Fractals and a Backflip

Welcome to my weekend..

Fractals
Today I spent my time messing about in C++ drawing the Mandelbrot set, the image you get makes sense once you understand the equation that arrives you at the set:

Here Z starts at 0 then whatever the complex number c is, it is fed into the recursive loop that is this equation, some values of c will continue on forever, others come to a point.

The value of c becomes very apparant when you’re plotting an (x, y) value and need an (r, i) value. In my code I ended up with rough rules:

• if it loops 3000 times then I coloured that full red (255)
• if Z reached an absolute value of 3 and it loops more than 10 times I coloured it at it’s iteration of red (count)
• if Z reached an absolute value of 4 then I coloured it black

More fractals:

Green outline gradient

Lots and lots of greys

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I haven’t been doing much exercise recently (the past two years) but it turns out I can still do one of these! I guess it’s like riding a bike – you never forget!

Technocratic Thoughts

Often when I talk about political ideas I am really just talking about more science in government and a more knowledgeable public. Today I found an interview with Vern Ehlers (Republican Congressman) talking about just this. It can be found here and is worth a listen. He was the first physicist to be elected to Congress and in the interview talks about meeting many people who don’t know basic science and could do with more scientists in politics (what I would call technocrats) to help educate them all!

Economist appointed by the EU ≠ technocrat.

Now I call myself a technocrat, but is that really what I am? The media portrays technocrats as government bureaucrats, which is not what a technocrat is. One definition is someone with knowledge, expertise or skills in science, engineering or technology. Another is someone who believes in Technocracy. Is there another word for the opinions and beliefs I have?

Scientism
Scientism is a belief in the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach, and the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints (Routledge, 1994). Now this sounds like the technocracy I signed up for! A lot of Technocracy’s more radical ideologies such as thermoeconomics and it’s complete lack of democracy are out of my scope but this scientism, this love for truth and rationality, is not only applicable but also very needed!

Going back to my post on a Constitutional Technocracy a fantastic point was put forward by LiberalConservativeThought, he talks about regular question sessions “where the democratically elected ministers from the government answer technical questions on their policies from the members of the upper house who have expertise in that area” – this alone gives a technocratic second chamber a fundamental reason for existing, especially if it was given important media time like Prime Minister’s Questions.

This almost Logical Positivism approach can be applied in many other ways, for example when the public sector is hiring it has to adhire to multiple negative regulation such as “do not discriminate against race, religion, disability, etc” but why not simply apply one positive regulation and say “Only hire people on the basis of merit” – In such a system meritocracy would, by it’s very nature, create true equality. But ofcourse the important implementation for this is to regulate old and new policies.

Democracy should answer to Science and Reason.

Numeral System Automata

Cellular Automata
Cellular automata Is made up of a grid of cells which sit in a finite number of states (such as on/off or blue/green/red). Cellular automaton (singular) adhear to the rules of the system and evolve over periodic time intervals. One successful application of CA is Conway’s Game of Life, the universe is an infinite 2D grid and the rules are as follows:

A single Gosper's Glider Gun creating "gliders"

1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by needs caused by underpopulation.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives, unchanged, to the next generation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours cells will come to life.

Positional Number Systems
We use these all the time, notably the decimal system in which when a symbol exceeds 9 it “carries” one to the left and negates ten. 9+1=A, then A goes to 10.

Example:

The Idea
To take the properties of a number system and create rules to govern individual cells. For our numeral universe we are going to need something different to what Conway used, ours is going to have an intrinsic property, gravity – and thus a floor to gravitate to. The center of our universe will be the radix point (decimal point), you could say the numeral universe is radixocentric. The real-life universe is made up of multiple dimensions, the numeral one is made up of infinite column dimensions.

Although initially I will only being dealing with addition and thus carry, I have put on paper negation in phinary which was quite fun. I talk about the arithmetic of phinary in my research (section 4). The Numeral Universe rules and an example are below:

1. Positional System – Each dimensional element (cell) is the value of the previous dimension’s capacity.
2. Gravity – Any cell above an empty cell moves to it.
3. Carry – When a dimension is full, it moves to the next higher one.

Example in base 3 (ternary). The green and red blocks are the two numbers being added to the universe, the grey block is the carry.

But what does this all mean?
Well, I’m not really sure – it’s nice to show number systems in a different way, it could be useful for teaching. But as for me, I’m using the rules to govern an alternative tetris game, I’ll upload it when I’m finnished.

Also if anyone is wondering how I made those fractal looking blocks, I spammed the hell out of the filters on Pixlr the free online image editor.

Movie Idea

The Vienna Circle was a group of mathematicians, physicists, economists and philosophers alike who met to disscus epistemology and philosophy of science. This lead to a powerful movement called Logical Positivism which dispelled metaphysics, aesthetics and ethics from science as niether right nor wrong – of no value what so ever.

Summary:
Based on the Vienna Circle, but taken well out of context and set in ancient Japan. A collection of yojimbo (bodygaurd), ninja, ronin (masterless samurai) and farmers – analog to the real members, who meet in secret to talk skeptically about spirituality. Portrayed as pro-industrial natural philosophers.

Imagine these guys discussing Hilbert's Decision Problem, Samurai comming to attack them, then them being a bunch of badass logic-ninja defending science!

Civil Writes

See what I did there? I know, I’m a genius..
This post will be on two people who put pen to paper during incarceration. The post isn’t culminating towards a point, it is just that in light of the many different recent protests, I thought I would write about some past ones that are interesting to me.

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Click here for a song by Christy Moore.

Bobby Sands, MP
The year is 1976 and Provisional IRA member Bobby Sands is in prison for a second time, previously on possession of fire arms, now for implications in a bombing. The Labour Party, in power at the time, attempted to tame the activism in Northern Ireland by receding on a previously agreed law envoking Special Category Status. Republicans did not see themselves as criminals, after all they were fighting a political battle as much as a physical one.

This began the Blanket Protests. Oppossing the criminal uniform, protesters served time naked with just a blanket. During this time inmates were often attacked whilst slopping out, which escolated into the Dirty Protests where inmates refused to wash and smeared cell walls with faeces. In 1980 seven prisoners attempted a hunger strike, which ended 53 days later.

During this time Bobby had been a poet and journalist (books on Amazon). Writing on toilet paper with biro and consealing it within himself, he wrote eloquently and revolutionarily. Sands was well respected by this point and organised a new hunger strike where the inmates would strike in cannon instead of at the same time. During the strike Sands was elected as a Member of Parliament and alongside nine other prisoners, Bobby Sands died.

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- The year is 1981 -

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Click here for a song by KRS-One.

Mumia Abu Jamal
From the death of one Irish Catholic to another: On December 9th in Philadelphia, Officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed in a gunfight that escolated from a traffic stop. Mumia was accross the road when he saw a dispute between an officer and his younger brother William Cook so he ran over. At the traffic stop, there was an exchange of fire. Both Officer Faulkner and Abu-Jamal were wounded, and Faulkner died.

As a former Black Panther Party member, Mumia was no stranger to activism, but after being convicted of first degree murder, he has spent the past 30 years on death row. Retaining the statement that he is innocent – Mumia often writes about prison, justice and civil rights (books on Amazon), Mumia became the face of many anti-death penalty protests and an icon for the injustice of the system. Before prison, during his broadcasting career, his high-profile interviews included Julius Erving, Bob Marley, and Alex Haley, and he was elected president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. This quality shows in the interviews he gives and talks he makes through Prison Radio.

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To be noted:

• Earlier this year Mumia Abu-Jamal’s sentenced was reduced (BBC link) to life imprisonment without parole.
• Bobby Sands’ funeral was attended by over 100,000 people and it re-ignited republican activism giving the Sinn Féin a much larger following.

Marrying Democracy and Technocracy

Hopefully in this post, much like the Guzzle Puzzle Helpline, I will find the right words to explain my idea. The idea is something that I tackled before but since then my views have evolved somewhat. The idea – finding a middle ground between representative democracy and technocracy.

Constitutional Monarchy
For over 900 years, the British unitary parliamentary democracy-constitutional monarchy system has held as a steady form of government. The Queen acts as head of state and whilst still retaining certain powers (calling elections, dissolving parlement, etc) must adhire to the law. This is called Rule of Law and it governs every single person, parlement and military, everyone.

Senate of Rome
Surviving the Kingdon, Republic and Empire of Rome, the senate is another clearly stable political structure of over 900 years. At it’s core the senate was always a collection of ‘wise men’ giving advice (senatus consultum) to those in power. During republic domain the senate was at it’s most influencial and although their advice had no real authority, it was usually obeyed.

The Idea (Constitutional Technocracy)
To take the three-tier structure of British Parliament, or more directly, Canadian Parliament, change the nature of the House of Lords (Senate) and increase their influence:

1. Head of State (Monarch)
2. Senate (Technocrats)
3. House of Commons (Democrats)

The Senate is voted in by anyone with a PhD, those standing for position (representives of fields) must submit their papers and works. This is because, although technocrats have been burocratically designated like in Greece and Italy, real technocrats should be subject to peer review – just like good science. Putting technocrats in influential positions will encourage an intellectual community, bringing foreign science to us. Our science is already on the up-and-up but it would increase enthusiasm in knowledge and reason.
One out there idea is to give control to the Senate in states of emergancy – be it medical (epidemic), military (assassination), economic (crash), etc..

As for the House of Commons, anyone over the age of 18 can vote as long as they pass a standardised political party test. This test is on the policies of parties running in their area. One of the issues I see with democracy is missguided votes squewing the ballot, this precaution would help voters understand the bigger picture. Originally I concieved an Academocracy, but as the comments suggested a large problem with it was disfranchising people. Although again I’m saying not everyone should vote – what I’m really saying is everyone should know why they are voting and what they are voting for. Which is surely reasonable? Hopefully it will also cut down on the tribalism of chosing who your parents or friends vote for, because you will know if you correlate with the party you choose.

House of Lords Reform
My above idea is basically making the House of Lords [seem] more important. The reason I came back to thinking about this issue is a recent proposal in British politics to elect members of the House of Lords democratically. I oppose this notion because of how useful an outside view is, when someone doesn’t have to please constituents or try to stay in power, they are more likely to give an actual view without tribalism.

“The great strength of the Lords is that it contains not just a bunch of experienced retired MPs but a whole raft of individuals with specialist knowledge and experience from the worlds of commerce, medicine, the services, the civil service, academia, the unions – the list is endless – none of whom would be likely to be available to stand for election.”
- Lord Steel, former Alliance leader

Ultimate Origins Debate

Just wanted to post this for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. It’s the conversation between Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams (with Anthony Kenny as the perfect catalyst).

Talking about things like computation, consciousness, free will and determinism it gives me a perfect reason to link my recent post on Soul & Simulation on the same stuff.