This space takes inspiration from Gary Snyder's advice:
Stay together/Learn the flowers/Go light

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Enchanting music rendered beautifully

Two pieces that have given me a great deal of enjoyment over repeated listenings in recent weeks are the Danish  National Symphony Orchestra's performances of Vangelis' Blade Runner Suite and Hans Zimmer's Interstellar Suite. The second piece has a Tubular Bells quality to it, bringing back fond memories. Overall, the orchestra is highly successful in conveying the atmosphere of the movies. From both there's a spirit of enjoying the music-making.

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Monday 7 June 2021

The basics: Evidence for the spiritual

1 The Transcendental Desires 
This is the basic argument for a soul from Plato to contemporary Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan:

(1) we have five transcendental desires for perfect truth, love, justice/goodness, beauty, and being;

(2) we must have an awareness of what we desire; therefore, we have an awareness of each transcendental;

(3) we have the capacity to recognize every imperfection in experiencing these desires, which would not be possible unless we were aware of their perfection;

(4) the source of our awareness must itself be perfect truth, love, justice/kindness, beauty and being. This leads to the conclusion that this source (i.e. God) is present when we are aware of imperfection in these “transcendentals”;

Therefore, we are transcendent.

2 God’s Presence to Our Consciousness
The evidence for our interior awareness of a transcendent reality can be correlated with the experiences of thousands of others in different cultures and religions in 3 particular ways:

(1) The numinous experience—in which the numen presents itself as mysterious, daunting, fascinating, good, and empathetic, and invites us into itself;

(2) religious intuition—in which we sense that the sacred transcendent reality has broken into the world, inviting us to draw closer to the sacred reality through sacred place, ritual, and myth;

(3) conscience—through which an omniscient, invisible, searcher of hearts bids us to do good and avoid evil.

3 Human Intelligence vs Artificial and Animal Intelligence
There are 4 ways in which humans are connected to the transcendent that artificial intelligence is not: (1) the five transcendental desires as in 1.

(2) the formulation of conceptual ideas, such as abstract inter-relational ideas;

(3) self-consciousness, experiencing of experiencing, and the experience of inwardness—David Chalmers’ hard problem of consciousness;

(4) transalgorithmic mathematical thinking, manifest by Gödel’s theorem.

Furthermore, studies by philosopher of language Noam Chomsky reveal that humans are categorically different from primates in linguistic capabilities and in their capacity to formulate conceptual ideas in language, logic, mathematics, natural science, social science, and philosophy.

4 Free Will and Original Sin
Free will can only arise out of capacities found in our transphysical soul (see the 12 Capacities of the Transphysical Soul below). For example, at the center of free will is our capacity for self-consciousness enabling us to not only to grasp ourselves, but also to choose the powers and desires that will ultimately define the “self” we grasp. We are confronted from childhood by two fundamental options: the option to aggrandize ourselves and to possess others and the material world, or the option to pursue relationships with God and others and to submit to the requirements of conscience and empathy/love.

5 Near-Death Experiences
There is a growing body of legitimate research around near-death experience reports, and peer-reviewed scientific journals have published a number of actual medical studies on the subject. While an NDE is a subjective experience, what we do know is that tens of thousands of people report having one, and similar characteristics are reported across the range of individual experiences.

Additional “evidence” is the report of veridical data, and the fact that 80% of blind NDErs report being able to see during their experience. The most conservative interpretation of NDEs is that some aspect of human consciousness is non-physical and continues after physical death. We call this a soul.

See more information on this argument here. Source: Magis Center

The 12 Capacities of the Soul

1. The capacity for self-consciousness (inwardness)—allowing us to experience and apprehend ourselves and to create a private inner world.

2. The capacity for conceptual ideas—allowing us to have abstract thoughts, syntactical control, and conceptual language

3. The desire for perfect truth—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in our knowledge, causing us to ask questions indefinitely until we reach perfect truth.

4. The recognition of the spiritual-sacred-numinous-transcendent reality (God)—causing fascination, worship, awe, and obedience, which draws us to enter into a deeper relationship with Him, bringing us to his transcendent, eternal, and sacred essence.

5. The desire for perfect home—enabling us to recognize the imperfections of our worldly existence, causing us to pursue the sacred and Its source until we have reached our perfect home.

6. The capacity for empathy—which recognizes the unique goodness and lovability of the other, creating the desire to care about and care for the other even to the point of self- sacrificial love.

7. The desire for perfect love—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in love, causing us to pursue deeper and more authentic love until we have reached perfect love.

8. The capacity for moral reflection originating from conscience—which is God’s moral presence to our self-consciousness.

9. The desire for perfect justice/goodness—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in justice/goodness (in groups, organizations, and community), causing us to pursue more perfect forms of justice and the common good until we have reached perfect justice/goodness.

10. The capacity to appreciate and be filled by the beautiful in nature, music, art, architecture, literature, intellectual ideas, love, and goodness—causing us to seek ever greater forms of beauty until we reach perfect beauty-majesty-splendor itself.

11. The desire for perfect beauty—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in beauty, causing us to pursue ever greater beauty until we reach perfect beauty itself.

12, The capacity for free will—self-consciousness’ orientation toward either itself or toward others and God (in goodness and love.

Our transcendental capacities are so great that we can be satisfied only by Him, who is perfect truth, love, justice/goodness, beauty, and home. As Augustine noted at the beginning of the Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

See more on this topic here

See also this article, which develops the topic more comprehensively  

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 Source of this material - go to the Magis Center here


Friday 4 June 2021

Suffering leads to growth. So embrace it!

For Rhian Mannings, a double blow of the death of a one-year-old child and the suicide of her husband threw her into a state of trauma. When a police officer told her of her husband's death..."my whole body went. I wet myself, I started dribbling and being sick down myself. It went on for days and days, and I couldn’t lift my head off my chest.”

Nine years later she says: “I went through all this trauma. I was knocked off my feet to a place that I never want to experience again. I went right downhill, but then I came back up. I know it’s made me a different person, a better person.”

In that time Mannings developed from a life as ordinary wife, mother and physical education teacher in Wales to be the leader of a charity that supports families who lose young ones, and she has been recognised with the national MBE honour, and last year, the Pride of Britain award for her service to the community.

Mannings could be regarded as a case study for the body of research that shows suffering, even to the extent of trauma, as a result of, to offer some examples, unemployment, bereavement, a car accident or a natural disaster, often leads to personal growth. This post-traumatic growth means “the positive changes that occur in the aftermath of a trauma as a result of the process of a struggle with these traumatic events”. 

Richard Tedeschi, distinguished chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Post-Traumatic Growth, lists five areas of growth that people speak of in the aftermath of their suffering: increased personal strength; increased connection with and compassion towards others; greater appreciation and gratitude for their life, especially the small things; they might find a new mission in life; and they undergo an existential change, engaging with questions about the purpose, meaning and value of their life. Studies suggest that 58-83% of trauma survivors report a positive change in at least one area.

Tedeschi explains:

 “Post-traumatic growth is not happiness. It often coexists with distress.” It is an experience of loss and mourning so profoundly painful that it changes you for ever. “It’s hard-won wisdom. It’s knowing things viscerally or in your bones. It’s easy to say: ‘Appreciate life!’ or ‘Treat other people well!’, but doing that in the aftermath of a transformative trauma is a different way of understanding. It’s living it, having it in your gut.”

It's interesting the prominence given to a person's core belief systems in predicting a positive outcome when dealing with trauma. This is brought out in this excerpt from the source report:

 Tedeschi’s definition of trauma is interesting. “We don’t define it in terms of a list of traumatic events,” he says. “Instead, we define it in terms of the impact of events on the core belief system that people have.” Most of us probably aren’t aware this core belief system exists, until it shatters, as Mannings' did.

Those with a well-formed core belief system often have a resilience "where people bounce back from adversity, and go back to how things were before." But we have also to recognise that people are sometimes in circumstances that batter them down to a state it's hard to recover from. So the community has to be ready to respond, and that is what Rhian Mannings and her charity do.

Developing a mindset that can prepare a person for suffering large and small is a big area of Buddhist teaching, but here is a preferred selection from the inspired word of God (English Standard Version):

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18 

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. Proverbs 17:3 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7  

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 

Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Romans 5:3-4

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12 

Therefore, in this treasury of Christian insight - signifying a powerful belief system that invokes a relationship with our Creator - there is the understanding that suffering is part and parcel of life. That idea encourages discipline, respect for others as we're all in this together, and strength of character. 

Moreover, these quotations emphasise that suffering is a valuable part of life because of the reassurance that we are not alone in our misery, because of the attributes it develops in us, and because it motivates us to surmount the inclination to avoid suffering and to press on in serving the greater good of those around us. 

To take up one theme of this blog, parents have a great opportunity in this area, They should further their children's social and psychological maturing by modeling a spiritual dimension in the handling of their own tribulations in this "vale of tears". 

At the other end of this earthly season, old people should rejoice in the difficulties of their life, the usual aches and pains, even serious disease and loss of capacity to cope independently. It's a matter of regarding life still as an opportunity to grow and not give up like cowards before the journey ends. The best advice from the trauma specialists is to enjoy the little things that can lessen the torment of the road. 

For us all, this saying may have some value:

Pain is the door through which God enters the heart. It is the bonfire to purify the soul.

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Wednesday 2 June 2021

Dawkins in trouble again over 'Abort it' reply

Richard Dawkins, the British scientist, writer and strong adherent of the cult of atheism, has just shown an aspect of his thought that smacks of eugenics.

During a radio interview he was asked about a statement he made in 2014 on Twitter in answer to this question put to him by one of his 2.9 million followers: 'I honestly don't know what I would do if I were pregnant with a kid with Down Syndrome. Real ethical dilemma.'

Dawkins pinged back: 'Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.'

It's revealing that both parties recognised that they were talking about a human child, but only the questioner seemed to have any qualms about killing the child. 

Prompted by Brendan O'Connor of RTE Radio in Ireland in early May, Dawkins tried to rationalise his Twitter response, specifically why it would be "immoral" to have a baby with Down's Syndrome. He told listeners:

Given the amount of suffering in the world probably does not go down — probably goes up — compared to having another child who does not have Down's Syndrome, that's what I meant.

The scientist was then asked how knew 'it increases the amount of suffering in the world'. His reply:

I don't know for certain . . . it seems to me to be plausible that if a child has any kind of disability, you would probably increase the amount of happiness in the world more by having another child instead.

O'Connor asked what his evidence was for that. He could respond only with: 'I have no direct evidence, no.'

British newspaper columnist, Dominic Lawson, who has a daughter with Down's Syndrome, gives some factual information that makes plain how scientists tend to over-reach in their declarations:

If Dawkins had bothered to do any research, he would have come across a peer-reviewed paper in the October 2011 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics, which surveyed 300 people with Down's aged 12 and over. It concluded: 'Nearly 99 per cent of people with DS indicated that they were happy with their lives, 97 per cent liked who they are and 96 per cent liked how they looked.'

That's a weird kind of 'suffering'.

But, Dawkins might retort: what about the families of children with Down's? Here again, the American Journal of Medical Genetics has done the work. Five years ago, it published three surveys covering more than 2,000 families and concluded: 'All three had similar positive findings, with parents/guardians and siblings overwhelmingly expressing love and pride for their family member [with Down's].

This is certainly true of my family: our younger daughter Domenica has Down's Syndrome and, at the risk of sounding soppy, she is a whirlwind of joy.

Tomorrow she celebrates her 26th birthday; her friends will come for a picnic at our house to join the family for that special occasion. Such moments — and, indeed, lives — defy the glib generalisations of Richard Dawkins.

Although it has now been forgotten, the person who asked Dawkins for advice about Down's followed up with another question via Twitter: 'What about people on the autistic spectrum? Where would you draw the line?'

Dawkins answered: 'People on that spectrum have a great deal to contribute, maybe even an enhanced ability in some respects. DS not enhanced.'

This suggests that his real objection to the idea of voluntarily having a child with Down's is not so much a horror of 'suffering' but an unspoken disapproval of people with no 'societal utility' — as if those with below average intelligence are incapable of "contributing".

It is perhaps no coincidence that Richard Dawkins is a man whose most well-known works are a development of the insights of Charles Darwin. The great Victorian scientist had strong views about the risks of overbreeding among 'inferior' types.

These were turned into full-blown eugenicism by [Darwin's] cousin, Sir Francis Galton. That doctrine had terrible consequences in the 20th century, not just in Germany, where it led to the compulsory euthanasia of tens of thousands of children then termed 'handicapped', but even in supposedly civilised Sweden, where forced sterilisation was practised until 1975.

I am not accusing Dawkins of any sympathy for such policies. But I still feel some anger at his opinion that to bring a person like my daughter into the world is 'immoral'. To be precise: I am angry about his ignorance rather than about any insensitivity, in asserting that people like my daughter are a net addition to the world's misery. 

Lawson also refers to the Scottish mother, Lynn Murray, whose daughter Rachel has Down's and who runs the Don't Screen Us Out campaign. Murray and Rachel are on the right of the picture at the top of this post.

Murray said Dawkins' comments were absurd: 

By saying what he has about people with Down’s Syndrome, Richard Dawkins is offending a whole social group in one fell swoop, perpetuating old stereotypes. His opinions by his own admission are uninformed.

My daughter has Down’s Syndrome, she is 21 now and it’s been a privilege to see the positive effect she has had on so many people over the years. She has enriched lives.

He upset myself and many other people in 2014 when he said it was ‘immoral’ to give birth to a child with Down’s Syndrome.

Years later, when he has had much time to consider his opinions, he still persists with his discriminatory, inflammatory narrative, declaring that a specific group of people, just by their very existence make the world a worse place.

All humans are different, we all need support at different times and nobody’s ‘perfect’; that is part of humanity and what makes society rich and what makes life interesting.

What, then, of  Iceland, which is often cited as a country where Down's Syndrome has almost ceased to appear?

The following information is from CBS News, which reported from Iceland in 2017:

Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women - close to 100 percent - who received a positive test for Down's Syndrome terminated their pregnancy.

While the tests are optional, the government states that all expectant mothers must be informed about availability of screening tests, which reveal the likelihood of a child being born with Down's Syndrome. Around 80 to 85 percent of pregnant women choose to take the prenatal screening test, according to Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik.

When Thordis Ingadottir was pregnant with her third child at the age of 40, she took the screening test. The results showed her chances of having a child with Down's Syndrome were very slim, odds of 1 in 1,600. However, the screening test is only 85 percent accurate. That year, 2009, three babies were born with Down syndrome in Iceland, including Ingadottir's daughter Agusta, who is now 7.

Since the birth of her daughter, Ingadottir has become an activist for the rights of people with Down's Syndrome.

As Agusta grows up, "I will hope that she will be fully integrated on her own terms in this society. That's my dream," Ingadottir said. "Isn't that the basic needs of life? What kind of society do you want to live in?"

Geneticist Kari Stefansson is the founder of deCODE Genetics, a company that has studied nearly the entire Icelandic population's genomes. He has a unique perspective on the advancement of medical technology. "My understanding is that we have basically eradicated, almost, Down's Syndrome from our society - that there is hardly ever a child with Down's Syndrome in Iceland anymore," he said.

[CBSNews] asked Stefansson, "What does the 100 percent termination rate, you think, reflect about Icelandic society?" He replied:

"It reflects a relatively heavy-handed genetic counseling," he said. "And I don't think that heavy-handed genetic counseling is desirable. … You're having impact on decisions that are not medical, in a way."

Stefansson noted, "I don't think there's anything wrong with aspiring to have healthy children, but how far we should go in seeking those goals is a fairly complicated decision."

According to Hulda Hjartardottir, head of the Prenatal Diagnosis Unit at Landspitali University Hospital: "We try to do as neutral counseling as possible, but some people would say that just offering the test is pointing you towards a certain direction." Indeed, more than 4 out of 5 pregnant women in Iceland opt for the prenatal screening test.

So, when it comes down to the reasons why Icelanders abort their "suspect" babies the main ones are that there is social pressure to conform, bolstered by the official structures through the testing and counseling regimes, and a certain fear of  the unknown.

 It is clear that, as in many societies, there is no guiding principle in the parents' life - I mean a belief in God's providence - that might lift them out of the mundane and into a  realm of new opportunities for the enjoyment of life in all its variety. In other words, we might say "modern" people lack a sense of the spiritual and of enchantment, which opens up on to a world of joy that the Down's Syndrome families experience. If only Richard Dawkins, in all his brilliance, were wise enough to see what people with Down's Syndrome might teach him!

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Tuesday 1 June 2021

Time to confront poisonous US culture

Newsom: "...take a little damn responsibility, all of us". Photo from KCRA 3 video
Two thoughts to start the month of June with: Each age has its over-arching outlook on what is important in life; secondly, to succeed in life so as to be fully human means personally reassessing our goals, digging deep into what guides us in the setting of our ambitions. 

Last week, in a cry from the heart after the shooting deaths of nine workers at a transport yard in California, Governor Gavin Newsom asked: "What the hell is going on in the United States of America? What the hell is wrong with us?"  

Newsom called out the mentality of Americans in apparently accepting the inevitability of gun violence - "It just feels like this happens over and over and over again — rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat." He went on:  "And here we are, in the United States of America, where we're experiencing something that just is not experienced anywhere else in the world."

He highlighted the "numbness" and the "fury and frustration" that builds up within the population as a whole over the deaths by shooting, whether mass shootings or the inner-city toll. "And what are we doing to come to grips with this?... It's time to ... wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility, all of us".

Two other signs that all is not well in American society, in fact, that the culture has turned toxic, are the high number of girls presenting as deeply unhappy and wishing to become male, and the rising count of young people with mental health problems.

On the first matter, are good summary of the state of affairs is given in the following two paragraphs from an American source:

The vast majority of youth now presenting with gender dysphoria are adolescents who suddenly express revulsion with their sex from birth, and 70% of them were born female. Many of them have co-morbidities such as anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum traits, and depression, Malone explains, which need to be considered.

This newer presentation — which has been termed late-, adolescent-, or rapid-onset gender dysphoria — has now been seen in every gender clinic in the Western world, and there has been a huge surge in the number of cases. One recent US survey found a 4000% increase (over 40-fold) since 2006, and there have been similar large increases in Finland, Norway, the Netherlands Canada, and Australia.

The Malone in "Malone explains" refers to William Malone, MD, an assistant professor of endocrinology practicing in Twin Falls, Idaho.

The "social contagion" of a materialistic, money- and me-focused culture is having a broader impact also. This year's The State of Mental Health in America report from the Mental Health America organisation has as its three top findings: 

Youth mental health is worsening. 9.7% of youth in the U.S. have severe major depression, compared to 9.2% in last year’s dataset. This rate was highest among youth who identify as more than one race, at 12.4%.

Even before COVID-19, the prevalence of mental illness among adults was increasing. In 2017-2018, 19% of adults experienced a mental illness, an increase of 1.5 million people over last year’s dataset.

Suicidal ideation among adults is increasing. The percentage of adults in the U.S. who are experiencing serious thoughts of suicide increased 0.15% from 2016-2017 to 2017-2018 – an additional 460,000 people from last year’s dataset.

What a toxic society these statistics reveal! However, evidence of such a diseased existence appears wherever a family-oriented society loses its willingness to accept the discipline that the exercise of loving mutual support demands. I'm writing from Vietnam, where I see warped Western values beginning to undermine the traditional solidarity of families and of community.

Here is one observer's description of the root cause of where a nation can go wrong in its culture, especially one like the United States that is rapidly revealing its underlying secular lifestyle, and that prides itself in its individualism:

There is so much division in society today, simply because the individual is facing a crisis of meaning and purpose.  Because of secularism, man does not believe in a creator or the existence of the Ultimate, whom we call God.  He has no idea of his own origin, purpose in life or the outcome at the end of this life.  The world teaches us that the universe, and that includes us all, comes from the random interactions of atoms. It is by accident that we were born into this world.  Life has no meaning, no intrinsic value, except to make the most of what this world offers, at the end of which we return to the universe as atoms. This lack of purpose means that we are called to live for ourselves.  There is no reference point, no objective truth or morals to follow.  It is all about me finding fulfillment in this life.  People are important to me insofar as they can enrich my life.  This is what individualism is all about.

That godless, therefore unanchored and atomised, style of living has certainly taken root in American society, in much of the West, and in richer countries elsewhere. The forms of technology that have arisen in the past 50 years have shaped Western culture, as have the loud proponents of today's stunting form of science that, along with corporate greed, debases ethical standards and fertilizes the desire for ease and entertainment as the true ends of life.

It's clear that each nation has a pattern of thinking that is part of its unique culture. However, the carriers of each culture have to take responsibility for what they accept within the inheritance they pass on to later generations. 

Therefore, parents, in the first instance, need to be determined in taking stock of their own lifestyle and to decide on ways to protect their young ones from the poisonous mindset that envelops society as a whole. They have to realise that their family must stand up to the powerful influences of academia, social media and mainstream media. In addition, social structures such as the school have succumbed to the general contagion and so, to preserve what good remains and to rebuild what has been debased, counter-cultural families must work together. To this end, useful resources can be shared, and new communities developed. Resources for such a project include texts as given here and here.

Governor Newsom is right to be worried about the American way of life and in calling for everyone to take responsibility for transforming American culture. That same plea applies to all of us in whatever culture is our own. This is the time to be counter-cultural wherever we are and family by family, in a way that develops the common good. The young especially need to see that we are not redeemed by science but by that wonderful dimension of reality revealed by God, namely a love that is powerful and everlasting. This is the source of meaning and peace of mind. May God give you success in the work of your hands in this transformational project! 

UPDATE: To get an insight into the nature of the contagion we are exposed to, go here.  

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Thursday 27 May 2021

Time to relax


Hi. Go to full screen to appreciate the visuals that accompany the narrative.
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Beauty and uncertainty - the art of science

‘Data becomes sensation’ in Halo.  Photo: Claudia Marcelloni CERN

Wonderment, beauty, uncertainty. These are the qualities that scientists repeatedly cite as being at the heart of their work. We see how these elements are to the fore in an article on an effort to translate the findings of astrophysicists into forms that the general public can appreciate, revealing the "frameworks" scientists use to understand their data. 

Halo is an art installation produced by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, artists who like to dramatise extreme cosmic events with visual aids. In their latest effort they have converted raw data culled from subatomic particle collisions at Cern in Switzerland, where they have been working as artists, into a melange of light, sound and curious tactile effects. “We have put data into a form where you can feel it,” says Jarman. “Data becomes sensation.”

Inside Halo, 384 vertical wires are arranged in a circle surrounding visitors, each throbbing out the patterns of data in sync with the lights. If you touch a resonating wire, you can convince yourself you’re feeling the universe coming into being. 

Jarman says Cern scientists have welled up on stepping into Halo, apparently perceiving in it a simulation of the elegance they find in equations and theories. “For me,” says Professor Antonella De Santo, the Sussex University physicist involved in the project, “this is the first time I have sensed the scientific beauty I experience in my career in artistic form.”

[Halo is about] getting humans to experience what goes on beyond the limits of human experience, the vast forces of nature operating on Earth and beyond, or shifting the imponderables of quantum physics into visual and auditory form.

Neither Jarman or Gerhardt have scientific backgrounds. Rather, they are making a kind of outsider science art. That outsider perspective gives them a refreshing sense of what science amounts to. “We think of science as all about facts,” says Jarman. “But what are facts? And what is data? A lot of what scientists know is more like fiction. What we’re doing is revealing their frameworks in a way that everyone can understand. Without a framework, we couldn’t know anything. But that framework isn’t fixed. It’s unfinished business.”

Professor De Santo agrees. “The best scientists are humble. They don’t presume to know everything. They live in uncertainty.” Indeed, for her that humble stance is what guides her work, which is at the cutting edge of the new physics that goes beyond what is known as the Standard Model. That model, she explains, told us there were 17 building blocks of nature: six quarks, six leptons, four force-carrier particles, and the Higgs boson. “But it was incomplete. It didn’t include gravity. It said neutrinos don’t have mass, which they do. And it didn’t include dark matter. I don’t believe in a theory of everything. I’m not arrogant enough to suppose we will ever know everything.”

This blog has several posts on the beauty of the world around us, as well as the degree of ignorance that remains as to how the world works. I invite you to check out the archive using the menu on the right.

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