Rationality and Intuition

Present entry and forthcoming ones with similar title is my tiny contribution to a debate-complex sometime called “Science or Religion?”, “Reason or Faith?” or even worth: “Science or God?”; even though in the title of this essay a more neutral wording is choosen.

My motivation for exposing these reflexions in cyberspace are multifold; for now I will resume by stating: I am equally puzzled over the pope discussing use of condoms as over some aspects of a passionate crusade led by the biologist Richard Dawkins against christianity. But let us start out light today with an anecdote. (a true story!)

I suppose you all know the game Pictionary where two teams are confronted; one team member pulls a card with a concept-word that only he should see and then have to draw so the other team members guess the word. If they do not succeed within the established time frame, the card is given to a member in the other team, who then have to do the same. Well a group of friends are playing this game, and one of the teams, entirely composed by engineers, pull the concept “horizon” to illustrate. Enlightened as he is, our engineer knows that the horizon is just an optical illusion, so he draws a circle representing our planet; on it a small man standing, and a stippled line from his eyes showing how his vision is touching the circle. Then he points to the intersection between the vision-line and the curvature of the earth, but his engineer colleagues do not understand. It doesn't help much that he is drawing the vision line bolder and bolder and pointing to the vision-curvature encounter with more and more vehemence. Time runs out, and the oportunity pass to the other team. Here the elected person is drawing a flat line, a sun raising on it, and when pointing to the line, her team immediately shouts horizon. The process takes 4 seconds everything included.

The morale is clear: strict application of the “technical truth” is not always the right approach. Our engineer friends might build excellent skyscrapers and power servers based on their complex knowledge about the world, but explaining the word horizon using the definition where the visual field touch the curvature of the earth made them loose in Pictionary.

So, it was just a game? Is conquering the heart of the woman you love not just a game too? Or earning the trust, confidence and joy of your children in small everyday situations not also a kind of game? To be able to have rich moments with your friends without the feeling of just sharing time due to social obligation, is it not also a way of playing? What about being capable to lead a discussion beyond the work related and purely everyday flavored topics? I think all these examples are situations with high existential relevance, where application of a non-rational, we could call it intuitive thinking and acting is the winner approach.

To summarize: Rationality is often a virtue, but there are situations in life where non-rational thinking is the most reasonable.

Dos Texturas Toledanas / Two Textures from Toledo

1. La huella vertical dejada por una casa desaparecida (textura creada por sustracción).

2. Detalle de la Puerta del Cambrón (textura creada por adición).

***

1. The vertical fingerprint of a long gone house (texture created by subtraction).

2. Detail of the city-gate "Puerta del Cambrón" (texture created by addition)

***

The beauty of GRAVITY upside down / La belleza de la gravedad al revés

Watching gravity and human creativity working hand in hand…

Also it is a joy to see how the old masters inspire our generation.

Absolute respect for the entire team who let this happen, including the documentation stuff. Thanks a lot Marcsi for drawing my attention to this superb video!

Gaudi Stool Film from Studio Geenen on Vimeo.

The DNA is not coding!

(Scientific metaphors in everyday language - Part II)

life versus machines
Let us start comparing living organisms with man-made production systems such as machines, hardware or software (HW/SW). In spite of many similarities between these two kinds of systems ( "input", "output", "information or material processing", "communication" etc) there are fundamental differences. The most important distinction is probably that there is always a clear purpose of a machine or a program, while the "final product" of a living system is.... itself! Consequently the existence of a living system does not have a pre-set "purpose" or "meaning" in the same way as any man-made production system does always have.
If the living system is a human being, the "meaning of life" is created by the person, for him/herself, in a complex kaleidoscope of actions including learning, experiences, interpretations, interactions with others, decisions, small or bigger personal sacrifices, etc.
This might seem as an idea belonging to "soft" sciences only (philosophy, psychology, theology); but I believe it is fairly relevant in a broader context. Why?
Because our entire thinking is dominated by metaphors: concepts transferred from one domain of knowledge to other. Use of metaphors is unavoidable and enriching, as discussed in part I, my January 2009 blog entry on the metaphor of crystallization, but should always be supervised critically.

the DNA as metaphor
In the last decades more and more words and concepts from HW/SW have been transferred to living systems and then broadly divulgated. For me the most striking is the term "coding" for what the DNA molecule "does". Nowadays it is difficult to open a magazine or newspaper without finding an advertisement or article using the metaphor of "our DNA" applied to some kind of basic principle governing conduct or business.
The two step "implementation" here goes: first the word "coding" went from machines to biology, then from life science to the adverts. I am claiming that already the first step is highly problematic, and therefore the second is pure nonsense. Let me try to explain.

Originally, a code is a sequence of information inserted in a system by human intelligence, and there it does things it is meant to do. Hence there is strong relation between "coding" and "controlling".

the DNA as actor in the cell
Trying to use neutral words, what is exactly the role of the DNA inside a cell? Well, the information stored in the sequence of building blocks in the DNA molecule is translated to the sequence of building blocks of proteins. But by calling this information transfer for "coding", we automatically introduce the idea of control, which is a wrong one: Within a cell, the DNA is not controlling anything; if we have to talk about control on the micro level of life, the actors are sugars, ions, hormones and other molecules floating in the cytoplasm (the jelly inside the cells) or in the blood; and not even these individual molecules rather their concentrations.
We can not isolate a component of an integral living system, assigning it the role of "the boss", just because it has long term storage of information. This idea of the "boss molecule" in the center of the cell seems to be very popular, specially among journalists, but it is simply not reflecting reality.

breaking the code?
Let us now regard other aspect of man-made codes: by deciphering a code we can go back to the meaning inserted by the intelligence that created it. This popular motive is forming the core of many bestsellers and Hollywood movies. For instance in wartime the secret messages are sent as a code to inhibit immediate understanding by the enemy, when receiving/capturing such a message it need to be deciphered; Or artists in ancient cultures leaving hidden messages in their works, a kind of code that needs to be interpreted. Others again believe in additional secret messages in the Bible etc. etc.
Here is the second danger of regarding the DNA as a code. It introduces a false idea of "reaching the meaning by deciphering". Even if the DNA molecule is not created by man, and obviously it does not include a secret message, there is a kind of semi-religious expectation bound to the mapping of the human genome; like if it could reveal us one day The Meaning of Life.
Sorry to disappoint, but it will never do so! As said in the beginning of this essay, there is no magic formula; the meaning of life is not pre-defined but must be created individually, consciously and continuously by each and every one of us.

the selfish DNA?

Of course I am aware of the DNAs role in bearing hereditary information from one generation of individuals to the next, but this alter nothing on the above line of argumentation. We have each our luggage of inherited genetics to live with and to pass to our kids, and that’s it. Just another part of our horizon - along with our education, culture, friends, family... Richard Dawkins’ idea of genes "using" the individuals as vehicle is pure abstraction, an excellent mind game but absolutely useless from an "practical - existential" perspective.

to summarize: A code has a pre-defined meaning and can have a controlling function. The DNA molecule is nor controlling nor has a pre-defined meaning.
A concept like "Control through basic principles" does exist in nature, but can not be reduced to the three-lettered-name of a molecule; how attractive this idea might be. Hence when the DNA is used as metaphor for "coding" we are introducing a bias in our language and thinking.

My personal recommendation is to avoid the use of this metaphor.

So the DNA is nor coding, nor controlling nor hiding secret messages. Reasonably enough my dear reader might ask what everyday expression could then be assigned as "summary" of the activity of this molecule?
It is ordering and keeping up order.
These were also the key words when we were talking of the process of crystallization - not a coincidence! Actually the molecule was described as a "one dimensional crystal" by Erwin Schrödinger before it was known as "DNA", i.e. before its structure was known.

In a future entry I will continue meditating in this direction.

Intro a los cuatro dibujos / The bellow four drawings

I have chosen the bellow four drawings from those I have done since last summer.
They were all good exercises in the art of viewing.

De lo que he dibujado durante el ultimo año he elegido estas cuatro; tres de los motivos son del campo en la Comunidad de Madrid, uno de un pueblo en León.
Han sido excelentes ejercicios en el arte de mirar.

Enebro subido a roca

Juniper tree climbing on a rock

Galapagar, Madrid; 2008

Valla tradicional de rocas metamórficas.
Gargantilla de Lozoya, Sierra Norte de Madrid
Marzo, 2009



Traditional dry stone wall of metamorphic rocks. Gargantilla de Lozoya
(a village approx 70 km north of Madrid)

Puerta de Santiago, Valderas, León. Agosto, 2008

Puerta mudéjar sencillo y bonito; formas y técnicas tradicionales.

Además era un ejercisio curioso de reproducir la alteración durante siglos en distintas superficies.

Medieval city gate of Valderas, village in Leon (northern Spain), typical mudejar style.

a study in reproducing the surface alternation of different building materials, 2008

Root of Cedar tree, with fungal attack;

mountains of Madrid, Eastern 2009

Raíz de Cedro volcado, atacado por hongo;

Sierra de Madrid, Pascua de 2009

inscripción: ((Eine Menge wohlbekannter Pfäde führen von diesen Worten aus in alle Richtungen)) - Wittgenstein

fechado: “Pascua de resurrección, 2009”

Presentation of “La Cuesta de Moyano”

Tales from the streets of Madrid - Part I*

The small white Seat parks in front of my stand. Right behind the driver’s door there is a round sticker from the NASA, towards the rear a gigantic dent. Out comes Patxi, a tall and almost bald, middle-aged guy, wearing shirt and a thin black tie with a small tight knot. With a few energetic steps he approaches my board loaded with second hand books, greeting me with his usual broad smile. While his hands and eyes are actively searching, I receive a kind of verbal raid, a heavy monologue built like practically one long sentence without full stops.
“No no, this Pope is definitely not ordained by God; Lefebvre is right, yes he is; the Second Vatican Council eliminated the spirit of the Church; terrible, terrible and look around, nobody is aware of it. But thanks to the providence I have found the place, here in Madrid, where Mass is still celebrated in Latin.”
After entering in more symptoms for the decadence of the Roman Catholic Church, Patxi wish to pay the three books he has chosen; he is bargaining a bit, but only for the game, it is obvious that today he has money and comes to have the mayor kick of most bibliophiles; the activity superior to reading: buying books.

My client continues screening our present offer, while the Spanish word stream with the characteristic singing Basque accent continues: “...no more honor and dignity in the army, well not even in the Legion any more. I offered my services but they did not take me because I only obey orders in line with my own principles. Yes, yes my friend, I am a man of firm values. Nowadays soldiers are only mercenaries without principles... so in these conditions I can not be a soldier, but I am life-guard.” Quickly he shows me the card documenting it. Whether it is in the local swimming pool or in some more exotic sense, I did not catch it because the “life-guard” subject was immediately swallowed by the following one.

Again he wants me to charge him the 10-15 euros for the next few books, and the show goes on: “Two meteors will come, two; destroying this sick civilization; we will return to the Stone Age, the only knowledge remaining is the one in the printed books. I am choosing selected books that contain the secret knowledge, then I will leave my personal library in a bunker; this will be my legacy to those dark ages to come...”

We are at “La Cuesta de Moyano” in Madrid, the biggest year-round daily market of second hand books in Europe; the summer like weather is typical for September in the Spanish capital. It is eleven thirty in the morning on a normal Wednesday.

Working on the street, expose you to a broad range of different characters both from the city itself, and in the case of Metropolises from all over the world. This is true independently of your occupation, but in high degree if you are selling something on exactly the same site every day of the year, and the panorama gets even heavier when the products sold are second hand books.

In spite of his suspicious opinions and the fact of being so open with them, Patxi is a nice fellow; I would say he is only slightly more nuts than the average. He is always extremely polite, never stays too long, and he even buys books from time. But still, I never gave him my personal mobile number when he repeatedly was asking for it, and it is very little probable that I will read a book inspired by his recommendations.

Only by varying the few parameters regarded in my last paragraph, we get a bunch of different characters, and as you, my dear reader, probably already has guessed, you will have rich occasion to meat them all in the chapters that will follow in the Tales from the streets of Madrid.

To respect the personal space, I have changed all the names, except the name of the King and of the Heroes. For me a King is not necessary one with a crown, and his power might be fairly limited, but he posses a doubtless authority; respected or hated but everybody knowing him are aware of the weight of his actions.
A King is a public character; no need to hide his name.

Finally, regarding the identity of a Hero: It might not be obvious for everyone knowing him**, but his authority is transcendental. When the time comes, I would like to discuss in more details what these words signify for me.

footnotes:
* All the Tales from the streets of Madrid are dedicated to JM, close friend of mine.
The tales have been maturing in my mind for almost six years by now, but it is mainly thanks to him that I finally begun to write them down.

** Most Indo-European languages require specification of the gender when using pronouns in third person singular . Every time I write "he" I mean “he/she”, and the reason is not to be politically correct: Several of the few heroes I have met personally in my life were women. I refuse to write "he/she" because of the clumsy visual aspect.

The metaphor of “crystallization”

(Scientific metaphors in everyday language - Part I)

In his now classic work “Metaphors we live by”, George Lakoff has awakened the general awareness regarding how much our linguistic landscape is under the influence of experiences from the physical world; As the start shoot for this blog I will analyze metaphors from natural sciences widely used in modern language. In the present entry that of “crystallization”, an excellent metaphor in the concept-complex of “expressing-ordering-creating”. In a later entry I will look on the metaphor of “DNA” used as picture related to ideas around “coding-control”; a usage in fashion nowadays in the business world, but in my opinion extremely problematic.
Let us start then with the goodie, the world and idea of “crystallization”.

First of all we must have it clear: the crystal is not a practical metaphor of “perfection”. This idea is mainly spread by New Age shops filled with purple smoke and by crappy science fiction B movies from the seventies. Those who have tried to search for real crystals in their original environment, smashing rocks with hammer in a quarry and getting dirt under the nails, know that most crystals in nature are very far from perfect. It’s pretty seldom to find crystals like the idealized ones on textbook drawings. (and new age shop windows) Usually the grows of crystals is unequal in different directions, and they are often intergrown with their neighbor crystals, the visible faces and edges presenting a mess of small shining plates; The identification of the forms present being a complex puzzle, a challenging mental exercise. Similar considerations apply to the inner structure, the crystal lattice. To summarize, crystals are full of imperfections, both outside and inside, hence the world “crystal” is not more apt as metaphor for “perfection” as the words “raindrop” or “cow”.

What could it then be used for, the concept of the crystal?
Well, to illustrate ORDER, and the process of crystallization express “ordering according to a principle”.

The atoms and molecules in a liquid solution, for example a glass or salty water move up and down and in all directions in a highly chaotic manner. During the process of crystallization the matter is organized in a concrete solid structure determined by the nature of the materials involved and by external conditions such as temperature, pressure, time available etc. As indicated above, the result of the ordering will never be perfect, but compared to the initial state, i.e. the liquid solution, it is absolutely meaning- and powerful to talk about the crystallization as creation of order.

In a mental dimension the liquid solution corresponds to a state where all kind of ideas and associations flow around freely in the space of our consciousness. During “crystallization” the ideas in turbulence are settled down to form a concrete argumentation, a stable plan of actions, that is something solid enough to be exported from our mind, to be communicated for others.

I would say the analogy to organic growth, such as that of germination of a seed or the development of a fetus, is much weaker. These processes need constant metabolism, i.e. exchange of energy/matter with the outer world; while both in physical and mental crystallization the potential result is already there, it is just a question of ordering the elements present to reach solidification. Note that crystallization can happen very suddenly in an oversaturated solution – just like the sudden grasp of an idea.

I will conclude that the physical process of crystallization is an enriching metaphor for the mental process of settling ideas because 1) the physical process has a clear interpretation 2) there is a meaningful analogy between the two processes even if they are in totally different areas.

In a later entry I will show why this is not the case for use of “DNA” as metaphor for coding and control. (=>HERE)