Altruistic Resonance

Resonance is a phenomenon in which the strength/energy of a wave becomes larger because a small amount of input at the right time and place. Once you have reached a certain age you will usually have noticed that everything seems to work in trends and waves. Things tend to cycle up or cycle down. This is seen in the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. (paraphrasing the bible) To he who has much, much will be added, but to he who has little, that which he has will be taken away. It’s just the way things work in reality if we do not attempt to interact with trends and alter their course.

Resonance can be seen in a child’s swing. When you give a little push at the right time they go higher and higher. There is another playground toy that demonstrates it even better. I’m not talking about the see-saw but it’s a type of two seated swing called a “glider” in which two children sit facing each other and taking turns pushing on leg pedals to cause the swing to move back and forth. This swing best demonstrates the principle of altruistic resonance.

If one person just rides, the swing does not go as high for either rider. If one decides they want to go forward before the other is done and push when they should wait, the swing does not go as high or can even be slowed to a stop. But if both of the riders work together and stay in tune, there is no limit to the heights they can achieve other than the limit of the swing itself.

Everything from the happiness of a couple to the prosperity of a group is subject to this principle. It requires patience, temporary self-sacrifice, and contentedness with whatever comes. Each must pull his own weight and be ready to give back. If one decides to break the agreement and take when they should give or hold when they should release, the system fails. It’s true that the one will have more than the other by only taking. They will have all of what could be shared but they do not understand that what is shared is less. If they only remained content with half then the resonance would make their half grow and grow and sometimes it becomes larger than all of what was before.

The first problem that most people face is that in an altruistic resonance, one must freely give away what is already had. One must take from their own pool of happiness to give it to another such that they may be temporarily lessened. They must judge their own need as less than an other’s need but be confident that they will eventually receive in return what was given or more.

The second problem that most face is the fact that effort must consistently be put in to one’s self and to others. There must be a constant effort in appreciation of all that is around you. Happiness comes from wanting what you have instead of getting what you want and often happiness is lost attempting to achieve more. Usually happiness evades best those who chase it hardest. Appreciation and satisfaction come from dwelling on the current good. More happiness results from attempting to make others happy who follow the same principle.

The third problem is habituation. When people are in a habit of giving to you, you may begin to believe that the gifts are small, expected or even a sort of payment. You must always be aware of the difficulty of conscious choice to let go of ones own happiness for another. You must always be thankful for every small act of kindness. Every small sacrifice. You must reward goodness. Expectation of the return lessens it.

The fourth problem is the overestimation of personal contribution. We each tend to look into another’s contributions and begin to compare them to our own. We do not realize that what is a small gift from us may be a large gift from another and vice versa. We must always be aware of how few people are really willing to cooperate. Every person who does cooperate must be valued highly. By rewarding them for doing right, you are teaching them them to repeat the behavior and benefiting yourself in the end.

The fifth and worst problem is the fear of being unappreciated. We all instinctively know that people value that which is rare and devalue that which is easily gained. This leads us to hold back and not give when we should. We begin to do that which we fear and become the thing we are trying to avoid. We must instead be confident that sometimes experiencing losses is a price we must pay to achieve a community. We must see that it often happens to the best of us. We must be confident that exploiters will either eventually be healed of their fear of explotation, or we will separate from them when it is necessary.

When others continually withhold, only continue giving until your giving takes so much from you that it reduces your ability to give with others. Only through the willigness to forgive and give even when we are not receiving can we heal the wounds to the system. When the truly evil come in and hurt and do damage, even those who are good and well meaning may become more closed. Once they are closed off they begin to receive without giving back. They do no realize this is the same as taking. They do not know they are exploiting a system of goodness.

If we do not follow a model of forgiving and giving even when nothing is received in return, altruism disappears. Each passing on the sickness and strengthening it. Because hurt and misunderstanding always happens there is a resonance that can begin for it as well. Self centeredness and protection and closing off. A resonance of exploitation and revenge. Someone must start the altruism over again. Someone must forgive. Someone must be willing to take the abuse for a time. To be the bigger man.

Unfortunately, we must have smaller communities that interact with smaller groups of people or the cycle of altruism becomes nearly impossible to restart. Every kindness is overshadowed by thousands of evil deeds. There is too much anonymity to be able to punish the exploiters and takers. There is too large of a pool of people for our good deeds to reflect back to us. Our decisions on how to treat people in small ways is not a conscious thing but an unconscious one that comes from experience. It is very difficult to nearly impossible to control even when we know about it. Each of us is only human and we cannot hold up the entire planet’s hurt and mistrust alone. We need to be rewarded for good. We need to some reassurance that we will not always be diminished in our interactions. The calculating mammal underneath us all must know that it isn’t hopeless and pointless to give.

Evolutionary game theory has proven this out. When there is little or no likelyhood that an interaction will be repeated with an individual the dominant strategy is to always defect. It is only in a closed system that altruism pays off.

When our society is too self-centered we must isolate and rebuild our trust. We must interact with those who can trust. Only those who are not constantly being hurt can trust. In today’s society it’s become more and more difficult to do. We watch the television and see that good guys are crushed and destroyed. We’re all connected daily through twitter and facebook. the pain is passed around on a moment by moment basis. At work we are assaulted with constant attack.

This is the purpose of church: To isolate and rebuild trust in a community. For everyone to agree to forgive and treat each other with trust and openness. For everyone to expose weakness and know they will not be attacked in their weak spots but instead find someone wiling to help them tend their wounds. To create a safe place. To have a specific day on a regular basis where you do your best to give to others and they are all doing the same. This is why churches encourage dissociating with outsiders. So that the altruism doesn’t leak out of the group through contact with exploiters.

Altruism is a method of group competition so we must therefore have a group and it must be fairly small. We need a tribe. Otherwise exploitation and evil truly are the winning strategy. We are not well adapted to being a hive. Revenge and witholding will always return and begin to rot away at community. There is no such thing as maintaining a complex system. it is always getting better or getting worse. Cycling up or down.

When people work together, one and one makes three. What we have gets bigger each time I give to you and you give to me.

Altruistic resonance is a powerful but fragile thing.

This Pilgrim’s Progress

I was raised an extremely devout Protestant. My mother was Scandinavian so we were therefore Calvinist. I was told bible stories from a very young age and nearly every aspect of life was related to religion in some way. Though I regularly had problems with the logical problems in modern Christianity, I typically believed it was somehow my own error in understanding or lack of knowledge. I was devout to the tips of my toes. I prayed for and about everything. I was “continually” in prayer. The thing I wanted most in life was to be special in the eyes of God. To be used as a tool for God’s glory. I prayed continually to be used as a powerful tool for him. My guilty pleasure was that I secretly hoped and believed I might one day be one of his greatest servants but felt wrong for my arrogance.

I memorized a great deal of the bible and read it quite regularly. Even though my parents had ceased attending church by my early adolescence I continued to attend regularly. This included Sunday and Wednesday nights. Even into adulthood I regularly attended church if not quite as frequently. I was an avid evangelist and regularly “witnessed” to friends. I even developed some of my own strategies for showing the error of “evilution” and some very potent demonstrations of the concept of eternity when making an emotional appeal in regards to the importance of one’s eternal soul. I truly had not the slightest beginning of doubt in my mind that Jesus was God and to not believe that meant eternity in hell, but to believe meant eternity of bliss. (Just writing these words down now and seeing the clearly designed persuasion tactics of extreme fear/reward make it seem so absurd that I once was incapable of seeing the con)

Unfortunately for the religious aspect of my person I was also extremely drawn to and fascinated by science and logic. I was passionate about it and tried to fit the bible with science. “The heavens declare the glory of God” I felt that science was the study of god’s creation and therefore a manner of learning more about God’s will. I felt that science would be a way to prove the validity of the bible. That is to say, I viewed science through the eyeglass of the bible. There was one concept that was the very underpinning of my family’s faith and that was the inerrancy of the bible as the “inspired” word of god. The concept was that God spoke through certain authors almost as though he took them over as they wrote. The bible was the word of the almighty creator of the universe and was perfect and complete. I understand now why they cling so strongly to this belief and never ever examine it …because it’s the road out of self-delusion.

The first real blow to my unshakable faith happened in early adulthood because my cousin who was like a brother to me died very suddenly in an accident. He died a non-christian and I had to face that according to my faith he was going to be tortured forever by my loving god. I knew him personally as someone who meant well by everyone and was a kind and just person. I felt that he was simply misled and misinformed but now he was being tortured at my very moment of contemplation and would be forever. I was taught my entire life that we had no right to judge god and that he was so far above us that we were mere specks of dust without importance, so I didn’t judge god as wrong but instead feared him even more.  “The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge”

Instead I realized that I had not done enough to assure that I understood everything properly. I began to realize that my devotion to my faith and my piety were second rate at best. When a simple misinformedness can result in torture without end you better put some effort in. You better know for sure.I realized that I had too much faith that I was right. I didn’t doubt god for one moment. I knew he was there watching me and I realized that I was wasting time doing anything other than figuring out eternity. I didn’t have faith in god, I had faith in my correctness! With all the denominations and sects, there’s certainly the possibility that I was in the wrong one. We all know of those televangelists misleading people. Why did I believe my set of beliefs about Jesus? What if smoking cigarettes could send you to hell? What if simply believing in Jesus was not what Jesus required and those who taught me were misled and therefore misled me? “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Jesus’s words)

I knew that people of other religions were certainly more devout than I. I knew they were doing what they were misled into believing was what god wanted. There are people spending their entire lives in monasteries. There are people who pray all day once a week. There are those that give up all worldy possessions. There are those that martyr themselves. They perform more rituals and in general try harder to please god than I did. God is a bigger part of their life. They read scriptures all day trying to figure out what god wants of them. They spend their lives trying to please god. And when they die they’ll go directly to hell and be tortured forever for doing it the wrong way.

I redoubled my efforts. (I was scared shitless because I was a TRUE believer) I dove into the bible searching for understanding. I prayed for forgiveness from god that I examine everything about my beliefs in my pursuit of pleasing him. I began to understand that those people were misled. Everyone who was going to hell forever believed with all   that they were doing it the right way and the truth was that they weren’t examining their sources well enough. Their faith wasn’t in god but in the correctness of their pastor, family and self. Their sin was arrogance in one way, or just plain gullibility in another. It lead’s people to giving their money away to con men and their souls to charlatan’s and televangelists. Either way it’s obvious that lack of examining your own beliefs is what’s leading millions of (possibly) smarter and (certainly) more devout people into an eternity of torture.

Finally I accepted that god must know my sincerity and my soul wrenching trepidation that I was doing Him wrong. He would understand my doubt in everything I was ever taught. He would want me to examine everything because there must be a way to the truth for all of us who are misled. He would want me to ask about the credibility of my sources or he would be requiring me to believe any huckster or charlatan who might lead me to destruction. He would want me to examine the scripture because there are so many scriptures out there.

Once I put real effort into understanding  historical origins and influences on the bible, that’s when I finally began to understand. When I began to recognize that my holy scripture came from a group of people who used religion for money and power and that they were people who burned you at the stake for being able to read. …that they were the most avid book burners in the world. That they tortured people for simply believing slightly differently.  That the first council of Nicea was headed by a pagan, Constantine and all that political posturing and power grabbing was what the history of my source was. Then I was really distraught!

What had they hidden? What had they destroyed? What were the beliefs of the christians from that era? What did the christians from Jesus’s era do? My eternal soul depends on this and Satan may have hidden it all away from me. We may all be going to hell! Maybe there literally is only 144,000 slots available in heaven and I’m certainly not getting a seat!!!

With enough research you begin to find out that even Peter and Paul were at odds over what was the proper way to worship. Paul actually came to a city Peter had just evangelized and told them they had been misled by him! There was a rivalry and disagreement already within the very people who walked with him. Peter was teaching a more Judaic version that Paul. But then I find out that Paul never even met Jesus! Then I find out that Paul is the one who brought in all the gentiles and that the other disciples disagreed with him early on about the very inclusion of gentiles at all. They guy who never even saw what Jesus looked like but is some tax collecting dickweed that claims to have had a big vision is also the only original source that says I can ever get to heaven.

Eventually I became so depressed that I just kinda stopped looking at it and hoped I wasn’t going to hell but was pretty sure there was a really big chance of it. (with good reason given how many denominations there are in protestantism alone) I still had science to help me figure out what god wanted of me though because the heavens were supposed to declare the glory of god. The creation is the one thing that nobody can mess with. It’s the one way god could leave a message for us that wouldn’t be screwed over by the time we heard it. So I went back to my passionate scientific study for a number of years. At the same time I was learning computer programming.

Once I began to understand computers which were like magic to me before, I began to realize there was nothing I couldn’t figure out. Then I gained an interest in the special theory of relativity. I had always been a big science fiction buff and loved all the stories of interdimensional travel and time travel. I was the biggest Star Trek buff. I loved Sliders.  I heard all these terms and wanted to know how it worked. It seemed science had started to understand some of the magic of God’s universe. I began to see however that the one thing that made all the magical stuff possible was erroneous and led to logical fallacies. All the rest of science worked like a perfect clockwork mechanism except this one thing. I was so disappointed to find out that all that cool sci-fi stuff didn’t work like that.

I researched it and spent around a year delving deeply into all the history and understanding all the experiments. How could so many people be so wrong? They’ll all be so thrilled to finally see how something went wrong. It’s science after all and the fist rule of science is skepticism. Finally I started regularly showing people how, where, when and why it went wrong. It was really an understandable set of unfortunate circumstances but then I learned that I was not the first person to understand the problem but one of many thousands. Then I began to encounter a type of hatred coming from those whose beliefs I questioned. They ridiculed anyone who believed differently. In the 70’s anyone who continued to speak out against relativity in the academic community lost their career they had worked ther lives for.

I tied to talk directly with people who seemed reasonable and showed them the historical evidence that was irrfutable. I showed them specific items that Einstein himself pointed out would invalidate his theory. Time and again it was like beating my head against a brick wall. No amount of evidence mattered to these people.

Then I realized I was one of them.

I realized that they couldn’t let go of a belief structure that was the underpinning of most of reality for them. They couldn’t count as false something that they spent their lives studying and something they based their very self worth upon. Nobody really can without paying a gigantic price. A price to heavy for most to bear. One too devastating to even approach.

That’ when I became interested in the mind. How and why we believe what we do and why it’s so hard to change. Sometimes the truth doesn’t just set you free, it devastatingly cripples you such that your ability to survive is impacted. Your confidence and social standing could be stripped from you. For some, it’s evolutionarily safer to deny a paradigm shift and fight against it. Therefore those who can better delude themselves against large shifts have developed a survival advantage. But in this process we begin to see the reason and necessity of death.  Sometimes a program just can’t be updated without destroying it.

Since that time I’ve begun to understand that many ancient writings have truths in them that are worthy of respect, but that each of us is responsible to figure it out ourselves. I know for sure that I no longer have all the answers, so I think I may have made a little progress in my pilgrimage.

Wave/Particle Duality

As a wave travels through a medium it creates a local vortex. As a vortex travels through a medium it creates a wave. A vortex can be pumped (sped up) by a wave. As a vortex degrades it gives off waves. There is no more simple and important priciple in physics. A particle is a vortex. It is one of the axioms of the SGMS TOE.

Image courtesy of site below.

Please visit one of my favorite websites to learn more about waves: http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/demos.html

Inertia, what is the cause?

This question has plagued me since I first contemplated physics. Now, as I build a model of physics it is necessary to explain this phenomenon. After putting some thought into it and saying a little prayer to the universe I think I may have the answer.

To start let us think about a simple two dimensional vortex in water. Though it is not a real entity but a formation of particle motion in the medium we still think of it as an entity. If you are aware of my model of physics, complex vortices are the basis of particles. For better visualization, however, we’ll just pretend to play around in a pool of water. We are all aware that a vortex may remain stationary, or may move through the water. Vortices may even (sort of) bounce off each other. They appear to behave much like a particle and as such they appear to have inertia. We usually only apply the idea of inertia to something with mass and in this case we are applying it not to something massive, but something quite the opposite: a hole.

A ball, when bounced against a wall, stores energy in its deformation and then releases it allowing the energy to to continue in a new direction. I believe that in a vortex something somewhat similar is happening in the process of continuing its motion. Unfortunately, even though this is the closest analogy I can think of, it is very inaccurate. We must eventually think of waves inside the perimeter of the vortex but let us first think of a single particle of water caught in a vortex and the path that it takes when that vortex is in motion. Let us place that particle at the head of the vortex in the direction the vortex is travelling. The particle will be forced closer to the center of the vortex and as such will gain speed like an ice skater bringing in their limbs. This will cause it to then shoot out in a wider arc in the rear and then because it is farther from the center than the norm it will begin to slow down and fall back toward the the center resulting in an inch-worm movement of the particle. A sort of bouncing motion. The vortex itself may look like an elipsis (planetary orbits) with the small side in the direction of travel. The actual water particle motion relative to the medium will be very different. It will instead trace out a “spirograph-like” pattern as it rocks backward slightly and then arcs out forward to repeat the process. This pattern is seen in very earliest images of quark motion in atom smashing experiments. Instead of a single particle of water it could be seen as a wave on the inner surface of the vortex. Each time the wave passes near the front the particles are closer to the center of the vortex than a circular norm and therefore are in a higher energy state. They carve out a path in the direction of the forward motion. They are the forward stroke of a wave.

This deformation of the vortex becomes a semi-permanent feature of it and the very shape of the vortex to causes it to move in a particular direction. IE: The amount of energy in the vortex itself (vorticity) may remain a constant while the shape and distribution of energy determines the path. The deformation of the vortex may be a form of energy storage like compression of a “perfect” rubber ball.

This seems to explain the effect of a vortex in motion or stationary resisting a change to it state of motion. Any change must re-configure the energy distribution of the vortex.

While this must also be applied to more complex vortices and will surely require more detail, this seems to be an adequate framework for a first explanation of an exact mechanism for an as-yet unexplained “force”.