Over the course of the past couple weeks I have been working on several essays in parallel, and per my usual style none of them are complete yet. Instead, I felt it would be more interesting to write up a quick note based on some random, otherwise pointless writings that I discovered hiding in my writing folder today. Now I must warn you that these writing span the range from rants, to poems, to stories, to free writes and all written some time ago. To be honest, I remember writing only a few of these. I preface all of them with a ‘grain of salt’ disclosure—just don’t judge.
Hope you like them…
- Simulation.docx (rant)
- Copy and Paste (poem)
- Random.docx (short note)
- To Love (poem)
- On Origins (incomplete egotism?)
- Devil’s Flashlight (?)
Simulation.docx
I am finding myself deeply impressed by my failure to understand and to cognate a substanative difference between simulated phenomenon and the actual phenomenon. Let me give you an example which may serve to confer my loss. First, in order to begin in the proper place, I must layout some axioms so to speak.
- Any ‘physical’ property of an atom rests in the wave function for that atom. (All observables are manifestations of measurements on the wave function).
- A system of two atoms can be measured in an identical way as a single atom, and all properties are dictated by the composition of the two individual wave functions for the atoms.
- A system of n atoms is identical to a composite of an atom and a system of n-1 atoms (ad infinatum).
There, so consider a single atom in a box which we will call the test chamber. In this test chamber any and all tests can be performed to arbitrary accuracy (within the confines permitted by quantum mechanics). The results of any test a scientist wishes to perform can be displayed on a screen as clear as day. If an electron is placed in the chamber then the display might look something like:
Charge: -1
Mass: 9.109 382 15(45)×10-31 kg
Spin: ½
Velocity: 0.0 m/s (rel. to chamber)
… …
And the same sorts of test could be made of a proton, or a carbon atom, or a molecule. All sorts of more interesting questions arise when the object in the chamber becomes more complex and interesting. Observables for each particle remain confined to the aspects of the quantum wave function, but system phenomenon emerge such as temperature, flow, and pressure.
Now, imagine the machine has been hacked and the screen no longer displays the results of experiments run in the test chamber but instead shows measurements taken through a software simulation. This isn’t just any simulation, this simulation runs on a computer capable of modeling quantum wave functions. So instead of merely being an approximation, this computer give perfect results. And it would be important to note here that instead of merely giving a list of numbers stored in its memory (or Wikipedia), it instead runs the same experiment the test chamber would have but in its simulated reality.
This new system provides the same answers as the original test chamber did and no one knows the difference. As long as the computer knows, on a quantum level, what the sample placed into the test chamber consists of, then the computer can run all the tests on a simulated copy of the sample. The computer, in a very real way, formulates a virtual copy of any sample—a copy perfect to the smallest level: the quantum level.
Copy and Paste.txt
Google the line, plagiarize for necessity.
The environment of our age, the Bible for the times,
Like a little bit of literature, the worlds new wiki.
Saw your youtube, it is all of you, but little of me,
That is how it was said, yet it did not happen.
Pandora’s box is never bored or bitchy,
Hear the twitter in the morning, it goes well with coffee.
Bought a mac on ebay and updat’d the Kindle.
This world is an amazonian jungle.
Random.docx
In yogurt you have two primary cultures (typically), Streptococcus thermophiles and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus which work in synergy to ferment the lactose in dairy. S.t is believed to produce the folic acid and formic acid necessary for L.d while L.d. produces some amino acids for S.t. In addition, L.d. produces acetaldehyde which, besides being a chief aroma agent, is also the same product produced by alcohol dehydrogenase after ethyl alcohol consumption.
Disulfiram is an interesting chemical discoved in the 1920’s which has been used to combat alcoholism by producing one hell of a hangover as it blocks acetaldehyde dehydrogenase leading for this chemical to build up in the body.
To Love,
Im talking about love here
You know what I mean, that excruciating extruding feeling
It is an emotion of pain and fracture. Fractal,
like a conifer
The needles prick at you, outch, but the deep color
So true and deep, and so deep draws you back in
All the way to be pricked again and again
The pain. But the beauty remains
That needled stalk, the branch, no! the trunk stands tall
very erect, standing there, perfect
the trunk, the central core, that which is central to life
love; and we are back there again
love is life’s centre
the pivot point of potential and hope and feeling
and pain. Love, without it I am dead.
dead is life so much without the liberty of ‘nother
the better half to stand besides, within, for, prepositions
that roll into prepostery. But I am alone
love is waking and bathing, and walking and breathing
talking and feeling and frustration
love is my life but I am dead,
Love
On origins
In order to understand this topic or that dynamic fully, at least in my opinion, one must understand and delve into the origins of that phenomenon. It is only here, at the creation does true understanding and insight begin, an insight which develops along with phenomenon in natural, rhythmic procession.
It is this, let’s call it my first principle, that the whole of my person springs. The fields or disciplines which I have been enamored with at one point or another include physics, math, biology, chemistry, geology, and anthropology. Each of these disciplines connects in a beautiful way once I describe my interest and goal in each of them.
First lets take a look at physics. I feel in love with the way this science aligned with my understanding of the physical world. It so intimately gave voice to my un-manifested understanding of dynamics, force and movement that a year’s worth of college courses in the subject did little more than refine my already complete conception of the physical laws. Now where in this broad and encompassing discipline did my interest and thought track towards? The origin of the universe naturally. Although I kept an open interest in many of the sub-disciplines of physics—material, energy, applied—I always found myself drifting back to the big bang, information theory (more of this topic later), and particle physics. While I cannot claim a very high level of understanding in any of these topics (I am an undergraduate non-major after all), I still felt an inherent truth with these physics. The origin of the universe and particles and reality still leads me to read the (relatively) technical or popular texts in physics to this day.
Moving on. Although I shall not dwell on this once-major of mine, mathematics, I feel its worth a mention considering the sway it once held in my life. Having declared myself a math major and mathematician since the age of 7 or so, I am understandably well acquainted with this ancient and noble discipline. Through all the fields of mathematics that I have encounter I have found none which so captured my interest and heart as information theory. For a number of reasons it took possession of me (and ultimately forced me to drop the major in my undergraduate); but most importantly, I loved the understanding it enabled. Information theory allows a fundamental and foundational analysis of countless areas including physics, computer science, and electrical engineering. The best part of it is that it explains phenomenon in these diverse disciplines in such a fundamental way.
The devil’s flashlight
The T going on standby, not accepting meal plan money, Newton bus stopping and leaving randomly , […]—these are all situations where a lack of communication quickly builds into our frustration. How are we supposed to be understanding when for all we know these inconveniences are just as they seem: for no good reason.
All too often seemingly arbitrary choices are made, often making our lives just that little bit more complicated, and to which we have no choice but to become upset and frustrated.