An artist's perspective on paradox. by John Philip Clive

John Clive

Essay Abstract

This is an exploration of some of the paradoxes known to exist at the foundations of Western physics and mathematics - viewed from a viewpoint outside of those disciplines. My excuse for this impertinence is that an edifice's foundations are no more visible to its occupants than to an outsider. My own perspective is of someone whose entire professional life has revolved around the enchantment of representations. As a professional necessity I have had to respect the power of that enchantment.

Author Bio

Before concentrating on fine art in the mid-90's John Clive was the recipient of many national and international awards for his work as a television commercials director. He is acknowledged as a leading innovator in the digital applied arts, pioneering techniques such as morphing & photo realistic CG. He has lectured, broadcast and written about these subjects for the Institute of Contemporary Arts, BAFTA, The National Film Theatre, BBC TV & Radio and the American Cinematographer Magazine. He has also written and directed for the stage and television, including the BBC/Masterpiece Theater film "The Yellow Wallpaper".

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Mozibur Ullah

Dear John Clive,

I enjoyed reading your essay, I think you touched on some important points about paradox and how they are often trying to tell us something about the world and also about ourselves.

I wish you all the best.

Regards

Mozibur Ullah

John Clive

Dear Mozibur Ullah,

Thank you very much for your comments, I am very glad that you found the piece interesting.

Regards

David Brown

"At least one physicist ... considers that dark matter (so far undetected) may have been invented to explain away an anomaly of General Relativity. ... Verlinde, Eric (2016). arXiv:1611.02269v2 ..."

Are dark matter particles very similar to luminiferous aether? I say that Milgrom is the Kepler of contemporary cosmology -- on the basis of overwhelming empirical evidence. Google "kroupa milgrom", "mcgaugh milgrom", "sanders milgrom", and "scarpa milgrom".

According to Milgrom and Sanders, Verlinde's theory does not give a satisfactory model of the MOND phenomenology.

Milgrom, M., & Sanders, R. H. (2016). Perspective on MOND emergence from Verlinde's" emergent gravity" and its recent test by weak lensing. arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.09582

John Clive

Thank you for your interesting observations.

H.H.J. Luediger

Dear John Philip Clive,

thanks for an inspiring essay! 'Damasio's patient' is indeed an interesting case telling us something about how we make decisions. I believe, however, that there is some (widespread) confusion regarding the meaning of 'rational'.

To begin with, most pre-modern cultures see the heart as the seat of Vernunft, ratio or reason. Then there are three body areas involved in leading our lives.

a) the stomach - emotion

b) the heart - reason, understanding, comprehension, sound judgement, etc.

c) the brain - logic, intellect, smartness, etc.

Now, neurologically speaking, emotion and intellect seem to be associated with the frontal lobe. The core of intellect though is not reason, but logic. Logic has nothing to do with reason. Already 20th century Vernunftkritik (criticism of reason) factually attacked logic (e.g. technologisation) while calling it reason. But reason (following Kant: die Vernunft geht nie auf die Dinge...) doesn't deal with things or processes, but with invariant principles. Reason is thus a-temporal, though ironically located in the temporal lobe. The frontal lobe is a late development and is believed to process emotion and intellect. This makes sense inasmuch logic deals with temporal if-then constructions, which, as you rightly say, have no singular objective solution and are thus decided by emotion. Hence the collocation of logic and emotion in the frontal lobe makes much sense. Maybe this is why Damasio's patient was absolutely reasonable in recognizing the world, his own situation, photos, etc., but unable to make logical=temporal=procedural decisions.

Reason is a censorial not a creative function, letting pass what is reasonable and blocking everything else. Since logical decisions inevitably open up an unknowable future, the impairment of Damasio's patient to deal with logic may well have made him the most rational man on Earth.

good luck for your essay,

Heinz

John Clive

Thank you Heinz,

I found your observations useful and stimulating. Particularly resonant was your comment that "Reason is thus a-temporal." A key area of interest for me is the primordiality of aspatiotemporal ratio in nature.

I believe it is self-evident that any expression of ratio cannot be ratio. Human rationality as recorded in the products of physics, mathematics and philosophy can only exist as a representation and, as my essay attempts to show, it is the conflation of the expression/representation with the actuality that produces the paradoxes that the intellectual disciplines are currently facing. This is the aporia that the essay competition seeks to investigate.

For Wittgenstein, "an irrational number isn't the extension of an infinite decimal fraction, ... it's a law" - Philosophical Remarks- (1919-1930).

Thank you again for your comments.

Best,

John

Lachlan Cresswell

Dear John,

Nice essay, easy to read and enjoy.

My take on the singularity paradox is that there is no paradox, as a singularity is a fiction of man, not part of nature.

Cheers

Lockie Cresswell

John Clive

Dear Lockie Cresswell,

It is hard to disagree with you that "a singularity is a fiction of man". What is certain is that it is immeasurable - and therefore irrelevant to physics as it is currently constituted.

Very best,

John Clive

Branko Zivlak

Dear John

Have you ever reported on TV about things that didn't happen;

Have I, as a meteorologist, ever predicted weather that I don't think will happen.

But, someone imposed a topic that does not exist, because it is an undefined case.

I even have my "conspiracy theory" why this is so.

I find that moving downhill coincides with the departure of Fred Hoyle from the stage. But let's not be naive to someone everything is moving up the line.

Your start:

"This is an exploration of some of the paradoxes known to existat the foundations of Western physics and mathematics - viewed from a viewpoint outside of those disciplines. My excuse for this impertinence is that Edifice's foundations are no more visible to her occupants than to an outsider. "

Many occupants see the same as you, and even those who just pretend to have sided with the mainstream. I don't even want to use that word on S that you mentioned countless times in the essay, although I still used it in my essay. Given your profession, you know that mentioning something promotes, whether in a positive or negative context.

Of course, the universe is simple, without paradoxes, miracles, mysteries and undefined mathematics.

Regards,

Branko

Vladimir Fedorov

Dear John,

I greatly appreciated your work and discussion. I am very glad that you are not thinking in abstract patterns.

While the discussion lasted, I wrote an article: "Practical guidance on calculating resonant frequencies at four levels of diagnosis and inactivation of COVID-19 coronavirus", due to the high relevance of this topic. The work is based on the practical solution of problems in quantum mechanics, presented in the essay FQXi 2019-2020 "Universal quantum laws of the universe to solve the problems of unsolvability, computability and unpredictability".

I hope that my modest results of work will provide you with information for thought.

Warm Regards, `

Vladimir

nancy walters

Dear John Clive,

I like to think of the Big Bang as the birth of infinity. I appreciated what you quoted about emptiness being the essence of all existence. I can't help thinking they are related. As in, infinity being the essence of all existence.

cc walters