The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

Ooh, it's just a few minutes from happening!

Gassho, sat today, lah

Ok, well, I've taken some blurry selfies too.

However, more hi-res images and other data are apparently on the way ... the download takes time even for NASA ...

Mission scientists from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have confirmed that the New Horizons spacecraft conducted a flyby of Ultima Thule, a Kuiper Belt object that's a billion miles beyond Pluto.
Although the flyby occurred at 12:33 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the spacecraft is so far from Earth that the "phone-home" signal didn't reach us until about 10:30 a.m. ET. (JUNDO P.M. ??? )
Mission scientists were relieved about the success because there was only one chance to get it right as New Horizons screamed past Ultima at 31,500 miles per hour. This incredible feat was possible because thousands of operations on the spacecraft worked in sync. ...

The image revealed that the object appears to have a bowling pin-like shape, elongated and spinning like a propeller. It's also could be two objects closely orbiting each other, but only more data will show for sure. The object is 20 miles long by 10 miles wide.

Expect never-before-seen high-resolution images and new science to come streaming in Wednesday and over the next few days. ... New Horizons flew three times closer to Ultima than it did by Pluto, coming within 2,200 miles of it and providing a better look at the surface.
https://us.cnn.com/2019/01/01/world/...ess/index.html

And this classic rock has a classic rock (ha ha) connection ...

Brian May, the guitarist for the legendary rock band Queen and an astrophysicist, is also a participating scientist in the New Horizons mission.
https://nerdist.com/secret-science-n...strophysicist/

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Turns out ... it is a Space Snowman! ...

On Tuesday, the first image of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule taken by the New Horizons spacecraft revealed a bowling pin. On Wednesday, more distinct and color images revealed a snowman.

Mission scientists said the first science data transmitted back from New Horizons has shown Ultima Thule to actually be two separate objects joined together, making it the first contact binary to be explored by a spacecraft.

... This flyby is the first exploration of a small Kuiper Belt object up close -- and it's the most primitive world ever observed by a spacecraft. The object is so old and pristine that it's essentially like going back in time to the beginning of our solar system.

... more will be revealed as more data comes in. ... All of this information came from "far less than 1% of the data on New Horizons that has reached the ground," said Alan Stern, mission principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute. Stereo analysis and subsequent imaging will be available Thursday.

So how did Ultima Thule form? The mission scientists believe that 4.5 billion years ago, a rotating cloud of small, icy bodies coalesced. Eventually, these two bodies remained, slowly spiraling closer until they touched, forming Ultima Thule. Gravity is holding them together. This means we're truly seeing one of the first planetesimals, or objects that went on to form planets.

The LATEST IMAGE:



Just kiddin'




... probably just my brain playing tricks, but I do think I see a face, two eyes and a smile, a left arm, and some jolly buttons on her chest! Maybe a cap or beret? Look closely.



Gassho, J

STLah

[Shokai]

When I was 9 or 10 years old stuff like this was just a wild dream. To celebrate, 'd go out and build a snowman on my front lawn; if we only had snow. i
weather.png

gassho, Shokai
stlah

[Geika]

We have now seen the furthest object we have yet seen within the solar system!

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

... probably just my brain playing tricks, but I do think I see a face, two eyes and a smile, a left arm, and some jolly buttons on her chest! Maybe a cap or beret or a shock of hair? Look closely.

No kiddin' Look closely at the latest photo.

Or maybe just another NASA hoax ... like the moon landing. THe ULTIMAte yUle fooL?
Gassho, J

STLah




Does anyone else see the face, or is it just me and my brain?

[Shokai]

[Nengei]

What I was searching for when I found this thread is so distant from it that I'm not going to tell you want I was searching for.

What. A. Bunch. Of. Nerds.

I have found my people!

Gassho,
Nengei

Sat/LAH

[Jundo]

'Missing link' in human history confirmed after long debate

Early humans were still swinging from trees two million years ago, scientists have said, after confirming a set of contentious fossils represents a "missing link" in humanity's family tree.

The fossils of Australopithecus sediba have fueled scientific debate since they were found at the Malapa Fossil Site in South Africa 10 years ago.
And now researchers have established that they are closely linked to the Homo genus, representing a bridging species between early humans and their predecessors, proving that early humans were still swinging from trees 2 million years ago.

... The findings help fill a gap in humankind's history, sliding in between the famous 3-million-year-old skeleton of "Lucy" and the "handy man" Homo habilis, which was found to be using tools between 1.5 and 2.1 million years ago.
They show that early humans of the period "spent significant time climbing in trees, perhaps for foraging and protection from predators," according to the study in the journal "Paleoanthropology."

... The hands have grasping capabilities, which are more advanced than those of Homo habilis, suggesting it, too, was an early tool-user.
https://us.cnn.com/2019/01/19/health...ntl/index.html

“Our findings challenge a traditional, linear view of evolution. It was once thought that a fossil species a million years younger than Lucy would surely look more human-like. For some anatomies of Australopithecus sediba, like the knee, that is true. But, for others, like the foot, it is not. Instead, what we’re witnessing here are parallel lineages, illustrating how different hominin experiments were unfolding early in our complex evolutionary history,” explained DeSilva.
https://www.dartmouth.edu/press-rele...ancestors.html

Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History

Gassho, J

STLah

[Geika]

This news on evolution ties in with something posted earlier about how evolution is not as linear as we thought. Things change faster than we thought, and traits move around in ways other than reproduction. Very cool.

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

Who says geology is as dull as a bag of rocks!?

Earth's oldest rock was found on the moon - by Apollo 14 astronauts

When the Apollo 14 astronauts returned samples from the moon's surface, they probably didn't realize that they were reuniting Earth with a bit of its early history.

The "moon rock" probably collided with the moon after an impact sent it hurtling from Earth 4 billion years ago, according to research published Thursday in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The researchers believe that a large comet or asteroid hit Earth and sent the rock up through the atmosphere and into space. The rock was able to make this serendipitous collision with the moon because it was three times closer to Earth at the time.

The rock contains quartz, feldspar and zircon, which are very common on Earth but not so much on the moon.

An analysis of the rock revealed that it formed at temperatures associated with Earth and in an Earth-like setting combined with oxygen. It crystallized between 4 billion and 4.1 billion years ago, when the Earth was young, about 12.4 miles below the surface.

If it had formed on the moon, it would have reflected different temperature conditions. It would also be highly unusual for a lunar sample, the researchers said. It would have formed deep within the moon in the mantle, where scientists think different rock compositions can be found.

But if the rock formed so far beneath the Earth's surface, how was it jettisoned? The researchers believe that one or more impact events to the planet's surface revealed the rock before it was launched. At the time, Earth would have been experiencing asteroid impacts capable of creating craters that were hundreds of miles wide.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/01/24/world/...oon/index.html



Welcome Home!

Gassho, J

STLah

[Geika]

Whoa.... that is so cool. I have read that we also sometimes find Martian rocks on Earth for the same reasons.

Gassho, sat today, lah

[Jundo]

Scientists say bees can do basic math

According to a study published this week in Science Advances, scientists at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have shown that honeybees can add and subtract if trained to do so. This discovery helps scientists understand the relationship between brain size and brain power, perhaps knocking birdbrain off the list of perceived slights. Honeybees and humans are separated by more than 400 million years of evolution, so the study's authors say their findings suggest that an advanced understanding of numbers "may be more accessible to nonhuman animals than previously suspected."

Many animals understand numbers at a basic level for essential tasks. But until now, only a few animals have demonstrated the ability to add and subtract. Honeybees join this short list that includes chimpanzees, African grey parrots and spiders.

...

"This could give us insight on how to build more simple computers that can still process at a higher level ... perhaps making computers more energy efficient," said Scarlett R. Howard, the study's lead author ... [S]he hopes through the results of this study, people will understand "insects are not unintelligent. They're smart and can do cognitively demanding things."

But I confess that I feel lost in a maze trying to understand the experiment ...

Bees entered a Y-shaped maze. At the maze entrance, they viewed a sample set containing a specific number of blue or yellow shapes. Next, they flew through an opening and chose between two possible options: If the elements they first saw were blue, the bees would need to fly to the decision chamber that had one more than the sample they first saw (addition!). If the shapes were yellow, the bees would need to choose the option that contained one less shape than the sample (subtraction!).

In 100 trials, bees were rewarded with a drop of sugar water for the correct choice and punished for the wrong choice with a drop of quinine solution.

After training came the moment of truth in the testing phase: During tests that contained no reward or punishment, bees came up with the correct answers 63% to 72% of the time. That's not random chance.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/02/08/health...rnd/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Nengei]

But I confess that I feel lost in a maze trying to understand the experiment ...

Gassho, J

STLah

This is amazing. How incredible the universe is! If there is one thing we should glean from the natural phenomena we investigate, it is that other beings are far, far more than we give them credit for, and we should be more careful where we walk.

Gassho,
然芸 Nengei
Sat today. LAH.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to be loved.

[Geika]

https://www.inverse.com/article/5311...sse-self-aware

It appears this small fish might be self-aware...

Sat today, lah

[Nengei]

https://www.inverse.com/article/5311...sse-self-aware

It appears this small fish might be self-aware...

Sat today, lah

I like this study because the results point in at least two different directions: one that the fish may be more intelligent than we have previously believed, and two that the test for self-awareness may be flawed. Both of these will now require investigation. I have always felt that the mirror test was a little too restrictive, as if a being has a response to touch or injury, then it must have at least some awareness of self. Of course, if we raise the bar on the degree of response needed, then it helps give us permission to use other beings in whatever ways we like.

I know many people who choose to eat fish as a part of their otherwise plant-based diet out of the belief that fish are not like non-aquatic animals and are somehow less. I have never understood that perspective, but people do like to get good news about the things they want to do. I suppose these folks will see this as bad news!

Gassho,
然芸 Nengei
Sat today. LAH.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to be loved.

[Jundo]

A less than happy example of our deep interconnection and dependence on this world ...

Massive insect decline could have 'catastrophic' environmental impact, study says

Insect populations are declining precipitously worldwide due to pesticide use and other factors, with a potentially "catastrophic" effect on the planet, a study has warned.

More than 40% of insect species could become extinct in the next few decades, according to the "Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers" report, published in the journal Biological Conservation.
Insect biomass is declining by a staggering 2.5% a year, a rate that indicates widespread extinctions within a century, the report found.
In addition to the 40% at risk of dying out, a third of species are endangered -- numbers that could cause the collapse of the planet's ecosystems with a devastating impact on life on Earth. ...

The repercussions of insect extinction would be "catastrophic to say the least," according to the report, as insects have been at "the structural and functional base of many of the world's ecosystems since their rise ... almost 400 million years ago."

Key causes of the decline included "habitat loss and conversion to intensive agriculture and urbanization," pollution, particularly from pesticides and fertilizers, as well as biological factors, such as "pathogens and introduced species" and climate change.

...

Species that rely on insects as their food source -- and the predators higher up the food chain which eat those species -- were likely to suffer from these declines, according to the scientists. The pollination of both crops and wild plants would also be affected, along with nutrient cycling in the soil. ... The report's authors called for radical and immediate action.
"Because insects constitute the world's most abundant and (species-diverse) animal group and provide critical services within ecosystems, such events cannot be ignored and should prompt decisive action to avert a catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems," they wrote.

They suggested overhauling existing agricultural methods, "in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices."

https://us.cnn.com/2019/02/11/health...ntl/index.html

[Kotei]

"Scientists say bees can do basic math"

They know trigonometry, too.

With the waggle-dance, in the darkness of the hive, they receive the position of food sources.
The scout dances an angle to the vertical, that represents the angle, the food source is located relative to the hive<->sun line.

When the worker flies out for collecting nectar, she updates that food-source angle with the current sun position (in the darkness of the hive, she has to have an accurate inner clock for doing so).

Not enough with this, when she finds out, that the desired food-source is gone or empty, she can directly fly from the first, to a second food source, only having the information of the angles, seen from the hive-sun line.

They are so wonderful social creatures, performing social feeding. They continuously feed each other, all having nearly the same amount of food in the stomach.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Geika]

My husband had read to me about the percentage of insect die-off a few weeks ago, and the study elaborated on just how stark the difference in the amount of wildlife is compared to just a hundred years ago. Very concerning. It makes me feel very helpless and cynical. Day by day I try a little more to examine my choices and how much waste and pollution that I am creating, but there are so many things out of my hands-- even in my own living space and the people close to me. All we can do is try more and more, I guess, and hope for better times for the planet.

Gassho, sat today, lah

[Heiso]

I like to ponder zen in the context of science, although I know little of either. To me the building blocks of physics and chemistry that we and everything else are made from are very literal examples of emptiness - I also like to contemplate that famous photo 'Pale Blue Dot' and the insignificance or illusion of 'me' in that context.

Gassho, Neil

Sat Today. LAH

[Jundo]

Another message from the past and far away which is just present now, always there seen or unseen, yet not realized we see ...

The radio signals of almost 300,000 sources have finally reached Earth, and most of them are previously unknown galaxies from the distant universe.

More than 200 astronomers in 18 countries created a radio sky survey using the Low Frequency Array telescope, known as LOFAR. The first phase of this major survey was published this week, along with 26 research papers describing the results, in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. ... The radio signals of 300,000 sources appeared, almost all of them galaxies. But researchers were also able to see black holes, to look at the evolution of clusters of galaxies and to measure magnetic fields. ... Galaxy clusters look like a mass of stars but are really groupings of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. Sometimes, two galaxies merge, and that creates radio emissions that can span millions of light-years, most likely due to particles accelerated by the merger. ... The unprecedented accuracy of the LOFAR measurements has allowed us to measure the effect of cosmic magnetic fields on radio waves from a giant radio galaxy that is 11 million light-years in size. ... But the actual process of producing the beautiful images of these distant galaxies from data takes not only time but power. LOFAR gathers so much data that the scientists had to process about 10 million DVDs worth of it. ... These images are now public and will allow astronomers to study the evolution of galaxies in unprecedented detail ...

https://us.cnn.com/2019/02/19/world/...rnd/index.html

Gassho, J

SatToday at the center of it all, for all is the center of it all.

PS - For my usual rant on why it is a mistake simply to experience the universe as either a matter of "big" or "small," and why every place in the universe is its center ...

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post235875

[Jundo]

Our latest addition to the Electronic Dharmaverse (thank you to Shingen's friend for spotting this first) ....

The Android Kannon, which is a Buddhist deity of mercy, was unveiled to the news media on Feb. 23 at Kodaiji temple before it starts preaching to the public in March. ... The 100 million yen ($909,090) project to build the android was a collaboration between the zen temple and Hiroshi Ishiguro, professor of intelligent robotics at Osaka University.

The temple asked Ishiguro and his team to develop an android that can preach Buddhist teachings in an easily understood manner to help give peace of mind to troubled people. ... The Kannon deity transforms itself into various forms to help people.
“This time, Kannon changed into an android,” according to the temple.

[Jundo Note: The "Devil Horns" may confuse some folks :-) ]



Article in English:

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ...tq9_2XC2eGxGGk

Gassho J

STLah

[Jundo Note: The "Devil Horns" may confuse some folks :-) ]

[Jundo]

How much weight would the Milky Way weigh if the Milky Way could be weighed?

The Milky Way is even weightier than imagined. Using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, astronomers have determined the most accurate measurement of its mass: Our vast galaxy clocks in at 1.5 trillion solar masses.

One solar mass is the mass of our sun, which is 2 times 10 to the 30th power kilograms. It's not exactly as if the Milky Way, or even stars and planets, can be put on a scale.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/03/07/world/...scn/index.html

Zen Take: Not one ounce too much, nor too little, each ounce just what it is.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Seibu]

Would you weigh it on Earth, Mars, Jupiter, the Moon? They would all produce different outcomes, and in space it would be weightless.

[Jundo]

Sometimes the human touch is needed ...

It seems to have been more a Skyped doctor on a mobile device ...

Hospital 'robot' gives grandfather end-of-life news, leaving family outraged

A California hospital delivered end-of-life news to a 78-year-old patient via a robotic machine this week, prompting the man's family to go public with their frustration.

Ernest Quintana was admitted to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center emergency department in Fremont, California, on March 3, granddaughter Annalisia Wilharm told USA TODAY in a written message Saturday. The family knew he was dying of chronic lung disease.

After an initial diagnosis, a follow-up visit was made to Quintana's intensive care unit room by a machine accompanied by a nurse.

The "robot," as Wilharm says the family refers to the machine, displayed a video of a remote doctor who communicated with Quintana.

A video of the exchange provided to USA TODAY by Wilharm shows the machine being used on Monday to tell grandfather and granddaughter that the hospital had run out of effective treatments.

Annalisia Wilharm needed to restate much of what the the machine communicated, as her grandfather struggled to hear and understand. They learned that the doctor believed Quintana would not be able to return home for hospice care. They discussed the appropriate amount of morphine to use to ease Quintana's suffering.

"If you're coming to tell us normal news, that's fine, but if you're coming to tell us there's no lung left and we want to put you on a morphine drip until you die, it should be done by a human being and not a machine," Catherine Quintana — Ernest's daughter and Wilharm's mother — said Friday.

Ernest Quintana died on Tuesday, Wilharm told USA TODAY in a written message.

The hospital says that the situation was highly unusual and said officials "regret falling short" of the patient's expectations, according to Michelle Gaskill-Hames, senior vice president of Kaiser Permanente Greater Southern Alameda County.

"The evening video tele-visit was a follow-up to earlier physician visits," Gaskill-Hames said in a written response. "It did not replace previous conversations with patient and family members and was not used in the delivery of the initial diagnosis."

Wilharm told USA TODAY on Saturday that the hospital's response was insufficient: "The apology they gave wasn't good enough for me at all," she wrote.

In an interview with KTVU, the family expressed dismay that the machine was unable to speak to Quintana in a way he could hear. That forced Wilharm to herself deliver the news to her ailing grandfather.

Speaking generally, Steve Pantilat — the chief of the palliative medicine division at University of California — said bad news is always difficult to deliver and not all doctors do so in person with empathy.

Pantilat said that the robot technology has helped many patients and families in his experience.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jakuden]

Yeah well, in the hospital I had an in-person Doctor for two days in a row who couldn’t open the mri images that showed my stroke, and almost sent me home. I would have rather had a robot that actually understood why I was there and had something relevant to say about my case. (Thank goodness for the surgeon who was able to get me diagnosed based on just the CT scan)

Plus it wasn’t the first time the family had heard the news, there were other doctors telling them similar things earlier. In that situation, it takes time to sink in. Hospitals just are difficult, stressful places to be no matter what.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Geika]

Wow... that is quite sad. It would be unnerving to receive that news from a Skype call, that's for sure.

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

By the way, on the new book that I am writing ... entitled "ZEN of the FUTURE!" ... this is what I happened to be writing today ...

Jobs will change in the future, and many jobs will be taken over by automation (goodbye to truck drivers and cash register check out boys, but also maybe pharmacists and math teachers and maybe computer designers themselves. Perhaps robots would do a better job of teaching Zen! After all, most of what a Zen teacher does is incomprehensible gobbledygook anyway, with an occasional admonition to “go sit Zazen.” ) However, for those jobs that do remain, the highest ethics will be required. As we have discussed, it will be a nicer world if manufactures become physically ill inside (the same feeling that they might feel if they found out that their own child had been diagnosed with cancer) each time they make a choice regarding marketing a product which might have great value to society but also possibly cause some number of children in the world to develop cancer (e.g., a manufacturer of very beneficial drugs with some risks and side effects, or nuclear or other cheap energy sources that could potentially harm the public too). Would it be possible to alter our brain and hormonal reactions so that we come to have "parental mind" for all children much as for our own children? The manufacturer would have the same feeling about the general public that any parent has when, for example, they strap their child into a car (hopefully in a safety seat) or take them on an airplane, balancing the benefits and the potential risks.

Cooks in restaurants (assuming they are not all automated in the future), doctors and nurses, politicians, parents, school teachers, robot designers, judges and even Buddhist and other clergy would all contribute to a better world if they all became physically ill at the prospect of hurting people beyond what they truly felt in their heart was right and necessary in that case, just as any parent (or normal parents at least) today feels physically ill at the prospect of hurting their own child beyond what is necessary for their good. I will, for example, let a doctor poke and probe my child if necessary for their overall well-being, with my brain making the hard choice about what is necessary in that situation. Would it not be wonderful if that same brain center of "parental mind" became activated when our political leaders need to make a hard choice for society, or a businessman needs to market a new product, or a food manufacturer needs to raise healthy foods, all with the same feeling inside that the people of society are "my children" as much as their own biological sons and daughters? We want the programmers of computers to design programs that do little harm too.

Alcoholics today are prescribed certain drugs that make them physically ill at the mere taste or thought of liqueur, might it be possible to do the same for thoughts of selfishness and greed?

...

“Right action” will be as necessary to the practice of Buddhism as now. However, the difficulty involved in actually living in such ways may change with our ability to invent pills and effect mental changes that make our having such intent easier to keep, more pleasant and desired. When we want to study Buddhism and do good actions as much as we now want sex and hamburgers, it will become easy to study Buddhism and do good actions. Perhaps all that we need to do is "cross the wires" of our internal emotional and physical response mechanisms and connect “Buddhism” in the brain with the same pleasure centers that activate when I just say the words “sex” and “hamburgers.” We are willing generally to go to fantastic extremes of effort and endurance for sex and hamburgers, and we can rewire ourselves so fregarding all the good qualities we are discussing here, and the efforts to live by them. Oh, if we only went to the same extremes for a charitable act as we go to now to have the pleasure of a new fancy car in the driveway, the world will be a better place. All we need to do is figure out how to trip the same pleasure centers triggered by "new car in my driveway" with the pleasure of "charitable act." Probably, not to long from now at all, nuero-scientists are going to figure out how to trip those same pleasure centers for whatever we wish.

It will be even easier for our robots and computers, because they will have the intent to learn and practice Buddhism simply when we program that intent into their software.

What do you think? Possible? A hope for a better world? Scary? Brave New (Zen) World?

Gassho, J

STLah

[Tairin]

A little off topic but I am in the process of reading “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari. He touches on topics like the Skype Doc above. If you find these topics interesting I’d recommend his books.

Not completely off topic though. Harari maintains a Vipassana practice

For the record, having recently under gone unsuccessful surgery to correct my hearing loss, I feel I’d still prefer a human breaking the bad news to me in person rather than what happened in the article. I can’t imagine being delivered such devestating news via Skype


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Shinshi]

And in other news. - We have turned back time

Physicists reverse time using quantum computer

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland and returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. They also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will spontaneously travel back into its recent past. The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-physic...e-quantum.html

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Jundo]

And in other news. - We have turned back time

Physicists reverse time using quantum computer

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland and returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. They also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will spontaneously travel back into its recent past. The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-physic...e-quantum.html

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

Ok, you send time backwards, and I will add another one also announced today (or yesterday back in time) ...


==============

MIT Technology Review March 12, 2019:
A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality
Physicists have long suspected that quantum mechanics allows two observers to experience different, conflicting realities. Now they’ve performed the first experiment that proves it.

Back in 1961, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Eugene Wigner outlined a thought experiment that demonstrated one of the lesser-known paradoxes of quantum mechanics. The experiment shows how the strange nature of the universe allows two observers—say, Wigner and Wigner’s friend—to experience different realities.

Since then, physicists have used the “Wigner’s Friend” thought experiment to explore the nature of measurement and to argue over whether objective facts can exist. That’s important because scientists carry out experiments to establish objective facts. But if they experience different realities, the argument goes, how can they agree on what these facts might be?

That’s provided some entertaining fodder for after-dinner conversation, but Wigner’s thought experiment has never been more than that—just a thought experiment.

Last year, however, physicists noticed that recent advances in quantum technologies have made it possible to reproduce the Wigner’s Friend test in a real experiment. In other words, it ought to be possible to create different realities and compare them in the lab to find out whether they can be reconciled.

And today, Massimiliano Proietti at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and a few colleagues say they have performed this experiment for the first time: they have created different realities and compared them. Their conclusion is that Wigner was correct—these realities can be made irreconcilable so that it is impossible to agree on objective facts about an experiment.

Wigner’s original thought experiment is straightforward in principle. It begins with a single polarized photon that, when measured, can have either a horizontal polarization or a vertical polarization. But before the measurement, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, the photon exists in both polarization states at the same time—a so-called superposition.

Wigner imagined a friend in a different lab measuring the state of this photon and storing the result, while Wigner observed from afar. Wigner has no information about his friend’s measurement and so is forced to assume that the photon and the measurement of it are in a superposition of all possible outcomes of the experiment.

Wigner can even perform an experiment to determine whether this superposition exists or not. This is a kind of interference experiment showing that the photon and the measurement are indeed in a superposition.

From Wigner’s point of view, this is a “fact”—the superposition exists. And this fact suggests that a measurement cannot have taken place.

But this is in stark contrast to the point of view of the friend, who has indeed measured the photon’s polarization and recorded it. The friend can even call Wigner and say the measurement has been done (provided the outcome is not revealed).

So the two realities are at odds with each other. “This calls into question the objective status of the facts established by the two observers,” say Proietti and co.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...ctive-reality/

Gassho, J

STLah

[Shinshi]

Ok, you send time backwards, and I will add another one also announced today (or yesterday back in time) ...


==============

MIT Technology Review March 12, 2019:
A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality
Physicists have long suspected that quantum mechanics allows two observers to experience different, conflicting realities. Now they’ve performed the first experiment that proves it.

Back in 1961, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Eugene Wigner outlined a thought experiment that demonstrated one of the lesser-known paradoxes of quantum mechanics. The experiment shows how the strange nature of the universe allows two observers—say, Wigner and Wigner’s friend—to experience different realities.

Since then, physicists have used the “Wigner’s Friend” thought experiment to explore the nature of measurement and to argue over whether objective facts can exist. That’s important because scientists carry out experiments to establish objective facts. But if they experience different realities, the argument goes, how can they agree on what these facts might be?

That’s provided some entertaining fodder for after-dinner conversation, but Wigner’s thought experiment has never been more than that—just a thought experiment.

Last year, however, physicists noticed that recent advances in quantum technologies have made it possible to reproduce the Wigner’s Friend test in a real experiment. In other words, it ought to be possible to create different realities and compare them in the lab to find out whether they can be reconciled.

And today, Massimiliano Proietti at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and a few colleagues say they have performed this experiment for the first time: they have created different realities and compared them. Their conclusion is that Wigner was correct—these realities can be made irreconcilable so that it is impossible to agree on objective facts about an experiment.

Wigner’s original thought experiment is straightforward in principle. It begins with a single polarized photon that, when measured, can have either a horizontal polarization or a vertical polarization. But before the measurement, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, the photon exists in both polarization states at the same time—a so-called superposition.

Wigner imagined a friend in a different lab measuring the state of this photon and storing the result, while Wigner observed from afar. Wigner has no information about his friend’s measurement and so is forced to assume that the photon and the measurement of it are in a superposition of all possible outcomes of the experiment.

Wigner can even perform an experiment to determine whether this superposition exists or not. This is a kind of interference experiment showing that the photon and the measurement are indeed in a superposition.

From Wigner’s point of view, this is a “fact”—the superposition exists. And this fact suggests that a measurement cannot have taken place.

But this is in stark contrast to the point of view of the friend, who has indeed measured the photon’s polarization and recorded it. The friend can even call Wigner and say the measurement has been done (provided the outcome is not revealed).

So the two realities are at odds with each other. “This calls into question the objective status of the facts established by the two observers,” say Proietti and co.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...ctive-reality/

Gassho, J

STLah

I wonder if I could come up with a measurement device that would let me create the reality I wanted. Then again, I am sure there would be some catch.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Roland]

Kannon transformed this time into a gender neutral robot.



Roland

Gassho,

SatToday

[Jundo]

Kannon transformed this time into a gender neutral robot.



Roland

Gassho,

SatToday

Just noting use of "goddess" and "deity" about Bodhisattva Kannon in the narration, which is not really correct (although, granted, it is a fine line sometimes as the Bodhisattvas are depicted traditionally in very idealized, other-worldly forms representing the perfection of qualities such as mercy and compassion.) In this case, it is an ideal carved into silicon.

For anyone who would like an explanation about Kannon and the other Bodhisattvas, we have this group of talks. In my view, Kannon and the others become real as real can be when our hands and eyes act with mercy and compassion.


Whattsa Who'sa Bodhisattva? (A Sit-a-Long Series)
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...Long-Series%29

on Kannon particularly:
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post248704

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kyousui]

Rather fascinating article on computer modeling and religion topics:
https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...theism/565076/

sat/lah

[Jundo]

Water, water everywhere ...

If water is one of the basic constituents necessary for life, then this is big news ...

Hayabusa2 detects minerals containing water on Ryugu asteroid

The unmanned space probe Hayabusa2 has detected small amounts of minerals containing water on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, a Japanese research team has said.

The findings may provide a clue to solving the mystery of the origin of Earth’s water. Scientists say that at least part of the water came from asteroids and comets.

...

Observation results obtained so far suggest the possibility that Ryugu originated from the parent body of the Polana or Eulalia asteroid family. Both families are in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Rocks that make up Ryugu are believed to have been heated inside its parent body, which was created 4.56 billion years ago, just after the solar system was formed.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.XJIvC9SLTX4

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jakuden]

https://apple.news/A6YYATJM0SX-Y1HfND6pkxg In Europe apparently a good chunk of folks would just as soon have AI than a politician

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Dear Fellow Humans,

Sekishi informed me this week (this is true, not April Fools) that he is now training an algorithm that does "machine learning," and wanted to feed all "[Jundo's] Treeleaf posts to a neural network and see if we can make a Robojundo just for fun." Sekishi found that, over the 12 years at Treeleaf, I have ...

- 24250 posts
- 38.7 megabytes of text

That means that "the machine learning algorithm is training on over 10 million lexical symbols (e.g. words, quotation marks, etc.) from that dataset." It will take several days for the program to get the hang of Jundo, he says, but here is the first mumbling from JUNDOBOT , as good or better than the so-called "wisdom" one usually hears from me.

Please think of the first part as a mysterious Koan, and the second part as my usual spiel ...

Yes, I would say that we can try to "flip off this bus" or "practice riding a skate". Just go slow. You will have your experiences, and you are just what you are.
~JundoBot, 2019-04-06

There you have it. Soon, no need for me around here at all. I can even program it to raise my kids and agree with whatever my wife says.

In other AI news ...

Europe is making AI rules now to avoid a new tech crisis


The European Commission on Monday unveiled ethics guidelines that are designed to influence the development of AI systems before they become deeply embedded in society.
The intervention could help break the pattern of regulators being forced to play catch up with emerging technologies that lead to unanticipated negative consequences.

... "People need to be informed when they are in contact with an algorithm and not another human being," said Gabriel. "Any decision made by an algorithm must be verifiable and explained."

An insurance company that rejects a claim based on an algorithm, for example, should ensure the customer knows how and why the decision was made. A human should be able to step in and reverse the decision.

Gabriel also said companies need to ensure their AI systems are fair. She said, for example, that an algorithm used in the hiring process that was produced using data from a company that employed only men would likely reject women candidates. "If you have biased input data, that really can be a problem," said Gabriel.

AlgorithmWatch, a non-profit group, said that while it's a good idea to put guidelines in place, there are problems with Europe's approach.

"The guidelines center around the idea of 'trustworthy AI' and that is problematic because it's not a well-defined term," said Matthias Spielkamp, the group's co-founder. "Who is to trust and who is to be trusted?," he added. He also said that it is not yet clear how future oversight will be handled.

Thomas Metzinger, a philosopher and professor at the University of Mainz, helped draft the guidelines but criticized them for not prohibiting the use of AI to develop weapons.

Others are worried about the impact the guidelines will have on innovation.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/08/tech/a...-eu/index.html

... and ...

Who should get the credit for AI art?

Over the past few years, many artists have started to use what's called "neural network software" to create works of art.

Users input existing images into the software, which has been programmed to analyze them, learn a specific aesthetic and spit out new images that artists can curate. By manipulating the inputs and parameters of these models, artists can produce a range of interesting and evocative images.

This work has gained widespread recognition through gallery shows, media coverage and two high-profile art auctions.

https://us.cnn.com/style/article/ai-...ion/index.html

Gassho, J [the flesh and blood version]

STLah

[Koki]

One of my favorite lines from a movie is from the movie Jurrasic Park, said by Jeff Goldblum. I've found this line has served me well, by providing occasion for deep retrospect.
I offer it here, for the same reason.
While looking at the DNA in a mosquito, to possibly make a dinosaur, Jeff said, " just because we have the technology to do something, did anyone actually ask...should we do it?"

Just sharing what I believe may be words to reflect on.

Gassho
Koki
Satoday

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

[Kyoshin]

I tried flipping off a bus today. The driver seemed unhappy, but he moved on quickly.
Gassho
Nick
Satlah

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Set to be announced today ...

The first-ever photo of a black hole

Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration will present a "groundbreaking result" from the project on April 10, according to a media advisory. ... Anticipation is building ahead of the event, which will feature simultaneous press conferences in cities across the world and live streams in different languages. ... The first target is Sagittarius A, the site of a supermassive black hole 26,000 light years away from Earth, and the second is at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

Black holes are made up of huge amounts of matter squeezed into a small area, according to NASA, creating a massive gravitational field which draws in everything around it, including light. ... In their attempt to capture an image of a black hole, scientists combined the power of eight radio telescopes around the world using Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry, according to the European Southern Observatory, which is part of the EHT. This effectively creates a virtual telescope around the same size as the Earth itself.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kyoshin]

I've been very excited about this news.
Gassho
Nick
Satlah

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[testingwithfire]

It looks like the livestream for the black hole image announcement is today at 9 am U.S. Eastern time.

Here's a tweet containing the National Science Foundation's livestream-to-be:

https://twitter.com/ehtelescope/stat...09217486102529

[testingwithfire]

(previous post edited for start time, which is in a half hour from now)

Gassho,

Amy SAT-Lah

[Jakuden]

Cool! The New York Times says it looks like the Eye of Sauron. They’re not wrong
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

HERE IT IS!!!!

In April 2017, scientists used a global network of telescopes to see and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole, according to an announcement by researchers at the National Science Foundation Wednesday morning. They captured an image of the supermassive black hole and its shadow at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

This is the first direct visual evidence that black holes exist, the researchers said. In the image, a central dark region is encapsulated by a ring of light that looks brighter on one side. The massive galaxy, called Messier 87 or M87, is near the Virgo galaxy cluster 55 million light-years from Earth. The supermassive black hole has a mass that is 6.5 billion times that of our sun. For reference, that's larger than the orbit of Neptune, which takes 200 years to make one orbit around the sun.

"We have seen what we thought was unseeable," said Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. "We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole."

https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/10/world/...scn/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Gero]

Aah, once again a good example of how we "experience" the world: there is a dark spot encircled by lots of light ... that is about as far as mere perception goes. How can we deal with that? We use the concept of Black Holes, so we can classify and store away the perception of a dark spot surrounded by light.
Is it not crazy how Buddhism's concept of the Five Skandha explains how scientists apply another concept to a specific perception?


On the other hand: every scientific advancement which might bring us closer to functioning warp drives is most welcome to me as long time Trekkie.

Live long and prosper

Gero (sat today and lah)

[Jundo]

Hmmm ...

Just sayin'

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kotei]

Hello,
it's 55 million lightyears away... the light traveled 55 million years for reaching us...
So what we see is what it looked like 55 million years ago?
Fascinating...


Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Jundo]

Hello,
it's 55 million lightyears away... the light traveled 55 million years for reaching us...
So what we see is what it looked like 55 million years ago?
Fascinating...


Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

Which is also right now and here too, as all meets the eye.

Master Dogen had very fluid ways to express time.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kotei]

Which is also right now and here too, as all meets the eye.

Master Dogen had very fluid ways to express time.

Gassho, J

STLah

Just reading Shinshu Roberts's "Being-Time" guide to Shobogenzo Uji... ;-)
Gassho, Kotei.