| Mathemagical Theory |
[Jun. 7th, 2004|04:38 pm] |
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Don't quite have time to do a full write-up, but set theory is coming in handy for statements of intent. Sometimes I fret about the 'monkey's paw effect,' and worry that if I'm not careful about specifying my intended results, they'll go wrong in some entertaining way. But I don't want to overcomplicate matters. So, I defined a set T with the characteristics I needed, and sent out an ether-pulse to attract T. Far more compact, and I had to put a lot of thought into properly defining T, which means that I was able to happily distract my L-brain with pseudomath and get it out of the way of the spookymojo. |
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| Discordian Book Meme |
[Apr. 6th, 2004|12:42 am] |
Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 23, find line 5. Write down what it says, along with this sentence, and post it in your journal.
(c) If * is commutative on S, then * is commutative on T.
I'm getting some cross-talk with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) autodidactic's post with a similar instruction, so I'll also post page 18, line 4 (bracketed items indicate symbols I don't know how to HTML):
invertible by describing an inverse. Assume t [is an element of] T. Then, because [alpha] is onto, there is at least |
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| Love, Runes, and Quantum Physics |
[Mar. 29th, 2004|02:06 am] |
The continuing adventures of my exegeses on Weird Science (I just realized, perhaps I should start spelling that 'Wyrd Science') will continue, I promise, but I haven't had the time to make them really good, even though the information is down on paper in shotgun format.
I saw What the #$*! Do We Know?! on Friday night. I don't know if anyone outside of Portland has heard of it... it was filmed here. It's kind of a documentary, I guess; there are interviews with philosophers and physicists and neurobiologists, spliced with fiction about a woman who experiences things that the former are talking about. The especially odd thing was seeing a movie about how the observer affects the observed in the very movie theater some of the scenes were filmed in. It was like getting physically beaten with synchronicity. Of particular interest was an experiment in which written words placed on beakers of water supposedly altered the water molecules; I might try to see the fellow who did the experiment speak. Regardless of the real results of the experiment, I've been trying to think of how I could adjust the ink in my trusty Sharpie to be a homeopathic mnemo-enhancing agent.
johnnybadhair asked me to make him a set of punk-rock runes like the one I've got. I told him that I would do it as soon as I'd learned mine, so I'd have motivation. There are 24 runes in three aetts of eight. So I've taken to writing them on my fingers, one rune per finger joint. It seems to be helping to make associations—for any given rune there are the runes immediately adjacent within its aett, and there are the ones in its vertical column between aetts. I think I have a firm grasp on fehu, so I've been mostly thinking about uruz lately, just obsessing over it and considering it and really not doing anything too formal other than that. I shall meditate upon it on my next bus ride and see if any new insights arrive.
Finally, I had a chat with the Barbeloids about a Bad Idea I've been mulling over. It's so, so tempting to reach for the wand when I'm feeling heartbroken... but if I love her, I'm going to have to just be fuckin' awesome (magic may or may not be invoked there), trust her to make the decision that's right for her, and cross my fingers that I'll be in that decision. (The independent benefit of working on myself rather than on her is that it allows for finding and attracting someone better suited for me, if such a person exists and is acceptably nearby in my probability cone.) A friend's tarot pull suggested that persistence may be rewarded, but that it will have to be of the practical and patient kind rather than anything active. I've done all I can in that area. |
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| Shoutouts |
[Mar. 10th, 2004|12:05 am] |
charmingmonstrs: I wish I knew more or had time to look it up, but check out random graphs and small world networks, re: your meeting new folks spellcraft. I believe I read that if you add edges randomly to a set of vertices, you get not much overall connectivity, not much overall connectivity, then BAM! huge bunches of connections start showing up in chunks. Makes me think that some kind of version of magical pickup sticks might be a good focus, or cat's cradle, or anything with a collection of vertices and edges being added between them haphazardly. (Hm... something crackly like varnish, maybe?)
autodidactic: I really am going to send you scans of my hands some day! Interesting story: I know you wanted my dominant hand, but you'll get both. The reason? When I was two, I had not quite chosen hand dominance yet. I was at May Co. with my mother, great aunt, and grandmother, and they took their eyes off me for a split second. Kids being kids, I took that opportunity to play on the escalator. I fell, and caught myself with my left hand... getting it stuck in the escalator, and getting my ring finger chewed up past the joint.
Because I was so little, and because there just happened to be a hand surgeon on call at the hospital, and because I've got mutant powers, I regrew the fingerjoint. But I think that I chose to be left-handed at the instant that I fell (hence my choice of catching hands), and the combination of intense negative reinforcement coupled with having the hand in a cast for six weeks or so fixed me as a right-hander. |
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| Complexity |
[Feb. 19th, 2004|10:44 pm] |
I came across a book of collected papers and transcripts from a 2002 colloquium on complexity and complex adaptive systems. Things that jumped out were "The Physics of Death" (in this case, 'death' being of anything from cells to stars, and totally appearing to be the paper of a Euthanatos with Etherite tendencies) and a biologist who ended his talk by musing that holistic medicine might be onto something that biology is only now beginning to approach from the opposite direction.
It's very weird when you make up some theories for kicks, not expecting them to have (ahem) 'real' validity, and then find papers from people with doctorates and reputations who appear to be talking about your made-up theories. There was one fella who damn near wrote my 'On the Nature of Ether' post, minus only the key word. |
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| Watchmaker |
[Feb. 9th, 2004|08:53 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Tool -- Cesaro Summability | ] |
Don't have time for a full report now, but I had a chat with Dr. Manhattan last night. He's going to help me live in the future if I help him to exist in the future. Since he's me, it's kind of a no-brainer. |
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| Chambers for a Memory Palace |
[Jan. 21st, 2004|05:12 pm] |
I've been building a laboratory (accent on the second syllable) in my head. There are many magic and/or self-help books that recommend that you build and explore a virtual environment. But unlike the generic sylvan glades I've halfheartedly tried to visualize before, this one is coming in very clear, presumably because there's lots of obsessional energy to harness.
There are currently two rooms in my castle. (I mean, I'm assuming it's a castle—a castle on a spiky mountaintop with a continual lightning storm brewing outside.) There's the laboratory proper: that's where I keep my workbenches (currently one for miniaturized implants, and one for chemicals of some kind but I don't know what my subconscious is intending it for for sure), a locker of specialized environmental gear (I suspect it has both protective clothing and costumes for extra-dimensional excursions), and a chamber flooded with pure ether half-recessed in the center of the floor. The top has a sort of basin built into it so that there is ether exposed to the air and to prodding and pulsing, but most of it is closed off. When activated, it extrudes itself higher out of the floor so that the door is available. I haven't walked through it yet.
The other room is a library or study. It's as luxurious as the other is utilitarian—dark and cozy but with good reading lights, with walls full of books and chalkboards, an armchair, and a fainting couch for deep thought. One of the books is 'On the Dynamics of Social Systems,' to remind me to research the emotional temperature effect I described earlier (wrt a bombing stand-up comedian).
That's the other neat thing: by thinking about weird science a lot, it's beginning to venture beyond being a standard method of self-delusion/magic, and start to affect my thoughts about more normal concerns. I find myself wanting to take psychology courses, so I can pin down the elusive Social Butterfly Effect... |
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| Publish or Perish |
[Jan. 17th, 2004|04:46 pm] |
Not to whine for attention or anything, but if anyone has any commentary on my weird science tear—anything from "I don't understand" to "I think you should be thinking about X" to "This is fucking stupid"—I'm interested. I really want to take this somewhere, ideally somewhere out of my current headspace.
If there isn't any desire to do so that's totally cool and won't hurt my feelings, but I'll spend less time on the prose and get more outliney if this is all just for my benefit. |
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| Topics in Science, Part 2: Applied Bionomy |
[Jan. 14th, 2004|09:41 pm] |
The first Scientist was a shaman. Botanist, chemist, paramedic, and psychotherapist in one, the shaman may share methods with lay sorcerors, but his primary concern is always that of his people's subsistence and health. He observes and experiments with any and all techniques, based on personal aptitude and available materials, to achieve the goal of a populace of sound body and mind. This method is expressed in the modern world as applied etheric bionomy, in which biological processes are identified and manipulated by whatever means are found effective. (This ruthless practicality may explain the... exuberance of certain Scientists in the bionomic field, particularly in relation to the theory of corpse reanimation.)
Before discussing typical bionomic research, I would like to first distinguish between a medical technique and a medical model. A medical technique is an action taken upon a body for a desired effect, such as the taking of a drug (natural or manufactured), or the use of needles in acupuncture. A medical model is the explanation for why the technique works, such as biochemistry, or chi and meridian theory.
With that distinction made, I can now discuss the standard pattern of bionomic research. First, the bionomist explores the new techniques with respect to her previous medical knowledge (typically the Western model of medicine), considering the placebo effect, endorphins, auto-immune response, and so forth. This expands what she is capable of doing within the context of her original medical model—she has absorbed the new techniques, without needing to absorb new theories. However, the next step is to explore her previously known techniques according to the new model. This will extend knowledge in the direction of the new paradigm: What is the meridian theory of the endocrine system? What effect does a martial artist's kiai have on the hippocampus? As more and more models are incorporated into a Scientist's repertoire, the more each one can be extended—the whole of her knowledge becomes more than the sum of its parts. And she can enjoy a knowing smile when unenlightened science finally catches up. |
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| Topics in Science, Part 1: Etherdynamics |
[Jan. 8th, 2004|10:41 pm] |
If you ask ten Scientists to explain a phenomenon, you'll get twenty-one theories.
Mathemagics has an infinite number of axioms. Fortean phenomenonomy is hopelessly interdisciplinary. In general, Ether Science's simultaneous embrace of wholly contradictory theories, as well as its radical leaps from field to field and its numerous sub-sub-branches, makes it impossible to come up with any sort of general overview.
However, we can codify applications by looking at the classical domains explored by occult engineers ("sorcerors"). Sorcery, divination, healing, ego magic, evocation, and invocation can all be viewed through a Scientific framework; from there, each Scientist can choose approaches to problems based on his or her aptitude and preference. One man's Orgone Particle Accelerator might be another's nonlinear solutions of the Social Butterfly Effect, but either approach leads to chatting up that ravishing astrophysicist at the party.
I have divided the primary aims of Science into four categories: Etherdynamics, Applied Etheric Bionomy, Noetic Science, and Etheric & Memetic Dimensional Science. There is plenty of crossover between the fields, and your categorization may vary, but we've got to start somewhere.
( Read more... ) |
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| On the Nature of Ether |
[Dec. 29th, 2003|10:43 am] |
I've been working on a Weird Science manifesto, and I noticed that I was throwing around the word 'ether' like confetti. I need to back up and define what ether is, so that I can work from a strong foundation.
Historically, ether was the hypothesized medium through which electromagnetic waves, such as light, travelled. According to wikipedia.org, "Aether was thought to be a fluid which was transparent, non-dispersive, incompressible, continuous, and without viscosity." Experiments showed that if ether were to exist, it had to have some very bizarre properties; so, the principle of reductionism eventually won out, and the simpler model (namely that electromagnetic waves are simply unlike physical waves, and need no medium) replaced the increasingly baroque theory of ether.
Inspired by the Sons of Ether, I've reclaimed the ether for broader purposes. Philosophically, ether is a non-analytic, non-reductionist medium for information and energy. Rather than hiding under jargon, I'll explain what I mean by example.
Consider a stand-up comedian—a bombing stand-up comedian. He gets heckled, and doesn't deal with the heckler very well. The audience is generating such an aura of hate that it is almost palpable. You are uncomfortable being in the room, but it would make you more uncomfortable to leave. Now, what is 'really' going on, analytically, is a complex informational transaction: body language and tone of voice of the comedian and the audience members, pheromones, recall of personal experiences, microtemperature changes as blood pressures rise, and who knows what else are all influencing your emotional processors to cause this sensation of discomfort. Analysis might give us some insight (ether is not anti-analytic, after all) but, paradoxically, hypothesizing an 'unnecessary' medium through which emotions propagate is a more convenient explanation than keeping track of a hundred different factors coming in through five senses.
Another example is that of a friend you know very well, to the point that you are frequently thinking the same thoughts and finishing one another's sentences—it might as well be telepathy (the common name for etheric coupling between two mental morphic fields), even if it's 'really' shared experience plus familiarity with gestures and speech patterns. Reductionism suggests that we leave it at that simple explanation; but, because ether is a non-reductionist medium, we allow it to remain as part of our model for what is going on. And that is useful because we can use our hypothetical medium to attempt other experiments that might not be suggested by the reduced model—perhaps you and your friend would make a really bitchin' rhythm section, telepaths that you are.
Ether is the ultimate paracausal medium. It is the medium through which complex systems feed back information upon themselves in their dance of self-organization. It is the medium through which ki travels along the body's meridians. It may be detectable, as in bioelectricity or pheromones or homeopathic aggregates, or so invisible that even statistical inferences register it slightly if at all, as in psychic abilities. Its objective validity is irrelevant; for example, synchronicities may be the oversensitivity of the subconscious to a particular environmental message, or coded information delivered to your door by the ether net: the end result is the same.
According to philosopher Karl Popper, a science that isn't falsifiable isn't a science at all. So it is a valid complaint that ether can be used to explain virtually anything. But science be damned—this is Science! |
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| Topics in Cryptotechnology |
[Dec. 27th, 2003|02:54 pm] |
[EDIT: This entry is incomplete, and was private until recently but I wanted to show someone something.]
To attempt a comprehensive classification of the fields of Enlightened Science would be the acme of foolishness. Mathemagics has an infinite number of axioms; Fortean phenomenonomy is a a tangled web of interdisciplinary study; etheric bionomy is replete with contradictory theories.
However, Science looks backward as well as forward, taking what has come before as a framework to be studied and reformulated. We can look to our forebears, the occultic engineers ("sorcerors") of past and present, for guidance on how to classify the applications of Science. Knowing the questions allows each Scientist to determine, based on preference and aptitude, what disciplines to use in finding the answers.
Classically, the major topics in cryptotechnology are sorcery (ritual actions with acausal results), divination (extra-sensory information gathering), evocation (summoning, communicating, and negotiating with extra-dimensional entities, or EDIs), invocation (self-identification with an EDI or qualities thereof), healing (self-explanatory), and ego magic (work done upon the self and beliefs). I have reordered and renamed these to fall in line with my vision of Science. Your results may vary.
NOETIC SCIENCE
The Noetic Sciences (from Greek noein, to think) are the studies of the mind and personality: elimination of phobias, modification of personality traits (temporarily or permanently), and learning of new cognitive skills (such as improving the ability to brainstorm) are possible goals. Techniques include meditation, neuro-linguistic programming, didactic techniques (such as mind mapping), and direct application of electrodes to the brain.
DIMENSIONAL SCIENCE
Dimensional Science is the study (and creation) of objects, entities, and geographies which have no objective validity, but affect the 'real world,' either directly or by subjectively affecting the Scientist. Dreamwork, summoning or creating extra-dimensional entities (or EDIs), and work with literary universes ('literomancy') all fall within this area.
Some Scientists choose to distinguish between memetic dimensions and etheric dimensions. Memetic dimensions are consciously created by humans via narratives (for examples, see The Invisibles, Grant Morrison et al, 2000, and "An Account of the Neverland Expedition," Gwendolyn Darling, 1911). Etheric dimensions are supposed
Dimensions may be classified into and etheric dimensions, which exist apart from human intentions (such as 'gods', manifestations of natural forces, and the like). However, this rough division causes immediate classification problems, leading us to ask ourselves questions such as, "Has Mickey Mouse has become recognized by so many billions as to be freed of his memetic origins?" Furthermore, an existentialist might argue that any 'god' is memetic in origin, while a Pythagorean would insist that any narrative is a manifestation of an etheric ideal.
I use the criterion of authorship to divide the two sorts of entities: if one can trace an entity's birth to the pen of an individual, I classify the entity as memetic; if the origins are indeterminate, either because the human creators of gods are lost in history or because the entity is untouched by human hands, I consider the entity etheric. The schema used is largely irrelevant: both types of dimensions can be interacted with in the same ways, and any EDI will prefer to be handled on its own terms—regardless of the veracity of the claim, Odin will not be amused if you claim he is a Scandinavian folk tale! Questions of classification aside, field research into etheric and memetic dimensions (also known as 'evocation', 'visionquesting', 'literomancy', 'narrative hypersigils' and the like)
Also within the domain of dimensional science is Platonic engineering, the creation of etheric programs, machines, and automatons. (Occultic engineers refer to these as 'servitors.') These devices may be simple and temporary, or may have near-biological complexity and permanence. Some may even have instructions to replicate themselves under certain conditions; but beware! The natural tendency for Scientific devices is to escape their constraints (see "On Spontaneous Nonlinear Behavior of Reanimated Organisms," V. Frankenstein, 1831); a Platonically engineered device may grow in power until it may as well be a fully independent EDI, as with the celebrated Fotamecus.
APPLIED MORPHIC FIELDS
An extension of the theory of morphic fields can explain the classical phenomenon of 'invocation.' Etheric and memetic dimensions (and their denizens) are themselves self-organizing systems; by setting up appropriate resonances, a Scientist can allow him or herself to be influenced by the fields of an EDI, thus 'skimming off' aspects of the EDIs personality and skills. Thus, the theory of applied morphic fields is a halfway point between the noetic and dimensional sciences.
ETHERIC BIONOMY
Principles of etheric bionomy may be found in the chi manipulations of acupuncturists, the olfactoro-psychology of aromatherapists, the astounding musculo-skeletal feats of martial artists, and countless other areas. Biological phenomenon are named and accounted for, and explored acco
ETHERDYNAMICS |
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| Terminonomy |
[Dec. 26th, 2003|04:04 pm] |
"The authors [of an article in Paradigma, an Etheric publication] proposed replacing the suffix '-ology' with '-onomy,' arguing that the act of identifying and naming specific phenomena (Greek nomos) was more in keeping with the dynamic willworking...as opposed to the more static process of merely collecting written material (logos) that characterizes the Technocratic [i.e., standard] approach to science.
"Ironically, the young and brash authors of the article intended it as a satirical jab at the older Victorian Scientists, with their convoluted, unwieldy language and monolithic, all-inclusive theories, but it is the Tradition's old guard that has taken the new terms to heart. Already accustomed to the tongue-twisting phonetics of their beloved bygone era, older Etherites love to rattle off such terms as 'phenomenonomy' as a challenge to younger initiates."
—Tradition Book: Sons of Ether |
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| Back off, man. I'm a Scientist. |
[Dec. 23rd, 2003|02:16 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Oingo Boingo, and if you gotta ask you'll never know | ] |
This is my favorite thing about chaos magic: The Mage: The Ascension roleplaying game has a series of books about the mage factions in the game world. I started perusing the one for the Sons of Ether, just because they're the most fun; now I own it, and I am reading it in all earnestness as a serious magico-philosophical text.
( Ave Ether! ) |
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| Chaos Humor |
[Oct. 4th, 2003|06:24 pm] |
I sigilized my desire to quit smoking and drew it on a cigarette, just up from the filter. As the sigil burned down, I visualized it forming in the ether as each element of it went up in smoke. When the realsigil was burned and the etheric one was complete, I fired it, and banished by listening to chart-friendly pop music.
Any stab I had at wanting to buy a cigarette off someone was immediately quenched over the next week. The irony, of course, is that this was such an effective method of sigil-launch, and I can't use it anymore. |
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| If this isn't the beginning of a movie... |
[Sep. 21st, 2003|01:41 am] |
Today I set off my first chaos-grenade. The concept is simple: Mime pulling a pin and throwing a grenade toward a situation that could use a wackiness and synchronicity injection, count to five ("Three, sir!") and envision an eight-rayed multicolored star explosion. Or, if you just want to invite more bizarritude into your own life, throw the pin and hold that sucker in your lap. I did some extra credit: I made a physical representation by folding an origami lotus blossom, detonated it, and left it on the subway. My theory is that finding a folded lotus blossom is a minor injection of weirdness for someone, and so it works for the spell on the principle of correspondence.
Later, my friend Kelly showed me this from the Portland Mercury Classifieds (under Miscellaneous):
WANTED: SOMEONE TO go back in time with me. Not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Bring own weapons - safety not guaranteed, only done this once before. 503-xxx-xxxx
Am I going to call?
You better fucking believe I'm going to call. |
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| Random Spookiness |
[Sep. 15th, 2003|01:01 pm] |
I went to look up a meditation technique on the Barbelith forum. When I typed in 'white flame' and hit enter, the computer froze up and the screen turned a uniform shade of octarine*. That was a good whack on the side of the head.
* - the color of magic; varies from practitioner to practitioner |
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| Narrative Hypersigil Wiki |
[Aug. 18th, 2003|09:22 pm] |
My goodness, but I love wikis.
I've written myself into a Mage game which is being run as a wiki. There are chapters set up in a linear fashion, but because of the nature of wiki, they all change nonlinearly. I'm simultaneously playing my character two days before the official story begins, and the middle of the way through it. It allows for retroactive continuity editing, side plots, erasures of events... I freaking love it. My character is pretty much just me, but with majik powerz and a personality which is slightly more charismatic and manic--he's me with the colors turned up to dayglo.
The other people involved cannot update fast enough for my taste. I want more faster more better more. I've already experienced one seriously heavy personality insight, and a couple of cute synchronicities. And it's fun magic, not puritanical—precisely what I needed to become interested. |
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| Emotional Analysis Technique |
[Jul. 15th, 2003|05:26 pm] |
One of those easy and obvious list-making techniques, but it felt effective:
When something lame happens,- list the associated fears, even (especially?) the ones that are irrational or that you don't believe are really based in fact;
- do the same for things you're angry about*
- list things you're confused about.
So, you've got your yin, your yang, and your indeterminate. The confusions are really good because you can put down those things which you need more information to contemplate, and wait for that information, rather than spend braincycles chewing on insufficient data.
*I just noticed there is no noun I'm aware of that means 'things one is angry about'... grievances is the best I can do and it's not very good |
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