Monday, July 15
Time as a Mirage
Time may not be a fundamental element of the universe but rather an illusion emerging from quantum entanglement, a new study suggests.
Time is a thorny problem for physicists; its inconsistent behavior between our best theories of the universe contributes to a deadlock preventing researchers from finding a "theory of everything," or a framework to explain all of the physics in the universe.
But in the new study, researchers suggest they may have found a clue to solving that problem: by making time a consequence of quantum entanglement, the weird connection between two far-apart particles. The team published their findings May 10 in the journal Physical Review A. READ MORE...
Sunday, June 9
Time Created by Quantum Entanglement
A new definition of time suggests that what we once thought was a fundamental element of our physical reality could actually just be an illusion created by quantum entanglement.
Friday, July 14
Time Reversal
It seems quantum mechanics and thermodynamics cannot be true simultaneously. In a new publication, University of Twente researchers use photons in an optical chip to demonstrate how both theories can be true at the same time.
In quantum mechanics, time can be reversed and information is always preserved. That is, one can always find back the previous state of particles. It was long unknown how this could be true at the same time as thermodynamics.
There was already a theoretical solution to this quantum puzzle and even an experiment with atoms, but now the University of Twente (UT) researchers have also demonstrated it with photons. “Photons have the advantage that it is quite easy to reverse time with them,” explains Renema.
Monday, February 6
ChatGPT
In a complicated story from TIME, work between OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Sana, a San Francisco-based firm that employs people in Kenya named Sama. Sama works with some of the biggest companies in the tech industry, including Google, Meta, and Microsoft, on labeling content in images and text for explicit content.
Microsoft already has invested $1 billion into OpenAI, with a possible $10 billion more on the way. Microsoft plans to put AI into everything and reportedly leverage ChatGPT with Bing.
Sama is based in San Fran, but the work is performed by workers in Kenya, earning around $1.32 and $2 per hour. Unfortunately, to keep ChatGPT “safe” for users, OpenAI needs to feed it a lot of data from the internet, which is all unfiltered. So instead of using humans to filter out all the bad stuff, OpenAI (and companies like Meta with Facebook) employ other AI tools to remove that content from the data pool automatically.
Like the 2019 story on Facebook from The Verge, which highlighted the psychological impact of such content on the workers, Sama employees also suffered a similar fate:
“One Sama worker tasked with reading and labeling text for OpenAI told TIME he suffered from recurring visions after reading a graphic description of a man having sex with a dog in the presence of a young child. “That was torture,” he said. “You will read a number of statements like that all through the week. By the time it gets to Friday, you are disturbed from thinking through that picture.” The work’s traumatic nature eventually led Sama to cancel all its work for OpenAI in February 2022, eight months earlier than planned.”
The overall contract with Sama was $200,000, and that contract stipulated it would pay “an hourly rate of $12.50 to Sama for the work, which was between six and nine times the amount Sama employees on the project were taking home per hour.”
Later, Sama began to pilot a new project for OpenAI unrelated to ChatGPT. However, instead of text this time, it was imagery, including some illegal under US law, such as child sexual abuse, bestiality, rape, sexual slavery, and death and violence. Again, workers were to view and label the content so that OpenAI’s systems could filter out such things. READ MORE...
Tuesday, November 22
Blockchain Development Companies
If you have been following banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the last ten years, you may be familiar with “blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network. And there’s a good chance that it only makes so much sense. In trying to learn more about blockchain, you’ve probably encountered a definition like this: “blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, public ledger.”
What is Blockchain?
If this technology is so complex, why call it “blockchain?” At its most basic level, blockchain is literally just a chain of blocks, but not in the traditional sense of those words. When we say the words “block” and “chain” in this context, we are actually talking about digital information (the “block”) stored in a public database (the “chain”).
“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of digital pieces of information. Specifically, they have three parts:
Blocks store information about transactions like the date, time, and dollar amount of your most recent purchase from Amazon. (NOTE: This Amazon example is for illustrative purchases; Amazon retail does not work on a blockchain principle as of this writing)
Blocks store information about who is participating in transactions. A block for your splurge purchase from Amazon would record your name along with Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). Instead of using your actual name, your purchase is recorded without any identifying information using a unique “digital signature,” sort of like a username.
Blocks store information that distinguishes them from other blocks. Much like you and I have names to distinguish us from one another, each block stores a unique code called a “hash” that allows us to tell it apart from every other block. Hashes are cryptographic codes created by special algorithms. Let’s say you made your splurge purchase on Amazon, but while it’s in transit, you decide you just can’t resist and need a second one. Even though the details of your new transaction would look nearly identical to your earlier purchase, we can still tell the blocks apart because of their unique codes. READ MORE...
Tuesday, May 3
Time Does Not Exist (?)
Does time exist? The answer to this question may seem obvious: Of course it does! Just look at a calendar or a clock.
But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously.
How can that be, and what would it mean? It'll take a little while to explain, but don't worry: Even if time doesn't exist, our lives will go on as usual.
A crisis in physics
Physics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the Universe with two wildly successful physical theories: general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics describes how things work in the incredibly tiny world of particles and particle interactions. General relativity describes the big picture of gravity and how objects move.
Both theories work extremely well in their own right, but the two are thought to conflict with one another. Though the exact nature of the conflict is controversial, scientists generally agree both theories need to be replaced with a new, more general theory.
Physicists want to produce a theory of "quantum gravity" that replaces general relativity and quantum mechanics, while capturing the extraordinary success of both. Such a theory would explain how gravity's big picture works at the miniature scale of particles.
It turns out that producing a theory of quantum gravity is extraordinarily difficult.
One attempt to overcome the conflict between the two theories is string theory. String theory replaces particles with strings vibrating in as many as 11 dimensions. READ MORE...
Wednesday, September 15
Fifty Percent Versus Fifty Percent
I am 73 years old, born in 1947 and this is the first time that I have ever seen this country SO DIVIDED outside of the HIPPIE PROTESTS of the 1960's... which was not really a 50/50 division at all but more of a ONE GROUP DISAGREEMENT... however, the only positive thing that came out of the 1960's was the lyrics of the rock and roll music.
I have been retired since 2015 and to be quite honest with you (implying I have not been honest before) I have not voted in an election here in the USA for over 20 years. The original reason was so that I would not be called for JURY DUTY but then over the years, I have not been able to support either the Democrats or the Republicans.
WHY? This is an easy answer: Nothing has changed in this country since the 1960's as we basically have the same problems today (2021) that we had back then... and that is the fault of BOTH PARTIES.
BUT... it seems that we have a bigger problem here in the US of A and that is that we are divided RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE... half are liberal and democrat and half are conservative and republican with a handful of socialists and libertarians who bitch the loudest but who are in essence ignored behind the scenes... as if they are spoiled children.
This division in the US of A while a natural by product of DEMOCRACY and our Democratic Republic form of government and is more or less a healthy expression of one's beliefs... is a source of pleasure for our enemies because it is much easier to take over a country if that country is divided.
The other issue with a equally divided country is that neither party who has governmental control really has a mandate from all of the people to do whatever it is that they want to do... This lack of support causes an upheaval in direction every 4 years and keeps the residents of the country angry at each other rather than divided.
However, what remains constant is that THE WEALTHY will continue to get WEALTHIER as we ignore them and fight among each other. The second issue here is that TECHNOLOGY will continue to advance and the general public will be caught off guard when AI ROBOTS replace 50% of their jobs in just a few years.
These advances in TECHOLOGY will change our lives forever... some for the better and some for the worst as we adapt, change, and modify our behaviors.
What is even more hideous is the fact that while our Federal Government spends money (that it does not have) to give the people (you and I) more benefits, this same government will NOT BE PUTTING INCREASES OF MONEY INTO THE MILITARY while China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea will be ignoring their citizens and beefing up their militaries.
What does this mean?
This means that while you will have FREE EDUCATION, FREE DAY CARE, and a FREE GUARANTEED INCOME, the global economy will shift away from the USA and move east towards Russia, China, India, Asia, Japan, and parts of Europe and the Middle East... rendering your free education WORTHLESS for all intents and purposes.
How will this happen?
Our Federal Government COUNTS on your short term focus rather than on your long term focus of 10 years or more.
One of the facts-of-life, that I realize after living for 73 years is that TIME MOVES QUICKLY by us all and the older we become, the quicker time seems to move. In no time at all, I am in my 70's when my last really congnizant thoughts about all of this, I was in my 50's... and, while you may just think it is just me and my behavior... but, this is a comment you hear for ALL OLDER PEOPLE which is why they encourage you to live for the day and pursue your dreams.
Saturday, May 15
Time's Mistress
Friday, November 20
There Is No Beginning or End Just a Present
EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF RELATIVITYTo understand special relativity you must first familiarize yourself with the speed equation:
The speed of light is the same for all observers, and this is known as
This relativistic effect is called time dilation. So the faster an object travels, the slower the time passes. That’s why moving clocks are slower than stationary ones. For example, observer A is on a slow-moving train called "train A". She measures time using her wristwatch. Observer B, passing train A at high speed, has the exact copy of A’s wristwatch. Yet, from the point of view of A, B’s wristwatch runs more slowly than her own. And this is why Einstein said “time is an illusion”.
Thursday, April 30
Last Day of the Month
I also remember that May 1st was MAYPOLE DAY in Elementary School... however, all I remember is the girls holding crepe paper tied to the top of a pole, going in one direction weaving in and out of the girls holding different colored crepe paper going in another direction until the pole was covered in all sorts of colors of crepe paper.
These memories are over 62 years old and while they indicate the passage of time, they do not accurately records the behaviors and enjoyment of that period of time for me, assuming that there was enjoyment which I am sure there was since every child, at some point-in-time experiences bitter sweet enjoyment.
All of us cannot escape the passage of time and for some of us, it happens quicker than for others for a variety of reasons but it always happens to everyone and there is a moment of regret, however shallow, that we will one day not remember at all...
Sunday, April 19
Time is Relative
BUT, if you are in the airplane looking down at a person looking up at you, it appears that the airplane is moving relatively slowly...
So, why is this and what has this got to do with time?
Think about it this way...
When our male astronauts went into space for several days their beards did not grow as fast as did the beards of the males on the ground working at NASA...
What that tells us is that time slows down the farther we move away from earth. And, this can be understood easier if we look at a bicycle wheel.
Look at the wheel on the left... and, imagine that the earth is that round black circle in the middle and that the edge of the universe is the black larger tire with the orange wheel.
It it obvious (at least to me anyway) that the inner black circle makes several complete revolutions by the time the outer tire completes one complete revolution.
If the inner black circle's complete revolution represents 365 days, then it might make 10 complete revolution or 10 years by the time the outer tire makes one complete revolution or 1 year...
So, as one moves farther and farther away from the earth, time does not pass by as quickly as it does on earth.
Does that mean that astronauts could live longer is they remained in Outer Space?