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TQP 027: The Message of Symmetry Part II

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The Question PodcastThe word “symmetry” leads to questions about meaning, like when we encounter words like “democracy” or “love”. The word symmetry basically means “agreement in dimensions, proportions, and arrangement”.

Things that strike us as being symmetrical definitely seem to fit this criteria. We assume that measuring the dimensions, proportions, and the arrangement of something will determine if it’s symmetrical or not.

But in practice, the ancient Greeks viewed the meaning of “symmetria” in an expanded form, beyond mere mathematical measurements.

Fourth century Greek sculptor Polykleitos developed a revolutionary theory about the relationship between the mathematical expression and the dimensions of symmetry, and the dynamic movements of the human body.

His sculptures of young Greek athletes were studies of the interplay of detailing dimension with balance and rhythm. He called this interplay “symmetry”.

The concept of symmetry changed our perspective forever, paved the way for the sublime works of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rodin, and countless others.

From the very beginning, symmetry was not just a calculation. “symmetria” was, as the definition says, and agreement, a relationship.

In our modern and highly technological age, where we seek to measure everything, we might do well to remember that “symmetria” isn’t just a number.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “The Message of Symmetry”, as well as the music of David Andrew Wiebe.

Thank you for listening!

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TQP 026: The Message of Symmetry Part I

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The Question PodcastWe live in a complicated world. We live complicated lives within a complicated human landscape. Our complicated lives are made more complicated by the complicated biological, ecological, zoological, psychological, socio-economical, political, technological, and cosmological realities we interact with every day.

“Interact” may be too kind of a word to use in many of these cases. So often, too often, we don’t really interact. We’re more likely to react to the overwhelming realities that surround and often dominate us.

For complicated people like us, reacting is often the least complicated thing we’ll ever do. Reacting doesn’t make us simple, except perhaps for the simple conclusion we often reach as we react to the overwhelming reality – that complicated equals chaos.

By definition, chaos makes no sense. We are persuaded, even conditioned, to believe that our inability to make sense of these massive complicated realities renders the whole hot mess an expression of massive chaos.

Of course, if it is chaos, it’s probably also massively random as well. The most recent and fashionable new meme for this chaos is called the Law of Unintended Consequences. Does it really seem sensible, beyond our desire to appear intellectual, philosophical, or even spiritual, that the gentle beating of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a catastrophic tornado in Texas? That feels like an unintended consequence, which could only be verified if you were able to ask the butterfly its intention.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “The Message of Symmetry”, as well as the music of David Andrew Wiebe.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

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TQP 025: What Guides Your Compass Part II

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The Question PodcastAfter a time, he allowed the students to exist the bus, still blindfolded, he asked the group to make their best guess for the direction of the university campus, and point their fingers in that direction. Surprisingly, a significant number of the students pointed in the correct direction.

He replicated the experiment the very next day with the same students. Only this time, he secretly inserted small magnets into their blindfolds. And again, surprisingly, there was a significant reduction in the number of students who pointed in the right direction.

This type of magnetic interference often happens to migrating birds flying near high-tension power lines or microwave towers. They lose their way.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “What Guides Your Compass”, as well as the music of Shannon Magee.

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TQP 024: What Guides Your Compass Part I

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The Question PodcastThe compass is a simple ancient device made of natural magnetic material, mounted in free suspension, to interact with the awesome power of the earth’s electromagnetic field.

Whether it’s a fourth century Chinese lodestone compass or a modern-day magnetometer, the principles of the compass are universal, enduring, and deeply philosophical.

The compass represents, to us, the essential power of electromagnetism, the ability to navigate the unknown, and our confidence in the existence of True North.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “What Guides Your Compass”, as well as the music of Shannon Magee.

Thank you for listening!

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TQP 023: Words – Beacons of Creative Power or Mere Devices of Communication Part II

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The Question PodcastA denotation is the objective, largely agreed-upon meaning of a word that can be found in the dictionary, while a connotation is the subjective, personal meaning of a word. But paradoxically, neither are necessarily correct or incorrect.

Denotation: If you’re a Scrabble or Boggle player, there’s a good chance you’ve called someone out on making up a word. And in some cases, much to your surprise, you found out that the word existed in the dictionary. You had no prior knowledge of the word, but it was there all along, so you can’t really say that it was false. Oh, and you were probably penalized in the game for accusing others of making things up.

Connotation: There’s a good chance you’ve read a sentence in an article or a book, and even though you knew that some words were used incorrectly, the meaning still came across. Nothing was missing in your understanding or interpretation of the sentence. Was the sentence structure incorrect in some way? It probably was, but it didn’t impede your ability to grasp it, so that makes it true. The author or editor may have made a mistake, but the message still took root in your mind.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from David Andrew Wiebe’s presentation on “Words – Beacons of Creative Power or Mere Devices of Communication Part II”, as well as the music of Elliot Lorne Wyman.

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We look forward to interacting with you.

TQP 022: Butterfly or Tornado? Part II

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The Question PodcastWho are you – butterfly or tornado?

Albert Einstein is the father of modern theoretical physics – master of light and gravity, splitter of atoms, bender of space… Generations have been influenced and altered by the overwhelming power of his scientific discoveries. Einstein was inarguably a force of nature – a tornado.

Steve Jobs was a visionary inventor, pioneering tech designer, master of complex simplicity, mystical creator of needs we didn’t even know we had. It would be difficult to identify someone who has influenced this generation’s image of itself than Steve Jobs.

Last month, we discussed the inevitable uploading of our digital existence to the cloud. Almost single-handedly, Steve Jobs created the tech-device revolution that’s driving our digital relocation into the cloud. Even more, Jobs’ dominance over our tech landscape is so powerful that regardless of whether we believe that this path is towards salvation or destruction, either way we can’t seem to escape it any more than Einstein’s physics. Steve Jobs was inarguably a force of nature – a tornado.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “Butterfly or Tornado”, as well as the music of Hello Moth.

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TQP 021: Butterfly or Tornado? Part I

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The Question PodcastWho are you – butterfly or tornado?

In 1963, Edward Lorenz was a meteorologist, a mathematician, and a recognized father of Chaos Theory. The scientific definition of “chaos” is when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.

Chaos Theory, which was of Lorenz’ invention, seeks to articulate the mathematical relationship of the approximate present to the approximate future.

A classic Chaos Theory predictive exercise is around the throwing of dice. Every time you throw the dice, there will be a different outcome. Chaos Theory seeks to measure and analyze the different conditions under which a different outcome for dice-throwing takes place.

Even if a person stands in exactly the same spot and thinks they’re throwing the dice in exactly the same way, with exactly the same hand position, arm position, force, they can never get the same outcome. They always come up with different numbers.

Chaos Theory contemplates the fact that there are minute small changes – even ones we cannot see and detect – that determine multiple outcomes.

Dr. Lorenz introduced a new mathematical model that has forever changed the way we look at everything, from climate science, to social science, to quantum mechanics.

The scientific foundation of this new model was articulated in a revolutionary academic paper that Lorenz entitled Deterministic Non-Periodic Flow.

The mathematical foundation of the new model was a system of underlying equations called The Lorenz Attractor, which he developed to analyze and plot the possible future impact of minute changes to conditions in the present. Lorenz invented a method to plot how the approximate present might impact the approximate future.

By 1972, Lorenz had further developed his chaos base mathematical system and presented an even more famous academic paper to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This paper was entitled Does The Flap Of A Butterfly’s Wings In Brazil Set Off A Tornado In Texas?

Lorenz proposed that the tiny atmospheric changes caused by a single butterfly flapping its wings could prompt a chain-reaction of multiple and exponential atmospheric changes, that taken together, could ultimately determine the creation and position of a major tornado event.

In this historic academic paper, Lorenz illustrated the possible implications of what became known as The Butterfly Effect.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “Butterfly or Tornado”, as well as the music of Hello Moth.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

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TQP 020: The Cloud and Our Future Part II

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Very soon, 100% of our digital lives will be stored and monitored inside the cloud.

Anyone that has an iPhone is probably using or very tentatively using the fingerprint ID feature on the phone. Fingerprint ID technology is perhaps the most familiar biometric utility that we encounter. Apple has promised that your fingerprint information is encrypted, and will never be uploaded to their Cloud.

But aren’t you already inside their house when you activate the phone? And even the most benevolent and courteous landlords still have the only master key to the whole house, don’t they?

You may also know that biometric identification is currently being applied to a much wider list of body parts and activities. Facial recognition – Facebook has a facial recognition algorithm, and there’s lots of facial recognition in law enforcement. Retinal and iris scans. DNA verification. Voice recognition. Walking characteristics and gate analysis. Keyboard typing rhythm and mouse clicks.

All these biometric measures, including fingerprint ID, are currently in use, and are being actively catalogued in databases everywhere – from the FBI to Facebook.

There is a developing tech science called multimodal biometrics that seeks to correlate individual biometric characteristics like fingerprint, iris scans, and voice recognition into a much more complete virtual profile of a subject. This virtual profiling, using our biometric data, will become more possible as this information is steadily gathered, uploaded, and stored in The Cloud.

Utilization of this data will depend on how users like the FBI and Facebook choose to apply it, but it’s The Cloud that makes it possible.

Thank you for listening!

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TQP 019: The Cloud and Our Future Part I

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We love our personal technology. We love it in all its forms – desktop, handheld, mountable, wearable, drivable, virtual, and imaginable.

General technology is difficult to love. Just like a great cheeseburger is much easier to love than the greedy industrial food complex that made it possible. If general technology means the underlying technological foundations, the complex supporting infrastructure, the precisely engineered functionality, and the unbelievably intertwining operations that make our personal technology work, then it’s not surprising when we talk about general technology, the word “love” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Like it’s often said, we generally don’t want to know how the sausage or burger is made.

We only love that our personal tech works, not how it works. Or even more importantly, not why it works. But “why?” is the question that takes us further down the path.

So, we can admit that we really don’t love everything about technology. But sit us down in front of a cheeseburger, the latest iPhone, the newest 4K Ultra HD TV, Oculus Rift virtual reality, Google Glass, or an autonomous vehicle, and we fall in love.

It may even be a condition worse than love, because our relationship with our personal tech resembles something closer to cult-like or dangerously addictive behavior.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on technology, The Cloud, and our future, as well as the music of Jonathan Ferguson.

Thank you for listening!

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TQP 018: Are There More Important Questions? II

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The following 12 questions come from an article titled 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind:

  • What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
  • Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you’re doing?
  • If the average human lifespan was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
  • What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
  • What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
  • Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
  • What are you most grateful for?
  • Is it possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
  • At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
  • When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea that you strongly believed in?
  • If you knew that everyone you knew was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?
  • What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on asking more important questions, as well as the poetry of Miles Patterson.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

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