The Meaning Code

Ryan and I continue our conversation about the elements and principles of art, the creative trinity as set forth by Sayers, and the questions that arise concerning faith, science, principles versus rules and what is meant, creatively speaking, by right and wrong. This episode is also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wHoK6boKLkEQuote from the Mind of the Maker:"That being so, how can we know that the Idea itself has any real existence apart from the Energy? Very strangely, by the fact that the Energy itself is conscious of referring all its acts to an existing and complete whole. In theological terms, the Son does the will of the Father... Quite simply, every choice of an episode, or a word [every stroke of a painting, every choice of a color or a texture] is made to conform to a pattern of the entire work which is revealed by that choice as already existing.This truth, which is difficult to convey in explanation, is quite clear and obvious in experience. It manifests itself plainly enough when the writer [artist] says or thinks: 'That is, or is not, the right phrase' - meaning, that it is a phrase which does or does not correspond to the reality of the Idea."Video mentioned: The Porous Self v. The Buffered Selfhttps://youtu.be/n9AB14m7W_0

In this conversation, we are reacting to an article that Gavin wrote in the Catholic Herald about something Jordan Peterson wrote in a tweet response to the Pope, @pontifex on twitter. Here is the article: https://catholicherald.co.uk/jordan-petersons-twitter-spat-with-pope-francis/ A quote from the article: "What had the Pope written to provoke the world’s most popular psychologist to lay down a Twitter challenge? '#socialjustice demands that we fight against the causes of poverty: inequality and the lack of labour, land, and lodging; against those who deny social and labour rights; and against the culture that leads to taking away the dignity of others.' To which Professor Peterson (never short on self-confidence) replied: “There is nothing Christian about #socialjustice. Redemptive salvation is a matter of the individual soul.”Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen of England, a university lecturer in psychology, had his own radio show on the BBC and now blogs at Ashenden.org. He converted from the Anglican Church to becoming a Catholic apologist for the faith. The story of his conversion: https://youtu.be/J-3CxAjbVBM An earlier conversation on ecumenism: https://youtu.be/F3y7gD_2NTI

Video links follow notes: This episode is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZqTA2QJIhTAStephen Hurn's background is in software development, and his passion is science fiction as literature and the consideration of truth. There was so much hope in programming during the '90's that technology would free us from menial facts, but... The new atheists fought against the straw man of the god of the gaps but failed at explaining the mechanisms behind the world. Godel - for every rational system (the universe is an example of a rational system), there is an infinitely larger set of true facts that you can ever prove. Art, Music and Literature offer a way forward. Literature of the 20th century: 1984, Brave New World, Dune We need a religious instinct that works against letting AI think for us. Herbert (Dune) understood the power of religion and taboo. Will we also have a Luddite rebellion against technology? Look at Dune to see where an overreaction can lead. The mystical is an important part of the human experience and must be aligned properly, towards Christ. Gnosticism, pride and the sin in the Garden. Right things can be done in the wrong order. You can do anything in life, but you can't do everything in life. Videos mentioned: McGilchrist, Watson and Levin: https://youtu.be/ynHfrfpTH18 Jordan Peterson, Jeff Sandefer on Education: https://youtu.be/FEUjcRWfu3c

Discussing Mark's tweet:The difference between 'being is good' and 'emergence is good' cannot be understated. One is actually good, the other is actually just #Gnosticism.Mark talks fast:-) You might want to put it on .75, but thenI talk slow, so maybe not:-)This conversation is also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ohd7jDO-PyMWe look mostly at emergence, how faith in emergence tends to overlap with gnosticism, we look at some of the questions in evolutionary theory.The example of "emergence" we looked at in this video:How Particle Life Arises from Simplicity: https://youtu.be/p4YirERTVF0Mark's YouTube channel, Navigating Patterns: https://www.youtube.com/@NavigatingPatterns

Ryan and Karen dig into the ideas in Dorothy Sayers' eye opening work on creativity and through that lens to get a look into the principles that lie at the foundation of the universe.

Discussion with Stephen Hurn, Software Engineer for 18 years. Now working on Game Design and Writing, stay at home Dad. This episode is also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Di_vUSQw-J0The design process for video games. Levels you operate in. Mechanics (the interaction with the user) up through Dynamics to aesthetic. Aesthetic (idea) informs the process and gets communicated through mechanics. That's the meaning layer. Quaternion Mathematics, 3-D software, triangles and measures Code is like a plan for the house. The computer builds the house based on the plan. Computer hardware is the atom level (Intel and AMD have different hardware, but a level up they can talk to each other) Each level up is to solve different kinds of problems. Hardware is converted to electrical signals, displaying the image on the screen. The level of the user interacting is the most important level. That's where the meaning is. Materialists think you can go from the bottom up, but the top level is the most important. User centric view in software. Every artist wants to communicate. The things you do are an attempt to communicate what you are seeing to the rest of the world. Accuracy. The God object - an anti-pattern. Software engineers follow patterns that become apparent in the world much as mathematicians see mathematics already there in the universe that can be used by us. There are good and bad ways to write code. Actual patterns emerge from the languages themselves and the way they interact with the hardware. There are better ways (preferred ways) to map the higher level to the lower level. There are divine patterns, and then there are evil patterns. The focus on accuracy or simplicity gives you a code that is as simple as it needs to be but no simpler. On the other side is the one great piece of code that fails because it is so convoluted and twisted that you can fix one bug and three more appear. Equivalent to the Tower of Babel. Too big not to fail. Don't touch it. It's likely to break. If you break it, it's hard to fix. Code is written for programmers to understand. The computer, on the other hand, will run (execute) anything it's been programmed with. Excellent coding book: Design Patterns: The Big Four

Michael and Karen discuss a lecture James Lindsay gave on the dangers of the philosophies that have captured the present moment. We try to thread the needle through the truly beneficial part of James' lecture and the parts where he might be speaking outside his expertise.

Matt, philosopher/author/person discusses Reality with Karen.. Three perspectives on the meaning of a paper clip: The avant garde The creative The good/useful The multi-aspectuality of cognitive science. The thread that ties reality together Synoptic Gospels - St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Gregory of Nysa We are portions of God. The habit of Scripture is to say. What is a skill? We are mimicking the habit of our chosen profession The sublime pedantic Can one ever really "come back" from a psychedelic trip? Hegel - Negation and affirmation. You're always right and you're always wrong. Until you have the "now" straight, you can't think about a practice. Distinctiveness v. the common The human being is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Counterfeits Heretic Participation is not optional We have the evidence of the habit. We have to eat and sleep - not beyond that. Ascetic practices. Even the discipline of going to work every day is an ascetic practice. Orthodoxy is Paradoxy. Jesus ascended the cross as a king stepping up to His throne. If it's not real, it's not real. If it is real, whatever it relates to becomes real. Children like order. We can approach these wonderful things without falling into sentimentality. To a perennial problem, there is a perennial innocent. The human being - the land - the promise. The land being defiled - redeeming the land. We're not disposable. We're not going anywhere. The land lies fallow. Order consists of beginning, middle, end. Don't attach to a practice a guaranteed end. When we don't give up, we're reflecting God. Beware of worshipping at the wrong altar.

Michael Clarage, PhD Physics, (Electric Universe, Safire Project)Michael Martin, PhD Literature (poet, biodynamic farmer, author of Submerged Realityjoin Karen to discuss the need for science to acknowledge qualitative as well as quantitative observations.

Ryan is a software developer who often has the conversation with his colleagues about the big questions underlying software development. Where does the system live? The real system corresponding to the meaning, and the hardware corresponding to the matter. This episode can also be found as video at YouTube:https://youtu.be/5rDsJOs1zWkSoftware designers will often discuss a project they are working on by saying, "It seems like it wants to do X" as though the program itself has some sort of agency. What is really happening in these attempts at communicating abstract levels without the input of narrative?