Chapter 60: Measurement of Time Dependent Concepts, Extrapolation, Variety in Food and the Nutrition Orgene.
Abstract: science and technology have ‘blossomed’ using measurement, and the time dependent measurement of concepts is used to show that the modern world has been, and is mismanaged and that the modern governing concepts are unsynchronised with respect to other time periods and suggests ways to bring them back to an acceptable state. A significant positive ‘key’ to the modern ‘diseases’ is the necessity of using a wide variety of natural foods.
This chapter is necessarily about the measurement of concepts because the previous chapter showed how poorly governments etc. are performing because they don’t measure concepts properly, in my opinion, and this lack can be gauged by the success of technology and science that have only been possible through measurement. That measurement is so crucial, and underlies everything, is shown by the fact/supposition that measurement is the ‘fifth dimension’ (CEM).
The quotations below, are from a paper, ‘How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died’ by Paul Clayton and Judith Rowbotham, and form the concepts/attractors around which this derivation is constructed and although the concepts/attractors necessarily stand alone, they are intimately related, bearing in mind that everything is related and that those used are, hopefully, the most relevant.
The previous chapter looked at aspects of measurement, and in particular at how little knowledge and control the government has had in the public health of its citizens over the previous 135 years in Britain. The disastrous consequences, in my opinion, outlined, indicate a similar lack of knowledge is being applied to the global problems that we face today. Measurement is the fifth dimension and is a crucial part of CEM, so I will take measurement in a different direction from the previous chapter that showed the problems, to what I believe, is a possible solution, but tied in with the solution is the question of where we want or should go.
It takes two points, a beginning and an end, at a minimum, for a measurement, and as simple as this sounds, if the decisions are not made sensibly, and by that I mean with a scientific basis, it is difficult to finish/end-up where you should. There is much more to this, so I will repeat, that extrapolation is difficult because you have to define where you want to go before you get there, and in most cases you don’t know where you want to be, or, want to do when you get there. Extrapolation is much more difficult than interpolation and these concepts are often used in mathematical modelling.
I have said that mathematical modelling, where numerical values are assigned, is a step away from mathematics and a step closer to the Mathematics of the Mind, where concepts are used, but the principles of extrapolation and interpolation are similar. I have used the ‘opposite’ concept as a means of making a measurement in treating depression (chapters 56, 57 and 58) and I have used the concept of Survival of the Best for attaining the ‘end’ or ‘purpose’ of our evolution. Also, it might be worthwhile reconsidering the simple concept of a+b=1 that we obtained from existence in the last chapter (59) that underlies any measurement that we wish to make. The traditional way to extrapolate is to use historical figures and extend the ‘best fit’ graph into the future as I did when I was involved in mathematical modelling on the main-frame computers at a Weapons Research Establishment many years ago. However, it is much better if you know where you want to go, and then it becomes the much easier task of interpolation.
This seems to be a good time to point out where I am going with this derivation. The Mid-Victorian case is an interpolation between the two end points of Palaeolithic and today and given the ‘blindness’ that I will discuss later, the three points are a reasonable ‘fit’ to evolution, as we see it, at this moment. However, if we add a fourth point, the extrapolation to the Survival of the Best, we (will later) find that the ‘modern point’ is way off the graph. This is the Mathematics of the Mind, or a mathematics of concepts giving us more information as the number of (relevant) attractors increases, and in the limit, we know something perfectly/exactly, when we have considered everything in the universe.
To make this somewhat vague comment ‘off the graph’ better understood, consider those points ‘on’ the graph in relation to the problems facing the modern world. ‘Restrictions’ were in place for the Palaeolithic, Mid-Victorian and the (future) Survival of the Best in regard to global warming, pollution, mass extinction, depletion of rain-forests and so on, that are all due to technology, consumption and over-population. Remember that when the mind takes over from iteration, measurement and management must be in place, otherwise problems can occur. The Palaeolithic, Mid-Victorian and the (future) Survival of the Best have built-in controls, whereas the modern world does not.
We are not measuring and managing the modern world properly, because, in my opinion, firstly, we are not measuring concepts properly and secondly, politicians are not ‘managing’ the voters competently. Our modern ‘democracy’ is another concept that is not working well, as has been mentioned previously and should perhaps be re-visited.
The paper, ‘How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died’ is a ‘snapshot in time’ that (possibly) led to the formation of the British Empire because of the robust health of the population and is the coming together of a number of fortuitous circumstances of which I will mention only a few. As an aside, this statement shows the great possibilities that are possible when management/measurement is properly used that might create something as important as an Empire! Principally, the fortuitous circumstances occurred through cheaper, fresher food, that was more natural and with more variety and little ‘pre-packaging’ and convenience foods together with a minimum of alcohol and tobacco use. An example is the quotation below:
‘The railway system grew exponentially, reaching 2500 miles by 1845, and continued to expand, carrying goods as well as passengers. Thanks to trains, producers were now supplying the urban markets with more, fresher and cheaper food than was previously possible. This boosted urban demand for fresh foodstuffs, and pushed up agricultural output still further. A survey of food availability in the 1860s through sources such as Henry Mayhew’s survey of the London poor shows very substantial quantities of affordable vegetables and fruits now pouring into the urban markets.’
‘The implications of the mid-Victorian story are far-reaching, because, unlike the paleolithic scenario, details of the mid-Victorian lifestyle and its impact on public health are extensively documented.’ This it true, but there is the problem of too much information that is not ‘targeted’ to the underlying concepts that I have been dealing with, especially the matter of simplicity which is at the core of this book. So, I view this Mid-Victorian example as a ‘confirmation’ of the trend that I am suggesting, rather than a goal in its own right, though as a goal, it does have some good points, however, I believe that we can do better.
Although little is known about the Palaeolithic and there were many tribes in different areas eating different foods, the basic principles are similar in that the countryside was ‘farmed’ with only a small amount of each food taken from each food source so as to preserve the breeding potential or replaceability of the food sources. This type of gathering required walking considerable distances leading to exercise, reasonable exposure to the sun for vitamin D, social contact and the teaching/learning of what is edible. I am assuming, and it seems logical that this ‘farming’ led to the eating of a great variety of foods especially vegetable, fruits in season, nuts, mushrooms, small game, fish, frogs, seeds etc. This necessity of ‘thinning’ resources by farming and consuming as much as possible, in variety, from the available area may have ‘encouraged genetically’ the body to use/need a very large assortment of phytochemicals. This leads to an important (possible) cause of the ‘modern’ diseases that, I believe, are caused by the modern diet’s lack of variety, in a positive sense, contrasting to the negatives of sugar, processed foods etc.
To belabour a (possibly) crucial point, that hunter/gathering ‘encourages genetically’ the use of a very wide range of phytotoxins in humans and this is an orgene that could be called the ‘nutrition orgene’. It will be taken up again later, but the nutrition orgene consists of palatability, toxicity (that it is safe to eat that comes from tribal myths and childhood learning through the gathering process) and nutrition. By contrast, a grazing animal does not differentiate to the same extent and does not leave reserves of food, so, considering the nutrition orgene (palatability/toxicity/nutrition), it is apparent that nutrition is probably where the problem of the modern diet lies.
‘Mid-Victorian working class men and women consumed between 50% and 100% more calories than we do, but because they were much more physically active than we are today, overweight and obesity hardly existed at the working class level.’ The foods that were eaten are ‘onions … leeks … watercress … Jerusalem artichoke … carrots … turnips … cabbage … broccoli … peas … beans’. Fruits were ‘apples … cherries … gooseberries … plums … dried fruits’. Nuts and pulses were ‘legumes … chestnuts … hazelnuts … walnuts’. ‘Fish … sprats … eels … shellfish’. ‘Roast joints … shin or cheek … eked out with offal meats’. ‘Eggs … dripping … hard cheese.’
To repeat the quotation from the last chapter outlining the reasons leading to the fall in height of the population to contrast the above diet: ‘imported North American wheat and new milling techniques reduced the prices of white flour and bread. Tinned meat arrived from the Argentine, Australia and New Zealand, which was cheaper than either home-produced or refrigerated fresh meat also arriving from these sources. Canned fruit and condensed milk became widely available.’ To simplify, ‘new milling techniques’, ‘tinned meat’ and ‘canned fruit and condensed milk became widely available’ and this has directly led to our modern diet of convenience food that leads into the following summary.
‘Thus, the mid-Victorian experience clearly shows us that:
A: Degenerative diseases are not caused by old age (the ‘wear and tear’ hypothesis); but are driven, in the main, by chronic malnutrition. Our low energy lifestyles leave us depleted in anabolic and anti-catabolic co-factors; and this imbalance is compounded by excessive intakes of inflammatory compounds. The current epidemic of degenerative disease is caused by widespread problem of multiple micro- and phyto-nutrient depletion (Type B malnutrition.)
B: With the exception of family planning and antibiotics, the vast edifice of twentieth century healthcare has generated little more than tools to suppress symptoms of the degenerative diseases which have emerged due to our failure to maintain mid-Victorian nutritional standards.
C: The only way to combat the adverse effects of Type B malnutrition, and to prevent and / or cure degenerative disease, is to enhance the nutrient density of the modern diet.’
It has been mentioned previously that when the hunter/gatherers settled in the Euphrates region and became farmers, graves from that time showed that the average height of the population fell by four inches. I also remember that there were 150 varieties of ‘food’ available in the area throughout the year and it is difficult not to draw some conclusions/speculations with the above, in that the hunter/gatherers were forced by circumstances to eat a very wide range of foods and always taking a minimum from each source to leave the maximum for the future.
However, for the hunter/gatherers this taking of small quantities of a very wide range of foods was a survival orgene operating opposite to the death orgene. It is possible that when a different option of selecting only a few foods was available, as in the modern world, the death orgene became predominant, laziness reduced the variety of food eaten and health suffered. It is well-known that learning what foods are edible and necessary is part of our childhood learning, and this knowledge is being lost in disrupted families or corrupted by the marketeers of our ‘food’ as shown in the following quote. Remember that for reasons of reality, organisms in a closed environment must be based on the same chemistry to allow re-use of resources.
‘Foods thus possess two different properties – palatability and nutritional value. The palatability of foods, and so the foods chosen to make up the total diet, varies from species to species; however, the nutritional needs that have to be satisfied by these various species are virtually the same for all species. Thus, animals choose diets that they find palatable, but, whatever these diets are, they must supply all their nutritional needs… palatability is a guide to nutritional value … if you like some food very much it is taken to indicate – to prove, almost – that you need this food … so long as human beings did not manufacture foods, this argument was perfectly sound… I am certain that it is the dissociation of palatability and nutritional value that is the major cause of the ‘malnutrition of affluence.’ (Pure, White and Deadly, John Yudkin, p 7 to 13)
Our genes are (effectively) those of the hunter/gatherer and our components in the body have always had the availability of a wide range of phyto-chemicals to maintain the body, due to the survival/nutritional orgenes. Our body’s components’ logical base and chemistry were laid down hundreds of millions of years ago and I believe that our rapidly changing modern diet is exceeding these components’ ‘design/evolved-width’ of operation and is causing them to malfunction and that is the reason that ‘modern’ ‘diseases’ dominate our community.
The Best animals have always been able to overcome the death orgene as the leader of the herd attempts to be the Best for as long as he is able and the Forever Club is no different. The longer that an animal is the Best, the more the probability that his genes will be carried on into the future. This is not logical, but it is necessary if the species is to survive, and this is the survival orgene. So, we have to assume that this Survival of the Best is our (necessary) plan for the future and then we are forced (logically) to ask the questions: why are there so many people using so many resources and causing global warming and so on, and to manage this, we have set a forward measurement/goal (Survival of the Best) and I have used the Palaeolithic as a Starting-point measurement.
So, we have two points separated by 150 years, and these are the modern time and the Mid-Victorian time, and a point, say, 150 years in the future for Survival of the Best to be fully implemented, whilst the Palaeolithic is 10,000 years ago. This gives 4 points spread over 10,000 year with 3 points over 300 years and, from above, given the mess that the modern world is in, it is apparent that the modern ‘point’ will be a significant ‘distance’ from the (very well defined) line. Clearly, we know that there are things wrong with the modern world, but we have to be able to measure in order to manage them.
Once we realize that we have a problem, it becomes a case of interpolation with ‘adequate’ situations on each side and this points the way into a solution. The solution in many cases is not difficult, but as I have said many times that the idea (behind this book) is to present a logical derivation the no one can refute, and this paves the way for ‘change by ridicule’. As an example, it was recently published on the TV News that the head of a major Church said that the Earth was in a mess and the problems should be solved, and yet that particular Church discourages birth control!
We can’t return to the Palaeolithic method of hunter/gathering because we have large populations, don’t have the time to gather etc, so perhaps we can return to the Mid-Victorian on our way to the Best, because there is no place for those that are not the Best and they will eliminate themselves over time, given the monetary incentive by governments not to breed, as mentioned earlier. There is no need to change our genes to exist on modern foods when the foods of the Mid-Victorian can be produced adequately and easily. Better teaching of MEN (state of Mind/Exercise/Nutrition) will bring Survival of the Best into play, and if government does not generalize it, it will grow, as it is growing now, by the Best acting in their own ‘selfish’ way called laissez-faire, which is the way of the Capitalist System.
Long ago, when I took Economics at university, a major unresolved question was, which economic system was the best out of the Capitalist system of the West and the Central Government system of Russia during the Cold War, and I now realise that the Capitalist system is basically the same as Survival of the Fittest and both are iterational. The Survival of the Best is a mixture of management and iteration, because we must use the mind/brain to measure, but so is iteration crucial to selection of the Best. It so happens that there is a model of business akin to Survival of the Best, and that is ‘business with a social conscience’ where the business uses laissez-faire, but is large/stable/prosperous enough to promote environmental/conservational aims. Considering these organisational models, the fifth dimension, measurement/Truth/‘knowing’ is everywhere (entanglement) and produces a penetrating view (perhaps, god-like-power!) when used in a Mathematics of the Mind sense.
Conclusion/prediction: I have shown, I believe, that our modern world is ‘out of control’ because our mind/brains have taken over from iteration and measurement/management requires the Mathematics of the Mind to set up the alternatives so that a mind/brain can decide the appropriate course of action, and this is not being done. I also believe that our natural determination will implement Survival of the Best when the alternatives are made clear and a ‘path’ of change makes it possible. The continuum of iteration/laissez-faire to central-government contains the mid-point of the Survival of the Best that contains both elements and leads to the question of pathway of implementation.
Implementation could be through the triumvirate of judiciary, police and government, and it was suggested that changes are needed to the latter because the former (two) obey reality. Changes were suggested to make the voting system fairer in chapter 22: Magic, Proverbs, Politics and the Voting System and better control is offered to voters in chapter 47: Getting ‘Preferential’ Politics to Work.
It should be pointed out, as I have done many times, that measurement is iteration, or, as our mind/brains are built on iteration, our mind/brain. The only choices are iteration (Survival of the Fittest) probably leading to Armageddon for the world, or, the application of the mind/brain, the Mathematics of the Mind/management and Survival of the Best to enact a timely solution.
darrylpenney 