20101005 (J)
Journal: October 5, 2010
     Index     
Return to:   Site   or   Journal   Description

Appearance and Reality                       Idea of Time                       Soul                       Epistemology

Turbulence: Turbulence of fluids has been a problem for science for centuries. “Chaos” has been coined to describe it. It seems beyond mathematical description, just like string theory calculations take to infinity without renormalization. But turbulence is but one of infinite things that defy mathematical description. Any matter with a history, and that is ALL matter, is beyond mathematical description.

So we “generalize” by “abstracting” characteristics” often using statistics until our math fits the "pattern" (or other languages “fit”). So we can’t predict a single cloud, but we can predict the "weather”, at least for a day or two with near certainty (repeat near, because that is the best we can do). For example I predict that at 4:31 pm July 7, 2273 will be warmer in Woodstock, Illinois, than at 3:31 am on December 17, 2132. "We" can infer a high degree of certainty because "we" understand by relative orbital positions and 23.5 degrees tilt of the earth from its orbital plane or by common sense based on Hume's "constant conjunction".

Anyway, from proof of the link between generalization and certainty back to turbulence, (speaking of which, damn this shaking hand makes my writing difficult and more illegible)* It seems any movement of a higher density fluid into one of lower density is a fractal process. Without an external form or change in form (a generalization), the advancing density from will move forward and outward in fractal spirals (helixes in 3D) of ever exponentially decreasing density-difference, ultimately reaching “equilibrium” whereby influences other, nearly constant processes dominate molecular motions, other than pressure (momentum) dependent density differences; i.e. nearly zero average momentum.

Time: A couple of days ago I had a donut at Dunkin’ Donuts and the store cash register was on the fritz, so they had to walk over to the carryout register permanently stationed by another person. “My” person had to interrupt and intervene with the stationed person to register my transaction. I commented, “It looks like it makes more work for you”; to which my service attendant replied, “It’s just time”, implying it made no difference what he did, he was just passing time, presumably for a paycheck.

But I think he hit the nail on the head! “It’s just time.” We pass from one end to the other, birth to death, for us then it’s gone. But I suspect it (time) continues without me, but it’s sure a lot more interesting “with” me. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out what “it’s all about”. The nearest I can make it is that it’s “about” nothing. It just is. And/or just “are”. For reasons? if any, I personally doubt there are.

“Reasons” seem to be a peculiar human attribute, almost obsession, beyond our ken. I’m getting pretty sure about this, though its consequences (meaninglessness) are sometimes hard to embrace. I suspect that a lot of other people suspect the religion thing is a sham, but the social thing of religion ....... well, that’s another essay.

*I must have been taking lithium carbonate at the time for my "bi-polar". I stopped because of the shaking hands; it became so bad on occasion that I couldn't hold a half-full glass without spilling some due to the slosh.