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And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

QFT

No vacuum or void, no emptiness,
But filled by evanescent pairs
Of particles which free themselves
From nothing, for a time:
So our silence (to a stranger's ears)
Reverberates with memories
And images and secret words
Surrounding, enfolding us both.
-Philip Hart, "Quantum Field Theory"

22 comments:

FreeThinke said...

Arcturus his other name,—
I ’d rather call him star!
It ’s so unkind of science
To go and interfere!

I pull a flower from the woods,—
A monster with a glass
Computes the stamens in a breath,
And has her in a class.

Whereas I took the butterfly
Aforetime in my hat,
He sits erect in cabinets,
The clover-bells forgot.

What once was heaven, is zenith now.
Where I proposed to go
When time’s brief masquerade was done,
Is mapped, and charted too!

What if the poles should frisk about
And stand upon their heads!
I hope I’m ready for the worst,
Whatever prank betides!
      
Perhaps the kingdom of Heaven’s changed!
I hope the children there
Won’t be new-fashioned when I come,
And laugh at me, and stare!
  
I hope the father in the skies
Will lift his little girl,—
Old-fashioned, naughty, everything,—
Over the stile of pearl!


~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

FreeThinke said...

"There is no live, truth, intelligence or substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and it's infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-All. Spirit is immortal Truth. Matter is mortal error. Spirit is God and Man is His image and likeness, therefore Man is not material, he is spiritual.

~ Mary Baker Eddy

FreeThinke said...

"Life is a Mystery to be Lived, not a Problem to be Solved."

FreeThinke said...

_ THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE _

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.

And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks 

Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams 

Turns mine to wax. 

And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins 

How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
The hand that whirls the water in the pool 

Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind 

Hauls my shroud sail. 

And I am dumb to tell the hanging man

How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
The lips of time leech to the fountain head;

Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood

Shall calm her sores. 

And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind 

How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb

How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.


~ Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

FreeThinke said...

________ Eternal, Never New ________

The years are naught but Man's invention,
As is Time, itself.
'Tis been, since Eve, Man's mad intention
To manage Life, himself.

In Truth what is has always been,
And will last evermore. ––
A perspective few have ever seen ––
A sea without a shore.

We drift quite helplessly upon 
The surface of the waves
Charting courses, till we've gone,
Instead, on to our graves.

Though we may seem to disappear
From our loved ones' view,
There isn't anything to fear
We shall return anew.

This never ending cycle
Upon the shoreless sea
No matter what we’d like to think
Recurs eternally.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

____________ On the Floe ____________

The sun is setting in the east these days.
The north pole traveled southward long ago.
The penguins in the tropics now wear leis.
The roses in the tundra sweetly blow.

The tides receding come in nevermore.
The geese now migrate from the south to north.
The ocean vast is nothing now but shore.
The semen towards the egg will not come forth.

Negativity we worship now as god.
Perversity is wholesome; Virtue’s vile.
Normality’s regarded now as odd.
Whatever’s queer is welcomed with a smile.

Darkness has become the Guiding Light.
To stay alive we must not fight the Blight.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

__________ To An Autumn Leaf __________

Tempting though it be to mourn your loss,
O, Precious Leaf, just fallen from the tree,
A bit of lore may help us to stay free ––
Not abraded by Grief’s splintery Cross:
A leaf can’t drop, until a new one starts
Underneath its fastening to form
The bud that proves Renewal is the norm ––
Unceasing, even as old life departs.
Melancholy though the fall may seem,
Nonetheless it nourishes the tree.
Loose leaves join soil to provide energy.
Eager to join next springtime’s hope-filled dream
All living things come to us from the Past,
For Life, infinitely adaptive, is made to last.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...


_________ To Intelligence _________

The dreary world becomes exhilarating
Once an eagerness to know prevails.
Imagination moves debilitating
Non-essentials far. On golden sails

The soul may soar, free from Fear’s embrace.
Erratic and erotic fancies melt,
Liquefy, then dry, and leave no trace.
Love without the taint of lewdness felt

Impels towards a blissful, trance-like state,
Glowing, warming, healing, energizing,
Endlessly enjoying all that’s great,
Novel, brilliant, filled with depth, realizing

Coarse temptations beastly and exotic
Empty us, then lead toward the psychotic.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

"If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God,
then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident."


~ Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910)

FreeThinke said...

The fierce intensity and staccato, high speed, manner of speech the two young men wearing T-shirts use in talking AT us is abrasive and off-putting.

I, of course, am neither geared nor trained to comprehend the language they speak, so it's impossible to evaluate the content of their thoughts adequately. I am, however, a great believer in the power of Imagination, Insight, and "Reading between the Lines," etc. Because both young men, –– despite one's being of probably-Australian or New Zealand origin from the tone of his vowels, and the other a brash young American –– possibly a Canadian? –– are equally unattractive I feel quite strongly their intense preoccupation with concepts so bizarre, foreign and incomprehensible to the vast majority as to be repellent, has warped their personalities to such an extent they appear divorced from their humanity. In short they seem not to be at all "well-wounded."

I do believe, however, that they, whether they know and acknowledge it or not, are seeking to understand Ultimate Truth, which I believe is a synonym for God. There are many roads that seek this understanding. Science is only one. I believe Music, Art, Literature, and higher Mathematics long ago found shortcuts that have put them far ahead of Science.

But again, there is a Language Barrier. As few are equipped to understand the Language of Art as may be able to grasp the language of Science.

At any rate, I see no conflict among any forms of Higher Thought and attempts to expand Knowledge. In the end I am POSITIVE that ALL WHO EARNESTLY SEEK TRUTH will find GOD no matter WHICH ROAD they take in that direction.

I never saw a Moor
I never saw the Sea
But I know how the heather looks
'And what a Billow be.

I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in Heaven
Yet, certain am I of the spot,
As though the chart were given.


~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Understanding Higgs Boson is no more important than achieving a true understanding of Shakespeare, Beethoven –– or the Holy Bible. It os entirely possible they may all be one and the same at the deepest or highest level of Understanding.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

I thought that it was a pretty good summary of the QFTs explanation as to the nature of mass, time, energy, gravity, and matter. It was certainly the best I've seen to date.

FreeThinke said...

If I had your training and level of expertise in that area, I would probably agree, but I'm more a touchy-feely type, and always at my best when my head is planted high up in the clouds –– where the silver linings may be found. ;-)

I can never remember which hemisphere of the brain contains the creative, artistic and intuitive attributes, and which the mathematical, "facts and figures" orientation, but I obviously belong in the former hemisphere.

I wonder if anyone is fully developed on both sides? If so, must be rare.

Since I am, perhaps, unduly sensitive to SOUND, especially regarding quality of TONE, I find it all-but impossible to listen to harsh, grating, pounding, throbbing noise, hence my absolute abhorrence of and inability to tolerate mid-to-late-twentieth-and-early-twenty-first- century "pop" music. No matter how good the information, if it's delivered in an unpleasant voice devoid of warmly expressive qualities, I simply tune out.

Probably a flaw in my makeup, but "it is what it is."

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Men typically have asymmetric brain hemispheres, with the right being slightly larger than the left. Females are more symmetric.

And you probably have a well developed tonotopy. I don't suppose that your someone with perfect pitch?

Gert said...

I like neutrinos: 7,000,000,000 per square cm and per second of the little critters pass through any point on Earth, including you and me!) per square cm and per second! We live in a hyper-shower of them, all the time, isn't that amazing?

QFT: one fine day I might understand that but in QP I kind of got stick on perturbation theory recently, so there you go... That damned Dirac algebra doesn't agree with me very well.

Keep warm!

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

It must be nice to have the smarts to do the math. I barely passed Calculus following rote procedures. And I bluffed my way through deriving the physics equations with "partial credits" :)

Gert said...

My daughter has her QP exam (third year astrophysics) tomorrow and she's crapping herself. Hates the stuff. I love it but when it goes beyond calculus I tend to nod off...

But I do use quite a bit of QP in chemistry.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Well good for her, I hope she does well. Not enough women in the STEM fields. I work with a lot of astrophysicists, building instruments for satellites. They write the Level I Science requirements, and we take it from there.

FreeThinke said...

I admire you both for being far more in tune with the times than I could ever hope to be.

Like Edwin Arlington Robinson's Miniver Cheevy I'm very much afraid i was "born too late."

Your description of untold billions of neutrinos moving over under around and through everything everywhere, does tend to confirm my belief that "matter," as we perceive it, does not really exist. What-appears-to-be solid is really little more than highly concentrated masses of pure energy. EVERYTHING is alive, moving and changing constantly albeit at different rates of speed.

The ideas of permanence and stability, which so many long for are probably illusory.

I often think of myself, my loved ones, my friends, my home, my beloved antique furniture, my antagonists, and the earth, itself, as very small particles in a Cosmic Soup of unfathomable proportions.

Gert said...

"Well good for her, I hope she does well."

She thinks she's passed but only just. I hope so because I can't face the drama if she has to resit that one in September! ;-)

Gert said...

As regards, not enough women in the sciences, I could not agree more!

Besides, how many 'nail-bars cum tanning salons' do we really need??? ;-)

Gert said...

Nothing to do with QFT/QP but cool:

Aluminium boat floating on SF6 [b]GAS[/b], then it sinks by 'taking SF6 on board':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PJTq2xQiQ0

Thersites said...

That is kinda cool... a good reminder as to why it isn't wise to go into a tank w/o checking the oxygen level and for presence of combustible/toxic vapors...