That sucks.

And I had a dream last night that Tom Jones was shot and killed by Britney Spears.

Bonnie Lost Her Job....

Big surprise......big lay offs......but is sucks. Anyone know of an amazingly well paying job in Denver?
Happy Holidays! (Maybe being laid off is neat...who knows?)

My two favorite people I don't know

are engaged.

New years plan

yet?

Whoops!

Hey folks who were out last night in the Beach! I apologize for not making it out, but as Kim and Dice can attest to from our conversations, I was super-ultra-mega tired and passed the fuck out immediately upon getting home. We will kick it, though, when I come through Denver or Boulder. We'll figure something out. I love you.

Japanese Elderly...they play too much GTA and think the rules don't apply to them.

Merry Xmas

This is just about one of the saddest things I've read. Don't forget to love your old folks this xmas.

I'll be around so if there is to be shindiggery just ring me up or something.

Sweet huge free

and beta digital library: europeana

For Dustin

Possibly the best draw EVAR!!!

...also, the 26th isn't good for us either, so I don't know what Bonnie was talking about

Yes, yes, yes.

I can do the 26th. Palmer reunion! I didn't go to Palmer!

Let's All Get Together for a Few Hours....

Hi Friends! I think it would be great if we could meet at someone's house or a cafe or bar for a few hours so we can all catch up. How does the evening of the 26th sound?

Holy Shit

I just canvassed Todd Haynes. He gave me 35 dollars and was totally awesome.

Home for the Holidays

I'll get home on the 24th and head out again on the 1st. So yeah, I'll be there while Bryan's around.

iTunes answer for Bonnie

http://www.getsharepod.com/

Shit man.

I just finished a paper I've been writing for 3 months! Now I have to be drunk for 3 months. Also, I will make everyone read it. All 75 pages. I'm proud of me.

Brian Curtis

Not sure if you guys remember him from high school, but my friend Brian Curtis is coming into town the 23rd to the 30th and is staying with me. We might go beach-side for awhile if things are going.

Logan, are you going to be around?

I'm heading back to Ballerado for New Years.

First, help me please internet people! Should I use godaddy.com or this Google Apps Registration to register my domain name. I would like to use Google, but I don't really get what they're offering. I'll be hosting it with my mobileMe account, and making it on iWeb.

Bonnie, here you go.

Kim, I don't know what I'm up to, but I do know when I'll be up to something. I'm flying into Denver on the 26th, and flying out on the 3rd. I may try to do some kind of huge party during that time, but that plan is still being formulated. Either way, I expect to spend most all of my time in the Beach, but I should manage to swing through Boulder, FoCo, and Denver at least briefly.

Coloradoans:

Anything cool going on for New Year's Eve yet?

Bonnie Needs Help

Hi Friends...
My ipod is dying and I need to get all of the music off of it. Can anyone tell me how to do such a thing?
Thank you and I hope you are all doing really well!

At about 2:50 in the video, he says, "What can we call the fourth dimension? How about duration?" Time is included.

Fuck if I know

Seems convenient

Carl and John

I don't understand counting at 0 either. A point isn't a dimension, simply put, so counting it as one is just counting wrong. I swear to gawd, they are not counting time, just spacial dimensions.

Cars are goddman death traps!

One MILLION kids are killed every year because of cars. Personally, I hate driving above 40mph...fucking frightening.
What ch'all think?

Boring!

Thank you all.

This is the last time I say this...

How can you start counting in the 0th dimension when there is no 0th dimension in String Theory?! There are no point-like particles, only 1-dimensional strings. Maybe it would make sense if I were high.

Whoa

I'm totally sober right now so Carl's post went a little over my head...until I put it in spherical coordinates and it all came together with ease. Anywhy, if you say that our universe is maybe incompatible with numbers, then I say that I hope Mark Derosa is not involved in a trade for Jake Peavy.

Dammit, John

Start counting at Zero!  A point is in the Zeroth dimension. Get high first, if it helps.

I realize the video is an analogy and is just some ham-handed attempt at putting a human scale on "higher" dimensions.  

Anyway, this stuff gets me thinking (with bolded keywords!)

Dustin brings up a good point, and another issue that I've been thinking about for years: Are the constructs of human scientific theory (such as numbers) fundamentally incompatible with reality?  Like, what if our ideas about scientific theory seem complicated to us because maybe we are just thinking about them in the wrong sort of way?

I can think of a few examples.  Take Pi.  When we use Pi mathematically, we construct it as an irrational number 3.14159265....  and irrational numbers are just, well, damn crazy.  They're very hard to conceive in our base-10 (or base-whatever) counting system.

But think of Pi this way:

Pi is the ratio between the diameter and the circumference.  I practically don't even have to explain this diagram -- we can just view it and appreciate the proportions and mere visual quantity.

So here we have a picture of a very simple visual quantity and proportion -- perhaps the most elementary.  And yet, when we try to conceive of it in our counting system, we have to use an irrational quantity -- something that seems very obtuse in our counting system.  Moreover, when you want to use an algorithm to calculate Pi, you have to do all sort of iterative calculations involving Taylor series and stuff like that.  I mean, fuck.

I feel this brings us to the difference between thinking about things geometrically vs algebraically.  I think the Greeks would only truly accept geometric proofs of theorems because they appeared to be plain and universal truth -- it's a lot easier to look at a picture than try to sort through numbers.  We like numbers because they have a size, and they fit nicely together, but maybe the universe doesn't really think about things on this bandwidth -- the universe might not believe in numbers.

Another example includes the discovery of fractal geometry.  Can you imagine representing fractal information in cartesian space?  It would be fucking ridiculous.  However, with fractals, it's (relatively) damn simple.  Now go into the world (get high first, of course) and witness the patterns of nature as self-similar automata (then eat some chips).  One idea can be very complex in one system of thinking (cartesian/linear) and very simple in another system (fractal/iterative).  SO perhaps there are other higher-level or lower-level systems of understanding that we have not yet uncovered.  We may never uncover these, or we may have brains which cannot comprehend the ideas -- not because they are too difficult, but perhaps they are just incompatible.  A square peg in a round hole.

Which brings me to the last example (in the form of a question):  Will computers ever surpass the human mind in ability?  I ask this question in a somewhat ambiguous fashion (like WTF does "ability" mean?), mostly because I'm not really interested in the answer, but rather the the question.  Computers (as they are now, for the most part) are just a bunch of sophisticated adding machines that can work really, really, really, really fast.  They're getting faster.  But if you're a computer, and you're really good at adding, when we ask if you'll ever exceed the human brain presupposes that the brain is simply an advanced adding machine; and that if you get enough adding power, you'll eventually arrive at a brain.  But the brain is very non-linear and may do computing in an entirely different way (which is weird to think about when it was the brain that invented the computer).  I'm certainly no expert on what sorts of work is being done in this field at the moment -- I would guess that people are trying to develop an "anticomputer" of some fashion.  We're just stuck in the age of the transistor.

This opens up a whole other neuroscience can-of-worms -- like, why does music sound good?  Why do we commit abuses to each other all over the world?  Why have I stayed up until 2:17AM writing this diatribe when I'm supposed to be sleeping?  I say Goddamn!

Thoughts?

PS. I should probably read this while actually high. 

La rodilla

Neat.

Oops

Yeah, I was pretty stoned when I typed all that. I meant to say "some" instead of "many" about Einstein's theories being proven after his death.

I liked everything you just said, except about Einstein not being proven right until he was long gone. He became a celebrity during middle age AFTER his theories were proven correct. But, anyways, most people don't understand the way science has changed since the Enlightenment.

The steamy relationship between math and science

John briefly hinted at the idea you spent all those sentences focusing on, Dustin. It is a distrust of theory or just pure thought when it can't be tested against anything considered physical or real.

Back in the days of Newton or just about any scientist before the 20th century, observations were always a step ahead of math. New mathematical and scientific concepts were almost always spurned on in an attempt to describe some kind of phenomenon in the world. As time went on the mathematics and scientific theory started to catch up with observation and technology in the realm of physics. Just contrast and compare how Newton and Einstein came up with their theories...Newton was thinking of how to describe what he saw. Einstein set about trying to explain his own abstract theories of why existing theory was not completely accurate. His hypothesis was much more nested in theory than in observation. In fact it took many years after Einstein was long gone until many of his theories could be tested and observed, many of which happened to be correct. So currently, in physics, advances in technology prove physical theories correct instead of theories arising from advances in technology and observation.

As a consequence the direction of physics is greatly influenced by advances in math and theory; completely the opposite of all sciences and math and their infancy. After the success of Einstein I can't say that it is something that should be avoided, but apart from other academics there isn't enough to keep an Einstein poser from hogging a lot of math and physics funding when their theory and study may actually be complete rubbish. So sure, our concerns are justified, but like John said, the guys running this theory train aren't con men. They are our Einstein-hopefuls and they are way smarter than us. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Ok, I rewatched the video and the 11th dimension still seems left out. My understanding was that there is no 0th dimension in String Theory because all strings are 1 dimensional and they are the basic building blocks instead of point-like particles. I thought I learned that 20 years ago String Theory had 10 dimensions, but that genius guy convinced everyone there must be 11. Was this video made 20 years ago? Was Hegel as good of a philosopher as Chuck Hagel? I'm going to go read up on String Theory so I know what I'm talking about.

Word

Good posts

Nah, you don't sound arrogant Willie: what you feel for String-Theorists, I feel for all modern physicists...HA!

I kid.

Here is the thing though: 4 dimensions are comprehensible....space, check, time check. As Willie was saying, the language of physics is math. Now, what is math supposed to be? A system that is an abstract representation of the universe? If this is the case, how do you know that as the math (dimensions) gets to higher levels, the numbers don't lost all referents and thereby all meaning? How do you know that this advanced language is not just advanced symbol-gibberish?

As an example of this problem, let me take a shot at the field of philosophy to be fair: Hegel.

In many ways, Hegel tried to use the German language like advanced mathematics. He created new words and concepts, used old words in new ways and even took a swipe at traditional logic. The problem with Hegel though, I would argue, is that his ideas lost all its ties to the real world through his advanced abstraction. Here is an example: in the Phenomenology of Spirit he defines the "True" as the "Bacchanalian revel in which no member is not drunk."

My thoughts on Hegel pretty much mirror a contemporary of Hegel, Schopenhauer. He sees Hegel as

... a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage...

– Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality

Also:

The height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had been only previously known in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most barefaced, general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, as a monument to German stupidity.

--

Anyway, this is a bit extreme but I think it gets to my point.

Perhaps, the one (and only?) solution I can think of is that these higher dimensions and higher levels of math must be scientifically useful: i.e. must tell us something about the real world. This will again tether theory to reality, which will bring the always important property of the theory being true.

Thoughts?

I like everything you just said, Willie. I was kind of gonna say the same thing. Before I started to understand String Theory, I didn't think there was much to separate it from numerology or astrology. Some parts of it may actually be testable now and no one can come up with a better alternative. It even answers the most difficult question, "Why is the Universe so well suited for life?" Anyways, the smartest guys in the room are working on String Theory, so if they don't think it's a waste of time, why should I?

Seriously

In terms of math that I have used and could at one point fake-pretend that I understood, tensors are as far as I've gotten...and with that String Theory stuff they do, they have tensors in matrices in tensors for fuck's sake! It makes my brain cry.

If you want to go more in depth in that video, watch the annotated version (it clears up the stuff about # of dimensions, too).

My love/hate relationship popular science

I'm sure this will come off as really arrogant or something like that, but I promise that I don't mean for it to. When it comes to string theory you guys probably know more about it than me. Anyways...

Here's the first line of the wikipedia page for the guy that made the video: "Rob Bryanton is a Canadian author, composer, and sound designer. He lives and works in his home town of Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. He is the author and creator of the book and website, Imagining the Tenth Dimension." So I'm going to agree with Drew when he says, "Just sounded like a guy that was sick of imagining things and decided he was done at 10 because it got difficult."

I love to make fun of string theorists as much as the next physicist but those guys are just fucking out of this world good at insane math/physics. Only the very, very, very best minds in math and physics ever make an significant contribution to string theory and the like. This Rob Bryanton guy probably means well and if videos like this make people more interested in supporting physics and science with their tax dollars then I'm all for it. But I can't help but feeling that books/videos/etc like this somehow cheapen the work that string theorists do. To truly understand a 11 dimensional universe (multi-verse?) at a deep level requires so much more than some cartoons. Pictures and words just can't describe the concepts. The language of physics is math, and while you can get pretty far with pictures and words, they will gradually start to fail as the math become more and more abstract.

Maybe it's like how most languages share a lot of common words and concepts, but there are also words that describe concepts in one language that don't translate directly or even indirectly to another language. And if we don't have a word for some concept in the English language can we really say that we understand the idea as well as those that do have a word for something? I don't know. "Lost in translation" or something like that. At this point I'm sure that I need a linguist to tell me how much I'm oversimplifying all this.

I guess what I'm getting at is that this guy is an artist and his work should be treated as such. And I only mean that as a complement to his profession and skills.

Maybe I just should have followed Carl's instructions at watched the video high.

A few things.

Kimberly, give Mikey a hug from me. As tight as you can manage without hurting the old fellow.

That video was pretty awesome, literally. It actually mirrored a book to a degree that I read in middle school, some young adult sci-fi drivel wherein a kid meets aliens from the fourth dimension. It wasn't that great, but the concept was cool as it was similar to the video. Anyway, as another person who has no formal training in what they were talking about, it seemed pretty logical to me. To anyone who liked it, you should already be listening to Radio Lab. It is basically This American Life except instead of folksey anecdotes about feelings it is folksey research presentations exploring some of the most fundamentally deep and interesting questions in existence. The "Who am I" episode and the "Placebo" episode especially stand out in this regard.

The most pressing thing, though, is an internet question. Shit is officially bumping off and I need to start work on a website. What I have: a .mac account (now MobileMe I guess); iWeb. What do I need now? Should I register my sitename through godaddy.com and have the content on my MobileMe account? I saw that you can also do domain registration through Google, whose business I always prefer and trust. Does anyone know how the Google stuff works? Do they also host, or would my hosting still be through my MobileMe account? I don't think I'll need any technical help on the construction of the site itself as I'll just fuck around with iWeb a bunch. Thanks in advance homies.

I believe they included time as the 4th dimension, but I haven't heard anyone add the 0th dimension before.

Actually...

They didn't include time as one of the dimensions, so include that and you have #11. I guess 10 dimensions sounds cooler.

As for reaching the limit, as soon as they drew a line from one infinity to another (yes, I realize it was an abstraction) limits went out the window for me.

The 11th dimension

John:  I think you have to start counting at 0.  I think in the video a point is the 0th dimension.   It's like in programming where you dimension an array to have N elements, but the last index is N-1 because the first index is 0.

Dice:  The analogy breaks down there, just as it does if you try to think of dimensions below a point.  If you can keep going forwards, than why not keep going backwards?  Like, going to "negative" dimensions, less than a point, etc.

Carl's Post

So coincidentally when I happened upon Carl's post last night i was already high. LUCKY ME! It rawked my brain pretty hard. Awesome video. For someone that didn't study relativity at any point that thing was very much helpful and cool to me. I DID NOT like the ending though. Felt I was following along pretty well until they pulled that BS "now we've run out of room." Says who? That guy's imagination? That made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Just sounded like a guy that was sick of imagining things and decided he was done at 10 because it got difficult.

I thought M-theory was positing 11 dimensions. Where does the extra one come from?

Mike's broken again.

He broke his tibia and tore his patella tendon and now has to have his 3rd surgery in two years. Hooray. Make sure you have health insurance.

Instructions

1. Get High
2. Watch this:

Wasn't no snow

in Boulder.

Suckers!

So the local news was on at work this morning and what do I see but a report about Denver area snow fucking things up for everyone again. During a montage of cars sliding all over the place, they mentioned that there were Red Cross Shelters to handle all the stranded travelers? You suckers need to get your shit in check. I do indeed miss the snow, but not in that quantity. Out here it's just breathtakingly beautiful fog and drizzle.

Oh, and women are finally taking matters into their own hands.