The Red Pill

Everything we call real is made is of things that cannot be regarded as real - Nobel prize winning physicist Neils Bohr

Currently the most powerful super computers in the world are able to process approximately 1 million billion calculations per second.  This is thought to be roughly equivalent to the computational power of the human brain.  According to Moore's law, computational power should double every 18 to 24 months, and in fact over the last 2 decades has doubled roughly every 13 months. Over the next decade we should expect to see super computers roughly 500 times as powerful as the human brain. 

Armed with this information, Oxford Philosopher Nick Bostrom has tried to imagine what the future implications of this computational power will be. Bostrom asserts the following 3 points.

1. Consciousness at its most fundamental level is the result of information processed
2. Humans of the future are likely to run simulations of the past
3. Simulated universes will outnumber real universes

In this model, where computers may one day be able to simulate consciousness that is unable to distinguish itself from 'real' consciousness it stands to reason that these simulated realities would one day create simulated realities within themselves.  Like characters from the Sims using a computer within the game to play a game-world generated Sims game.  When viewed through this lens, the likelihood that we are living in the real world or 'first generation' shrinks to an infinitesimally small number. 

There are currently two standard models of physics which on paper work to a completely different set of laws.  The world that we interact with on a day to day basis conforms to the standard Newtonian model of physics.  However the laws of Newtonian physics break down at the quantum level.  The most basic building blocks of the universe appear to act like pixels or packets of data (quanta) which conform to a completely different set of laws.  As bizarre as the quantum world appears it is one of the most experimentally perfect theories of all time.  The accuracy of its predictions are unquestioned.

Albert Einstein died with an unfulfilled dream of understanding a unified theory of everything, that incorporates both models.  Currently the best hope for this unified theory is called string theory.  At the basis of string theory at the very heart of the mathematics they use to describe reality something strange has been found.  Computer code.  Not just a set of binary data, a very specific type of computer code, block linear self dual error correcting codes. 

This type of code was invented in the 40's by Claude Shannon.  When you send an email, the information is sent as a string of 1's and 0's, however on the way to their destination, some of these 1's and 0's will change or rearrange due to static on the line.  Shannons code ensures that these errors are reversed so that the information arrives in the way that it was sent.  So why is this code appearing at the basis of the mathematics of reality? 

Are we already living in the matrix? 

The Universe and the Atom

“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.” Neil De Grasse Tyson

13.7 Billion years ago the universe erupted into existence.  Following the big bang the universe consisted of a soup of light elements (mainly helium and hydrogen).  After billions of years when the violence of the big bang had subdued and conditions were just right, these elements condensed to form stars which at their core were cooking all of the heavy elements that make up the universe, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.  When these stars died, the new elements were sent spinning out across the universe. 

Today the most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Carbon and Nitrogen (in that order).  Apart from the relatively inert Helium molecules, the human body consists of the same elements in the same basic order H20 (Hydrogen and Oxygen), Carbon and Nitrogen. 

The atoms that now make up your body, have been here for billions of years before you.  They have traversed the vastness of space.  Come together to form stars and planets and comets.  They have been part of all of the oceans, the air and the land.  They made up single cell organisms, fish and dinosaurs.  They have been the arrow heads of early hunter gatherers and the glaciers of the ice ages.  They were predatory animals and their prey, they were new born babies and the dying breath of the elderly.  They were blades of grass and gusts of wind. They were fabrics and artistic expressions and weapons of destruction.   And now they have come together to be you... for a while. You are simply borrowing them for the briefest period of time and once you die your atoms will go on to be parts of the earth, the oceans, the sky and everything in between.  

It is estimated that every human living today on any given day consists of at least 20 billion atoms that were once part of Shakespeare and a further 20 billion that were once part of Socrates, Julius Ceaser, Einstein etc etc .  Each  breath you take consists of atoms that have been inhaled and exhaled by every person throughout earth's history.

There is some conjecture about how long it takes for all the atoms in your body to be replaced.  But some physicists approximate that 98% of your atoms are swapped or replaced every year.  so in actual fact they are not strictly your atoms.  They come together to play a role as you for a brief period of your life and then go off to do other things, leaving others to take their place.   They have played the part of many things throughout the history of time, and once they have played the role of you for a while they move on a scatter to play different roles throughout the world and the galaxy and the universe. 

Anonymous

Baron Acton said in 1887 that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

Whilst democracy was seen as the solution to this problem by creating a system of government in which the people had a direct influence of over those who lead.  The unfortunate truth is that modern democratic politics is subject to many of the same issues imposed by autocracies.  

Firstly the system by which any given person is able to rise to a position in which the public is able to vote that person into office has become so toxic and Machiavellian that only those who are able to thrive in that type of environment are able to achieve position of power.  Furthermore as political office is changeable, the corporations and interest groups who are able to exert power for longer periods of time behind the scenes are often able to unduly influence who can rise through the ranks and also how they govern. 

History is littered with revolutionaries who have sought to overthrown these types of unjust governments and institutions.  Generally consisting of brave men and women who are willing to stand up in the face of overwhelming odds.  The long list of revolutionaries includes such names as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and now Anonymous.

Anonymous is a leaderless community of 'hacktivists' committed to mass awareness and targeting corruption. Characterised by the stylised Guy Fawkes mask Anonymous have been growing in number and effectiveness since 2003.

 In 2007 the arrest of Chris Forcand a sexual predator using the internet to find victims, was a direct result of the members of Anonymous who had been gathering evidence against him which was given to the police. 

Anonymous became well known after declaring war on the church of scientology in 2008 for attempting to censor this video of tom cruise behaving, well, crazy

Over 7000 people protested in 93 countries world-wide.  In March 2008 the church of scientology (known for using underhanded tactics) attacked the epilepsy foundation website, trying to blame anonymous for the attack, which triggered a new wave of worldwide protests involving 8000 supporters. 

Since then Anonymous has targeted major global corporations, numerous governments and factions as well as focussing on gross injustices. Whilst still in their infancy this revolutionary group has managed to affect real change in highlighting serious issues through its involvement in the occupy protests and even bringing guilty parties to justice as evidenced by the recent Steubenville rape trial. 

Many current political systems and indeed corporations have been able to exist outside the scrutiny and checks and balances required for a fair playing field.   Anonymous are attempting to correct that imbalance and have so far proven highly effective.

In a world where politicians and corporate spin doctors have been able to confuse and misdirect the public for too long, Anonymous fills me with hope that there are pockets of our global community not stunted by apathy, but prepared to stand up for what they believe in. 

Whilst writing this blog entry Anonymous has targeted the North Korean government after the very real threat of nuclear war has been put on the table by its leader Kim Jong-Un.

Viva la revolucion

Bill Hicks

"A statesman for his generation,  a comic, a poet and a revolutionary"

In Bill Hicks' own words comedy is the last bastion of free speech.  When used properly, comedy (specifically stand up comedy) has the ability to challenge ideas and shine a spotlight on the absurdities of the status quo. 

The way Hicks did it, it forcibly wrenched open the eyelids of the audience and injected his no bullshit take on life directly into the frontal lobe. 

Hicks fearlessly smashed through the dogmatic walls of social and cultural taboos like a white hot wrecking ball. As a result many people left his shows with a new perspective on life no matter how revolutionary those ideas may have seemed before sitting down to enjoy the ride.
 

Bill's veins pumped pure integrity, he despised mediocrity and banality and had a loaded shotgun full of hatred and vitriol in each hand for whenever he came across it. 

When he was on stage he was a blowtorch rallying against superficiality and falsehood.  He detested corporate puppets and the culture of selling-out with feverish passion

On the rare occasion that someone was brave enough to heckle him, they quickly discovered the meaning behind the phrase "ripped a new arsehole"

Bill tragically died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32.  Early in his career he was labelled the most dangerous comedian alive and as a testament to the trail that he blazed many of his ideas that at the time were considered so radical are today part of the mainstream dialogue.

 He achieved something in his short life that most people don't even come close to.  He managed to live a life self-actualised.  He didn't care who he offended or who thought he was full of shit. he had a message and he put it out there regardless in the hope that he could change the way people look at the world

I'll leave you with a quote from Tom Waits and a few links if you have the time and the inclination to get to know Bill a little better.  "Bill Hicks, blowtorch, excavator, truthsayer and brain specialist, like a reverend waving a gun around. Pay attention to Rant in E Minor, it is a major work, as important as Lenny Bruce's. He will correct your vision. His life was cut short by cancer, though he did leave his tools here. Others will drive on the road he built. Long may his records rant even though he can't."

Revelation

Sane Man

Relentless

Rant in E Minor

Last show before death

Brain Forests

J.B.S Haldane, the British geneticist and evolutionary biologist said " My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose".

Reality is a crazy place to be! what strikes me as crazier, is that for sweeping multitudes of our population there is more interest in finding out how their team did on the weekend than considering this extraordinary framework we all exist in. 

As children we are all governed by an insatiable curiosity about the workings of the things and people that surround us. Unfortunately as adults we often lose the desire to understand the world and ourselves.  It's so easy to get trapped in the routine and the mundane and forget to look around and question the why's and how's.   

Sometimes though all it takes is a carefully planted seed to fire up an imagination.  I don't claim to be an expert on any of the things that I will be posting about, but hopefully somewhere in this brain forest you can find a seed that takes hold . 

Here is something to get you started, http://scaleofuniverse.com/

Enjoy

Fingerprints of the Gods

Read this book

"We are a species with amnesia" Plato.

If historical events are the best predictors of future events, then the one thing that we can say with a degree of certainty is that all civilisations fall. 

If current day humans were to disappear from the face of the earth, leaving behind the artefacts of our civilisation, the first thing to be lost would be the information contained on the internet.  With no one to provide power to the web, this vast labyrinth of information would be lost almost instantly to anyone who came after.  Next to go would be the books of the world, paper would quickly decay and deteriorate.  What then would live on? only the buildings and structures that we have created.  These too are remarkably delicate when compared with the lifespan of planets, the proof of this is the visible on almost every street of ancient Rome, where teams of people work all year round to preserve monuments that were built a mere two millennia ago. 

Given enough time without care and attention the only things that would be left would be the great monumental structures that we have produced such as the Hoover dam.

What then would a future discoverer of the Hoover dam think about the culture that built such a monumental structure.  Luckily the builders of the Hoover dam had the foresight to build in a message for just such an occasion.  Obviously this message could not be written in language as the risk that it could not be deciphered is too great.  Ingeniously the architects decided to build in a start map.  A clue that could guide any intelligent civilisation to be able to trace the structure  to the exact date of its completion.

Could these sorts of hints been left by previous civilisations?  This is precisely the framework within which Graham Hancock examines the ancient stone monuments and myths of Egypt and South America.

Hancock, not content with examining the facts from a distance is meticulous in his desire to get up close and personal with the monuments and to seek out those who have done the same.  

From the first chapter Hancock introduces ancient maps that make an almost undisputable mockery of the currently held historical chronology.  Furthermore he examines and unravels clear inconsistencies in the current dogma, from the age of the structures themselves to the level of knowledge and engineering expertise required to build them. 

The books journey through Central and South America to recurring flood myths from around the globe, to the precession of the celestial equinoxes is an attempt to offer a more plausible explanation for the history of civilisation than the current establishment has been able to offer.

This book will open your eyes and your mind to the possibility, in fact to the probability that the conventional view of history is flawed in the extreme, that we are in fact as Hancock and Plato before him have pointed out, a species suffering from amnesia. 

Read this book cover to cover then pass it to a friend. http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Fingerprints-of-Gods-Graham-Hancock/9780517887295

Follow Graham on Twitter @Graham__Hancock

Check out Graham Hancock's website http://www.grahamhancock.com/