Dork Scratchings

(Probably mad, but worth saving for posterity) Today's post follows on from this previous post  in which I argued that the entire universe is in a superposition of states. I showed how this can lead to the impression that only the system under study is in a superposition, whilst the rest of the world is in a single - classical - state.  To summarize that argument: Reality is a superposition of states for the entire universe, each of which can be thought of as a complete classical block universe. We don't directly experience the whole universe, so let's arbitrarily place a closed surface around us to demarcate what we "directly" experience.  Remember that this is a surface in 4 dimensional spacetime and so is itself 3 dimensional.  Also remember that it is completely arbitrary: if you like you can let it contain your entire body for your entire life; or it could just be your brain for some duration.  You could even let the surface enclose everythi

It's not much.... Last year the IPCC stated that all anthropogenic emissions to date add up to 2200 GTon, that we have 600 GTon remaining before hitting a 50% chance of exceeding 1.5 degrees of warming, and that were adding 50 GTon each year. The flask in the picture shows what's going on graphically. It's already nearly full with  historical emissions and each year it gets more full. Around 2030 it will overflow. Why 1.5 degrees?  They agree that at around 2 degrees the various feedback loops will mean warming is no longer under human control. We're at around 1 degree already. It would seem that 1.5 was deemed the "safe" limit because it was halfway between the two.  Unfortunately there's at least a couple of reasons to think that the picture painted is overly rosy: Firstly, the "budget" they specify comes with a number of caveats: there are a number of uncertainties in the calculation and they quantify them. These can b

Most Quantum Mechanics courses try to avoid imposing any kind of interpretation. This makes sense since the interpretation of QM is controversial but the mathematics is not. Unfortunately a little bit of interpretation always sneaks in through the back door. Whether you're being taught the Schroedinger Equation, Feynman path integrals, or QFT, the assumption is always that you can divide reality into That Which Is Under Study and the Rest Of The World... and that the nature of reality in the two parts is entirely different. If it's the Schroedinger Equation being taught That Which Is Under Study is represented by a state vector in a Hilbert Space that evolves with time; with Feynman Path integrals That Which Is Under Study is the set of all legal Feynman diagrams which complete the picture by joining neatly with the  diagram for The Rest Of The World; if it's QFT then the nature of reality inside That Which Is Under Study is a single state vector which can be converted in

Our holiday cottage in Lindos has this wonderful mosaic in the floor. It's made from black and white pebbles each about 2cm in diameter which gently massage your feet as you walk over them. In the doorway the same pebbles write out the date 1908. Looking at a design like this I can't help trying to reverse engineer it.  The first thing you notice is that the edges of the white quadrilaterals share a straight line with the edges of the black ones.  In fact all the shapes other than the concentric circles are formed by intersecting chords of the outer circle. The next observation is that these chords come in parallel pairs which are tangent to the inner circle on opposite sides.  These observations are enough to generate a recipe: Draw the outer circle Mark every 20 degrees to split into 18 equal parts Draw a chord between point n and point n+8 Repeat for n = 0...8 Draw the inner circle I had a go at this using Handwrite Pro on my phone. I ended up using a slig