The Center for Quantum Rhetoric

On the Nature of Existence

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 06:09:06 +0000

One thing that struck me while reading David Deutsche's Fabric was his explanation of time travel, particularly into the past. Deutsche claims that if it were possible, we'd be able to travel backward in time at a specific location. So if you built a time travelling machine in your garage today, in the future you'd be able to go physically to your garage and then use the 'in-place' machine to travel back in time at that same place. In your garage.

A Brief Exploration of the Foundational Selection Mechanics of Quantum Reality

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 04:31:38 +0000

This post is an adapted and expanded version of the the talk of the same name that I presented at RefactorCamp 2019.

The material in this post comes largely from two books: David Deutsch's The Fabric of Reality and Richard Feynman's QED. The goal of this blog entry is to introduce you to the Basics Mechanics of our shared reality, starting with Quantum Physics. We'll do this first with a short introduction to quantum mechanics and then talk about two particular aspects of quantum mechanics -- observation and time. Finally, we'll briefly cover what those two aspects tell us about our lived reality.

A New Look at Heidegger's Question Concerning Technology

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 02:19:33 +0000

A year ago, I asked for book recommendations. Nicholas Brysiewicz of the Long Now Foundation, responded with this essay. Now it's my turn to pass the recommendation on, hopefully in a more readable form.

The Lovitt translation of Heidegger's essay The Question Concerning Technology is good but we can do better. I spent a good chunk of this year re-writing it to be a bit more readable and pithy. Check it out. (PDF and ePub versions below)

Gervais, Reframed

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 07:34:50 +0000

I've been doing more reading of Venkat's (@vgr) writings as of late, mostly driven by a friend, far more well versed in Ribbonfarm than me, who's references and worldview I'd like to better understand. I got a copy of The Gervais Principle a few weeks ago, and finally got a chance to dig into it this weekend.

Briefly, the Gervais principle is an analysis for how human interactions play out in organizations. Venkat's discussion leans heavily on examples from The Office. In fact, I'd argue that it's one part organizational theory, two parts literary criticism of the television series. If you'd like to read the whole thing (and I highly recommend it) Venkat has made the entire series of essays available on his Ribbonfarm blog.

Quantum Rhetoric, An Introduction

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 06:29:12 +0000

Ideas are powerful, particularly ideas that help to shape our understanding of what reality is. Stuart Brand once said that the only real news is the revelations that science brings us about reality. What I’d like to do with this blog is to take a host recent science news and tell you a story about that news. I’d like to build a new framing for how we think about reality, one that’s based in real, solid news from the scientific frontier.

Reflecting on Intelligence

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 23:41:37 +0000

My friend John recently published a pretty thoughtful review of Flowers for Algernon. I really liked his multiple interpretations of intelligence and wanted to add one of my own.

It's been a long time since I last read Flowers, but the story has stuck with me. Briefly, it's about a low IQ man who goes through a medical experiment which raises his IQ to astronomical levels, only to have it eventually regress to his original baseline.

The Power of Explanation

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:33:07 +0000

What I'm hoping to do over the course of several posts is to lay out a foundation for a new way of thinking about ethics and reality, definitively casting a vote in favor of one interpretation of reality. My goal is persuade popular opinion in favor of what is currently considered a niche outlook.

How does one move an idea from the fringes to mainstream, though? Why should you change your mind about how you think about reality? This question of persuasion seems like an important place to start.

About

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 17:30:33 +0000

The Center for Quantum Rhetoric is a research institution with the mission of exploring the philosophical, ethical and momentous implications of quantum results.

The CfQR is a non-profit organization that aims to further humanity's understanding of ourselves and the world we live in through a greater personal and actual experience of living in a quantum world.

The cover photo is a photo of a new star's birth from NASA's archive of Hubble photos.