AIMC Physics

Week 12

2008-07-31T20:31:00.001-07:00

Rating "the control of artificial limbs by thought alone"

This is incredible. I found myself wanting to know more about this subject. I think it is a great idea and can be utilized by so many individual that have become limited in their movements. The process makes me shiver a bit. The thought of attaching electrodes to the surface of the brain is creepy to say the least, but when it helps your loved one have a better quality of life, creepy is easily dealt with.
It is truly amazing what we are capable of doing. Not only the technology that has been developed to make such things possible, but as well the capabilities our minds have to interact with such developments.

Bionic Person

It is difficult for me to support stuff like this. My question is, Why? Why do we need a bionic person? It seems to me that we keep testing our limits in ways that can come back to bite us incredibly hard. Creating a bionic person in an interesting idea. I can see why someone would want to attempt this feat. However, for what purpose? Is it simply to say that we can, or are we going to give it as much of a mind as possible? Will we have these bionic beings serving us at the local fast food chain one day, or will they become developed and intelligent enough to take on larger duties. It reminds me too much of a Sci-Fi thriller where one of these things is created and then it takes over the world with all of its clones. I know that sounds rediculous but with the capabilities we have these days, I don't see it as impossible.

Physics Week 11

2008-07-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Acupuncture as energy medicine:
Acupuncture is energy medicine, it creates open pathways to enable our energy to flow freely through our bodies. The practice is one that has systematized the flow of energy, seeking to standardize patterns that can then be used for treatment. the needles are really just props to facilitate energy flow.

Kielian photography:
I'm really not sure what to make of kirlian photography.
Obviously I saw the photo of my aura and my classmates, and each seemed to directly relate to their psycho-emotional state. I just don't fully understand how it could possibly work. Somthing for me to look into further. Since my third eye and crown chakras were a bit low, I am interested in doing some serious spiritual work, and returning in a few months to see if there is a visible difference.

Human Intent and Health

I believe that human intent does affect health. Clearly, our moods affect our health. Moods are really largely about intent. Dark moods create negative intentions. I think the mood-health link may just be an illustration of how intent affects our health. Beyond that, it may be that we can actively make use of intention to create better health. I think that this is obviously true as intention brings with it a presence of mind which then fosters health. I also feel that intention directly creates manifestations of good or poor health. I think that if you feel you are susceptible to an illness, you will be. You are, subconsciously, intending to make yourself vulnerable. Then, you are. I feel that many people have deep and unacknowledged sources of intention that often play a more major role in health than our conscious thoughts. For example, self-loathing that has been learned from a problematic childhood can make people sick without them ever having a specific conscious thought about illness or vulnerability.

Physics Week 10

2008-07-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

I know I am a living system because...

I breath, bleed, feel, think, move and walk, talk, reason, defecate, urinate, eat, drink, sleep and wake-up, hear and respond. One of the simplest reasons I know I am a living system is when I accidentally cut myself, watching the process;from initial bleeding, to the slowing of the blood, to a scab, then to a spot of fresh skin! Wow! Or observing any other injury heal itself is just another affirmation of my living existence.

Biophysics and Oriental Medicine:
Any health science is based on biophysics. The root 'bio' means life, so of course anything to do with health, especially Oriental Medicine will have a direct corrleation. Biophysics integrates things which are quantitative, things that are measurable. For those people with a strong scientific background or belief system, they need proof before they will believe/trust in something. Chinese medicine has been able to use western scientific technology to prove the effectivness of acupuncture. We have been able to see that energy is life, energy is information. Light energy, sound energy, water, food and all things connected with the natural world.

Physics Week 9

2008-07-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

~ Can I Synthesize East and West

I think that synthesizing east and west is an ongoing process. And actually it's a fascinating and enriching process. It becomes clear that concepts of uncertainty and indeterminacy are ones that seem to underly the universe, at least as far as the most cutting edge physicists and cosmologists are concerned. So, I don't think it'a matter of sythesizing the two, but rather coming to terms with the fact that we have no "final answers". The beauty of the Eastern viewpoint is that this is a completely satisfactory state of affairs. It adds to the wonder and the beauty of our existence.

~ My E-Prime Day

During the apparent sunrise of this seemingly Monday, I began with day with what tasted like tea and fruit. According to my so-called boss I seem to have been at work for eight and a half hours, in which time I must have interacted with perhaps dozens of horses. My evening felt relaxing and I did not seem to complete any reading or homework.
* This was much harder than I expected; I feel like the only words I can work with are : seem, felt and appeared. Because I am struggling with this, I will only try harder to work this into my daily life.

Physics Week 7

2008-06-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

~“Ordered chaos” – does this sound familiar?
It doesn't sound familiar but it cerainly IS familiar.We experience this in our lives whether we choose to see it or not. In fact, the process of moving towards death, while terribly frightening, is very ordered in the greater scheme of things. As people with other interests, things become chaotic in the face of those interests. However, in the larger picture, these things aren't chaotic at all.

~Fractals as patterns of complex systems:

Shapes and patterns as themes....yes. If I didn't believe in such things then I would have to discount the 5 elements which I do believe entirely. I believe in the systems of weather and give and take, at least on this planet. I think that given enough time, things occur again and again, the same way winter will continue to come about every year or the sun to come up every morning.Of course, if you wanted to bring it to our level, you could argue that history always repeats itself. I think that as human beings we have the ability to change such things but left unchecked then it will not. That part is completely voluntary.

~Consciousness out of chaos?
Consciousness emerges from the outer edges of chaos, while order spawns chaos. Organization tends to have more longevity because it's a natural model of creation. By contrast, nature is unsanctioned, cooperative, and wildly creative. Its construction is distributed among a network of many lifeforms. As a result, these lifeforms can be tested in different situations and improved upon—they can adapt and are in constant flux. When a plant or animal adapts to new surroundings, new species or variations on old ones are born. Biodiversity itself yields new species. How? I don't know. Complexity and chaos bring new life. It's a mystery.

~ I did the straw flute experiment. It sounded kind really loud and annoying because I had to blow pretty forcefully to make it work. I could not play this flute quietly. And my newfound passion for straw flute playing was made short-lived, although it might be fun to put together a band!

Physics Week 8

2008-06-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

~Newton’s Three Laws and me:
1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an outside force. I can't really think of an example of this as it relates to me. Things stop moving because of friction or obstruction. Maybe it reminds me of Damp diseases in the body, and how they get stuck so easily and trapped in different parts of us. Dampness is sticky and provides too much friction so that blood, qi, and jing do not flow smoothly around the meridians, organs, skin, and muscles.2. Force equals mass times acceleration.Alternately, momentum is mass times velocity. If a small child and I jump off a bridge, I would have more momentum than the child because even though we'd have the same velocity, I would have more mass.3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.If I push on a wall with my finger with a force of 5 Newtons, the wall will push back on my finger with 5 Newtons, if the two things are in equilibrium.
~Our “Energy Efficient” Culture
When I Googled energy efficiency, 22,800,000 results came up. That's a good sign. LAst year, the Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Karsner announced plans for transatlantic cooperation between DOE and Mack Trucks to develop environmentally friendly commercial vehicle technologies.The employees of Walmart now wear buttons on their aprons that say, "I use a squiggly lightbulb" and "Ask me about Energy Efficiency." That's pretty awesome. Even energy companies are sending letters to customers how to save energy--effectively telling consumers how to not pay them as much money. Let's see what else. . . Al Gore did his Inconvenient Truth lecture on Oprah. That's the most mainstream outreach there is. Included in his talk was energy efficiency.Of course, we are still raping the Earth, colonizing people, making wars, and creating a giant mess of things, but perhaps another force is arising, or polarizing, because of the extreme condition of the humans and Earth. I believe things are looking up and people are getting with the program, but I do not know if it will be enough to make a difference in time to reduce the radical Earth changes that are coming.

~Descartes has a lot to answer for:
I don't know that I necessarily like the idea of trying to explain everything in nature with math. I don't really get why it's necessary to explain something in nature through math, I think that some things don't need to be explained, they can just be appreciated and that's enough. Maybe I just have a bias against math, it's never been my favorite subject, I just don't see how certain things in nature could possible be described by numbers and equations.

Physics Assignment 5

2008-06-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

~ Are all vibrations "good"?
All vibrations are not simply good or bad though. Vibrations simply are. If the vibration is an earthquake that harms lots of people, from my limited perspective in time and space, I would probably call that a bad vibration of the earth's crust. Vibrations such as the ones cellos produce seem unequivocally beautiful and good to me.(I played it for 8 years) Stringed instruments are among the most beautiful vibrations, along with another persons' vibe. We tend to read one another's moods and auras from time to time, and we do it rather naturally. Since we are all pulsing energy/qi fields, it seems quite reasonable that we note others' vibrations. And each person can put off a variety of 'vibes' with a wide range of emotions; good vibes/bad vibes.
This week's discussion has piqued my interest in vibrational healing. If vibrations are strong enough to fell a bridge, they must be strong enough to destroy pathogens and blocks in the body.

Resonance In My World

Resonance in my world has a more emotional quality to it, as when I resonate with another person or with an idea. At such times, I wonder if there might not be some kind of increase in the oscillation of our auras, so that they tend to converbe together with kind of a thrill comparable to heightened amplitude in physics. I love moments of resonance that occur between me and other people or even animals. Working at the racetrack and being around horses all day makes me realize that there really are just certain animals who automatically just click with you. For me, resonance is more about rich and significant feelings of being on "the same wave length."

Energy and Qi

I think Qi is energy. We can’t precisely measure it, but we know it exists. We can feel it. For example, we can feel it when our Qi is flowing smoothly and when it is not. Sometimes our Qi is deficient. We can feel that too. Qi is our lifeforce; It is energy.
Qi is all around us. It is the energy that we sense in all of nature. We can certainly feel the affect that a cold rainy day has on our bodies. Weather has a certain Qi or vibe to it, depending on if it’s windy, cold, hot, dry etc. Some call Qi "the vital life force", which it is, however that phrase implies that it only pertains to living things. Although I do agree that Qi is "the vital life force", and would certainly describe it that way to others, I make it a point to include the non living objects on this planet as well. I simply describe them as having the "vital force" within their makings. In the end that is what we are all part of, "the vital force" or "Qi" or "Energy". It is all the same just different methods of explaining it.

Physics Assignment 5

2008-06-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

~ My (a) symmetrical world
I enjoy seeing both symmetry and asymmetry in my world. I do not believe that to have symmetry, something must be completely in balance. The most amazing forms of symmetry are the ones found in nature. Sandollars, sea shells, flowers, faces, fish .. the list goes on and on. Each item offering a unique form immersed in symmetry. In detail, there are always imperfections rendering an object not perfectly in equilibrium but the overall form is symmetrical.
Symmetry has helped shape the creation of our environment, culture and society. Sure, many man made artifacts have symmetry in them, but nothing is as impressive as looking into the face of a sunflower and noticing how perfect it is. The balance effect of yin/ yang is also a form of symmetry. Day/night, good karma,/bad karma, smiles/frowns, constant symmetries appear whether we see them or not.

~Just what does this "CP violation" really mean?
CP violation means that nature treats matter and antimatter differently. The C of CP stands for charge conjugation, the P for parity. Charge conjugation is swapping a particle for an antiparticle, and parity is like looking in the mirror. If CP were not violated, then a particle interaction would look indistinguishable from an antiparticle interaction seen in the mirror. Moreover, all the matter and the antimatter which are believed to have been created in equal amounts at the Big Bang would have been annihilated by now.

~Are there connections between Sacred Geometry and Physics?
Yes, there is a definite connection between the two. Without one, there would not be the other.
Sacred Geometry is an ancient science that explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things and reveals the precise way that energy organizes itself. On every scale, every natural pattern of growth or movement conforms to one or more geometric shapes.
Before there was "physics" , people knew that these patterns and codes were symbolic of our own inner realm and the subtle structure of awareness. To them the “sacred” had particular significance involving consciousness and the profound mystery of awareness ….. the ultimate sacred wonder. includes everything from the beauty of Platonic solids and the Golden Mean spiral and Fibonacci sequences to Pythagorean and Vedic mathematics, alphanumerics, kabbalistic glyphs, Merkabah Mysticism, Bucky Fuller's tetrahedral Synergetics, to artistic subject matter, such as Fractals, Cymatics, Yantras, Mandalas, and magic squares and circles. Even crop circles showcase sacred geometry, regardless of their origin.

Assigment 4

2008-05-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

~ E=MC2 means that any piece of matter of mass m is energy that can be calculated by multiplying this mass by the speed of light squared. You are literally made up of light, you are an energy being.Knowing how Einstein arrived at E=MC2 helps us appreciate that we are all capable of achieving similar breakthroughs. Each of us is capable of waking up one day and realizing that: The truth about life may not be what we've been told; The truth about life may be very different than what most learned people believe; We don't always need proof, evidence, or the agreement of others to embrace a new "truth" if we have good reason to believe in it's utility. I feel as if I do not have a high level of sophistication when it comes to this equation, I still struggle to grasp some of these invisible concepts. However, in the social realm, we can easily recognize energy. We can see it appearing, we can perceive it happening, we feel its presence, we know it by what it does. We all are affected bythe work it performs in every area of our lives. Our thoughts, and the collective thoughts of other people, are what put together this ever changing energy field into the things that we see. Your thoughts shift the universe to create physical life. Everything arounds us started as an idea, you become what you think about most and your life reflects what you have imagined and believed.

~The Function of Gravity
Gravity is one of the simplest things in our lives. It holds the earth, sun and the universe together. Without it we could not exist. We grew up with it. We think little about what it does in our lives until we fall and hurt ourselves, but even then we think little of it. Gravity has been with us from the day we were born so there has been little reason to question what it is. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces, yet it is the dominant force in the universe for shaping the large scale structure of galaxies, stars, etc. Thank you, gravity!

~ The Four Forces
The four forces all play importnat roles in making the universe what it is today, they each have different and distinct characteristics. All structure and motion in the universe is governed by these four forces; the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. The strong and weak nuclear forces operate only at the atomic scale. The remaining two–the gravitational force and the electromagnetic force–govern assemblages of atoms, in other words "matter". These four fundamental forces were at work in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang and resulted in the creation of atoms and matter. These forces seem to be in perfect harmony, if they did not have the exact values they do, there would be no life, things would not be right.

Physics Assignment 3

2008-05-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

~ Well, I can find plenty of evidence of synchronicity in my life. Call it synchronity, or call it coincidences, (potato, potato) I am awed by these occurences. They give me the affirmation that there is something happening behind the scenes of day to day life that is enchanting. It is an intuitive sense that we really are connected to the universe in some unexplainable way. It is the moment of full and complete awareness that we are part of something far greater than ourselves. During this moment, we either experience complete calmness and peace, or extreme exhilaration. The evidence of synchronicity is that I know I have experienced it, as have many of my loved ones, and that is good enough for me to believe.

~ Connectivity includes the basic physical evidence of matter connection to the Universe, as we all are just made of star dust! The elemental composition of our bodies unites us with all material particles in the Universe. It also includes included a spiritual awareness which subsits in the connectedness of things. There exists a mysterious link which binds togather all atoms of matter. All of life must work together in a necessary symbiosis connecting all the elements, including cosmos and spirit. Physics is telling us there are physical phenomena of connectivity we do not yet understand; I am sure there are corresponding properties of our minds in terms of connectivity that we also do not understand.

Physics Assignment 2

2008-05-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

~This weeks discussion of uncertainty was provacative topic for me, in the realm of science and beyond. The Uncertainty Principle states that certain characteristics, such as position and momentum, cannot both simultaneously be measured. So, if quantum states have no fixed quantity until they are observed, to me this brings up the idea of consciousness, the proposal of mind over reality. Observation is irrelevant: quanta have no fixed values until they interact with other quanta, a physical phenomenon that has nothing to do with consciousness. These interactions, and values, occur all the time, whether someone is watching or not. The confusion arises because we observe though those interactions, leading to a mystification between effect and causes. The idea of Uncertainty is an acknowledgement that our world is bizarre, impossible to visualise, and incredibly difficult to understand with precision.

~ Causality seems like it should be an extremely straightforward principle; every effect has a cause, and every cause, an effect. The cause is whatever action makes the effect happen. An effect has the possibility of having many causes. Is it possilbe to have one thing affect another without the tansfer of anyhting between the two? What exactly defines an effect? Can something be a cause and an effect at the same time? The pattern of cause>effect>cause>effect seems to be quite fluid. You cannot have one without the other, and each one seems as if it can behave as the other.

~ Is the universe weird?? Well, that all depends on your definition of weird. I find weird to have a bit of an negative connotation, so I will say no to this question. However, I do find the universe to be fascinating, marvelous, and captivating. The fact that there is so much uncertainty in the world is part of what makes it so wonderful. From the existence of our world(big bang) to the existence of hundreds of other galaxies, to black holes, to emotions and technology, our universe is brimming with a surplus of events and matter to keep your mind spinning. I could go on and on about all the things I am flabbergasted by in this universe, but I'm almost positive you would feel the same. It is inconceivable to me the day when anyone will be able to accurately describe any and all features of this wild world. I hope that will never happen and that many of our mysteries will always remain obscure.

Assignment 1

2008-05-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

Answers to Week one Quiz:
I am attracted to Chinese Medicine for several reasons. To begin with, I feel as if everything it encompasses;acupuncture, herbs, lifestyle, diet...etc all resonate with the way I try to live my life. I find it an honor to be able to become a student of TCM and eagerly await the day when I will become a practitioner of this amazing ancient healing art. I love the holistic approach to TCM, and the manner in which the patient is treated.
Physics? Honestly, I was beyond intimidated with the thought of taking a physics class. I think this subject area covers some of the most interesting concepts in science, but was afraid I just wouldn't be able to understand them. After the first day of class and hearing the way in which our class will be taught, as well as hearing the majority of my classmates' fear of physics, I am more confident that this class will be incredibly interesting and essential to a better understanding of all other subject areas.
Time slows down for me during backpacking excursions. Often when I go backpacking, I also do a raw food cleanse. Throughout the duration of my trip, I can just focus on hiking, destinations, and purifying. Turning my intentions inwards and being in utterly amazing wilderness settings slows time down and is a rejuvenating experience.

This discussion and topics brought up in this weeks class definately forced me to think about my own view of time. It is astonishing how much our society relies on life being scheduled down to the minute. We are slaves to the clock. I remember how happy I was when the watch I had worn for years broke. Although I continued in habit to check the now pale patch on my wrist, it was such a free feeling to take a break from the frantic worrying of being late for the next activity. I admire societies who live life by the sun and the seasons, who don't have deadlines.

I decided to check out the wikipedia link on quantum mechanics. I wish I had started with the krysstal website, which I found to be a much better introduction for beginners to this subject. I am really interested to learn more about the wave particle duality, and black body radiation. I find light waves to be so intriguing because of their invisibility to us. Hopefully, we can discuss these ideas in class in a way that all us physics-phobe folks can understand!