Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: Scuse me?

re: Scuse me?
Robert — (archived)

A lot of unexpected things come out of emergent phenomena, and emergent phenomena can be described as a complex outcome arising from a myriad of simple factors; or a large result arising from a large number of small components. Flocks of birds, schools of fish, etc., we all know the analogies.

Start with a small fact: Terrestrial organisms exhibit circadian rhythms with a period of 24 hours. Other cycles appear with longer intervals, such as the human menstrual cycle (locked to the same length as the Moon, interestingly enough), and the growing cycles of plants in the course of a year. There are larger-period recurrent cycles, such as the cyclical fluctuations of populations of bound predators and prey, rise and advance of ice, succession of generations, and on and on and on. Cycles are a fundamental feature of life on a planet; all of those biological rhythms are synchronized to the rotation of the Earth, the Moon around the Earth, and the Earth-Moon around the Sun.

It may be a reversal of cause-and-effect to say that the motions of the planet "cause" events in the lives of people; but that doesn't mean that the motions of planets aren't tied to the rhythms of life of Earth. I don't think it's inconceivable, then, that astrology considered as a calendar or ephemeris of cycles of life marked by numerically-related motions of the planets might have some predictive power.

Where does the Old Farmer's Almanack leave off and Madame Olga's Astrological Signs and Portent begin? Might astrology be viewed in a sense as observation of a hierarchical system of locked harmonic cycles whose top-level emergent phenomenon looks like information relevant to human affairs?

(FYI, I began Seth Lloyd's "Programming the Universe" this morning, about the notion that the Universe is a vast quantum computer. Ask me this question in another few days, and I may be able to tell you how astrology is an example of quantum computing. Stay tuned...;-) )

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (77 posts)