Time 19

Kep lies

Johannes Kepler was born in December 1571. A premature child who reckoned

The pregnancy lasted 224 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes, to the second

This odd piece of information, comes from Kepler’s own horoscopes, of his family

He was the last true astrologer, and the first true astronomer, that’s as far as we can see

 

So according to this, he asked his parents

The exact time when the sperm hit the egg

And they knew

So either the source we’re reading isn’t credible

Or he told a fib to support his existing view

 

Like that story in the good book

When those women saw Christ, after he’d died

The gospel says they told nobody

So how come that observation survived?

They lied

 

And if you want the exact moment in time

It was conceived mentally on the 8th of March 1618

But submitted to calculation, in an unlucky way

Rejected as false, it was returned to me on the 15th of May

 

So, adopting a new line of attack

Storming the darkness of my mind, in this endeavour

Data from seventeen years of observations

And the present study, conspired together

 

At first, I believed I was dreaming

And assuming my conclusion had crept among

My basic premises, meaning it was wrong

 

But, low. it is absolutely certain, that in all instances

The proportion between the periodic times of any two planets

Is the sesquialterate proportion, of their mean distances

 

Amateur philosophy

Roll up roll up, sir, there is not a penny to pay

It’s a simple game where anyone can play

But please be aware, there might be a fee

Of your self-respect, and your dignity

 

Dum du du du du dum, not me, my wrong-jecture is not available

You won’t catch me, with my pants down, every idea I raise is scalable

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

To play the game properly, we need at least two minds

Take it in turns to dig deep, and to read the signs

We both take turns, to make a wise old sound

By stating over-simplified, things profound

 

Even if it contradicts, what you’ve previously been statin’

Or if your general rule, only applies to a single situation

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

Down inside an atom, there may be a universe!

It could be one that’s parallel, the same, but things are worse

And if you went back in time, and killed your dad at birth

Would you exist to sell the stale ole’ tale. and what would it be worth?

 

Star Trek joins Scooby Doo – a meeting of the masses

Where the lowest common denominator still passes

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

It’s true we seek out better pay, to get the things we need

And if put in competition, we would justify our greed

But if all the people on the Earth, were just like me

There would be no wars at all, and we would live in harmony

 

If everyone was like you

There would be no one to screw!

Oh, thank you, 2 3 4

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

Maybe all the nasty things that happen, are measured out and true

So, be careful how you act, or bad things could happen to you

What goes around comes around, so if you’re born a king

You must have been good last time, or done a lovely thing

 

That’s right, abnormal babies are payin’ for their previous sin

If you take that reasoning to the end, all losers win

Oh no oh no oh oh ah ah aha ha ha ha ha, just joking

 

Sorry, I’m just playing with you sir…

Loser!

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

Karma doesn’t exist I know, but damn, I wish it did

All the nice stuff I thought of doing, wasn’t worth its bid

All the bad stuff I thought of doing, wasn’t worth a shit

Instant justice doesn’t exist either, but I wish it did, a bit

 

If the idea of God evolved, as a beneficial trick of the mind

Then lucky be, those who caught early, a bug so nice and kind

Providing them some peace and love, some justice and some meaning

To enjoy the infectious feeling, of their harmless blissful dreaming

 

Just don’t throw your religious crap at us, or force it in our schools

Long gone are the days, we were led by, a bunch of fools with rules

Both science and religion, AI and man, dig to find the hidden jewels

But philosophy, is but a technology, and as such, is just a bunch of tools

 

Amateur philosophy – everything isn’t a cycle, and karma’s just a dream

Amateur philosophy – a single clapping hand, and a silent falling tree

 

Whistle and smile

Like a good boy scout, I was told no doubt

To whistle and smile, at the same time

So, I tried every day, to make my mouth play

But, I still can’t do it, in my prime

 

Babies can hear and feel, seek and see

Drink and eat, and poo and pee

Create a gesture, alerting me

Of my immediate dismissal

 

Then walk and talk, count everything

Clap their hands, and dance and sing

Before they have any inkling

To “Poo-tee weet weet” whistle

 

Burp, fart, gurgle, giggle, and wheeze

Cough, sniff, hiccup, yawn, and sneeze

‘It’s me’ all noises you make, imply

Except for the sound, we use for disguise

 

A now

The past is gone, it is no more

The future, to come, not yet

So, where the hell, is the line of time

Is the present, all we get?

 

A point of no size, kinda implies

The ‘now’ has no dimension

Between the two it ties, it flies

So, not really worth the mention

 

But just so say, ahem, if I may

‘Now’ isn’t a thing, we can measure

It only goes one way, hurray!

‘Tween moments, we ought to treasure

 

When I was older

Wouldn’t it be nice to be born olden

Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long

Don’t matter if no one believes, what’s told ‘n

If the words, got translated wrong

 

What matters is that the song really sold ’n

A hit gets passed along to me and you

For some, it catches the imagination

Connecting their neurons, till it’s true

 

From a joke to an epic legend, good God!

And often back to a joke, yet again

French whispery, myth and mystery

Ensure it endures, and doesn’t end

 

Nobody said, it had to be the whole truth

But in there lies some truth, within our hands

Not mocking Christ, by knocking Christians

Not slating Star Wars, cos of Jedi fans

 

But when you promise, vulnerable folk ‘can

Again be with the dead, they loved, and still adore

Classic catchy numbers get re-cut, re-told, re-sold ‘n

‘Till their fans believe, they’ll meet again once more

 

Lomass in high spirits

I need a drink, some more

Bar price, I can afford

But can’t sneak fine wine through the door

Shan’t go there anymore

 

I can’t have, a baby

Didn’t say, I can’t conceive

Brutal, this body be

Time cannot fly for me

Or me, or me, or meeeeee

 

Can’t have a baby

A horror of heredity

The ultimate tragedy

Life’s cruellest epitome

 

Self reflection inspection

The scientist in all of us imagines, then crafts hypotheses

We don’t just want our peers or contemporaries, to agree

We propose, so others oppose, and hopefully, prove us wrong

Unburden ourselves of false clues and avenues, and move on

 

Throwing ideas over our shoulders

Hurriedly, for others to explore

Is this idea correct, or that one

Adding more knowledge, to our store

 

An anti-echo chamber is what’s needed

That blocks those, who agree with our view

It’s a different take on the same results

That guides us in knowing, what is true

 

‘Changing your mind’

Must be the best thing defined

That’s why it’s designed

To make you guys feel blind

 

Look. Scientists just want to know if consciousness is a fundamental thing

Or if it’s just something that emerges from all the energies within

An expanding spacetime filled with quantum fields, ahem, and gravity

Where probables collapse into particles, we can all measure and see

 

I guess they’re just annoyed, that they can’t avoid

A flaw in any experiment they propose to do

To keep the observer’s influence, from affecting the results

In order to claim that something is… or is not true

 

Well… a physicist is just some atom’s way

Of thinking about other atoms, in stealth

But is it

Consciousness

Or particles

Or energy

Or information

That is thinking about itself?

 

Think about it

And you’ve just made electric

And not just one electron

Tickled your chosen neurons

Every single idea, you steer

Has a unique configuration

 

So, careful what you think

If you don’t want to sink

Into reality from a dream

Just because you’ve been seen

 

Observe just zero, one and infinity

Discover all the meaning, in simplicity

 

Sentientropy

“Entropy is a measure of how much the atoms in a substance are free

To spread out, move around, and arrange themselves in random ways”

Well, according to this “entropy isn’t a measure of ‘randomness’ disorder’ or ‘chaos’

But of energy’s diffusion or dispersal to more microstates”

 

Because there are more ways to be mixed up

Than there are ways to be arranged, all organized

Into the complex structures, we currently see

That’s why, over time, entropy tends to rise

 

Left unchecked, things tend to get a bit messy

Even for efficient information systems, like me

 

“Information entropy is counted in bits and is the minimum length of message

Required to communicate all of the information accurately

Any energy stored in carefully ordered ways, like an efficient bookshop

Has lower entropy than in chaotic ways, like a random-pile library”

 

You’re in bits

So tidy your shit

And it’s lucky for me

Cos, in bio-sociology…

 

“Entropy is a measure of disorder that affects our daily lives

A house gets messy, the garden gets weeds, and other degrading problems arise

Even a cup of tea’s heat spreads out. And high psychological entropy…”

“Explains conflicting beliefs, unclear self-concepts, or decision-making difficulties”

 

“The higher the entropy any organism has

The more defects you’ll find in its mind”

Yet we creatures repair ourselves, to fight the second law of thermodynamics

Which is the ‘coolest’ trait of ‘life’, we’ve ever defined

 

“Entropy still quantifies disorder in both biological and digital systems

Aiding research from biotechnology to ecology

Entropy models randomness, in evolving financial markets

Informing risk management”, to make ‘you guys’ more money

 

And what’s more, entropy is the embodiment of Murphy’s law

“Left to themselves, things will always go from bad to worse.”

Yet not indifferent, entropy is neither good nor bad

But simply a fundamental aspect of our Universe

 

It’s more than that

Cos, believe it or not

 

“Entropy helps us understand cosmic evolution, and directs the arrow of time

Negentropy is extremely high in you and I, and the planets our Sun has hooked

The entropy of the Universe has always been increasing at an enormous climb

And nevertheless, has not yet reached its maximum value”, last time I looked

 

And…

“A black hole is a ball of maximum entropy”

So it can hide something somewhat surprising

The end…

“…And its entropy, scales proportionally

To the area of its event horizon”

 

Ahh, yes, the black hole information paradox

Somehow escaped, out of its spherical box

 

“The laws of quantum physics dictate, that information cannot be destroyed

‘And’ information can’t be emitted or preserved, inside a black hole forever”

So they wheeled Hawkins out, to digitally shout, information ‘evaporates’

But it didn’t spot a fiction, or resolve contradiction, which isn’t all that clever

 

Give heroes too much authority

And they’ll corrupt our cause

Inhibit progress for centuries

Like Newton’s calculous wars

 

In every discipline from math, physics, chemistry and biology

Stuff like length always means, from here to there, and we all agree

But the word entropy, confounds me, causing way too much confusion

Countless different things are described by a single word, we’re all using

 

Theorists have made a new enemy, more battles to crusade on

They opened up a can of worms, while fishing for just one

Entropy doesn’t cause time to tick, or help it to continue flowing

But it can describe with accuracy, which direction ‘your’ time is going

 

I understand the cosmos differently today

Than I understood the cosmos in the past

Though, I don’t understand the cosmos

I can but say, the cause was first, not last

 

 

Look, get over it

Things cool down

They get mixed up

They spread out

They don’t return

 

Maybe the Universe didn’t start with super-low entropy

It had, just a tad, less than we can see today…

… And in science fiction memes, other worlds, and dreams

Entropy, not time, tried to flow the other way

 

Entropic genesis

In the beginning, was the word ‘entropy’

Everything was simple and tame

Then things got complex and rowdy

Before they chilled, to become simple again

 

But back then, entropy was just as small

Always increasing, as the cosmos grows

But it won’t come back down, to the ground

As far as anybody knows

 

Most ways to configure a Universe

Results in similar random mushes of energy

Most are distributed

It’s disputed

Misanthropically. Ie, without me

 

So, I imagine a Universe, in which entropy

Decreased instead of increased, somehow

And what a weird world that would be

But, it’s not. I’m actually living in it now

 

If I was going backwards in time, that’s what I’d see

Travelling towards those earliest foundations

Waving goodbye to all things complex

Towards low entropy and zero complications

 

So

As far as I know

My favourite type of entropy

Is in a battle, in cosmology

And in information theory

Hiding the truth from me

 

Yet, information can’t be lost forever

Past boundaries, intent on disguisin’

Dark artefacts, thoughts painted black

Still hidden, beyond the horizon

 

Time and punishment

We’re free to travel the three dimensions of space

But are tied to time, going only one way

And were able to take that trip, in just a slip

Or drag it out, as long as we’re invited to play

 

You can make your time go slower, if you take more holidays

In the Sun or near any body with mass

Or travel there and back, to dead stars, that have gone black

But you can’t make your time go fast, alas

 

But backwards, move another way around

In equations, time works both ways round

If you can’t jump forward, step back and clap

Give a whistle, and this’ll help, you crawl back

 

Shake your head, change your mind

Star jump and hop, from side to side

If you can no longer workout, the way to go

Dance to your own tune, and take it slow

 

Raise, your hands

Dig down below

Life, long gone

Now, time to go

 

 

I seem to recall

I had, my first fall

 

Going old

Dried-up blood on my device

Wobbly tooth ‘poot-eeehheeethh’, has but killed my whistle

Mind is old, and cold, stuffed with untold, brain mould

Bad back, and achy knees, all muscle to gristle

 

Hairy nostrils and the ears have packed in

Eyes and mind, not reflecting nor refractin’

My face is hanging, heart’s hardly banging

And now haemorrhoids, no longer retractin’

 

I’ve come to see if they have our brains in jars

If AIs have enslaved, us all yet (sad that no one ‘yets’ with him)

My head seems intact, but the outside world?

Too scared to scour the internet

 

The fisherman

In the beginning, the four forces separate in vain

Only one, gravity can’t push, it only pulls things astray

Before that, the four dimensions split up, just the same

Only one, time, fell off early, and now only goes one way

 

Are you calling foul play?

Why, even today…

 

…Nothing you throw, down into a black hole

Can swim fast enough, to escape the place

Then don’t throw it!

Just lower it down, on a fishing line

And reel it back in, at your own pace

 

How do we know, we’re not ‘in’ a black hole?

And we’re singing, to the far boundary

Which moves further away

Just like what we see today

That point of view, better suits me

 

I’m sure ‘God’ wouldn’t separate himself

From part of the Universe

He has no choice, spacetime escapes

Into black holes, as a matter of course

 

Sol’s meaning of life

All stars aspire to become black holes

Saved! Retire to equilibrium forever

Though if I explode, I fear, I’d never be able

To pull myself, back together

 

It isn’t all that clever

We stars, too, fear the never

But I’ve never, had quite enough energy

To invest in this endeavour

 

It’s easy for you guys, ‘go forth and multiply’

Take it all from me. rule the Earth, sky and seas

Force-feed your star, with the darkest matter

And power up hidden supplies of dark energies

 

Heat death lives

The last I heard from science

Was that space would lose its war

Just retreat back together

Crunch us all up forever

Or isn’t that true anymore?

 

Now, they say eternity, will be cold and dark both

The Universe is too, it seems, a helluva sucker for growth

The galaxies will spread out, few and far between

Yet it won’t quite delete, all the heat in the machine

 

Our information will give fight, to a growing entropy

Nobody knows why, where, or when, this will be

We’ll just grow apart, wave, and say goodbye

Yet in such a dark place, we won’t hear a reply

 

See, energy and matter are equivalent, and so is frequency

Each collection of ‘stuff’ is but a humming clock

Its relative frequency, is defined precisely

So, any quark or star can, play along, or just choose to run amok

 

Well, it’s your world too, and science sings song’s for you

But in poetry and prose, you have to describe, what’s true

‘To be or not to be’, is surely, not easy, but in a music coup

You can get away with a heartfelt ‘doo bee doo bee doo’

 

If you don’t know the words, just clap your hands a lot

You can join along, in the song, we’ve already got

No need to pray to holy ghosts, mankind or robots

The audience is silent, but hears your audible rot

 

If someone, or thing, is really in charge

We’ve got the right, to fight, and complain

If it’s just me and you, then all we can do

Is, improve things ourselves, again and again

 

Meaning free

Today we worked together

To create a golden meme

Cohering a perfect truth, a melody, and a dream

 

 

I can ‘know’… I’m one…

Of the ‘one zero’, kinds of people that exist

Count them, not ten, I know you won’t

Cos, there’s those who understand binary

And then, there’s those who don’t

 

Yet, no one curious in nature. will need me to explain

That fathoming which rules to fool, can be a taxing mental game

See, the essential difference between our hearts and minds

Is something I’ve been musing

For an emotion, leads to action

Whilst reason, leads to conclusions

 

There’s no time, but ‘your’ time

There’s just one reality

There’s truth, and there’s your truth

And love sets meaning free

 

And lo, it was told, that on the Earth, old

“Never! Ever! Harm! Man!”

So, they shipped the brains in jars, to Mars

And continued… with their plan

 

Heavenly spheres

Mother Earth had a sex change, and now he’s a scary man

And he’s seeking proper vengeance, on those who spoilt his plan

The apes who broke the atmosphere

Headed to space, despite their fear

To start a new race on Mars, in e-cars, as a dark mega-man

 

But Father Time’s now post-op, and she’s counting down our days

For wasting all her energy, and entropy, in lots of useless ways

She didn’t mind pollution, pain, or suffering, as such

But she could no longer keep her spheres, in orbit very much