The User Illusion

This is a Simulation - The NY Times

"It took a century for scientists to realize fully what was wrong with this picture. In ''The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size,'' the Danish science writer Tor Norretranders uses the story to launch an all-out assault on the worshipful place so often awarded to human awareness. Consciousness is not only powerless to overcome the entropic slide, he says, but incapable of giving more than the roughest sense of what is going on around us. The world as it appears is a paltry simulation. And the biggest illusion is that we trick ourselves into believing we experience the world's full glory."

The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders

"Norretranders postulates that most of the work is done at a subconscious level. Nothing too surprising, there. But what was interesting to me was the approach he used. In his theory, the whole point of the subconscious parts of the brain is to reduce the information flow into and out of the brain down to a rate which our feeble 20 bits/sec consciousness can handle. He points out that we perceive about 12 million bits/second (10 million from vision, 1 million from touch, and the rest scattered among the other senses). That's an enormous amount of information to process. But when we look around, we don't see 10 million pixels. Looking from my computer chair, I see my computer, my desk, the windows of the room, etc. He calls this phenomenon chunking information into symbols. To quote him, "symbols are the Trojan horses by which we smuggle bits into our consciousness."

Mindflex

Mattel Mindlfex website
"Have you ever dreamed of moving an object with the power of your mind? I think we all would like to do that at times. Mindflex, the new mental acuity game from Mattel, makes that dream a reality. A lightweight headset containing sensors for the forehead and earlobes measures your brainwave activity. When you focus your concentration, a small foam ball will rise on a gentle stream of air. Relax your thoughts and the ball will descend. By using a combination of physical and mental coordination, you must then guide the ball through a customizable obstacle course–the various obstacles can be repositioned into many different configurations. Mindflex combines advanced technology with the power of thought to create an interactive experience unlike any other– a game where players compete in the ultimate mental marathon. This isn't your ordinary kids game, it takes superb concentration and direct thought".

Dear Santa, is this game is true, then you it's scientific proof that the mind can effect things outside my 5 senses. If that's true, then telekinesis has got to be real. If you get me this for Christmas, then I will believe in you, and telekinesis. - Toby

Sleep Paralysis, Astral Projection (OOBE) and other Lucid Dreamstates

Sleep Paralysis

"Have you ever felt like you were awake but unable to move? You might have even felt afraid but could not call for help? This condition is called sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis may leave you feeling frightened, especially if you also see or hear things that aren't really there. Sleep paralysis may happen only once, or you may have it frequently -- even several times a night. The good news: sleep paralysis is not considered a dangerous health problem."




Astral Projection and OOBE wiki page

"Astral projection (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience (OOBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the astral plane."




Lucid Dream wiki page

"A lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid, he or she can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid depending on a person's level of self-awareness during the lucid dream."

When you sleep, your brain never falls asleep. You just go in and out of sleep cycles that vary your level of awareness. Your brain goes through these different sleep cycles that are measured in Hertz (Hz). When you experience Sleep Paralysis, you find yourself aware in an aware state that is just as real as a physical waking state. But the fact remains, if anyone were to look at you while SP was happening, they would see you comfortably asleep.

The key is to control your fear of Sleep Paralysis. It is the doorway to Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection (OOBE). When you go OOBE, you are NOT actually leaving your body. That is an illusion. Everything that is happening, is happening in your head as you sleep. The experience is VERY real, and very vivid if you do it right.

The best way to learn how to do any of this stuff, is through meditation or light sleep. Catnaps while sitting up work great. But there's alot of different ways to experience these states of mind. The key is learning to control them. Once you do that, you are pretty much limited only by your own fears. - Toby

Boltzmann's brains, Entropy and Consciousness out of chaos

Boltzmann's Brains wiki page

Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs?

"It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.

If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions."

"Random blobs of power expressed as that which we all disregard
Ordered states of nature on a scale that no one thinks about
Don't speak to me of anarchy or peace or calm revolt, man
We're in a play of slow decay orchestrated by Boltzmann

It's entropy, it's not a human issue
Entropy, it's a matter of course
Entropy, energy at all levels
Entropy, from it you can not divorce
And your pathetic moans of suffrage tend to lose all significance"

- Bad Religion

If you step outside commonly accepted cultural ideas regarding the existence of the Universe, you tend to run into some major problems. One of those problems is 4 of the most fundamental laws of Physics; The Laws of Thermodynamics. The word "Thermodynamics" from the Greek meaning "heat" and dynamics, meaning "power". It's the measure of order within a system. Our universe is a structured system that is constantly moving towards higher states of disorder. That would mean that our Universe started at a very LOW state of entropy/order, and is moving towards HIGHER states as time moves forward. The Universe is constantly unraveling itself out of a state of low and structured Entropy.

But if that's the case, then how could our Universe start in a very low and highly organized state born out of chaotic and random process? Chaos is disorganization. Yet, logic would say that we experience a somewhat ordered state of existence at our level. Things make sense to us in order for us to make theories regarding the origins of our Universe and our daily experience as human beings.

You form your own conclusions. I just wish to present information that you can subjectively interpret to form your experience as a conscious being. - Toby

Beam Circulating in LHC Again...

CERN website

"Particle beams are once again circulating in the world's most powerful particle accelerator, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This news comes after the machine was handed over for operation on Wednesday morning. A clockwise circulating beam was established at ten o'clock this evening."

I don't use twitter. But if you do, you can follow CERN and the progress of the LHC. CERN Twitter -Toby

Lungless "Worm" found living on land

National Geographic article

"A new amphibian species can survive on land with no nostrils, lungs, or legs, say researchers who discovered the bizarre beast.

The creature, found in Guyana, is part of the wormlike group of amphibians known as caecilians. Only one other caecilian species is known to live without lungs."

These things are sooooo cool. One of weirdest creatures on earth. Been fascinated by them since I was a kid, and this news just reaffirms my love for these things.












Also, the Ajolote is pretty awesome.

Which way is she spinning?

I would say she isn't spinning in one objective direction. It's open for interpretation.

*ps, don't expect what you think you know.

Are You Living In a Computer Simulation?

Nick Bostroms simulation argument

"This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation."

Simulated Reality wiki page



God is a machine - wired magazine

"The spooky nature of material things is not new. Once science examined matter below the level of fleeting quarks and muons, it knew the world was incorporeal. What could be less substantial than a realm built out of waves of quantum probabilities? And what could be weirder? Digital physics is both. It suggests that those strange and insubstantial quantum wavicles, along with everything else in the universe, are themselves made of nothing but 1s and 0s. The physical world itself is digital."

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa from Geology.com

"One of the most interesting mysteries of Death Valley National Park is the sliding rocks at Racetrack Playa (a playa is a dry lake bed). These rocks can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow these rocks slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move.

Some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds. That makes the question: "How do they move?" a very challenging one.

The truth: No one knows for sure exactly how these rocks move - although a few people have come up with some pretty good explanations. The reason why their movement remains a mystery: No one has ever seen them in motion."

Bloop

Bloop Wiki page

"The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several times during the summer of 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown.

If the sound did come from an animal, it would reportedly have to be several times the size of the largest known animal on Earth, the Blue Whale."