Bridging the Gap

Long time readers may have picked up, in bouncing around, who knows if chronologically, that I'm claiming to be anchored more on the PATH side, where PATH - STEM are the two shores or cliffs of a dividing canyon or chasm, the C.P. Snow Chasm to be precise, a great gap between the humanities and the sciences, the latter with its "cryptic" math (as if PATH wasn't capable of being cryptic). 

My "P" is for Philosophy, but with a door wide open to Psychology ("come share our P").

Accepting my premise, that I'm a P-person, it stands to reason that I get to lecture the Theater-History folks in my wing, which dynamic duo for me includes literature, both fictional and nonfictional.  TH is storytelling, whereas "A for Anthropology" anchors those stories to we-the-humans, that "measure of all things" grounding our analogies.

In explaining Category Theory (CT) for example, I might focus on the right brain diagrams first, and the notation second.  Circles with dots in them, with pointing arrows in between.  Arrows within circles (or ovals), the morphisms, and then arrows between the circles (or ovals), the functors.

They'll tell you those dots are the objects, mere points, and we're proud of their aspectless zero dimension-hood.  We care nothing about their content.  Their inscrutability is a feature, not a bug. 

However, other times, we've zoomed back to see dots as entire categories, objects within still greater containing structures, these containers themselves categories most likely. We like to be recursive. So dots may have structure after all, if we tune them in.

The Computer Science types naturally want those objects to be types.  Motion along an arrow might be to the type of what's returned, should an object operate, or be made to function in some way, perhaps permuting into itself, a set of possible orderings. Categories provide the dirt, the growing grounds, for more elaborate structures, like groups and fields, the various algebras.

Astronomers may have less use for CT, until "Category" is temporarily hot-swapped with "Planet" in some lecture. Now think of Urbit if wanting to catch a ride back to Computer Science. 

Little Prince goes here. As does Star Trek.  As does Sun Ra. We travel the spaceways, from planet to planet, maybe in a board game, or in a simulation game wherein planet creation (terraforming) is a theme.  According to which strategies? What is "world game" in this case?

After listening awhile to my lectures, a PATH student is more likely to see CT as a way of talking about metaphors and analogies while avoiding sounding like a literature major. The whole point is to have an elegant notation and minimalist vocabulary. Let astronomers think of categories their way, as 3D, and let computer scientists think this other 2D way. CT is a glue.

Quoting from our M4W archive:

For example, re CT (Category Theory): how mistaken would it be to temporarily jigger the namespace such that "Planet" was hot swapped with "Category" just for kicks. For "arrows" (morphisms) we have the obvious characteristic that locations on a planet (the objects) may be connected any which way, implying rotation and the ability to inspect as one would a globe, by rotation (as well as by looking more closely, and from further away). Then there's looking from the inside-out.

I bring this up in part because the Cardano article in Britannica assures us that Cardano's thought process would have been characteristically "more Islamic" in giving 2D diagrammatic Euclidean constructions for everything, if I read it right. The ratiocination involved was highly geometric in other words... as was John Harland's presentation I hasten to point out (with the fences and boxes), but more in the sense of employing, versus deriving, said cubic equation.

Also w/r to "hot swappable" that's how I think of getting a 3rd powering tetrahedron in the works, as doing something the cube does, but on a different Planet (in a different Category). The unit-edge sugar-cube is not unit-volumed here on Mars, but the sugar-tet surely is. We haven't given up a certain sweetness. The Pythagorean Theorem may be shown with equilateral triangles constructed on both legs, plus hypotenuse. Still works: a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (picture triangles).

Put another way, it's not either / or. I'm leery of any logic which triggers "flight or fight" reflexes just because there's an alternative planet (another logic) in the picture. This feels too insecure. Why do either? Become friends.

 

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (movie review)

Right, Part 1, I could've added that.  Hey, I've found a new favorite channel, when it comes to talking film.  She's not Siskel & Ebert (just the one photogenic head), but she's smart and for a me a doorway to movies, directors, actors I might want to track going forward. I'm a large ignorance-cratered surface when it comes to Movie Moon (as I'll call it, branching out from pure Planets -- yes, Urbit's an influence).

I was just on a Cohen Brothers kick, and regret not a minute. 

A commenter on YouTube agrees with me:

@3TNT3 10 days ago (edited)

Maggie is pretty-much as good /great at reviewing movies as anyone else is at doing whatever it is they are best at. She never ceases to amaze and impress me. I am absolutely certain Rodger Ebert would have luuuved her!!!

I like how the hero gets a meetup with the CIA director:  sneak into a major meeting, lurk in, and spoiler alert, make everyone else oblivious with a men in black gas.  They talk, he gets an assignment, and it's off to the races, ala Lawrence of Arabia.

There's a DNI too, which makes this world reflective of the one I blog about here, recognizing it's my responsibility to design my intel networks.  Each of us must model and role model, even if not up to 007 standards in terms of fighting bad guys on moving trains (a piece of action every movie in this genre is obliged to tackle, and MI does as good a train scene as it gets).

The stereotypes are there, in a formula that knows its a formula, and celebrates formulae.  We open with those silly Russians, always shooting themselves in the figurative big toe, the butt of jokes in the old school movies.  But now, thanks to Terminator (the guv), and Sophia (the AI Barbie) we're on to AI. Dave and I agreed there's much to recommend a War of the Worlds trend, in that we're not stirring up new suspicions of our fellows (the old ones still comprise a full plate of karmic noodles).

Intel people are characterized by having lots of files on others, certainly Applewhite did.  One realizes that's already a step above average, as a lot of people are deeply focused on their own lives only, and have little interest in enlarging their perimeter of concern.  

My grandma Esther was high level intel by this criterion, in that she had a deep interest in other peoples' scenarios.  She was an eclectic reader, and with some help from our family, a world traveler.  She can be our family agent, undercover as a sketch artist specializing in women's fashion.

In the case of Tom's character, he's naturally drawn from crush to crush, favorite gravity wells or gw candidates.  The delivery seems organic.

Speaking of fashion and all these characters dressing up (in Venice especially), I'm well aware that I've overly narrowed my wardrobe, and/or costumes I'm ready to wear, whether I "own" them or not.  Given I'm in fasting mode, pending a medical test (involving echograms, but not heart), my mind turns to staying in shape enough to keep playing active roles, operational ones.  

Like two days ago, when I was enlisted to help move a lot of irrigation pipe, both aluminum ancient and PVC (leftovers from what got buried).  Does that make me some kind of Hercules?  Far from it.  I'm acutely aware of a need to shape up.  I'm always looking for coaches, who sometimes show up already internalized.  Smile.

I just need to line up the right movies, in which to direct and/or star and/or write for (I'm not inside the Hollywood ecosystem, so still have writer rights and am the host of my own show on YouTube etc.).

You'll have to go back quite a ways to find any CIA / DNI type references here in these blogs of mine, to see how and where I impart my spin.  And don't forget to search for KGB while your at it.  The tone is quite retro by design, somewhat Asteroid City but later in time.  

My writing is closer to John le Carré's than Tom Clancy's, by a long shot.  I'm more of the school that my friends need not be uber gun savvy, contrary to the cowboy WestWorld stereotype.

Like Maggie, I loved the classic car chase in Rome, with our protagonists in the little Fiat.  Yes, long, but when do we ever get this again?  Bond did a little under powered car at one point.  This time they're up against some Bradley or one of those, piloted by another spy we'd like to know more about, beyond that she's a fighter.

Morning Coffee with Kirby

During the 2020 presidential election, my line on social media was I personally liked Tulsi Gabbard and saw lots of presidential qualities, but more in a storybook fairy tale sense.  Tulsi as Little Mermaid.  

I would go on to say we needed a mafia in the White House (note lowercase, as in one of many) because presidents are at a place where "the rule of law" runs into limits, where storybook views start to crumble. That's how we talk about "black holes" too:  the laws of physics tend to "break down" yet we're obviously still curious about what goes on in them.

So here, "laws of physics" is a metaphor for "laws on the books" whereas inside the White House, all kinds of "against the law" and/or "above the law" planning goes on, often because no laws yet chart the territory the White House has to navigate.  

The law is based on precedent, argument before judges, debate, and takes time to distill.  The real world, on the other hand, "waits for no man".

So my view was the Little Mermaid (is she really that little?) aka Tulsi was "too straight of an arrow" whereas the office calls for someone more bent and twisted (crooked), more pathological in some ways.  

How could one be commander in chief of Pentagon types, who rotate into domestic policing, if one is simultaneously a crusader against all forms of corruption?  JFK was at least smart enough to appoint his bro as attorney general and let the latter typify "moral virtue" by going after the mob.

Lets talk more about cocaine, a very popular upper among the upper classes, as the stuff is expensive.  I followed Lt. Colonel Prouty's logic on that topic.  

Of course NORAD knows a lot of those small planes are carrying the stuff, said Prouty.  During the undeclared war against Nicaragua's Sandinistas, the Contras were smuggling the stuff to make money, and to fight for a cause close to the heart of many in the executive branch (West Wing types).  

Making wars self funding keeps them off the books and away from public-congressional scrutiny.  Just keep the air force from going on some crusade to cut the small aircraft supply system, and the warriors will self fund and fight in a quasi-autonomous fashion.

The stereotype the corporate media seeks to encourage is that drugs come into the Lower48 by means of pedestrians making illegal border crossings.  Sure, that happens, no question.  

But what about those airplanes making a beeline for Arkansas or somewhere else more inland?  Lets talk historically as well.  How does this circuitry all work?

Speaking of stereotypes, the movies show us Wall Street casino math types, with high expense accounts and lots of money to manage, lots of bonuses to win, needing cocaine as a job-related substance.  Much as jazz musicians smoke weed (stereotypically), your average Wall Street genius has to be in the mood to take risks, and cocaine is a mood enhancer / inducer.  

The donor class wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for all that smuggled powder.  

The White House, aware of Wall Street, aware of the DEA and DoD, has to mediate what might be construed as conflicting interests.  Wall Street perpetuates Dulles Brothers practices at some level.  Giant corporations don't turn on a dime.

The public wants scandal and righteous rage to keep it fired up and so has an appetite for finding cracks in the facade, through which the upper class is glimpsed operating "above the law".  

From the point of view of the courageous hero risk-taker, fighting communism, terrorism, authoritarianism i.e. whomever are the bad guys du jour, dealing in controlled substances is another cost of doing vital business, in defense of the country, i.e. in the name of national security.

Speaking for myself, I work to steer clear of Victorian teacuppy "soccer mom" and/or "leaf-blower dad" morality and not be shocked or scandalized by predictable patterns.  I'll play devil's advocate for the so-called corrupt some of the time.  

Prohibition comes to mind.  I imagine myself angry with the government for taking away a freedom.  I'd be a classic criminal back then, frequenting the speakeasies.  

I'd be a criminal now if I weren't in Oregon, or other state where possession of many controlled substances has been legalized.  I'm free to accept weed as a gift, and have zero guilt about it.  Yet my critics will insist that I'm guilty, and should hang my head in shame therefore.

So am I saying I'd also be open to people gifting me with cocaine?  

Actually no, I'd rather not be involved with this substance (meth either) but I'm approaching that question from the point of view of medical science.  I don't want to get hooked on, and/or get others hooked on, a substance with those particular risks and side effects.  That's not my cup of tea.  I tried the stuff once or twice, decades ago.  It wasn't for me (nor was oxy).

What I dream about are specific Coffee Shops that operate openly as places you can try various potions, poisons, concoctions, other toxins.  Yes, they're modeled on opium dens to some extent, but they're not clones of one another either.

Those operating these establishments are well trained (in theory at least) and psychologically attuned to the needs and wants of their customers, but they're also up on medical science (as are most customers, some in medical fields).  

These coffee shops may be like a health club in being membership based, and like bars in exercising their rights to eighty-six specific people (bar access), based on their track record.  Like a video rental shop (remember those?), they may have a record of customer orders (as do the streaming services).  They may be highly regulated.

If you're the kind of cowboy who jacks up on some substance, then starts brawls on a regular basis, don't be too amazed if your membership fob (or key) stops opening doors at specific establishments.  Operators have the right to ban access, just as they have the right to ban firearms on private premises (like hotels), perhaps checked into a safe or locker (retrieve when you check out).

Was I saying above that I was personally supportive of the Contras and/or encouraged cocaine smuggling and money laundering through whatever banks?  Not really.  I was busy doing my research and learning about my world back then, and so I learned about these patterns.  

I'm also aware that big pharma has contracts with many militias, to provide legal prescription drugs (the ones they push) in place of substances trafficked by unauthorized gangs.  

Some gangs get authorized, to push Oxycontin for example.  The upper classes and organized crime merge into one big cloud once you go high enough.  

That's more my point:  I don't see law abiding philosopher kings running human affairs so much as crime bosses (e.g. presidents) operating in a more ad hoc manner, making it up more as they go along.

The morally outraged tend to want jail for everyone ("lock her up";  "lock him up";  "lock them up").  When they see a president's son being treated with leniency for a profligate lifestyle, which many of them envy, their reflex is to demand "equality before the law" and demand prison time for said offspring.  

However, it would be just as logically consistent to demand everyone living similarly profligate lifestyles be treated with more leniency.  Treat us all more like presidential offspring why not?  The founding fathers might've liked that better.  Let freedom ring.

Have the net outflow from prisons increase, versus increasing the net inflow.  Tell the truth about what's happening, but don't spin the truth to create a feeding frenzy among those seeking vengeful justice through punishment.  

It'll be a lot easier to get more of the truth out once we subtract a lot of the righteous moralizing.  Lower48 might learn a thing or two from South Africa on that score.

Am I saying I favored that pardon for Lt. Col. Oliver North, in no way as sharp or clued in as Lt. Col. Prouty?  At this point I'm content to remind readers he needed a pardon, whereas no pardon has been issued for the perpetrators of the Nord Stream sabotage, an act of extreme vandalism and an expression of a juvenile psychology.  

My profile of a Nord Stream saboteur, at the planning level, is someone lacking even a high school education, but then I've taken it upon myself to redefine what that means.  Concentric hierarchy anyone?

Notes from Asylum Village

Now that my little MAP corner (Maths / Anthro / Philo) is getting some attention, I feel again the tug of many alliances.  The I Ching and/or Machiavelli probably have/has passages on this phase or status.  The category space of political objects contains lots of arrows, not to mention slings.  "Morphing" is the name of the game.  Tarot Cards as objects. aRb, bRc implies aRc (R = relates to).  Associative thinking.

Seen from my critics' angle, I'm proposing eco-tourism as a panacea, envisioning sustainable lifestyles that involve cleanup and improvements, post disaster or perhaps pre-emptively.  The eco-tourism for Donbass could be seen as a heading off more military action, with lots of folks taking selfies in Donetsk etc.  The focus is on civilian activities, not bolstering anyone's military ranks.  Not just the Donbass of course, just that's a hot spot these days, with plans for high speed rail to/from Moscow still in storyboard.

In my science fiction, we may also have a direct Aeroflot flight from PDX to Vladivostok, as inter-hemispheric west-east eco-tourism remains a two-way street.

Portland is likewise a disaster zone.  I've been hoping to drum up business around prototyping, per my EPCOT West scenario.  The tendency today is to experiment with lifestyles around sport camping equipment and RVs.  There's no appetite for terraforming ala the Rajneesh Purum experiment, even if the jobs are all in Wasco County, with Salem's supervision.  There's the Country Faire, about to start.  Hardly 24/7/365.

I've got my Asylum City playlist and am tracking what the city is doing around Tiny Houses and so on, where geodesic domes make a token appearance, more to mark a public space than to cover it.

"All math is ethnomath" was my bumper sticker like summary, of my math-teach position (Math Forum). I was arguing we could broaden our own minds, be less ethnocentric, by inventing new ethnicities, including around maths.  I have some new ethnomaths up my sleeve in fact.  I travel around in Cyberia presenting slides about it, and Jupyter Notebooks.  

Other experimentalists have carried some of these same memes forward, with or without my knowledge.  I'm not the bottleneck.