Author: dabacon

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Northern New Mexico

From George Johnson’s New York Times July 3, 2004 article “Los Alamos’s Super-Secret Heritage Shows Some Cracks:”

When science is conducted in secrecy it takes on the air of magic.
From its beginnings as an outpost of the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos has operated in a state where the ideal of science as the free exchange of information has been indefinitely suspended, replaced by a conviction that there is safety in ignorance, that life is more secure when certain powerful ideas are kept among a few.
Peace through the nonproliferation of knowledge, another of the ingrained absurdities of the nuclear age.

Which reminds me of why cryptography (and quantum cryptography in particular) is so disturbing to me: does the universe really allow for the hording of information? Our unsharing universe? Of course, the type of knowledge Johnson is talking about, “scientific knowledge”, does appear to be open to everyone: you don’t get exclusive rights to the science when you discover it. But what if the universe didn’t even work that way? What if the mere discovery of some new bit of science closed the door for all others investigating the same phenomenon?

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NM Bumper Stickers

New Mexico
A giiigantic truck, like a trillion cabs, with a big sports stripe on the side, with a rainbow square bumper sticker, also a rainbow square with the words “family” in the middle of the square, and a support George Bush bumper sticker. Well, I’ll be…
also
A bumper sticker that said “bumper sticker.” Would a blank bumper sticker be the same? No. And why?

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Center of the Universe

Yahoo headline:

FBI Issues Terror Warning for Calif., N.M.

Which either means (1) the terrorists are following me on my trip to find housing or (2) I am subject of the terror warning. Well (2) is obviously not true, but I suspect I will be getting some unlisted IP address hits to this web page soon. And (1) is certainly strange, as I am but a bit player in this grand old world. On the other hand, I did see “Fahrenheit 9/11” in Toronto just in case the U.S. version was censored. Quoteth Nirvana: “Just cus you’re not paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you.” Every day, the world more philipdickian.

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Wednesday and Friday

To the city different I go to find me some housing (842 miles!)
Ouch
Blessed be books on tape. Or perhaps I will work on memorizing some stories again. At one point I entertained memorizing a Shakespearing play. I think I will work on another Borges story. Perhaps the short “Borges and I” or as a long term project “The Circular Ruins.”

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The Entropy of Lost Bets

Reading John Preskill’s description of his bet with Stephen Hawking on the black hole information paradox, I began to wonder what my requirements for thinking the paradox had been solved would be. The bet Preskill and Hawking and Thorne made was

When an initial pure quantum state undergoes gravitational collapse to form a black hole, the final state at the end of black hole evaporation will always be a pure quantum state.

Well at first I thought, surely a quantum theory of gravity which showed such a preservation of purity would be sufficient? Wouldn’t it? Well, a single quantum theory of gravity might be evidence, but even if we find that theory, what makes us think it is the correct theory describing our universe? Yeah, yeah, string theorists mutter something about “the only way.” So do Taoists.
This, I guess, is the funny thing about bets made by theorists. Their criteria for satisfying the bet may have nothing to do with reality. We may resolve the paradox, say in the Euclidean theory of quantum gravity, but what if the Euclidean theory of quantum gravity doesn’t correctly describe our universe. What if Twistor theory ends up giving a valid theory of quantum gravity and entails a total overhall of quantum theory such that the paradox is resolved in the opposite direction? What if the theory of quantum gravity makes it apparent that the question doesn’t even make sense?
The only way I’ll be happy is if we go out and create a black hole. Let it evaporate. And track the information flow. Admitting this, I believe, has just caused my theoretical physicists i.d. card to spontaneously combust. Excuse me while I put out the fire in my wallet.

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Physiology of Heartache

Today I got curious about what causes the physical feeling of “heartache.” Well at first I just was curious if I could find any well written physical descriptions of heartache. While there are certainly thousands of sentimental descriptions, I couldn’t find a single description of the physiology of heartache. Further according to one article there is no known physiological explanation for the physical feeling of heartache. Strange.
On the other hand, I did learn that there may be a relationship between a broken heart and an increased chance of a heart attack (although the few studies I dug up were not totally convincing.) Our modern world: “Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all (unless you’ve got a history of heart disease.)”

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Heavenly Tasks

The young girl across from me in the Toronto airport is reading “The Five People you Will Meet in Heaven.” Which got me thinking: isn’t that nice, all these cool people who you’d never get a chance to talk to, will be your pals in heaven. But why does their eternal bliss in heaven involve a conversation with you?

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Reality Propaganda

Philip Dick has a famous quote about reality. Actually on the web you can find two versions of the quote:

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

and

Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.

If the second quote is correct, well Philip Dick died in 1982, and yet reality certainly exists, so Philip Dick must not have died in 1982. So I decided to stop believing in the second quote. And yet the second quote remains.

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Hallelujah

Listening to Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” I did a Google search and was surprised to find that
The Hallelujah Chorus is Satanic!!!
Go ahead, click on the link.
Good thing that Buckley’s version doesn’t have any drums! But the question is, if we aren’t to be literal, then where do we draw our lines? Why isn’t Buckley’s song canonized? It seems he knows the secret chord (E minor?)

I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this :
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

But King David, probable author of many Psalms, not caring for the music? Or is it the almighty who doesn’t care for music? As the prophet Homer Jay might say, “Mmm, Sacrelicious.”
On a David note: I have often wondered how my parents knew that I would have red hair (well it was red when I was a wee lad!), considering neither of my parents had red hair. Hindsight on imagined precognition is what I practice here at the Quantum Pontiff!

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The Guitar of Time Travel

Inside of physicist Dave, behind skiing Dave, squished under happy Dave, there lies just a tiny bit of music Dave. Today I did something I haven’t done in too long a time—I picked up my guitar and played a few songs. OK, I have no talent! I’m blonde: whateeever!
Strumming my guitar on a warm Southern California evening put me in mood nostalgic for similar days spent in the summer of 96 sitting in front of the house at 270 Holliston. Which in turn reminded me of the man who sold the world.

We passed upon the stair
we spoke of was and when
Although I wasn’t there
he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise
I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone
a long long time ago
Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You’re face to face
With The Man Who Sold The World
I laughed and shook his hand
and made my way back home
I searched for form and land
for years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazely stare
at all the millions here
We must have died along
a long long time ago
Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You’re face to face
With the Man who Sold the World
–David Bowie