See also this journal on November 29, 2011 —The Flight from Ennui.
Related illustration from earlier in 2011 —
See also this journal on 20 Sept. 2011 — Relativity Problem Revisited —
as well as other posts tagged Congregated Light.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Cubes and Axes
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Sunday, September 4, 2022
Dice and the Eightfold Cube
At Hiroshima on March 9, 2018, Aitchison discussed another
"hexagonal array" with two added points… not at the center, as
in the Gell-Mann picture above, but rather at the ends of one of
a cube's four diagonal axes of symmetry.
See some related illustrations below.
Fans of the fictional "Transfiguration College" in the play
"Heroes of the Fourth Turning" may recall that August 6,
another Hiroshima date, was the Feast of the Transfiguration.
The exceptional role of 0 and ∞ in Aitchison's diagram is echoed
by the occurence of these symbols in the "knight" labeling of a
Miracle Octad Generator octad —
Transposition of 0 and ∞ in the knight coordinatization
induces the symplectic polarity of PG(3,2) discussed by
(for instance) Anne Duncan in 1968.
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Monday, May 19, 2014
Friday, February 13, 2026
Geometry for Friday the 13th
The previous post — "Cube Space" — and today's date
suggest a review of the 13 symmetry axes of the cube.
Related geometry —
|
By NotebookLM today — Symmetry in Finite Geometry and Combinatorial Design The provided sources explore the mathematical and artistic intersections of finite geometry, specifically focusing on the Cullinane diamond theorem and its square-based representations of PG(3,2). By utilizing 4×4 and 4×6 arrays, these works illustrate how combinatorial designs, such as Latin squares and Miracle Octad Generators, relate to highly symmetric structures like the Mathieu group M24 and the binary Golay code. The texts demonstrate that properties of symmetry, such as the affine group AGL(4,2), govern both abstract group theory and visual patterns found in puzzles, quilt designs, and sphere packings. This framework extends into coding theory and quantum mechanics, where geometric "bricks" and "lines" help simplify the analysis of complex lattices and error-correcting systems. Ultimately, the collection bridges rigorous algebraic abstraction with interactive visualization, showing that the logic of finite space underpins both mathematical truth and aesthetic form. |
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Wednesday, August 13, 2025
AI Mode . . . “Particularly”
(Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition (1911), Crystallography .)
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Wednesday, November 27, 2024
For the Still Point: “Congregated Light”
An instance of T. S. Eliot's poetic "still point" is the
center of a 3x3x3 Galois cube made up of 27 subcubes …
Not Rubik's puzzle, whose center is a mere mechanical contrivance.
Associated with that Galois cube is the set of
13 symmetry axes of its central subcube.
The figure above is not unrelated to the so-called "free will theorem."
Mathematician Peter J. Cameron's recent quotation of St. Bernard*
on free will and grace, while not impressive as a philosophical
statement, is at least preferable to the TV sitcom "Will and Grace."
See also the notion of free will in other posts tagged "Congregated Light."
Some context: Tom Wolfe, below, on the word "clerisy." It seems that the
word applies to many academics besides those in areas named by Wolfe.
* Vide http://www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/efficacious-grace3.htm#67 —
"De gratia et Libero arbitrio, chaps. 1 and 14."
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Friday, October 13, 2023
Lightbox for a Friday the 13th
For a different sort of Lightbox, more closely associated with
the number 13, see instances in this journal of . . .
(Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition (1911), Crystallography .)
"Before time began . . . ." — Optimus Prime
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Edgelord School
|
Monday, May 8, 2017
New Pinterest Board
|
The face at lower left above is that of an early Design edgelord.
A product of that edgelord's school —
See a design by Prince-Ramus in today's New York Times —
Remarks quoted here on the above San Diego date —
A related void —
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Sunday, July 2, 2023
Badlands Philosophy
This afternoon's Windows lockscreen is Badlands National Park —
From this morning's post, a phrase from Schopenhauer —
"Apparent Design in the Fate of the Individual."
An apparent design in the philosophy of Optimus Prime —
"Before time began, there was the Cube" —
Click the image for further remarks.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023
Preform
Sometimes the word "preform" is not a misspelling.
"… there are present in every psyche forms which are unconscious
but nonetheless active — living dispositions, ideas in the Platonic sense,
that preform and continually influence our thoughts and feelings and actions."
The Source: Jung on a facultas praeformandi . . .
Illustration —
"A primordial image . . . .
the axial system of a crystal"
For those who prefer a Jewish approach to these matters —
(Post last updated at about 2:10 PM ET on Jan. 23, 2023.)
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Monday, June 27, 2022
Dealing With Cubism
Continued from April 12, 2022.
"It’s important, as art historian Reinhard Spieler has noted,
that after a brief, unproductive stay in Paris, circa 1907,
Kandinsky chose to paint in Munich. That’s where he formed
the Expressionist art group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) —
and where he avoided having to deal with cubism."
— David Carrier,
Remarks by Louis Menand in The New Yorker today —
"The art world isn’t a fixed entity.
It’s continually being reconstituted
as new artistic styles emerge."
(Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition (1911), Crystallography .)
"Before time began, there was the Cube."
— Optimus Prime
See as well Verbum (February 18, 2017).
Related dramatic music —
"Westworld Season 4 begins at Hoover Dam,
with William looking to buy the famous landmark.
What does he consider to be 'stolen' data that is inside?"
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Saturday, March 26, 2022
Box Geometry: Space, Group, Art (Work in Progress)
| Name Tag | .Space | .Group | .Art |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box4 |
2×2 square representing the four-point finite affine geometry AG(2,2). (Box4.space) |
S4 = AGL(2,2) (Box4.group) |
(Box4.art) |
| Box6 |
3×2 (3-row, 2-column) rectangular array representing the elements of an arbitrary 6-set. |
S6 | |
| Box8 | 2x2x2 cube or 4×2 (4-row, 2-column) array. | S8 or A8 or AGL(3,2) of order 1344, or GL(3,2) of order 168 | |
| Box9 | The 3×3 square. | AGL(2,3) or GL(2,3) | |
| Box12 | The 12 edges of a cube, or a 4×3 array for picturing the actions of the Mathieu group M12. | Symmetries of the cube or elements of the group M12 | |
| Box13 | The 13 symmetry axes of the cube. | Symmetries of the cube. | |
| Box15 |
The 15 points of PG(3,2), the projective geometry of 3 dimensions over the 2-element Galois field. |
Collineations of PG(3,2) | |
| Box16 |
The 16 points of AG(4,2), the affine geometry of 4 dimensions over the 2-element Galois field. |
AGL(4,2), the affine group of |
|
| Box20 | The configuration representing Desargues's theorem. | ||
| Box21 | The 21 points and 21 lines of PG(2,4). | ||
| Box24 | The 24 points of the Steiner system S(5, 8, 24). | ||
| Box25 | A 5×5 array representing PG(2,5). | ||
| Box27 |
The 3-dimensional Galois affine space over the 3-element Galois field GF(3). |
||
| Box28 | The 28 bitangents of a plane quartic curve. | ||
| Box32 |
Pair of 4×4 arrays representing orthogonal Latin squares. |
Used to represent elements of AGL(4,2) |
|
| Box35 |
A 5-row-by-7-column array representing the 35 lines in the finite projective space PG(3,2) |
PGL(3,2), order 20,160 | |
| Box36 | Eurler's 36-officer problem. | ||
| Box45 | The 45 Pascal points of the Pascal configuration. | ||
| Box48 | The 48 elements of the group AGL(2,3). | AGL(2,3). | |
| Box56 |
The 56 three-sets within an 8-set or |
||
| Box60 | The Klein configuration. | ||
| Box64 | Solomon's cube. |
— Steven H. Cullinane, March 26-27, 2022
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Sunday, March 13, 2022
Friday, December 31, 2021
Aesthetics in Academia
Related art — The non-Rubik 3x3x3 cube —
The above structure illustrates the affine space of three dimensions
over the three-element finite (i.e., Galois) field, GF(3). Enthusiasts
of Judith Brown's nihilistic philosophy may note the "radiance" of the
13 axes of symmetry within the "central, structuring" subcube.
I prefer the radiance (in the sense of Aquinas) of the central, structuring
eightfold cube at the center of the affine space of six dimensions over
the two-element field GF(2).
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Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Working Backwards: 13 in the 11th
(Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition (1911), Crystallography .)
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Monday, August 17, 2020
The Silence at the Core
The title is a phrase by Robert Hughes from the previous post.
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Friday, December 13, 2019
Apollo’s 13 Revisited
(Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition (1911), Crystallography .)
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Friday, October 13, 2017
Speak, Memra
The above was suggested by a Log24 review of October 13, 2002,
which in turn suggested a Log24 search for Carousel that yielded
(from Bloomsday Lottery) —
See as well Asimov's "prime radiant," and an illustration
of the number 13 as a radiant prime …
"The Prime Radiant can be adjusted to your mind,
and all corrections and additions can be made
through mental rapport. There will be nothing to
indicate that the correction or addition is yours.
In all the history of the Plan there has been no
personalization. It is rather a creation of all of us
together. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Speaker!"
— Isaac Asimov,
Second Foundation , Ch. 8: Seldon's Plan
"Before time began, there was the Cube."
— Optimus Prime
See also Transformers in this journal.
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Friday, July 7, 2017
A Prime Radiant for Krugman
Paul Krugman:
Asimov’s Foundation novels grounded my economics
In the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov …
“The Prime Radiant can be adjusted to your mind, and all
corrections and additions can be made through mental rapport.
There will be nothing to indicate that the correction or addition
is yours. In all the history of the Plan there has been no
personalization. It is rather a creation of all of us together.
Do you understand?”
“Yes, Speaker!”
— Isaac Asimov, Second Foundation , Ch. 8: Seldon’s Plan
“Before time began, there was the Cube.“
See also Transformers in this journal.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2017
All-Spark Notes
"For years, the AllSpark rested, sitting dormant
like a giant, useless art installation."
— Vinnie Mancuso at Collider.com yesterday
Related material —
Giant, useless art installation —
Sol LeWitt at MASS MoCA. See also LeWitt in this journal.
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Monday, April 3, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Like the Horizon
(Continued from a remark by art critic Peter Schjeldahl quoted here
last year on New Year's Day in the post "Art as Religion.")
"The unhurried curve got me.
It was like the horizon of a world
that made a non-world of
all of the space outside it."
— Peter Schjeldahl, "Postscript: Ellsworth Kelly,"
The New Yorker , December 30, 2015
This suggests some further material from the paper
that was quoted here yesterday on New Year's Eve —
"In teaching a course on combinatorics I have found
students doubting the existence of a finite projective
plane geometry with thirteen points on the grounds
that they could not draw it (with 'straight' lines)
on paper although they had tried to do so. Such a
lack of appreciation of the spirit of the subject is but
a consequence of the elements of formal geometry
no longer being taught in undergraduate courses.
Yet these students were demanding the best proof of
existence, namely, production of the object described."
— Derrick Breach (See his obituary from 1996.)
A related illustration of the 13-point projective plane
from the University of Western Australia:
Projective plane of order 3
(The four points on the curve
at the right of the image are
the points on the line at infinity .)
The above image is from a post of August 7, 2012,
"The Space of Horizons." A related image —
Click on the above image for further remarks.
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Saturday, September 17, 2016
Friday, September 2, 2016
Raiders of the Lost Birthday
Some images from the posts of last July 13
(Harrison Ford's birthday) may serve as funeral
ornaments for the late Prof. David Lavery.
See as well posts on "Silent Snow" and "Starlight Like Intuition."
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Luminosity
|
"At CERN the LHC has reached design luminosity,
— Peter Woit, Thursday, June 30, 2016, |
Another sort of design luminosity —
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Friday, July 1, 2016
Transparent Core
"At the point of convergence the play of similarities and differences
cancels itself out in order that identity alone may shine forth.
The illusion of motionlessness, the play of mirrors of the one:
identity is completely empty; it is a crystallization and
in its transparent core the movement of analogy begins all over
once again." — The Monkey Grammarian by Octavio Paz,
translated by Helen Lane
A more specific "transparent core" —
See all references to this figure
in this journal.
For a more specific "monkey grammarian,"
see W. Tecumseh Fitch in this journal.
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Thursday, June 30, 2016
Design Luminosity
"At CERN the LHC has reached design luminosity,* and is
breaking records with a fast pace of new collisions. This may
have something to do with the report that the LHC is also
about to tear open a portal to another dimension."
See also the following figure from the Log24 Bion posts —
— and Greg Egan's short story "Luminous":
"The theory was, we’d located part of the boundary
between two incompatible systems of mathematics –
both of which were physically true, in their respective
domains. Any sequence of deductions which stayed
entirely on one side of the defect – whether it was the
'near side', where conventional arithmetic applied, or
the 'far side', where the alternative took over – would
be free from contradictions. But any sequence which
crossed the border would give rise to absurdities –
hence S could lead to not-S."
— Greg Egan, Luminous
(Kindle Locations 1284-1288).
* See a definition.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Space Jews
For the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul —
In memory of Alvin Toffler and Simon Ramo,
a review of figures from the midnight that began
the date of their deaths, June 27, 2016 —
The 3×3×3 Galois Cube
See also Rubik in this journal.
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Monday, June 27, 2016
Interplay
From a search in this journal for Euclid + Galois + Interplay —
The 3×3×3 Galois Cube
A tune suggested by the first image above —
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Saturday, October 10, 2015
Epiphany in Paris
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