FastForward Radio
Sunday night Phil Bowermaster, Stephen Gordon, and Michael Darling spoke live with author and futurist Jim Elvidge. Elvidge is a Cornell-educated entrepreneur and inventor who holds four patents in digital signal processing. His love of music inspired him to develop one of the first PC-based digital music samplers and to co-found RadioAMP, which was the first private-label online streaming radio company. In recent years he has turned his attention to the ultimate question of existence and, drawing on a broad and eclectic base of knowledge and interests, has come up with a unique explanation for...pretty much everything.
As you might imagine his book, The Universe - Solved, covers a lot of scientific and philosophical ground. A big topic of discussion was whether we live in a computer simulation. If so, are there Easter Eggs in the cosmos?
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The topics:
- We reviewed Elvidge's excellent summary of the history and current thinking in physics and cosmology, including string theory, m-theory, brane theory, big bang, the inflationary big-bang, many worlds, inflationary fractal multiverse, Julian Barbour's timeless configuration space, etc. Jim addressed the question of why one of these, or some combination, might not be sufficient to explain the universe.
- We looked at paranormal phenomena -- UFOs, bigfoot, past lives, psychic phenomena -- are these hints of a different level of reality?
- We examined the question of easter eggs -- are "spooky" phenomena and coincidences hints left for us by the software programmers who "wrote"our universe?
- We looked at the four possible explanations for who the programmers are -- Earthlings, AIs, ETs, and "the gods." We also looked at another possibility -- we are intelligent beings, living in a simulation with no "seat of consciousness" other than in the simulation. The "problem of consciousness" remains unsolved -- so FastForward Radio will have to remain on the air for at least another week!
Our front bumper is a sample of Marginal Prophets' "The Difficult Song."
Our exit music this week is from Dan Sehane. The song is "I'm Gonna See Serenity."
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We love audience participation. If you'd like to call in to the show, or get in on the FastForward Radio text chat, listen live! FastForward Radio goes live again next Sunday night:
Get all the details at Blog Talk Radio. While there, check out the past shows in the archive.
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Comments
I don't know if I'm too late for the part about the Easter egg hunt, but what would you look for? I imagine "magic" as practiced in a large variety of fantasy novels (eg, I wiggle my fingers mysteriously and things burn) could be a rather blatant Easter egg.
Posted by: Karl Hallowell![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 27, 2008 08:28 PM
Hey Karl --
It's never too late to listen to an archived podcast! Elvidge suggets that paranormal phenomena and extreme coincidences may be examples of easter eggs.
Posted by: Phil Bowermaster![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 28, 2008 12:57 PM