Introduction

Oh boy, it's been a month of Sundays since I've written here. I just read Mark Cuban's blog for about three minutes, and realized that I liked doing it when I did it.

Mark Cuban is a bright guy. He just posted a blog entry on the music industry that skewers them. I didn't know all of the reasons that he listed for the decrease in CD sales. To think, that is his spare time.

Daily Rant

Oh, nothing to rant about, really, but my mind has been wandering.

Okay, this will probably turn out to be just another 'I FOUND GOD IN PI!' post, but what the hell, it's 1:22 in the morning and I can't sleep.

I've been re-reading Carl Sagan's CONTACT. The final storyline (a message in 'pi') has had me thinking about pi and where it comes from. Obviously it's the ratio of the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. But why can it be derived in so many different ways? Also notice that it's tied to the other transcendental numbers like e.

Sagan tries to prove the existence of god by saying there is a Message very deep into the transcendental (boy that word is fun to type) constants. I'm not so sure you need to go that far. Just take a look--pi can be related to e, and it can also be related to the product of primes.

Prime numbers are supposed to be unpredictable and you can get pi?

It's occurrences like these that make me think about Order-Chaos deities. Yes reader, that's a big jump, but stick with me. I don't remember where I read about them first, maybe a fantasy book, but assume the following:

1. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. are all some form of mythology, just like the ancient Greeks and Romans. They are religions derived by man, used for controlling man.

2. As stated eloquently by Heinlein, "The Universe is too perfect to be random."

3. Therefore, there is a higher intelligence, some form of god, or gods, and it (they) don't necessarily follow the rules in the books we are told to read.

I know what you're thinking, 'How the hell would this line of thought relate to mathematics, and then life? '

Maybe there are two gods: Order and Chaos. Perhaps they are brothers. They like to play with each other, each outdoing the other in their little games. Order does something to unite the fabric of existence, Chaos does something to tear it apart. And we see the results of their play littering the universe.

Order says, "I'm going to liberate energy into to the nothingness of existence!"
Chaos says, "Nice trick, I will make it expand forever"
Order says, "Ah, okay, I will allow the energy to assume the shape of mass, and the mass will have strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces that will provide it shape and form."
Chaos says, "Wonderful, I will make it so that you can never know exactly the position and momentum of the most discrete particles."
Order says, "In the structure of the universe, I will provide form to the mass and energy that is reproducible"
Chaos says, "Neat, I'm forcing the entropy of the universe to always increase, and eventually it must stop moving."
Order says, "I will create a system of mathematics that is universal, and will allow the representation of reality in abstract form."
Chaos says, "The math is beautiful, but many of the fundamental constants will continue infinitely."
Order says, "And my ultimate achievement will be the creation of life that will reverse the trend of entropy and collect free energy on its own will."
Chaos says, in awe, "Miraculous, really nice one there. But they must die."

And so their games continue. I don't believe they are watching us closely, although we may be a part of them. To me, the universe is much too big for them to be preoccupied with the not-so-significant actions of creatures little more advanced than the common ant. In short, it's their world, we're just living in it.

Did I observe an interesting person?
Menen was crying at work again today. She lost her husband over two months ago, but sometimes she is still wracked in grief. It's hard to know what to say to her, although I find that saying hello to her later in the day seems to help a little.

Have I heard anything funny today?
I am working on a bit with Jesus in a sanitarium.

Hobby Update
My guitar playing has steadily declined. I tried working on Paganini's No. 16 (5 has been intimidating), but it seems that I can't get the focus I once had when I was younger. I need to redirect my goals on this.

Stand-up is getting better. A lot better.



Farewell Reader, have a good day.

Hussman