Sunday, July 22, 2012

Logical and Physical

I love the information age and the conceptual information structures that we have created on top of physical systems of electronic processing that brings so much potential for human advancement.  It has really been nothing more than a continuance of separating logical relationships from physical objects that started with written and spoken symbols structured to represent the physical things in this world they related to.  Then we started to relate these symbols to thoughts and feelings that do not exist in the physical world and connect the two worlds with the medium of exchange called language.  The rapidly increasing speed of change based on technology that furthers our ability to separate but at the same time make more productive relationships between our physical and logical world is amazing.

I thought that my father's world where trains, planes, automobiles, radio, TV, etc were the most exciting things was the most exciting time to live.  Now I can see that my time to live is the most exciting time.  His was world of physical change, where barriers of physical time and distance were reduced by our increasing ability to separate physical objects from their logical relationships.  We still have trains, planes and automobiles but now we have so much more ability to create, manage and use them based on the continuation of the same capability to separate the restrictive binding of physical things to their logical associations that ultimately result in better physical processing and result.

We are always getting better at separating what a physical thing is from what it does and processing the concept of a thing separate from what a thing is.  That is the story of human progress.  We do not have to explode atom bombs anymore.  We simulate the explosion on a computer.  Much more efficient.  Then we can build bombs we never, I hope have to explode.  That is progress.

Barriers have been decreasing between us and the things we can do with our physical world because we have a mind to logically think about doing them.  There was always a lag caused by whatever idea we had about doing something with a physical object and actually doing something with the object.  We got an idea even before anything was ever actually done like making a fire or using a wheel.  Actually doing it required getting tow sticks or making something round.  The idea was a product of the mind; logic.  It was constrained by applying it to something physical; two sticks or fashioning a wheel. 


There was an inherent lag between thinking about something and applying the thought to the physical thing it related to.  Like thinking about a new route to the Indies and actually getting the there in sailing ship.  It requires less and less time now to the extent that the lag built into the actual doing of something is not much of a constraint to getting it done.  To some extent, and perhaps that is increasing as well, we might be losing the safety factor inherent in requiring some time to process or use the physical object necessary to get something done.  Or, simply, the constraints of the physical object itself which assured the honesty in its use. 

Honesty in use being assured by the nature of the physical object itself, and inherent nature that cannot be changed for for the purpose of dishonest use because the bonding between the object and its logical representation cannot be separated.  Now there is a fascinating idea that is contrary to thinking that the progress of humans is possible by our ability to increasingly separate but relate physical things from their logical representation and processing!!

Such honesty in use of a physical object dictated by the fact that it cannot ever be separated from its single logical application is never possible....perhaps, I think...I will just accept that as a statement of fact for the sake of argument.

Honesty in use of a conceptual object because by the nature of its concept can never be separated from its single logical application is possible and perhaps the greatest gift of the human mind?  Hmmm......Money is a conceptual object.  What if it had only one logical application and could be used for nothing else:  A logical medium of exchange tied directly in an exclusive one to one relationship with aconceptual representation in a variable but finite universe of like objects that exist forever and never changed except for its value which was a relative constant?







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