Technicum as a New Age

TEDxAmsterdam: Kevin Kelly from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

The Riddle of the Quantum Sphinx: Robert Spekkens Public Lecture

In his Feb. 7 public lecture at Perimeter Institute, Robert Spekkens will explain why he believes that many quantum mysteries are a result of a category mistake concerning the nature of quantum states.

Sack's and Ulam Spiral

Numbers on the marked curve are of the form

x2 + x + 41,

the famous prime-generating formula discovered by Euler in 1772. http://www.numberspiral.com/index.html

 Riemann discovered a geometric landscape, the contours of which held the secret to the way primes are distributed through the universe of numbers.

It seemed the patterns Montgomery was predicting for the way zeros were distributed on Riemann’s critical line were the same as those predicted by quantum physicists for energy levels in the nucleus of heavy atoms. The implications of a connection were immense: If one could understand the mathematics describing the structure of the atomic nucleus in quantum physics, maybe the same math could solve the Riemann Hypothesis. http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/prime_numbers_get_hitched/

Sack's spiral-a version of the Ulam spiral

 Sift the Two's and Sift the Three's,
The Sieve of Eratosthenes.
When the multiples sublime,
The numbers that remain are Prime.

Anonymous[5]

Albrecht Durer's Magic Square

Albrecht Dürer (/ˈdʊərər, ˈdjʊərər/;[1] German: [ˈalbʁɛçt ˈdyːʁɐ]; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528)[2] was a painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in communication with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 he was patronized by emperor Maximilian I. Dürer is commemorated by both the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches. The Expulsion From Paradise by Albrecht Dürer Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolours and books. The woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), are more Gothic than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours also mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve principles of mathematics, perspective, and ideal proportions.

Melencolia I 1514

Albrecht Dürer's magic square

Detail of Melencolia I

 

The order-4 magic square Albrecht Dürer immortalized in his 1514 engraving Melencolia I, referred to above, is believed to be the first seen in European art. It is very similar to Yang Hui's square, which was created in China about 250 years before Dürer's time. The sum 34 can be found in the rows, columns, diagonals, each of the quadrants, the center four squares, and the corner squares (of the 4×4 as well as the four contained 3×3 grids). This sum can also be found in the four outer numbers clockwise from the corners (3+8+14+9) and likewise the four counter-clockwise (the locations of four queens in the two solutions of the 4 queens puzzle^[36]), the two sets of four symmetrical numbers (2+8+9+15 and 3+5+12+14), the sum of the middle two entries of the two outer columns and rows (5+9+8+12 and 3+2+15+14), and in four kite or cross shaped quartets (3+5+11+15, 2+10+8+14, 3+9+7+15, and 2+6+12+14). The two numbers in the middle of the bottom row give the date of the engraving: 1514. The numbers 1 and 4 at either side of the date correspond respectively to the letters "A" and "D," which are the initials of the artist.

Donald Hoffman: Consciousness and The Interface Theory of Perception

Memories of a Theoretical Physicist

By The original uploader was Lumidek at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Magnus Manske using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, Link

While I was dealing with a brain injury and finding it difficult to work, two friends (Derek Westen, a friend of the KITP, and Steve Shenker, with whom I was recently collaborating), suggested that a new direction might be good. Steve in particular regarded me as a good writer and suggested that I try that. I quickly took to Steve's suggestion. Having only two bodies of knowledge, myself and physics, I decided to write an autobiography about my development as a theoretical physicist. This is not written for any particular audience, but just to give myself a goal. It will probably have too much physics for a nontechnical reader, and too little for a physicist, but perhaps there with be different things for each. Parts may be tedious. But it is somewhat unique, I think, a blow-by-blow history of where I started and where I got to. Probably the target audience is theoretical physicists, especially young ones, who may enjoy comparing my struggles with their own. Some disclaimers: This is based on my own memories, jogged by the arXiv and Inspire. There will surely be errors and omissions. And note the title: this is about my memories, which will be different for other people. Also, it would not be possible for me to mention all the authors whose work might intersect mine, so this should not be treated as a reference work.See: Memories of a Theoretical Physicist by Joseph Polchinski

Simulation Hypotheses

The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of reality, including the earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation. Some versions rely on the development of a simulated reality, a proposed technology that would seem realistic enough to convince its inhabitants the simulation was real. The hypothesis has been a central plot device of many science fiction stories and films.

Are We living in a Virtual Reality

Here is the referenced paper in the video.

http://users.cms.caltech.edu/~owhadi/index_htm_files/IJQF2017.pdf
 
I am wondering about International Journal of Quantum Foundations link on top of paper. ah here it is. http://www.ijqf.org/

What is Fundamental?

We have many different ways to talk about the things in the physical universe. Some of those ways we think of as more fundamental, and some as “emergent” or “effective”. But what does it mean to be more or less “fundamental”? Are fundamental things smaller, simpler, more elegant, more economical? Are less-fundamental things always made from more-fundamental? How do less-fundamental descriptions relate to more-fundamental ones? FQXi Administrator Brendan Foster 

240 E₈ polytope vertices using 5D orthographic_projection to 2D using 5-cube (Penteract) Petrie_polygon basis_vectors overlaid on electron diffraction pattern of an Icosahedron Zn-Mg-Ho Quasicrystal.

• E8_(mathematics) and Quasicrystals

This is an interesting question for me. Because in a sense it is closely related to what is foundational. Let me explain. The foundational attribute of any perspective has to have a fundamental basis for an understanding of what comes next.  The immediacy is recognition of the fundamental,  is its beauty.

 The 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dan Shechtman for his experimental breakthrough that changed our thinking about possible forms of matter. More recently, colleagues and I have found evidence that quasicrystals may have been among the first minerals to have formed in the solar system. Paul Steinhardt 2012 : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

So this leads me backwards to the idea expressed as the,  "smaller, simpler, more elegant and more economical." Everyone wants to know when matter begins, and if such an expression is to realize matter is emergent, then it would require an explanation for what that matter may be as being fundamental. That all matter then,  is a measure of the now "as a parameter of existence" of our current reality.

"From future structural and kinematical studies of known quasicrystals, such as AlNiCo, these principles may be established providing a new understanding of and new control over the formation and structure of quasicrystals. See: A New Paradigm for the Structure of Quasicrystals

After working though the years gathering information and learning from many who I had come across in the pursuit of science and its understanding, I have been lead to believe that an answer to this question is like going back in time to the beginning of our cosmos. How the universe has been clocked according to the discoveries that have been made. It has been a leading insight to push further back to realize that such an idea of geometry at the basis of the existence is an old attribute given toward as the idea Plato had according to his solids.

"...underwriting the form languages of ever more domains of mathematics is a set of deep patterns which not only offer access to a kind of ideality that Plato claimed to see the universe as created with in the Timaeus; more than this, the realm of Platonic forms is itself subsumed in this new set of design elements-- and their most general instances are not the regular solids, but crystallographic reflection groups. You know, those things the non-professionals call . . . kaleidoscopes! * (In the next exciting episode, we'll see how Derrida claims mathematics is the key to freeing us from 'logocentrism'-- then ask him why, then, he jettisoned the deepest structures of mathematical patterning just to make his name...)

* H. S. M. Coxeter, Regular Polytopes (New York: Dover, 1973) is the great classic text by a great creative force in this beautiful area of geometry (A polytope is an n-dimensional analog of a polygon or polyhedron. Chapter V of this book is entitled 'The Kaleidoscope'....)"

One should neither be fooled that I focus on the matter as being fundamental then, and as a substance,it is less then a desired result of any measure when I speak of that geometry.  So how is it possible then to say that something is fundamental here if I say the geometry? The space-time emergence,  is as from a liquid that the collision process extols the lighthouse affect and I am blinded by it.? This is given as an expression of the new ways in which we measure particulates outwardly  expressed from the beginnings of that "collision process"  only of in a configured in space, but within the LHC too?

***

See also:

•  Quasicrystal: Prof. Dan Shechtman
•  Two Paul Steinhardt Projects: "Cyclic Universe" and "Quasicrystals"

Can a Computer Be Conscious?

Neuroscience hypothesizes that consciousness is generated by the interoperation of various parts of the brain, called the neural correlates of consciousness or NCC, though there are challenges to that perspective. Proponents of Artificial consciousness (AC)believe it is possible to construct systems (e.g., computer systems) that can emulate this NCC interoperation.[2] 

 Can you imagine what the one computer your sitting in front of is connected too? Frankenly,  it would have consciousness?

Upon hearing this, one might be inclined to ask, “If a computer can’t be conscious, then how can a brain?” After all, it is a purely physical object that works according to physical law. It even uses electrical activity to process information, just like a computer. Yet somehow we experience the world subjectively—from a first person perspective where inner, qualitative and ineffable sensations occur that are only accessible to us. Take for example the way it feels when you see a pretty girl, drink a beer, step on a nail, or hear a moody orchestra.

The truth is, scientists are still trying to figure all this out. ­How physical phenomena, like biochemical and electrical processes, create sensation and unified experience is known as the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”, and is widely recognized by neuroscientists and philosophers. Even neuroscientist and popular author Sam Harris—who shares Musk’s robot-rebellion concerns—acknowledges the hard problem when stating that whether a machine could be conscious is “an open question”. Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to fully realize that for machines to pose an existential threat arising from their own self-interests, conscious is required. See:  Why Digital Computers Can’t Have Consciousness By Bobby Azarian