Anyone starting to think were holographic?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Anyone starting to think were holographic?

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/575653/The-Matrix-Universe-Planet-Earth-NASA-Scientist

quote:

"If you make a simple calculation using Moore's Law [which roughly claims computers double in power every two years], you'll find that these supercomputers, inside of a decade, will have the ability to compute an entire human lifetime of 80 years � including every thought ever conceived during that lifetime � in the span of a month.

"In quantum mechanics, particles do not have a definite state unless they're being observed.

"Many theorists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how you explain this.

"One explanation is that we're living within a simulation, seeing what we need to see when we need to see it.

"What I find inspiring is that, even if we are in a simulation or many orders of magnitude down in levels of simulation, somewhere along the line something escaped the primordial ooze to become us and to result in simulations that made us � and that's cool."

The idea that our Universe is a fiction generated by computer code solves a number of inconsistencies and mysteries about the cosmos.

Ok, not much to commend it yet. But then there's this.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/there-is-growing-evidence-that-our-universe-is-a-giant-hologram

quote:

To demonstrate that our universe can indeed be seen as a hologram, physical quantities would have to be calculated using both quantum field theory and gravitational theory in �flat� space, and the results would have to match. Grumiller decided to see whether one key feature of quantum mechanics�quantum entanglement�could be replicated using gravitational theory.

When two quantum particles are entangled, they cannot be described individually, but instead form a single quantum �object,� even if they�re far apart. There is a measure that describes how entangled a quantum system is, known as the �entropy of entanglement.� After several years of work, Grumiller and his colleagues managed to show that this entropy takes on exactly the same value when calculated in gravitational theory and quantum field theory for spaces like our universe.

and life reviews which are triggered during times of extreme duress

quote:

"Subjects frequently describe their experience as panoramic, 3-D or holographic. During a life review, the subject's perception is reported to include not only their own perspective in increased vividness, as if they were reliving a given episode itself, but that of all other parties they interact with at each point being reviewed. Betty Eadie's widely read account, in which she described the life review as her best conception of hell, also described the life review as extending to ripples of one's life and acts out into further degrees of separation. Some believe this extension to have limitations.

The term 3D is employed to approximate the inclusion of different physical perspectives onto a scene; the intensity of a life review was described by one individual as enabling him to count every nearby mosquito; but equally common is the description of feeling the emotional experience of the other parties, including in one case virtually everyone in a room. While some accounts appear to describe scenes as selected, others more commonly narrate the experience as including things they had, probably naturally, long ago entirely forgotten, with "nothing left out." Experiencers commonly describe the intense vividness and detail as making them feel more alive than when normally conscious:"

and the very nature of human psychology being so patterned and regular. In your late 20s you start worrying about your health, at 50 you worry about mortality, at 70 or so you come to grips with it. And unexplained phenomena like deja vu or time lapses, and the explosion of G-waves - the waves believed to be responsible for conscious brain activity - before death (think Steve Jobs' "Oh boy. Oh boy", or what Shakespeare described as "the lightning before death".

Doesn't your life feel like a narrative being played out? Mine does

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 00:26

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 18:04

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

http://sixpenceee.com/post/82541990386/a-glitch-in-the-matrix-is-an-experience-that

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 17:51

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

Yudo posted:

The reason your life feels like a narrative is the same reason we see patterns in randomness, by the way: the brain is a pattern machine, always searching for heuristics to make integrating information easier.

The brain is itself a computer. See this doesn't make me feel any less convinced about the artifice of it all. Having purpose mitigates health problems and extends life as much as any vegetable leaning diet. Hospital patients with a good view from their beds recover faster. Having a pet extends life. Depression curtails it. When you think about why anything exists at all your brain sort of says nah don't worry about it. You can practically see the gauges above our heads. Of course you may well be right and I'm only noticing the patterns. It's just been a damned weird year.

I don't really care one way or another I just wanted to get your thoughts.

Pegged Lamb fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Oct 8, 2015

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 14:31

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

Main Paineframe posted:

This isn't some magical effect of emotions altering reality or something, though? The effects of stress and happiness on health have been known for decades. Stress, in particular, is partially a biological response and causes a lot of bodily effects that might be helpful in a fight-or-flight situation but tend to be detrimental over the long-term or when facing serious health issues.

I hate to say it, but while you're no Kyoon yet, the way you're posting reminds me a little bit of the kind of mindset Prester John described in his (excellent, by the way) mental health threads.

I know I seem unhinged. Full disclosure: My mother is a paranoid schizophrenic, so that may be all this is, though I never believed in the Illuminati or chem trails or what not. The stress thing seems weird to me though. You'd think there'd have been an evolutionary adaptation to increased stress somewhere in our ancestry long, long ago as creatures in the wild are more or less constantly in a high state of stress.

and then there's the conferred health benefits of meditation and any spiritual awareness whatsoever. http://www.anti-agingfirewalls.com/2015/07/16/the-top-21benefits-of-meditation/

Charity seems to improve longevity, continual self improvement improves longevity. Sex and masturbation has multifarious health benefits, even though we're told that organisms historically are kept alive just long enough for their offspring to reach adulthood, and that older organisms seem to be programmed to die so they don't compete for mates. But then look at Hugh Heffner.

Exercise maintains your telomeres. Overexercise damages tissues. Tai chi, of all things increases stem cell count.

Marriage, that most seemingly unnatural union of all things, seems to give a longevity boost.

Then there's things like precognition of death, which was seriously studied for a time, and how a social circle of 5 close friends is a bulwark against dementia, or how simple regular dopamine through achieving goals can deter Parkinsons.

Everything has a plausible biological explanation. But when you take it together its as if though there's this unwritten golden rule: "Dude...chill. Have fun, but do stuff."

Pegged Lamb fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Oct 8, 2015

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 15:59

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

Main Paineframe posted:

Creatures in the wild aren't typically in a state of high stress; otherwise, the obvious implication is that every living thing on the planet except for post-industrial humans and domesticated animals would be under constant stress, which we know to not be accurate. Of course, there's plenty of instances of momentary stress, that brief moment of panic when you spot movement in the brush and wonder if it's a predator or not, but that's not the kind of stress that really damages health much, and when it does, it's a small price to pay to be ready to escape potential physical danger (at least, before modern society mostly eliminated that danger). Rather, what's damaging to health, and what is more commonly understood by modern humans as "stress", is inescapable stress - things that disturb you enough to trigger your fight-or-flight response, but that can't be escaped just by fighting or fighting, so your body ends up constantly releasing largely useless hormones and chemicals for weeks or months because the human body doesn't really have a proper biological fear response for "your company has announced massive layoffs and your job could be lost at any time" or "your home was broken into and your most important possession was stolen".

The point of the stress response is that your body is readying itself for quick action so you can either run away from whatever's distressing you or stab it with a sharp object. Since you can't do those things to the stresses of modern society, you stay distressed, and your body respinds to that distress by continuing to pump out chemicals trying to keep you alert and energetic and ready to fight off or flee from a stress that can't be fought off or fled from. As a result, your body ends up wearing itself out and generating various chemical imbalances as it struggles to maintain your biological "emergency" mode for far longer than any creature would typically need to in the wild. In other words, it's not a universal design to "be chill", it's just a result of the human fear response only really being appropriate for dealing with predators, hunts, and immediate short-term danger - the sustained mental misery of modern society isn't something it's really suited to handle, so your body tries too hard to cope and ends up overstraining itself.

Ok. That seems legitamite and reasonable in every way. But how about this

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0114/090114-Quantum-mechanics-explains-efficiency-of-photosynthesis

or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome

Pegged Lamb fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Oct 8, 2015

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 16:31

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

Salt Fish posted:

What do these things have to do with each other?

Each other? Nothing. Much of nature, and our natures is a complete mess. But its an elegantly mathematical mess.

Pegged Lamb fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Oct 8, 2015

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 16:42

Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

Main Paineframe posted:

What about them? They're both perfectly understandable, and have no need for supernatural explanations. Quantum physics playing a role in physical processes is not some huge groundbreaking concept, and if you think alien hand syndrome is weird then you clearly haven't even scratched the surface of all the crazy impairments that can be caused by localized brain damage.

Alright. You win. Dark matter isn't just terra incognita that we'll clear away by simply flying nearer it with FTL spacecraft

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 17:01

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Pegged Lamb: Nov 5, 2007; Can't post for 3 years!

"Critical thinking" is the "God of the Gaps" of empirical materialism.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 19:33

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Anyone starting to think were holographic?