Book - (The Acentric Labyrinth) On the Metaphysics and Epistemology of Giordano Bruno

[RaptorWizard]

The Acentric Labyrinth: Giordano Bruno's Prelude to Contemporary Cosmology

I The infinite universe:

1 The universe is infinite.
2 It is infinite because it has no borders or limits, neither does it have a surface, and hence neither circumference nor figure.
3 The universe has no center.
4 Space is an homogeneous and infinite continuum.
5 The ether is identical with the void or absolute space. Thus, so understood, the void is not impossible. There is interplanetary and interstellar space (or void). The universe is not solid. The heavenly bodies are not in a vacuum, but in this medium called ether; this is their only universal ‘place’. There are no absolute voids or perfect vacuums in the universe, nor outside of it.
6 The universe is one single whole.
7 The infinite universe does not need an external motor to move it. In itself it is immovable, since there is nothing else it can move towards or go away from; however, everything in it is in constant motion.
8 From the infinite universe new abundance of matter is always born.
9 The universe is homogeneous and isotropic; there is no hierarchy in cosmic matter resulting from its relative distance from the human observer on Earth; the universe looks the same from wherever in the universe an observer may look at it. All heavenly bodies are made of the same elements and have similar composition, consistency, and structure. Neither the sun nor the Earth have any cosmological privileges over other heavenly bodies in the infinite universe. There is no essential difference between the sublunar the supralunar world.
10 Motion is universal. All heavenly bodies are endowed with several kinds of movement, and none of them is perfectly regular.
11 The universe had no beginning in time; it will have no end either; it is eternal.
12 There is no absolute time. In the universe, the number of times correspond to the number of celestial bodies.
13 The material universe consists of space, ether, atoms, and light.
14 Light is not made up of atoms.

II The innumerable worlds:

15 There are innumerable, indeed infinite, suns and planets in the universe.
16 These innumerable suns and planets are in themselves finite.
17 Heavenly bodies move freely in space. The celestial vault or firmament – the ultimate sphere of fixed stars equidistant from the Earth – is an illusion. All heavenly bodies have in themselves their own immanent principle of movement (soul); they are automotive and animated; they do not need to be pushed or pulled by other bodies; their source of movement is internal vigor, not external impulse (mechanical push or pull).
18 The Sun is a star and the stars are suns. They are not made up exclusively of fire, but of the same elements that make up the Earth as well as all other celestial bodies.
19 The Sun, like all heavenly bodies, moves; it revolves around its center.
20 Besides the visible planets, there may be other invisible ones rotating around the Sun which we cannot see because of their distance or size.
21 There are probably other planetary orbits around other suns besides our own solar ones.
22 The farther the planets are from the Sun, the longer are their orbits, and the longer their orbits, the slower they move around the Sun.
23 The Earth is a planet not unlike many others in the universe. It moves freely in space, and is not a perfect sphere.
24 There are probably living beings in other worlds.

III The soul of the universe:

25 The universe is one because it has one single immanent principle that holds all its parts together, just as the human soul is the one single principle that holds together and interrelates all parts of the body. It is the soul of the universe.
26 The soul of the universe must be conceived as the principle and substance of the universe, although its true nature is extremely difficult to grasp.
27 The universal soul is found in everything, and there is no corpuscle, however tiny, that is not animated by it.
28 The universal soul is able to produce all from all.

IV The universal intellect:

29 There is order in the universe; this order is not the result of chance, as the atomists would have it, but rather the effect of an efficient cause, the universal intellect. The universal intellect is the only single immanent principle of organized complexity in the universe: Mind, God, Being, the One, Truth, Fate, Reason, Order.
30 The agent that governs, orders, and directs everything in the universe is the intellect of the soul of the universe; the intellect is not only the formal cause and principle of the universe, but its efficient cause as well.
31 The efficient cause of the universe, the universal intellect, must also be conceived as the final cause of the universe, for it may be conceived as having an infinite (not transcendentally pre-established) purpose, namely that all possible forms of matter it contains can be actualized, for it must become everything that it can possibly become. It so strives to achieve perfection through a full ‘explication’ or unfolding.
32 The universe is not complete and perfect; the infinite universe is open and therefore can never reach perfect completion.

V Matter and form:

33 Matter and form, the passive and the active metaphysical principles of all physical reality, are inseparable, infinite, eternal, and indestructible.
34 Matter is divine and animated from within by the equally divine formal principle.
35 All the individual forms existing in the universe are not received by matter from outside, but all proceed from the infinitely fecund bosom of matter animated by one single form, which is the soul of the universe.
36 The One (universal intellect or a cosmic mind) effects an infinity of forms out of uncreated matter throughout eternity. There was never a single act of creation that produced, out of nothing, a complete and perfect universe of immutable forms.
37 All the infinite different forms in the universe are subject to constant transformations. All forms on Earth are incessantly changing into other forms, and all bodies in the universe are equally transmutable and susceptible to incessant changes.
38 In the universe, only space and ether are continua; the rest are either discrete, perfectly solid, indivisible atoms, or the bodies of such atoms. The atoms are the most elementary particles of matter.
39 Matter comprehends a lot more than atoms; it includes ether and light as well.
40 Atoms are automotive and animated, that is, they have in themselves the principles of movement (they have ‘souls’). Their movements produce infinite combinations which settle down to innumerable forms.

 

[UniqueMixture]

No offense raptor, but this thought is not even a sigma 6 deviation in a world of 7 billion, how do you expect it to be the one universal explanation of the cosmos?

 

[RaptorWizard]

No offense raptor, but this thought is not even a sigma 6 deviation in a world of 7 billion, how do you expect it to be the one universal explanation of the cosmos?

The journey, according to the above axioms, will never come to complete perfection, and this cosmological system, championed by Giordano Bruno, will be the means of its achievement.

The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter -- for the future. His duty is to lay foundation of those who are to come and point the way.

 

[UniqueMixture]

No, because the way it will be achieved will not be axiomatic, it will take the creation of a mind with much more processing power than any individual human brain can have which means we need to bioengineer a neurological system or create a architecture that can integrate different kinds of physical processing so that it might perceive the patterns that we cannot fathom. The problem is by scaling things up at some point you run into the inherent problem where the process analyzing becomes the object analyzed. Even utilizing quantum computation we could not predict the movement of every particle and even then field exitations appear to be random in nature and will need to be incorporated. The only way you can predict with accuracy is to limit where they can manifest which changes the data you have available for analysis and because those new particles need to be fed into the machine to sustain it and it is constantly moving toward higher entropy our ability to "know" will diminish as time marches on

 

[RaptorWizard]

We each hold within us the transcendent power of the mind lifted above and beyond the physical world, trans-dimensional, limitless, infinite, this highest possible perfection aimed at open-ended achievement.

 

[RaptorWizard]

Unless you make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand God: for the like is not intelligible save to the like. Make yourself grow to a greatness beyond measure, by a bound free yourself from the body; raise yourself above all time, become Eternity; then you will understand God. Believe that nothing is impossible for you, think yourself immortal and capable of understanding all, all arts, all sciences, the nature of every living being. Mount higher than the highest height; descend lower than the lowest depth. Draw into yourself all sensations of everything created, fire and water, dry and moist, imagining that you are everywhere, on earth, in the sea, in the sky, that you are not yet born, in the maternal womb, adolescent, old, dead, beyond death. If you embrace in your thought all things at once, times, places, substances, qualities, quantities, you may understand God. — Giordano Bruno

 

[RaptorWizard]

Tao Te Ching

1. To know the origins is initiation into the Tao. Attain to upmost emptiness, only contemplate the return, and return to the root. To be one with the Tao is to abide forever.
2. When the task has been accomplished and things completed the people will say that they did it themselves, we acheived it!
3. See the Simple and embrace the Primal, diminish the self and curb the desires.
4. How do I know the ways of all things at the Beginning? By what is within me. To be great is to go on, to go on is to be far, and to be far is to return.
5. Man follows the ways of the Earth. The Earth follows the ways of Heaven, Heaven follows the ways of Tao, Tao follows its own ways.
6. To be restless is to lose one's self-mastery.
7. Follow the guidance of the Inner Light.
8. From Infancy return to the Infinite and Primal Simplicity.
9. He who knows himself has insight, He who conquers himself is truly strong.
10. When the desires of men are curbed, there will be peace.
11. Humility is the root from which greatness springs, and the high must be built on the foundations of the low.
12. The movement of the Tao consists in returning.
13. All things under Heaven are born of the corporeal: the Corporeal is born of the Incorporeal.
14. Without going out of your door, you can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The further you go, the less you know. How do I know about the world? By what is within me.
15. To overcome everything is to reach an invisible height. Only he who has reached an invisible height can have a kingdom, the secret of long life and lasting vision.
16. If only the ruler and his people would refrain from harming each other, all the benefits of life would accumulate in the kingdom.
17. It is not because by virtue of it he who seeks finds; that is why it is such a treasure to the world.
18. A tree as big as a man's embrace springs from a tiny sprout. A journey of a thousand leagues starts from where your feet stand.

 

[RaptorWizard]

"Look me in the eye. It's okay if you're scared, so am I, but we're scared for different reasons. I'm scared of what I won't become, and you're scared of what I could become. Look at me. I won't let myself end where I started, I won't let myself finish where I began. I know what is within me, even if you can't see it yet. Look me in the eyes. I have something more important than courage - I have patience. I will become what I know I am." - Michael Jordan

 

[RaptorWizard]

The Kobe Code: Eight Principles For Success -- An Insider's Look into Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant's Warrior Life & the Code He Lives By

1. You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.
2. Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
3. What I'm doing right now, I'm chasing perfection.
4. Basketball is my sanctuary, my refuge. I go back to being a kid on the playground. When I get here, it's all good.
5. I'm playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition - that's what I've always wanted.
6. I realize now that there's a strength in dunking that I can use to my advantage, when you dunk at a key moment in the game you can use it to change the momentum.
7. As far as carrying the torch for the years to come, I don't know. I just want to be the best basketball player I can be.
8. You just try to take it one day at a time.

 

[RaptorWizard]

“I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche