Monday, May 16, 2011

Meta?

There is an operation, first we are Homo Sapiens, then become Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The man that knows he knows. A basic insight of Computer Science, or Information Technology, is recursion.

Take something as simple as:

We want to know when cos(x) is equal to x. Take a calculator, change to the radian mode, and start:

x = 0, calculate cos (x) = 1, do it again, cos (1) = 0.54, and again, 0.85, 0.65, 0.79, 0.70. 0.76, 0.72, 0.75, 0.73, 0.74, 0.73, 0.74, 0.73, 0.74, 0.73,0.73, 0.73, 0.73, 0.73, 0.73, 0.73, 0.73 , ..

I didn't round up, just copied the first two numbers, the ones I typed, do not change after 15 iterations, it remains 0.73. We have reached a limit point.

Meta in this context is, do it again, and again, in an infinite regression. This point is fixed, if we imagine doing it infinite times.

High school mathematics then, puts us in contact with infinite. Could it be, that by meditation we reach a fixed point, when we realize that more thinking won't change what we have found already?

More interestingly, could it be that recursive operations outside our calculators, even outside our brains, make the permanent world we perceive? Thus solving the problem of permanence of reality. Without permanence there is no thought, and finally no consciousness.

I am conscious, then I am; said Rene Descartes: Cogito, ergo sum.

No comments:

Twitter Updates

Search This Blog

Total Pageviews