Chapter 21             Magic, Proverbs, Politics and the Voting System

 

postscript: The Mathematics of the Mind is a measurement system that includes, by necessity (see Chapter 27) the mind, or consciousness to be part of the measurement process, and consciousness has been part of organisms for a very long time. A logical ‘perspective’ is also necessary and I have called this the Half-truth, and I think of the result as time dependent ‘pillars’ (attractors) that we can move around, or navigate around. This is the familiar mathematical ‘model’, and I will use it in this form to look at the voting system.

 

It is common knowledge that the more fundamental a change, the more wide reaching its effects (usually) are. Re-reading that sentence shows that the concept of ‘the more fundamental, the more wide reaching the effects (usually) are’ is one of the solutions in the style of the Mathematics of the Mind. The give-away is the word ‘usually’ because the Mathematics of the Mind is imprecise. Another example is Occam’s razor, and that lead to Chapter 27, ‘Existence, Reality and the Effects on Fundamental Physics’ and is a prime example of a simple concept opening up new concepts over a broad front.

 

Another simple statement that everyone knows, but does not have a name, that I am aware of, is that ‘if you have an interest in a project, you are excluded from any vote about that project’. Obviously it is imprecise because you could vote against your own interests, but then should you not get a vote? Perhaps half a vote, or a quarter of a vote might be in order? These questions are part of a group that is amenable to the Mathematics of the Mind through the Half-truth because of their inherent imprecision.

 

The Half-truth is a simple expansion of the normal true/false to: true, false, true some of the time and false the rest of the time, both true and false at the same time. This fits well with these imprecise statements that are so powerful as to be called proverbs. After all, a proverb is very powerful in our thinking and contains the ‘nugget’ of decision-making in a ‘nutshell’ to speed up our decision-making or confabulation. We could say that proverbs are decision-making at the ‘coalface’ and the Mathematics of the Mind ‘juggles’ them to reach a decision.

 

So, applying the Logic of the Half-truth to the voting on a project: if someone has a pecuniary interest in a vote, they may vote as their conscious dictates (true), may vote their pecuniary interest (false), change their mind during the vote or not able to make up their mind about which way to vote (which also includes falling asleep, dying, losing consciousness etc.) so there is completeness in the analysis because all cases can be considered.

 

At this point a digression might be in order. In Chapter 27, I said that we use five dimensions in world O and world P. The Logic of the Half-truth is the dimension of the universe that promoted the Big Bang and operates the logic behind the universe. The other four dimensions are space and time that are world O because they need consciousness to exist. The Half-truth is a logic operator (world O and P) and we use it in daily life without acknowledging it, and that is why I can use it to analyze proverbs that are not amenable to the logic that we commonly use, and I might add, recognize. We recognize the common logic operators true/false, but these are half-truths because they are not all-encompassing, whereas, the Logic of the Half-truth encompasses all possibilities because of the extra two terms and allows imprecision. This is counter-intuitive because we are seeking precision through mathematics, but we are sacrificing precision to handle concepts that are not precise.

 

A further digression concerning the usefulness of fundamental changes, and nothing could be more fundamental than identifying the fifth dimension, which is the Logic of the Half-truth and as we have seen, its use changes our (or at least my) perception of fundamental physics and now it describes proverbs. I am bringing this up to show the connectedness of these concepts, which is the test of a good theory.

 

Carrying on this idea that a dimension is fundamental and wide reaching, space and time do not have a reality unless a mind or consciousness is involved and the logical fifth dimension is not exact. We see this in the uncertainty of a particle coming into existence in Chapter 27, and we see it in having to use Occams’ razor to say that we probably do not exist. True and false only exist in formal logic because we define formal logic to be a Truth, likewise, the operator that defines our reality is a Truth (God or mathematics), otherwise we would not have a continuous reality, and our body attempts to achieve this continuity.

 

This takes us back to the beginning of the book when a Truth (mathematics) was used to ‘pull-down’ or ‘crystallize’ our reality through the Half-truth to derive the three Laws of Life that define out reality. So, there seems to be consistency that the space-time (note time interval) dimensions are life created and the Half-truth and time passing are the logic operators in the probability space (of existence) that I have proposed. The question of the number of dimensions requires investigation and it is apparent that world O and P are not compatible, but we knew that already, so the use of the concept of dimension is a half-truth and one should be careful in its use.

 

However, a reality needs to be continuous, or perhaps a better word is ‘complete’. A good reality should be seamless, as our eyes endeavor to make our vision by over-lapping and filling in for the nose, otherwise magic is introduced into the reality when something strange happens at certain times or points. Magic has been with us for thousands of years and has gradually dropped out of the lives of people as technology expanded and answered questions, but then it is re-surfacing with the gadgets that we use. Thus, if we can prove that our reality is ‘seamless’, we will have proved that magic (or strange effects) does not exist!

 

World O’s exquisitely precise space-time (interval) along with an exact mathematics has given us a wonderful world of technology that outshines the wishy-washy world of the Mathematics of the Mind, the Logic of the Half-truth and probability of existence. It almost makes me want to give up this project! A magnificent creation crafted over thousands of years of human history. It a pity that it is not correct! Chapter 27 points out the problems that misconceptions have allowed to seep into fundamental physics (at least to my mind). Mathematics ignores concepts!

 

Is the reality of space-time (World O) complete, and the answer is ‘no’. To expand, the reality that we have evolved is very good, almost perfect, but it is frayed at the edges because of our measuring sticks, which by necessity, limit completeness. Atomic clocks are getting better, but not perfect, quantum mechanics presents difficulties measuring small lengths, the speed of light presents speed measurement limitations, mathematics is (effectively) a Truth because we made it that way, and so forth. Modern technology has not left many places for magic, but one example is the experimenter’s involvement with experiments and that has been explained in Chapter 27 (that the mind is part of the measurement process).

 

Is the reality of the ‘wishy-washy world of the Mathematics of the Mind, the Logic of the Half-truth and probability of existence’ complete, and the answer is ‘yes’! Probability is complete from 0 to 1 because we define it that way, as it is mathematical, and so is the Mathematics of the Mind. The Logic of the Half-truth is complete as discussed above because of the extra two terms that account for the unexpected. The second dimension, ‘that time passes’ is vague, but complete because time can pass at a rate greater than zero, but less than infinity, and the Multiverse contains all universes in probability space, but which, of course, probably don’t exist!

 

We have proved that there is no magic and no surprises in the universe, but have we? Uncertainty is confined to world O, to the measurement of quantum mechanics and our mind/consciousness, but in Chapter 27 we showed that quantum mechanics and the universe are linked through the uncertainty of the measuring stick, but only if measurement occurs, so if quantum mechanics contains magic (or something unexpected) the universe does too. In other words, our minds separate out (and recognize) that part of the universe that our minds interact with through measurement.

 

Isn’t that concept describing the possibilities inherent in consciousness? After all, consciousness or the mind evolved the concept of ‘measurement’ and produced a ‘conscious reality’ for itself! It appears that magic may exist and there is the chance of finding something unexpected, but through our mind/consciousness! We found one reality, maybe there are more possible realities or perhaps we can improve our existing reality! Perhaps the next goal is Survival of the Best, turning our world into a paradise through the Mathematics of the Mind! That could be classed as ‘magic’ or perhaps, ‘The Second Coming’!

 

The Green movement has taken over aspects of the neglected Holy Spirit and made the environment a ‘religion’ for themselves, and so the Greens can be described as (a small part of) the second Law. The established religions are not expected to do more than they are at the moment, and the status quo looks like it is here to stay.

 

The separation of the second and third Laws, or the herd versus the predators is deep-seated, and has been left to a strange character called the politician. The politician has to look after the herd and the wide world, as well as looking after their own interests, and this can lead to problems that we can look at, but, bearing in mind that I know little of the subject, it will be affected by the setting of the book. In fact, it is only because of the crucial nature of the politician to Survival of the Best, that I attempt it at all.

 

I have mentioned before that a herd of animals, fish, birds etc. benefit by being in a herd, and the mind must view the world and divide into two zones. Firstly, the far zone where predators, mate stealers, competitors etc lurk, and the inner zone, which is the safe zone where everyone is a friend. Looking at the psychological point of view, the ‘Poker Machine Addiction’ is where some people (literally) destroy their lives by playing poker machines for long periods. The vast majority of people find it bizarre, unbelievable, insane etc that some people put huge amounts of money into a machine that pays back only 90% of what is put in (in the long run). A machine does what it is designed to do, so why do some people ruin their lives playing such a machine? Several ‘tricks’ are used, that reflect on the political environment.

 

Firstly, as described in Chapter 6, Dancing, Nutrition, Poker Machines, Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics, the Mathematics of the Mind shows that people have to be given credible options to keep them away from the machines, as well as down-playing the glitz that attract them. Some clubs provide little option to members, as there is little entertainment or things to do except eat or play the machines. Legislation could be used wisely to safeguard peoples’ money, exercise, nutrition etc throughout the community.

 

Secondly, a different pathway is responsible (in my opinion) for forming addicts of poker machines. This is taking advantage of a ‘naive’ seventh sense. The seventh sense is the changing of thought processes depending on the surrounding environment (Chapter 11). Consider, ‘All of these accounts report a remarkably uniform set of changes in the body – relaxation, warmth, numbness, anesthesia, analgesia, orgasmic release, energy. Again it makes no difference whether these changes actually occur in the body and are conveyed to somatosensing maps, or are directly concocted in these maps, or both.’ (Looking for Spinoza, Antonio Demasio p 123)

 

This last paragraph suggests that long-term poker machine players might change their view of the world from engaging with the varying sunlight, the night-time, the movement of herd members etc to no clocks, constant light and sound, continuous play etc in the gambling areas. It is common knowledge that many clubs and casinos try to isolate patrons from the passage of time. Why? Surely it is more than to keep them playing to lose small amounts of money. I believe that they are changing some of the more susceptible players’ minds, and ‘changing’ our minds is a survival characteristic and heritable.

 

Instead of sun, rain, wind, food and the other factors of life, the constant temperature, constant light, constant sound etc changes the focus of the mind. In other words, the ‘normal’ state of the mind is re-set. The player, who has lost money is in a similar position to an animal under stress when food is running low. The animal is looking for an ‘over-looked’ food source, whilst the player is looking for a large payoff, that sometimes occurs. Both are thinking similarly, if I do not find enough food, I am (literally) dead, or if I do not get a large payout to cover my losses, I am (financially) dead.

 

The less the food supply, the more desperate the animal becomes, and the deeper the debt of the player, the more desperate that the player becomes to try the next play to turn up ‘the big one’. The seventh sense of the animal is the progressive change in the thinking and remembering of similar circumstances in the past. The ‘new’ brain remembers the hidden valley, or the river, or tree branches fit for emergency browsing from the past when it accompanied its mother, stumbled upon, remembered, used creative thinking etc.

 

The player is in a ‘unique’ situation without knowledge of a solution. The only tactic within the knowledge of the brain is to keep going in the same way and try for a large enough ‘win’. So, they keep playing until they run out of resources (effectively death). This is the result of a seventh sense that is ‘in tune’ with its environment and ‘naive’ as it may have experienced a ‘salvation’ or solution earlier in life that maintained it through a similar situation. But survival of the fittest can only go so far, and that is death, and we do not want to see this happen, so, the government should step in to prevent us from being exploited by using education in the schools where the seventh sense can be replaced by learning, or by legislation if we remain ignorant of the dangers.

 

So, the solution to this problem is not difficult. Firstly, the knowledge that poker machines are machines that pay back only 90% of what you put in, in the long-run, should be known to all people through education. However, if you are lucky, you can walk away with a big profit quickly, but mathematically, ‘forget it’, because the odds are against you. This is where the first point comes in and the machines should be ‘de-glitzed’ to some agreed upon formula.

 

This presents the question of what to do to protect the ‘problem gambler’ or the possible ‘problem gambler’. From the above, the answer is simple, restrict the size of the pay-offs. If the players realize that they cannot pay off their losses from possible winnings, they will stop putting money in. If ‘problem gamblers’ are restricted to machines that pay a maximum of $10, why should they play?

 

‘Problem gamblers’ would have to use certain machines. So what are the problems? Probably it would be whether politicians could stand-up to the clubs! But, then again, the clubs could have extra $10 payout machines, but how many would they buy? Not many, I guess!

 

This example shows how important psychology is, how important the clubs are, how insidious the machines are, how impotent the politicians and so on. From my point of view, the politicians, when given the answer, did not use it because of other factors that were more important to them. What they were, I don’t know, but politicians have many people to appease and keep happy if the are to keep their job. The aim of this book is to give a logical mathematical base that everyone can agree on, and remove ‘wriggle room’. To this end, I am going to use the Survival of the Best as a base and see if we can’t make political life ‘easier’ for everyone to handle, and perhaps create a ‘statesman’ in the process.

 

As an example, I would like to give a biased view of the last election when Tony Abbot was swept to power to ‘stop the boats’ and get the budget into surplus. The previous government ‘spent’ huge sums on social schemes. When the austerity measures were announced every group that had their ‘entitlements’ cut was outraged, and the left-leaning media, especially the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) that was having its funding cut had a ‘field day’. I have never seen such an exhibition of ‘greed’ versus the ‘good of the country’, also, considering the on-going problems with the Senate, it is looking to be increasingly difficult for a government to inflict necessary financial ‘pain’. Something must be done to redress this trend.

 

The examples of Survival of the Best that I have given previously, took the lessons of nature and transposed them onto modern society, but none too successfully, so let’s look at the Survival of the Fittest and see if that is not a better interim choice to restart evolution. Survival of the Fittest is simply that the oldest and weakest animals are removed from the scene by becoming food for something else. As I have said before, this idea is frowned upon in the modern world, as the Nazi regime found, however, with a little thought the same result can be attained without as many problems.

 

To put the problem of social security into perspective, it is estimated that three to four working tax-paying people are required to keep each person on welfare, which means, if we look at the problem a little differently, that every fourth person that we meet in any crowd will be a beggar! This shows the scale of the problem, and even worse, these people that can’t, or do not work, have just as much say as you do in how much you give them! I am not going to say if this is fair, as to the amount that these people get, I am asking, should the beggar tell me how much I should give? In other words, I am not trying to change the system, nor decide how much these people should get, I am objecting to the fact that they should tell me how much I should give them, which is what is happening through their vote.

 

‘The Classical Golden Age, approximately 500 – 400 BC ….. The development of democratic government in Athens, Athenian democracy excluded women and slaves, but it was the first in history to establish the principle of government by citizens of a state.’ (http://www.history.org.uk, The Historical Association)

 

As I have said, I know little about this subject, but I do know that the fact that every adult being able to vote is a very recent occourance and over the same period the social security payout has risen hugely, effectively from zero to huge numbers of dollars. The situation has changed dramatically over the last 100 years and is in danger of upsetting our political system (as above), so what can we do to bring the situation back to stability?

 

The purpose of Survival of the Best was to breed the best, but the Survival of the Fittest at least removes the less desirable animals and achieves a somewhat similar result. We are approaching the situation of two variants in Homo Sapiens, the healthy intelligent person of the developed world and the less healthy and less intelligent person from the un-developed countries through the fact of over-crowding, poor nutrition and lack of stimulation affecting intelligence. This situation is dangerous, and reducing population and increasing the lot in life of poorer people is crucial throughout the world.

 

We need a ‘strong’ political system that can deal with ‘turning back the boats’ and new threats, but we won’t do it with a ‘sick’ political system. So, I am not advocating taking away anyone’s right to vote, but I am questioning that person’s worth, to vote. Is a person’s worth, to the country, the same as their right to have a say in how the country is run? Surely this questioning is better than the present situation where everyone gets the vote EVEN when they are voting to pay themselves out of the public purse. The most fundamental position is that if a person has a ‘vested interest’ in a vote, they abstain from that vote, yet, as shown above, this is not happening. It is crucial that the time dependency of these concepts is aligned with a time dependent mathematical system as I am advocating here.

 

In terms of worth, a person is a mathematical model of the sum of that person’s giving and taking from the country. I have suggested that Survival of the Best enables better quality citizens to be recognized, but perhaps a first step is to measure that quality. I suggest that if your net taxes paid, less social security payments be zero if positive, and 0 to –10 depending on the amount received from the government. Further, the older a person is, the more valuable that they are because of the worth to breed and having paid more in taxes. I am assuming that women could freeze their eggs early in life. This is harking back to Survival of the Best, so, the age divided by 10 might be appropriate.

 

Much has been said in the last election about a co-payment of $7 each time that a visit is made to the doctor’s surgery and I suggest a minus number of visits divided by 5 to the doctor’s or hospital. Similarly, the amount subsidized on medicines divided by –200 and say minus one for each year in jail. The summation of these numbers, all of which are available to the government, form a number that is attached to your name at election time and tells the proportion by which your vote is downgraded. Simple! Well, we have ignored the gender bias!

 

I won’t waste time with it, because if it happens, and it must, there will be much debate. This seems to be the easiest way to ‘grade’ the worth of a person to the country and it is easy to implement as the government has all the numbers and is automating the system to make them available. As I have said before, this ‘solution’ sits well in my mind and I doubt that any rational person would disagree. Nothing changes, but lessens the ‘pressure’ on the government to get its legislation through the Houses, and is, in my opinion, fairer. Considering that these disadvantaged people tend to vote against the Abbot government, it would appear that this scheme is in the Abbot government’s best interests, and probably the country’s best interest.

 

Apart from the worth of this idea in politics, it forms a basis to Survival of the Best, in that a sick pensioner would have a low number, whilst a healthy self-funded retiree would have a high score. This is as it should be if it is to represent ‘success’ in this life. The number could be worn as a badge or as part of a name as degrees and decorations are, and be an ongoing source of pride that you know what you are doing, in looking after yourself in this world.

 

This idea of a number allows for many things, and forms the basis of Survival of the Best. I shall have to list the attributes, simply because the number is so powerful. It shows that you are healthy, that you are a prime specimen because you are old, that you are successful in the economic world, that you have husbanded your resources, that you have weathered the temptations of life and kept your money and assets. This number is what women should be looking for, because it gives them assets, a stable household and well functioning children! Yes, this number is what we have been looking for, and this will be expanded into the Forever Club, because the government will probably not support it as they should.

 

A conclusion might be appropriate because we have jumped around looking at so many concepts (attractors) that it is difficult to narrow our gaze. I would say that we have defined a model of a person’s worth that enables them to ‘stand up and be counted’ and provides a goal in life and a means to perpetuate good genes and extend a worthy life. A reward for a life well lived and a lesson to all to emulate! As well as a step towards the Second Coming!