SWADESHINE Datanet

► Every black hole contains another universe?

2011-12-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

from National Geographic:

"Like part of a cosmic Russian doll, our universe may be nested inside a black hole that is itself part of a larger universe.

In turn, all the black holes found so far in our universe—from the microscopic to the supermassive—may be doorways into alternate realities.

According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn't collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a "white hole" at the other end of the black one, the theory goes."

► Voyager probe reaches edge of Solar System's 'bubble'

2011-12-06T12:06:00.001-05:00

"NASA's famous Voyager 1 space probe, sailing outwards into the interstellar void far beyond the orbit of Pluto, has entered a new and never-before-seen region of space thought to be the very edge of the "bubble" maintained around the solar system by the power of the Sun."

► Scientists discover invisible galaxies

2011-12-04T00:00:00.001-05:00

"Deep in the cosmos--nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth--lay galaxies that are so far into the red part of the spectrum that the most powerful visible-light telescope--the Hubble--can't even see them. These galaxies are so far into the infrared range that it took the Spitzer Space Telescope, a powerful infrared space observatory, to stumble upon them."

► CoSM the Movie

2011-12-03T10:47:00.001-05:00

A cinematic journey through the visionary art of Alex Grey and The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (Also currently on Netflix)

► Perspective

2011-11-22T09:58:00.001-05:00

"You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look at that, you son of a bitch.'"

~ Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

► Leonard Susskind on "The World As Hologram"

2011-11-08T08:19:00.002-05:00

Leonard Susskind of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics discusses the indestructability of information
and the nature of black holes in a lecture entitled "The World As Hologram".

► New hybrid technology could bring 'quantum information systems'

2011-10-30T09:53:00.001-04:00

"The merging of two technologies under development - plasmonics and nanophotonics - is promising the emergence of new "quantum information systems" far more powerful than today's computers.

The technology hinges on using single photons – the tiny particles that make up light – for switching and routing in future computers that might harness the exotic principles of quantum mechanics.

The quantum information processing technology would use structures called "metamaterials," artificial nanostructured media with exotic properties.

The metamaterials, when combined with tiny "optical emitters," could make possible a new hybrid technology that uses "quantum light" in future computers, said Vladimir Shalaev, scientific director of nanophotonics at Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Center and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The concept is described in an article to be published Friday (Oct. 28) in the journal Science."

► Evolve

2011-10-27T20:10:00.001-04:00

by Kenn Brown & Chris Wren

► Massively parallel computer built from a single layer of molecules

2011-10-27T20:06:00.001-04:00

"...They've laid down 300 DDQ molecules on a gold substrate, setting them up as a cellular automaton. More impressive still, they've then initialised the system so that it "calculates" the way heat diffuses in a conducting medium and the way cancer spreads through tissue.

And since the entire layer is involved in the calculation, this a massively parallel computation using a single layer of organic molecules."

► When galaxies collide

2011-10-23T09:06:00.003-04:00

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration,
and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

This interacting pair of galaxies is included in Arp's catalog of peculiar galaxies as number 148. Arp 148 is the staggering aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. The collision between the two parent galaxies produced a shockwave effect that first drew matter into the center and then caused it to propagate outwards in a ring. The elongated companion perpendicular to the ring suggests that Arp 148 is a unique snapshot of an ongoing collision. Infrared observations reveal a strong obscuration region that appears as a dark dust lane across the nucleus in optical light. Arp 148 is nicknamed Mayall's object and is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, approximately 500 million light-years away.

This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on April 24, 2008, the observatory's 18th anniversary.

► Spurious realities

2011-10-23T09:00:00.001-04:00

“…today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups—and the electronic hardware exists by which to deliver these pseudo-worlds right into the heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener." ~ Philip K. Dick (1978)

► Mind cubes

2011-10-19T19:21:00.002-04:00

http://butdoesitfloat.com

► Time reversal: A simple particle could reveal new physics

2011-10-15T10:33:00.001-04:00

"A simple atomic nucleus could reveal properties associated with the mysterious phenomenon known as time reversal and lead to an explanation for one of the greatest mysteries of physics: the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe."

► Scientists develop artificial structures that can self-replicate

2011-10-13T21:35:00.003-04:00

"New York University scientists have developed artificial structures that can self-replicate, a process that has the potential to yield new types of materials. In the natural world, self-replication is ubiquitous in all living entities, but artificial self-replication has been elusive.

The new discovery is the first steps toward a general process for self-replication of a wide variety of arbitrarily designed seeds. The seeds are made from DNA tile motifs that serve as letters arranged to spell out a particular word. The replication process preserves the letter sequence and the shape of the seed and hence the information required to produce further generations."

► How to hide an event in time and ‘erase history’

2011-10-13T08:55:00.003-04:00

"Cornell University researchers have demonstrated that it’s possible to cloak a singular event in time, creating a “history editor.”

Moti Fridman and his colleagues sent a beam of light traveling down an optical fiber and through a pair of “time lenses.” Between these two lenses, the researchers were able to briefly create a small bubble, or gap, in the flow of light. During that moment, lasting only 20 picoseconds (trillionths of a second), the gap functioned like a temporal hole, concealing the fact that a brief burst of light ever occurred."

► Fractal machinery

2011-10-12T08:12:00.001-04:00

► Spaceship factory opens in California

2011-10-09T12:25:00.003-04:00

"The Spaceship Company, a joint-venture between Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., has opened the doors of a new facility to manufacture the suborbital ships and their carrier aircraft.

'Today marks another important step along the road to opening space for everyone,' Branson said in a statement, adding that the new $8 million hangar is 'the world’s first facility dedicated to producing private, commercial manned space vehicles.'"

► Vortex

2011-10-07T12:48:00.004-04:00

► Alien technology 'beyond matter' could exist

2011-10-07T10:33:00.000-04:00

"... But what if advanced super-intelligent life is no longer matter based? What if they exist at a higher level concept than matter. Are matter and information all there is? asks Paul Davies, physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. Five hundred years ago, he says, the very concept of a computer, a device manipulating information, or software, would have been incomprehensible. Might there still be a higher level he asks as yet outside all human experience that organizes information in the same way that information-processing organizes electrons."

Davies envisions an alien technology that: Is not made of matter; has no fixed size or shape; has no well-defined boundaries or topology; is dynamical on all scales of space and time; or, conversely, does not appear to do anything at all that we can discern; does not consist of discrete, separate things; rather, it is a system, a subtle higher-level of things.

This alien technology is "nature plus." Technology is in the broadest sense according to Davies, mind or intelligence or purpose blending with nature. It's technology that harnesses the laws of physics; it does not override them. To say that a radio or a laser or a monolith on the Moon is "unnatural," doesn't mean it isn't part of nature; it's nature plus.

Just as quantum weirdness is detected only with special apparatus, so alien technology might go undetected and unsuspected --it may exist in a realm beyond current human capabilities and evolution. A third, or fourth, or fifth realm millions of years evolved beyond the age of homo sapiens."

► The human body

2011-10-07T09:57:00.001-04:00

50watts.com

► The Emerald Tablet

2011-10-07T09:34:00.001-04:00

"Explorer of consciousness Terence McKenna believed that the Emerald Tablet contained “a formula for a holographic matrix” that is mirrored in the human mind and offers our species its only hope for future survival."

► Blog of note: The First Church of Space Jesus

2011-10-07T09:04:00.002-04:00

firstchurchofspacejesus.blogspot.com

► Can quantum weirdness help explain biological mysteries?

2011-10-07T09:01:00.003-04:00

"...Smell is not the only thing that proponents of quantum biology think it might explain: there's also the mechanism that powers the entire animal kingdom. We all run on adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, a chemical made in cells' mitochondria by moving electrons through a chain of intermediate molecules. When we attempt to calculate how speedily this happens, we hit a problem. "In nature the process is much faster than it should be," says Vlatko Vedral, a quantum physicist at the University of Oxford.

Vedral thinks this is because it depends on the quality of "superposition" which allows the sort of quantum-mechanical wave that describes electrons to be in two places at once. He reckons quantum omnipresence might speed the electrons' passage through the reaction chain. "If you could show superposition is there and it's somehow also important for the electron flow, that would be very interesting," he says."

► Rhinoceros City

2011-10-05T22:18:00.001-04:00

by Sergy Tyukanov

► Monkeys control virtual limbs with their minds

2011-10-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

"Neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University in Durham, N.C., whose group has been developing so-called brain-machine interfaces, says that one of the pitfalls in these systems is that “no one’s been able to close the loop” between controlling a limb and feeling a physical touch.

So he and a group of researchers decided to create a “brain-machine-brain” interface using a virtual system. The researchers implanted two sets of tiny electrodes into a monkey’s brain: one set in the motor control center, and the other in the part of the somatosensory cortex that processes the sensation of physical touch from the left hand.

Using the first set, the monkey could control a virtual monkey arm on a computer screen and sweep the hand over virtual disks with different “textures.”

Meanwhile, the second set of electrodes fed a series of electrical pulses into the touch center of its brain. A low frequency of pulses indicated a rough texture, whereas high frequency indicated a fine texture (see video), and the monkeys quickly learned to tell the difference."

► Namaste

2011-10-04T09:21:00.002-04:00

by Luke Brown

► World's most powerful telescope begins search for the origin of the universe

2011-10-03T11:18:00.001-04:00

from Slashdot:

"The largest astronomical installation in the world is now operational. ALMA, or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, is a vast radio telescope made out of 66 12- and 7-meter dish antennae situated 5,000m above sea level, in Chile. Its purpose is to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no telescope has gone before. But no, seriously: its job is to peer into the past and investigate ancient stars and nebulae, peer at exoplanets that might support human (or alien) life, and hopefully learn more about interstellar creation and destruction. For now only 20 out of 66 antennae are in place, but when it is complete — late next year — it will have a resolving power far greater than Hubble, according to the European Space Observatory (ESO) that operates ALMA."

► When will time end?

2011-10-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

► Interactive 'Scale of the Universe' tool

2011-10-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

• Interactive 'Scale of the Universe' tool

► Maze of vision

2011-10-01T16:45:00.001-04:00

butdoesitfloat.com

► Welcome to SWADESHINE Datanet

2011-10-01T15:28:00.002-04:00

How may we assist you?

► Robert Crumb's The Religious Experience of Philip K Dick

2011-10-01T12:09:00.003-04:00

Originally published in Weirdo comic #17, 1986

► The post-scarcity economy: What is it and how do we get there?

2011-10-01T10:30:00.001-04:00

An interview with Jason Stoddard:

EOT: Hi there, Jason. Could you please define a scarcity economy and how it might differ from a post-scarcity economy?

Stoddard: Well, I can be flip and say, “A scarcity economy is when you have to work to buy some things you want, and a post-scarcity economy is where you don’t have to work to have everything you want.”

But it hides the nuances. Right now we all think we’re living in a scarcity economy: you have to work to get money, which there never seems to be enough of, and then you have to use your money to buy stuff, which always has a price tag, and even after you buy stuff, you might wonder how your consumption is going to affect the environment. Everything is presupposed to be scarce: money, things, resources.

If you step back and look around, you might be surprised. Even today, there are point examples of a de facto post-scarcity economy; we produce so many technological gewgaws that if you’re OK with being a couple of generations back in computers or phones, your effective cost could easily be zero. Manufacturing efficiency has soared to points undreamed-of only a generation ago. Prices have cratered, even in non-constant (inflationary) dollars–and even in light of significantly higher energy costs.

Of course, these are only point examples. Nobody is going to leave their job because they can get an old computer for free. And that’s probably the primary difference between a scarcity and post-scarcity economy: the need to keep working to live. When the time comes that we’re unshackled from traditional work and income, and can have all the things we reasonably want, and not have to worry about whether or not our consumption is sustainable, we’re in a post-scarcity economy. Read on...

► Space dragon

2011-10-01T10:21:00.002-04:00

► Scientists suggest spacetime has no time dimension

2011-10-01T09:39:00.001-04:00

"Some researchers theorize that this Newtonian idea of time as an absolute quantity that flows on its own, along with the idea that time is the fourth dimension of spacetime, are incorrect. They propose to replace these concepts of time with a view that corresponds more accurately to the physical world: time as a measure of the numerical order of change."

► Magnetic forces at the center of the galaxy have twisted a nebula into the shape of DNA

2011-09-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

"Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm," said the study's lead author, Mark Morris of the University of California at Los Angeles. "Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas — space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order."

► New type of entanglement allows 'teleportation in time,' say physicists

2011-09-30T13:28:00.000-04:00

from MIT's Technology Review:

Conventional entanglement links particles across space. Now physicists say a similar effect links particles through time.

"Jay Olson and Timothy Ralph at the University of Queensland in Australia say they've discovered a new type of entanglement that extends, not through space, but through time.

They begin by thinking about a simplified universe consisting of one dimension of space and one of time.

It's easy to plot this universe on a plane with the x-axis corresponding to a spatial dimension and the y-axis corresponding to time.

If you imagine the present as the origin of this graph, then the future (ie the space you can reach at subluminal speeds) forms a wedge that is symmetric about the y-axis. Your past (ie the space you could have arrived from at subluminal speeds) is a mirror image of this wedge reflected in the x-axis.

When two particles are present, both sitting on the x-axis, their wedges will overlap in the future and in the past. This has a simple meaning: these particles could have interacted in the past and could do so again in the future, but only in the areas of overlap.

Conventional entanglement cuts across this world, quite literally. It acts along the the x-axis, linking particles instantly in time and in defiance of the boundaries to these wedges.

What Olson and Ralph show is that entanglement can just as easily work along the y-axis too. In other words, entanglement is so deeply enmeshed in the universe that a measurement in the past has an automatic influence on the future."

► Artificial leaf moves two steps closer to reality

2011-09-30T11:20:00.000-04:00

► DARPA investigates the neurobiology of narratives

2011-09-30T10:35:00.002-04:00

from Modern Mythology:

“If I were a betting man or woman, I would say that certain types of stories might be addictive and, neurobiologically speaking, not that different from taking a tiny hit of cocaine.”

~ William Casebeer of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia

► Theologue

2011-09-30T09:25:00.000-04:00

by Alex Grey

► Quantum computing with light

2011-09-30T08:59:00.000-04:00

from KurzweilAI:

"Researchers at MIT and Harvard University have described an experiment that allows a single photon to control the quantum state of another photon.

The result could have wide-ranging consequences for quantum computing and quantum communication.

To date, the most promising approach to building quantum computers has been to use ions trapped in electric fields. Using photons — particles of light — instead would have many advantages, but it’s difficult to get photons to interact: Two photons that collide in a vacuum simply pass through each other."

► Eye in the sky

2011-09-30T00:39:00.000-04:00

Siesta Key, FL

► Paralyzed patients control robot with brain waves

2011-09-30T00:24:00.000-04:00

from Slashdot:

"They're not quite psychic yet, but machines are getting better at reading your mind. Researchers have invented a new, noninvasive method for recording patterns of brain activity and using them to steer a robot.

Scientists hope the technology will give 'locked in' patients [...] the ability to interact with others and even give the illusion of being physically present [...] with friends and family."

► Mind uploading: Dr. Randal Koene on "Substrate-Independent Minds"

2011-09-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

from H+ Magazine:

"Dr. Randal Koene is a cross-disciplinary scientist whose background spans computational neuroscience, psychology, information theory, electrical engineering and physics. Currently serving as Director of Analysis at Halcyon Molecular, working on breakthrough methods in DNA sequencing and other projects, he was previously Director of the Department of Neuroengineering at Tecnalia, the third largest private research organization in Europe, and a professor at the Center for Memory and Brain of Boston University.

"... He’s also been perhaps the world’s most vocal, steadfast and successful advocate of the idea of “mind uploading” or, as he now prefers to call it “substrate-independent minds.” Putting a human brain in a digital computer, for example – or in general making practical technology for treating minds as patterns of organization and dynamics, rather than being tied to particular physical implementations.

His websites minduploading.org and carboncopies.org contain valuable information for anyone interested in these subjects – and in this interview he gives a wonderful overview of the current state and future prospects of R&D regarding substrate-independent minds."

[Read this interview]

► Novel alloy could produce indefinite hydrogen fuel from sunlight

2011-09-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

"Scientists from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville have determined that an inexpensive semiconductor material can be "tweaked" to generate hydrogen from water using sunlight.

[...] When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken. The hydrogen can then be collected.

[...] The alloy functions as a catalyst in the PEC reaction, meaning that it is not consumed and may be reused indefinitely."

► How quantum immortality works

2011-09-29T21:38:00.000-04:00

► Physicists recreate 'end of time' in a lab

2011-09-29T21:16:00.001-04:00

from MIT's Technology Review:

Ever wondered what would happen if the dimension of time came to a sudden end? A new experiment reveals all.

"...The idea is straightforward (no really!). Metamaterials can be made to behave like ordinary space with two dimensions of space and one of time. But they can also be made to behave like other types of spaces, with two dimensions of time and one of space, for example.

Smolyaninov points out that an interesting situation occurs when these two materials are place end on. If a time dimension is perpendicular to a space dimension, it simply hits a dead end. In other words, time runs out."

► Black holes as quantum computers

2011-09-29T19:59:00.000-04:00

"Lloyd has proposed that a black hole could serve as a quantum computer and data storage bank. In black holes, he says, Hawking radiation, which escapes the black hole, unintentionally carries information about material inside the black hole. This is because the matter falling into the black hole becomes entangled with the radiation leaving its vicinity, and this radiation captures information on nearly all the matter that falls into the black hole."

“We might be able to figure out a way to essentially program the black hole by putting in the right collection of matter,” he suggests.

► Beyond 10,000 AD...

2011-09-29T18:45:00.002-04:00

• Timeline of the Universe

"Welcome to the future! Here you will find a speculative timeline of future history. Part fact and part fiction, the timeline is based on detailed research that includes analysis of current trends, projected long-term environmental changes, advances in technology such as Moore's Law, future medical breakthroughs, and the evolving geopolitical landscape."

► It's just a ride

2011-09-29T16:28:00.000-04:00

► Implications of computerized intelligence on interstellar travel

2011-09-29T16:27:00.000-04:00

from H+ Magazine:

This article proposes the theory that it is highly unlikely we will ever send humans beyond the solar system, not because it is fundamentally impossible — or even necessarily difficult — to do so, but because technologies that would circumvent such efforts will arrive before we would embark on such a mission.

This not to suggest that we, as a civilization, will not voyage to the stars — merely that we will not travel there as flesh-and-blood humans.

The technologies which will disrupt such a mission are two forms of computerized intelligence: artificial general intelligence (AGI, computers and robots endowed with human-level mental capabilities), and mind-uploading (MU, the transfer of an individual person’s mind from the brain to an artificial and engineered substrate, i.e., a computer).

► Time

2011-09-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

► Faster-than-light neutrinos could be proof of extra dimensions

2011-09-28T21:46:00.001-04:00

from io9:

"...Instead, they could take a shortcut through a theoretical fourth spatial dimension, which would provide a shorter distance between two points than would be possible in the normal three dimensions."

► Inception infographics

2011-09-28T17:58:00.000-04:00

► Gigantic gravitational waves could explain the universe’s biggest mysteries

2011-09-27T22:28:00.000-04:00

From io9:

"Modern physics assumes the universe is the same all over... but that might not be the case. Until recently, physics held that the universe was contracting... now we're stuck with dark energy. But one moderately insane new theory could explain it all."

"... But what if there's a middle path, one that acknowledges the existence of these baffling anomalies and leaves multiple centuries worth of physics intact? That's basically the new idea put forward by Edmund Schluessel of Cardiff University. The answer, he argues, is found in gravitational waves, which are disturbances in the fabric of spacetime created by massive gravitational disturbances like colliding black holes or the Big Bang. [READ MORE]

► Dripping Bird

2011-09-27T22:21:00.000-04:00

by Maurizio Bongiovanni

► Thought for the day

2011-09-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

"Every cubic centimeter of empty space contains more energy than the total energy of all the matter in the known universe." ~ Bohm

► This is not animated

2011-09-21T12:43:00.000-04:00

► 3D printing roundup

2011-09-17T14:17:00.000-04:00

Artificial blood vessels made through 3D printing

Solar 3D printer uses only Saharan sand and sun to make actual objects

MIT research on “printing” buildings

Special Ops seek 3D printer

Printing a human kidney

3D printer passes zero gravity test to make space tools

Printing life size replicas of yourself

The wild possibilities of 3D printed food

3D printing device could build moon base from lunar dust

► As above so below

2011-09-16T12:29:00.000-04:00

One is only micrometers wide.

The other is billions of light years across.

One shows neurons in a mouse brain.

The other is a simulated image of the universe.

Together they suggest the surprisingly similar patterns found in vastly different phenomena.

► Headline of the year. Or a band name.

2011-09-13T23:56:00.000-04:00

"Supercomputer predicts revolution"

► Stingray X-ray

2011-09-12T15:57:00.000-04:00

Heliotrygon, a new genus of Amazon freshwater stingray

► Space news roundup

2011-09-11T14:32:00.000-04:00

It's remarkable how much information can be gleaned in only a few months.

► "Scientist Builds Working Time Machine"

2011-09-11T14:31:00.000-04:00

In a story reminiscent of Ong's Hat, a Russian engineer named Vadim Alexandrovich Chernobrov has reportedly built a working time machine:

"...At first, the researchers spent periods of five, ten and later, twenty minutes in the field of the time machine; the longest stay recorded lasted about half an hour. Chernobrov reported the volunteers felt as if they had shifted into a different world: 'they felt life here and there at the same time as if some space was unfolding.'"

[Note: the image is from his website and may or may not be the device described above]

• Random thought: The first person to invent a time machine could theoretically stop anyone from ever doing the same. Might that have already happened / will happen? Could this line of possibility fall under the realm of advanced corporate espionage? And might the creation of the first time machine virtually prove that it is the only time machine? Discuss.

► All 64 I Ching Hexagrams (King Wen sequence)

2011-09-09T16:16:00.000-04:00

䷀䷁䷂䷃䷄䷅䷆䷇ ䷈䷉䷊䷋䷌䷍䷎䷏
䷐䷑䷒䷓䷔䷕䷖䷗ ䷘䷙䷚䷛䷜䷝䷞䷟
䷠䷡䷢䷣䷤䷥䷦䷧ ䷨䷩䷪䷫䷬䷭䷮䷯
䷰䷱䷲䷳䷴䷵䷶䷷ ䷸䷹䷺䷻䷼䷽䷾䷿

► Read this book

2011-09-09T12:16:00.001-04:00

Okay, stop what you are doing. Seriously.

• "Ready Player One: the best science fiction novel I’ve read in a decade"

~ Mark Frauenfelder, boingboing
Click here for the hardcover, here for the Kindle edition, here for a PDF of the first 3 chapters for free, or grab your keys and head to the bookstore.

You won't regret it.

► Is this thing on?

2011-09-08T16:02:00.001-04:00

Howdy. Got the itch to start blogging again.

Topics may or may not include: personal stuff, Hukilau/digital publishing, space, futurism, books, time, linux, writing, 3D printing, Google+, holography, memes, post-scarcity economics, Augmented Reality, film, BCIs (brain-computer interfaces), linguistics, Gnosticism, TV shows, neuroscience, future archaeologists, art, quantum physics, copywrong, PKD, the pseudo-security state, AI, & Guinness.

► Neural vegetation

2011-09-07T12:15:00.000-04:00

► Re-reading List

2009-10-03T13:44:00.000-04:00

You know those books that are always lying around?; they've been thoroughly devoured, yet continue to offer insight the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th times through. Well, here are a few of mine:

VALIS by Philip K. Dick
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot
The I Ching by Wilhelm/Baynes
The Nag Hammadi Library
The Archaic Revival by Terence McKenna
Media Virus by Douglas Rushkoff

What does your re-reading list look like?

► Print out DHARMA Initiative labels

2009-10-02T12:47:00.003-04:00

From: maxpictures.com

The latest:

DHARMA Initiative Wines, Red POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Wines, White LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Wines AD

The rest:

DHARMA Initiative A-1 Sauce POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Beans, Refried (16 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Binder Covers POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Binder Spines (2.5-inch capacity) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative (Corned) Beef (12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative (Green) Chiles, Diced (7 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Cashews (40 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Chili with Beans (15 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Chili with Beans (19 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative (Milk) Chocolate Bars (2.6 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative (Miniature) Chocolates POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Cake Mix (18.25 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Cake Mix (18.25 OZ) (for 11×17-capable printers) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Cake Mix ad POST AD

DHARMA Initiative Coffee, Instant (8 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Coffee, Instant ad POST AD

DHARMA Initiative Cola (2L) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Corn, Whole Kernel (15.25 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Disinfectant Spray POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Disinfectant Spray ad AD

DHARMA Initiative Eye Drops POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Fruit POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Guacamole Dip (11.5 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Kidney Beans (15.25 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Lager, Amber (12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Lemon Lime Soda (2L) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Logos, Pearl Station POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Macaroni & Cheese Supper (6 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Macaroni & Cheese Supper (6 OZ) (for 11×17-capable printers) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Merlot (750 mL) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Milk, Evaporated (12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Mints (.625 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Oats (42 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Oats ad POST AD

DHARMA Initiative Olives, Extra Large Pitted (6 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Orange Soda (2L) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Peanuts (12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Potato Crisps (6 OZ) (for 11×17-capable printers) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Pharmaceutical (10mg 300 Tablets) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative (Spiced) Pork and Ham POST LABEL (formerly DHARMA Initiative Processed Meat)

DHARMA Initiative (Spiced) Pork and Ham ad POST AD

DHARMA Initiative Sake (300mL) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Salsa con Queso (15.5 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Sodas (12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Soups (19 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Soup, Condensed Tomato (10.75 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Tomato Soup Can art POST ART

DHARMA Initiative Stout, Pasteurized (11.2 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Tequila, Blended Gold (750 mL) POST LABEL (Oh yeah)

DHARMA Initiative Tomatoes, Diced (14.5 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Tomato Paste (6 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Tortilla Chips (16 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Travel ad POST AD

DHARMA Initiative Tuna (6 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Pepper Sauce (5 and 12 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Vienna Sausages (5 OZ) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Vodka (750 mL) POST LABEL

DHARMA Initiative Water (.5 L) POST LABEL

► Gnostic excerpt of PKD's The Divine Invasion

2009-09-28T13:27:00.004-04:00

*not for everyone
From Philip K. Dick's The Divine Invasion (1981)

"I will always speak the truth to you Herb Asher", the boy continued.

"There is no deceit in God. I want you to live. I made you live once before, when you lay in psychological death. God does not desire any living thing's death. God takes no delight in nonexistance.

Do you know what God is, Herb Asher? God is he who causes to be.

Put another way, If you seek the basis of being that underlies everything, you will surely find God.

You can work back to God from the phenomenal universe. Each implies the other.

The Creator would not be the Creator if there were no universe, and the universe would cease to be if the Creator did not sustain it.

The Creator does not exist prior to the universe in time, He does not exist in time at all. God creates the universe constantly; he is with it, not above it or behind it.

This is impossible to understand for you because you are a created thing and exist in time.

But eventually you will return to your creator and then you will no longer exist in time. You are the breath of your creator. As He breathes in and out, you live.

Remember that, for that sums up everything you need to know about your God.

There is first an exhallation from God on the part of all creation, and then, at a certain point, It starts its journey back, it's inhallation.

This cycle never ceases. You leave me; You are away from me; You start back; You rejoin me.

You and everything else. It is a process; an event. It is an activity; my activity. It is the realm of my own being, and it sustains you all."

► Cubed Triagrams [pic]

2009-09-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

Scan of a drawing I did a while back:

[Click to enlarge]

► Time need not end in the multiverse

2009-09-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

from New Scientist:

"It all started with this thought experiment. In a back room in a Las Vegas casino, you are handed a fair coin to flip. You will not be allowed to see the outcome, and the moment the coin lands you will fall into a deep sleep. If the coin lands heads up, the dealer will wake you 1 minute later; tails, in 1 hour. Upon waking, you will have no idea how long you have just slept.

The dealer smiles: would you like to bet on heads or tails? Knowing it's a fair coin, you assume your odds are 50/50, so you choose tails. But the house has an advantage. The dealer knows you will almost certainly lose, because she is factoring in something you haven't: that we live in a multiverse.

[...] Upon waking, you have new information: you know that time didn't end. That now means it is more likely that you only slept for a minute than for an hour. After all, time could end at any minute, and an hour has an extra 59 of those to spare. Heads wins.

[...] The essence of the argument is that you don't need any new information, in this case the fact that you woke up, to understand why the odds are no longer 50/50. In a multiverse that grows exponentially, where each new generation of universes is far larger than the last, younger universes always outnumber older ones. Waking up, you will either be in a universe in which 1 minute has passed (heads), or in a universe in which 1 hour has passed (tails). "The experiment sets up a 59-minute ambiguity in the age of the universe," Guth says. "You should always bet on the younger one."

► Is the universe infinite?

2009-09-24T11:38:00.000-04:00