“It is no secret that we are not scientists up here, so we look at things logically.”-U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) commenting on the his attempt to hone in on sound science in the debate about climate change.
Thanksgiving
Look at the size of that chicken! If only the Iraqi citizens would simply learn to sneak around the Iraq without being seen, then there would be no problem. I propose therefore that we spend the $9,000,000,000 monthly on stealth suits for all Iraqi citizens (but only for the Good Iraqi citizens.)
Update: From Harper’s weekly review, “President Bush showed up in Iraq for Thanksgiving wearing an Army tracksuit; Bush stayed in the country for two and a half hours, the same amount of time spent by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Vietnam, in 1966.”
Clockwork Universe
To the question “Is the universe a computer?” many today might answer “Yes…a quantum computer!” The first comment I want to make about this is that this is a kind of funny answer. The reason this answer is funny is that when we refer to a quantum computer we are usually refering to a machine with a finite language. So what many people mean by this is that one could set up a quantum computer which runs a program which simulates the physics of our universe. Of course there are all sorts of issues with the fact that this will be some sort of approximation of the universe. Another interesting fact is that what we probably mean by the universe is a quantum computer is we are thinking about a grid of quantum computers each executing local evolutions which give us the full evolution of the universe. So we might be better of saying the universe is well approximated by a bunch of quantum computers.
In comparison to the question “Is the universe a computer?” if we ask people “Is the universe a classical computer?”, we will universally get the response that the universe is not a classical computer. The first reason for thinking that the universe is not a classical computer is that we think that quantum computers are more powerful than classical computers. Thus we might think that if the universe is a classical computer, then it is very inefficient. Well you might not care that it is inefficient! Well, OK, but what about the nonlocality in quantum mechanics. Bell’s theorem tells us that in a real way, the universe is not a bunch of local computers which only talk to their neighbors. Quantum nonlocality challenges the notion of local realistic descriptions of nature.
What has begun to intrigue me lately is the question of whether the issue of programming languages has much to say about the question of whether the universe is a classical computer. To explain this I’d like to explain a bit about the difference between an imperitive programming language and a declaritive programming language. Imperitive programming languages are the ones most of us are used to (like C++, assembly language, etc.) In imperitive languages, one provides a list of instructions to execute in a particular order. The computer has a state which is updated according to the next instruction to be updated. Declaritive languages are used less frequently. The prototypical example of such a language is Prolog. In declarative languages one gives the computer a set of conditions (relationships between variables) and the computer then applies a fixed algorithm to these relations to produce a result.
So the question I want to ask is whether thinking about the universe as a classical computer with an imperitive versus a declaritive language helps clear up this whole bloody issue of quantum nonlocality? The basic idea for why this might help is that the declaritive languages are much more like path integrals in quantum theory. What I’m imagining is not local computers executing declaritive languages, but that the universe a computer which can execute a nonlocal declaritive language. In many ways this reminds me of those who delude themselve into believe quantum logic is the solution to all interpretive problems in quantum theory, but maybe casting the question in terms of the programming language helps overcome some of these interpretive questions.
Question
Did Adam and Eve go to heaven?
GBA
This weekend I drove 10+ hours and passed many cars. Invariably these cars were adorned with bumper stickers. Then it hit me. I had not realized that America had sneezed.
Valis the Movie?
From Wired:
John Alan Simon, who produced The Getaway with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and his partner, Dale Rosenbloom, are trying to get studio backing for films based on three Dick novels – Radio Free Albemuth, Valis, and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
How the hell do you make a movie out of Valis? Valis?
Liberals Wine
From the LA Times:
In another measure of the evolving social structure of U.S. politics, those who drink wine with dinner prefer a Democrat over Bush for 2004 by 7 percentage points. Those who drink beer back Bush over a Democrat by 23 percentage points.
Mystery Particle?
What is this? It seems this charmonium-like state is a bit of a mystery. Theoretical calculations for the possible identity of this particle are off by ~50 sigma. I’m betting the theory just needs tweeking, but who knows? Anyone want to take the bet?
Do We Have A Prayer?
Join now: The Presidential Prayer Team! Make sure you don’t forget the “additional leaders to pray for this week.”
No, I don’t know that [a]theists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under [g]od. George Bush the First
Hairy Stuff
Famously, classical general relativity tells us that black holes “have no hair”: the mass, electric charge, and angular momentum of the black hole are the only parameters about the black hole measurable by us “outside the horizon” observors. Silly me it was only today while exercising that I realized that it might be interesting to ask if black holes can carry a charge from a non-abelian gauge theory. While I was pondering this, the other thought I had was that maybe if the theory of nature has multiple gauge fields, not just just the U(1), SU(2), SU(3) we know, but other higher ones, then this the “hair” produced by these theories might help explain the information paradox for black holes. Amazingly, this is deeply related to the content of some ideas about string theory and black holes!
Update 11/14/03: and of course, embarrassingly, there is this famous paper as pointed out by Ben Toner in the comment section.