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A second advantage of such a computer is, perhaps, more aesthetic (or spiritual/philosophical) than practical. There’s a sense in which - by employing sub-atomic particles as our hardware (and software, simultaneously) – we’re using nature as our computer! The movement of the anyons has an intelligence of its own, similar to the “intelligence” we observe when, say, we throw a ball up in the air, and watch it fall to the ground: The physics of its motion is calculated by the medium (air, gravity, etc.) through which it travels.
It doesn’t require us to transmit the appropriate mathematical formulas to it, in order to continue along its trajectory!
So how is the creation of a topological quantum computer - the projection by our collective human consciousness of a radically different model of computing/information processing - related to Alchemy & the Ouroboros (where we began this essay)? Or, to expand the context even more, how is it related to the Alchemies of Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu Yogas?
There are a number of contemporary Taoist as well as Buddhist teachers who use the metaphor of a computer to describe the working of the human bodymind. Which, at this point, then begs the question: How might we, as Taoist, Buddhist or Hindu yogis and yoginis, transform ourselves - in particular the way that we process information, i.e. relate with the intelligence/energy of the manifest world - from something like Newtonian/classical computers, to something like topological quantum computers?
Such a change will require, as we’ve seen above, a change not only in our software (our mental/emotional “programming”) but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, in our hardware (our brain & physical nervous system) – and/or in the relationship between the hardware & the software. How might I evolve from being a Newtonian “machine” that relates to my world in terms of a series of yes’s and no’s (0’s and 1’s) to a Being defined by fractional charges, by superpositions, by the capacity to perform multiple simultaneous calculations: to hold, simultaneously, multiple points of view?
Perhaps a part of the answer lies - as it does within the realm of quantum computing - in finding an information storage & processing medium (a bodymind!) which operates via physical/energetic patterns more than via individual bits of information - so that a stretching, bending or twisting (a so-called “distortion”) of the medium will not sacrifice its integrity. So that small losses of information, small fluctuations in the immediate environment, can easily be compensated for by the wisdom & stability of the larger pattern.
What might this mean in terms of a physical practice such as yoga or qigong? And could this be part of what is being transmitted to us via the alchemical symbol of the Ouroboros? - That the creation (or recognition) of patterns, and more specifically, closed loops, of so-called opposites finding their unity, recognizing themselves to be two ends of the same stick ... is an important key to the whole alchemical process, to spiritual as well as technological awakening?
Taoist Inner Alchemy - as well as Kashmir Shaivism and other mystical traditions - remind us, again and again, that the entire universe exists within and as our human bodies. The stars & all the galaxies are alive within the very structure of our cells. (According to which the Theory of Relativity should be able - yes? - to swallow the tail of Quantum Mechanics, but alas ...)
And perhaps what’s being pointed to also is the obvious fact that we are indeed - in our manifestations within the phenomenal world - part of nature: partaking of the wisdom, love & limitations of the plant, mineral & animal kingdoms ... And it is in this association - rather than the escape from it, into, say, the world of machines, of artificial intelligence - that lies our greatest freedom and power.
Which of course is what those silly Taoists have been saying all along!
Nature As Our Computer?
A second advantage of such a computer is, perhaps, more aesthetic (or spiritual/philosophical) than practical. There’s a sense in which - by employing sub-atomic particles as our hardware (and software, simultaneously) – we’re using nature as our computer! The movement of the anyons has an intelligence of its own, similar to the “intelligence” we observe when, say, we throw a ball up in the air, and watch it fall to the ground: The physics of its motion is calculated by the medium (air, gravity, etc.) through which it travels.
It doesn’t require us to transmit the appropriate mathematical formulas to it, in order to continue along its trajectory!
So how is the creation of a topological quantum computer - the projection by our collective human consciousness of a radically different model of computing/information processing - related to Alchemy & the Ouroboros (where we began this essay)? Or, to expand the context even more, how is it related to the Alchemies of Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu Yogas?
Yoga, Qigong & Quantum Computing
There are a number of contemporary Taoist as well as Buddhist teachers who use the metaphor of a computer to describe the working of the human bodymind. Which, at this point, then begs the question: How might we, as Taoist, Buddhist or Hindu yogis and yoginis, transform ourselves - in particular the way that we process information, i.e. relate with the intelligence/energy of the manifest world - from something like Newtonian/classical computers, to something like topological quantum computers?
Such a change will require, as we’ve seen above, a change not only in our software (our mental/emotional “programming”) but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, in our hardware (our brain & physical nervous system) – and/or in the relationship between the hardware & the software. How might I evolve from being a Newtonian “machine” that relates to my world in terms of a series of yes’s and no’s (0’s and 1’s) to a Being defined by fractional charges, by superpositions, by the capacity to perform multiple simultaneous calculations: to hold, simultaneously, multiple points of view?
The Wisdom Of Closed Loops & Patterns
Perhaps a part of the answer lies - as it does within the realm of quantum computing - in finding an information storage & processing medium (a bodymind!) which operates via physical/energetic patterns more than via individual bits of information - so that a stretching, bending or twisting (a so-called “distortion”) of the medium will not sacrifice its integrity. So that small losses of information, small fluctuations in the immediate environment, can easily be compensated for by the wisdom & stability of the larger pattern.
What might this mean in terms of a physical practice such as yoga or qigong? And could this be part of what is being transmitted to us via the alchemical symbol of the Ouroboros? - That the creation (or recognition) of patterns, and more specifically, closed loops, of so-called opposites finding their unity, recognizing themselves to be two ends of the same stick ... is an important key to the whole alchemical process, to spiritual as well as technological awakening?
The Entire Universe Within Our Human Body
Taoist Inner Alchemy - as well as Kashmir Shaivism and other mystical traditions - remind us, again and again, that the entire universe exists within and as our human bodies. The stars & all the galaxies are alive within the very structure of our cells. (According to which the Theory of Relativity should be able - yes? - to swallow the tail of Quantum Mechanics, but alas ...)
And perhaps what’s being pointed to also is the obvious fact that we are indeed - in our manifestations within the phenomenal world - part of nature: partaking of the wisdom, love & limitations of the plant, mineral & animal kingdoms ... And it is in this association - rather than the escape from it, into, say, the world of machines, of artificial intelligence - that lies our greatest freedom and power.
Which of course is what those silly Taoists have been saying all along!
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