Division Through Unity

from Atoms to

Humans: Is it all Mathematical?

Magnus S. MagnussonReserch Professor, director

Human Behavior Laboratory: http://hbl.hi.isUniversity of Iceland http://hi.is

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Annual Meeting 31/10-2/11, 2014 Biological and Evolutionary Aspects of Religion

Social Physics “…something akin to a “quantum revolution” in the social sciences.”

M. Buchanan (2007): “The Social Atom” p. x: “A few years ago, I worked as an editor for Nature,… I noticed then that the authors of some of the research papers … were seriously seeking to find mathematical regularities in the human world of the kind known to physics; … finally beginning to take Schelling’s way of thinking seriously. Since then, an explosion of modern research in what I would like to call “social physics” has convinced me that we stand at an important moment in history. We’re now witnessing something akin to a “quantum revolution” in the social sciences.”

• Even when every one is content with racial integration, but just not wanting to be a part of an extreme minority (for example, 30%), this leads to segregation “even though no single individual would have wanted this”. (IBID, p. viii).

Schelling’s simulation experiment; modern computer version

Fractals are self-similar, scale-invariant, symmetrical; 20th century mathematics

…patterns of patterns of patterns of patterns…

“Physical fractals typically display statistical self-similarity over scales differing by just a few factors of 10. Nonetheless, as Mandelbrot first observed, it’s extremely useful to recognize the fractal properties of natural shapes.” Kautz, R. (2011) Chaos: The Science of Predictable Random Motion. P. 293.

… patterns of patterns of patterns of patterns…

Recursive/hierarchical splitting, branching, grouping, clustering,…

Only mathematical fractals are exact and infinit, those of nature approximate, statistical.

The operation/relation is approximately the same at each node.

Splitting through Grouping : the Cosmic Fractal13.7 Billion Years of Structured Hierarchical Modular Clustering

Simulation snap shots: 0.9 billion, 3.2 billion and 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang (now)

Figure from www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/16/dark-energy.html?ref=rss

From tiny initial irregularitiesto structured self-similarclusters of sub-atomic particles, atoms, stars, galaxies and galaxy-clusters.*

Just six forces of push or pull mostly determine the structure of the universe.See: “Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe”, M. Rees, 1999.

SELF-SIMILARITYParts similar to the whole.

From atoms to DNA, proteins, living cells, multi-cell organisms, cities and societies.

*“Discovery of Cosmic Fractals” (2002) Yurij Baryshev & Pekka Teerikorpi

Graph Theory

•A mathematical theory of networks

•Essential in Connectomics (see below) and Social Physics.

•Great progress was made in Graph Theory mathematics recently. (See, for example, “Linked: The New Science Of Networks Science Of Networks.” Albert-laszlo Barabasi and Jennifer Frangos.)

Homo Sapiens in the Expanding Fractal CosmosNew Fractal Brain Enters, Grows and is Modified and Molded.

http://article.wn.com/view/2014/09/06/Manoa_Hawaii_scientist_maps_and_names_Laniakea_our_home_supe/

Much of the brain’s structure is hierarchical and self-similar: “…a nested hierarchy -- smaller  elements  join  together  to  form  larger  elements, which, in turn, form  even  larger  elements,  and  so  forth … many of the integrative aspects of brain function  depend  on this multiscale structural arrangement of elements and connections. “ Discovering the Human Connectome” (Olaf Sporns, 2012)

We are here

We are here

Brain Branching Out from its Stem andProducing Fractal Time Patterns

At the cellular interaction level, that is, in interactions within a population of brain neurons repeated statistical hierarchical self-similar (fractal) patterns have been found.

Complex spike patterns in olfactory bulb neuronal networks

Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Volume 239, 15 January 2015, Pages 11-17. Alister U. Nicol, Anne Segonds-Pichon, Magnus S. Magnusson

Human Connectome Project Galery.See also: T-pattern analysis for the study of temporal structure of animal and human behavior: A comprehensive review. Casarrubea et al. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165027014003495#

See “Discovering the Human Connectome.“ (O. Sporns, 2012)

Religious Expansion Through BranchingParents Transfer Genes and Memes

• The two main mass religions of today include a strong impetus for expansion through branching and especially to own offspring.

• Infants are often “baptized” into the parents’ religion.

• This is often “confirmed” while children are still very young innocent, trusting and dependent.

• Sometimes so called “churches” and “mosques” as well as states or rulers push and support this process.

Branching, multiplying,expanding,separating

Imprinting, Brainwashing, Deception, Coercion…How to have masses of normally intelligent adults believe baseless nonsense and thereby be lead, controlled, manipulated, abused etc. by and for the few?

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” (Voltaire)

“For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Bible (N): 1251Peter 2:25.

The young geese had actually imprinted on Lorenz’ boots.

Imprinting exists in many species including mammals, but, amazingly, has been little studied in humans.

10

Irreversible Molestation of Heads

Indoctrination durably modifies brains and is thus Physical.

Is Indoctrinating Children with Archaic Brutal Superstitions and Religions, Severe Physical Molestation?

Indoctrinating children sometimes is like causing irreversible brain damage.

Is it sometimes far worse than Female Genital Mutilation?

The Blindness of the OppressedWhat Would Humans do to Other Humans?

• Sumerians blinded their slaves, fed them only the strict survival minimum and used them as machines to irrigate fields.

• “Human society viewed with a calm and disinterested gaze seems at first to exhibit only the violence of powerful men and the oppression of the weak; the mind rebels at the harshness of the first; one is inclined to deplore the blindness of the others.” ”Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men”, Rousseau. {Emphasis added.}

Misdirecting attention away from reality is “blinding” and a key to oppression.

Perturbing Immature Brains as Physical Molestation: Ignore Real Causes and KnowledgeTrust Archaic Illusions and Bluff for Life

(Only) Christian girls are good girls.

Should Faith Mongering Be Outlawed?

Heard on a bus in Chicago: “Be thankful for what you have.” Advice from a poor old woman to a poorer younger one.

In the world of the 1%

Reading is Brain and Sometimes Behavior Changing

Brain Damaged (?) Humans Bowing to Priests of PowerViolence is often near

Read more: Joining the KKK: Photos From a Ku Klux Klan Initiation in 1946 Georgia | LIFE.com http://life.time.com/history/ku-klux-klan-initiation-photos-georgia-1946/#ixzz3H4xnaATh

Klan initiates (including some Atlanta policemen) kneel before the local Grand Dragon during a ritual in Georgia, 1946

Enrolling of more than 96 thousand Individuals in Itikaf Ceremony of the Razavi Holy Shrine

http://www.abna.ir/english/service/iran/archive/2014/05/01/605960/story.html#

• Cultures evolve and branch out easily becoming incompatible and even competitors/enemies.

• Judaism has branched out producing Christianity and Islam, competing branches, both of which have many such branches.

• All these branches taken together now implicate half of humanity and there have been and are numerous wars of religion

Social Physics and Connectomics

•Colossal data bases about human activities and interactions now been created and are freely available online.•Daunting computation power is available at relatively low cost. •This creates possibilities of insights as never before about the live of whole societies as networks.•This study of networks as in Connectomics implicates Graph Theory.

“Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread -- The Lessons from a New Science.” Alex �Pentland, 2014.

Is it All about Patterns?

•Is it all physics? •At the heart of physics is mathematics. •Nature does not follow laws! (Galaxies are not subjects!)•But nature has repeated patterns and humans are still developing the mathematics to discover, describe and study them. Fractals are recent.•Is it then all mathematical? •What is mathematics?*•Are humans "victims" of a universal tendency to generate fractal patterns?•And thus generate self-similar diversity from uniformity?•Division from Unity and Unities through Division?*“Mathematics The Science of Patterns: The Search for Order in Life, Mind and the Universe.” (Scientific American Library) Keith Devlin, 1994.

Summary

• Self-similar structured clustering and branching are essential phenomena in the universe and all that’s in it.

• Brains are physical systems of connections that are being analyzed and described using mathematical methods and primarily Graph Theory.

• The human brain takes many years to mature and is very sensitive to external stimulation such as indoctrination, which may be very hard to reverse.

• Religious indoctrination may be the most effective means ever to oppress human masses among other through blinding them to the real causes of their situation and plight.

Thank You