Clay B. Daulton Physics AIMC

Just in case you thought it might be hot here.....low in Dubai is a cool 95 on Sunday.  Image: Weather.com Being a Living System As we discussed in class, biology has had a difficult time making declarations about what constitutes a living system. There appears to often be exceptions to each rule, including the consideration of machines that may reproduce themselves but not have consciousness. I know that I am a living system, according to biological theory (Varela, The Tree of Knowledge ), because living beings are continually self producing. Francisco Varela (with Mataruna) called this process 'autopoiesis', or "autoproduction", where living beings can be seen as both the producer and the product. Putting aside the reproduction, I am continually self producing in the physical realm and the mental/emotional realm. In the near future, we will need to strongly define what constitutes a living system particularly in relationship to Artificial Intelligenc...

"Girl With Balloon" by Banksy My E-Prime Day Today I believe that I am feeling a bit heart-broken, most likely due to stress in my intimate relationship. It appears that my significant other may not meet my needs for intellectual, emotional, and spiritual connection, which appears to be a major problem. It seems reasonable to hope that I can attain a fair amount of clarity on the possibility for this relationship to progress forward or not.  Synthesizing Physics I feel like it's difficult for me to synthesize my knowledge of physics into a simpler truth such as, "As above, so below." What I've been able to observe from the information in our class has been quite profound. I wasn't aware of many of the topics we discussed, and have been particularly moved by the topics of sacred geometry, Einstein's theory of relativity, and how little we actually know about matter and dark matter. If I were making a very-uninformed speculative guess, I...

The orbit of Venus as viewed from the vantage point of the Earth. Photo: newageofactivism.com Sacred Geometry is an observation of patterns, including the pattern of the orbits of Venus over a nine-year period included above. Sacred Geometry is also seen in cross-cultural, pan-religious traditions of creating charts, mandalas, maps, and other geometric structures for understanding and deepening one's relationship oneself and creation. The geometric forms found, as primary examples, in the Kabbalistic Tree, the mandalas of the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, and the I-Ching, act both as traditional study guides and supports for contemplation to deepening into fundamental and often unseen aspects of our own psyches and world. Physics and Sacred Geometry overlap in many ways, including in the presentation of the orbits of planets as views from a vantage point above. The physical principles of gravity and orbits collide with the human observation of patterns. This confluence ha...

In 2019, the Mind & Life Institute held the 26th annual Mind & Life Conference, which brings together the best Western experts on topics in the sciences and education with the Dalai Lama and Eastern contemplative scholars. Photo: dalailamatrust.org  On Interdependence In the article Buddhism and Quantum Physics: A strange parallel of two concepts of reality , scholar Christian Thomas Kohl posits how quantum theory (particularly ‘ entanglement ’) and Buddhist philosophy both describe systems where two entities are viewed as “separate and at the same time in communication with each other 1 .” In quantum theory, this might be protons and electrons, matter and dark matter; in Buddhism, self and other, or table and chair. The profound views of these two systems of thought often seem to collide, a matter we discussed briefly in class and which I’ll take up here. We know through Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that certain laws of causation that are ...

For this weekend's intentional loaf, I decided to visit a new-to-me flea market in Sebastopol, CA. Once entering the market, my pace of walking slowed down and my senses took in an unfamiliar space. I began to use my peripheral vision, like an owl might, to take in the entirety and discern where to walk next. The colors of each table were vibrant and interesting items emerged from heaps of the not-so-interesting in an organic way. The sun warmed and seared my skin and made the occasional canopies of tarp and plywood welcome refuges. Cultures emerged and overlapped at this market. The scrappy flea market culture where dealers pawn to bargain hunters, collectors, and leisurely browsers like myself, and hispanic culture, where wares from Mexíco like leather belts, ballcaps, and Mexican clothing brands could be found. The food was all Mexícan as well, ranging from seared carne asada tacos to michealada-style beverages.  I tried to offer $25 for a leather tool belt and, wi...

Participants on Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid XL challenge attempt to survive together in harsh natural environments worldwide for 40 days. Photo credit: Discovery Channel  Historically, I have not had a hard time adjusting to leisure, having grown up in a surf culture that encouraged cutting class, smoking a joint, and surfing in sun-soaked waters for hours with your friends. Therefore, I was mildly amused in class when, upon receiving the noble assignment to loaf without guilt, I witnessed more than one of my classmates have a mild anxiety response to the assignment.  I was privileged to date someone in my 20s who taught me that "leisure is an art form", and while my load of responsibilities is much greater now,  I still love a good loaf. This week, I've been lying in the arms of my significant other with a great celebration of dopamine and serotonin within while watching the series Naked and Afraid XL produced by the Discovery Channel.  In the...

The 'Chaldni plate' demonstration here uses a cello bow and brass plates to demonstrate the organization of sand at different resonant frequencies. Photo credit:  https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/chladni-plates Vibration It is a cool thing that wave motion and vibrations are the fundamental stuff behind matter, and "the formation of matter is just one of the tricks that waves can do."(Crowell, Vibrations ) I'm currently in a time where wave motions are creating beautiful things in my life. I'm riffing off some "very good" vibrations (ie. more pleasurable than painful) these days. That is not to state that there isn't some discord even within my good life. For example, our mental-emotional layers also emit vibrational waves, including fear and uncertainty, and I believe that I can sense some of those waves especially in people that I am close with. I don't believe vibrations are 'good' or 'b...