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Dubstep – it’s an acquired taste. Always Sunny – moreso.

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One area of contention – in the same way that Jesus’ teachings are so rarely acted upon by those who claim to be his followers (how many mega-churches encourage parishioners to give away their belongings and spread the gospel of peace, tolerance, and service to one’s fellow men?) the precepts of the scientific method break down wherever humans apply sloppy or self-serving science.

The scientific method is only as good a guide to knowledge as its implementations are correct and its practitioners are honest; to that end, I think that the most important advances in science (and knowledge) will be the standardization of experimental processes and data storage (to facilitate meta-analyses) along with tamper-resistant/cryptographically-secured data capture technologies.

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Life, The Universe, and Everything

[T]he entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure “painted” on the cosmological horizon, such that the three dimensions we observe are only an effective description at macroscopic scales and at low energies.

- Holographic Principle

In the context of a multiverse, the function of human (or similar entity) consciousness may be the perpetuation of the multiverse itself such that we are philosophical zombies in the strictest sense: given enough storage and processing power, a simulation of our molecular and chemical energy (along with the matter/energy/time/space configuration of our universe) could predict our thoughts to a probability over time.

Don’t worry about “free will” – you won’t need it where we’re going…

Nature’s Ruthless Efficiency

What we experience as cognition could be the selection algorithm for the reproduction of multiverses – the solipsist’s sneaking suspicions of exceptionalism are not only neatly encapsulated in this possibility at humanity’s present stage of cognitive development, the solipsist consciousness could very well exist in parallel to consciousnesses processing self-similar multiverse algorithms at the many-worlds level of multiverse possibility (with the ultimate expression of the multiverse being a recursive algorithm for the production and output evaluation of self-replicating consciousness).

The production of self-aware inorganic matter/energy systems or the networking of conscious entities would represent some measure of progress towards increased efficiency given that genetic algorithm (a loan-word from biology which, in this context, applies retroactively to the function of biology as part of the information processing system) – both fields of research may seem the stuff of science fiction but, given the survival advantages which they could offer our species, don’t they also seem inevitable? (… and wouldn’t any species of conscious entities which survived long enough to shake off maladaptive memetic organisms follow that same line of reasoning?)

Following the law of conservation of energy as observed in our universe, the means by which such a multiverse operates would necessarily be extremely efficient – the multiverse system (whether consciously designed or arbitrarily selected by process of elimination) would necessarily simulate possible configurations needed to instantiate itself with enough energy left over to re-instantiate itself (or otherwise recursively decay into non-existence).

Inter-process Communication

If the highest-order function of the multiverse is replication vis-a-vis simulation under the constraint of maximum efficiency, it follows (on the same notion as the development of shared consciousness) that some form of inter-process communication would exist to minimize expenditures on inefficient algorithms.

Depending upon one’s mooring to the scientifically-confirmed hypotheses, inter-process communication could extend to the collective unconsciousness proposition offered by Jung or the similarities discovered in geographically-distant peoples by comparative mythology – though one need not consider the supernatural to find evidence.

It follows from the observed incidence of multiple scientific discovery that there exists a phenomena of “independent” research arriving at simultaneous invention and hypothesis:

When the time is ripe for certain things, they appear at different places in the manner of violets coming to light in early spring.

- Farkas Bolyai, to his son Janos, urging him to claim the invention of non-Euclidean geometry without delay

[via Wikipedia]

Progress toward the application of quantum computing (as described by David Deutsch) seems the most likely bellwether for inter-process communication between universes to lend itself toward the replication of the multiverse.

What it all might mean to you

All in all, probably not a whole lot – unless you see the potential for human development which could occur within the bounds of time and space given the understandings posited by this model.

The scientific pursuit of understanding of our universe as an end unto itself and the perpetuation of humanity (to include the foresight to avoid overpopulation and war) are, within this context, worthwhile goals – compare and contrast with local mythology.

If mankind never adopts such a model of understanding the universe it will not be because god has intervened – it will be because humanity has gone extinct.

TL;DR – If there’s any truth to it, you can arrive at similar conclusions on your own.

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People like Dimon, and Schwarzman, and John Paulson, and all of the rest of them who think the “imbeciles” on the streets are simply full of reasonless class anger, they don’t get it. Nobody hates them for being successful. And not that this needs repeating, but nobody even minds that they are rich.

What makes people furious is that they have stopped being citizens.

Most of us 99-percenters couldn’t even let our dogs leave a dump on the sidewalk without feeling ashamed before our neighbors. It’s called having a conscience: even though there are plenty of things most of us could get away with doing, we just don’t do them, because, well, we live here. Most of us wouldn’t take a million dollars to swindle the local school system, or put our next door neighbors out on the street with a robosigned foreclosure, or steal the life’s savings of some old pensioner down the block by selling him a bunch of worthless securities.

- A Christmas Message From America’s Rich
by Matt Taibbi

Perhaps there are those for whom
conscience serves not society but self.

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We go to the movies and automatically purchase a giant drum of buttery popcorn – and once the habit is formed, we’ll eat the popcorn even if it tastes bad.

- The Situation of Good Habits

The known-bad is always better than the unknown.

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[via Cryptome.org, Schneier]

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[I]n the cold calculus of evolution by natural selection, at no greater time in history than ever before, copiers are probably doing better than innovators. Because innovation is extraordinarily hard. My worry is that we could be moving in that direction, towards becoming more and more sort of docile copiers.

- Mark Pagel
Edge 12/15/2011

Ditto.

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It’s not a proper blog without a misty-eyed retrospective at the end of every calendar year – let’s get to it…

… WHOA! Now Americans can be assassinated and/or indefinitely imprisoned without trial!

“I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists,” Obama said in a statement accompanying his signature.

- Obama Signs Defense Authorization Bill

Welcome to 2012, the Brave New Year.

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