The Haunting of Hawking
A few recent & not-so-recent physics breakthroughs necessitate mention today…
- Spooky-Action-at-a-Distance (that is, the process in which two particles that have become quantum-entangled and are separated by vast distances exhibit faster-than-light information transfer – generally, according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, a physical impossibility) has been shown to be at least 10,000X the speed of light. It is still not understood why this value is the transfer speed, nor how the transfer takes place – and it is also unlikely that true non-random information (such as bits) can be sent over this medium, as it would violate Relativity (and quantum reality, in keeping with the Schrodinger’s Cat metaphor, as once the information value of the information has been determined, the observation determines the transfer). But we do know one thing. You know those potheads that talk about how “dude, like, everything is connected, maaaaaaaaaan”? They might be right…
- Graphene is a material made of carbon nanotubes that has some serious possibilities for the future of mankind. If you don’t like reading or don’t know how to read, here is a little video that will help you see the possibility in the electromagnetic realm:
- A Higgs-Boson researcher claims that an alternate universe will swallow ours, or at least that is the implication of the Higgs field being true. It’s cool, it won’t happen until you’re way dead. Booooring. Or the whole concept is a bunch of made-upness, since the Higgs field is comparable to the aether of old. Actually it might happen at any second, IMO. I think we are closer to the edge of the razor than we realize (but none of us would notice if the universe was suddenly destroyed, bc it would be at light speed). Let’s hope it is the Marvel Universe that destroys ours.
- As it turns out, nuclear power is lest costly on terms of human life than other forms of power. Been sayin’ it for years.
- Though it is more math than physics, the process of public key cryptography is pretty crafty:
Even so, a brute force attack will be able to crack ANY combination of bits, no matter how long – it is all a matter of computing power. The only uncrackable codes would be via quantum key, in which the above principles of entangled particles would result in any observation breaking the entanglement and alerting the key holders to attack…
THAT’S ALL FOLKS. Have a good Thursday.
