Alan Moore on Magic: Crappy Science

Image via Wikipedia

 

I came across this great article by Alan Moore, modern-day philosopher and thinker, and I just had to share.
Written for a magazine that died, in it Moore tackles the treacherous topic of magic, in a way that most have not. I will come back to that topic, since I happen to think that magic is just another facet of the Mystery of Life. The connections are there. They just have to be seen and declared out loud.

The article is long and dense, and comes in two parts. Here is some good stuff:

“…This would seem to be the crux: magic, if it is a science, clearly isn’t a particularly well-developed one. Where, for example, are the magical equivalents of Einstein’s General or even Special theories of Relativity, let alone that of Bohr’s Copenhagen Interpretation? Come to that, where are our analogues for laws of gravity, thermodynamics and the rest? Eratosthenes once measured the circumference of the Earth using geometry and shadows. When did we last manage anything as useful or as neat as that? Has there been anything even resembling a general theory since the Emerald Tablet? Once again, perhaps magic’s preoccupation with cause and effect has played a part in this. Our axioms seem mostly on the level of “if we do A then B will happen”. If we say these words or call these names then certain visions will appear to us. As to how they do so, well, who cares? As long as we get a result, the thinking seems to run, why does it matter how this outcome was obtained? If we bang these two flints together for a while they’ll make a spark and set all that dry grass on fire. And have you ever noticed how if you make sure to sacrifice a pig during eclipses, then the sun always returns? Magic is, at best, Paleolithic science. It really had best put aside that Nobel Prize acceptance speech until it’s shaved its forehead.

…Science cannot even properly discuss the personal, so the transpersonal has no chance. These are matters of the inner world, and science cannot go there. This is why it wisely leaves the exploration of mankind’s interior to a sophisticated tool that is specifically developed for that usage, namely art.
If magic were regarded as an art it would have culturally valid access to the infrascape, the endless immaterial territories that are ignored by and invisible to Science, that are to scientific reason inaccessible, and thus comprise magic’s most natural terrain. Turning its efforts to creative exploration of humanity’s interior space might also be of massive human use, might possibly restore to magic all the relevance and purpose, the demonstrable utility that it has lacked so woefully, and for so long. Seen as an art, the field could still produce the reams of speculative theory that it is so fond of (after all, philosophy and rhetoric may be as easily considered arts as sciences), just so long as it were written beautifully or interestingly. While, for example, The Book of the Law may be debatable in value when considered purely as prophetic text describing actual occurrences or states of mind to come, it cannot be denied that it’s a shit-hot piece of writing, which deserves to be revered as such. “

Related articles

• Alan Moore Gets Psychogeographical With Unearthing (wired.com)

Vatican's Lucifer searching for Nibiru with NASA

Well the title is interesting, isn't it?
And actually telling the truth, depending which way you look at it..
Well, NASA has for some time now speculated about a planet in the outskirts of the Solar System, responsible for large meteors, comets and Cycles of Mass Extinction every 26 million years or so... This planet, dubbed Nemesis, is supposed to be cold, dark and very far away, and following a highly elliptical orbit that periodically brings him to our neighborhood to bring mayhem and annihilation.  Ring a bell?
Well, they call it Nemesis, the rest of the world Nibiru. You know, 2012 and Sitchin, Babylonian Gods, the Long Count and all-around destruction... Fun times.
NASA's rather mundane undertaking is made more interesting by the fact that they are assisted by the Vatican, no less, and their aptly-named telescope, Lucifer(...)
Now, before we all get highly paranoid (not that there's anything wrong with that) the acronym stands for "Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research". Did that make sense?
The planet they are searching for is thought to be several times the size of Jupiter,  a red or brown dwarf maybe, and the geeks working in NASA have affectionately called it The Death Star.
I don't know about you, but when it comes down to extinction, I prefer murderous alien invaders over a lifeless planet anytime. Unless Nibiru is inhabited by murderous aliens. Or angry Ancient Gods. Or..
Oh I give up.

Source of story and Hat Tip

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nibiru 2012 - Illuminati history (milkandcookies.com)

It’s ok, they are trying to save you from yourself

In this article in the NY Times, which has been around quite a lot, the implications of the Higgs Boson experiment in the Large Hadron Collider are subject to speculation. Not the experiment itself, but the bad luck it seems to attract. To quote one of the scientists:

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”

Notice how the suspected culprits are “The Universe”, “God”, and other such non-conversational, abstract entities.
Of course the more conspiratorial of bloggers have boldly gone where it is easy to go, suggesting alien and therefore sentient involvement. Not God or Physics, but beings with eyes and a brain. Maybe.
To complicate things further, this letter arrived at Fermilab, back in 2008, which made them ask for help from more experienced codebreakers.

Well, the first part apparently means
“FRANK SHOEMAKER WOULD CALL THIS NOISE”
I don’t know who Frank Shoemaker is, but it intrigued a lot of people.
Is it a hoax? A coincidence? The Universe trying to warn the smartest people on Earth about the dangers of the Higgs particles?
I cannot answer any of that, but it sure is cool . Not just the letter.
The possibility is seriously considered that we are being contacted.
And I mean seriously-no nonsense- top scientists considered.. 
Well, if they make contact at last, I for one will consider the LHC a BIG SUCCESS! Who needs Higgs particles when you have successfully coaxed the aliens out of hiding?
This post was inspired by the Posthuman Blues, the blog of the late Mac Tonnies. Shame when the good ones die young.

Geoff Ryman's AIR and our Parallel Universe Within

"In the future, everyone will be able to talk with their dead."  AIR

I just finished reading Geoff Ryman's Air, and I could not resist this post, not so much as a review, but as some afterthought on ideas expressed that, well.. are great. Thought- provoking, gentle, clever, different. This book is great.
It takes place in a remote village in China (?), in a not so remote future, exploring the complex rural dynamics after the coming of Air. So what is Air?
In that future, scientists have discovered that the extra dimensions co-existing with our own 3, can be accessed by the human brain after some minor over-the-air modification. That in turn creates the Ultimate Internet, a technological gestalt of sorts, where people use their minds to navigate through the accumulated knowledge of humanity (albeit not always free), communicate instantly and leap through in evolution.
Don't get the wrong idea here: this is not hardcore sci-fi stuff. We learn all that by following the simple life of a peasant trying to make something of herself. We see the change through her eyes and experience her loss and heartbreak when all goes wrong, her joy when good things happen. If anything, this novel is human above all, showing us that what makes us human can only become more prominent with technology. Sounds like a contradiction, but you have to read it to see for yourselves.
Air is like the Dreaming of the Aborigines mentioned before, like the place in our heads where childhood memories and dreams reside. Air is the Past, the Present and the Future all rolled into one.
Geoff Ryman reminded me that what can be dreamt, can never be forgotten. That forgetting is dying. That all that is good in us is not lost but coexists with everything else, even the bad.
That we learn through all eternity in our dreams. 
Thank you Mr Ryman for reminding us. We need that from time to time.

Reaching Level 1 – Game Over … Oops

In a surprisingly clear-headed lecture on Ted, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp takes on aliens, space travel and the advancement of humanity. He dissolves almost all science fiction principles and ideas into clear, concise thought and razor-sharp conclusions. Scientific propositions guide us to levels of civilization, energy, space, the Singularity and beyond, and then, BITCH-SLAP IN THE FACE!
This is so cool. I am jealous in more ways than one.

Buried Secrets of the Pyramids (again)

Andrew Collins has a new book out, called Beneath the Pyramids. Nothing new there. He has published several books, and I have not read a single one of them. They seem interesting, but not quite enough to spend money on them. So why mention it?
Well, the interview he gave to Brent Raynes triggered my interest.

The new book is apparently about a discovery he made, along with his wife, of an underground system of caves in the Giza Plateau.
Now, how can you discover anything new on the Giza Plateau? I mean, seriously.. The most excavated part of the Planet and..
no wait. It is the most visited part of the planet. But excavations? I think the last one was around the middle of the previous century.
But still.. How come no one had found it? Or had they? The infamous watchdog of Egypt, Dr Hawass, denies the existence of caves in the Bird Tomb, as it called. But Collins has hundreds of photographs and video, and states that they went at least 100 yards in various passages before oxygen became scarce. Now it becomes interesting, right? Hawass has a reputation of trying to suppress any and all investigations leading to honest-to-god paranormal findings and ancient secrets, preferably tied to ancient astronauts, tech and gods. He is the man who stopped the investigation on the strange wooden door in the Great Pyramid back in the nineties, only to resume it in secret, as is reported here (bottom of the page).
Anyway, back to Collins, who claims that the cave complex he found could be the burial place of Hermes Trismegistus and his Emerald Tablet, the Holy Grail of Alchemists. You know, coal into gold and Immortality. (So how come Hermes died?)

I have no way of confirming or debunking any claim, but a good cave-hollow-earth-ancient secrets-paranormal-conspiracy-under-your-very-eyes story just makes my day..

Ice on the Moon, fish on Europa (?)

Well, Nasa has officially announced that ice does exist on the Moon. Everyone expected it but now it’s official.

In another optimistic but nevertheless well-substantiated announce-ment, Jupiter’s moon Europa has enough oxygen in its oceans to support 3 million tons of fish, if indeed fish exist on Europa. That’s a lot of fish. Just wait till humans build a colony up there, and the (hypothetical) fish will not seem as many…

Genius and Madness – Not so far apart..

Well, in the fine tradition of Science, it finally catches up with another fact that, well, everyone new and understood since time immemorial: There is a fine line between genius and insanity.

Psychologists have discovered that creative people have a gene in common which is also linked to psychosis and depression.
They believe that the findings could explain why "geniuses" like Vincent van Gogh and Sylvia Plath displayed such destructive behavior.
The gene, which is called neuregulin 1, plays a role in brain development but a variant of it is also associated with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Now that’s LATE.. I mean, will science ever find a way to keep up?
And will further advances be made by mad scientists? And I don’t mean slightly eccentric ones. I mean screaming-foaming-at-the-mouth-berserk geniuses locked up in high security facilities (not asylums, that’s not politically correct). And will they research themselves? I have to stop now.This is getting too weird..