Axor And Tipler

Poul Anderson's Fr Axor searches for evidence of an extraterrestrial divine incarnation whereas Frank Tipler, if I understand him, argues that there is only one Incarnation but also that the Singularity is the First Cause and God, which would obviously satisfy Axor if true. Unfortunately, I do not understand equations and do not follow the maneuver by which Tipler reduces infinite time to finite.

The Thomist First Cause argument is completely inadequate. At the secondary school which I attended, a Jesuit presented us with these propositions:

every event is caused;
an infinite regress is impossible;
therefore, there was a first cause, which everyone calls God.

He added, "That then is the argument and the mind accepts that."

Even then, I knew that:

that is not the only, and certainly not the best, argument;
every mind does not accept it;
both premises need to be proved;
if every event is caused by an earlier event, then an infinite regress is not only possible but actual and there can have been no first cause which, in any case, would be a past event, not an eternal person;
there are allegedly uncaused events in quantum mechanics.

Maybe Tipler makes a better case for a First Cause which is also God (two conclusions to be proved) but I need the unmathematical layman's version.

(BTW, the family outing was to the Wolfhouse Gallery (scroll down), then to Wallings Ice Cream.)

558-542 BC

(Apparently, Netanyahu compared Cyrus to Trump so here are images of both.)

"Brave To Be A King," 3.

I post to you in a pause between meeting at the Wolfhouse and eating at the Strawberry Gardens.

Historical fiction, including historical science fiction like Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, stimulates interest in history. On pp. 66-67, Anderson summarizes the history of Cyrus. I will return to this later this evening or tomorrow when I have more time.

Associative Processes

Blogging processes are allusive and associative, not logical or linear. Thus, discussion of SM Stirling's alternative histories generated speculation as to whether any of Stirling's characters might find their way into Poul Anderson's inter-cosmic inn, the Old Phoenix, but this in turn led to discussion of the historical figures that Anderson does show us in the Phoenix and that discussion proved to be far more fruitful than I had expected, despite my relative familiarity with these texts.

"Losers' Night," if read hastily, merely presents disjointed snatches of diverse conversations. I had enjoyed it even on that level. However, when reread carefully, line by line, it turns out to be a summation of the Old Phoenix sequence because it refers to Holger, Valeria, Rupert and Abelard and also reflects on the roles of several individuals in history. They made their marks so were they really "losers"?

This means that I must finish rereading the Old Phoenix passages of A Midsummer Tempest and will then be free to return to Stirling's Conquistador. But first I hope that there will be a family visit to the Wolfhouse Gallery this afternoon and a historical talk this evening.

Between Posts

The page view count always goes way down when I do not post for a while but I cannot maintain a steady pace all the time! This week, Monday was my daughter's 40th birthday and today is my son-in-law's ?th birthday. Earlier today, some of us had lunch in the Wolfhouse Gallery cafe (see first image) and all will share a family meal tonight. (An alternative lunch venue is the Leighton Moss Bird Reserve cafe - see second image.)

However, when there is more time for posting, these questions will be addressed:

are multiple worlds real?;
what does "existence" mean?;
is the Draka Final Society utopian or dystopian?;
what would persuade slave-owners that they are wrong?

Engineering And Tea

(The discerning reader will find images of blueberry tarts, pie and muffins on the blog. Search here.)

"...the heavy beams that secured the gates were pulled back, and a squeal of steel on steel as the great metal portals swung out, salvaged wheels from railcars running along track set into the concrete of the roadway. Winches grated as the portcullis was raised..."
-SM Stirling, A Meeting At Corvallis (New York, 2007), Chapter Two, p. 52.

Observations:

a lot of very hard work has been done in a very short time since the Change;
I would not have a clue how to do any of that;
if not for people like Arminger, such elaborate defences would be unnecessary (hot oil is kept permanently above the gates).

Elsewhere, Sir Nigel Loring consumes blueberry muffins ("quite good") and chamomile tea with honey. Of the tea, he thinks:

"It wasn't quite as vile when you got use to it..." (p. 53)

I am a coffee man, not a tea man, but, after the Change, we would have to take what we got. The honey would help. Morals: after the Change, work hard and make do. Some aspects of life are perennial:

"Flames played over the glowing coals, red and gold flickering in an endless dance." (ibid.)

Addendum: Two more points for the food thread:

blogging was interrupted by a visit to the Wolfhouse Gallery where I had porridge with banana, peanut butter and honey, toast and butter with seasonal jam, a peanut butter brownie and filter coffee with hot milk whereas Ketlan had leek and mustard croquettes, chestnut mushrooms and a fried egg and three lattes;

Lord Bear suggests cooking French-fries and onion rings in the hot oil above the gate.

Blog Update

Since the beginning of December last year, we have re-reviewed many major works by Poul Anderson. More recently, I became interested in Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars series because of the interconnected contributions made to it by Poul Anderson and Jerry Pournelle & SM Stirling. I have started to investigate other parts of MKW although this takes us away from Poul Anderson as such. However, I have even more recently been sidetracked back into Anderson's Time Patrol series so I am even less sure than usual of blog direction at present.

In just over an hour from now, I will be driving my daughter and granddaughter to a family gathering at the Wolfhouse Gallery (scroll down) so there will be a cessation of blogging for several hours. Many years ago, the Gallery was a shop and a cafe in a single building. Now they are separate buildings. This means more room and also nostalgia for the original set-up. With a time machine, we would be able to go there.

Time Patrol agents waltz in Strauss' Vienna, attend the theater in Shakespeare's London etc. With their longevity, they can go there many times. With their mastery of disguise, they can hide the fact of how often they go there. Nevertheless, there must be an upper limit on how many times they can crowd into a finite volume of space and time.