The Simulation Argument Goes Way Back

On the other hand, if we could somehow demonstrate that we're living in a simulated reality then there might be some fairly major consequences for the whole idea of a "Theory of Everything". Finding a grand unified theory to unite all the forces of nature would then only be a description of this reality, but not necessarily a valid description of the universe which spawned ours, or the one that spawned that one. So the "end of science" would be pushed back indefinitely and quite possibly, forever. The prime goal of science would shift from seeking to attain a complete model of reality to the search for a means to communicate with the "programmers", or whatever you wanted to call them.

Simulation cosmology appeals to me, in part, because of the ways it might explain "paranormal" phenomena. Maybe UFO encounters and near-death experiences offer portals into a computationally richer domain that we struggle to define for sheer lack of vocabulary.

Any Message for Whoever's Simulating Our World? Leave It Here and Win a Real Prize

If we are in that simulation, what's your message to the simulator? You can offer constructive criticism (think of the blog as a suggestion box), meditations, strategic flattery, pleas or rationales for letting humanity (or at least you) survive and prosper in this world and beyond. Post whatever you want, and I'll pick a winner next week.

Alternatively, feel free to leave your textual offering to the Great Simulator as a comment right here at Posthuman Blues (sorry -- no prizes available).

Tom Snyder, J. Allen Hynek and my friend Peter Gersten discuss the UFO phenomenon in this 1980 clip:



I like Snyder's sensible, curious approach to the subject. No condescension, no silly allusions, no veiled insults -- just informed questions that allow a casual yet thought-provoking dialogue. Ufology needs more venues of this caliber.

Another dubious (if striking) UFO video:



(Hat tip to UFOMystic's Greg Bishop.)

"Ficlets" you ask?

A ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world.

Once you've written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you'll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.

(Via Reality Carnival.)

Part of me is inclined to suggest that this meme just might take off. I should test the waters by posting a couple shorts from my fiction blog, Extracranial.

I'm completing a play -- my first -- for Nova Scotia's Semaphore Theatre. I just got an email from Google (which I've trained to do my ego-surging for me) and was directed to this update.

Knowing that "Doing Time" (very loosely based on a short-story I published in 1995) will actually be performed by living, breathing actors is a fairly trippy prospect, somehow more dire than merely committing words to paper (or, more often than not, a computer screen). And I still haven't ironed out the back-story about Martian pharmaceuticals . . .

Korff vs. Randle and the Great Roswell Debate

And just in case you're wondering, Paul's not bluffing. Or if he is he's fooled me.

Arctic Ice Coverage Will Shrink to 2050 Projections . . . This Summer

Yes, dear readers, you read that correctly.

Sometimes you wish records didn't get broken. A group of Japanese science agencies announced today that the area of the Arctic Sea covered by ice is at its lowest level ever recorded. It reached this low point on August 15th, and it's going to get worse. Ice levels should continue to shrink all the way through mid-September. If reality matches predictions, the ice levels will reach IPCC predictions 40 years ahead of schedule.

Israeli Researchers Take First Step Toward Live Computer Chip

With the use of chemical stimulation, Ben-Jacob and Baruchi discovered that they could trigger a man-made network of neurons to imprint patterns - the same process by which the brain creates memories. This discovery marks an early but crucial step toward the invention of a computer chip with the capability to create and store information the same way our own brains do. By linking the network of neurons to software which reads the neural activity, the network and the computer can work together to carry out tasks of which computers are currently incapable.

This article is bursting with high-grade what-if fodder. Expect organic computing to become the next great bio-ethical controversy after the political circus surrounding stem-cell research has run its course.

Living with Water: Visions of a Flooded Future

As part of the RIBA's combating climate change programme, Living with Water brings together five essays from a range of professionals and futurologists. They each explore our evolving relationship with water, the architectural responses to increasing flood risk, and highlight the emerging opportunity to inject long-term vision and imagination into the development of the Thames Gateway.

Our development horizon is stretching further into the future than ever before, largely in response to the challenges of climate change.

(Via Beyond the Beyond.)

Japan swelters in record heat wave

Japan sizzled through its hottest day on record Thursday as a heat wave claimed at least 13 lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake, authorities and media reports said.

Earlier this month I blogged about Motion Portrait, a Japanese company that can animate 2-D portaits in real-time. It turns out that you can experiment with the technology on Motion Portrait's website; I especially like this one. (Is it just me or does forcing the woman to jerk her head around by casually moving the cursor instill a vague sense of guilt?)

Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago

According to the scientists, the comet before fragmentation must have been about four kilometers across, and either exploded in the atmosphere or had fragments hit the Laurentide ice sheet in northeastern North America.

Wildfires across the continent would have resulted from the fiery impact, killing off vegetation that was the food supply of many of larger mammals like the woolly mammoths, causing them to go extinct.

(Via Universe Today.)

Self Organizing Space Dust Could Be a Precursor to Life

This discovery comes from European and Australian researchers, and their work is published in today's issue of the New Journal of Physics. They developed computer simulations that showed how clouds of molecules naturally organize themselves into complex helix-like structures that resemble DNA.

Over time, an electrical process called polarization organizes the molecules into more and more complex structures. According to the researchers, this suggests a mechanism where organic molecules could assemble faster than in previous models. This shorter time frame means that complex life could be prevalent across the Universe - they get part of the way in space, and then finish off when they reach a planet.

Another great post by Greg Bishop:

CARET And Symbolic Writing

Mandalas, yantras, and sigils are well-known to most elements of the occult community, and these visual aids to self-enlightenment bear closer scrutiny in the context of the CARET episode. Some of the patterns and shapes are given to students, and others are supposed to be created by the user for specific purposes. These objects of meditation are supposed to help the user identify his or her problems, define solutions, and even create some sort of symbiosis with the mind to bring about change.

Are the CARET glyphs designed to engage the unconscious or are they the cosmic equivalent of HTML tags? Probably neither, but . . .

Do you see the UFOs?

More right here.

Army suicides highest in 26 years

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest number since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

Jeez . . . they must not realize that God's on their side. Keep praying, folks!

"Burning Safari," a great CGI short starring toaster-like swarm robots. (Think the "Dawn on Man" sequence from "2001" gone horribly awry.)



(Thanks, Steve!)

Putin reveals missile defence plan

"This is the first step in a large-scale programme in this sphere that will be carried out to 2015," Mr Putin was quoted as saying during a visit to St. Petersburg. He did not elaborate.

It was the first public announcement of such a programme. Russia has said it will beef up its air defence system in response to the United States's initiative to station elements of a missile shield near Russia's borders.

Bigelow Aerospace Fast-Tracks Manned Spacecraft

The Sundancer module will provide 180 cubic meters of habitable space and will come fully equipped with life-support systems, attitude control and on-orbit maneuverability, as well as reboost and deorbit capability. This larger module -- sporting a trio of windows -- could support a three-person crew and be on orbit in the second half of 2010, Bigelow told Space News in March of this year.

"We still intend to construct and test the Galaxy spacecraft and/or various parts of it in order to gain familiarity and experience with critical subsystems," Bigelow said in the release. "However, by eliminating the launch of Galaxy, we believe that [Bigelow Aerospace] can move more expeditiously to our next step by focusing exclusively on the challenging and exciting task presented by the Sundancer program."

(Via KurzweilAI.net.)

For every failed Space Shuttle there's someone with real vision and a refined sense of the future who has his eyes on the stars.

This clip pits me in mind of something contrived by H.R. Giger, the Brothers Quay and Mr. Rogers while circumnavigating Mars:



Read all about it here.

Whitley Strieber on the possible aftermath of a nuclear terrorist attack.

Don't look now, but . . .

(Hat tip: Aberrant News.)

Nick Redfern's already taken on blood-sucking mutants and alien invaders. Now he's set his sights on the real bad guys.

Here are the MUFON 2007 International UFO Symposium Proceedings in convenient (?) PDF form. A must if you want the real story behind the MJ-12 documents.

(Thanks: The Anomalist.)

São Paulo: A City Without Ads

"The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution . . . pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector -- visual pollution."

Since then, billboards, outdoor video screens and ads on buses have been eliminated at breakneck speed. Even pamphleteering in public spaces has been made illegal, and strict new regulations have drastically reduced the allowable size of storefront signage. Nearly $8 million in fines were issued to cleanse São Paulo of the blight on its landscape.

(Via Beyond the Beyond.)

I like it. A lot of readers probably won't, citing economic imperatives. Personally, I don't want anything to do with an economic system that requires ubiquitous corporate graffiti. Do I really need to see another billboard for Taco Bell? Is that lurid LCD screen next to the highway enriching my life?

A must-see video of Dick Cheney talking sense:



How quickly we forget . . .

(Hat tip: Boing Boing.)

Binnall of America's host on paranormal radio, ufology and beer consumption:



(From The Other Side of Truth.)

"Earth Chronicles" author Zecharia Sitchin . . . on trial? This has a bogus ring to it. I'm reminded of the blustery yet vacuous threats made by a certain goofball living in Prague.

Desert dome creates garden time capsule

"Visitors will journey through time, from the Devonian period 410 million years ago, through eras like the Carboniferous to the Pliocene and the present day," said dome designer Nick Sweet, of the British architects Barton Willmore.

"There will even be a Jurassic Park, but without dinosaurs.

"Essentially, we are going to take a single piece of land and show how it has been transformed as plants have evolved and diversified throughout Earth's history. And some of those changes have been dramatic.

"This part of Saudi Arabia may be parched and burning hot today - the temperature was 54C last week - but there were times when rivers flowed and cool forests flourished here. Visitors will be able to experience all of that."

NASA awards $1.8B for moon mission motor

The company, also known as ATK, said the contract runs through 2012 and calls for it to deliver five new motors and other equipment for test flights.

Orion will be the Apollo capsule-like replacement for the 26-year-old space shuttle fleet that is supposed to retire in 2010, after completion of the international space station.

Another odd science-related theft:

3 tonne meteorite stolen in Russia

The massive three tonne rock was bought to Krasnoyarsk after an 2004 expedition to the site of the so-called "Tunguska event'' - a mysterious mid air explosion over Siberia in 1908 was 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 and felled an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi). The foundation's director Yury Lavbin claimed to have discovered the wreckage of an alien spacecraft during the expedition.

Here's a worthwhile essay that further reduces human beings to soulless biological automata. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, I think it's dead-on accurate.* So, apparently, does science fiction writer and "reformed marine biologist" Peter Watts, whose thoughts can be found here.

*I live in Kansas City's premiere commercial district, where I get to see human courtship rites enacted on a near-hourly basis. I've seen the guys who get the girls and the girls who get the guys . . . and it all boils down to so much transparent strutting. People don't seem to desire mates so much as they crave performers -- which is fine by me**, having dealt myself out of the sexual equation long ago***. Of course, one could argue that the singles scene is hardly the place for an objective evaluation of human relationships . . . and I'd argue right back that it's ideal. Ready access to the props and instruments of consumer culture strip away pretense just as a telescope diminishes the distance between an astronomer and a far-away planet.

**Well, maybe not "fine," but you know what I mean.

***Does a year count?

Stanford researchers puzzled by theft of rare earth metals

In a crime that has mystified campus scientists and police, ingots of holmium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium and other metals have disappeared from a physics lab, stalling important research into the creation of materials with unusual magnetic and electronic properties.

(Via Rudy Rucker's blog.)

Your guess is as good as mine.

Loren Coleman waxes cryptoterrestrial . . . or have I been waxing cryptozoological? (To my knowledge, Coleman has yet to entertain the idea that one or more species of mystery primates has actually eclipsed Homo sapiens' technological ability. If I'm wrong don't hesitate to let me know.)

Meanwhile, the first draft of my new book, "The Cryptoterrestrials," nears completion. Teaser forthcoming.

OLE The Fire-Fighting Beetle

Researchers at the University of Magdeburg-Stendal in Germany are developing a giant robotic fire-fighting beetle intended to autonomously roam the forests in search of fire. On patrol the OLE beetle would use infrared and biosensors to detect fires in their early stages and potentially extinguish them before they get out of hand. The OLE is designed from the pill bug, an insect belonging to the centipede family, and like the centipede the OLE can roll up into a ball and retract its six legs into its hard ceramic-fiber heat-resistant shell when danger threatens to protect its sensitive electronic components.

Can you imagine this thing malfunctioning and laying the smack down on some thoroughly disoriented hunter? Let's hope the OLE packs a webcam in addition to infrared sensors.

Ohmygod! The aliens have initiated communication!

A well-done fake UFO video:



Chapel Perilous has more right here.

NASA finds gouge on Endeavour's belly

NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour's belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.

And this is news? When was the last time a Shuttle launch wasn't accompanied by a worrisome chunk of something or other falling off in mid-flight?

Fly Me to the Moon: Space Hotel Sees 2012 Opening

"Galactic Suite," the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes.

Its Barcelona-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing $4 million for a three-day stay.

(Via Boing Boing.)

2012 isn't exactly the distant future; Galactic Suite better get crackin'.

An Experiment to Test Panspermia

The experiment, designed by Professor John Parnell from the University of Aberdeen, involves bolting a Scottish rock to the outside of an ESA research spacecraft. When the Foton M3 mission launches on Friday, September 14th, microbes in the rock will enjoy the acceleration of liftoff, 12 days of microgravity and vacuum, and then re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere.

We should have done this a long time ago.

Global Warming Will Step Up After 2009 - Scientists

Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday.

Climate experts have long predicted a general warming trend over the 21st century spurred by the greenhouse effect, but this new study gets more specific about what is likely to happen in the decade that started in 2005.

Speaking of which, Kansas City is in the grip of a nasty heatwave. My usual daily walks have been reduced to furtive, sweaty jaunts. It was a "mere" 100 today; tomorrow (and the day after that) promise worse.

THE ORACLE OF STARBUCKS

Astrology is lame and Myers-Briggs is for losers. The omniscient Oracle of Starbucks can tell you everything about your personality by what you drink at Starbucks. Simply enter your full drink order -- including size -- into the field below and the all-knowing Oracle will tell you everything about your personality. Better yet, input your friends' orders to find out what they're really like.

Unlike other imitations, the Oracle is 100% accurate.

The Oracle says I'm boring. What about you?

Don't look now, but the Minneapolis bridge collapse has been confirmed as a government conspiracy!

Massive ULF 'Blast' Detected In US Bridge Collapse Catastrophe

Russian Military reports state that the total collapse of such a massive bridge, and in the absence of evidence linking its destruction to terrorist activity, could only have been accomplished by an acoustic weapon, of which the United States Military is known to possess.

(And just in case you're wondering, I'm being extremely sarcastic.)

George Dvorksy -- with whom I disagree on many points related to technology and extraterrestrial intelligence -- takes aim at meat-eaters. And damned if I don't agree with him.

Do I think serial carnivores are "bad people"? Certainly not. But I'd challenge any of them to defend meat consumption on rational grounds. As I blogged a while back, the meat industry's environmental impact alone more than justifies ditching our collective craving for burgers and steaks (especially as it becomes increasingly evident that the attendant health hazards are casually ignored).

We hear a great deal about minimizing our ecological footprint. For my money, going vegetarian is the easiest way to make a difference. And you might discover a wealth of new recipes in the process.