Sunday 6 May 2012

Chris Port Blog #336. 'The Name of the Ghost...'


I’m excited today about starting work on a novel (mainly because I won’t have to rely on other people!) The Name of the Ghost is an academic detective story... at least, to begin with...

Teaser: A PhD student is writing a thesis on cult classic horror films from the 1970s. He interviews a terminally ill actor about a legendary ‘lost cut’. What starts as a search for missing film cans soon leads into something more sinister. Everyone associated with the film has died in mysterious circumstances. Someone is trying to stop him - and someone else is leaving him clues. The trail leads from the halls of academia to the corridors of power, and then to a sleepy country village...

No matter how many detective stories or horror films you think you know, it’s not what you think. It never is... :O

Here are some clues (with apologies to William Shakespeare and Umberto Eco)...

The Name of the Ghost…
© Chris Port, 6th May 2012

It’s just my name that is a memory; 
I am myself, though unmeasurable.
What’s measurable? It is not love, nor hate,
Nor joy, nor fear, nor any other dream
Emerging through a man. Oh, be some other name.
What’s in a name? That which you call a ghost
By any other name still haunts your dreams…

39 comments:

  1. Researching cloak and dagger murder methods is the most fun a writer can have with their clothes on (for bumping off fictional characters, not people who look at me in a funny way). ‘The Name of the Ghost’ takes a princely bow to ‘Theatre of Blood’ (yes, that’s a clue - and no, it won’t help you).

    Q. How many light bulbs does it take to change a politician?

    A. One, injected through the base with a tablespoonful of triacetone triperoxide (TATP).

    ‘Theatre of Blood’ is funnier (especially if you like your Shakespeare camp and bloody)…

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 1/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg73nPNSKh0

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 2/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0GlqSS3dI0&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 3/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dazk98Gjspo&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 4/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhdJ-n0DIjo&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 5/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdMX7CbyzTo&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 6/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g028xqvHyYg&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 7/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0C8MMG2ldg&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 8/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbKbg_tmDCQ&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 9/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFd2DOtSPxo&feature=relmfu

    Theatre of Blood (1973): Part 10/10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiHyc33dip4&feature=relmfu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Theatre of Blood (1973) Full Movie
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUPC7tgKVGs&feature=relmfu

      Delete
  2. Should a mystery writer reveal all the important clues to the reader BEFORE they buy the book? Absolutely. Here’s a master class in ‘How to hook an audience’… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8H3rg5GfM

    In the lengthy teaser trailer to ‘Psycho’, Hitch was at his most impishly perverse. The Master of Suspense revealed the entire plot to the audience BEFORE they saw the film. He’s like a cheerfully morbid estate agent taking you on a guided tour around a house of horrors. But until you know the twist, you don’t know what the horrors MEAN. You’re hooked into buying a ticket for the full ghost train ride. Once you DO know the twist, the teasers become VERY funny (in a macabre way, of course).

    Hitch doesn’t lie. But he doesn’t quite tell you the truth either. He takes the clues out of plot context and doesn’t tell you how IMPORTANT each one is. The most famous murder in film history is reduced to one trivial peek. “Bathroom”. Sly old bugger :)

    I first saw it when I was 16 at a residential Drama course (at a creepy public school somewhere in the deepest wilds of Buckinghamshire). We watched it late at night in some outhouse, then had to make our way back to dorms through a labyrinth maze of topiary like something out of 'The Shining'. Having people jump out of the night screaming like Bernard Herrmann's psychotic violins didn't help calm my nerves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 'The Name of the Ghost' Clue #1. The name of the protagonist is Josh Marlow. That's not his real name though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 'The Name of the Ghost' Clue #2. The name of the film is 'The Lost Glove'. A distressing morning's research underlies that one...

    Finding the name of the woman is proving to be surprisingly difficult. What's in a name? Rather a lot if you're a parent or a writer. Until the name fits, the character isn't 'real'. It would be lovely to call her Rose, but too obvious.

    If you see me staring at a woman in the high street, then walking up to her to ask her name, it's not what you think. It never is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #3.

    ‘The Lost Glove’
    © Chris Port, 18th May 2012

    Won’t you help me, little love?
    Help me find my lost kid glove?
    God is kind and sure enough,
    Angels watch us from above...

    ReplyDelete
  6. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #4. ‘The Ten Pendulums of Power’ and ‘The Ten Pendulums of Wisdom’ are encoded in one art work. The clue is not in the rules, but in the art work.

    The Ten Pendulums of Power

    1. Power is all about knowing which phone call to make.

    (“Whom?” comes after “What?”, but “Why?” always comes first).

    2. Power is physical, not digital.

    (Each phone call has its own phone line, for phones are people - to Above and Below).

    3. To make the right call, you must access the right line.

    (Each line has a jealous guard. Befriend your guards).

    6. Your only weapons are charm, reason and a way with words. Charm comes before all others.

    (Every charm has its own charms. One person’s charm is another’s curse.)

    7. NEVER fall under the spell of your own charms.

    (ALWAYS pay attention to the charms of others. Be interested, not enchanted; trust, but falsify; and choose your enemies wisely).

    8. Any authority without wisdom has no authority at all.

    Wisdom = (Ethics/Survival x Survival/Ethics) x (Power/Narrative x Narrative/Power)

    9. Power is aesthetic, not mathematical.

    10. One of these pendulums is a lie.

    The Ten Pendulums of Wisdom

    1. Everything is a lie, but some lies are less true than others.

    2. Every character has their type.

    3. Every type has their character.

    4. Wisdom is always built in the shape of a circle, with every thought facing each other.

    5. Wisdom is not in a thought, but in the connections.

    6. Every important thought has one key word. The wisdom is not in the word, but why it was chosen.

    7. Thoughts can be right, but connections wrong.

    8. Connections can be right, but thoughts wrong.

    9. The more corridors, the more intrigues. Be careful how you room thoughts, for everything adapts to its situation.

    10. One of these pendulums is a lie.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #5
    https://www.facebook.com/MartyGull/posts/366012353455546

    Andi: Unusually scrofulous.

    Me: It's loosely based on something that happened in real life. An infamous case. Very unpleasant indeed.

    Andi: Human nature? I am currently finding myself drawn to more 'inspirational' examples, not that I am unaware of humanities' Shadow'. I am concentrating upon 'light' from above rather than seeking to explore the depths. If I chance upon them so be it. Still am often intrigued and required to reflect in an enlightening process of comprehension in response to some of your posts. Thank You, Chris.

    Me: From an artistic perspective, I don't see shadows as the Abyss. Shadows are cast by light. Light without shadows would be emptiness - flat and desolate without form or change. Without shadows, there is no life. These are the shadows of Plato's Cave... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave

    Thanks for your thoughts, Andi. They suggested Clue #5!

    Morning Star
    © Chris Port, 19th May 2012

    The truth is a star
    blasting the desert
    and Lucifer comes,
    the Bringer of Light.
    May dewy cunts and
    shadows preserve us
    and predators hunt
    through the lovers’ night.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #6

    The Monarch Project
    © Chris Port, 25th January 2012

    Tired eyes gaze at foreign skies
    where I spied an orient king
    ablaze; for men are fired by lies
    and a cold wind is a-coming

    ReplyDelete
  9. Conversation thread at https://www.facebook.com/MartyGull/posts/367216876668427

    Thinking about which narrative to use for 'The Name of the Ghost':

    a) First-person (singular)
    b) First-person (multiple)
    c) Second-person
    d) Third-person
    e) Alternating

    Do people have any general likes or dislikes when it comes to points of view in novels? Specific titles would be helpful.

    AJS: I'm writing one but I think third person gives more scope to develop other characters. Alternating can work occasionally, but only rare cases.

    AC: As a totally spontaneous response, it has been many years since I read it but I remember being startled by the shifting perspectives of USA by John Dos-Pasos, especially the scene where a character sees his own 'death' reflected in a mirror!

    AC: Always grudgingly appreciated the crafted melodrama of A Man in Full and Bonfire of the Vanities where the narrator's handiwork is palpable.

    RP: Do it your way, the way you want to. Uncompromising and as concrete real and feasible or surreal as you want it to be. According to your will, it's your story, your thoughts and efforts required, so do it the best way you know how. Just write the bleeding thing. :)

    AC: In Deed!

    Me: Every writer finds their own method. The 'ten pages a morning' method works for some. It doesn't work for me.

    I have a scriptwriter's approach. I work out every scene in my head before I write a word. The actual writing is the last part of the process and (for me) the quickest and easiest. But only if I can picture the whole thing like an internal movie. Without that through-line, words either beguile me (too much description) or become a tedious quagmire (too much emphasis on style over action).

    Trying out teasers and suggestions is part of the storyboard process. Also I'm trying out some ideas for marketing, film rights and tie-ins to other projects. That's not a distraction for my brain. It actually focuses it on what the end product needs to look like.

    I just use Facebook as a writer's notebook. One of many. I don't have to use any of the ideas here if they don't fit my storyboard. But it's always useful to have them to hand :)

    AC: Sounds similar to individuation, I guess one trys to allow the 'characters' within one's own internal drama/psyche to speak with as honest and unclutterd a voice as the author/narrator allows.

    AC: Speak truly from the heart

    AC: And Act

    AC: ‎!

    RP: Please bear me in mind if there's a cameo role in the movie for an enigmatic stranger who occasionally alights from and disappears into a nearby forest with a red-haired woman of hippie looking descent with a herbs and spices hobby. No dialogue required, only mist and trees and a shopping bag for some supplies from the local supermarket before returning to the forest and our mysterious cottage nobody else has ever managed to locate.

    Me: This is easily done (so long as you don't mind being murdered).For all its taboo-breaking, horror is a surprisingly conservative genre. Any activity involving pleasure, freedom or escape is invariably punished (see necking in cars, moonlight swims, log cabins in woods, etc.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Conversation thread at https://www.facebook.com/MartyGull/posts/367691906620924

    If you would like a cameo in 'The Name of the Ghost', please briefly describe your fictional character and scenario. Loucheness is fine (so long as you don't mind being murdered). For all its taboo-breaking, horror is a surprisingly conservative genre. Any activity involving pleasure, freedom or escape is invariably punished (see necking in cars, moonlight swims, log cabins in woods, etc.)

    ZO: Hard nosed pragmatist who's really an idealist whos utopian dreams have been crushed by a life of having to deal with constant let downs, tragedy and violence.

    Me: Your avatar is likely to end up as a murder squad detective with a cirrhotic liver (see Jack Regan, Gene Hunt, etc). Table-thumping arguments with corrupt superiors; brown paper bag conversations with protagonist in seedy bars.

    ZO: As long as I don't have to shout. I don't shout, I just nod grudged agreement, go away and seethe then kill people.

    Me: Fair enough. I'll take out the table-thumping and replace it with menacingly placed coffee mugs.

    ZO: Snaps handle off mug and cuts thumb. Sucks blood from china cut as eyes glaze over.

    Me: If you don't bang tables, you don't snap handles (it's just the way it works). I can use the blood-sucking thumb though (very Freudian). In 'Life On Mars', I think Sam Tyler's came from a paper cut (very symbolic)...

    Man: Sam look at your hand.
    Sam Tyler: [He looks at his thumb which is bleeding from an accidental cut] I can't feel anything. [Life on Mars? starts playing in the background]
    Man: What?
    Sam Tyler: Excuse me. [He leaves]

    ZO: I used China cut because I've had a few from wrecking out old bathroom suites, they're horrible. The broken china is super sharp at the glaze but sandy and rough inside making for a quite specific sensation.

    Me: Hmm. Bathroom tiles aren't doing it for me. I might go with the idea of him being a secret aesthete (a sort of furtive Morse). I'll stay with the china though. Bone china (seeing as death is his profession). Perhaps he uses his grandmother's Wedgwood tea set at home to remind him of finer things. It would give him a brittle delicacy and sensitivity at odds with the fungus-filled coffee mugs of his job. Also a slight 'Norman' edge (from 'Psycho'). Yes, I like that. I may even promote him from minor 'Dual Citizen' (someone who exists between the surface world and the underworld) to 'Gatekeeper' (someone who controls access to anther level). Or possibly not. I won't know until the other characters come into focus. But some good leads there. Thanks!

    ZO: Yeah yeah, I was just giving you an idea of how a china cut feels and why it's different from other cuts. A psychotic bathroom fitter would be lack-lustre indeed.

    Me: I'll keep the bathroom fitter in mind for a murder scene. Bathrooms are always good for bloody murders.

    ZO: I like to use them.

    ZO: Marv from Sin city meets Serpico ?

    Me: Your answers have now been sent off for marking. Candidates will be notified of their results in due course.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #7

    Madeleine
    © Chris Port, 22nd May 2012

    I met her by the River Seine
    She said her name was Madeleine
    The bed was cool as summer rain
    And like a fool I loved her

    The River Seine’s a restaurant
    And Madeleine is what she wants
    But like a ghost in quiet moments
    She holds me close and shivers

    ReplyDelete
  12. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #8

    Invisibility
    © Chris Port, 23rd May 2012

    Our best scientists of the physical
    investigated, and advise us still
    - invisibility is impractical
    (except for the poor, the old and the ill).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Not an official clue...

    PROFESSOR: Don’t worry about Hevel. If people like him were in charge, we’d still live in caves.

    JOSH: But people like Hevel ARE in charge.

    PROFESSOR: I don’t live in a cave. Therefore he’s not in charge.

    JOSH: Who IS in charge then?

    PROFESSOR: Plato said we live in a cave. Well, most people do. Why don’t they just walk out?

    JOSH: Because they’re scared of sunlight?

    PROFESSOR: Precisely. Are you scared of sunlight?

    JOSH: No.

    PROFESSOR: Then get out of my office. Shoo.

    ReplyDelete
  14. See Blog #338. 'The Name of the Ghost' Style Teaser (First Draft): How To Walk Into A Pub (“You have enemies in high places…”) at http://martygull.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/chris-port-blog-338-name-of-ghost-style.html

    [This is just me playing around with narrative style and character development for a spin-off project. It’s overwritten description at the moment, but it’s always easier to cut down than pad out. Nothing much happens here. There are a few minor clues, but the killer conversation takes place after the men sit down in the booth].

    ReplyDelete
  15. © Chris Port, 25th May 2012

    The Moon Rooms turned out to be a barrister’s pub near the Old Bailey, tucked slyly away in an Elizabethan mews. The alleyway was little more than a crevice. Without Sickert’s list of shop names, Josh would have walked right past it.

    The entrance was guarded by a shabby Cerberus. A beggar sat on sentry duty while the world stepped around him. The heat and the traffic fumes were gagging.

    Josh wondered how these men could survive in their heavy trench coats. The stench brought back sordid childhood memories – risky public toilets and sweaty fish paste sandwiches. London was full of these old soldiers. How middle-class of me, he thought. The streets are cold when the sun goes down. And tramps don’t have wardrobes.

    Josh grinned at the man’s suspicious little dog. He filtered through his pocket change by touch and placed a quid in the cap. The landlocked ferryman gave him a gappy smile.

    “You’re a gentleman, thank you.”

    Josh nodded and said nothing. He didn’t feel like a gentleman. He felt like a cunt.

    He stepped off the pavement onto cobble stones. The concrete had been sticky, sucking at his shoes like a dried coke stain. But the cobbles in the shadows were deliciously cool and smooth. They were polished slippery with age. The temperature dropped, and Josh smelled the Tudors soaked into the masonry. It felt like stepping back in time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. He pushed open the saloon door. An old shop bell jangled unexpectedly, echoing off oak wall panels. Not a pub you could sneak into then. Or out of.

    Sickert was standing at the bar with his back to the door, ignoring the barman who was politely reading a book. Despite the bell, Sickert didn’t turn around. It was like walking into a room naked and being ignored. Josh noticed the mirror behind the bar. Status games. How tedious.

    The lunchtime shift was back in court and the pub was dustily quiet. Josh walked up to the bar. His shoes clattered on hollow planks over a cellar. Not a western then, he thought. Sawdust. More like a man ascending the scaffold.

    Sickert continued to ignore him and supped his real ale. It looked like ditch water.

    The barman glanced up then returned to his book. Heart of Darkness Josh noted with wry respect. Probably a student on gap year. He looked tanned and Australian.

    This wasn’t Sickert’s regular then. Josh knew that Sickert would despise barristers and Australians on principle. But he could see why Sickert had chosen it. The Moon Rooms was invisible to passers-by, and bored with the law. And it had booths.

    “You look tired” said Josh. Not much of an icebreaker, but it filled the sunny silence.

    “Fuck off” replied Sickert evenly. There was no malice in his voice. Sickert swore the way Professor Horquine frowned over his glasses – merely to kill a boring conversation.

    Sickert glanced in the barman’s direction and scratched his nose like a secret bidder at an auction. The barman dog-eared his page and slid off the stool, all in one smooth movement. Good peripheral vision, thought Josh. I’ll bet he’s got good peripheral hearing too.

    “Yuss bro” said the barman in a carefully modulated murmur. A slight nasal twang. But short slushy vowels. A Kiwi then. Close enough.

    “Another pint of this filth, and a gin and tonic for the bush lawyer here.”

    Sickert turned and smiled. “It is G and T, isn’t it?”

    “Yes”. More games. “How did you know?”

    “Trade secret.”

    Sickert turned back to the barman. “Beefeater, two cubes, one slice, lime not lemon. And Schweppes. None of that expensive shit.”

    The barman looked a bit like Tom Cruise out of Cocktail, but he poured the drinks quickly without fuss. Josh and Sickert waited silently. One of Horquine’s homilies came to mind. ‘Only small men make small talk’.

    Josh studied Sickert’s tie instead. It was plain, navy blue, silk, and uninteresting - apart from a tiny fleck of ale near the tip. And a gold masonic tie pin.

    Sickert studied Josh’s face without embarrassment. “We look like two dogs sniffing each other’s arses” he said out of the blue without any discernible humour.

    And Josh warmed to him a little more.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #9

    There’s the rule of law, then the law of rules.
    One is a bore, and the other’s for fools.

    ‘The Name of the Ghost’ Clue #10

    If the rich will not pay for their soldiers
    Then the rich may not be rich much longer.

    That’s the ‘Ten Pendulums of Power’ done. The ‘Ten Pendulums of Wisdom’ will all be film clues...

    ReplyDelete
  18. ‘The New Artistic Testament’
    Lt. Col. Seth Chappel
    15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group
    ‘Operation Sinistral’

    The Nine Artistic Statements

    1. Art represents indulgence instead of abstinence.
    2. Art represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams.
    3. Art represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit.
    4. Art represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates.
    5. Art represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
    6. Art represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for others.
    7. Art represents man as just another animal (sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all fours), who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all.
    8. Art represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
    9. Art has been the best friend Religion has ever had, as it has kept it in business all these years.

    The Eleven Artistic Rules of the Earth

    1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
    2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
    3. When in another’s home, show them respect or else do not go there.
    4. If a guest in your home annoys you, treat them cruelly and without mercy.
    5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
    6. Do not take that which does not belong to you, unless it is a burden to the other person and they cry out to be relieved.
    7. Acknowledge the power of Art if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of Art after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
    8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
    9. Do not harm young children.
    10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
    11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

    CONT/...

    ReplyDelete
  19. CONT/...

    The Nine Artistic Sins

    1. Stupidity - The top of the list for Artistic Sins, the Cardinal Sin. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that is not only acceptable but laudable. One must learn to see through the tricks and cannot afford to be stupid.

    2. Pretentiousness - Empty posturing can be most irritating and isn’t applying the cardinal rules of Lesser Art. On equal footing with stupidity for what keeps the money in circulation these days. Everyone’s made to feel like a big shot, whether they can come up with the goods or not.

    3. Solipsism - Can be very dangerous. Projecting your reactions, responses and sensibilities onto someone who is probably far less attuned than you are. It is the mistake of expecting people to give you the same consideration, courtesy and respect that you naturally give them. They won’t. Instead, one must strive to apply the dictum of “Do unto others as they do unto you.” It’s work for most of us and requires constant vigilance lest you slip into a comfortable illusion of everyone being like you. As has been said, certain utopias would be ideal in a nation of philosophers, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, from a Machiavellian standpoint) we are far from that point.

    4. Self-deceit - It’s in the “Nine Artistic Statements” but deserves to be repeated here. We must not pay homage to any of the sacred cows presented to us, including the roles we are expected to play ourselves. The only time self-deceit should be entered into is when it’s fun, and with awareness. But then, it’s not self-deceit!

    5. Herd Conformity - That’s obvious - it’s all right to conform to a person’s wishes, if it ultimately benefits you. But only fools follow along with the herd, letting an impersonal entity dictate to you. The key is to choose a master wisely instead of being enslaved by the whims of the many.

    6. Lack of Perspective - Again, this one can lead to a lot of pain. You must never lose sight of who and what you are, and what a threat you can be, by your very existence. We are making history right now, every day. Always keep the wider historical and social picture in mind. That is an important key to both Lesser and Greater Art. See the patterns and fit things together as you want the pieces to fall into place. Do not be swayed by herd constraints - know that you are working on another level entirely from the rest of the world.

    7. Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies - Be aware that this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting something new and different, when in reality it’s something that was once widely accepted but is now presented in a new package. We are expected to rave about the genius of the creator and forget the original. This makes for a disposable society.

    8. Counterproductive Pride - That first word is important. Pride is great up to the point you begin to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The rule of Art is: if it works for you, great. When it stops working for you, when you’ve painted yourself into a corner and the only way out is to say, I’m sorry, I made a mistake, I wish we could compromise somehow, then do it.

    9. Lack of Aesthetics - This is the physical application of the Balance Factor. Aesthetics is important in Lesser Art and should be cultivated. It is obvious that no one can collect any money off classical standards of beauty and form most of the time so they are discouraged in a consumer society, but an eye for beauty, for balance, is an essential tool and must be applied for greatest magical effectiveness. It’s not what’s supposed to be pleasing - it’s what is. Aesthetics is a personal thing, reflective of one’s own nature, but there are universally pleasing and harmonious configurations that should not be denied.

    ReplyDelete
  20. You know it's a conspiracy theory when everyone talks about it. You know it's a real conspiracy when no-one will talk about it.

    'Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories'
    The New York Times, 21 May 2013
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/magazine/why-rational-people-buy-into-conspiracy-theories.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

    ReplyDelete
  21. The secret world of 'psy-ops'
    BBC News, 20 June 2008
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7464430.stm

    'But early in the conflict, the US Psychological Operations Company acknowledged that they had pioneered bizarre methods of interrogation such as exposing unco-operative prisoners for extended periods of time to full-blast music from rock group Metallica or children's TV programmes like Barney the Dinosaur.'

    The Horror...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4aLA7zvv-w&list=PL5420F0CA3931745D

    "Take a look, it's in a book..."
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBRYsAfchkY

    ReplyDelete
  22. Spoilers... :)

    THE HEAVENS TELL ALL

    JOSH: Astrology I can understand. I mean it’s shit, but it fits. But what’s this… obscenity got to do with astronomy?

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Tonight, forty years ago, something unspeakable happened in this room. I use the term unspeakable with precision. Every witness - bar one - is now dead.

    JOSH: But it was filmed…

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: And unless you know something I don’t, every copy of that film has been destroyed. Do you know something I don’t?

    JOSH: I know less than when I started. So that’s it…

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Don’t be so defeatist. The heavens tell all.

    JOSH: You don’t believe in heaven.

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Don’t be obtuse.

    JOSH: Don’t be obscure.

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Touché. A young technician - his name is unimportant -

    JOSH: You?

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: I am not unimportant. A… nameless technician arranged a remote telecast - live - on an obscure narrow bandwidth.

    JOSH: Did he record it?

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: No. That would have been signing his own death warrant. And no-one else knew of its existence, let alone where to look for it.

    JOSH: So no-one picked it up…

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Correction. No-one on earth picked it up.

    JOSH: Are you talking about aliens?

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: No. I’m talking about astronomy... In deep space, twenty light years away, is a star-sized dark object. We’ve no idea what it is. But we do know that it acts as a mirror. A black mirror, which is odd… Anyway, for twenty years, those telecast signals were lost in deep space. Until they hit this black object -

    JOSH: DSRA?

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Well done. Deep Space Reflective Anomaly. And for another twenty years those telecast signals have been reflecting back towards us.

    JOSH: Like a sonar blip.

    PROFESSOR HORQUINE: Or a mirror. A mirror into the past. And tonight - in just under three hours - the past is going to arrive in this room, on that screen. And, for the first time in forty years, the unspeakable will become… spoken. I think you’ve earned the right to be here.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Add. “A black mirror, which is odd…”

    “Slave in the magic mirror, come from the farthest space, through wind and darkness I summon thee. Speak! Let me see thy face.” ~ Queen Grimhilde in “Snow White”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_-pDpLVVNc

    “You talkin’ to me?” ~ Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgcVLOe9qFM

    Out flew the web and floated wide;
    The mirror crack’d from side to side;
    “The curse is come upon me,” cried
    The Lady of Shalott.

    ~ “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards” ~ The White Queen in “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” by Lewis Carroll

    “The “black mirror” of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.” ~ Charlie Brooker: “the dark side of our gadget addiction”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/01/charlie-brooker-dark-side-gadget-addiction-black-mirror

    “… to hold as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” ~ “Hamlet” (“Speak the speech”)

    “The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.”

    “The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.”

    “All art is at once surface and symbol.
    Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
    Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
    It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
    Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.”

    ~ “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (Preface) by Oscar Wilde

    “The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing.”

    ~ “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

    “For now we see through a glass, darkly.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12

    “I’m really just using the mirror to summon something I don’t even know until I see it.” ~ Cindy Sherman

    “Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?” ~ Pablo Picasso

    “Rumi, who is one of the greatest Persian poets, said that the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.” ~ Mohsen Makhmalbaf

    “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” ~ Ernest Holmes

    “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton

    “Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

    “We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.” ~ Marshall McLuhan

    “The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.” ~ Sigmund Freud

    “Don’t stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem.” ~ Mason Cooley

    “Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.” ~ Malcolm De Chazal

    “Looking at yourself in a mirror isn’t exactly a study of life.” ~ Lauren Bacall

    “I look in the mirror and say to myself, Can it be you once played Romeo?” ~ Bela Lugosi

    “The Mirror Stage as formative in the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience.” ~ Jacques Lacan

    Mirror Stage
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_stage

    Lacan: The Mirror Stage
    http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/

    ReplyDelete
  24. Signs and Symbols
    http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/collection_pages/northern_pages/PD_32_1968/TXT_BR_SS-PD_32_1968.html

    Secret Signs and Symbols: The Ultimate A-Z Guide from Alchemy to the Zodiac
    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=an67pzmMJb4C&lpg=PA129&ots=WKPlb0uu5p&dq=mirrors%20signs%20and%20symbols&pg=PA129#v=onepage&q=mirrors%20signs%20and%20symbols&f=false

    Chinese magic mirror
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_magic_mirror

    Specular holography
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_holography

    Richard Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_and_the_Mirror_of_Nature

    ReplyDelete
  25. Technical Note on Signal Degradation

    It has been pointed out that the telecast signal would be diffused into the background static of the cosmos. This is due to the Inverse-square law whereby the strength of the signal is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.

    Put simply: twice the distance, a quarter the strength; ten times the distance, a hundredth the strength, etc. The inverse square of 40 light years is quite small…

    See Inverse-square law
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law

    One commentator has noted that trying to decipher a broadcast after 40 light years would be like someone in California trying to detect the ripple from a pebble dropped in the Pacific Ocean – off the coast of Japan.

    However, there are some ways to preserve signal integrity. Put simply:

    1. Use a phase locking unit. This controls the phase of an oscillating frequency signal by controlling a voltage control oscillation unit.

    2. Connect the phase locking/voltage control oscillation units to a mixer unit. This mixes the frequency oscillation signal and a radio frequency signal received through an antenna.

    3. Connect the mixer unit to a demodulator. This demodulates the signal output from the mixer.

    4. Connect the demodulator to a signal detection unit. Obviously, given the weakness of the diffused signal, this will need to be highly sensitive. Such sensitive equipment was probably not available 40 years ago. Whether it is available now is speculative, but not unreasonably so.

    5. Connect the signal detection unit to a comparison unit. This calculates constellation and error vectors by comparing the detected signal to a reference signal set up on transmission.

    6. Connect the comparison unit to a controller unit. This controls the phase locking unit, mixer and demodulator selectively in accordance with a comparison result. It makes the constellation and error vector of the detected signal coincide with the reference signal.

    Put another way, the ghost of a whisper of an echo can still be heard if one can uniquely isolate it from all other sounds.

    Alternatively, this could all be a smoke and mirrors MacGuffin. Or there could be a supernatural Deus Ex Machina lurking in the looking glass. Or it could be all of the above. Or none of them. Or it could be something totally unexpected, staring you in the face.

    “No matter how many detective stories or horror films you think you know, it’s not what you think. It never is...” ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. "Warm Bodies: Longing for Something That Isn’t There"
    George Elerick, 29 June 2013
    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godwithoutthesacred/2013/06/29/warm-bodies-longing-for-something-that-isnt-there/

    "Memories are identity... That in reality, we are forced to feel things about events we never experienced. We are forced to react to certain events as if we were actually there..."

    "All movies are window[s] into reality as we know it. But even a window limits our ability and knowledge of that which it shows us. Just as some of the theorists below show, windows aren’t always that helpful."

    "This “window” idea figures into the very form of cinema itself. One of my favorite film theorists, André Bazin, often compared the cinematic “shot” to a framed window that hints at a vast reality just outside of view. While other theorists saw the framed shot as something that restricts or limits what can be seen (i.e., what is inside the shot), Bazin theorized that the film image—through its suggestion of off-screen space—was about being “part of something prolonged indefinitely into the universe.” Siegfried Kracauer, another of my favorite film theorists, agreed that the film image was by nature indeterminant, ambiguous and open-ended—a fragment of reality suggesting endlessness."

    "We are left here with the possibility that movies, as escapist as they are, enforce their paradigms upon us. However, maybe they don’t [do] such a thing at all, but rather, more like mirrors, reflect back to us what we have forgotten we already know about ourselves."

    ReplyDelete
  27. My nightmares are becoming existentialist jokes…

    I woke up in terror this morning. It was 3 a.m. (the soul’s graveyard shift). Someone (someTHING) had knocked on my door. My heart froze. “Who’s there?”

    I didn’t want an answer. And there wasn’t one. Just a dreadful silence: sly, unspeakable. My imagination filled it with a lifetime of horror films.

    Then I really woke up: icy sweats, the works. My heart had no sense of timing. It was like a quick-fire comedian, dying in front of a tumbleweed audience. And then I got the joke…

    Night Terror

    Knock, knock. “Who’s there?” Dark,
    freezing silence between stars
    answers my heartbeat.

    ReplyDelete
  28. cf. “I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz...”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDQuavCa3Y

    “What do you see in the ball?”

    “Nothing.”

    “Nothing? Then I have nothing to tell you.”

    The Wonderful WiZARD of OZ
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz

    “I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz. I have lived three hundred years, and I long to die. But death is no longer possible. I am immortal. I present now my story, full of mystery and intrigue - rich in irony, and most satirical. It is set deep in a possible future, so none of these events have yet occurred, but they may. Be warned, lest you end as I. In this tale, I am a fake god by occupation - and a magician, by inclination. Merlin is my hero! I am the puppet master. I manipulate many of the characters and events you will see. But I am invented, too, for your entertainment - and amusement. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in show business too?”

    ReplyDelete
  29. April Fool :)
    http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm

    ReplyDelete
  30. "Notes on The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler"
    Marcus Pearce, Department of Computing, City University
    http://webprojects.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/marcusp/notes/koestler.pdf

    Conclusion

    According to Koestler “the principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality” (pp. 402). He argues that, while the emotional context changes, the psychological processes supported the generation of original results is ultimately the same in humour, science and art and involves the bisociation of previously unrelated matrices of thought. The importance of creative thought, and Koestler’s ultimate motivation in studying it, is eloquently described:

    “Habits . . . reduce man to the status of a conditioned automaton. The creative act, by connected previously unrelated dimensions of experience, enables him to attain a higher level of mental evolution. It is an act of liberation – the defeat of habit by originality.” (pp. 96).

    ReplyDelete
  31. Nuclear magnetic resonance
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_magnetic_resonance

    Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a magnetic field absorb and re-emit electromagnetic radiation. This energy is at a specific resonance frequency which depends on the strength of the magnetic field and the magnetic properties of the isotope of the atoms; in practical applications, the frequency is similar to VHF and UHF television broadcasts (60–1000 MHz). NMR allows the observation of specific quantum mechanical magnetic properties of the atomic nucleus.

    Quantum computing
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_magnetic_resonance#Quantum_computing

    NMR quantum computing uses the spin states of molecules as qubits. NMR differs from other implementations of quantum computers in that it uses an ensemble of systems, in this case molecules.

    Nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computer
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_magnetic_resonance_quantum_computer

    However, even from the early days, it was recognized that NMR quantum computers would never be very useful due to the poor scaling of signal to noise in such systems. More recent work, particularly by Caves and others, shows that all experiments in liquid state bulk ensemble NMR quantum computing to date do not possess quantum entanglement, thought to be required for quantum computation. Hence NMR quantum computing experiments are likely to have been only classical simulations of a quantum computer.

    Shor's algorithm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm

    If a quantum computer with a sufficient number of qubits could operate without succumbing to noise and other quantum interference phenomena, Shor's algorithm could be used to break public-key cryptography schemes such as the widely used RSA scheme. RSA is based on the assumption that factoring large numbers is computationally infeasible. So far as is known, this assumption is valid for classical (non-quantum) computers; no classical algorithm is known that can factor in polynomial time. However, Shor's algorithm shows that factoring is efficient on an ideal quantum computer, so it may be feasible to defeat RSA by constructing a large quantum computer. It was also a powerful motivator for the design and construction of quantum computers and for the study of new quantum computer algorithms. It has also facilitated research on new cryptosystems that are secure from quantum computers, collectively called post-quantum cryptography.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Post-quantum cryptography
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography

    Post-quantum cryptography refers to research on cryptographic primitives (usually public-key cryptosystems) that are not breakable using quantum computers.

    Quantum cryptography
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography

    Quantum cryptography describes the use of quantum mechanical effects (in particular quantum communication and quantum computation) to perform cryptographic tasks or to break cryptographic systems.

    The advantage of quantum cryptography lies in the fact that it allows the completion of various cryptographic tasks that are proven or conjectured to be impossible using only classical (i.e. non-quantum) communication... For example, quantum mechanics guarantees that measuring quantum data disturbs that data; this can be used to detect eavesdropping in quantum key distribution.

    Quantum entanglement
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement

    Quantum entanglement occurs when particles such as photons, electrons, molecules as large as buckyballs, and even small diamonds interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description (state), which is indefinite in terms of important factors such as position, momentum, spin, polarization, etc.

    Quantum entanglement is a form of quantum superposition. When a measurement is made and it causes one member of such a pair to take on a definite value (e.g., clockwise spin), the other member of this entangled pair will at any subsequent time be found to have taken the appropriately correlated value (e.g., counterclockwise spin). Thus, there is a correlation between the results of measurements performed on entangled pairs, and this correlation is observed even though the entangled pair may have been separated by arbitrarily large distances. In quantum entanglement, part of the transfer happens instantaneously. Repeated experiments have verified that this works even when the measurements are performed more quickly than light could travel between the sites of measurement: there is no slower-than-light influence that can pass between the entangled particles. Recent experiments have shown that this transfer occurs at least 10,000 times faster than the speed of light, which does not remove the possibility of it being an instantaneous phenomenon, but only sets a lower limit.

    This behavior is consistent with quantum-mechanical theory, has been demonstrated experimentally, and is an area of extremely active research by the physics community. However there is some heated debate about whether a possible classical underlying mechanism could explain why this correlation occurs instantaneously even when the separation distance is large. The difference in opinion derives from espousal of various interpretations of quantum mechanics.

    Research into quantum entanglement was initiated by a 1935 paper by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen describing the EPR paradox and several papers by Erwin Schrödinger shortly thereafter. Although these first studies focused on the counterintuitive properties of entanglement, with the aim of criticizing quantum mechanics, eventually entanglement was verified experimentally, and recognized as a valid, fundamental feature of quantum mechanics. The focus of the research has now changed to its utilization as a resource for communication and computation.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Quantum superposition
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition

    The principle was described by Paul Dirac as follows:

    The general principle of superposition of quantum mechanics applies to the states [that are theoretically possible without mutual interference or contradiction] ... of any one dynamical system. It requires us to assume that between these states there exist peculiar relationships such that whenever the system is definitely in one state we can consider it as being partly in each of two or more other states. The original state must be regarded as the result of a kind of superposition of the two or more new states, in a way that cannot be conceived on classical ideas. Any state may be considered as the result of a superposition of two or more other states, and indeed in an infinite number of ways. Conversely any two or more states may be superposed to give a new state...

    The non-classical nature of the superposition process is brought out clearly if we consider the superposition of two states, A and B, such that there exists an observation which, when made on the system in state A, is certain to lead to one particular result, a say, and when made on the system in state B is certain to lead to some different result, b say. What will be the result of the observation when made on the system in the superposed state? The answer is that the result will be sometimes a and sometimes b, according to a probability law depending on the relative weights of A and B in the superposition process. It will never be different from both a and b [i.e, either a or b]. The intermediate character of the state formed by superposition thus expresses itself through the probability of a particular result for an observation being intermediate between the corresponding probabilities for the original states, not through the result itself being intermediate between the corresponding results for the original states.

    Anton Zeilinger, referring to the prototypical example of the double-slit experiment, has elaborated regarding the creation and destruction of quantum superposition:

    "[T]he superposition of amplitudes ... is only valid if there is no way to know, even in principle, which path the particle took. It is important to realize that this does not imply that an observer actually takes note of what happens. It is sufficient to destroy the interference pattern, if the path information is accessible in principle from the experiment or even if it is dispersed in the environment and beyond any technical possibility to be recovered, but in principle still ‘‘out there.’’ The absence of any such information is the essential criterion for quantum interference to appear.

    Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenstates

    Mona Lisa eigenvector grid
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa_eigenvector_grid.png

    Generalizations to infinite-dimensional spaces: Spectral theory
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenstates#Spectral_theory

    ReplyDelete
  34. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… Cold fusion is quietly bubbling away on EU electrodes again…

    BBC Horizon “Too Close to the Sun” [From 1989 to 1994]
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc2YI1QCSNo

    Pathological Science or Pathological Criticism? Includes Physics, Lab Explosions, Tricksters, Money, Politics, Conspiracies… and Faith

    Professor David Williams

    “It’s often asked why… erm… people, for example, the Japanese, should want to put very large amounts of money into a phenomenon like this. And some people would take that to mean that this phenomenon is a real phenomenon. Well I find that argument spurious too… For example, a multi-millionaire, who decides to indulge in… eccentricities, or to sponsor an artist of some sort, is never questioned as to why he should wish to spend his money in this way. And if you have plenty of money to slosh around, as the Japanese have, then why not? In the circumstance you can consider that you have someone like Martin Fleischmann… who is an absolutely brilliant man. Now, in my view, he’s obsessed with cold fusion. But, who knows what might be creeping around in the corner of his brain? When you have a man like that, you never know what might appear. And it’s worth the odd million to indulge his obsessions. You never know what you might get.”

    John Maddox (Editor, ‘Nature’)

    “I think it’s inevitable that if you have a persuasive, articulate, charismatic man who believes that he’s made a very important discovery that challenges scientific orthodoxy, it’s inevitable that his students, his colleagues, will have to take a view: are we for him or against him? And, in a way, it becomes quite quickly like the founding of a religion. You have a charismatic leader who persuades some people to become his followers, that they have seen the true light. And there’s a large element of that, I fear, in what’s happened with cold fusion.”

    Stanley Pons

    “Science is science. Science is truth. And err… without some morals or something to believe in on this planet, be it God or science or whatever you truly believe in, what do you have? What do you have? What do you have, what reason do you have, to survive? What reason do you have to go on? We did nothing wrong. We made no mistakes in our observations. We made no mistakes.”

    ReplyDelete
  35. How to Produce the Pons-Fleischmann Effect
    E. K. Storms, 1996
    http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/StormsEhowtoprodu.pdf

    Judging the Validity of the Fleischmann-Pons Effect
    E. K. Storms & T. W. Grimshaw, 2009
    http://www.prometeon.it/download/StormsJudgingValidityOfFleischmannPonsEffect2009.pdf

    EU Parliament Holds Special Meeting June 03, Preparing For Cold Fusion Age.
    Atom Ecology, 24 May 2013
    http://atom-ecology.russgeorge.net/2013/05/24/eu-parliament-calls-for-meeting/

    Strong Confirmations of Fleischmann Pons ‘Cold Fusion’ Effect at EU Parliament
    http://www.e-catworld.com/2013/06/strong-confirmations-of-fleischmann-pons-effect-presented-at-eu-meeting/

    New advancements on the Fleischmann-Pons Effect: paving the way for a potential new clean renewable energy source?
    Agenda: European Parliament, Brussels, Monday 3 June 2013
    http://www.enea.it/it/Ufficio-Bruxelles/documenti/eventi/new-advancements-on-the-fleischmann-pons-effect/agenda-pdf

    New advancements on the Fleischmann-Pons Effect: paving the way for a potential new clean renewable energy source?
    ENEA, European Parliament – Brussels, 3 June 2013
    http://www.enea.it/it/Ufficio-Bruxelles/news/new-advancements-on-the-fleischmann-pons-effect-paving-the-way-for-a-potential-new-clean-renewable-energy-source/

    Material Science for Understanding the Fleischmann and Pons Effect
    V. Violante PhD, ENEA LENR Research Coordinator
    European Parliament Bruxelles, 3 June 2013
    http://www.enea.it/it/Ufficio-Bruxelles/documenti/eventi/new-advancements-on-the-fleischmann-pons-effect/2-vittorio-violante-pdf

    Concluding Remarks

    The large amount of produced energy (> 10eV per atom) is impossible to be interpreted as a chemical process.

    Material status is the key to observe the effect.

    Material science is the key to understand it, since some material characteristics support some processes rather than others.

    Reprducibility [sic] of the Effect requires the reproducibility of the material status.

    By applying the scientific method future work should be oriented towards the definition of the effect rather than its demonstration.

    Progress in the field requires well conceived coordinated research projects involving modern instrumentation.

    Cold Fusion: News
    http://peswiki.com/index.php/News:Cold_Fusion

    ReplyDelete
  36. Is there such a thing as "absolute existence"? That is, something which exists whose existence is not relative to the perception of an observer?
    https://www.facebook.com/PUKPhilosophicalThoughts/posts/625069714178818

    The question is nonsensical. It invites us to assert or refute that which (by definition) can be neither asserted nor refuted.

    e.g. I may infer the existence of an antecedent universe. This preceded all consciousness. However, that inference is still relative to perception. Without consciousness, it cannot be claimed that the universe exists (for obvious reasons).

    Therefore, all conceivable phenomena are dependent on perception. To claim that they are independent of perception is contradictory (again, for obvious reasons).

    This is more than mere metaphysical pedantry. It is one of the key conundrums of quantum mechanics.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Add. https://www.facebook.com/groups/226397717420966/permalink/546121658781902/

    MNB: Do you believe in Fate and or Free will... is it either or... or are you able to reconcile the paradox of believing in both?

    CP: By 'Fate' we mean 'a predetermined course of events'. We assert that "things are this way because they could not be any other way".

    By 'Free Will' we mean 'the ability to make choices'. We assert that "things are this way but they could have been another way".

    Thus, 'Fate' and 'Free Will' appear to be mutually exclusive. If we accept that both concepts have their uses, then we seem to be trapped in a paradox.

    Can we dissolve the problem by redefining our terms? Consider the following assertions:

    Fate = Certainty.
    Free Will = Uncertainty

    These are complementary.

    By 'certainty' we mean 'perfect knowledge'. Lacking omniscience, we work with a lesser definition. We assert that "all relevant things are known".

    By 'uncertainty' we mean 'imperfect knowledge'. We assert that "all relevant things are not yet known".

    Thus, the problem is not so much one of knowledge as one of relevance.

    "There is no such thing as a fact. There are only stories. Choose different facts, and you get a different story." (Marty Gull)

    Or:

    "The conflict, therefore, is not between actions that are free and actions that are caused: our science of human nature applies indifferently to both and denies the reality of the contrast. The conflict is between attitudes that require us to overlook causality and attitudes that require us to attend to it, and to define what we see in terms of it." (Roger Scruton, ‘Modern Philosophy: A Survey’, 1994).

    Quantum mechanics suggests that determinism emerges from perception. All possibilities co-exist simultaneously as probabilities. The act of measurement 'collapses' an indeterminate state into an actual one. Thus, the illusion of consciousness (qualia) somehow interferes with uncertainty.

    In one sense, Free Will doesn't exist. In another sense, the illusion of Free Will creates reality. Thus, 'Fate' and 'Free Will' (or, more usefully, 'Certainty' and 'Uncertainty') are complementary. Neither exists in its own right. But both somehow exist in relation to the other.

    Add. The way I look at it, life is the 'dessert of the real'. I remember, as a small child, being offered a limited dessert menu. "Would you like ice cream, or strawberries?" I frowned suspiciously. "What's all this 'or' business? Why not ice cream AND strawberries?"

    ReplyDelete
  38. The Name of The Real

    A hero should steal
    a look in his shield; that’s Art –
    the Gorgon is Real.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real#Lacan
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real#.C5.BDi.C5.BEek
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real#In_philosophy
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real#In_aesthetics
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan#The_three_orders
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Father
    http://www.lacan.com/zizplato.htm

    Mirrors and shields
    https://www.facebook.com/notes/chris-port/first-draft-phd-proposal/397025593660968?comment_id=86070444&offset=300&total_comments=387

    The Gorgon (1964)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soGaPrZ7OSk

    ReplyDelete