3. Fractal time and the I Ching
- 10,000 years ago
humans began domesticating plants and animals.
- 500
years ago we invented the printing press.
- 100
years ago we began driving automobiles.
- 50 years
ago we invented the computer.
- 30 years ago we landed
on the moon.
The speed of change is rapid.
Population, computing power, speed of transport, the sheer amount of known information,
and most other things that involve humans, are all increasing at an accelerating
rate. The rate at which they are increasing is increasing. We are
all part of it, with younger people thinking nothing of it, and the elderly commenting
on it, but generally handling it okay. But if we were to transport King Arthur
to modern-day New York he'd most probably pass out from trying to grasp what was
happening. But can it stop, slow down or reverse. No, for that is not in our
nature.
Things will keep changing at a faster
rate. Every 18 months the power of computers double. Soon they will be smarter
than us, and we are already on the verge of cloning humans and close to using
nanotechnology to create atomic size mini-machines. Maybe there will come a time
when the rate of change will reach such a speed that change is all that will exist.
Various fringe scientists have tried to calculate this point of infinity, giving
us calculated dates ranging from 2010 to 2050. Dates that many of us will live
to see. Perhaps the date is Dec 22, 2012. Ethnobotanists and fractal time experts
Terrence and Dennis McKenna believe so, and they present their ideas in Invisible
Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens and the I Ching (1993).
This
is just a small portion of my online book, Survive 2012 - a look into possible
ways our world might end, and how to survive. Available in bookstores sometime
before 2012, fingers-crossed... |
Their
studies began with the I Ching, which is composed of 64 hexagrams, or six-line
figures. It struck them that 6 x 64 = 384, which is exceptionally close to the
number of days in 13 lunar months (29.5306 x 13 = 383.8978), and that maybe the
I Ching was originally an ancient Chinese calendar. Further multiples had astronomical
significance:
1 day x 64 |
x 6 | =
384 days | = 13 lunar
months |
384
days | x 64 |
= 67 years, 104.25 days |
= 6 minor sunspot cycles (11.2 years each) |
67 years, 104.25 days |
x 64 | =
4306+ years | = 2
Zodiacal ages |
4306+
years | x 6 |
= 25836 years | =
1 precession of the equinoxes |
The
McKenna brothers arrived at the 2012 end date by using fractals. Starting from
a table of differences between one hexagram and the next, they developed a Mandelbrot
fractal in which each level is 64 times greater then the one below it. They then
laid this fractal pattern on top of a time scale. The peaks and troughs of the
pattern relate to the level of connectedness or novelty in any span of time, whether
it covers a day, millennia or even since the beginning of time. By matching the
levels of the pattern with key periods in history, they determined it would fit
best if the end of the time scale was December 22, 2012. This is the only point
in which the level of novelty reaches its maximum, and everything that happens
is new. Change feeds upon itself like nano-machines converting every atom in
the universe into gold.
The final 80 or so pages
of their Invisible Landscape (1993) describe the complicated mathematics
and methodology they employed. A base period of roughly 67 years was discovered
(all calculations are rough, but not inaccurate).
2012
minus 67 years = 1945, a year of great change
2012
minus 4,300 years (67x64) = 2300 BC, the beginning of historical time
2012
minus 275,000 years (4300 x 64) = the emergence of Homo sapiens
2012
minus 18 million years (275,000 x 64) = the height of the age of mammals
2012
minus 1.3 billion years = the beginning of life on our planet
About
what may happen in 2012 they have this to say:
"Achievement
of the zero state can be imagined to arrive in one of two forms. One is the dissolution
of the cosmos in an actual cessation and unravelling of the natural laws, a literal
apocalypse. The other possibility. the culmination of a human process, a process
of toolmaking, which comes to completion in the perfect artefact: the monadic
self, exteriorised, condensed, and visible in three dimensions; in alchemical
terms, the dream of a union of spirit and matter"[i]
On
top of all this they state that they calculated the 2012 end date in the early
1970's, long before they had heard of the Mayan calendar. And to their
credit, the original 1975 edition of The Invisible Landscape makes
no mention of the Maya. If this is true, then it would be prudent to consider
their result as much more than a coincidence, and to take their ideas seriously.
Also
fitting the model of increasing novelty and the 2012 end date is the idea that
on a sub-conscious level humans can sense a great change approaching. Unsure of
what exactly to expect, but nevertheless feeling uneasy, we are doing the best
we can to "get everything done" while we still have time. A last minute desperate
attempt to achieve the peak of our potential. And if we are able to somehow sense
a disturbance ahead, maybe birds and animals will pick up on it as well. Maybe
in December 2012 the non-human species will suddenly hush, as they have demonstrated
prior to earthquakes.
Discuss Survive
2012 at our forumGive the author your thoughts, and discuss any 2012
ideas with others, at 2012 Forum |
Comments from Visitors
john: I think something big will happen between 2006-2012, but what will happen after? will man live on? (12.04.2004, 21:22)
Brian McDonald: Well go to this website for some of your answers although they may not be completely true =/
-
- http://exodus2006.com/3code.htm (13.04.2004, 14:03)
Nate: It is pseudoscience such as this that gives all of us real scientists a bad repoire among the average public. Give me facts and statistics based upon real data, not this sensationalist conjecturing.
-
- [Nate - consider the consequences, if we only ever listen to "real" scientists, and it was a psuedo-scientist like myself that was right? - Rob] (19.04.2004, 14:47)
3 of 23 comments (part 2) [
«
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better, visit 2012 Forum
Script by Alex
|
[i] Dennis J. McKenna and Terence K. McKenna,
Invisible Landscape (1993), Harper Collins, p.188
[ii] John Major Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenisis
2012 (1998), Bear & Co, page 7
Note
on Precession of the Equinoxes
The Earth spins
on an axis, with the northern end at the North Pole. The spinning action is like
that of a top; and like a top the Earth wobbles as it spins - but very slowly,
with one wobble taking approximately 25,800 years. This causes the location in
space that the North Pole points at to gradually change. At present it points
to Polaris, the North Star. In 12,000 years time it will be pointing close to
Vega. As the pole star changes, so does the position in the sky of all the other
stars, relative to our wobbly spinning Earth. Astroarcheaologists mention the
precession of the equinoxes a lot, for it explains how ancient stone circles and
pyramids have lost their former accuracy in pinpointing astronomical events.
It can also help determine precisely when these monuments were built.
The
ancient Olmec (who predated the Maya) were very aware of this slow precession,
and periodically re-aligned the pyramid at La Venta so that it could maintain
its accuracy.[ii]
Note
on Fractals Fractal geometry is often called "the
geometry of nature." A fractal is geometric shape that is complex and detailed
in structure at any level of magnification. Often fractals are self-similar-
each small portion of the fractal can be viewed as a reduced-scale replica of
the whole. Building fractals relies on a repeated formula. Below is one example
of how a fractal "grows". And beside it is an example from nature - the leaves
of the fern are the same shape as the branch, which itself is the same shape as
the entire fern. In nature the depth of detail is limited; in mathematics the
depth is infinite.
Note
on Nanotechnology
A nanometer is one billionth
of a meter (3 - 4 atoms wide). Nanotechnology is the creation of minute objects,
with the ultimate goal of using individual atoms as building blocks. Some engineers
dream of creating self-replicating nano-bots - tiny devices that create replicas
of themselves by manipulating atoms. A much quoted worry is that someone will
create self-replicating nanobots that refuse to stop - overnight the universe
could contain nanobots and nothing else!