A few weeks ago, a friend of mine posted as his facebook profile "with all of the advances in our modern age we've made everything so mundane. How interesting it would be to live in a world where the functioning of the earth was a complex interplay between the gods and men, where spells and divinations hold weight, and where the most simple of objects can hold hidden secrets about the course and function of the universe" And while I disagree heavily, I understand the point he is making. Often it seems like science is just the boring old truth, why cant we have magic and mysticism and all that fun stuff they used to have.
We have things far far weirder and more fascinating than we could come up with on our own. The vastness of the universe is really fractally weird, its weird alone and only gets weirder the closer you look at it. weird at any magnification. That is what's so awesome, we live in this awesome universe that creates these amazing and weird patters and self organizes to create stars, planets, galaxies, nebulas, and life. we know some of the rules that control it but not all of them. The universe is this immensely complex system that creates the most beautiful structures we have ever seen and by processes much more interesting than the decree of gods.
IT may be interesting to live in a universe where the functioning of the earth is a complex interplay between gods and man, but i think it is much more interesting to live in a universe where everything is a complex interplay between everything else. where everything is connected to each-other in the great cosmic dance that is going on every second of every day. The universe we live in where you and I are connected by a genetic relationship spanning back the eons, and are related in turn with every living thing we see, which was created from the matter of this hunk of rock we live on called earth, which in turn was created out of stardust in the formation of the solar system. which in turn was created going back far enough, at the same time as everything we can see in the universe was, out of the furnace of the big bang.
How could the ego-centered view of an interplay between just gods and men compare with the great cosmic interplay between everything that is going on always without thought or care for man itself except so-far as man is a part of the cosmos, and as far as we know, the only part of the cosmos that has been able to contemplate the nature of the universe. And even better we can get rid of the idea of gods or super-beings watching down and manipulating things because, and this is totally awesome, the universe is self-regulating, we don't need something else to tweak things, the universe does its own tweaking to itself.
This should sum up some of these ideas for you.
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Great Quantum Turing Machine Batman!
Ah, dear reader, It has been a while, not that time particularly matters to you, what with the whole not-existing thing you got going on, not that I blame, you, its not like I update this thing with any regularity, although I would like to change that... and with that note, lets get down to the entry....
So, while i was living in that terrible cess-pit known as the world sans internet I had time to read Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in computability and the world as we understand it. Following up in the tradition of Wolfram's A New Kind of Science and Rucker's The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul(which i cant recommend highly enough) Programming the Universe is an exploration of what information science and the mathematical underpinnings of computation mean to how the world works and how to explain the universe in terms of a new physical entity (information) that must be considered when trying to understand what base forces and rules control and manage the universe.
However, Lloyd, a leading researcher in quantum computing, takes an interesting approach viewing the universe as not merely something that can be imitated by any old Universal Turing Machine, but rather, the universe is a giant quantum supercomputer that is constantly computing itself.
This is a elegant way around dealing with the problem of Chaos theory and quantum interaction that plagues most attempts at determinism by Universality of Turing machines. Chaos theory showing that if our measurements are even just a tiny bit off from the real value of the event we are measuring it would be impossible to predict its course, and the quantum interference that puts a minimum bound on how precise our measurements or even any measurements can be.
Lloyd also makes a very interesting point about entropy, viewing entropy as an increase in information, an increase in all those bits, that make up the universe as a complete and wonderful whole. is i think particularly thrilling,
Furthermore, Like Rucker's Work, Lloyd's work reads like a great lecture, anticipating questions and givng a phenomenal overview of the theory and its consequences. I give this book my highest recommendation. It is a fascinating read and has shaped the way I personally, understand the fundamental forces and interactions of the universe.
So, while i was living in that terrible cess-pit known as the world sans internet I had time to read Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in computability and the world as we understand it. Following up in the tradition of Wolfram's A New Kind of Science and Rucker's The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul(which i cant recommend highly enough) Programming the Universe is an exploration of what information science and the mathematical underpinnings of computation mean to how the world works and how to explain the universe in terms of a new physical entity (information) that must be considered when trying to understand what base forces and rules control and manage the universe.
However, Lloyd, a leading researcher in quantum computing, takes an interesting approach viewing the universe as not merely something that can be imitated by any old Universal Turing Machine, but rather, the universe is a giant quantum supercomputer that is constantly computing itself.
This is a elegant way around dealing with the problem of Chaos theory and quantum interaction that plagues most attempts at determinism by Universality of Turing machines. Chaos theory showing that if our measurements are even just a tiny bit off from the real value of the event we are measuring it would be impossible to predict its course, and the quantum interference that puts a minimum bound on how precise our measurements or even any measurements can be.
Lloyd also makes a very interesting point about entropy, viewing entropy as an increase in information, an increase in all those bits, that make up the universe as a complete and wonderful whole. is i think particularly thrilling,
Furthermore, Like Rucker's Work, Lloyd's work reads like a great lecture, anticipating questions and givng a phenomenal overview of the theory and its consequences. I give this book my highest recommendation. It is a fascinating read and has shaped the way I personally, understand the fundamental forces and interactions of the universe.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The Retrofuture and the Meaning of Life
The more I think about it the more I pine for the retrofuture. The sad fact of the matter is that thanks to the Internet we really are living in what could easily be called the future, the only problem with this is that this future sucks. we are in the future but we have lost all sense of wonder. we have no frontier to explore, no new worlds to conquer.
This is the true failure of our age, not only do we have no new frontier, no new lands to colonize, no way to spread the human race out to the myriad worlds of tomorrow, we have lost any desire to do so. Talking with people I hear no wish to move out to mars, All I hear are gripes about how much it may cost, that is, on the rare times they think about it at all.
People are content with the world as we know it, admittedly they all want a few small changes, but in all they are happy with the stagnant shape of the world, they merely argue over texture. I deny such feelings, I don't want to be confined to a spheroid only 24,901.5 miles across. I want the endless galactic spaces promised to me. I want the world of tomorrow Circa 1950. I want to fight Nazi's on the moon, I want to live in a self contained unit in the asteroid belt, I want to farm on Ganymede.
The Internet has made the world succumb to our collective human will. Thanks to the instant speed of communication we are approaching what may easily be called the first global human culture. so, when you are discontent with this culture where do you have to go? unfortunately we do not have such a place, it just doesn't exist anymore. we are all bound by the chains of our gravity well, and I at least, wish to escape.
Let us not forget the Human beings were not meant to be enslaved, not even by the laws of physics. The retrofutureyearning of the human spirit to reach out for whats next. We are called on the same mission that our parents failed, not merely to unite the earth, but to spread ourselves out to the rest of the universe.
This is the true failure of our age, not only do we have no new frontier, no new lands to colonize, no way to spread the human race out to the myriad worlds of tomorrow, we have lost any desire to do so. Talking with people I hear no wish to move out to mars, All I hear are gripes about how much it may cost, that is, on the rare times they think about it at all.
People are content with the world as we know it, admittedly they all want a few small changes, but in all they are happy with the stagnant shape of the world, they merely argue over texture. I deny such feelings, I don't want to be confined to a spheroid only 24,901.5 miles across. I want the endless galactic spaces promised to me. I want the world of tomorrow Circa 1950. I want to fight Nazi's on the moon, I want to live in a self contained unit in the asteroid belt, I want to farm on Ganymede.
The Internet has made the world succumb to our collective human will. Thanks to the instant speed of communication we are approaching what may easily be called the first global human culture. so, when you are discontent with this culture where do you have to go? unfortunately we do not have such a place, it just doesn't exist anymore. we are all bound by the chains of our gravity well, and I at least, wish to escape.
Let us not forget the Human beings were not meant to be enslaved, not even by the laws of physics. The retrofutureyearning of the human spirit to reach out for whats next. We are called on the same mission that our parents failed, not merely to unite the earth, but to spread ourselves out to the rest of the universe.
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