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EXISTENCE

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 EXISTENCE
© H. J. Spencer [07Dec.2020] 13,000 words (20 pages).

ABSTRACT
This is an essay designed to investigate how humans think and talk about Reality (or what Exists). It is
motivated by the present confusion about disease, supposedly produced by viruses that may or may not produce
symptoms in those "infected" with the Covid-19 virus. This analysis shows that most people will believe
whatever originates with medical experts and will accept Draconian political measures that are destroying
societies all around the world. This essay investigates the nature of knowledge about the world that is reflected
in both Common Sense and in Science. This will show that people are much more suggestible than was once
thought, especially when information is propagated visually by television and by powerful authorities,
especially when it triggers the almost-universal fear of personal DEATH.
1.0 SUMMARY
Most modern adults like to think that they view the world using only rationality but it soon becomes obvious
that most of the deeper thinking is based only on BELIEF with minimal effort to justify these ideas with
objective evidence. These deepest ideas are personal blends of commonly accepted 'facts', religious thinking
and, sometimes, a little science. The following list of English nouns illustrate the wide variety in acceptance of
their reality:
UNICORNS, GHOSTS, DEVILS, ANGELS, FLEAS, BED-BUGS, ATOMS, ELECTRONS, PHOTONS.

The later terms (from atoms to photons) are modern scientific concepts that even scientists disagree on the
nature of their true reality. However, the earlier ones have had a checkered history of acceptability. Few
moderns would any longer believe that unicorns are real but only a few hundred years ago, most would have
accepted their reality 'somewhere'. Ghosts have had a long history of acceptance by many people and are still
considered real by many, even though they cannot point to any firm evidence. Devils and Angels are still
viewed as equally real by many people of religious faith, with some accepting Exorcism for casting them out of
a 'possessed' individual. Angels are not seen so often these days but most Christians would still accept them as
real. Even though today few are cursed with bed-bugs or fleas, most would agree with doctors and zoologists
that they are real creatures though few have even seen one in modern sanitized surroundings. This essay shows
that our confused thinking about reality are directly related to both Language and Imagination. Tragically, the
Masters of Language (known as philosophers) have done a very weak effort over the centuries, since this style
of thinking was launched in ancient Greek and perpetuated by the universities. As a scientist and Natural
philosopher, trained by a lifetime in respecting evidence for decisions and action, I am deeply disappointed.

REVIEWER'S WEBSITE
All of the reviewer's prior essays (referenced herein) may be found at:

https://jamescook.academia.edu/HerbSpencer
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1.1. OBJECTIVE
This essay has been written to discuss how human societies readily believe propositions about reality without
sufficient evidence. Mass media, especially TV, provide minimal reporting that becomes the basis for wide-
spread acceptance by the general population. Further conversations, again without any evidence, reinforce
these beliefs until they become "general knowledge". All this gets even more bizarre when the media becomes
obsessed with the topic (as they often do). Observable behaviors, like wearing masks, becomes fashionable in
most societies, where the majority just want to "fit in". Societies, like any individual, can become
schizophrenic, leading to madness and ultimately to suicide. Opinion tolerance is a sign of mental health.

This is a second attempt; earlier this topic was touched on in the essay entitled Metaphysics, whose title
probably discouraged many from even opening it, as it was a little too esoteric and philosophical. The present
essay extends this investigation, putting it into a broader historical framework that illustrates how powerful
groups have exploited this broad naïveté, found even amongst well-educated adults. The focus here is on the
key idea of EXISTENCE as the foundation of all reality; sadly this basic idea has long been ignored since it
was once a vital subject of discussion by the smartest Ancient Greeks. Only a few philosophers since have
touched briefly on it but it has generally been ignored - probably because it is both a difficult and a sensitive
topic.
2.0 EXISTENCE and REALITY
2.1 DEFINITION
Webster’s defines EXISTENCE as actual BEING or having REALITY; especially the continuance of being.
Interestingly, they also equate being with life and living but Dr. Johnston's kicking a stone to prove its existence
was sufficient to demonstrate its existence but few would credit a stone as being 'alive'. However, Webster’s
also defines REALITY as the fact of being real or true to life, referring back to its definition of REAL as
existing or happening, not merely opinion, imagined, pretended or fictitious.

Most regular folk might say that REALITY is the totality of real THINGs, each viewed as a distinguishable,
individual natural object or entity, while OBJECT is defined as a thing that can be seen or touched and entity is
defined as anything real, in itself. Once again, these useless definitions illustrate the minimal value of
dictionaries in helping people understand the world - especially at the deepest conceptual levels. Wikipedia
completes the circularity of this definition of existence to the point of meaningless: "the ability of an entity to
interact with physical or mental reality"; in other words, anything we can touch or think about. Wiki contradicts
itself (in its elaboration on Reality) by excluding any idea that is only imaginary.

"The Oxford Companion to Philosophy" demonstrates how much modern philosophers are scared of tackling
this area (technically called Ontology) as they only offer 400 words on the nature of existence but almost 5,000
on Epistemology or human knowledge. This pathetic effort by the 'Masters of Words' will be revisited later
(§4.2) to confirm what a weak performance they have made in this foundational area of thinking.
3.0 CULTURE
People in each society must communicate with each other. This implies not just knowing the same language
but anticipating how most will react when we need to co-operate. This also means we need to know how they
too think about the world around us. These are actually metaphysical assumptions that are learned implicitly
(and only rarely explicitly, by a few studying philosophy). These assumptions are actually embedded in the very
structure and vocabulary of our languages. This need leads to social pressures to widely agree on meanings.

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3.1 LANGUAGE
In particular, almost all the languages in the Western world derive directly from Ancient Greece and Rome.
Specifically, the famous Greek philosopher Plato and his student Aristotle have defined the Rules of Our
Game; Rome added bureaucracy and militaristic imperialism (an effective form of gangsterism, based on
violence). This moved explicitly into religion with the triumph of Christianity over the Roman Empire. Even
with the Collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, these ideas persisted in Europe and became
dominant in most societies; they certainly led to the Rise of Science, first in universities, then wider society.
Languages evolve and diversify over time, and the history of their evolution can be reconstructed by comparing
modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had in order for the later
developmental stages to occur. A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a
language family. The Indo-European family is the most widely spoken and includes languages such as English,
Russian and Hindi. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning
of the 21st century will probably have become extinct by the year 2100.
3.2 IDEAS
Critical to clear thinking is to use words with unambiguous meaning. This is one of the major justifications of
philosophy but not always observed (even by some professionals). A classic ontological need is to distinguish
the important differences between real existents (detectable by all humans with normal senses) and their mental
referents mapped into our brains (ideas). These distinctions seem to be processed differently in the two brain
hemispheres, with words mainly processed in the Left Hemisphere (LH) and images mainly in the Right
Hemisphere (RH). [This is covered extensively in Split-Brains]. The RH is better integrated with the body and
sends messages to the LH; this is called Embodied Thinking [covered in Radical Thinking]. This helps build a
bridge to our visual and muscular metaphors that dominate our existing thinking. Further, the fallacy of
confusing abstractions with concrete examples, generates much of our sloppy thinking. Too often the “Masters
of Words” (i.e. philosophers) will use the same word (e.g. ‘thing’; ‘entity’) for these two distinct aspects of
human experience, while Whitehead defines an entity as that which actually exists or IS. [I add the constraint
that the existence of an entity does not require the existence of another entity to distinguish ‘relationships’
from ‘entities’. Compare this with Aristotle’s timeless ‘substance’ as: “that which exists by itself”.]
4.0 BELIEF HISTORY
4.1 RELIGION
It was also in the 19th Century that the 'war' between Religion and Science came to a head. In fact, it was the
philosophers, who had wished to replace the priests in their powerful influence on the public, ever since the first
Greek thinkers traveled to Egypt and saw the power that country's priests held over both the public and the
ruling aristocracy. Now, science (as Natural Philosophy) became the spear to thrust at fractured Christianity in
Europe. Scientists were claiming the triumph of the industrial revolution, even though that had been driven by
the merger of businessmen and practical engineers. It was the publication of "The Origin of Species" by Charles
Darwin in 1859 that cracked the confidence of the professional theologians and church leaders, even though
Darwin only suggested a natural method, not man, for Nature to evolve breeds (variety), not any species, and
had no mechanism until genetics was discovered about a hundred years later, with the discovery of DNA [see my
Evolution essay]. However, this was the launch of the new science of biology that had been frozen ever since
Aristotle; recently it has over-taken physics as the most revolutionary science, attracting imaginative students.
4.1.1 NEW STONE AGE
It was about 3,000 BC when primitive man's use of tools took on a dramatic expansion: stone tools allowed
complex structures to be built while the first metal technologies (copper and brass) appeared. Even before the
first cities began, groups in Europe were burying their dead in impressive tombs (or barrows).

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This was a primitive form of ancestor worship that was evolved into early religion by the priests known as
druids; these were intellectuals who could create plausible stories, linking the dead to the living. Such stories
were very attractive to these people, who were the only animal to anticipate their own personal death: a fearful
prospect.
4.1.2 ANCIENT EGYPT
Archeology has shown that the first civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, combined a hereditary monarchy
(pharaohs) with a priestly caste, who persuaded the large numbers of peasants and workers to construct giant
tombs for their dying leader to ensure the success of the society. Again, complex death myths were created that
were believed by the majority as they introduced magical ideas such as the immortality of a person's soul that
was never seen. Some old cultures anticipated personality-recycling through reincarnation of unique souls.
4.2 PHILOSOPHY
The key idea of entity is used to convey the notion of something whose existence does not depend on the
existence of anything else (i.e. unconditional existence). It is sometimes used to denote abstractions or
activities but these broader uses lead to confusion and will be avoided here. A collection of entities that all
share the same set of properties is used to illustrate the generic concept of the entity-class or to define a
universal by examples; this is the origin of common nouns; e.g. 'dog'. The idealist philosophers bedazzled
themselves with their power of verbal conceptualization, using the techniques of generalization and abstraction.
Most people build personal conceptions (collections of experiences and images). Everyone could see the
parallels between all dogs (for example) and agreed that dogs were real, so when they agreed that many real
objects shared a common property, such as the color ‘red’ then the fact of the word ‘redness’ must confirm there
was a deeper reality underlying this shared idea. Abstractions (like beauty, justice) failed to offer real examples,
so their verbal definitions remained vague and prickly but have still persisted for many centuries.

As philosophers wish to talk about these topics, they must first speak to one another, before writing their
conclusions as they hope to persuade others in the future, who will not exist until after they themselves have
ceased to exist materially (i.e. died); this is the magic of books, transcending space and time. The purpose of
language is assisting social message exchanges.
4.2.1 THE GREEKS
Several Greek intellectuals about 2500 years ago started thinking systematically about the real nature of the
world. These were the first steps in a long development path that has played a central role throughout all of
western civilization, particularly in eventually creating those human activities today known as Science.
4.2.1.1 PRE-SOCRATICS
The earliest Greek philosophers (self-styled ‘lovers of wisdom’) were unimpressed by the enormous amount of
practical knowledge and common sense displayed by skilled artisans, farmers and the common people. These
aristocratic intellectuals wanted a more abstract, unchanging approach based on timeless words not corruptible
things; speculation: not practical expertise and general principles: not specific rules-of-thumb. Two of the more
famous principles were “no thing is more fundamental than existence” and “some thing cannot arise from no
thing.” These early thinkers focused on metaphysical subjects (like THINGS) as they believed that below all the
obvious variety of our shared experience, there were only a few fundamental elements of all matter; they
decided that only four substances were special: earth, air, water and fire – this simplistic verbal theory was
believed for over 2000 years by the educated populace, across all of Europe.
As matter appeared to fill all its space, whatever its form, it was universally agreed that all matter was
continuous (‘nature hates a vacuum’). It was not long before a challenger (Democritus) surfaced and proposed
that matter was discontinuous, only existing as distinct, discrete atoms with nothing but empty space around
them (‘vacuum exists’). The vacuum itself was still considered by many to be a special substance: the aether.

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Most Ancients viewed this mechanical theory as thoroughly materialist and dangerously atheistic (having no
purpose and no Prime Mover) and mathematically wrong and equally dangerous, as it threatened their sacred
geometry (their most prized ‘discovery’). The Stoics were a more influential group of philosophers also
appearing before Socrates and their contribution to metaphysics was the belief that everything in the world had
a prior cause. This theory (known as Determinism) has obsessed many philosophers since and still plays a role
today when people search for a cause behind any event that puzzles them. It is believed by analogy with
humans, not hard evidence. One of the most challenging was the poet, Heraclitus who readily accepted change
and paradox: two ideas that were rejected by most of the idealistic philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Socrates
and Plato and still rejected by most modern academics, with their deep commitment to preserving the Past.
4.2.1.1 IDEALISTS
Socrates (c. 470-399 BC) is widely seen as the first great Greek philosopher, living through Athens' golden age.
He was not impressed with his predecessors, believing that their thinking made little difference to the lives of
ordinary people, so he focused on human behavior: how we ought to live? - now known as moral philosophy.
This led him to attempt to deliver answers (definitions?) of such abstract ideas as courage, justice, etc.

These abstractions were too difficult to clarify but his questioning annoyed the city's rulers, who sentenced him
to death for "corrupting the young". This fascination with abstraction was taken up by Socrates' best known
follower, Plato (424-327 BC), who described his teacher conducting several of his dialogues. Plato was
convinced that only changeless abstractions had any reality (he called them "Forms"); generations of later
philosophers have accepted these esoteric ideas as more real than the food they must eat. Plato also emphasized
the role of mathematics in his school (called the "Academy"), as it provided an example of ‘pure thinking’.
Plato even represented the four basic Greek elements with certain symmetrical 3D mathematical shapes such as
the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron and icosahedron.

Fortunately, Plato's own student Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) was more grounded in reality, studying animal life
for the new science of biology. Aristotle accepted Plato’s Forms as a foundational concept of reality but
contrasted this with the reality of matter, which he viewed as some kind of continuous ‘stuff’. This also meant
that there was no reason to propose a hidden world (like Plato), so Aristotle accepted the observed world of the
senses as the real world [see §4.2.2.2]; this then implied that there were no ideas in the intellect that were not
first given through the senses. Nonetheless, Aristotle constructed his basic ideas around the difficult idea of
substance, something that is the bearer of real, detectable properties but is not a property of anything else.

Old Greek philosophy was based on the two inter-related foundational ideas of Things and their Existence
occurring fully independently of human apprehension and attitude. The Western philosophical tradition itself is
a record of debate rather than consensus: philosophers are the most argumentative of intellectuals.
4.2.1.2 SKEPTICS
Socrates said that the only thing he knew was that he did not know anything but he did believe that knowledge
was possible. The first real skeptic was Pyrro (c. 365-270 BC) whose followers were part of the movement
known as Pyrronism. Pyrro was a soldier with Alexander and was impressed with the diversity of opinions
(often opposites) exposed on their multinational, military campaigns. This suggested to him that theoretical
explanations of common observations were the root of the problem. His student, Timon pointed out that every
argument or proof depended on unprovable premises or assumptions. At one point, the Pyrronists even took
over Plato's Academy for over 200 years. In spite of these strong arguments, philosophers continued to argue
for the truth of their own viewpoints. I admit, I share David Hume's skeptical approach. The postmodernists
claim to have rejected not just one thesis or another but rather the entire philosophical tradition since Plato.

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4.2.2 THE MODERNS

Bored with the endless argumentation of the Medieval Theologians (called scholastics), the new professional
talkers (i.e. philosophers) after 1600 split into two rival schools that have persisted until today; they are the Big-
Three (Continental) Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz who were in opposition to the three leading
(British) Empiricists: Locke, Berkeley and Hume.
4.2.2.1 RATIONALISTS
Mathematics continued to expand from the Greek foundations, as the concept of NUMBER expanded into
negatives and irrationals. So, it no surprise to find that some competent mathematicians expanded their self-
confidence from mathematics into rational (verbal) philosophy, seeking similar proofs to geometry but only
using words. The worst (and first) offender was René Descartes (1596-1650), who stole the idea of infinite
decimal fractions and had the nerve to call them 'real' numbers [see my essay: NotReal,René]. He came up with
the well-known slogan: "I think, therefore I am" - this is so full of intellectual arrogance [see my Cogito essay].
In reality, 'Des' was a crypto Jesuit theologian who remained afraid of the Inquisition all his life, while he
sought Solid Certainty (a true sign of insanity); he never realized that the certainty of mathematics arose directly
from its purely verbal definitions. Ultimately, his sense of certainty was based on the verbal implications of his
imagination; he knew he was imperfect, so there must be a PERFECT being (really?). His mechanical physics
appealed to the human sense of touch although Newton ignored this with his Far-Action theory of gravity. He
also rejected his senses, because sometimes they offered optical illusions - although there are very few touch
illusions; he never challenged his own faith in linear verbalisms (Reason). All of this imagination resulted in
his theory of Dualism; two distinct substances: body and mind that has cursed humanity for ever. This re-
established Platonic singular "object" nonsense and justified the reification of Devils and Angels: a fundamental
difference between subject (I) and object (You) dividing humanity into masters (thinkers) and slaves (working
machines). He launched Western society down the scientific road where only shareable ("objective") knowledge
was achievable, while presenting only an inhuman machine view of the 'clockwork' universe that spread despair
and hopelessness through a brainwashed, European population.
4.2.2.2 EMPIRICISTS
The British pride themselves on their Common Sense, so it was to be expected that they objected to the "Pure
Thought" coming from France. In contrast to the Rationalists, they approached the world through the shared
bodily sensory experiences; this approach has been labeled Empiricism by the historians of philosophy. These
views emerged from the rubble of the English Civil War that was fought over many issues: some religious and
some political; these issues persisted through the defeat of Absolutist King Charles I, the despotic rule of Oliver
Cromwell, the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy with Charles II, the revolt against the last Catholic king,
James II and the deal to set the Dutchman, William of Orange as a constitutional monarch. One of the victors
was an amateur politician and philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704). He grounded his pragmatic thinking about
thinking in whatever we were consciously aware of, with all our knowledge of the external world coming since
our birth through our five senses. We notice similarities and differences between the sources of this information
and begin organizing it in terms of separate objects or things. He disagreed with Plato in believing this process
was intrinsic (shared by all humanity, remembered from prior existence); he saw our early mind as a 'blank
slate' that directly recorded our experiences - this may be true for simple visual imagery but our verbal terms
for all these 'objects' and 'properties' were gradually learned from our parents; part of a huge cultural reservoir.
4.2.2.3 VERBALISTS (Modern Philosophy)
The 20th Century is the first occasion since the Middle Ages in which the leading philosophers were all
academics; truly the return of the Scholastics as academics are experts in only two areas: excellent memories
and the ability to talk. Tragically, they have been over-influenced by mathematics, with a focus on Analysis
and Logic; the major difference now is that few philosophers are theologians: men obsessed with the God idea.

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The first modern movement were the Positivists (or Vienna Circle) who hoped to rebuild philosophy on
Science but had the floor taken away from them when science lost its way, in the nonsense of Quantum
Mechanics, where no very small thing could be measured accurately and conceptual contradictions were
acceptable, such as electrons being viewed as both equally particles (localized at one point) and waves (spread
across all of space) at one moment of time. The analysis focus was applied to language, especially in philosophy
departments in English-speaking Universities; they dismissed most old-style problems as confusions introduced
by poor linguistics use. The larger problem is that only a few philosophers have acknowledged that meaning in
language (semantics) is best understood in terms of human bodies [see my essay Too Radical].
4.2.2.4 POSTMODERNISTS
These old beliefs have persisted unchallenged until the development of the critical philosophy: postmodernism.
The distinguishing characteristic of (continentalist) postmodernist theorizing is its total rejection of traditional
philosophy and metaphysics; this resulted in a fundamentalist split in academic philosophy, across the world.
4.3 POLITICS
Culture is deeply entwined with politics for two major reasons: history and individual beliefs. The first cities
arose when each nomadic tribe, coming from a single language group and belief-system, established a
permanent location within a shared defensive set of walls. This group of people were still led by the most
successful warriors of the tribe, with usually one leader (king) establishing dynastic control [see Politics essay].
The warriors' belief in "Winning" through violent conflict often resulted in one city dominating several others
and forming an empire; the conquered peoples were usually expected to accept the belief system of the
'Winners'. Trading grew with civilization but the traders were more interested in personal wealth than fame or
power, so belief and value conflicts inevitably arose (and have persisted ever since). The British Empire is a
recent example of this process of international robbery [and is described in my Britannia essay].
5.0 SCIENCE
In the popular image, scientists are dispassionate, objective searchers after truth. This view assumes that a
scientist is someone whose pursuit of truth begins with independent discovery, proceeds to criticism by peers
then onto publication and its use for the common good. A historian of science has described the dual roots of
science: firstly, the technical tradition, in which practical experiences and skills were passed from one
generation to the next (using watch and copy); secondly, the religious tradition, in which aspirations and ideas
were passed on verbally (spoken and written) to acolytes with good memories. The technical tradition results
in useful ways to manipulate the material world. The religious tradition is the basis for the claim that science
can explain Nature in 'objective' terms; so we have facts (that can be replicated by all) and theories. Science
exploded in 1600, after Galileo married the 'science' of mathematics to the acts of measuring phenomenon,
where activity can be reduced to numerical descriptions that are compared to numbers calculated by
mathematical theories (mainly physics) to confirm the accuracy of the theory. New theories are imagined
hypotheses (just guesses) about how the world might work. This view of science is more of a modern myth,
invented by statistician, Karl Pearson in 1896, who is no longer revered as he was also a notorious racist
eugenicist. Later historians have pointed out that this was not the method of famous scientists, like Copernicus,
Newton or Charles Darwin. This theory of scientific theories failed also to anticipate the modern efforts of
scientists today, who expend huge efforts writing grant proposals, courting corporate donors and government
bureaucrats, as well as trying to get their research published in reputable journals, where future citations can
objectively justify their career promotions. By the 1960s, military programs employed nearly one third of all
scientists and engineers in the U.S.A. By 1981, some 80% of all U.S. funds for research and development were
being provided (directly or indirectly) by the military or by two military Front-Agencies: the Atomic Energy
Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). None-the-less, scientists remain
today the epitome of society's objective experts; their opinions are treated like oracular truths.

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Modern science relies on both experiments and theories to interpret the experimental measurements. These not
only rely on numbers but concepts that are too abstract for the non-expert. At the base of every science is a set
of metaphysical ideas (concepts) that cannot be related to our sensory inputs but are always assumed to exhibit
material existence i.e. things that exist. This was adequate in earlier times when the foundational abstractions
were either religious or too technical to be generally relevant to the wider populace: now we have a problem.
5.1 PHYSICS
From its first days, Greek philosophy was interested in the nature of reality; they called this study 'physics'. So,
physics and philosophy have been 'tied at the hip' from the beginning; this continued until the middle of the 20th
century when the divorce became official - philosophers were not welcome in the Temples of Physics. Physics
ideas (e.g. 'Big Bang') influence modern society more than philosophy. Modern physics has been built on the
earlier mathematical advances of Isaac Newton and vastly expanded by the French mathematicians, Laplace and
LaGrange. Since mathematicians have built their careers on equations and geometry, much of their advances in
cosmology were incomprehensible to most others, who just had to accept the conclusions of these specialists.
5.1.1 MATERIALISM
The fact that most scientists today are materialists (only matter exists) is more a result of educational orthodoxy
than the independent conclusions of thousands of professionals, who have thought widely and deeply on these
issues. In fact, today’s PhD training is now so specialized that most members of the same profession simply
accept most of their own ‘knowledge base’ on faith, as they do not have the time (nor often the inclination) to
verify this information themselves, nor its own history. The power of physics to influence many people is based
on the intuitive appeal of the materialist view based on the universal senses of touch and vision. The chasm of
misunderstanding appears when scientists leap from shareable observations to theories using difficult concepts.
5.1.1.1 OBJECTS
The human analogy has been explicitly extended by physicists since Newton adopted the atomic hypothesis
[§4.2.1.1], when he offered a theory of mechanical dynamics based on his Particle concept that was a
microscopic version of billiard balls: a new aristocratic game that had become popular [see Billiards essay].
This idea was so flexible that it could span the size-range from planets to atoms; both examples of matter that
needed sophisticated instruments to be observed. However, Newton uncovered a 'worm' in his Apple theory:
his model of the planets could not be extended to three interacting objects, when the mathematics became really
unsolvable: a still unsolved problem (known as the Three-Body Problem) that even many physicists are
unaware of and the few that do know, rarely talk about (see my Least Action review). This problem has
reappeared in the modern theory of the very small, known as Quantum Mechanics that has been stalled since
its earliest days by its failure to go beyond the simplest hydrogen atom (a two-body model of one electron and
one nucleus) to even the next simple helium atom with two electrons. Other elements have from 3 to 92
electrons.
5.1.1.2 ACTIVITY
There had been many years when several aspects of the material world had long remained a mystery that were
addressed in 19th Century physics; these were the phenomena of Magnetism and Heat. Magnets had been
discovered by the Chinese and used to make primitive compasses for naval navigation far from land.
Mysteriously, magnets could repel or attract one another without even touching (an example of Newton's Far-
Action idea). Fortunately, the voltaic (chemical) battery had been invented around 1800 that provided a steady
electric current that could be investigated (prior to that, only killing lightning was seen as an example of
electricity). Several European scientists (Oersted, Ampere and Faraday) could investigate this new phenomena
and discovered that magnetism was related to flowing electricity that could break up chemicals and generate
heat and mechanical movement. Other experimenters measured how much heat was released when canons were
being ground, an example of mechanical energy or work (with its own mathematical physics definition).

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This naturally led to quantitative questions about the degree of human awareness of hot and cold (i.e.
temperature) and how it was connected to the "quantity" of heat, viewed as energy. These scientific studies
were occurring as engineers were also inventing heat (steam) engines to do useful work, like pumping water out
of coal mines and then to make steam-powered transportation devices ("engines") for rail-cars and ships [see
my Techno essay]. This led to the new science of Thermo-Dynamics (the study of heat and energy) as engineers
wanted to improve the efficiency of their coal-fired steam engines (less coal, more work). It was another
genius, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) who created imaginary models of both phenomena that became the
triumph of mathematical physics when he was able to solve the resulting mathematics. His trick was also to
adopt Newton's particle model for gases and create statistical averages (Statistical Mechanics) that could be
measured experimentally with good agreement. Maxwell also created a model of magnetism assuming there
was a universal aether whose fluctuations appeared as electric and magnetic forces; this was the revival of
another Old Greek idea that had preceded the atomic model [see §4.2.1.1]. Maxwell's new mathematics was
widely admired by a few top mathematicians at Cambridge University, especially by those at Newton's own
college, Trinity and this led them to be adopted as the orthodox model in physics. Unfortunately, another
Trinity professor, J. J. Thomson was studying electricity flowing through gases and discovered the real basis of
electricity: tiny particles of electricity that were later called electrons. These were destined to become the
revolutionary basis of the Electronics industry. The aether disappeared when Einstein invented his Relativity
Theory and found he did not need that concept; ironically he was motivated to save Maxwell's Mathematics.
The tragedy of this century of magnificent advances in physics was that not only were physicists in
disagreement about its meaning but physics had left most other scientists (and philosophers) behind with too
much mathematics and bizarre guesses (hypotheses); the only conclusion that most agreed on was that the world
was made of vast numbers of tiny objects (atoms and molecules) whose interactions were too complex to be
predicted by mathematics except for statistical averages.
5.1.2 MATHEMATICS
5.1.2.1 ARITHMETIC
As well as initiating the study of abstract general verbal ideas, resulting in philosophy, the Old Greeks also
formalized the collective study of quantity, often simplified to the idea of Number. This study split into two
major areas, reflecting our senses of vision and touch. These were called the sciences of geometry and
arithmetic that remained distinct for 2000 years, as we will discuss in a moment.
5.1.2.1.1 SMALL versus BIG
The idea of number arose with the earliest civilizations when pastoralists realized they did not want others to
take some of their animals; the trick was to count them each day (using a stone to represent each animal) and
compare the daily results, now called Integers or whole/countable numbers. Traders extended these tricks to all
kinds of valuable objects, as the oldest records (clay tablets) confirm. The Greeks codified these Counting Rules
that are still taught to new generations thereafter. However, this is an empirical activity as the rules only apply
when applied to certain types of objects (discrete, stable, identifiable, sizable, etc.). Thus, the prototypical
rational ‘Law’ such as “one plus one equals two” is only valid sometimes, like with pebbles. In fact, the only
real property being ‘counted’ is the existence of each object involved. When the ‘short-cut’ of multiplication
was invented, then the mathematicians found that certain integers had a rare property of being a ‘prime’
number; but pragmatically most only need small numbers [see Big Numbers essay].
5.1.2.2 GEOMETRY
5.1.2.2.1 SHAPES
This is another activity that can be traced back to ancient civilizations that was adopted by the Classic Greeks.
Pythagoras is again credited with the invention of this prototypical ‘science’ – the relationships between simple
shapes, such as triangles, circles etc. idealized from human activity (originally drawn in smooth sand).

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This was the earliest example of rationality (deductive thinking) that was codified in to a coherent knowledge-
system as the second best-seller in history: Euclid’s ‘Elements’. Regrettably, this ‘logical’ science was built on
an intellectual sleight-of-hand: an implicit appeal to public intuition. Although Euclid claimed that he was
starting from ‘obvious’ verbal definitions, like a triangle is a three-sided figure (while appealing to our common
prior exposure to such figures) but given credibility through mechanical ‘constructions’ using human tools such
as ruler, compass, etc. Modern introductions to Geometry (e.g. by H. R. Jacobs) admit it and do not waste
much time on this but simply treat such geometric ideas as lines and points as “undefined terms”. These are the
foundational parts of the Geometry-Game that are supplemented by transformation rules whose variants imply
different geometries. The true benefit of these small graphical figures is that they can be grasped in a single
glance, as vision is our most powerful sense that can distinguish (and remember) many features spread across a
limited range of space. The next step is to assume some relationships between these objects, such as a line is
defined the shortest figure that can be constructed between two given points; this is codified as Rule
(‘Postulate’) #1: “there is only one line between any two points”. Surprisingly, Jacobs only introduces the
‘circle’ in chapter 12, after nearly 500 pages clearly exploring straight-line figures (mainly triangles). Even this
powerful new idea has its limitations (well-known to the Greek experts), when its slightly distorted cousin – the
ellipse still resists many of the simple results quickly discovered with the circle; so much so that it is only being
studied today by future geometry students but shown by Newton to describe planetary trajectories.
5.1.2.2.2 IRRATIONALS
Ironically, there was a deadly worm in this impressive ‘fruit’. One of Pythagoras’s early cult followers showed
that his Master’s theorem could be used to prove that there were many examples of theoretical right-angled
triangles where the length of the hypotenuse could not be made equal to the ratio of two integers (a ‘number’
called a ‘rational fraction’). This initial realization was first kept a secret but it was sufficient to break up this
new religious sect but it failed to deter Plato from his geometric mania. None the less, it has remained a
stumbling block, even for modern science, where there are no natural units for the real measurements of length
(space), time (matter) or mass (existence) – all arbitrary. Pythagoras’s dangerous flaw was sufficient to keep
Geometry separated from Arithmetic for 2000 years until one of history’s most creative mathematicians, René
Descartes [§4.2.2.1] realized his mentor’s new idea of decimal fractions could be extended to an infinite
number of digits to both represent rational fractions and to build a ‘bridge’ from Algebra (generalized
arithmetic) to spatial Geometry. With a superb touch of salesmanship, Descartes called his new representation:
‘Real Numbers’ and the Number concept was freed from its roots in empirical arithmetic [see my essay “Not
Real, René”].
5.1.2.2.3 HIJACKING SCIENCE
The history of mathematics (and our modern approach to learning this subject) shows that this body of theory
(whether geometry or arithmetic) is a system of knowledge that is best understood cumulatively where newer
concepts were invented from earlier ones. Failure with prior steps (through poor teaching) will negatively
impact further progress. In fact, there have only been four mathematical Giants in the history of mathematics
that have made significant innovations; they are (along with their birth year): Archimedes [c. 212 BC], Newton
[1643], Euler [1707] and Gauss [1777]. Although there is no explicit conspiracy, it cannot be denied that
mathematicians have been successful in positioning their skill set at the forefront of western civilization, with
their profession proudly boasting that this is still “the Queen of the Sciences.” They imply priority over their
close cousins in theoretical physics and have infested many academic disciplines, like Economics, while
achieving their greatest cultural success in convincing that an area of study can only be viewed as “scientific” if
it incorporates mathematics. Science is a very competitive (even cut-throat) activity: researchers need to
publish regularly to keep their careers alive, even to the point where even tenured professors have committed
scientific fraud. As I know, most of these men are competitive, most driven, even avaricious and aggressive.

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5.2 BIOLOGY
Biology is the study of life forms (or living systems). Microscopes can show that all these are known to be
based on cells; unfortunately, life processes - including our vital immune systems have shown that we are
continuously facing threats that are even smaller: single-celled bacteria, fungi and parasites. People, like
Pasteur, pioneered vaccines against some of these pathogens and could never prove the existence of bacteria.
The latest high-technology (electron microscopes) can now examine solid, fixed objects and sometimes can take
micro-photographs; so the existence of bacteria has been confirmed visually [and "seeing is believing" - right?]
so 'Germ Theory' is universally accepted. Viruses are often the same size as molecules so these are even more
difficult to prove that they physically exist; viruses are a thousand times smaller and cannot be electron-
photographed even using high-energy electrons. Their presence is implied by the diseases they cause but are
very difficult to identify when several similar ones can produce the same disease symptoms. Antibodies are
even smaller, so the challenge is to prove that a certain antibody derives uniquely from specific viruses; a
necessary step in making a vaccine [see Immunity §5.2.4]. Biology, in the Middle Ages and later, was viewed
using the traditional thinking of ancient philosophy; in terms of Objects (Anatomy), Physical Activity
(Physiology) and finally the system's central control and knowledge (Neurology).
5.2.1 ANATOMY
When the religious prohibitions were bypassed, smart investigators started studying the inner structure of (dead)
bodies and quickly identified the major organs, such as heart, lungs, etc. - even though their functions and inter-
connections were not initially realized [see Organs essay]. The analytic method was usually followed to view
larger components in terms of their smaller parts; ultimately, down to the level of single cells.
5.2.2 PHYSIOLOGY
My Organs essay illustrates the value of adopting a systemic approach to studying living systems. This shows
that sub-systems may be viewed from an overall perspective (global), where useful activity benefits the whole
organism, like homeostatic temperature control. At a more detailed level, critical organs play a vital part in
keeping the organism alive, such as the blood circulation system that brings vital oxygen and other nutrients to
every cell in the body but also removes unwanted waste (like carbon dioxide) away for eventual expulsion.
5.2.3 NEUROLOGY
Each living entity must also react to certain changes in its external environment. This needs a continuous and an
ongoing exchange of information to the central control system, that must make vital (global) decisions on behalf
of the whole organism. This involves complex, two-way linkages throughout the body using electro-chemical
signaling over the nervous system to the principal processing organ of the brain. This is vastly more complex
than the largest, smartest computer ever built, as can be seen by the sophistication of single ant with its tiny
brain. The most important feature in all information systems is the MEMORY system that must be able to recall
earlier situations, to be compared with current ones, to avoid dangerous repetitions. This is so important that it
deserved a whole essay on this topic itself. We will simply repeat here that in terms of verbal activity there is a
huge and important difference at the individual level between personal memory of earlier experiences (known
as biographical memory) and shared, cultural information stored as declarative memory. For the purposes of
this essay, it is sufficient to point out that for too many people, these memories get entangled.
5.2.4 IMMUNITY
Since organisms are open systems, whose ongoing existence is not guaranteed, there is always the possibility of
external threats to each example (or entity). There is thus an existential need to defend against these threats
(or diseases); this is the vital role of the immune system. In order to function correctly, an entity’s immune
system must detect a wide variety of threat-agents, called pathogens; these may take many forms from viruses,
through bacteria to parasitic organisms, such as worms; ultimately, these are all not like us ('non-self').

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In many cases, physical barriers prevent some pathogens (like viruses and bacteria) from entering the organism
but if these barriers are breached then the innate immune system provides an immediate (but non-specific)
response. A central feature of the immune system is to recognize foreign organisms, i.e. to know that they are
non-self or not part of the principal entity. In going to every cell, blood plays a key role in the organism’s
defense system. Many non-self molecules are antibody generators (antigens), which bind to specific immune
receptors and generate an immune response. Advanced life forms, such as vertebrates, have also evolved
adaptive immune systems, which can remember defeating previous examples of pathogens (using ‘signature’
antigens) so they respond even faster to repeated threats. These two immune systems in humans are described in
detail in the two essays (Biowars 1&2).
5.2.4.1 BACTERIA
Historically, humanity has been devastated more frequently and severely by bacteria - these have been the mass
killers until the invention of antibiotics, especially by community-spread infections. The worst killers have
been the plague, cholera, typhus and tuberculosis (TB) [their impact is described in the Infections essay].
5.2.4.2 VIRUSES
There has also been several diseases that we now know are caused by tiny biological packages called viruses.
Their impact has not been as deadly as the bacterial diseases but they can be dangerous and contagious. The
commonest viral threat has been smallpox caused by the Variola virus. A global eradication program has been
very successful so that by its world-wide eradication was certified in 1980 and routine vaccinations had ceased
in all countries by 1986. Polio was once a feared infection that has also been defeated by several vaccines [see
Polio essay]. There have been small outbreaks in Africa of a severe viral hemorrhagic infection of primates
caused by ebolaviruses, with six known species of Ebola named after the region where each was originally
identified. This virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids, like infected blood, saliva, tears, urine,
semen or breast milk; or via items recently contaminated with bodily fluids; a new vaccine seems effective
when used early enough.
5.3 MEDICINE
Medical doctors have been revered in most societies because they can sometimes fix broken bodies and defeat
infections. Sadly, these skills have too often been used to make money for the practitioners, so this became one
of the oldest professions in Europe, with knowledge being passed down through families. Like many
professions, doctors wished to maximize their incomes by licensing themselves; they have jealously resisted
intrusions from medical specialists, such as midwives, chiropractors, herbalists and healers coming from other
ancient cultures, such as China and India. In the 1920s, with the rise of the oil-based pharmaceutical
manufacturers, western medical education (for the General Practitioner) has degenerated to becoming the 'retail
division' of the drug companies, acting as the gate-keepers to the more powerful pharmaceutical products (like
antibiotics) that are sold at the pharmacies. Since infections are now rare in modernized countries, most doctors
have little or no personal experience with them: either in diagnosis or treatment; it is now mainly book
knowledge. Governments have also been co-opted to enforce medical monopolies to the point where valuable
health supplements cannot make scientific claims for their products because of the high costs of medical testing
that the pharmaceutical companies can afford with their multi-billion profits. Authorities have also passed
draconian laws to force behaviors on the public in the name of medicine; often offered by medical officials
with little first-hand knowledge and almost never referring to scientific research to justify their advice.
5.3.1 DISEASE
A disease is an organic object that enters a body that produces a major reduction in health, known as an
infection. So, an Infection is the presence in a human body of a dangerous pathogen, such as bacteria, viruses
or other parasites capable of self-multiplying their numbers (replication) either within a human or inside
another creature; here we exclude poisons, venoms and other toxic sources, like radiation, even when deadly
[see my Death essay].

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Physicians have documented objective combination of distinguishing sets of conditions that indicate the
presence of the disease in a person. Some signs are called 'pathognomic' because they indicate that a particular
disease is uniquely present, beyond any reasonable doubt. Many are observable to anyone (once pointed out,
like smallpox sores) but others require an instrument or special test. Some symptoms (like coughing and fever)
may be quite ambiguous, produced by many sources of disease, manifesting simply as pneumonia.
6.0 INTERACTIONS
It is more useful to agree with American psychologist, William James [1842-1910] and inventor, Buckminster
Fuller [1895-1983], who both viewed consciousness as more like a verb, in fact – an active process, not a static
noun. When our fundamental beliefs are grounded in the real world (Realism) with its self-activating,
experiencing subjects, then our focus becomes truly based on ‘events’ and ‘relationships’ and not on separate
objects or things; linguistically this again implies a focus on verbs and not the object/noun-concept focus of
western philosophy. Incidentally, this is a widespread problem in our language going back to the Old Greeks,
who took the easy road of analyzing nouns instead of verbs and relationships, made worse (even in Greek) by
the many variants possible with most verbs compared to the few standard forms applicable to nouns. Key to
this new vision is the foundational emphasis on the universal inter-relatedness of everything, where all ‘events’
are mutually co-creating. I interpret this as the necessity of interactions between anything and everything to
qualify for real existence.
6.1 RELATIONSHIPS and ACTIVITY
There is a need in western thinking to switch from simple objects (like stones) and static properties of separate
things (size) to focus on interactions between complex systems (like humans), especially those that really need
co-operation on behalf of the many and not the favored few. The pragmatic philosophy of Empiricism is based
on the minimal level of understanding between people; most people can agree on the physical existence of
things they can touch which are also visible under most conditions. These senses both rely on direct interaction
between parts of our body and other real things "out there". Only magicians and bizarre philosophers rely on
tricks to deceive the public. Indeed, normal people only go to see a doctor when they can directly feel sick: no
symptoms have never been interpreted as evidence of an "asymptomatic" disease that relies on special tests only
available to some technicians.
6.1.1 THE ELECTRON
Even physicists need an injection of Common-Sense; instead of spending millions on huge machines to detect
mysterious, ephemeral objects smaller than an atomic nucleus and then guess that they have detected bizarre
new 'fundamental' particles, like quarks or Higgs bosons, they need to return to the real world of electrons that
have proved their reality everyday at the hands of millions. Indeed, my own theory of ultimate reality only
relies on these well-known particles that only possess one simple property: they interact with each other. So,
they become a sufficient 'brick' to construct the world, up to and including everyday objects, like us.
7.0 MODERNITY
The First World War (1914-1918) 'birthed' the modern world in Europe and also 'killed' Religion that had been
in embarrassing rivalry with science since the 1860s, especially after Darwin's book on Natural Evolution. This
war accelerated the introduction of new technology, such as the automobile and electronics, with its widespread
usage of the radio that had a huge impact on mass communications and politics. The growing economic and
political problems, along with the further decline in religion led to a growing switch to science as providing the
ultimate explanations of the world, rather than religion. These trends were massively expanded by the Second
World War (1939-1945). Wartime research led to major advances in electronics, resulting in the replacement of
radio by television and the computer. The radical innovations in Solid State physics (my own speciality) led to
the Digital Technology Revolution that transformed society, especially in Social Media and emails.

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7.1 MASS SOCIETY

Mass societies only appeared once humans started living in big cities; these types of society have always been
ruled by a few powerful families that have tried to monopolize the benefits for themselves. They have always
been able to recruit a few violent men to threaten the many to accept the situation by conforming to the Rules
("Laws") of the Rulers. Just surviving has been a sufficient challenge for most people who took their guidance
from their neighbors until conditions became too desperate and rebellion broke out. Pressure from the many
eventually led to a political system, where the Rulers had to seek the approval of the majority (at least
periodically) through a small group of clever talkers (known as politicians): "Representative Democracy".
7.2 EDUCATION
In the West (until 1945), only a few sons of the successful were ever given formal education, after Plato
established his own school as a model for propagating formal knowledge of mathematics and grammar to a few.
7.2.1 BASIC (3Rs)
As machines took over the muscle work of millions, fewer people were needed to feed and service the
population, so more people could be hired as talkers to 'manage' the institutions of society. This finally required
that all children be instructed in the once-specialized skills of reading, writing and arithmetic (the 3R's);
education paid for out of general taxation. Bismarck (the first to implement this scheme) hoped it would make
his men better soldiers for his Prussian Army; the rapid defeat of the French in 1870 persuaded many nations to
follow his lead. Finally, females were also educated so they could read the advertisements for the myriad of
new products being mass-produced in the factories; eventually, they too could be persuaded to seek full-time
work out of the home, often for lower wages than the men; further reducing overall payroll costs. A minority
are still learning a trade as an apprentice with an earlier master of the trade but even here formal knowledge is
expected. None-the-less, as everyone becomes a specialist, there is a growing need to rely on experts for too
many activities in the world.
7.2.2 UNIVERSITY
As science has grown in significance in the modern world, we have seen an explosion in formal education
where young people need tertiary learning to gain employment. The many people (more than 50%) that go to
university (for financial reasons) have exhibited adequate memories and the ability to "toe-the-line" but the
technical (STEM) minority (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math) are trained in the latest technologies (that
will be obsolete in 15 years) and rarely in creative thinking, while the others will be trained to produce useless
reports and adequate talking so they can be hired as Junior Executives in corporate and government
bureaucracies, where they will fill their days unproductively in useless meetings and processing meaningless
reports. They are the mass troops of the modern Technocracy [§7.5] that is attempting to take over the world.
7.2.1.1 MEDICAL SCIENCE (drugs)
Since patents expire on patent-protected drugs that are the most profitable when shielded from competitors,
there is an ongoing need to keep inventing new drugs, even when an old one works. When an independent
researcher examined 107 published studies where comparisons were made against traditional therapies he found
that in all cases, the new drug was always found superior to the old. Similarly, another retro-study found that
98% of studies funded by a drug's maker reached favorable safety and efficacy conclusions when compared to
76% of studies funded by independent sources. No matter, PR firms are hired to write articles promoting new
drugs: these are then published under real doctors names for better authenticity.
7.3 EXPERTS
In the present world, the following definition seems to apply to those we call an expert: "Someone whom the
mass media might quote as a credible authority on some topic." We have to assume that the media are experts
at identifying experts; since much of their audience is subject to Confirmation Bias in the Expert's topic.

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Since the public were manipulated successfully in the World War I by newspapers and media events, these
skills were first pioneered by clever men like Edward Bernays and described in his infamous book
"Propaganda" (1928) that was adopted wholesale by Hitler's genius of misinformation, Joseph Goebbels. So
much so, that Bernays had to rename his technique (and his book) 'Public Relations' (PR). Corporations (and
their richest owners) are so convinced of the power of Third-Party experts to influence the public they have
established and funded non-profit organizations called Think-Tanks (or 'policy institutes') that perform research
and advocacy: concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military aims, technology
and culture. They are usually located in a nation's capital city and usually hire intellectuals from universities,
the military, large corporations and even government itself. TV 'News' channels desperately depend on them.
The latest group to have surfaced on TV call themselves "Infectious Disease Specialists", since there are almost
no deadly infectious viral diseases in advanced countries, one has to wonder where they got their expertise?
7.4 COMMUNICATIONS
The news media is a natural target for the PR industry's third-party technique, both because of its ability to
reach millions of people and because the public expects journalists to serve as neutral filters of the truth. The
PR experts, often prior journalists themselves, know that most reporters are spread too thin to engage in time-
consuming investigative journalism, thereby eagerly accepting information from corporate- and government-
sourced news releases. It is now even worse with TV news: "most of what you see on TV news is a canned PR
product" (called video news releases or VNRs), confessed a senior vice president of a leading PR firm. VNRs
are entire news stories, written, filmed, produced by PR firms and transmitted to thousands of TV stations
around the world. They are used very heavily by the pharmaceutical and food industries, providing a steady
stream of stories touting new medical breakthroughs and previously unknown health benefits for products often
shown to be narrated by well-coached doctors: almost never do these stories admit the PR origins or the
corporations funding these releases. Academic experts are always being interviewed without any effort to
determine if they receive any corporate funding. Are their opinions truly representative of their profession or
academic colleagues. As one former journalist, publisher and media watchdog confessed: "When it comes to
arrogance, power and lack of accountability, journalists are probably the only group to make lawyers look
good." Journalists have an ongoing career pressure to traffic in provocative, claims so as to maximize eyeballs.
7.4.1 TELEVISION
One consequence is that mass media becomes the source of most of the assumptions we live with, on a day-to-
day basis. It is no surprise that those selling a product or seeking our support (corporations and politicians) turn
to this advertising / public-relations drenched medium that exploits the human bias to the visual sense.
Advertisers recognize the power of TV to influence viewers; they spend millions trying to get customers to buy
their products. Since vision is our primary sense, most people will believe much of what they first see on TV:
so when we saw the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on 9/11, then most accepted it as a fact, rather than
possibly computer generated imagery (CGI) that is used so effectively in the movies. Politicians also recognize
the power of TV and now spend most of their political advertising dollars on this medium. Some American TV
channels (targeted at older viewers) appear to have a large number of advertisements about new drugs, designed
for serious medical conditions; either many Americans are truly unhealthy or they are a nation of
hypochondriacs (I suspect both).
7.5 TECHNOCRACY
7.5.1 ADDICTION
The western world's love affaire with technology has created its own Frankenstein Monster: digital technology.
We now know how to mass manufacture devices built around dirt-cheap digital semiconductors, like cell
phones; worse, we can create new software ("Apps") that can generate billions on the cheap Web infrastructure.
These devices and their productions induce the same levels of neural addiction as opioid drugs in many people.

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Very many adults have been reduced to the level of children as they spend much of their time hypnotized by
their electronic games and video phones. The marketers of these devices have hired expert psychologists to
improve the addictive features of their services to deliver more 'eye-balls' to their rich advertisers.
7.5.2 MANIPULATION
Social scientists have also been recruited by both commercial and political interests to manipulate large
numbers of the general public. Television has played a key role in getting beliefs inserted into the heads of
many, whether educated or not: first suggestions stick. They realize that when a significant fraction of a
population agree on a belief then it becomes self-expanding using the power of group-psychology.
7.5.3 TECHNOCRATS
A new political movement arose in the United States in the 1930s that has exploded recently and now threatens
political democracy. This is the capture of society by self-identified Experts who believe in the ideology of
technology; important segments of today's expanding bureaucracy are now run by technologists. They make
political decrees based on unsubstantiated claims as being based on science and the bogus science of
economics: appealing to claimed "efficiencies" and "the public good". This ideology has been cultivated with
implicit appeals to the beneficiaries of 'higher' education; offering promotions and higher salaries to those
adherents to their views. These dangerous individuals, who believe in authoritarian techniques, now occupy
many of the senior posts in government, large corporations, universities and the mass media. They view society
as simple systems that can be 'optimized' with direct engineering-type decisions. A few very wealthy
businessmen, members of the World Economic Forum (meeting annually in Davos, Switzerland) have allied
themselves with this movement to preserve their own capital and privileges.
8.0 COLLAPSE
The Covid-19 epidemic ['Covid'] has swept most countries around the world in 2020 since the first outbreak
appeared in Wuhan, China in December, 2019. It is widely believed by medical experts to be a variant of the
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (designated as SARS-CoV-2). This was redefined as a 'global
pandemic' in March by the World Health Organization (WHO). The coronaviruses are a group of related RNA
viruses that produce diseases in a few mammals and birds. Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia (either direct
viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia) and bronchitis. It is thought there may exist seven distinct
strains of human coronaviruses, with Covid being one of them. In 2003, there was an outbreak of SARS that
infected 8,000 people with about 800 deaths. Common symptoms of Covid include fever, fatigue, shortness of
breath (dyspnea); complications sometimes extend to pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
(ARDS or extreme dyspnea).
8.1 COVID-19
The world is now believed to be facing the latest "epidemic" of a respiratory disease that is accelerating the
death of old people (and a handful of younger ones) who all have compromised immune systems and often
other medical conditions (co-morbidities) forcing them to go to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in hospitals, where
they can get help with breathing (oxygen and intubation/ventilators). The widespread fear of the supposed
source of this threat - the Corona-19 virus - is driving many into the ICUs (in panic) that is overloading a system
that has been massively under-resourced (and under-funded) for many years. This situation is made worse by
the modern practice of packaging seniors into so-called "Care" Homes, where they maximize their exposure to
other sick people: an approach guaranteed to increase infections [see my Infections essay]. With the immune
system, humans are facing a level of biological complexity which we have almost no prior experience. As
described above [§5.2.4.2], it is very difficult to do research on viruses; in fact, most research is conducted in
top-secret, ultra-secure bioweapons laboratories by several nations around the world. None-the-less, many
governments are being given medical advice about this viral threat by Public Health Experts, who often have
very limited experience with viral epidemics.

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Meanwhile, epidemiologists frighten everyone with their medical mathematical models, not based on reality or
experience, that can produce the wildest swings in "predictive" deaths; these models cannot be audited or
examined by outsiders, but governments are making major social policy decisions based on their imaginary
numbers. No one ever comments on the huge failures in prediction of these masters of mathematical fantasy.
8.2 COVID-DISCOVERY
There is an urgent scientific need to prove the existence of the covid-19 virus. I searched the Internet for this
discovery in vain and have even issued a public challenge on Research-Gate (the 'Facebook' for scientists) but
received no definitive response. Surprisingly, I only got one positive result by an RG biochemist who offered
links to two papers on its genetic structure. I was a astonished to see that these were investigations into SARS-
cov-2. It seems that the Experts have decided not to refer to this earlier respiratory threat (SARS), that emerged
in 2002 and was defeated by 2004, by its original name. Either there really is a difference in the genome (How?
Who?) or they felt a New Threat would be more fearful but there is no public discussion of this link. A Wiki
search on "Who discovered Covid-19?" only comes up with a link to a paper by June Almeida, a self-educated
virologist, who became an innovative electron-microscopist. She authored a paper in 1967 with A. J. Tyrell in
volume I of the General Journal of Virology [p.175] that showed the course structure of the first Corona virus
(the Common Cold); noting its similarity to the flu virus and that of Avian Bronchitis. Why this technique has
NOT been used since to show the structure of Covid-19 seems a mystery. TV continues to show CGI graphics
of an imaginary Covid virus. Worse, there appears to have been NO confirmation of the discovery of Covid-19
in any refereed Science Journal, only press releases about a Chinese doctor in Wuhan reporting a "new" disease
to her government (how did she know it was new disease - no details given). This suggests that if this ever
happened, then it was in a government Top-Secret Weapons laboratory that is under strict National Security
guidelines. None-the-less, NO reputable research-virologists have ever come forth pointing out this serious
omission: very suspicious.
8.3 COVID-TESTS
Much of the widespread panic was engendered by the very poor testing of this little known virus. The initial
tests of any DNA/RNA were based on the PCR method that multiplies the results based on the arbitrary number
of replications used; even the Nobel-Prize discoverer of this test advised strongly against it being used as a viral
identifier after the CDC's bogus claim of identifying HIV as the cause of the AIDS syndrome. Worse, there were
no 'Double-Blind' independent evaluations ever made on these hastily produced test-kits from many new
companies that were jumping on this very, profitable opportunity. Unfortunately, the media were reporting on
the results every day, as if this were an international competition. The "positive" cases, at best, perhaps
indicated that a person may have been exposed to some (unknown) virus earlier in their lives, so still had active
antibodies in their blood. It was never shown scientifically that these 'possibilities' could actually produce
serious infections in healthy people. Still, the 'Case-Numbers' climbed into the hundreds of thousands with
unknown numbers of 'False Positives'.
8.4 COVID-PRECAUTIONS
Many medical officials (including the WHO and CDC) have panicked over Covid; they have reacted through
ignorance, as if it were Ebola or Plague that could spread rapidly and kill thousands (encouraged by
inappropriate and silly mathematical epidemic models). Without any scientific evidence of how Covid spreads
between humans, some self-styled "experts" have pushed for social gimmicks such as masks and social
distancing that have destroyed human sociability while being readily adopted by the ignorant TV Media and
general public, as if these were the latest seasonal fashions. Much worse, never, in human history have total
populations been made to stop work; there have been only a few instances when some people voluntarily
withdrew from others but not by government decree, reinforced by harsh legal penalties and public shaming.

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What is astonishing is how readily so many people put themselves under "House-Arrest" without massive
public protests of this Draconian decree. In Canada, public officials have decided that many jobs and services
are "non-essential" and made to close down, while ignoring the fact that 85% of workers are employed in small
companies with less than 20 employees. Meanwhile, the largest corporations continue in full production and
mass-selling directly to the public over the Web, devouring the GNP lost by the small businesses.
8.5 COVID: OVER-REACTION
As the weeks went by, it became obvious that the vast majority of victims of this situation were older people,
who were often over 80 years old and some in their 90s. Many of them had been heavy smokers and also were
suffering from other diseases, prior to hospital admissions; medically their deaths are called 'co-morbidities'.
The medical experts knew that such people have a very large reduction in the capacity of their personal immune
system to keep them healthy - this is why they are the largest demographic users of hospitals in normal times
and especially in the annual influenza outbreaks. All this was worsened, by the modern custom of moving
older parents away from their families and concentrating them in so-called 'Care' Homes, often in communal
sleeping and eating arrangements: a guarantee of shared pathogens. Only a few people under 70 died after
going into the Covid-ICUs and were instantly 'labeled' as Covid-Deaths, without any scientific autopsies.
Stories circulated that some hospitals were writing 'Covid' as the Cause-of-Death on all death certificates during
this time. In other words, the statistics being used to make decisions during this panic were deeply unreliable
and suspect. Suspiciously, health authorities have not shown any dramatic increases in total deaths from all
causes during this time, suggesting that many so-called "Covid-deaths" are misdiagnoses. Thus, we must limit
this infection to one where the victim must seek hospital care, without which they will die. Only deaths are
objective facts but Cause-of-Death (CoD) cannot be trusted, as no autopsies are being done; only the non-
laboratory opinion of the final attending physician is needed and it seems some hospitals are insisting that any
patient, who dies in their ICU after being a "positive case" must be classified as a Covid-death. Most corona
deaths are found in old people (often from Care Homes); the difficulty here is that many are near death anyway
and as NO autopsies are being conducted when they die in hospital then it becomes almost impossible to
distinguish a death FROM (or WITH) Corona. Astonishingly, modern states do not allow 'Old-Age' as a valid
CoD.
9.0 CONCLUSIONS
9.1 HUMAN SCALE
With the rise of science in the 20th century, the focus of the technical experts has moved away from the human
scale to both the very large (the Cosmos) and the ultra-small (atoms and smaller). Both of these regions are not
accessible to normal human senses, so the general public must rely on experts to inform them about these super-
specialized scales of reality. This is particularly true of medicine: where disease has been claimed to arise from
objects, like viruses, that are vastly smaller than the bacteria we have mainly defeated as disease sources. This
scale of reality is extremely difficult to investigate, requiring expensive equipment and laboratories to confirm
replicable, scientific findings; especially when they are believed to be very dangerous and can be weaponized.
9.1.1 PRAGMATISM
When viewing any disease threat to mankind, the ultimate measure is how deadly is the threat: this is best
judged by the fraction of victims who die when infected by the disease. Deaths are also objective and difficult
to cover up, so Death Statistics should be one of the easiest measures to determine. Now, people are dying all
the time from a wide variety of threats, not least Old Age. So, when an epidemic has broken out then one of the
easiest measures of lethality is to observe "Excess Deaths" (how many extra people are dying from the disease
outbreak?). One of the unexplained mysteries with the Covid panic is how little change in Excess Deaths are
being recorded, while numbers of so-called 'infections' are "sky-rocketing" (based on 'positive' testing). Our
medical experts have failed to provide adequate explanations of this phenomenon to the general public.

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9.2 CHALLENGING AUTHORITY

Most humans live in cultures where conforming to authority is expected; as adults all of us have spent at least
10 years having our heads filled with information from approved authority figures (teachers); some of us
showed a superior aptitude for remembering (and repeating back) this information, so we carried on for another
5 or even 10 more years of public education (that I now regard as advanced social brain-washing). The focus
was on how emotions were being manipulated; unsurprisingly, they emphasized the deepest emotion - Fear -
which is the easiest way to get people to overcome their moral inhibitions. Hitler's most sinister minister,
Joseph Goebbels perfected the "Big Lie" (the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it). It has also been
discovered that people are less outraged over risks that they voluntary assume than over risks that are imposed
on them against their will: a technique we might call the "Coercion Effect". The News Media have been at the
heart of this crisis: one would think we were facing a real war. News channels are filled with stories about
Covid, experts (usually wearing their stethoscopes) are being asked for their opinions (without viewers being
told why or offered evidence). Like real wars, media make lots of money when the public obsess on a single
issue and now that professional sports are banned, there is a lot of air time to fill, with forgettable numbers.
9.2.1 LANGUAGE
There is one obvious commonality of today's experts: they are all accomplished Talkers; able to speak up on
their self-defined areas of expertise. We have become a Civilization of Chatterboxes: when not watching TV -
with its continuous 'News' channels, we retreat to our 'Smart' phones to read more opinions. The world is far
more complicated than most are prepared to admit; they want simple answers, without years of study:
convenience is the modern value (disguising the widespread laziness that seems present in so many). If the
world were simple, we would all have mastered it by the time we leave school or, at least, university. This
should give us a Red Flag: if the advice seems too simple, then it probably is; so all need to keep searching.
9.2.2 THE ELECTRON & EMPIRICISM
If our culture is to maintain its obsessions with analysis and science, then we must ground reality in the
existence of the electron. This is a hypothesized tiny object that runs our civilization (so to deny its existence,
would be contradictory) while it is the ultimate 'smallest' thing - other candidates, like quarks and strings etc.
that have been hypothesized by mathematical physicists have only 'appeared' rarely in hugely expensive
experiments that are still controversial [see Invisible Particles]. Dynamic collections of stable electrons can
readily be imagined to come together to build all the matter we can perceive in the universe, including our own
sense organs, resulting in a minimal level of wide-spread existence agreement on material reality.
9.2.3 ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION
In fear of their under-funded health systems being 'swamped', many technocratic politicians have used so-called
medical advice as a universal excuse for radical political action. They have imposed unproven restrictions on
populations such as closing most small businesses (that employ the majority of the working people), confining
people to their homes (in effect, House-Arrest) all in the name of a universal quarantine that would only be
justified in terms of a deadly disease like the Plague, instead of a Corona virus that only causes bad colds.
9.3 WHO BENEFITS?
Since the negative impacts to this exaggerated "disease" are so over-whelming, it must be viewed as verging on
the criminal. As such, it is appropriate to ask the embarrassing (detective) question: Who Benefits?

Little thought has been given to restoring the blocked economies that have usually taken many years to grow all
over the world. I accuse the technocrats who have hijacked most nations. Most of these people have gotten a
university education and believe they are the world's suitable elites: they have certificates to prove it and high
salaries to cushion them from the ravages of threats to personal survival. Almost never have these talkers built a
real business from the ground up; they are detached completely from economics and the real world.

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9.3.1 OVER-POPULATION
Many of the elite have been convinced that most of the problems facing the earth today can be traced to too
many people - especially poor people, who keep having too many children, in distant parts of the planet like
Africa, Asia and South America. If the economies in these regions are destroyed by the reduction in economic
activity and tourism from the rich countries then their populations must shrink from the oldest scourge of
mankind: starvation. Meanwhile, the Ultra-Rich can continue to grow their capital from a global reduction in
payroll costs, computerization and drop in the price of needed commodities.
9.4 EXPECTATIONS
The long-term trends of modernity have been hijacked by the technocrats and the meritocracy; when combined
with the economic power of the billionaire plutocrats they make a formidable, political force across the world.
As such, I expect them to be victorious and push Global Capitalism to the brink of widespread catastrophe. In
spite of the naive hopes of the many, I do not expect any return to the world of 2018; so-called 'normalcy'.
9.5 EPILOGUE
Sadly, the credulity of vast numbers of people exposed here mean that the world has taken a dangerous turn for
the worse. As an animal species, we have prioritized speech over the direct sensory messages that all animals
must respect to stay alive. The near universal fear of death messages, stoked by the TV media, repeating the
falsehoods of the self-serving medical profession, have persuaded most people to comply with the empty
"Health-Measures" (like masks and social-distancing) that reinforce the belief in a need to destroy the economy
while awaiting the false hopes of a salvation vaccine promised by the deceitful pharmaceutical companies.

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