The Water Of Possibility

One day Sayuri and her little brother Keiji explore the dark root cellar and are transported from Ganola AB to Middle World, a woodland full of figures from Japanese folklore.

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Possibility and Necessity was first published in 1987. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Jean Piaget was preoccupied, later in life, with the developing child's understanding of possibility—how the child becomes aware of the potentially unlimited scope of possible actions and learns to choose among them. Piaget's approach to this question took on a new openness to real-life situations, less deterministic than his earlier, ground-breaking work in cognitive development. The resulting two-volume work—his last—was published in France in 1981 and 1983 and is not available for the first time in English translation. Possibility and Necessity combines theoretical interpretation with detailed summaries of the experiments that Piaget and his colleagues used to test their hypotheses. Piaget's intent, in Volume 1, is to explore the process whereby possibilities are formed. He chooses to understand "the possible" not as something predetermined by initial conditions; rather, in his use of the term, possibilities are constantly coming into being, and have no static characteristics—each arises from an event which has produced an opening onto it, and its actualization will in turn give rise to other openings. In perceiving that a possibility can be realized, and in acting upon it, the child creates something that did not exist before. To observe this process, Piaget and his associates devised a series of thirteen problems appropriate for children ranging in age from four or five to eleven or twelve; they were asked to name all possible ways three dice might be arranged, for example, or a square of paper sectioned. The experimenters had two primary aims—to discover to what extent the child's capacity to see possibilities develops with age, and to determine the place in cognitive development of this capacity—does it precede or follow the advent of operational thought structures? In charting this process, Piaget discerns a growing interaction between possibility and necessity. How the child comes to understand necessity and achieves a dynamic synthesis—or equilibrium — between the possible and the necessary is discussed by Piaget and his colleagues in Volume 2, The Role of Necessity in Cognitive Development, also published by Minnesota.

Anyone involved in the philosophy of science is naturally drawn into the study of the foundations of probability. Different interpretations of probability, based on competing philosophical ideas, lead to different statistical techniques, and frequently to mutually contradictory consequences. This unique book presents a new interpretation of probability, rooted in the traditional interpretation that was current in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mathematical models are constructed based on this interpretation, and statistical inference and decision theory are applied, including some examples in artificial intelligence, solving the main foundational problems. Nonstandard analysis is extensively developed for the construction of the models and in some of the proofs. Many nonstandard theorems are proved, some of them new, in particular, a representation theorem that asserts that any stochastic process can be approximated by a process defined over a space with equiprobable outcomes.

The report is one of a series which presents the findings of intensive interagency investigations of practical means to control the nitrate concentration in subsurface agricultural waste water prior to its discharge into other water on such areas as the San Joaquin Valley. As a result of the application of large quantities of water to relatively slowly permeable stratified soils, the west side of the San Joaquin Valley now has large areas with groundwater at rootzone depths. Wherever subsurface drains have been installed to control this groundwater, the drainage effluent has had high nitrate concentrations. Large quantities of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers are applied annually and the assumption prevails that fertilizer is the major source of nitrates in the drainage water. The study was designed to evaluate this assumption and to derive, if possible, practical answers regarding the role of on-farm practices in controlling nitrate out-put from the agricultural lands. Examined are the nitrogen budget and methods for reducing the quantity of nitrates in the drainage effluent by modifications in type or use of fertilizers, practicespractives, or drainage techniques.

The present article was partly inspired by G. Pollack’s book, and also Dadoloff, Saxena & Jensen (2010). As a senior physicist colleague and our friend, Robert N. Boyd, wrote in a journal (JCFA, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2022), for example, things and Beings can travel between Universes, intentionally or unintentionally [4]. In this short remark, we revisit and offer short remark to Neil Boyd’s ideas and trying to connect them with geometry of musical chords as presented by D. Tymoczko and others, then to Escherian staircase and then to Jacob’s ladder which seems to pointto possibility to interpret Jacob’s vision as described in the ancient book of Genesis as interdimensional staircase, e.g. an interdimensional bridge between heaven and earth (cf. classic book: Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach). Jacob’s vision of angels going down to earth from that staircase has been depicted for instance in William Blake art etc. In our communication with others via physics literature and discussions etc, we came to several conclusions as follows: Firstly, possibility of wormhole effect to mirror particle universe, which sometimes it is termed non-orientable wormhole. While such mirror particles effect have been more than 50 years predicted with the so-called parity violation (cf. Lee & Yang, 1950s), and that is called symmetry breaking. Secondly, a series of extended experiments on laser irradiated cold water may suggest possible transition from a phase of water to be at least partially fourth phase of water, which may be composed of crystalline water (see e.g. Gerald Pollack, and also Harold Aspden on liquid crystalline). If we can imagine laser cooling effect can be done in protracted time, then we can achieve a physical representation of Aspden‘s liquid crystalline. Therefore, in this article we outline a series of simple experiments of laser irradiated iced-water along with beryl and selenite crystals in order to see possibility of such a quantum tunneling via quantum liquid crystalline Universe hypothesis, which may likely be modeled with iced-water. It is interesting to remark here that certain experiments by Stockholm University scientists have shown that X-ray triggered water can exhibit properties just like liquid crystal (cf. PRL, 2020). That is why we consider it possible that there can be quantum phase transition where liquid water (comprised of iced cubes and water) can exhibit effects such as tunneling in quantum liquid crystalline Universe. Last but not least, we admit that what we outlined here is just aninitial phase; and if you wish, perhaps we can call such experiments as “wormhole-at-lab” experiments (abbreviated: WHALE).

At some point or the other, everyone experiences personal crisis, emotionally and mentally, reaching levels of utter despondency and despair. In some instances, these individuals require interventions which literally borders on the miraculous. Many fail to lift themselves out of such circumstances because they do not know how to access the resources which are able to move them to vitality of life and meaningful living. The reading of this book will instill hope for those who have come to the end of the road emotionally and spiritually. I want readers to know that a way out has already been prepared beforehand for them. They will learn why all things are possible, but why it doesnt happen, what process they need to follow to invite the miraculous into their lives and how they can live with vitality and dynamism. The Possibility Zone, The place where faith becomes reality, is a book which explores the realm which possesses all the resources for us to free ourselves from the grip of despondency. It teaches how God has put in place the mechanisms for us to live in vitality and meaningfulness. Examining of the causes of despondency, understanding the nature, design and purpose of the Possibility Zone and implementing the suggested life principles will help people to take hold of their great destinies which lie within their grasp.

Ontology concerns the general nature of the different categories of beings, for instance objects like cars and people, and properties like colors and shapes. Modality concerns what is possible and what is necessary. Experience and Possibility explores the surprising ways in which modality is involved in the ontology of the things we experience.