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Exploiting the multiverse

September 24, 2011 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

I’m watching “The Universe – Multiverse Parallel Universes” on YouTube by The History Channel and they brought up an interesting point. Maybe in the distant future our successors will build a device that allows you to travel between universes. This way our hyper-intelligent brethren can begin exploring and learning about other universes, other physics, and even witness the course of human history from start to finish since all possibilities can happen again (infinite universes).

They also brought up another interesting point, that like in nature, we should spread our seed to these new “lands”. Like a tree dropping seeds to the ground, we too should send bots through worm-holes to colonize a new universe before this one ends. Perhaps that’s how we got here.

The universe is an illusion, but consciousness isn’t

September 17, 2011 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

In a video entitled “The Universe is an Illusion, But Consciousness Isn’t” they talk about how consciousness is designing the universe we’re living in. That we may never see the edge of the universe or the smallest particle because our conscious expectation for something to be there will literally change the universe. That reality is an illusion created by us as the observers. This made me wonder about God. Following this belief we could argue that God, Jesus and whoever else did in fact exist and that they did perform miracles. But through a changing society filled with skepticism and doubt, we altered reality to discard these illusions and create a more “realistic” world.

After watching this video again and exploring different possibilities, I am wondering what potential our brain holds if educated properly. It seems plausible that a computer program with images, sounds, and smells could teach us about the world in a “Chuck-Intersect” kind of way. By creating neural pathways and then strengthening them through repetition, maybe we could create a super efficient way to teach people. Basically I’m imagining that computer that teaches the primitive humans in Battlefield: Earth.

Athene’s Theory of Everything

September 12, 2011 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

I’m watching “God Is In the Neurons” and “Athene’s Theory of Everything”. The video begins with a great explanation of how memories are formed by our experiences and how, as a result, talent and skills are formed. This is a great explanation for why people become good at something and why they are the ones that pioneer their fields and discover new things. Something to ponder: our consciousness is the current unity of actively firing neurons (whereas our subconsciousness is the collective of inactive neurons?). Could it also be said that mirror neurons are what create distinction or difference between each other person? That by viewing the lives of others were are subconsciously comparing and placing ourselves in society against them? Does this explain why we have a class based system for society?

I’m thinking about people being nothing more than the state of currently active neurons. For example, who I am when I am sitting at my computer is different from the person outside playing tennis. Although there must be a set of neurons that are almost always active that define traits of my personality. I don’t become an entirely new person, I simply shift the focus of parts of my active neurons to the ones that relate to tennis. What this makes me consider is the opportunity to control these patterns in your brain and utilizing the most relevant, productive, inspiring, motivated, etc. in every situation. By realizing this and focusing mental energy on activating these neurons, I could effectively become exactly the person I want to be?

UPDATE 2014-03-16: It’s strange to think that I learned this back then and trust it as a source for understanding the world. While it’s an incredibly compelling piece of entertainment, what belief structures have I built around interpreting reality this way? What if some element of it is wrong and thus an entire branch of my reasoning is poisoned by it? What if we discover that the mind works in an entirely different way than we thought? How would that effect my worldview and would I be able to adapt?

From the obvious to the subtle

September 4, 2011 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

Young minds move so fast. It isn’t until you’re a bit older and wiser that you begin to take notice of the subtle and seemingly simple aspects of nature and humanity. The world becomes truly a spectacle once you gain this appreciation.

UPDATE 2014-03-16: Another way to explain this might be to imagine that young minds only absorb data that is obvious. They see the spikes in the spectrum but ignore or filter out the troughs. As we get older we become more interested in the troughs because that’s where all the really interesting data lies. And consequently, depending on how interested you really are, this is where enlightenment would lie as well. It just depends how deep you go and how many troughs you explore.

The language before language

May 15, 2011 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

What do babies think before they can ask themselves questions? What is it like to ask, “what is that?” without the language to do so? If an animal is curious about something, how does it tell itself it’s curious? Is there a consistent thought that fires every time it thinks, “I wonder what that is?”

The only way to get ahead is to teach yourself

December 26, 2010 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

I’ve often remarked that the education system is bad, and it is. Something I just realized is that people don’t know how to teach. It’s actually worse than I initially realized because I was giving these people the benefit of the doubt. But now I realize that these people I looked up to are no different than any other person. They simply think they know what they’re doing and have the power to enforce it, but in reality they are just as lost and as unqualified as any of us. Don’t be fooled, the only true way to get ahead and learn is to teach yourself. That much is evident.

Free will and the scarecrow

December 25, 2010 / Sam Shadow (SMSHDW)

We may not have free will. After reading that passage in The Elegant Universe it seems very possible that our decisions and logic follow a pre-determined path, perhaps with limited choice on our parts. Maybe in the future, a milestone humans will pass is the realization of this truth and the reform that will need to follow.

Perhaps college was more useful than previously credited for. I came to this conclusion after watching The Wizard of Oz, towards the end, when the wizard revealed himself and spoke to the scarecrow. Success at college isn’t only the technical understanding you gain, but rather the depth with which you can think.