Vortices

Diagrams taken from a forthcoming issue - a new theory of the atom.

Part I of The Atom and the Substrate is now available.

Issue 20 of SHAPE

Read it here

This issue of SHAPE Journal contains a closely related series of papers, in which the trajectory of significant qualitative change in an Emergence is tackled,diagrammatically. Of course, the elements of such considerations are still concepts, processes and transformations, but the spatial idioms of diagrams delivers that extra “dimension” of simultaneous portrayal, which does, indeed, allow quite involved transitions to be laid out, considered and significantly improved.

A words-only argument can be as much about winning as revealing, and it is clear to this author that without these kinds of diagrams, we would not only find solving such problems considerably more difficult, but we would also be bereft of the best initial means of communicating the ideas involved too.

The trajectory of Creative Change in an Emergence, such as that of the Origin of Life on Earth, involves contradictions, phase changes, and major transformations – even of the probabilities of events, and it is these features that must be understood. These papers do not complete the job, but they were fundamental in the creation and publication of this author’s Theory of Emergences in 2010.

Issue 18 of Shape

Read it here

A Three Dimensional Problem

Introducing the Soma Strand

These images are from a paper forthcoming to the Shape journal, as part of the "A Structure of Diagrams" series. Here diagrams and models were used to solve a complex three dimensional problem based on tessellation.

This case was to do with a self designed form which I had named the Soma Strand (after Piet Hein’s “Soma delicious Soma”).

Long before the tessellation problem outlined above, I had to design the original form. This, in itself, took a great deal of time and model making, but what finally emerged was an infinite strand, with a re-entrant form, and congruent, singly re-entrant hexagonal faces (with 90o and 270o angles only). It soon became clear (after making a bundle of these strands, that they definitely tessellated to fill three dimensional space completely.

Careful model-making had established this exciting property, but, it must be said that cardboard, glue and bits of wooden dowling (without which the strands were impossible to construct) are not the ideal materials to facilitate detailed studies in the area of volume filling stacking, particularly of such difficult (and indeed infinite) strands. Attempts at solving the problem using 3D graphics packages were soon abandoned, as these so-called tools, may deal with three dimensions, but are generally NOT designed for meaningful and revealing visualisations essential to the designer and creator of new things. You just couldn’t see what you were doing, and the figures soon became unintelligible. In addition to the complexity, that package had not helped me to adjust units effectively and lock them into the required precise positionings. Attempts at colouring to get some order out of the chaos only led to an obscuring of one part of the figure by another. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but those facilities were simply not available.

As a last resort, I went all the way back to an ancient (and primitive) 2D drawing package that I had used for many years (De Luxe Paint 2).

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Flow diagram of Discovery & Invention

We plan to use this blog to post some of the many diagrams I have created over the years. Some of these will be published in the Shape Journal - we will link to it if there is an associated paper. Some of them are just little ideas to get you thinking!

For many years I have been struggling with the Philosophy of Science, and my efforts have not been helped by the fact that I do not sit with the consensus in this crucial area. Indeed, I am considered something of a maverick, in that I have long opposed the generally accepted philosophical position in my own subject - Physics. I have found, that to marshal my arguments effectively, I have had to go beyond the exclusive use of words. In revealing my position on the Philosophy of Science I have felt it essential to reveal relationships via diagrams...

The above quote is from A Structure of Diagrams, a series of papers to be published on the Shape website.
The first of which can be found here

SHAPE Journal Issue 1 now available

Issue 1 of my new journal SHAPE (Science, Holism, Abstraction, Philosophy, Emergence) is now available for free from E-Journal.org.uk here

The issue includes six articles (all papers from larger series that will be published over future issues) covering a wide variety of subjects including The Debacle of the Large Hadron Collider - why it won't work! Explanation via Chaos - a paper on the bank crash - why politics can't be explained by Chaos theory. A Structure of Diagrams, Are You A Real Marxist, The Gradual Emergence of Life, Before The Big Bang - quite a set for Issue 1 I think you'll agree! The website also features bonus series in the archive - The Nature of Form, The Nature of Reality, Emergence & Reductionism and The Philosophy of Mathematics each featuring a set of two or more papers.
All papers are available as PDF downloads so you can print them off easily and read them at your leisure.

We are also looking for submissions by other authors and scientists for the journal. If you are interested in participating or have any comments on any of the topics, leave them here or visit our contact page

Happy reading!

Editorial from Issue 1:

Welcome to the SHAPE Journal.
In this double Launch Issue we will begin with six sequences of papers on a wide variety of topics. We unashamedly concentrate on Philosophy as the essential and universal approach to human understanding of the world, but, as you will soon see, reject totally its usual academic and remarkably opaque form. Philosophy is too important to be sidelined into esoteric territory for a privileged intelligentsia. It is essential for everybody, yet never so addressed!

Therefore, all our Strands (categories), though all part of our conception of Philosophy, will range across a very wide spectrum of disciplines that would usually be placed elsewhere. This initial selection will give an idea of what we will be discussing. Perhaps the most important papers, which commence here, are not what you would expect to find in an academic Journal, but the separation into clearly distinct disciplines is without doubt at the very heart of what is wrong with them. They are usually hermetically sealed compartments, which admit of NO all embracing approach. Well, that essential World View standpoint is precisely what we mean this Journal to be all about.

The paper Explanation via Chaos is a thorough-going criticism of a BBC TV programme (High Anxieties) which attempted to explain the World Bank crisis of Autumn 2008 as a result of unavoidable mathematical Chaos, and hence "nobody's fault". The second major article The Debacle of the Large Hadron Collider was, once again, in response to a "popularising" TV programme on this amazing billion dollar venture, and tackles the by now century-long crisis of these physicists locked into the cul de sac of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory. Four other papers cover topics as far apart as Marxism, the techniques of Realisation via Diagrams, what came before the Big Bang and finally the myth of the gradual Emergence of Life on Earth. Quite a set, I think you will agree!

This first double issue will hope to establish our remit, and subsequent issues will continue with already commenced sequences of papers, and also introduce new concerns in each and every new publication. We sincerely invite comments and contributions, but please note that the initiators will not accept everything that is offered. This does not mean we will reject articles which oppose previous contributions to the Journal. Open debate is essential in this vital area. Please join in and make Philosophy the real search for Truth that it was always meant to be! This is the Shape of things to come...

Jim Schofield
JUNE 2009