Category Mathematics

Mathematics in any form

Cryptography on the HP-41

Geir Isene 8 Comments

HP-41

Nourishing my hobby, I have been playing with cryptography on my favorite tool.

Now you can have perfect security for a file of up to 300 characters on the little calculator-computer.

If you happen to be interested, you will find the program at the usual place (isene.com).

I really enjoy programming the HP-41 🙂

And now that I have the newly created motherboard replacement (called the HP-41CL) from Monte Dalrymple (Systemyde), I will get to upgrade my HP-41 to massive memory and 50x speed. It’s X-Mas in August.

The next best thing after sliced bread

Geir Isene 14 Comments

Is it a todo-list manager? Is it an outliner? A project management tool? A shopping list solution on steroids? A way of designing business processes? A way to describe… the human DNA or the solution to mankind’s problems or the whole freakin’ universe?

Yes, yes, yes. It’s all of the above. It’s WOIM! And it is out in version 1.4

With this version, I have added time repetition (thanks to Nilo de Roock) and checkboxes for items – with optional date stamps for items that are Done (thanks to Christopher Truett).

No, this is not a piece of software. It is a description for how you can describe anything. And I do mean anything.

WOIMIf you want a software solution to go with it, learn VIM and add the accompanying VIM plugin. Then you have all you need to comfortably write neat WOIM lists and use it for anything from shopping lists to the description of Quantum Mechanics. It’s yours to take, and you are welcome.

WOIM version 1.3 released

Geir Isene 8 Comments

WOIM is a methodology to describe anything – any state, item(s), pattern, action, process, transition, program, instruction set etc. So, you can use it as an outliner, a ToDo list handler, a process design tool, a data modeler, or any other way you want to describe something.

I just released version 1.3

A few minor errors were corrected and one important feature was added; The ability to reuse any part of a WOIM list based on context. It is now very easy to write a process that can be reused without using a reference or duplicating the process. An example would be if you wanted to tell someone to first do something with “apples”, then do the same sett of actions with “oranges” and then with “grapes” (like peeling them and cutting them to small pieces or something). You would simply write the procedure like this:

[apple,orange,grapefruit] Make ready for putting it into the cake 
 Peel 
 Cut into small pieces 
 Sprinkle some sugar on the pieces

The document describing WOIM in detail is available at the usual place.

A proof against determinism?

Geir Isene 52 Comments

Could this actually hold?

Please disprove the following:

  1. For a system to be deterministic, its underlying rules must be consistent.
  2. For a system to be deterministic, its underlying rules must be complete.
  3. No system of rules can be both complete and consistent per Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems.
  4. Thus no system can be deterministic.

FYI: This proof dawned on me while researching Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems – but I realize that points 1 & 2 above may perhaps be invalidated by presenting cases for deterministic systems with incomplete or inconsistent rule sets. Can such cases exist?

Update (2011-01-30): After some good comments, I offer this:

  1. Thesis: The universe contains all there is and all there ever will be, it is a complete and closed system and causally deterministic (Laplace’s demon)
  2. According to Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, such a system would have to contain paradoxes (inconsistencies), potentially rendering the system indeterministic.
  3. To prove the thesis of a causally deterministic universe, one would have to prove (why) the universe would never encounter any such paradoxes breaking the determinism – and prove why the universe itself would never encounter Turing’s Halting Problem when deciding any effect ever in the universe.

Triangles in Scientology

Geir Isene 85 Comments

Many years ago a friend and I started mapping out all the triangles in Scientology and started adding many more.

You may know the ARCU triangle where “Affinity”, “Reality” and “Communication” equates to “Understanding”. There is also the other triangle making up the Scientology symbol (the “S” with two triangles) – the KRC-triangle: “Knowledge”, Responsibility” and “Control”. Even though we didn’t find any references from L. Ron Hubbard as to what those three interconnected elements would equate to, we figured out it should be “Ability”.

Then there is the “BE”-“DO”-“HAVE” witch should equate to perhaps “Existence”. Then there are the three properties of a thetan described by LRH in the book “Science of Survival”: “Power”, “Intelligence” and “Tone” (equating to Beingess?). Thetan-Mind-Body equals a person. Past-Present-Future is time. And there are many more.

Let’s see if we can map more of existence in this fashion. LRH was onto something with this concepts of triangles – there are obvious parallels in the physical sciences such as three spacial dimensions and three quark colors.

Want to pitch in with a new triangle?