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Monday, April 30, 2012

Could we observe the multiverse? - Brian Greene

Brian Greene
From Scientific American article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=multiverse-the-case-for-parallel-universe.

"Any theory in physics stands or falls depending on whether its predictions agree with the data. But how can we verify the existence of other bubble universes?

Is the multiverse theory unscientific, because it cannot be tested, even in principle?

Surprisingly, observational tests of the multiverse picture may in fact be possible. A collision of our expanding bubble with another bubble in the multiverse would produce an imprint in the cosmic background radiation—a round spot of higher or lower radiation intensity. A detection of such a spot with the predicted intensity profile would provide direct evidence for the existence of other bubble universes. The search is now on, but unfortunately there is no guarantee that a bubble collision has occurred within our cosmic horizon." 

This is the point that Brian Greene spends 1 minute making (@16 mins 45 s) http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/brian_greene_why_is_our_universe_fine_tuned_for_life.html & http://blog.ted.com/2012/02/28/the-multiverse-in-three-parts-brian-greene-at-ted2012/ (video transcript)
"explaining how it might be able to actually detect OTHER universes because of temperature differences in the cosmic macro-background radiation. Could we ever confirm the existence of other universes? 


Inflationary theory has observational support. Perlmutter, Schmidt & Riess won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html for discovering that the Universe expansion is SPEEDING UP due to Dark Energy - a type of inverse gravitation which means galaxies are repelling each other rather then attracting each other as gravitation would do.

Brian Greene says
'The Big Bang would have been so intense that as space stretched, tiny quantum jitters would have stretched from the micro to the macro world, creating a distinctive fingerprint across space - which powerful telescopes have now observed.
Similarly, we might be able to detect if one universe collided with another, we might one day detect those temperature differences." 

Greene published 'The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the deep laws of the cosmos' in 2011 and the Penguin paperback in Feb 2012 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hidden-Reality-Parallel-Universes/dp/0141029811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335814001&sr=1-1

Monday, April 16, 2012

Atheism UK argument against bishops in House of Lords


source: http://www.atheismuk.com/2012/04/13/atheism/lords-spiritual-atheism-uk-responds/

The atheist argument, against bishops in the House of Lords, is simple:-

  • They derive their position from God.
  • There is no God.
  • Therefore, there should be no bishops in the House of Lords.

Atheism UK response to the Cabinet Office consultation:-

House of Lords Reform Draft Bill – Lords Spiritual

http://www.atheismuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Lords-Spiritual.pdf

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Frost Over The World - Ben Elton on Blind Faith - 09 Nov 07

'Blind Faith' book by Ben Elton (Comedian & Author) with David Frost. Ben Elton is wonderfully witty and talks about faith and reason.
  • George Orwell 1984 feeling about 'Blind Faith' (BF)
    • privacy has disappeared voluntarily in BF
    • privacy was lost through 'Big Brother'
  • We are giving our privacy away
    • everyone is on Facebook
  • Their is an obsession with Emoting.
  • Concept of Faith - respect for faith can overide respect for intellectual vigour.
  • Intellect is on the back foot - passions, faith and fealings are ascendant.

Young peoples No1 ambition is 'I want to be famous' (the book has a Law - everyone IS famous).