10 01 08 The Information Dimension
Wed Oct 01 02:21:38 2008
LLAM: Thank you for joining us today, Yvgeny!
YVGENY: It is great pleasure to visit here. You are all looking good.
ROY: You are looking so radically different!
YVGENY: Eh, I got tired of looking like a girl. I have a beard, or did when I was alive. Other things to remind me I am male. I did not want to make the transition to female just yet. I feel more like me now.
LLAM: You are certainly more relaxed. Must be the serenity of Angel Cove!
YVGENY: Yes, Angel Cove is very different from Outlands. Energy is more focused there. That is the serenity of which you speak.
LLAM: .....as opposed to the chaos which is going on here in Clifton!
YVGENY: You said it, not I!
ROY: Well, you need to throw a little chaos into the mix!
(Llam and Yvgeny look at Roy)
YVGENY: He is quoting somebody. Who?
LLAM: (rolls eyes) Heath Ledger as the Joker in the latest Batman movie.
YVGENY: Well, he is joker in his own way! (laughs)
ROY: Well hey, it seemed to fit.......
(Llam pats Roy on the head)
LLAM: My dear Roy, just as everything is normal here, for you, everything fits. Nothing is left out in the cold!
ROY: But everything does fit together!
YVGENY: So in your head you can have a canned ham, a vision of the Buddha and a fractal all in one place?
ROY: (looks surprised) ......yeah! I should pass that one on to Sara. It would make an interesting picture.
LLAM: (drily) I cannot wait. (Roy smiles)
YVGENY: So you are thinking of something about quantum physics. And you'd like my input?
ROY: Oh yes indeedy! According to Einstein's view, because of gravity, there is a fourth dimension, time. Is that right?
YVGENY: Overly simplified, but yes. Space and time are actually one thing called "spacetime." And it is curved because of gravity.
ROY: So the curvature of things is because of gravity? Like, the earth being a spheroid shape?
YVGENY: Yes. And so throughout the universe, but as I said, it is an oversimplification. The example often given is of a rubber sheet stretched over, say, a cylinder, and a heavy sphere - the earth - dropped onto the sheet, where it will sink a bit and tend to go toward the center of the sheet, but it can't, because gravity will give it an orbit about the center. And so with all planets and all stars and all galaxies.
ROY: This is where I always get confused, because I am a heavy visualizer. I can picture the earth on a rubber sheet, but not a complex inage of everything on a myriad of sheets.
YVGENY: This is where you and I differ. I do not visualize, I experience these things as manipulations of numbers. Whether such a thing can be visualized, I don't know. You did a fine job of visualizing state vector collapse, but this is definitely much different.
ROY: That much I understand. But I had an idea and I think it will only make things more confusing for me, actually for a lot of us.
YVGENY: Okay, what is the idea?
ROY: That information is yet another dimension.
YVGENY: So that, in the Einstein view, if taken literally, there are five dimensions, not four? Width, height, depth, time and information?
ROY: Yeah. What do you think?
YVGENY: From what I have been reading, information can be used to create physical objects. Wil McCarthy's "Programmable Matter." Also our friend Evan Walker Harris sometimes trested information as a dimension of sorts.
ROY: I guess I should attempt to explain McCarthy's idea.
LLAM: Go for it!
ROY: (smiles at Llam) Our reality is composed of atoms. Every atom has a nucleus of neutrons and protons, and there is a cloud of electrons about the nucleus. What McCarthy is doing - and I mean, actually doing - is creating something called "quantum dots," which are electrons confined within a very small space, somewhat larger than your average atom, but they behave a lot like atoms. Because they are all the same electrical charge - negative - they repell each other within the confined area, just as they tend to do in an atom. By varying the electrical or magnetic field around the confined area - the quantum dot - these "pseudo-atoms" can mimic any element. McCarthy eventually will create a programmable fabric of quantum dots; although it's just in its rudimentary stages, he foresees it coming to be within fifty years. I would refer those who are interested to www.wilmccarthy.com for a great FAQ and some links to further material.
YVGENY: What I am hearing is, matter can be programmed something like computer software.
LLAM: I think that is very much what he is saying.
ROY: Yeah, and although I loath comparing other things to computers, like our minds, or physical reality, I'll have to go along with this one.
YVGENY: Up to a point I understand why you would dislike the comparisons, but if they work, they should be used.
ROY: My objections....... People like us, who are definitely out on the fringe when it comes to attempting to justify what we believe with some semblance of scientific reality, tend to grab onto the latest scientific research and say, "There! That's what explains it!" It doesn't. It just hides our ignorance.
LLAM: I don't think that that is true in every instance. No matter what skeptics say, realities like telepathy will not go away. I think that we have done a decent job of explaining what it is and what is happening when there is a telepathic communication between two mortals. But we have yet to explain how it works, which is not necessary right now. Also, you (looks to Roy) had a good insight when it comes to explaining how we disembodied folks can not only exist but communicate with you mortals. In saying that we are quantum fields, undifferentiated energy, until we are observed by a mortal mind, and then undergo state vector collapse, that is, takes on a reality, works quite well. And you yourself compared the brain to a computer and a mind to software. Until the software is uploaded into a computer, it's just scratches on a disk.
YVGENY: Or information in an unreadable state!
LLAM: Exactly! Is there anyone alive who can examine the marks on a DVD or CD and tell what is precisely shown with that mark? No, you must put the disk into a computer, which will read the information. And then it will use the information.
YVGENY: Until we come up with a better example, I think that this will work for now. But we should qualify it for the sake of our friend here.
LLAM: In what way?
YVGENY: It is a model of how thing are, what reality is "really" like. At best it is a metaphor. It is not really reality.
ROY: I can accept that!
LLAM: Excellent! Shall we close, then? Thank for for visiting with us, Yvgeny, and send our love to Angel Cove.
YVGENY: It was a pleasure as always, and I shall pass the love. (Embraces Llam, then Roy) Ohh!
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