Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake

PROGRAM NOTES:

(Minutes : Seconds into program)

01:23 Ralph Abraham: A short primer on chaos theory. . . . The emergence of form from a field of chaos.

08:57 Rupert Sheldrake:

"The problem I have with chaos theory . . . " The issue of indeterminacy in the real world. . . . The illusion of total predictability. . . . Indeterminacy may exist not just at the quantum level but at all levels of natural organization. . . . How form arises from chaos. . . . In some sense, energy may be seen as an agent of change.

21:24 Rupert:

The question of how do new fields, new forms, come into being in the first place? Where do they come from? . . . The nature of the mathematical realm, the formative realm. Is there a kind of mathematical realm before the universe, somehow beyond space and time. [lozo: he goes on a kind of Olaf Stapelton riff] . . .

26:04 Rupert:

"The view that I want to consider is that the world soul, or the world imagination, makes up these forms as it goes along, that there isn’t, out there, a kind of mathematical mind already fixed or already full."

28:40 Ralph:

"I think that with mathematics we can make a model for anything." . . . "Mathematics could be regarded simply an extension of language. . . . Words, I think, are frequently inadequate."

34:18 Ralph:

"But the truth is this theory can be used to model everything. So it never settles any questions as to the origin of things or the true nature of ordinary reality."

37:40 Rupert:

"Are the fields of reality more real than the models we use to model them with. Or is there a kind of mathematics yet more fundamental the fields?"

38:57 Ralph:

What mathematics means to me . . . a description of the mathematical landscape. . . . "Mathematics is the supreme tool for the extension of our language for dealing with complex systems."

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