June 2009
Lee Smolin on the Unique Universe
Lee Smolin has made a name for himself over the past decade by running against the majority in theoretical physics, including his outright anger at the way the largely untestable string theory and M-Theory have come to dominate physics. In his latest book, The Trouble With Physics, Smolin hammers string theory, and by extension, the notion of a larger multiverse which must be posited to understand how we see the physical laws we see in our universe.
He penned a few thoughts on the idea that time, as posited by many current popular physics theories, is emergent and therefore there must not be fundamental. Smolin argues instead that taking time as fundamental in our view of physical laws is not only natural but necessary in order to make any sense of what we experience. Newtonian laws, he asserts, must be understood as merely local approximations, which fail to explain much of observational cosmology. A few excerpts:
It is apparent that a scenario in which a population of universes evolves, rather than just being a random timeless distribution, requires a notion of time that is real at a level above individual universes. But to understand why the timeless picture fails, we have to go deeper to the foundations of quantum theory. For example, without time, and without the assumption that what exists is the single universe that we observe, it is hard to make sense of statements about probability relevant to what we observe in our universe. Since quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory, we then run into trouble by trying to extend it to a realm where probability appears to make no sense. A number of authors have attempted to address this question, by proposing ad hoc measures for deducing predictions from ensembles of multiverses. At least up to the present time, none of these appears to be justified by anything other than the need to reproduce what we observe.
The third principle incorporates the notion that time is an aspect of causal relations. A reason for asserting it is that anything that just existed in a moment, without causing or implying an aspect of the state at a future moment, would be gone in the next moment. Things that persist must be thought of as processes leading to newly changed processes. An atom in a moment is a process leading to a different or a changed atom in the next moment.
This alternative metaphysical framework has implications for the nature of physical law. Since nothing is true or real outside of time, there is no possibility of speaking of eternal laws. Laws are regularities that we discover hold for very long stretches of time, but there is no reason for laws to be true timelessly — indeed, there is no way to make sense of that notion. This opens the door to the possibility that laws evolve in time, which is an idea that has been on the table ever since the great American logician Charles Sanders Peirce wrote in 1891 that “To suppose universal laws of nature capable of being apprehended by the mind and yet having no reason for their special forms, but standing inexplicable and irrational, is hardly a justifiable position. Uniformities are precisely the sort of facts that need to be accounted for. Law is par excellence the thing that wants a reason. Now the only possible way of accounting for the laws of nature, and for uniformity in general, is to suppose them results of evolution.”
From this point of view, the notion of transcending our time-bound experiences in order to discover truths that hold timelessly is an unrealizable fantasy. When science succeeds, we do nothing of the sort; what we physicists really do is discover laws that hold in the universe we experience within time. This, I would claim, should be enough; anything beyond that is more a religious urge for transcendence than science.
So, what is physics without a clean separation into laws and initial conditions, and hence, without the notion that there is a space of configurations that exists timelessly? We do not know the full answer to this, but we have a few observations.
First, by discarding the Newtonian schema for cosmology we have much less reason to consider our universe one of many other actual universes. Indeed, we may also be able to dispense with the notion of a vast number of other possible universes, that somehow are never realized. We can imagine instead a notion of law that applies only to the single universe that really exists. We also no longer have any reason to suspect that time is an illusion because, as outlined above, the main arguments from physics for time being emergent and not fundamental come from the misapplication of the Newtonian schema to the universe as a whole.
Possible New Supernova
Astronomers and cosmologists continue to work on the cutting edge of our sciences, discovering hundreds of phenomenon every year which defy current explanations. One recent one caught my eye, that of a possible new type of supernova not expected:
A team of astronomers at the University of Warwick think they’ve finally explained what caused the bizarre transient object SCP 06F6. By comparing the optical spectrum of SCP 06F6 to that of carbon-rich stars in our own galaxy, the team concludes the sudden outburst was not a low-energy local event but a supernova-like explosion within a cool carbon-rich atmosphere some 2 billion light years away. If they’re right, it means the collapse of carbon-rich stars may lead to supernovae unlike any yet seen.
Real Life Golden Child Denies Buddhism
As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.
Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.
Clever Chimps or Dumb Humans?
New work in zoology is leading to changes in the way science and society view animals. We know that chimpanzees are smart in comparison to most other animals and that they are often capable of complex behaviors which require rethinking basic assumptions. A new study has shown that chimps have solid short-term memory and are able to outperform humans in some tests.
Researchers in Japan have pitted human adults against five-year-old chimpanzees in a test of mental agility and memory - and the chimps won.
In a test of short-term memory involving numbers flashed on a computer screen, the apes comfortably beat their human opponents.
This astonishing result, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that in at least some respects our position at the top of the intellectual tree may be a bit shakier than we thought.
David MacFarland, in his book Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs argued that humans must assume that any non-human minds we encounter must be significantly different from our own given that such minds will have been naturally selected through different environmental pressures and will have developed different pathways and processes for manipulating sensory input. Chimpanzee intelligence has gained a great deal of respect lately as studies show greater-than-expected abilities. Expect more of this sort of result as we get better at testing animal intelligences with less species-dependent studies.
RIP: David Eddings
Word out today that fantasy author David Eddings has passed away at the age of 77. One of the very first fantasy series that really caught my imagination was Eddings' Belgariad novels. The story was classical fantasy in the sense that it followed the development of a talented young wizard (Garrion) and his engaging co-stars as they proceed on a magical epic quest in a great battle of the (mostly) good against the (greatly) evil. Eddings' followup Malloreon series continued the world and expanded the story. Absolutely wonderful set of ten books that are a must-read for any novice fantasy reader. Eddings will be missed.
12 Million Year Old Hominid Found
A new study describes hominid fossils found in Spain in 2004 as having unusual features known to be largely similar only to other genus Homo species (photo credit).
In a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Salvador Moyà-Solà, director of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and colleagues present evidence for the new genus and species, dubbed Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The scientific name is derived from the region where the fossil was found (l’Anoia) and also from its "modern" facial morphology, characterized by a very short face. (...)
Anoiapithecus displays a very modern facial morphology, with a muzzle prognathism (i.e., protrusion of the jaw) so reduced that, within the family Hominidae, scientists can only find comparable values within the genus Homo, whereas the remaining great apes are notoriously more prognathic (i.e., having jaws that project forward markedly). The extraordinary resemblance does not indicate that Anoiapithecus has any relationship with Homo, the researchers note. However, the similarity might be a case of evolutionary convergence, where two species evolving separately share common features.
Lluc's discovery may also hold an important clue to the geographical origin of the hominid family. Some scientists have suspected that a group of primitive hominoids known as kenyapithecines (recorded from the Middle Miocene of Africa and Eurasia) might have been the ancestral group that all hominids came from. The detailed morphological study of the cranial remains of Lluc showed that, together with the modern anatomical features of hominids (e.g., nasal aperture wide at the base, high zygomatic rood, deep palate), it displays a set of primitive features, such as thick dental enamel, teeth with globulous cusps, very robust mandible and very procumbent premaxilla. These features characterize a group of primitive hominoids from the African Middle Miocene, known as afropithecids.
Book Review: Einstein's Telescope by Evalyn Gates
(out of 5 stars)
Astrophysicist Evalyn Gates brings the world of gravitational lensing and the search for the unknown constituents of the Universe to the reader in her book Einstein's Telescope. Gates has spent many years in this search, and this book is an excellent introduction and advanced discussion, laying the foundation for the work she (and others) will do over the next decade to unmask some of the great mysteries in cosmology and astrophysics.
Gates introduces a brief history of how scientists came to understand that dark matter and dark energy had to be part of our Universe in order to explain a few basic observations. Once she has offered the reader a framework for why we need to look more deeply at the way our Universe appears, Gates explains just what causes the "Einstein's Telescope" effect. This fascinating technique involves gravitational lensing of distant objects by massive objects sitting closer to the Earth. Often, the lenses are clusters of galaxies, and through the process of lensing more distant galaxies, we can learn how much mass is acting on the light of the distant sources, giving us insight into where dark matter may reside and exactly how it interacts with ordinary mass.
The book explains various theories of dark matter, primarily MACHOs and WIMPs, offers glimpses at the even more mysterious dark energy, for which there are no shortage of wild theories, and eventually goes deep into the cosmic web that may hold clues to the earliest formation of galaxies.
Later parts of the book, which may well be the strongest in what is a very solid presentation, describe the multiple experiments ongoing and various theories currently being formulated. Gates explains how these new techniques and new opportunities may shed light on our understanding of the Universe, its beginnings, and its evolution. Anyone who wants to understand the amazing findings that have begun to trickle out of this astrophysical work (and which will continue to become available over the next decade or two) will find strong explanations by Gates herein. This section alone makes the entire book worth reading for me.
Gates is an excellent writer who refuses to waste the reader's time. She has a solid grasp of her subject, and better, is highly successful at making the complex scientific concepts approachable by most any reader. Tons of great cutting-edge science is in store for a reader of this book, and those with a strong knowledge of cosmology and astronomy can still find much to learn and enjoy in Telescope. A handful of excellent images and illustrations are included in the hardback edition which offer the reader tantilizing, beautiful references to Gates' material, including real photographs of some fantastic shots of gravitation lensing.
For any science reader, and most especially those who enjoy space sciences, this book is highly recommended as a solid effort to update the reader's understanding of current astrophysical efforts and approaches to this fascinating field. While much of the science is complex, the style makes it easy to digest, without watering down the concepts. Four stars.
Book Review: God's Problem by Bart Ehrman
(out of 5 stars)
Bart Ehrman is one of the most thoughtful and prolific Biblical scholars of the modern age. A former Christian turned skeptic and agnostic, Ehrman's years of study and teaching have gained him a unique view from which to analyze many assertions and controversies surrounding the roots of Christianity and the Bible. God's Problem takes an in-depth look at the central concept of suffering, looking closely at what various Biblical prophets and stories have to say on the subject.
Ehrman jumps into his argument that the Bible is inconsistent in how it presents suffering, and it is clear from reading various scriptures that the authors of the Bible had major disagreements on just why humans suffer. From basic reasons, such as punishment for sin, to the more extrapolated views that suffering is ultimately redemptive, Ehrman uses easy-to-follow logic to surmise that all of the reasons given in the Bible are ultimately and utterly unsatisfying and cannot possibly provide reasonable answers to the questions of suffering.
The entire book is a strong argument in favor of agnosticism toward the Judeo-Christian version of God, and to me, the strongest part of the work is the discussion of the Book of Job. Ehrman maintains that this book, where Job is an innocent tested by God (after being challenged by Satan), was written by at least two different authors with widely diverging views on why Job suffered and how he should handle himself (meek and humble versus angry and defiant). The ironic part of the story is that God himself was apparently incapable of being tempted by Satan to harm Job (Satan, here one of God's inner circle of advisors, talks God into letting Satan kill Job's children and otherwise perform evil on Job in order to prove to God that Job would denounce his Lord. God gives in, which begs the question of why God would allow Satan to talk him into allowing the murdering of Job's children to prove a point. If God cannot resist Satan, what chance do mortals have?).
The latter parts of the book take on the apocalyptic pronouncements that came later in the development of Christianity, including those attributed to Jesus, proffering the idea of an afterlife that was clearly absent through most of the Bible.
Ehrman is a master of his craft, and I doubt there are many in the World who have as firm a grasp of the subject. God's Problem is a focused and deeply introspective look at the concept of suffering and the Biblical discussions about why we suffer. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks about this issue, regardless of religion or irreligion. Four and one-half stars.
Quote: Mark Twain on Second-Hand Faith
In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
