Hi Alton,
My point about 'consistent' was that it is not. To me there is no point in getting hung up over this term or that definition as they are all plastic, relative, subjective etc etc. I prefer to think in the round rather than get bogged down in detial. The devil is in the detail and all that. I listen to others and convert their vocabulary into mine (that's the best way I can think of putting it). I do it automatically. This is how I can see connections/commonality in, say, an Indian religious text, Greek philosophy and Mayan mythology. I see the underlying 'thing', the essence or kernel.
-GC
I understand what you're saying, however I must disagree with you that this or that term is relative/subjective. It is only subjective if we make it so i.e. if people use these terms inconsistently or in self-contradiction. Just as in the base-6 number system I conceptualized, if things are defined in a single way they can (and should) always be used that way. I know it's a bit painstaking to take this attention to detail, but as I've repeated its necessary to avoid self-contradiction, absurdity, and logical blunders. I think that, with some practice and some effort, it becomes second nature (just like learning any language).
The reason you "convert their vocabulary into yours" is because nobody is using a common system. This is exactly what I am trying to avoid. From person to person, post to post, the following words vary so widely in their meaning that they are meaning-less:
energy
time
motion
wave
exist
object
If you are necessarily translating these terms then there is non communication at best and miscommunication at worst. Nobody is learning anything because nobody knows what anyone else is actually talking about.
You know what YOU would be talking about if YOU were saying what THEY are saying. The caps are for emphasis, not yelling. I'd like to also emphasize that my definitions are not everyone's definitions. You are free to define these in any way you want for the purpose of your post/talk/dissertation/etc. but you certainly must do so, and do so unambiguously. Then you must actually stick to those definitions or you will inevitably end up with duality, paradox, self contradiction, and violation of identity. I have tried my best (not always successfully in the beginning, but I think I've got it now) to make my method of communication clear so people can actually know what I'm thinking, not what they would be thinking if they were using my words. Does that make sense? That last sentence and the italicized sentence are saying similar things, and I think they are very important points.
Then why was your opinion of the Egyptian/Pythagorean system I posted, so derisory? It worked for the Egyptians for thousands of years. They achieved things we still cannot match today. (Standards of masonry etc).
-GC
I am sorry, but I do not object to the system you posted in particular. I have heretofore wrongly (both unfair to you and wrong on principle) grouped you with JL. Whether you and I can come to agreement or not is another matter.
What you posted sounds like "religious babble" to me but, objectively, it is simply nonsensical to me because, as always, many of the terms are not fundamentally defined. That doesn't make it invalid or wrong, just incomprehensible to me.
I object to JL's post because he basically deifies numbers (he has at least engaged in reification of numbers). He talks about the spin of numbers and their phase. As we've agreed on, numbers are shorthands for concepts, which themselves are a relationship among entities (I don't think you've explicitly agreed on this last part, but the former I believe so). JL assigns an action (spin) and a concept (phase) to a concept (number). But he claims that "spin" is not really an action but rather a "something". Then, because he can relate this self-created system to some observations such as the way our hands point or how our fingers are arranged he concludes it has some significance to existence. However you disregard my objections to his misuse/abuse of language, you cannot deny that, to go forward, he must define "existence". Otherwise what exactly has he concluded? What exactly is he doing? So far we have a conceptual framework but that is all. We have alpha numeric characters but no "IIII" that I used to illustrate my base-6 system. What he is doing is akin to me trying to create my base-6 system likes this:
1
2
3
4
5
6
1+1=2
1+2=3
1+3=4
1+4=5
1+5=6
And on. These are "disembodied symbols". All you can do is memorize the symbols and the rules. "If I have a 1 then a + then a 2 then a +, the last symbol must be a 3". You need the concretes. You should be good at removing bias towards the alpha numeric characters and realizing that simply laying down rules for which symbols go where under what circumstances results in a system without necessarily being relevant to existence. If there is any relevance it is not apparent to anyone except (maybe) the person who wrote them down.
Sorry we disappoint you. Why don't you go elsewhere then? Somewhere where the intellectual calibre is up to your standards?
-GC
I am not condescending to any of you when I talk about miscommunication. As I said it "happens on practically every physics forum". Even further, it happens practically constantly. I think you quoted someone as saying something along the lines of "The problem with communication is the illusion that it has actually taken place". I'm paraphrasing, I don't remember exactly. This is not a matter of intellectual calibre, plenty of you are obviously intelligent. The fact is we all take communication for granted. I came here because you all are more open-minded than mainstream physicists and thinkers so I expected greater productivity in my endeavor.
I cannot do this as my head does not work that way. I can't do objects and shapes. I do thoughts and concepts. The nearest I get to viewing something in 3-D is when I contemplate on a topic/subject and I 'see' (nowhere near the correct word) how it is connected to the topics/subjects around it, the things that lead up to it and the things it will lead to. Like I said I 'see' things in the round. This is partly because I don't use my brain if I can avoid it. I certainly don't restrict myself to logic. This is what meditation and contemplation is about. It is why all great thinkers throughout recorded history have done it. McCoy, Spock, Kirk. You are Spock and I am Kirk. Why do you think old James T used to sit in his chair in the same pose as Rodin's 'The Thinker'?
-GC
If you can't do objects/shapes that's fine. I will tell you outright that physics is essentially the study of objects (of course JL will prob disagree with me, in addition to almost every mainstream physicist) so I cannot consider you a physicist. Obviously this does not prohibit you from being a capable thinker. This also doesn't mean we can't communicate and I don't respect your ideas. There is one question I must get out of the way. Does anything 2-D exist? Feel free to define dimension, thing, and/or exist as you like for the purposes of your answer. I know your answer will not be framed in the way I would, but if you make an effort to communicate to make effectively, consistently, and unambiguously I will make every effort to comprehend your thinking. Communication is not a matter of left brain vs. right brain or conceptual thinking vs. object-oriented thinking. Without clear communication we are both forever confined to our own modes of thinking. We won't define our words/symbols and, instead, the other person will just take them to mean whatever HE would mean in that context. In the end we just stay in our own heads and waste a lot of time.