FastForward Radio -- How Real Is the Real World?
Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome author (The Universe: Solved!) and futurist Jim Elvidge back to FastForward Radio. Just how real is the real world, anyway?
The Universe: Solved!, covers a lot of scientific and philosophical ground, including the idea that we live in a computer simulation. If so, are there Easter Eggs in the cosmos?
About Our Guest:
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.
The Universe: Solved!, covers a lot of scientific and philosophical ground, including the idea that we live in a computer simulation. If so, are there Easter Eggs in the cosmos?
About Our Guest:
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.
Here is some additional information from Jim, including links to several of the items discussed on the show:
If you haven't been to the
website in a while, you may be interested to find quite a variety of
thought-provoking material and interactive applications, such
as:
- Powers of 10. Our very popular version of the Powers of 10
include more levels than any other, jumps to parallel realities, and
an exploration of the concepts of quantum mechanics, the depths of
space, and programmed reality.
- The Forum. Open to all who are interested in topics like
theories of reality, artificial intelligence, cosmology, quantum
mechanics, nanotech, virtual gaming, and more, our forum members hail
from all over the world and have contributed over 500 posts over the
past year. Along the way, we've learned about meat grown in a
lab, how to walk through a door, brain hacks, synthetic life, dark
matter, medibots, cyborg insects, some famously bad predictions, and
how long it takes the LHC to defrost a pizza. A small
sampling:
- "2009 forecasts" (and much discussion about my creepy
Michael Jackson prediction)
- "Quantum Suicide"
- Polls on Time
Travel, Extraterrestrial life, and Consciousness and Free Will. We have learned that 65% of
our visitors think that consciousness resides external to the brain,
96% would time travel if guaranteed a return, and most (47%) would go
1000 years into the future. More than half believe that the
earth is conscious, and that there is microbial life on Mars and that
NASA already knows about it.
- My
blog. Topics include The Singularity Cometh?, 2+2 many not =
4, Ethane lake on Titan lending support for the abiotic oil theory,
and research showing that reality doesn't exist.
- Morpheus the chatterbot. After thousands of conversations
with visitors, Morpheus has developed quite the vocabulary.
Visitors estimate his IQ to be about 77, not too bad for a freeware
program.
- And, of course, plenty of news, papers to read, and links to
other interesting sites. I routinely post links to interesting
articles on Twitter. A small sampling of recent tweets...
Feel free to follow me at:
http://twitter.com/universesolved
Comments
Are we in the Matrix, or is our universe the real deal?
Posted by: Sally Morem | January 12, 2010 08:56 AM
I believe some of the human aspects in "Avatar" were simulated. For instance, Sam Worthington's legs are probably not as thin as they were shown in the "shorts" shot toward the end and I also don't believe Stephen Lang is as buff as he was shown.
Posted by: Nicole Tedesco | January 17, 2010 11:49 AM
Phil, I suppose people have told you before that you sound a lot like Ira Flatow? Hmm...makes one wonder...hmm...
Posted by: Nicole Tedesco | January 17, 2010 12:05 PM
BTW, the "Holographic Principle" is simply a conservation of information law and is related to the "Data Processing Theorem" in information theory. Don't read too much into it.
Posted by: Nicole Tedesco | January 17, 2010 12:08 PM
Universe-as-Computer does not need to have an external programmer.
Posted by: Nicole Tedesco | January 17, 2010 12:12 PM