New Year Resolutions

Things to change including getting up times, laziness, too much TV, smoking. Also, targets to aim for in the year including work, money and networking.

Creative Ideas from Barry

New ideas for games, society and business.

Torchwood 3

Review of the last 2 episodes of Torchwood (the one with the eye and the one with the people from the 1950s).

Brain and Universe as Fractal

Our brains are 3-dimensional fractal objects with a very large curvature area along the scales of diminishing volume possibly down to quantum level. My brain stores and processes a vast amount of visual, auditory and sensory functions much greater than our external senses. For the mind sitting inside the brain a memory that is years old like it has just happened.

As the brain, lungs and veins have a small volume covering a large surface area, and the universe is fractal on larger scales then isn't it possible for the volume of the universe to be wrapped around a much smaller 4-dimensional space or space-time. A universe nearly infinite could be comparatively small and compact in a higher dimension. This may make it easier to travel in hyperspace because the distance in hyperspace would be very small for a large distance in normal space.

I am now interested in what fractals of greater than 3 dimensions would look like and how to visualise them. An object of dimension 3.01 should be recognisable as a very slight deformation in 3-dimensional space but an object of dimension 3.9 may only be seen in the mind if the mind knows where to look. That is without reducing the situation to slices of lower dimensions that build up a picture (such as can be done with computer software). I think the main problem here is the poor quality of our visual sense when compared to what can be generated within the mind (from dreams, visions and hallucinations).

There are theories in existence that consider the universe as fractal and a generator of bubble universes (with new universes budding from the parent universe but with disconnected space-time dimensions). Also could time be fractal too? Imaginary time can be represented on the y-axis of a diagram with real time on the x-axis giving the temporal possibilities of decision branching. A decision is made and the result of another option exists in the parallel universe that is generated. There may be a causal link between some of the universes created through these two processes.

Of particular interest would be the application of fractal maths to a theory of quantum gravity and why we are having trouble in deriving or understanding a theory. If such a theory exists would it not make use of a branch of mathematics that takes account of fluctuation and instability on all scales and also allow for mechanisms of propagation in directions (dimensions) perpendicular or partial to a singularity or a time within the Planck scale? For example, the creation and destination of a wormhole may be manipulated using such a new science.

My 10 Biggest Blunders

Listed below are what I consider to be my top ten of life mistakes that I have made together with reasons why and outcome analysis:

• Letting others tease me at school and causing me to have temper tantrums. This was so painful and at times I cannot understand how I survived without running away. Also, I had to deal with an alcoholic mother.
• Cheating whilst doing my Astronomy degree. I used someone else's practical assignments for my own work (and copied one of them directly). I got caught by the tutors and suffered penalties that may have affected my degree result.
• Failing to act on obvious attractions with girls during my teens, twenties and early thirties. This has led me to have very few sexual relationships and make mistakes with falling for the wrong women.
• Leaving Ordnance Survey too early to do a PhD before learning the skills properly. This also resulted in my leaving a supportive environment (Buddhist centre).
• Not working on my PhD topic because I became too engrossed in rave culture and drugs. Subsequently I withdrew from the research.
• Falling out with my landlady who was also a friend by having an argument or series of arguments over minor things. Resulted in having to leave the property quickly, getting burgled several times at the new place and having to move again. Her partner abused her when I was living there and I was very angry about it. She gave zero tolerance for one person but not for another, how unfair.
• Accepting a lift from strangers on one occasion only. This was late at night and resulted in losing my wallet, a fleece and my dignity.
• Letting people borrow money from me on several occasions including one person who took over 2000 pounds. I must never let money part from my hands again unless it is part of a legal contract such as a business transaction or purchase (unless I intend to give it away).
• Choosing wrong friends and partners on several occasions. I have been threatened with violence by a girl I fancied who flirted with me only a week earlier. The crime was for visiting her house to see if she was in (she was not and her housemate took offence). Also, another woman who was using people for sex and several people mostly in Manchester who were addicted to drugs or swindled money.
• Not completing Interactive Arts the first time that I could have done. My finances and motivation only got work on the two successive years. Also, I should have done Art and Design Foundation instead of ploughing into doing yet another degree course.

I have often been told that I am too soft with people but I hate conflict. Also, I have been late too many times, missed some key appointments and tend to either do nothing at all or everything at once. I have great ideas but do little with them. Then again I like to experience things and understand emotions. Motivation problems and laziness have led me too often to take rubbish jobs at call centres, sit around watching TV, sleeping in and smoking pot when I could be doing so much more in life. Now I feel depressed because of finances and unemployment. It is like trying to escape the gravity well of a black hole.

Holograms and Quantum Tunnelling

After watching the latest Torchwood (the one with the eye) I realised that I have had that experience of leaving this world and everything turning white without recognition of being alive (in addition to other out of body experiences). Currently I think that when we die, the mind is freed from the confines of the brain (and body) via quantum tunnelling. However for the mind or soul to move beyond this point of no return means that we have to be totally dead (not cloned, resusitated, on drugs or frozen, and brought back to life). Our minds may still tunnel when on drugs such as DMT or Ketamine, or when we experience a near death experience but anything we experience is either illusion or untouchable because the mind is not really there. It is like peeking through the keyhole in a door and then being pulled back into reality.

When considering the use of holograms for creating interesting 3D graphics I thought of why things are as they are in 3-dimensional space. It would be interesting to project a 4 dimensional object such as a hypershere or tesseract through a 3 dimensional holographic space and then run it frame by frame in real time. Would this produce the illusions of a 4 dimensional space (and cause time to act temporarily as a fourth axis of space)? Of further interest would by the use of this technique for organic and non-geometric objects of higher dimensions.

Now lets consider time travel and the phenomenon of hyperspace. If we can lift ourselves out of normal space, look down and then enter a different part of our space by traversing a fourth dimension of space then as seen by an observer in three dimensional space we would have travelled instantaneously (or teleported) across space. This mechanism does appear to be both teleportation and a great way of travelling vast distances quickly. So how could it be done?

I believe that the trick lies in a combination of quantum tunnelling, tricking time to act as another dimension of space for a split fragment second and traversing up, out and through three dimensional space before time reasserts itself (with the dimensions rotated perpendicular to each other). Then we can move through the fourth dimension of space (along a different axis) thus effecting a travel along 2 actual dimensions of normal space with the third dimension rolled up. This is time travel but not in the way of travelling to past or future but as a means of getting from A to B a lot faster. There may be implications for past/future time travel too but in relation to parallel universes making it next to impossible to return to exactly where you started.

In essence it is like jumping from one point of a folded sheet of space to another. This would appear as or like quantum tunnelling as the mass appear to pass through thin air and hopefully avoiding the consequences of E=mc squared. A vehicle would in effect be a bubble containing the occupants and the switch of dimensions would act as a trigger causing a new temporary universe to exist inside and protect the occupant from normal space (and from unfriendly universes or void spaces).

Quantum gravity would lead to a science behind this and the barrier (window) between the (visible) universe and outside where different physical laws prevail. If quantum gravity allows us to tunnel through dimensions using physical means (as opposed to the non physical mind) then it would signal a key to unlock the door to dimensions. It is very likely, however, that this door was locked without a physical key to this universe and the barrier is dictated by the observed limits of phenomena such as infinite mass at light speed and the uncertainty principle. These may not exist in the same way on the other side. Also, a theory of quantum gravity matching our other physical laws may not exist because it would describable different physical laws existing in another universe. Finding such laws may make this theory possible.

Now back to holography. It would be great to be able to interact with a 3 dimensional object in real space without any encumbering devices (such as a headset or gloves) and a light projection could by made to make solid or semi-solid objects (smoke to a glass cave). But how could a hard light hologram be created in clear space. Only by stopping the light at pre-programmed points thus creating and impenetrable object. This may only be done in real space by the space-time travel method described above with freezing time in this universe for each beam of light. It may well be easier to download a representation of the mind into a virtual space and interest in an artificial universe ('Matrix'-like environment).

Torchwood reviews 2

Continuing my reviews of the hit series Torchwood.

Greeks Bearing Gifts - Tosh receives a pendant from a woman (actually an alien who has been left on Earth for 200 years) that lets her hear people's thoughts. It succeeds in being funny and serious at the same time. There are scenes where she finds out about Gwen and Owen, saves a family from an ex-husband and lesbian sex action. Only Captain Jack is a step ahead of the alien (who rips out people's hearts to maintain its lifeforce and in human form poses like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction). He ends up sending the alien to the centre of the Sun (set the controls for the centre of the Sun). This one got me laughing in stitches. Excellent. 10 out of 10.

They Keep Killing Suzie - That devious woman Suzie is brought back to life via the glove because of a series of actions that she did when alive to get Torchwood to use the glove again (Pilgrim murders, word trigger). After bringing 2 corpses to life (very Flatliners), Gwen uses the glove and the knife and Suzie stays alive, getting stronger all the time by stealing Gwen's life force. Gwen comes across is very human as she is taken in by the story of Suzie wanting to visit her dying Dad in hospital (whom she then kills). Suzie tells Gwen there is nothing after death but that she was not alone and something is after Captain Jack (the void? Black Dalek?). A good story but not the best. 8 out of 10.

Keep it up Russell T Davies and lets have a good Christmas Doctor Who (and not a Catherine Tate show silly comedy episode a la Peter Kay).

Story Ideas

Timeline
Mid 21st century cataclysm - war/emp/AI wipe out technological civ
Next 200 years - people struggle to live at pre industrial level
Mid 23rd century - people recover from dark ages

Scenarios
Discovery of stored memory of human download consiousness
Blueprint for new society without: beaurocracy, capitalism, war, crime, greed
Individuals and groups who seek to reunite with others
New technologies and culture similar to ours but where everyone is included, no one excluded
Examples: free access libraries negate need for superfluous possessions, inclusion negates desire for crime, compact devices with multifunctions (like phone/TV/Net/Brainwave enhancers)

Plots
Finding a new device that is used to download or upload from a brain to a machine
Coping with a group of people who have reverted to cavemen
Cryogenic storage unit and implications for thawed characters
Daily life of a man or woman living in the new society and variations to ours
Challenges of linking between disparate societies and countries at different levels of society

Format
Series of short stories and short novels linked by cultural development and comparison with similar circumstances in the past (for example why no one uses money anymore)