Physicists testing to see if universe is a computer simulation?
December 18, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Sci-Tech
Could this be a computer simulation? (Space.com)Will you take the red pill or the blue pill?
Some physicists and university researchers say it’s possible to test the theory that our entire universe exists inside a computer simulation, like in the 1999 film “The Matrix.”
In 2003, University of Oxford philosophy professor Nick Bostrom published a paper, “The Simulation Argument,” which argued that, “we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.” Now, a team at Cornell University says it has come up with a viable method for testing whether we’re all just a series of numbers in some ancient civilization’s computer game.
Researchers at the University of Washington agree with the testing method, saying it can be done. A similar proposal was put forth by German physicists in November.
So how, precisely, can we test whether we exist? Put simply, researchers are building their own simulated models, using a technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics. And while those models are currently able to produce models only slightly larger than the nucleus of an atom, University of Washington physics professor Martin Savage says the same principles used in creating those simulations can be applied on a larger scale.
“This is the first testable signature of such an idea,” Savage said. “If you make the simulations big enough, something like our universe should emerge.”
The testing method is far more complex. Consider the Cornell University explanation: “Using the historical development of lattice gauge theory technology as a guide, we assume that our universe is an early numerical simulation with unimproved Wilson fermion discretization and investigate potentially-observable consequences.”
To translate, if energy signatures in our simulations match those in the universe at large, there’s a good chance we, too, exist within a simulation.
Interestingly, one of Savage’s students takes the hypothesis further: If we stumble upon the nature of our existence, would we then look for ways to communicate with the civilization who created us?
University of Washington student Zohreh Davoudi says whoever made our simulated universe might have made others, and maybe we should “simply” attempt to communicate with those. ”The question is, ‘Can you communicate with those other universes if they are running on the same platform?’” she asked.
Keith Olbermann and Al Gore: the secret emails revealed
April 10, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Satire
Current TV Fires Olbermann, Hires disgraced ex NY Gov Eliot Spitzer Instead.
On March 30th, Current TV terminated its relationship with outspoken liberal anchor Keith Olbermann. The Daily Caller has exclusively obtained many of the emails between Olbermann and network founder Al Gore in the months leading up to the split.
They are reprinted here for the first time, in their entirety, and without comment.
FROM: Keith Olbermann
TO: Al Gore
DATE: June 18, 2011
Dear Albert,
“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
Those words come from Samuel Clemens, perhaps better known to you as literary colossus Mark Twain.
I need not tell you, Al, that I am that scarce man who refuses to remain silent when he sees injustice, that patriot who stands tall and strong and brave, even when hated and scorned. And I do see injustice – even here at Current TV.
I tried to remedy my current morass without coming to you, Al, but with no remedy forthcoming, I feel compelled to bring to your attention my roadblock, which you shall note is something far more severe than a mere speed bump.
In the new studio for my show, I find no golden scepter despite my explicit request to Joel Hyatt for one. This will be an indispensable part of my new show and I see no reason why I have to justify its expense.
Also, the Current proletariat seem to have no inhibitions about walking up to me and freely engaging me in conversation, as if I have time for their verbal meanderings. For all their faults, my employers at MSNBC made it explicitly clear that if someone wanted to communicate with me, they could do so — but only through letters written in calligraphy that were deposited in a receptacle outside my office between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.
Why has this same policy not yet been communicated at Current?
In a letter written in his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama at a time of great tumult, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote prophetically: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Will you fix my injustices, Al?
Yours Truly,
Keith Theodore Olbermann
Cornell University, Class of 1979
p.s. We also have to replace stinky my car driver — pronto!!!
FROM: Al Gore
TO: Keith Olbermann
DATE: June 22, 2011
Hello Keith,
When do you think they will commodify the rain? Someday they will try and turn it to poison. You came onboard to this endeavor full of promise. Has that good tide soured?
You are a part of me. We are all one. My life force drives Current. I am its noble blood.
I intend to be the Defender of Nature. Will you join me? Gold from streams untapped is all the more sweet. Can you taste it on your tongue?
I am standing in an almond now. It stands inside me. My scepter is made from almond wood and laced with sage. It is powerful. Soon I will command the oceans. The fish listen already.
We are all one. Even Stinky.
Mahalo,
A.G.
TO: Al Gore
DATE: December 12, 2011Promote my show? Really, Al? Here’s a compromise. I’ll do it when you get me my f’ing golden scepter. Six months in and sill no f’ing scepter. What is this, Somalia TV?
Keith Theodore Olbermann
Cornell University, Class of 1979
p.s. “Car service” number 5 not cutting it. I don’t think it is too much to expect a sedan — and not a two-seater bicycle — to pick me up.
TO: Keith Olbermann
FROM: Al Gore
DATE: December 15, 2011
Hello Keith,
My dreams have begun to trouble me. Our language has not yet caught up with the artist. There is a moon we have visited but do not understand, and in our unwillingness to see clearly, we have tried to turn it into something menacing.
Put it this way: is it a man with a hat, or a hat with a man? If man were to evolve the capacity to grow hats, would we still call them hats? How would we view them? As equals? I hope so.
Are you able to understand what I’m telling you?
Mahalo,
A.G.
FROM: Keith Olbermann
TO: Al Gore
DATE: March 20th, 2012
Albert,
Let me put my cards on the table. I’m not happy about the car service fiascos. I’m not happy that my studio doesn’t have electricity. I’m not happy with the a young Turkish fellow you have on before me. I’m not happy that you expect me to show up to work regularly and sober. I particularly loathe the daily showering rule you have mandated. And as you and the entire staff are abundantly aware by now, I’m especially unhappy about the golden scepter imbroglio.
But I must say that each and every time I reach out to you, you invariably write back with extremely lucid and helpful advice.
So it is in that spirit I come to you on my last leg, a leg that is not young, strong and fresh, but one that is wooden and rotting. I need four things from you immediately, Al, if I am to remain at Current to continue to fight against the one percenters and the corporate oligarchs that threaten this nation, and indeed this very world:
1) 345 days of vacation a year.
2) The public impaling of Joel Hyatt.
3) My f’ing golden scepter.
4) A ruby encrusted toilet seat in my private bathroom.
Yours in Truth,
Keith Theodore Olbermann
Cornell University, Class of 1979
FROM: Al Gore
TO: Keith Olbermann
DATE: March 22nd, 2012
Keith,
When we first shook hands I saw a moon dance. I saw a great river pounding the volcanos of Hawai’i. There are wires all around us that I thought you saw, theories and modes of being far removed from suburban connotations of ease and malfeasance.
It’s become clear over the last few months that you don’t understand the mission of Current. I don’t know if this is because you can’t understand Thomas Kuhn’s theories of scientific revolution, or Cartesian modes of thought, or the life-cycle of Thetans.
It’s not that the dew reflects a perfect world. You can understand that, can’t you? We all are one through technology, but I feel that revolution has left you cold somehow, your unwillingness to accept me as antediluvian. There is a shame to passion.
Mahalo,
A.G.
p.s. any chance you have Elliot Spitzer’s number?
