Tag Archives: Reality

Books & Reading, Science & Health, Web & Technology

Of Course We’re Living in a Simulation | WIRED

The only people who absolutely disagree are, well, scientists. They need to get over themselves and join the fun.

By Jason Kehe, Mar 9, 2022 7:00 AM

Image Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company

The best theory physicists have for the birth of the universe makes no sense.

It goes like this: In the beginning—the very, if not quite veriest, beginning—there’s something called quantum foam. It’s barely there, and can’t even be said to occupy space, because there’s no such thing as space yet.

Or time. So even though it’s seething, bubbling, fluctuating, as foam tends to do, it’s not doing so in any kind of this-before-that temporal order.

It just is, all at once, indeterminate and undisturbed. Until it isn’t.

Something goes pop in precisely the right way, and out of that infinitesimally small pocket of instability, the entire universe bangs bigly into being. Instantly. Like, at a whoosh far exceeding the speed of light.

Source: Of Course We’re Living in a Simulation | WIRED

Science & Health, Web & Technology

What science still doesn’t know about the five senses – Vox

Our senses create our reality. They can trick us, but also teach us.

By Brian Resnick and Noam Hassenfeld, Mar 2, 2022, 11:00am EST

From article…

In the 1970s, psychologist Diana Deutsch discovered an audio illusion that made her feel like her brain was a little bit broken.

“It seemed to me that I’d entered another universe or I’d gone crazy or something … the world had just turned upside down!” Deutsch recalls.

Like the visual illusions that trick our eyes into seeing impossible things, the audio illusion Deutsch discovered in the 1970s fooled her ears.

You can hear Deutsch’s “Octave Illusion” here for yourself. Make sure you’re wearing headphones (it doesn’t work with speakers).

Source: What science still doesn’t know about the five senses – Vox

Books & Reading, Film & Movies

Sci-Fi Circuit: The Purpose and Value of Science Fiction – Script Magazine

From article…

By Jenna Avery Jun 14, 2013

Does sci-fi serve a purpose beyond that of entertainment or escapism?

Why do we write, read, and love sci-fi?

Arthur Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) once said,

“There’s no real objection to escapism, in the right places… We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality… It’s a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can’t think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.”

–Arthur Clarke

Here are some thoughts on the important role sci-fi plays in our culture:

1. Sci-fi makes us think, wonder, and ask what if and why.

Sci-Fi Circuit: The Purpose and Value of Science Fiction – Script Magazine

Memories & History, Pleasures

The revenge of the real – Columbia Journalism Review



“Just as digital didn’t eradicate print, it also failed to kill a lot of other things that were supposed to be obsolete. Here are a few other areas where the world of real things is showing renewed life.”

Source: The revenge of the real – Columbia Journalism Review