source file: mills2.txt
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 09:45:03 -0800

Subject: cause and effect

From: James Kukula <kukula@synopsys.com>

I'm not a particular fan of astrology. But since music and tuning may work in
subtle ways, it might be worth while to look at how subtle causes can have
non-subtle effects.

One example of this is in the sensitivity to outside forces of systems near a
critical point. The classic example is a magnet, which can be modeled as a
huge matrix of little spins. At high temperature the little spins bounce all
over, and the huge matrix ends up without any large scale average. At low
temperature neighboring spins better follow their tendency to line up with
their neighbors, and the whole matrix ends up with a magnetic direction. Of
course this direction could wind up in any direction. This is called symmetry
breaking. Somehow the matrix "picks" a direction to point in. 

Now, right at the transition, the matrix is picking which way to point. Right
there, the matrix becomes "infinitely" sensitive to external forces. Here's
a place where an arbitrarily small force can have a large effect.

I don't mean to say that astrology has any validity, but I think it's
worthwhile to get the arguments straight. For example, could the position of
mars at one's time of birth have any effect? 

Well, we could view the whole social and biological system on earth as being
like a bit matrix of "spins". This system might be, in some ways, at a
critical point. Books like Kaufmann's AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE show how
biological systems might work to keep themselves right at the fertile
critical point. Life is where the action is! So the entire ecological system
could be extremely sensitive to external forces. It's easy to see diurnal
rhythms in biological systems, but of course the sun's influence is hardly
microscopic. But note that what time of day a person is born matters not just
because of the risk of infantile sunburn. The whole mood in the delivery room
would be different at 3AM vs. 3PM. And then one's first hours of discovery of
the world would be met with either an ascending or a descending level of
activity. 

Similarly, the moon we know causes tides. And the tides get bigger and
smaller on a (semi-) monthly cycle. The effect on an individual is not only
the direct gravitational effect. Perhaps the local fishing village changes
its rhythym of activity to follow the tides. One might then be born into a
time of more or less activity, or more or less food. 

I really like Bruno Latour's vision of science in his book SCIENCE IN
ACTION. He talks about the two faces of science. One face is open and
curious, always willing to take a fresh look, always willing to revisit and
retest every hypothesis. The other face is the established authority with its
great store of accumulated knowledge and experience. Perhaps the fertility of
science comes from the interplay between these two aspects. 

Jim

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