Monthly Archives: March 2019

This is fascinating. But I think we have to remember that out mental models are just that. If there is a shared reality, this implies that it is more complex than we can imagine.

An article in the MIT Technology Review describes how Proietti and co actually was able to perform the Wigner’s Friend test, an experiment using six linked photons.

“Wigner imagined a friend in a different lab measuring the state of this photon and storing the result, while Wigner observed from afar. Wigner has no information about his friend’s measurement and so is forced to assume that the photon and the measurement of it are in a superposition of all possible outcomes of the experiment.

Wigner can even perform an experiment to determine whether this superposition exists or not. This is a kind of interference experiment showing that the photon and the measurement are indeed in a superposition.

From Wigner’s point of view, this is a “fact”—the superposition exists. And this fact suggests that a measurement cannot have taken place.

But this is in stark contrast to the point of view of the friend, who has indeed measured the photon’s polarization and recorded it. The friend can even call Wigner and say the measurement has been done (provided the outcome is not revealed).

So the two realities are at odds with each other. “This calls into question the objective status of the facts established by the two observers,” say Proietti and co.

That’s the theory, but last year Caslav Brukner, at the University of Vienna in Austria, came up with a way to re-create the Wigner’s Friend experiment in the lab by means of techniques involving the entanglement of many particles at the same time.

The breakthrough that Proietti and co have made is to carry this out. “In a state-of-the-art 6-photon experiment, we realize this extended Wigner’s friend scenario,” they say.

They use these six entangled photons to create two alternate realities—one representing Wigner and one representing Wigner’s friend. Wigner’s friend measures the polarization of a photon and stores the result. Wigner then performs an interference measurement to determine if the measurement and the photon are in a superposition.

The experiment produces an unambiguous result. It turns out that both realities can coexist even though they produce irreconcilable outcomes, just as Wigner predicted.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for the SuperMajority

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex Interview in Vanity Fair

AOC has hit a raw nerve leaving a daily trail of ad-hominem attacks by the right. She is branded a communist and socialist. But if you examine the issues, she is clearly reflecting the desire of the SuperMajority!

She is also articulate, transparent, and honest. She is not inheriting from the elites. This is why she is seen as dangerous even by some Democrats.

The new generation of freshmen (women) Democrats represent a powerful group representing the people. Let us hope that their advisors help them through the treacherous swamp of American politics driven and paid for by powerful interests. There is deep corruption on both sides of the isle.

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NYTimes: The Oppression of the Supermajority

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The New York Times: The Oppression of the Supermajority

“The defining political fact of our time is not polarization. It’s the thwarting of a largely unified public.”

There is a real problem with our framing, the way thoughts are presented to the public by all sides of the media. It about left vs right, Socialism vs Capitalism, Democratic vs Republican.

In reality, the vast majority of this country are united about a number of things:

“About 75 percent of Americans favor higher taxes for the ultrawealthy. The idea of a federal law that would guarantee paid maternity leave attracts 67 percent support. Eighty-three percent favor strong net neutrality rules for broadband, and more than 60 percent want stronger privacy laws. Seventy-one percent think we should be able to buy drugs imported from Canada, and 92 percent want Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.”

I have also seen strong evidence the vast majority is for Medicare for all, Social Security, and effective measures to deal with Climate Change. They are against corruption by the elites and frustrated over the preferential treatment of large corporations.
Candidates would do well to move past the labels of being socialist and address the issues directly.

Simulation Conundrum II :: Revert?

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“Very good lunch. Those algebraic expressions as garnish on the main Hilbert space were delicious!”

He waved his hand and looked back into the scape appearing. “It is all very disappointing. For the last aeons nothing even came close.”

She peered over his shoulder. “Those amorphous electrical clouds were cute.”

“But they had no way to evolve. Their tittering conversations made pretty lights, but it never got to a meta stage – the nature of being, that sort of thing.”

“Well, they seemed to demonstrate qualia.”

“In any case, they could not survive their sun’s big solar event when their planet’s poles decided to flip. No magnetosphere and poof!”

“We could roll back the simulation to an earlier snapshot.”

“You are willing to do that to their whole universe? Think of all the other things evolving. All that life that never was!”

“None of it will know the difference. It is after all just a simulation.”

“Do the simulated dream of models?”

“We just have to pick the right rev to maximize success.”

Simulation Conundrum I :: It Passed So Quickly

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“Odd,” he said.
“Odd?” She said.
“I think I am seeing something in the simulation!”
“Really, show me!”
“Oh, it passed. Interesting culture. Got all the way to meta communications. And there were several memes focused on empathy. But they degraded.”
“Sad…”
“The planet will recover. Let’s do lunch!”

Seeds of Destruction

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Image taken from the article: Our ‘selfish’ genes contain the seeds of our destruction – but there might be a fix

The internet and social media spanning the world with billions of participants is changing the nature of our culture and civilization. Due to its fast spread its dramatic impact is likely higher in a shorter period than the invention of writing and the printing press. Film and radio as propaganda media had a dramatic impact on WW I and WW II. Will social media be seen as the fire that destroyed Western Civilization due to its pervasive impact?

In my view one of the most destructive culprits in the universe of social media is Facebook. It does not do this unknowingly.

Facebook’s seeding of social destruction is by cynical design. The system’s true monetary value is your data and ATTENTION.

ATTENTION is generated by siloing the user base and feeding each silo information that is bound to excite. It either fervently supports the shared outlook or fuels hatred of the opposition. The Facebook algorithm selects the user postings and seeded information from other sources in front of you based on deep analysis. If you look at the placed information, it is aimed at generating division even if it appears to support your point of view.

The silo user base amplifies this attention.

HATRED of the opposition is the strongest emotion here. Although we think we are debating facts, they move to the background. I should also note that the rules we use to view the facts in relation to the world are distorted impacting our perception of “truthiness.” More about that in another post.

In other words, Facebook’s SHAREHOLDER VALUE IS HATRED. It has earned them billions!

It is very destructive in its pervasiveness.

The destruction is on several levels:

The resulting divisiveness is poison to rational discourse.
Facts are no longer important, beliefs are.
It prevents rational resolution of issues based on compromise.
Trust in institution or experts is undermined and destroyed.
It leads to extreme leadership and demagoguery, which play into the tribal hatred. Centrism cannot compete in this atmosphere.
Eventually the polity is destroyed, because it cannot any longer be governed and function.

This is Stephen Bannon’s agenda. We are mid game in this regard, but well along the way of destroying institutions and regulation forged over the last decades and centuries. In fact, our Separation of Powers is no longer working! This is a constitutional crisis or at least Constitutional Rot. The real problem is not only that many people are seriously suffering (economic inequality) or dying (lack of healthcare,) but we are not furthering pace and the worldwide action required to solve climate change. And the window for climate change action is closing. Even if we get out polity back into a state of health, it might be too late to avoid catastrophic consequences, which will especially impact poor nations and lead to further global instability.

Although we seem to act like a “Banana Republic,” we are the largest economy in the world. Our leadership, action or inaction count in a dominant way.

To paraphrase Cato the Elder, Facebook must be destroyed,

Note: I originally posted this in response to a concern about social media’s destructiveness on the polity on Facebook. After some thought I had to elevate my response and start moving my focus away from Facebook only using it as a means of distribution and getting attention.

ps I first was alluding to the “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire, but then also found the Sons of Aeon, a melodic Death Metal Band wailing from Finland. My son really turned me on the genre, which actually has some very thoughtful if dark lyrics and exquisite instrument playing. I have become a fan of Katatonia (lately more progressive rock).

Here then the lyrics for Seeds of Destruction:

Sight into the future… Does not exist
We need no prophets to realise it
Next breath you’re about to take
Could be your last
Drown yourself in hatred, forget the past
This world of confusion
Where moral is just a word
Meaningless and forgotten…
Thing we should not talk about
Souls for sale
Dreams of yesterday… Drifting away
A glimpse of humanity… Does not exist
See the smile on their faces… You’ll realise it
Filth holds the reins of power
Rivers are turning red
Irrigate the fields of hate
Sow the seeds of destruction
There will be blood… Where dead roses bloom

And a quick taste of Katatonia from their track Last Song Before The Fade from their album The Fall of Hearts:

…
Who’s in control
Spite
So cold in this light.

Reflective summary
Froze me in a frame
My time had run out before the future came
Depart from insight
Breach was made.
…

For good reason this generation does not sound very hopeful. Time for some peaceful “Hearts of Space!”

The Meaning

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Meaning in its narrow definition is crucial to our communications. In normal use words and sentences are primarily used for their meaning. Although in art we might use language for its sound, in normal writing or conversation we use it it to communicate a thought, an intent, an observation, or a request.

Language is shared. A key component of learning the language is not just about the sound of the words or the grammar ruling its assembly, but what its shared meaning is both in the word’s denotation as well as it connotation. It is based on the assumption that there is a shared reality and a shared set of internalized models of that reality.

But this is not really what I want to write about.

I want to talk about the word meaning with another connotation such as the “meaning of life, the universe, and everything.”

This kind of question is interesting and probably uniquely human. It is a meta level inquiry that moves the question of meaning to something that has this at its core and purpose – language – and applies it to a process or thing that as far as language is concerned has no other relevancy beyond its existence.

Life and the universe simply are as is everything.

As humans we see purpose and, by abstraction, meaning in our creations. The purpose of a hammer is to fasten a nail. Nailing is what makes a hammer’s existence meaningful.

But we also translate the same process to stuff that is simply there and cannot be easily explained – life, the universe, a sudden illness, or death.

We wonder, what’s the point? But there is no point.

It’s one of the reasons we invented religions. It’s a subject of philosophy.

But in the end this kind of meaning is only meaningful to each of us personally. There can never be any proof for the “meaning of life, the universe, and everything.”

After the Silence Stops

Reflections on events, matter, spirit, and the settling of dust

Monthly Archives: March 2019

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for the SuperMajority

NYTimes: The Oppression of the Supermajority

Simulation Conundrum II :: Revert?

Simulation Conundrum I :: It Passed So Quickly

Seeds of Destruction

The Meaning