The Hidden Mysteries

Dalhousie Lodge : November 2, 2010

Since Man first looked at a block of stone and wondered what he could do with it, Masons have pondered the nature of matter

They have done so as physicists, chemists, architects and philosophers.

By a variety of inquiries, experiments, accidents, we have discovered truths about matter and its properties. We have also created tools, which allow these properties to be utilized and exploited.  Chief among them are squares, levels, plumb rules, gavels, rulers and chisels.  We have moralized on these as Freemasons and established a code of conduct, extrapolating from their uses some important rules for human happiness.

Thus “Strength, grounded on accuracy, aided by labour and promoted by perseverance, will finally overcome all difficulties, raise ignorance from despair, and establish happiness in the paths of science.”

But what if we looked at more than just blocks of stone and how we could use it to construct a pillar, a column, an archway, and a cathedral? We have discovered that a square is an angle of 90 degrees or the fourth part of a circle (without which discovery we could never have built anything that didn’t fall down)

The laws of nature, the hidden mysteries of nature and science, were not laws made by men , by kings, dictators, parliaments, senates or any other legislative body.  Their properties were decied by a much higher power, by a great architect in fact. 

So, if you ask me what I know, I will say, that which can be proven. If you ask me what I believe believe , I will say “I believe  that a square is an angle of 90 degrees or the fourth part of a circle”

Now we can consider subatomic particles, Einstein’s theory, the Higgs boson and nanotechnology as the building blocks of our present and future civilization

Do the working tools of a 21^st Century mason include the computer chip and the linear accelerator?

If we answer no to this question we are stuck in the past. We appreciate Masonry for what it has taught and is teaching us , thank you very much, but we are content with that. If we create a perfect ashlar let’s not bother creating extended consciousness or indefinitely extended lifespans.

But if you say yes, (and I do) where does that lead us??

To discuss this , and I will, we must consider on of the most important truths of Mathematics, . The difference between arithmetical or linear projegression and incrememtal, or geometric progression.

An arithmetical progression in 30 steps starting with 1 gets us to 30.

A geometric progression starting with 1 gets us to half a billion

If we examine the rate of technological change over the past 200 years we can see a smooth progression unaffected by the events of human history.  Similarly a molecule of any gas behaves in a totally random, stochastic manner. A billion molecules together however acts in a totally predictable way  . In accordance with the laws of thermodynamics

SO. An information based technology will increase in a geometric fashion. And it does.

Thus the price of a transistor

The size of a computer chip

The number of transistors you can bu for a dollar

The power/ capacity or physical size of a computer.

Where will this end??

Well, it won’t end

But, there is appoint, in the not too distant future that has been described as a singularity. An EVENT HORIZON.  A point beyond which it is impossible for us to see.

In Astro-physics a black hole is such a singularity. An object so dense that nothing can escape it and no thing can be seen beyond it as it attracts and retains anything which may otherwise come past it into our experience.

Consider nanotechnology, Robotics and artificial intelligence. Start with nanotechnology and our ability to change biological infrastructure. If we can create machines capapble of carrying out instructions and making these machines as small as a a blood cell we will be able to inject them into the human body with instructions

to seek out and destroy cancer cells

to create immunity to the process which inititates malignant change

or to that which creates diabetes

atheroscerosis

obesity

aging

Then we will have powerful ways of extending human lifespan indefinitely.

It is estimated that WITHINN 15 TO 20 YEARS, we will be advancing the average human life expectancy by more than 12 months every year!

This is prior to an event horizon

The next change will be an ability to augment the computing capacity of the human brain.

We are in fact already doing this

Consider the search engine

The iPhone

The iPad

In 1966 I needed access to  a university library, a personal collection of large textbook  and my memory, to graduate from medical school. By 1995 that library could be accessed by a desktop computer, a modem and a collection of DVD based textbooks

Today a medical student need never attend a lecture, possess a single book and accesses the information of all the medical libraries and information in the World through an instrument she carries in the pocket of her white coat.

In 2025 the instrument will be implanted in her bady and will be synchronized with ter brain.

THIS is the event horizon. We do not know wnd can not know, how human history will progress after that.

So!

Where does Masonry fit?

Well. Just as our ancient and not so ancient brethren moralized on the meaning of the square, the ruler, the chisel and the common gavel, we must think about the computer, the nanoparticle and the microchip

Where does that lead us if we are not operative but rather free and accepted or speculative Masons

I leave that with youi!!

John Forster