Books > Philosophy >Aamrgan ©2012Amidst an undeclared theme of self-referentiality, topics as diverse as ethical paradox and the scientific method are explored in a way that is succinct, unemotional, and adherent to logic. The conclusions resulting from this analysis are as significant as they are bewildering. Aamrgan is the result of distilling eight years of logical, scientific, and philosophical analysis down into the most concise form possible. The book begins by sequentially presenting and resolving several paradoxes, and in this context its theme (knowledge) and sub-theme (self-referentiality) gradually emerge. Knowledge is first explored via the logical analysis of scientific falsification and corroboration. Then, the impossibility of truthification leads to a more general discussion of the forms in which knowledge is expressed as well as to the ultimate realization that these expression forms themselves hold the key to the elusiveness of so-called ‘absolute knowledge’.
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...excerpt from Aamrgan:
Table of Contents
II. Exception, Moderation, and Tolerance
III. Nihilism and Questing
IV. Zeno Proves Monism
V. Deduction, Falsification, and Fallacy
VI. Corroboration
VII. Neurolinguistic Limitation
VIII. Incomprehensibility
IX. Recapitulation
X. Ortega y Gasset`s Philosophy of Technology
XI. Extending Ortega y Gasset`s Philosophy
XII. Interstellar Travel
ämǝrgän was going to be a science fiction novel about backward time travel, until I realized that such a thing is impossible. Here is why: as each moment in time elapses, the point in space we occupy elapses as well. Interestingly, each successive point in space is as unique as each alphanumeric string used to represent the date at that point: i.e. Friday, February 24, 2012. While the names of days and months, as well as the day numbers in months repeat periodically, the years do not. As sure as we are allowed to add one to the year indefinitely, the date itself will never repeat. The same is true of our point in space. Even if we disregard the orbital velocity of the Earth around the Sun (approximately 2,952,000 kilometers per day) as well as that of the solar system around the galactic center (approximately 17.28 million kilometers per day) we are still left with the most astounding motion of all, the velocity of the galaxy itself relative to larger frames of reference such as the cosmic microwave background: which is over 500 kilometers per second, or approximately 43.2 million kilometers per day. If each second elapsing corresponds to the elapsing of over 500 kilometers, then even traveling back in time one minute would involve traveling 30,000 kilometers! Even if we could cover such a distance – which at 100 km/h would take 300 hours (or 12½ days) – when we reached our destination the Earth would no longer be there. This problem is similar to one of the other basic obstacles to backward time travel: any time machine being built now does not exist in the past. If, for instance, we constructed a time machine somewhere on Earth (now assuming the Earth to be stationary) and we began to travel back in time using it, we would inevitably be transported to the moment just before the time machine was operable, which would end our journey immediately.
The above realization has finally closed my mind off to the possibility of backward time travel. It would have been more prudent to take the backward time travel paradoxes for what they really are, indirect proofs for its impossibility. However, they are so mind-blowing and fascinating that they only heightened (and will likely forever heighten) my interest. First off, the infamous grandfather paradox. Operating on a single premise, backward time travel is possible. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather then one of your parents is never born. If one of your parents is never born then you are never born. If you are never born then you did not go back in time and kill your grandfather. We must conclude that you both did and did not kill your grandfather – a contradiction – and therefore the premise leading to that conclusion is false. The other major paradox involving backward time travel is that of the predestination bootstrap. Let us say that a book by a pseudonymous author inspires you to travel back in time to discover their real identity. While travelling you record your experiences and realize that, when you reach the past you intend to publish them pseudonymously (so as not to disrupt the timeline) and that in fact it was you who wrote the book that incited you to travel in the first place! Obviously you were predestined to write the book; however, the entire scenario is bootstrapping due to the fact that the book was published before it was written. Information appearing from nowhere or in other words creating itself is the second contradiction which reinforces our abandonment of the premise that backward time travel is possible.
II. Exception, Moderation, and Tolerance
III. Nihilism and Questing
IV. Zeno Proves Monism
V. Deduction, Falsification, and Fallacy
VI. Corroboration
VII. Neurolinguistic Limitation
VIII. Incomprehensibility
IX. Recapitulation
X. Ortega y Gasset`s Philosophy of Technology
XI. Extending Ortega y Gasset`s Philosophy
XII. Interstellar Travel
ämǝrgän was going to be a science fiction novel about backward time travel, until I realized that such a thing is impossible. Here is why: as each moment in time elapses, the point in space we occupy elapses as well. Interestingly, each successive point in space is as unique as each alphanumeric string used to represent the date at that point: i.e. Friday, February 24, 2012. While the names of days and months, as well as the day numbers in months repeat periodically, the years do not. As sure as we are allowed to add one to the year indefinitely, the date itself will never repeat. The same is true of our point in space. Even if we disregard the orbital velocity of the Earth around the Sun (approximately 2,952,000 kilometers per day) as well as that of the solar system around the galactic center (approximately 17.28 million kilometers per day) we are still left with the most astounding motion of all, the velocity of the galaxy itself relative to larger frames of reference such as the cosmic microwave background: which is over 500 kilometers per second, or approximately 43.2 million kilometers per day. If each second elapsing corresponds to the elapsing of over 500 kilometers, then even traveling back in time one minute would involve traveling 30,000 kilometers! Even if we could cover such a distance – which at 100 km/h would take 300 hours (or 12½ days) – when we reached our destination the Earth would no longer be there. This problem is similar to one of the other basic obstacles to backward time travel: any time machine being built now does not exist in the past. If, for instance, we constructed a time machine somewhere on Earth (now assuming the Earth to be stationary) and we began to travel back in time using it, we would inevitably be transported to the moment just before the time machine was operable, which would end our journey immediately.
The above realization has finally closed my mind off to the possibility of backward time travel. It would have been more prudent to take the backward time travel paradoxes for what they really are, indirect proofs for its impossibility. However, they are so mind-blowing and fascinating that they only heightened (and will likely forever heighten) my interest. First off, the infamous grandfather paradox. Operating on a single premise, backward time travel is possible. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather then one of your parents is never born. If one of your parents is never born then you are never born. If you are never born then you did not go back in time and kill your grandfather. We must conclude that you both did and did not kill your grandfather – a contradiction – and therefore the premise leading to that conclusion is false. The other major paradox involving backward time travel is that of the predestination bootstrap. Let us say that a book by a pseudonymous author inspires you to travel back in time to discover their real identity. While travelling you record your experiences and realize that, when you reach the past you intend to publish them pseudonymously (so as not to disrupt the timeline) and that in fact it was you who wrote the book that incited you to travel in the first place! Obviously you were predestined to write the book; however, the entire scenario is bootstrapping due to the fact that the book was published before it was written. Information appearing from nowhere or in other words creating itself is the second contradiction which reinforces our abandonment of the premise that backward time travel is possible.