Interesting books, and news items about books and periodicals, particularly with respect to political and social issues. Since May, 2016, many of my larger book reviews have been put on a hosted Wordpress site; so now this blog emphasizes previews, interviews with authors, booklets, large periodical articles, and literary business issues. Note: no one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!
Saturday, March 07, 2015
Brian Greene's "The Hidden Reality": do parallel universes exist?
Author: Brian Greene
Title: “The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep
Laws of the Cosmos”
I’ve covered Brian Greene’s work before, on the TV log, with
his “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (Nov. 2, 2011) on PBS NOVA.
It’s difficult to summarize everything. But the gist of his vision is that the cosmos
comprises “branes” which are mathematical manifolds in as many as eleven
dimensions. A two-dimensional brane
might be an infinite sheet of paper.
When branes “collide”, more or less randomly given placement among extra
dimensions, new universes get formed. Hence we have a multiverse.
This idea would have consequences for the whole science and
religion debate. Our universe, with all
the physical constants exactly right for life, exists because it is one of
infinitely many mathematically possible universes (is that infinity countable,
like the set of rational numbers?) That
is circular, I exist because I must (anthropic thinking). I don’t need to hide inside a clam
shell. My own consciousness of self
exists because it is one of an infinity of beings, although why it occurred at
this time in history is a riddle – but my own life is filled with ironies and
riddles that only “I” could have experienced.
Along these lines is the idea that the cosmos is digital,
based on “information”, which can aggregate into forming self-aware
beings. This gets into the definition of
entropy (link). Yet entropy is commonly thought of
as associated with randomly increasing “disorder”. Life – consciousness and purpose –
counteracts entropy. So life must
reproduce. But isn’t the formation of stars
something like reproduction?
So then you can get into the debates about God, which don’t
need to be pressed here. The Hadron
experiments about the Higgs Boson – the “God” particle – were inconclusive, but
could have resulted in the idea that we were, or were not, created. (Movies blog, March 21, 2014).
But for me the most important chapter was Chapter 9, “Black
holes and holograms, the Holographic Universe”.
This gets into the idea that TMI, too much information, can lead to a
black hole. Or, that the total
information content related to a black hole is contained on its spherical
surface area. Mini black holes might
exist (like inside the Collider) because the extra dimensions (of String
Theory) give gravity much more opportunity to become effective (in the normal
3-dimensional sense it is much weaker than the other forces, and related
differently to particles and waves). But
mini black holes are probably temporary because quantum effects, leading to
Hawking Radiation, leads them to “evaporate” (like snow in the sun when the air
temperature is below freezing). But this
whole idea leads to an intriguing idea: the information of someone’s
consciousness, after his passing, could be transferred somewhere else on the
surface of a mini black hole. Maybe this
could lead to evidence of reincarnation, or of how the Afterlife really works –
something the Monroe Institute (near Charlottesville VA) says a lot about. Can “consciousness”,
once in existences, really be destroyed, if is just information? It could be scrambled but still could be
recovered mathematically.
But optimism about what Black Holes could do for "the departed" may be softened by the so called "No Hair Theorems", which maintain that black holes, like drag queens, really are "thnooth".
The idea that any reality exists because it is mathematically possible could be dangerous; "free will" comes with the price that the consequences of actions can be irreversible.
Here’s a related article from Scientific American in 2012, “Is
Space Digitial?” by Michael Moyer, link .You need a subscription to read the entire
article (behind the paywall).
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
p> Privacy Policy for billsbookreviews.blogspot.com
If you require any more information or have any questions about my privacy policy, please feel free to contact me by email at JBoushka@aol.com.
At billsbookreviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsbookreviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.
Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsbookreviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Cookies and Web Beacons billsbookreviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.
DoubleClick DART Cookie
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsbookreviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsbookreviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense
These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsbookreviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.
billsbookreviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.
You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsbookreviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.
If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.
Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/
No comments:
Post a Comment