)
to west (future) so where they point depends on where they are facing. In China
it not uncommon to represent time on a vertical axis with the past above and
the future below and for the Yupno people of Papua new Guinea Time flows uphill
and is not even linear. The past is downhill towards the mouth of the river and
their timeline is anchored in the kinked topographic properties of the river.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fact the representation of the timeline as a
straight line with the years along its axis is quite recent one. Its use only
became diffuse in the mid 18<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century. So though culture certainly
plays an important role in our perception of time I think there is an evolution
in the way we perceive time. And this evolution is leading us to a better understanding
of what time really is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-88378491712361112252012-11-06T19:36:00.000+00:002012-11-12T15:36:01.814+00:00Time in Comics - Lucca Comics 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_gnb8ReNiYVdcCUXI6fniE67unqKzCujZjywpHJd57kspSZd0zhuvdhMUSOTqGuzv3WCr4fTowN8Gr6tzVib8am4CmvF8ucTnqFargziasFga5IkFNKD7VfKXwrYw1gQLWBA8pjjEeE/s1600/abc+ausonia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_gnb8ReNiYVdcCUXI6fniE67unqKzCujZjywpHJd57kspSZd0zhuvdhMUSOTqGuzv3WCr4fTowN8Gr6tzVib8am4CmvF8ucTnqFargziasFga5IkFNKD7VfKXwrYw1gQLWBA8pjjEeE/s200/abc+ausonia.jpg" width="140" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9W1vw7DmscSuQrjJ5Mpw_8_H4CtFL3kNKl-Wj7ra7YGnvGm-2iKG84rSEX5FUGfcBdvB5eMBLyQr-Z41mHtDwicIhV7B7dxFYfeq9KPqxaRrMbLbesdVYeoaywYs73ljVlu3TrGJf2_0/s1600/end-tome-1-elizabeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9W1vw7DmscSuQrjJ5Mpw_8_H4CtFL3kNKl-Wj7ra7YGnvGm-2iKG84rSEX5FUGfcBdvB5eMBLyQr-Z41mHtDwicIhV7B7dxFYfeq9KPqxaRrMbLbesdVYeoaywYs73ljVlu3TrGJf2_0/s200/end-tome-1-elizabeth.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
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I j<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: IT;">ust returned from a Week End in Lucca where I
attended the 2012 edition of Lucca Comics. I am fascinated by the sheer amount
of comics you can find but mostly it’s the beautiful setting of the city itself
filled with real people dressed as fantasy characters (Cosplay). This year the
new comics that grabbed my attention were END by Barbara Canepa and Anna Merli
and ABC by Ausonia. Though the stories are different they both contain the
possibility of communicating between the world of the living and that of the
dead, and since the main character in both is a young girl I immediately
thought of Jostein Gaarder’s Through a glass, Darkly. In all these stories
there is an attempt to explain the separation of the material and spiritual
worlds and a inquiry into death and religion. These stories are very different
to the ones dealing with time travel I read as a teenager such as Nathan Never,
and Watchmen in which Dr. Manhattan has incredible powers including
precognition (explained by Tachyons) but they are all very thought provoking
and beautiful.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-41574343603534045862012-10-17T18:40:00.001+01:002012-10-17T18:40:56.854+01:00Time Travel and Warp Drives by Everett and Roman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ4Yiux_DinPNp8yO6EmX5BCiYHgucFBfm4yQn9-PocjePJ3K_iMzBLbyRZmct-W_gZrjgI7BULvxw67lfcoAtWtHRErOEX0zcRzaKQm9s2JDyBGcM-JBcuJa1ymQveIC6BxxVFIZwwg/s1600/Time+Travel+and+Warp+Drives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ4Yiux_DinPNp8yO6EmX5BCiYHgucFBfm4yQn9-PocjePJ3K_iMzBLbyRZmct-W_gZrjgI7BULvxw67lfcoAtWtHRErOEX0zcRzaKQm9s2JDyBGcM-JBcuJa1ymQveIC6BxxVFIZwwg/s200/Time+Travel+and+Warp+Drives.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scientists
are very interested in time and the possibilities of time travel but are very
cautious with how they approach the matter. A recent example was the news in
2011 that Neutrinos could travel faster than light. The Opera group at the Gran
Sasso shocked the world with their announcement that contradicted Einstein’s
light-speed limit. In March of 2012 when two flaws were found in their
calculations, the leader of the science team Antonio Ereditato was made to
resign.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
internet and the media are full of pseudo science and sensationalists news,
videos discussing machines and alien technologies making it hard to discern
between what is scientific and what are imaginative personal theories.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this
book the authors explain that they only interested in measures of time that do
not depend on the variations and vagaries of human perceptions. The emphasis is
on what modern astronomy and especially modern physics have learned about the
subject of time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
vastness of space is bewildering, the nearest star Proxima Centauri, is about 4
light-years away. With our present technology it would take over 10,000 years
to send a probe there. On an even larger scale , the distance across our milky
way is 100,000 light-years and our nearby neighbour galaxy, Andromeda, is about
2,000,000 light-years away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is no
wonder that we should seek “shortcuts” between the stars involving travel
faster than the speed of light.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And what
about time? Why is the past different from the future? Why can we remember the
past and not the future? Is it possible that past and future are “places” that
can be visited. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
book examines the possibility of time travel and of space travel exceeding the
speed of light from the purely scientific point of view.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Science
fiction often mentions warp drives but there is one problem, superluminal
travel seems to involve a violation of the known laws of physics, in this case
the “light barrier” in Einstein’s special theory of relativity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Science fiction writers describe “what”
technological developments might occur in the future and scientists describe
“how” they might actually work. When Carl Sagan was writing “Contact”, later
made into a movie with Jodie Foster, he wanted a believable way for his
characters to travel across the galaxy through space-time shortcuts. His
discussions with his physicist friend Kip Thorne got the latter to develop
theories that today allow us to understand “how” a traversable Wormhole might
work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
curiosity and enthusiasm of scientists is why we built particle accelerators at
CERN in search of the “god particle”, experiment with entangled particles and
explore how we could build a quantum computer. The Nobel prize for physics this
year was in fact assigned to two scientists, Haroche and Wineland, who’s work
will lead to incredibly accurate optical clocks and are a first step towards
the quantum computers (super fast computers that will work with each bit having
3 states as opposed to today’s binary, 1s and 0s computers).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
book is great in telling us what scientists have achieved as far as 2012. I
found it to be a very interesting read though the conclusion is a little disappointing,
as of today scientists believe no object can travel faster than the speed of light.
In fact even the experiments on entangled particles which show that when the
spin of one particle is observed the other distant one will be observed to always
have the opposite spin, doesn’t <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>prove
superluminal travel. The measurement of one doesn’t cause what happens to the
other. When the observers get together and compare notes after the experiment
they will find a correlation every time. So no time machines or warp drives
yet!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-77059289226382336092012-10-10T21:59:00.000+01:002012-10-13T04:50:14.708+01:00Time in Painting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI-iMel7at3jQfLwo3dNYbhReR3jJfSxQsIlVTNNg_oEd3A1ERM6HFI0UU5uCe4l4WZywZKfR11LyddNS83NMjmnNzmSw0bDHMZNu802O4OdxA8pi5tLrlx3YDEtVTyGS0QJDr676AeE/s1600/Chronos+-+detail+of+Triumph+of+Divine+Providence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI-iMel7at3jQfLwo3dNYbhReR3jJfSxQsIlVTNNg_oEd3A1ERM6HFI0UU5uCe4l4WZywZKfR11LyddNS83NMjmnNzmSw0bDHMZNu802O4OdxA8pi5tLrlx3YDEtVTyGS0QJDr676AeE/s400/Chronos+-+detail+of+Triumph+of+Divine+Providence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe
artists have their very own way of perceiving time and of representing it
through their works of art. The image above is a detail from the magnificent
early baroque fresco by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) found in Palazzo
Barberini in Rome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chronos (the personification
of time) is shown devouring his children.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The
primordial deities Chronos along <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with
Ananke (personification of destiny, necessity, and fate) marked the beginning of
the cosmos and brought about the creation of the ordered universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It seems that Ananke represented a universal principle of natural order,
which controlled all fate and circumstance of mortals, and was far beyond the
reach of the younger gods whose fates she was sometimes said to control.</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Simonides (556-468 BCE) once wrote: "Even the gods don’t fight
against ananke"</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tyche on
the other hand was the goddess of luck venerated at Itanos in crete and later
by Romans as Fortuna. In medieval art she was also depicted as the wheel of
fortune or standing on the wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Norbert
Wiener in his book “cybernetics” presents Ananke as the personification of scientific
determinism, contrasted with Tyche as the personification of quantum
indeterminacy; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The chance of the
quantum theoretician is not the ethical freedom of the Augustinian, and Tyche
is as relentless a mistress as Ananke."</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paintings do not need to represent Chonos or time
to relate to the subject of time, in fact some paintings can through the use of
symbols or “simply” through a sense of aesthetics communicate to us or
enlighten us on truths that might be very difficult to express by other means.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Since the 1970’s it is a well accepted fact
that artists use the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: IT;">right hemisphere of their brain more while creating
their art. Artists are able to switch to a nonverbal, non-temporal, special,
intuitive holistic mode. This subject was explored in depth by Betty Edwards in
the late 70’s. I have experienced this briefly myself when I’m immersed in my
drawings.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: IT;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In twentieth century
art Salvador Dali (1904-1989) comes to my mind. The surrealists were well aware
of how Freud used the psychoanalytic device of free association to trace the
symbolic meaning of dream imagery to its source in the unconscious, Dali
applied the same method to his pictorial imagery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JjdDH6QHe7LlWwT1GpE1qu7cIRTAGxTRW8R7MHZK08TbiyIOob_SlH9WHJWitnHhCMJjh6k6-euIMPFs3U376OlHU3DlUOEodq96CI_oMuktPWXHu0GWFyAnspkyzFkWIedY3LYl8qo/s1600/Dali+-+The+Persistenceof+Memory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JjdDH6QHe7LlWwT1GpE1qu7cIRTAGxTRW8R7MHZK08TbiyIOob_SlH9WHJWitnHhCMJjh6k6-euIMPFs3U376OlHU3DlUOEodq96CI_oMuktPWXHu0GWFyAnspkyzFkWIedY3LYl8qo/s400/Dali+-+The+Persistenceof+Memory.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: IT;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The above painting “The Persistence of Memory” is a good example of how psychology
and spirituality come together aesthetically to represent <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Transcendental Time. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: IT;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From a paper by art critic Martin Reis:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: IT;">“</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Church thought of time as eternity, citing Thomas
Aquinas's <i>Summa theologiae</i> where he compares completeness, perfection,
and infinity, to God. The deep perspective in <i>Persistence</i> suggests time
past, with the viewer deserted and lost in infinity. Interestingly, Salvador
("Saviour") Dali's anti-clerical bias is reflected in his use of
Christian and Freudian images in the painting; and as if to emphasize the
reality of his hallucinations, his surreal iconography is placed in the
landscape of the bay at Port Lligat on the Costa Brava, his home and studio.
Although he describes the origin of the soft watches as derived from dreaming
of Camembert cheese, Marcel Jean, in his <i>History of Surrealist Painting</i>,
says they symbolize impotence: <i>montre</i> not only means "watch"
in French, but is also the imperative form of the verb <i>montrer</i>, "to
show". A sick child must show his tongue to the doctor, <i>montrer la
molle</i>, which sounds the same as <i>la montre molle</i> "soft
watch". Usually we think of these bent watches as referring to Einstein's
theory in which our world is becoming a spatio-temporal continuum; the world's
concept of time and space was certainly changing. The three open and vulnerable
watches (past, present, future?) are within orthogonals which point to the top
center of the painting (heaven?). According to Freud, menstrual periodicity
transforms the concept of time into a feminine symbol, and the fourth watch,
closed, hard and impregnable, has been diagnosed as a feminine symbol.
Certainly this watch in the foreground is a vital red, while the middle ground
watch is softened to orange and the background timepiece is a lifeless gray.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ants usually suggest
putrefaction and decay; the rigid watch is attacked by scavenger ants,
indicating the inorganic is becoming organic and vulnerable. However, since the
watch is closed and red with life, time is unattainable and the ants attack
without success, implying triumph over death and decay via procreation or
immortality. In Christian doctrine, ants signify provident man, the one who
chooses the true doctrine and rejects heresy. The fly, on the other hand, has
long been considered a bearer of pestilence and evil (Lord of the Flies, or
Beelzebub, is from <i>Ba al-z' bub</i>, lord + fly, a god of the ancient
Philistines, averter of insects). </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In Christian symbology, the fly
symbolizes evil.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The amoeba or fetal image
suggests the primordial beginnings of life, and like a lost soul in infinity,
is stranded on a barren beach with its life-giving water (holy water?) in the
far distance. This fetal image, usually interpreted as a self-portrait, appears
in several other paintings, including <i>The Great Masturbator</i>. The soft
tongue, similar to the limp watches, is a well known Freudian symbol for the
penis; Dali, in his <i>Secret Life of Salvador Dali</i>, makes public his
anxieties about sexual dysfunction. Trees, tall and erect, are male, according
to Freud; but this tree is scrawny and lifeless. The extending phallic branch,
with its post-coital watch, points to rock formations which in actuality are
the granite outcroppings above the Bay of Cullero near Dali's home.
"Geology has an oppressive melancholy," stated the artist, "this
melancholy has its course in the idea that time is working against it."
Again, the rock is a symbol of Christian steadfastness, and suggests the
antithesis of the biological objects which are subject to the laws of change
and disintegration. According to medieval Christian legend, the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil withered when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
Thus the dead tree in Giotto's <i>Lamentation</i>, della Francesca's <i>Resurrection</i>,
and Michelangelo's <i>Fall and Expulsion</i>, all refer to original sin,
otherwise known as Freud's Oedipus Complex. The cubes on the left may possibly
have some reference to Cubism, although again, they are symbols of stability in
Christian iconology. Ants, the fly, yielding watches, fetus, open horizon, all
suggest the transitoriness and impersistence of time.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Martin Reis, 1991.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: IT;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the Time Triangle I would place artists on
the Transcendental Time axis on the opposite side of SCIENCE, not because they
cannot express scientific knowledge (on the contrary) but because their
approach is so radically different. (see the next article for a decription of the triangle).</span></span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-79409565812182873612012-09-17T05:39:00.003+01:002012-09-17T17:02:46.482+01:00Explaining The Triangle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0A9UkLOnashhIeI0bYp3j22C_hOwlhOBPGMNb5haS64-b2iooO0nKLwYMTKGZ9-gWLwyE4GjtMlDOO63mr7tgYJ-OuWZviUwf44tRERAdgB73y45-sCSG69fQoq-tfjHxd0QVUOwPKc/s1600/Time+Triangle+picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0A9UkLOnashhIeI0bYp3j22C_hOwlhOBPGMNb5haS64-b2iooO0nKLwYMTKGZ9-gWLwyE4GjtMlDOO63mr7tgYJ-OuWZviUwf44tRERAdgB73y45-sCSG69fQoq-tfjHxd0QVUOwPKc/s1600/Time+Triangle+picture.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Humans must
have concerned themselves with time ever since they have become aware. A time
to hunt and a time to sleep, and dream. A time to fear and fight and a time to
love. Ancient burial sites and temples tell us we were deeply concerned with
death and the afterlife. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ancient shamans
tried to interpret symbols and dreams. I believe religion came about as a way
to explain Fear vs. Dreams or Eternity vs. Death. A superior being that
transcended time which I have labelled “GOD” at the top of my triangle. Then
came early physicists and mathematicians or astronomers who tried to
rationalize the world but with their limited knowledge would still rely heavily
on mythology. With the first philosophers myth was questioned and room was made
for argumentation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This brought on a
whole field of philosophy and later psychology that is concerned with what I labelled
“MIND”. This left scientist the freedom to explain the physical world or “SPACE”
without the constraints of religion or personal perceptions. These 3 distinct
approaches give us a very pure and abstract concept of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From these three come three secondary
understanding of time. A quest for “Universal” time,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Transcendental” time or “Empirical” time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hope is that we can converge from these
into a new and better understanding of what time really is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-2626909903360175632012-05-15T03:24:00.000+01:002012-09-17T04:51:09.362+01:00Time in poetry - Haiku<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have been fascinated with haiku for many years. This form of Japanese poetry appeals to my senses. The structure is quite strict; each poem is made of 17 syllables or onji (5-7-5) and tries to depict an impression or an emotion.<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In the fields of snow<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aoshi aoshi</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">greenest is the green<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wakana wa <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">aoshi</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">of the new grass<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yuki no hara</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Konishi Raizan (1653-1716)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sometimes the emotions they communicate is a sad one like in the two examples below. Both are by Matsu Basho, the first one he wrote just as he left his village for his long tour of Japan; “wondering, sad, if I’d ever return to this cherished village of my childhood. My heart was tight, even if the transitional world is but a dream, my anguish brought me tears.”<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The spring is leaving:<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yuku haru wa</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Birds are crying and tears<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tori naki uo no</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">fill the eyes of the fish<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me wa namida<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i> - </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Matsu Basho (1644-1694)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The second poem he wrote many years later, the subject is a lock of hair from his deceased mother.<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">If I were to hold it<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">te ni toraba</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">It would melt in my tears<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kien namida zo atsuki</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Like autumn frost.<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aki no shimo<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></i>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Matsu Basho (1644-1694)</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Ah, but do they talk about time ?</span></span></span></b></div>
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Not directly, they are more about a Zen perception of nature, but we can definitely perceive two recurring themes; first a seasonal or cyclical time as opposed to a linear time. In some cases we feel an absence of time a sort of enlightened Zen moment encompassing all time. Second, a spiritual or dream dimension dealing with issues of death and eternity.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Haiku on cyclical time:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In this autumn<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kono aki wa</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Why am I so old ?<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nan de toshi yoru</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">In the clouds, a bird<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kumo no tori<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></i>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Matsu Basho (1644-1694)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Moonlight:<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shiraume no</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The white plum returns<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kereki ni modoru</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">a winter tree<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tsukiyo kana<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></i>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Yosa Buson (1715-1783)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">returning to see them<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kitemireba</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">in the evening the blossoms<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yube no sakura</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">have become fruits<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi to narinu</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Yosa Buson (1715-1783)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Haiku on perception and dreams:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Spring rain<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">harusame</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">reflected in bovine eyes<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">furu to mo shirazu</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">that do not see it<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ushi no me ni<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></i>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Konishi Raizan (1653-1716)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Unseen lark<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">furusato no</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">of my distant home village<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mienaku narite</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">I know you’re singing<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">naku hibari<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></i>- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The butterfly is a recurring theme in haiku and often is an allusion to Chuang Tzu’s dream:<br />
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You are the butterfly <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Kimi ya cho</span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></i>and I the dreaming heart<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">ware ya Sooji ga</span></span></i><br />
of [Chuang Tzu] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">yumegokoro </span></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">- </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Matsu Basho (1644-1694)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I awaked, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.” <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">– </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chuang Tzu (4<sup>th</sup> Century BCE)</span><br />
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Chuang Tzu also wrote the following around the 4th Century BCE:</div>
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By and by comes the great awakening, and then we may find out that this life is really an extended dream. Fools think they are awake now, and flatter themselves they know if they are really princes or peasants. Confucius and you are both dreams; and I who say you are dreams—I am but a dream myself. This is a paradox. Tomorrow a wise man may come forward to explain it; but that tomorrow will not be until ten thousand generations have gone by.<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-59538951316802510912012-04-28T23:00:00.000+01:002012-09-17T05:57:05.453+01:00What do I mean by "Time and Religion".<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HEIj5ezgtM8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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a man decribes his search for "time" on youtube</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What is Time ?, How do we perceive time ?, is our perception of time changing, evolving ?</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As Dan Falk put it "Time surrounds us. It defines our experience of the world, it echoes through our every working hour. Time is the very foundation of our conscious experience. Yet as familiar as it is, time is also deeply mysterious. We cannot see, hear, smell, taste or touch it. Yet we do <em>feel</em> it - or at least we <em>think</em> we feel it. No wonder poets, writers, philosophers, and scientists have grappled with time for centuries.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Every early religion around the world developed in order to grasp the concept of time. From the early days of Shamanism and burial rituals during the Natufian culture that flourished between 15,000 and 11,600 BCE through Neolithic burials, 'homo-religious' as Karen Armstrong calls our ancestors, has tried to deal with the meaning of time, life after death, and eternity.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Our ancestors must have had a need to track time and seasons. Night must have been quite scary back in the days and harsh winter or summers must have had a determining role in our survival. In fact I believe FEAR and DREAMS were the two factors that led mankind to a spiritual awakening. On the one side fear of night, harsh nature and death, and on the other, dreams of fair weather and food in abundance or dreams of a deceased parent that might have been so vivid as to make us truly believe they still lived in another dimension or that we could somehow communicate with them. Most early tombs functioned as some sort of giant clock/calendar. A great example is the "passage tomb" of Newgrange in Ireland dating back to 3,100 BCE, making it five centuries older that the great pyramids of Giza. The tomb is richly decorated with triple spirals and other geometric shapes. The tomb spans 25 meters in length ending in 3 small perfectly preserved and dry alcoves giving it an elongated cruciform design. One of the most intriguing feature though is that once a year, on the morning of the winter solstice, sunlight reaches into the passage into the deepest burial chamber.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Many of the symbols of ancient religions are inspired on the sun, the moon, the seasons and the cycles of the stars. It is the sense of sacred that our ancestors had to try to explain time, death and eternity and that evolved around the world in various forms. If we want to fully understand time we need to have a deep understanding of religion and its evolution throughout time.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The above video resumes the concept quite well. It is unfortunate that the man speaking has beliefs that diverge hugely from mine; he speaks of ill credited scientists, believes in conspiracy theories and in other interviews talks of machines that don’t really exist. But in the pursuit of truth I will not be censoring anyone's ideas especially on a subject like "time".</span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-41153202536136191842012-04-22T19:33:00.000+01:002012-09-17T04:50:26.482+01:00Perceivers and Receivers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm9sIeppBZEcfphAXGV_3TdMRTw3yEOpwXnp2AhwQ9NK5Gzm48lyYKQd4FBnkTLY6HfuxlTv-ehPNwZEMiVa7M_6OpHVDZ6WuXklGBYozX54Ep-NpfhDaKyd3snfDHp1GfGA2Tg9pkmsm1/s1600/1Q84.jpg" /></div><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just spent the last 2 weeks reading 1Q84 (Books 1 and 2) only to discover there is a third concluding book. I found the book disturbing and very Japanese (if you'll allow me the generalization, which usually comprises glorification of western actors and films, a fascination with suicide and an overall complicated plot based on traditional Japanese myths that make it difficult for most westerners to comprehend).<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Does the book talk about Time ?<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Only indirectly, but it does explore the concept of two separate universes in which though one is not free to travel to and fro, one definitely affects the other. (SPOILER) Aomame, has an encounter with Tengo at <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the age of 10 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>then at the age of 30 travels to the second universe, saves Tengo’s life, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>commits suicide and is reborn in Tengo’s dying father’s bed as a 10 year old Aomame. All of this through a series of significant coincidences or prophecies that only a few elected people can interpret (Perceivers and Receivers). There is a mention to the fact that, in the past, Receivers were kings and rulers and that Perceivers were priests and the so called Little People were called with different names (spirits or gods?) And that to keep the balance of power, any excess of power on either side, would always create a counterbalancing force within society.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I hope that the third book will enlighten me a little more on Murakami’s vision and give some insights and ideas on Time. I will post something after reading it.<o:p></o:p></span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-66975948663537682002012-04-18T20:30:00.000+01:002013-01-04T19:55:25.891+00:00Time in music<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIQknNhk2519_aLX9sfPsbrIOrRZI_-D_MVrNdZAchaR3zkwZC2T3ed3Hn8P6vCm0QSpY220RuoTZ4yyEjQqng9T8eTqrOUFLpZUslE0Bmw8HMszRfUCjgZw7AgY-BrZwNLgt-naGttzbZ/s1600/Time+-+Pink+Floyd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIQknNhk2519_aLX9sfPsbrIOrRZI_-D_MVrNdZAchaR3zkwZC2T3ed3Hn8P6vCm0QSpY220RuoTZ4yyEjQqng9T8eTqrOUFLpZUslE0Bmw8HMszRfUCjgZw7AgY-BrZwNLgt-naGttzbZ/s1600/Time+-+Pink+Floyd.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The subject of time often comes up in songs either in the lyrics or in a clever use instruments that suggest the passage of time, or often in both. Below I’ve listed 3 examples from around Europe that are vivid in my mind. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What interests me particularly in certain songs is their ability to change our perception of time. We often hear our music as a background sound while we are doing something else but I often listen to music on my stereo or on large headphone, close my eyes and do nothing else. If I like the song I can immerse myself fully in the music and time can slow down or even stop. This sensation could be due to a switch from left hemisphere to right hemisphere and/or dopamine and adrenaline levels being altered and changing my perception of time.<o:p></o:p></span> <br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Taking it one step further I would like to speculate that certain sounds or harmonies can actually stimulate our pineal gland to produce Melatonin and possibly DMT.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
Last night, after I practiced singing overtones for an hour, I went to sleep and dreamt I was levitating. The feeling I had was much more vivid than a dream about flying. I was very conscious in this dream. In fact I was very happy to see that I could really fluctuate above ground like I had dreamt so many times in the past. When I woke up it took me a few minutes to realize it was all a dream. <br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I will write a post on the pineal gland and it’s possible link to astral travelling in the coming month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><br />
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Time by Pink Floyd<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /><br />Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain<br /> You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today<br /> And then one day you find ten years have got behind you<br /> No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun<br /> <br /> And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking<br /> And racing around to come up behind you again<br /> The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older<br /> Shorter of breath and one day closer to death<br /> <br /> Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time<br /> Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines<br /> Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way<br /> The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Tempo<br /> Comunque vadano le cose lui passa<br /> E se ne frega se qualcuno è in ritardo<br /> Puoi chiamarlo bastardo ma intanto è già andato<br /> E fino adesso niente lo ho mai fermato<br /> E tuttalpiù forse lo hai misurato<br /> Con i tuoi orologi di ogni marca e modello<br /> Ma tanto il tempo resta sempre lui quello<br /> L'unica cosa che ci è data di fare<br /> É avere il tempo da poter organizzare<br /> <br />Tempo<br /> Centonove battute al minuto<br /> Quando finisce forse ti sarà piaciuto<br /> La chiave per capire questo genere di suono<br /> Che a molte orecchie può sembrare frastuono<br /> E liberare la tua parte migliore<br /> Chiudere gli occhi e aprire bene il cuore <br /><br />Tempo<br /> Quando stai bene lui va via come un lampo<br /> Quando t'annoi un attimo sembra eterno<br /> E il paradiso può diventare inferno<br /> Tempo ti frego e con il ritmo ti catturo<br /> E ti chiudo in una ritmica di aspetto molto duro<br /> E t'organizzo in battute in quattro quarti<br /> Allora non avrai tempo di liberarti<br /> E con le gambe muovo anche il cervello<br /> E allora il tempo sarà mio fratello<br /> E come lui mi darà sempre una mano</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">La dernière minute – Carla Bruni (the song actually lasts one minute)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Quand j'aurai tout compris, tout vécu d'ici-bas,<br /> Quand je serai si vieille, que je ne voudrai plus de moi, <br /> Quand la peau de ma vie sera creusée de routes, <br /> Et de traces et de peines, et de rires et de doutes, <br /> Alors je demanderai juste encore une minute... <br /> <br /> Quand il n'y aura plus rien qui chavire et qui blesse, <br /> Et quand même les chagrins auront l'air d'une caresse, <br /> Quand je verrai ma mort juste au pied de mon lit, <br /> Que je la verrai sourire de ma si petite vie, <br /> Je lui dirai "écoute ! Laisse-moi juste une minute..."<br /><br />Juste encore minute, juste encore minute, <br /> Pour me faire une beauté ou pour une cigarette, <br /> Juste encore minute, juste encore minute, <br /> Pour un dernier frisson, ou pour un dernier geste, <br /> Juste encore minute, juste encore minute, <br /> Pour ranger les souvenirs avant le grand hiver, <br /> Juste encore une minute... sans motif et sans but. <br /> <br /> Puisque ma vie n'est rien, alors je la veux toute. <br /> Tout entière, tout à fait et dans toutes ses déroutes, <br /> Puisque ma vie n'est rien, alors j'en redemande, <br /> Je veux qu'on m'en rajoute, <br /> Soixante petites secondes pour ma dernière minute. <br /> <br /> Tic tac tic tac tic tac </span><br />
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Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-32134275040739565202011-12-23T03:49:00.000+00:002012-09-17T04:50:26.480+01:00PRECOGNITION – the problem of free will<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I must state before I start this particular story that I am quite a sceptic at heart, mathematically and scientifically inclined.</span><br /><br />At the age of 9 I had a feeling that I gained some superpowers. I could make kids in my class trip up at a distance and things of that sort. I told my closest friends in class and decided I was going to prove to them my immense powers by creating an earthquake. I gave them a specific day; “in 3 days time”... then for three days before I went to bed I visualised a quake. On the 4th day I showed up at school thinking I had failed but instead I found all my friends freaked out, one of them holding a newspaper. The previous day one of the largest quakes of the century had struck a few hundred miles from us. On the front page they wrote of victims in the hundreds. I can still remember the shock and the guilt I felt. From that day I decided I would never use my powers again to hurt people even if I got very angry at someone.<br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Looking back I can certainly give the more mundane explanation; that most kids at that age think they have superpowers and most will try them out. I can imagine there are thousands of kids out there who feel they might have caused a quake, a flood or a crash. Many kids might have had a so called premonitory dream and felt responsible for what happened after. In both these cases we can see how a bad understanding of probability and selection bias might mislead us not to see the obvious; that these are COINCIDENCES. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The problem I have with that is that I had in the years that followed many cases of Precognition. Flashes of near future events (often not linked with what I was doing at the time) that would come true. I decided to read a few SCEPTIC books (Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermes, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Viaggio nel mondo del paranormale</i> by Piero Angela, etc.) but though they made sense on </span><br />most things, I wasn’t 100% convinced.<br /><br />I still get flashes of precognition and with my super sceptic analysis of statistics, probabilities, and mind selection bias, unconscious perception, etc. I can discard most of them. But there are still some that are so strong that they test even the hardest sceptic, such as “oh I’m going to be shocked to see a green Ferrari around the next corner and then seeing one and being shocked (it wasn’t a pretty sight!). Or at the casino, having a flash of getting two consecutive numbers right at a roulette, declaring it out loud to my friends next to me and proceeding to win the next 2 bets with 2 en pleins. (no, I hadn’t been 1296 times to the casino stating “I will get 2 numbers in a row” each time).<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">At this point I decided to research a little and ask about a possible parapsychological explanation (those were pre Wikipedia days, so I asked an esoteric bookshop owner in France). Of the various theories and explanations, the one I prefer is that our “soul” is made of a few subatomic particles that centre around our bodies, in the present. These are free to move a little away from our body and also (following quantum laws of physics) a little away from the present into the past or into the future. Then upon returning from, say, the future, some of the “memory” of what they perceived is passed to our consciousness. This is usually just a flash or a sensation due to the limited number of particles carrying the information. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The “soul” could be made of Tachyons or psitrons, time travelling particles with imaginary mass. Or more simply our awareness could be fundamentally trans-temporal as discussed by Dunne (1927) and Saltmarsh (1938) and while we are only ever consciously aware of some </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">limited temporal range</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, unconsciously a much wider temporal range of information is sampled and used for the benefit of the organism.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Besides the fact Tachyons have never been observed, violation of causality and temporal paradoxes all seem to point to their non existence. But even supposing that somehow precognition was possible, what fascinates me is the concept of free will.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Is what I see in the future going to happen no matter what I do ? If so free will is only an illusion created by our limited conscious awareness that only allows us to see one frame at a time instead of the whole film stock. More on free will in a future post.</span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-4098252735863314842011-09-06T03:13:00.000+01:002013-01-04T20:03:13.878+00:00Distortions in time perception.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_gaMj-_MJCV1tGYkKDr_c0JAzkb9vX7IMf8U5nAhuehf7jpAtquf6J-Sv-8ohSjIfksBCoYGY9oAzdlt08KFvtHND4NVcE6aLQ_x-JA3wlylglhB5eUdnKxtvPB76oPoJxJ1iHhc55Yf/s1600/thoughts+drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_gaMj-_MJCV1tGYkKDr_c0JAzkb9vX7IMf8U5nAhuehf7jpAtquf6J-Sv-8ohSjIfksBCoYGY9oAzdlt08KFvtHND4NVcE6aLQ_x-JA3wlylglhB5eUdnKxtvPB76oPoJxJ1iHhc55Yf/s400/thoughts+drawing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The above drawing is derived from the one below. Whereas I devised the one above, the one below came to me as a clear vision. The line of ‘consciousness of here and now’ is my way of seeing the Time line or at least our perception of Time. In other words when we are inside that line we are conscious of the passing of time. Then as we start thinking of something we move down into the realm of thoughts, though some of our consciousness remains in the ‘here and now’, so our body doesn’t lose track of where we are. When we are immersed in the 'thoughs' area we can perceive time differently. We can also become "lost in thought", whereby we are so absorbed in our thought that when we come back we feel we’ve lost track of time (I’ve labelled this ‘gap’).<br />
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I was wondering whether our thoughts could have multiple branches (multitask), which would have conflicted with my drawing below but science seems to point in the direction of one thought at a time.<br />
Neuroscientist Earl Miller of MIT states “When people say they can multitask, they're deluding themselves What we do is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed.”<br />
Neuroscientist Daniel Weissman at the university of Michigan came to the same conclusion. By using MRI to scan brains of subjects that were assigned 2 different tasks. The subject would be shown two numbers of a certain colour. If the digits are one colour, say red, he would decide which digit was numerically larger. If the digits are a different colour, say green, the subject decides which digit is printed in a larger font. The brain was seen to pause each time the colour was changed. In my picture this would be the equivalent of coming back to the conscious time line to round up all the information it had about the other task and then branch off to give the answer. The part of the brain that acts as a conductor and decides how much flow goes out (as thought) and how much stays in the ‘conscious here and now’ is called the ‘executive system’ and lives in the brain's frontal lobes, basically above our eyes. The executive system also helps us achieve a goal by ignoring distractions.<br />
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Many years ago while, travelling in Amsterdam, I stopped in a coffee shop and had a smoke. Whilst under the influence, my thoughts would start normally but be extremely intense and focused. I would start to focus all my conscience on it. I felt I was accelerating down a spiral and as I approached the centre everything regarding that thought was becoming clear to me. So much so, that the feeling of being overwhelmed by this total understanding would make me jump back to the ‘here and now’ but with quite a large ‘gap’ of time. A few seconds later I would think of something else and spiral down the next thought before again jumping back to the ‘here and now’ line. While all this was happening I had a very clear visual image of what was happening. The picture below is how I saw it:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my vision in 2001</td></tr>
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Many years after drawing my spirals I found a text by Charles Baudelaire written in 1860 describing the effects of hachich on time perception. He writes of a stream of thought hurling you down a living vortex for what seems like eternity followerd by an instant of lucidity in you realise only one minute has passed. Then the next thought current drags you into your next vortex;<br />
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"Un autre courant d'idées vous emporte ; il vous emportera pendant une minute dans son tourbillon vivant, et cette minute sera encore une éternité. Les proportions du temps et de l'être sont dérangées par la multitude innombrable et par l'intensité des sensations et des idées. On vit plusieurs vies d'homme en l'espace d'une heure". - Charles Baudelaire - Le poème du haschischFrancesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-14909069213685490482011-07-01T23:39:00.000+01:002012-09-17T04:50:26.473+01:00Choices<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBLVBGYmtLukfWPM4hpflPhtZB9kOF6h_GFgimWmHrffgJzNVzcbC7xNxGEgcb6pxJZ_9Mq6_WsxL7YKxBeLPAmZ1yOHh3DcSY8MYvXsxNQdDXHOgEDU9AqOWo0VRoNlhKVGpS5T8YgQpz/s1600/thought+of+the+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBLVBGYmtLukfWPM4hpflPhtZB9kOF6h_GFgimWmHrffgJzNVzcbC7xNxGEgcb6pxJZ_9Mq6_WsxL7YKxBeLPAmZ1yOHh3DcSY8MYvXsxNQdDXHOgEDU9AqOWo0VRoNlhKVGpS5T8YgQpz/s1600/thought+of+the+day.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At every fork in life I regret not being able to follow both paths.</span></div>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-59172594078888108532010-11-14T21:55:00.000+00:002012-09-17T04:50:26.484+01:00The Case for God by Karen Armstrong<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="rg_hi" data-height="277" data-width="182" height="277" id="rg_hi" sb_id="ms__id3327" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSyAXudpwuhu2amFtUiuOL28woLTytMyiNykyJ3DB_-I-yCHBSq" style="height: 277px; width: 182px;" width="182" /></div><div align="left" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I spent quite a while in the bookshop last month trying to find a book that could counter <em>The God Delusion</em> by Richard Dawkins. I respect Dawkins for his insight in 1976 on genetic evolution and the concept of memes but his recent persuit of atheism I find somewhat less appealing. I had read a little book called The Dawkins Delusion as a possible counter but was extremely disappointed by it. </span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally I stumbled upon this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case for God</i> and the first page has Karen’s biography. Now there was someone who really seemed to know her subject. The book turned out to be much more than an answer to Dawkins and was one of my best reads of 2010. </span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right from the start we plunge into the history of religion, shamanism and what might have been similar to Heidegger’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>philosophy of ‘Being’. From the documents of later Neolithic and pastoral societies, we know, Karen writes, that Being rather than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i>Being was revered as the ultimate sacred power.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In chapter 3 she writes about, among other Greek <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>philosophers, Parmenides who became convinced that to attain the truth, human reason must rise above common sense and unverified opinion. The idea of change, for example, was pure convention. The Milesians had been wrong to imagine the world had developed gradually. Reality consisted of a unified, single, complete and eternal being. It might appear that creatures came into being and passed away, but true reality was unaffected by time.</span></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book then continues through two thousand years of evolution of philosophy, wars and religion until the present day.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Just as the feats of a dancer or an athlete are impossible for an untrained body and seem superhuman to most of us, these people all developed a spiritual capacity that took them beyond the norm and revealed to their followers the untapped ‘divine’ or ‘enlightened’ potential that exists in any man or woman”.</span></span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>¡Olé!</strong></span></span><br /><br /></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Karen Armstrong is one of the world's leading commentators on religious affairs. She spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun, but left her teaching order in 1969 to read English at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1982, she became a full time writer and broadcaster. She is a best-selling author of over 16 books. An accomplished writer and passionate campaigner for religious liberty, Armstrong has addressed members of the United States Congress and the Senate and has participated in the World Economic Forum. In 2005 she was appointed by Kofi Annan to take part in the United Nations initiative ‘The Alliance of Civilizations’. In 2008 she was awarded the Frankiln J. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal for her work on religious liberty.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-87314765862537068762007-05-05T17:45:00.000+01:002012-09-17T04:50:26.491+01:00A Gothic Story on time illusion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokJZPqa87DTohRBgLwz4SiK0m-3wztHNv_lbCaKmN-kz5wM8I9kCxeEa2mMMU1zUGoL17nLM1y-2qgO7vcaHNayrAXAlTPYC1J4Otu9colJGBV3ED77M6PuoiaiFzC_MTa7IjH3QteyNH/s1600/Don+Juan+Manuel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokJZPqa87DTohRBgLwz4SiK0m-3wztHNv_lbCaKmN-kz5wM8I9kCxeEa2mMMU1zUGoL17nLM1y-2qgO7vcaHNayrAXAlTPYC1J4Otu9colJGBV3ED77M6PuoiaiFzC_MTa7IjH3QteyNH/s200/Don+Juan+Manuel.jpg" width="137" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Don Juan Manuel (1285 - 1348)</span></div><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just read a short story by Don Juan Manuel entitled <em>El Brujo Postergado.</em> It is a fascinating story of an ambitious dean of Santiago who wanted to learn the art of magic to progress in his ecclesiastical career. He hears Don Illan of Toledo was unsurpassed in the art of Necromancy and promptly travels to Toledo to learn it.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Does it talk about time ?<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Yes, in fact I see this story as one of the earliest example of the Sci-fi genre. It talks of magic as a science and of time travel and was written in the early 14th Century.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">For those who are interested the story goes more or less as follows:</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The day the dean arrived at Don Illan's house he is received with kindness, and was asked to give the reason of his visit only after sitting for a nice lunch. After the lunch the dean asked to learn the science of magic. Don Illan said he could guess in the dean a man of good position and good future and that he feared he'd forget him one day. The dean promised him that his favours would never be forgotten and that he would always be at his service.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That matter settled, Don Illan explained that the magical arts could be learned in a secluded place, taking him by the hand he lead the dean to an adjoining room on the floor of which was a large iron ring. </span>He told his maid to prepare some partridges for dinner but not to start roasting them before he'd give the order. They raised the ring and went down a</span> well carved stone staircase, so deep it felt they were below the bed of river Tagus. They reached a large cell with a library and just as they started reviewing the books, two men entered the room with a letter from the dean’s uncle the Bishop of Santiago, which informed him that he was very ill and wished to see him.</span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The dean was upset about his uncle’s health but mostly for having to interrupt his studies and therefore opted to send an apology letter to the Bishop. Three days later some men came in mourning announcing the death of the Bishop. They told the dean they were in the process of electing a successor and that they hoped, by the grace of God, it would be him. They also told him the election could very well take place in his absence.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Ten days later came two well dressed squires who threw themselves at his feet, kissed his hand and greeted him Bishop. Don Illan thanked the lord for such good news delivered to his house and promptly asked the Bishop for the vacant seat of dean for his son, but the Bishop informed him that he had reserved that seat for his own brother but asked him to travel with him to Santiago. Upon their arrival they were greeted with honours. Six months later the Bishop received a messenger from the Pope offering him the post of Archbishop of Toulouse, leaving him the choice of a successor. Don Illan reminded him of his ancient promise and asked for his son to succeed him but the Archbishop said he had reserved it for his uncle, brother of his father, but asked him to leave with him to Toulouse. Don Illan had to agree.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Upon their arrival they were greeted with honours and masses. Two years later, messengers from the Pope offered him the Cardinal’s hat, leaving him the choice for a successor. Don Illan reminded him of his ancient promise but the Cardinal informed him the post of Archbishop was reserved for his own uncle, brother of his mother, but decided to take him to Rome. Don Illan had to agree.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Upon their arrival they were greeted with honours, masses and processions. Four years later the Pope died and the Cardinal was elected to the papacy. When don Illan heard this he kissed the feet of His Holiness and reminded him of his ancient promise asking the Cardinal’s hat for his son. The Pope threatened to imprison him, for he knew well that he was a sorcerer and that in Toledo he practiced magic arts. The poor Don Illan said he would return to Spain and asked the Pope for some food for the return journey but the Pope offered him none. At this point Don Illan spoke, in a voice without trembling:</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“ Well, I’ll have to eat the partridges I ordered for tonight”. The maid appeared and don Illan told her she could go ahead and roast them now. Upon these words the Pope found himself in the underground cell , simple dean of Santiago, so ashamed of his ingratitude he could not even apologise. Don Illan told him the lesson was over, denied him his share of the partridges and accompanied him outside where he wished him a happy journey and dismissed him with much courtesy.</span><br /><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Don Juan Manuel (c.1330) <o:p></o:p></span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-64444561431197528141999-03-22T19:15:00.000+00:002012-10-13T03:26:14.877+01:00The Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you have read <a href="http://timetriangle.blogspot.it/1998/12/"><em>Flatland</em></a> and were lef<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">t wondering about its implications regarding higher dimensions this book is a absolute must read. The book then goes much further than simply explaining the 4th spatial dimension and explores the possibilities of higher universes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Does it talk about time ?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Extensively, in fact the third part, chapters 9, 10 and 11 all talk about time.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Rucker seems to favour the eternalist model and spends quite a lot of time describing, quite convincingly, a “block universe” in which past, present and future are all equally “real”.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">St. Augustine wrote that God is outside of time and that Time exists only within the created universe. On this view, God would perceive something like a block universe, while we would be limited to seeing it frame by frame in the present.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He also writes of time cones, circular time and in chapter 10 analyses the implications of time travel.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the final chapter "what is reality?" he imagines getting rid of all preconception and building from scratch. At the core he sees only 2 realities that he calls certain: “I exist and I perceive things. I could be a robot, a spirit, an eye of God, a software or who knows what, but I am sure I exist. I am sure I am the entity that is typing these words. You the reader could doubt of my existence, but you know for sure that you exist”<o:p></o:p></span><br /> <br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the perception of things it’s a little trickier, Rucker talks about the philosopher George Berkeley, and his concept of reality, </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">His concept of “spirit” is close to the concept of “conscious subject” or of “mind”, and the concept of “idea” is close to the concept of “sensation” or “state of mind” or “conscious experience”. Berkeley denied the existence of matter as a metaphysical substance, but did not deny the existence of objects such as apples or mountains. Berkeley’s claims on immaterialism has many followers today under the more common term of subjective idealism.<o:p></o:p></span><br /> <br /><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">He also mentions quantum mechanics and the implication that might have on our perception of "reality". <o:p></o:p></span><br /> <br /><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">All great food for thought.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /> </span>Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1835541744083792372.post-16936189633538825691998-12-20T17:54:00.000+00:002012-10-13T03:40:12.416+01:00Flatland - an introduction to higher dimensions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Cw7oX0uhdaUfQdwL3Ac5TxO3RMuGIwjNNNYizDguiFN_ka0SmPvLrCnwNVNtHWn0hN24cW0hPALrCmmY7S-uK5AKfdthy5E6tWb1yYYdTCF20s4Xv-2lBmj2aqbe-ttMVEOejyM6tfON/s1600/Flatland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Cw7oX0uhdaUfQdwL3Ac5TxO3RMuGIwjNNNYizDguiFN_ka0SmPvLrCnwNVNtHWn0hN24cW0hPALrCmmY7S-uK5AKfdthy5E6tWb1yYYdTCF20s4Xv-2lBmj2aqbe-ttMVEOejyM6tfON/s1600/Flatland.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This book is probably the one that got me started on this quest for the 4th dimension and subsequently, the better understanding of time. I devoured this book and I recommend it to anyone interested in higher spacial dimensions.</span><br />
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It was written <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">in 1884 as a satirical novel, a “hidden” critique of Victorian society but what fascinated mathematicians, physicists and myself is the thought provoking effect Abbott brings about in his analysis of a higher dimension.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">By describing a 2 dimensional universe he automatically puts us in the position of possessing a higher vantage point from which we can analyse that world. By the time you reach the end of the book it is only natural to imagine someone living in 4 dimensions looking down on our simple 3 dimensional world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Though flatlanders live in a 2 dimensional universe there are hints to the fact that that plain actually exists within a 3 dimensional universe, such as the thickness of the shapes that allows them to recognise each other and finally the crossing of the plain by a sphere who apparently possesses god like powers. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I have therefore started looking for hints, in the nature around us, of hyper-dimensional activity and certainly found it in tales of Religion; most of the miracles performed by the Prophets seem to go against our laws of physics but would be child play for anyone moving in 4 physical dimensions. Rudy Rucker in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://timetriangle.blogspot.it/1999/03">The Fourth Dimension</a> </i>certainly leads us to a great voyage through higher dimensional universes.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But I have also in recent years observed certain events in nature in which certain living organism move in hyper-shapes. To do this they must have a clear image in their mind of a 4 dimensional space. The only reason for them to visualise space in 4D is that we in fact live in a 4D universe but we are for now stuck on our 3D plain.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The organisms that move in 4D are of various species and are found around the world and I will describe them, and their movements, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in a separate article.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Francesco Ruspolihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08747315331779513883noreply@blogger.com0