Panning back to the beginnings: flint, of the silicate mineral family and thus a salt, is not only the first tool used by man- and womankind to carve, cut, and dig, but is, more than thirty thousand years ago, also the first substance to be actively mined (an early indication of the circular spiral of our silicate dependency).

Jump-cut to our present-day obsession with silicon and its uncanny valley: birthplace of the integrated circuit, the microprocessor, home and HQ of countless Fortune 1,000 businesses, a lot of capitalism, and a growing hamlet of neural networks. The metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor, or MOSFET, was invented in 1959 and has since become the most widely manufactured device in our history, ushering in the Silicon Age.

Method of finding things, often hidden or underground, with a simple device such as forked stick or a pendulum. The dowser holds the tool and watches or feels for movement that indicates the sought material or obiect. Perhaps most commonly known as a way to find underground water sources, dowsing has also been used to find petroleum, gas, and other minerals; lost obiects; locations of secret treasures or mines; and even missing people-although most dowsing is performed for nonliving things. The common image of a dowser is that of a man holding out before him, by its forks with stem pointing ahead, a Y-shaped stick or “divining rod” and walking around until the stick quivers and points downward. The place pointed to is where the water or other object of the search may be found. Good dowers are said to be able to tell how deep the water is and to gain a general impression of quantity from the way in which their stick moves.

Not all dowers use forked sticks. Some use a pendulum suspended from a thread or chain. The pendulum is allowed to hang straight down and is often held over a map. When the pendulum begins to move, it leads the dower to his or her object. Other things may also be used as dowsing tools; it is thought that the power of the technique rests not so much in the tool as in the user. Some dowsers use no tool at all.

Dowsing has been done for centuries. Recorded descriptions of it go back at least as far as ancient Egypt, and it was commonly used as a way to find water and other things until the 20th century, when scientific skepticism dismissed it. Most scientifically minded people consider it more of a superstition than a true detecting technique. Even so, some petroleum companies, govern-ments, and water-well drillers still use professional dowers today to help them in their work. It is extremely expensive to dig oil and water wells, so employing a dower may be considered adding to the probability of the accuracy of the geological reports. Some claim that dowsers are more accurate than geological reports.

One explanation for dowsing is that the dowser, more sensitive or more perceptive than others to subtle energies emanating from different elements, is able somehow I° tune in to the energies from the sought object; the dows ing tool may enhance and focus this energy for the dowser. One problem is the apparent subjectivity of the craft: Different dowers use radically different methods and often arrive at different conclusions. This inconsistency, along with the inability of science to verify the supposed subtle energies, calls dowsing into question. Skeptics suggest that dowers who do find water, oil, or treasure have merely been lucky.

Another term for a dowser is “water witch,” reflecting the historical view that dowsing is a paranormal ability akin to witchcraft and occult divining.

For further reading: Christopher Bird, The Divining Hand (E. P. Dutton, 1979).

Derived from the Arabic al-kimia, the Egyptian art that strove to change substances from the known and commonplace to something other in the attempt to uncover universal secrets. It began in ancient China and was practiced in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe for millennia until it gave way to modern science about 400 years ago. It was based originally on the idea that everything was made up of four elements earth, air, fire, and water– -mixed in different proportions in different sub-stances; changing their proportions would change the substance, also known as transmutation. Medieval alchemists searched to uncover the following universal secrets:

1. the elixir of life, which would confer immor-tality;
2. the panacea, which would cure all ills;
3. the philosopher’s stone, which would turn base metals into gold; and
4. the alkahest, which would melt anything and be very useful in experiments and also in war.

Although regarded with some disdain today, the work of the experimental alchemists should not be dismissed lightly. In their searches they heated, pounded, mixed and tested everything they could find and in doing so discovered much about many different materials; they established many of the chemical processes

• distillation,
• fusion,
• calcination,
• solution,
• sublimation,
• putrefaction,
• fermentation
  that we take for granted today. They accumulated expertise and knowledge that formed the basis for much of modern chemistry.

However, there was one striking difference between the new mechanical philosophers and the older alchemists: The mechanical philosophers were opposed in principle to secrecy and increasingly adopted a conception of knowledge as something for the public benefit. They believed that everything should be published and open to public scrutiny. In this way obscurities and mistakes could be exposed and eliminated in critical public discussion. One figure in this story is especially interesting Isaac Newton, perhaps the most famous natural philosopher of the 17th century or any century. His achievements are taken as paradigms of scientific research. His published work was disciplined in method nothing was claimed that had not been argued for by a combination of induction and deduction, the latter modelled on the deductive method of geometry.

• I’m seeing a correlation between alchemist secrecy and modern corporate opacity – lacking transparency.
• inductive vs deductive reasoning in geometry – the former is coming to conclusions based off observations while the latter is coming to conclusions based on pre conceived facts.

In his private life, however, Newton was deeply interested in alchemy. He took copious notes on alchemical books and manuscripts and he carried out prolonged and detailed experimental studies, believing that his own experiments would be most productive if they proceeded in conjunction with the study of records of the ancient past.

As part of his natural philosophy, Newton was interested in the interactions of very small particles, knowledge of which he believed to be hidden in allegorical form in alchemical writings. It was the most mythical alchemical writings that he thought were the most important to study as these were thought to represent the oldest part of alchemy.

Newton’s studies and experiments provided important insights into what was and was not possible by alchemical manipulations. Nevertheless he never published anything directly concerned with alchemy.

Today we tend to regard alchemists as “knaves and impostors,” happily now a thing of the past. However, like Newton and the contemporary mechanical philosophers, we should draw a distinction. There were two distinct groups: the genuine seekers after knowledge to whom today’s scientists are indebted for their contributions to scientific understanding, and the rogues and villains who exploited claims to secret knowledge for their own ends, the pseudoscientists of their day.

the de-glaciation of the planets could impact the degree of volcanic eruptions.

what percentage of the world experience an eruption? how could this experiences be eminated?

how could we amplify and recreate microseismicity increases?

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/can-climate-affect-earthquakes-or-are-the-connections-shaky

Weighing the Seismic Consequences of Water

In order to make any connection between climate and earthquakes, says Lundgren, you first have to determine what kinds of tectonic processes might be related to climate phenomena. Scientists know earthquakes can be triggered or inhibited by changes in the amount of stress on a fault. The largest climate variable that could change fault stress loads is surface water in the form of rain and snow. Lundgren says several studies have supported such correlations. But there’s a catch.

“Typically, where we’ve seen these types of correlations is in microseismicity — tiny earthquakes with magnitudes less than zero, far smaller than humans can feel,” he said. “Those occur quite frequently.”

Lundgren cited work by his colleague Jean-Philippe Avouac at Caltech and others, who’ve found a correlation between the amount of microseismicity in the Himalaya and the annual monsoon season. During the summer months, large amounts of precipitation fall on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which encompasses the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. This increases stress loads on Earth’s crust there and decreases levels of microseismicity in the adjacent Himalaya. During the winter dry season, when there’s less water weight on Earth’s crust in the plain, Himalayan microseismicity peaks.

Fire and Ice: Glaciers and Tectonic Processes

Another climate-related phenomenon that’s believed to have connections to tectonic processes is glaciation. The retreat of a glacier can reduce stress loads on Earth’s crust underneath, impacting the movement of subsurface magma. A recent study in the journal Geology on volcanic activity in Iceland between 4,500 and 5,500 years ago, when Earth was much cooler than today, found a link between deglaciation and increased volcanic activity. Conversely, when glacial cover increased, eruptions declined.

The rapid movement of glaciers has also been shown to cause what are known as glacial earthquakes. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland peak in frequency in the summer months and have been steadily increasing over time, possibly in response to global warming.

Human Uses of Water and Induced Seismicity

In addition to climate-related impacts of water on seismicity, human management and applications of water can also affect earthquakes through a phenomenon known as induced seismicity.

For example, water stored in large dams has been linked to earthquake activity in various locations around the world, though the impact is localized in nature. In 1975, approximately eight years after Northern California’s Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest human-built reservoir, was created behind the Oroville Dam, a series of earthquakes occurred nearby, the largest registering magnitude 5.7. Shortly after the water in the reservoir was drawn down to its lowest level since it was originally filled in order to repair intakes to the dam’s power plant and then refilled, the earthquakes occurred.