Hebo lists:
women;
affine geometry;
Arzethian politics.
Googling discloses the adjective, "Arzethian," (also here) although in what I take to be a different context.
I had never heard of Affine geometry which is Euclidean geometry without distance or angles and applies to parallel lines although I would have thought that the concept of different distances applies to three or more parallel lines. This sounds interesting up to a point although complicated-sounding propositions are formulated about simple-seeming concepts like lines and points. All that I can say here is that anyone who, having encountered affine geometry for the first time in this blog post, would like to pursue the subject further would be able to make a start with the linked Wikipedia article.
However, like Socrates, I prefer philosophical abstractions and generalizations to technical complications.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm finding Frank J. Tipler's THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY, discussing as it does cosmology, physics, Christianity, etc., tough enough even without also tackling affine geometry as well!
Sean
Sean,
Please give us a synopsis when you have finished it.
Paul.
Paul:
In a book I'm currently reading, some characters speculate about the origin of mysterious lights in jump-space. One of them, asked his opinion, said, "I've learned that when you don't understand what something is, it's a big mistake to assume you can be certain what it isn't. All you know is what you don't know."
The one who'd asked then remarked, "Ah, you're a follower of Zen?" When he admitted he didn't really know anything about that, someone else responded, "And you admit it? You must be a master of Zen!"
David,
We practice Zen and don't know what it is.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Tipler's THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY is rather hard going, but I will try to offer some semi-coherent comments about that book when I finally finish it. Fair warning, I'm reading it rather slowly!
Sean
Sean,
Thank you. Physics and Christianity are relevant to the subject matters of this blog. For example, what would Axor make of Tipler? And Tipler is differently relevant to THE AVATAR.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sure Fr. Axor, a scientist as well as a priest, would have much to talk about with Frank Tipler, if they could meet. I got a very strong impression from both his comments on Mr. Wright's blog and THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY, that Tipler himself was either a Christian or sympathetic to Christianity. And I do recall Anderson's prefatory comments to THE AVATAR discussing Tipler's work.
Some of the ideas and suggestions Tipler made in THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY seem very strange and hard to believe, such as rockets or space ships propelled by something called the "baryon annihilation process."
Sean
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