Thomas, thank you for pointing out what you have posted about Hawking to make your statement clear. "...while Hawking is valued so highly because... he sits in a wheelchair." I guess I have misunderstood you with this. TBH I have no answer on this, maybe yes maybe a bit or maybe no. I even am not skilled enough to say that Susskind is right what he elaborated in the 'black hole war'. Hawking admitted that he was wrong (a human attribute to be wrong), even though AFAIK there is still no consensus about a solution for this. I myself neither am able to reproduce his theory nor 'the fault' discovered by Susskind due to lack of Physics skills. I posted the statement of Hawking "We do not survive the next 1000 years, we have to research the universe in order to escape from out planet." also to point on a stupidity! But IMHO it is not (only) reasoned in a prediction for the next 1000 years (BTW 50 or thousand years, both are predictions, sorry could not resist ) it is reasoned in the seemingly need to escape from earth. Concerning Feynman no, haven't watched the lectures about him, but also did not compare him to Hawking. I also 'took' Marx more 'globally' to point on an human issue. Like insight of some is nice but the inability to live it....well... I guess this applies to :"Das Sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein." as well. I don't think (believe) that 'things' will change humans sooner or later, but a change of consciousness (self-awareness) the instance from things 'emerge'. Future is illusionary as we can do 'things' only now. That insight requires a change of consciousness. There are people mostly due to a blow of fate who were forced to change the consciousness this way... but should it depend on it?! The only thing what we ever are doing that 'counts' is what we are doing now...also the 'insight' that something I did yesterday has an importance can only happen now. @JFKI I have watched the movie. Not bad, interesting movie interpretation of the topic 'illusion'. But what still is left is...at the end I wonder if this world has a point where the 'world' also is not yet completed =an illusion.
You are of course correct about the „black hole war”, because we neither know that black holes exist, and what happens with the stuff that they say might be vanishing into it. Again I am not saying that Susskind is necessary right, but even Hawking himself says that he was wrong, yet then, everybody got excited because someone claimed Hawking might be wrong. It is like saying God himself, or Steve Jobs did something wrong, or Obama is a worse president and murderer than Bush was. In other words, I am actually talking about public opinion, political correctness, and social media… which are the one problem, we, the inhabitants of this planet, do have. The morons are the majority, and the politicians (who they elect) confirm that they are right. And I cannot see a solution to this double bind and so we are bound for s**ts creek…. And the Hawkings of the world are helping with the rowing. “I guess this applies to:"Das Sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein." as well.” No, it does not. What you think, if you think at all, what you believe, all this depends on where and when and to what parents you were born….. plus a few coincidences…. I believe you will enjoy this one: Richard Feynman - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out Its available as audio book on the net…. I love listening to good books while walking in forests or along beaches, with the dog.
Thanks for the tip "Richard Feynman - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"....have it on the to watch list. One addition: With this applies to..I meant generally an intellectual insight of one person for instance "Das Sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein." does not absolutely mean all people do realize it during 'life' practically... It is true that that what I think I am and that what others think about me has an influence on my (ego)consciousness. Anyway IMHO there is a contradiction in this original..He firstly speaks of Sein= being then in the same sentence of gesellschaftliches Sein =social being "Es ist nicht das Bewusstsein der Menschen, das ihr Sein, sondern umgekehrt ihr gesellschaftliches Sein, das ihr Bewusstsein bestimmt." One can now start a debate about because social being =becoming (already). It actually means the opposite is right.
The Cosmic Hologram An Indian emperor was angry with a guru for teaching that everything is maya: an illusion. To prove him wrong, the emperor invited the guru to his palace and set a stampeding elephant on him. As the guru ran away, the emperor shouted after him, "Why do you run so fast, seeing that my elephant is only an illusion?" The guru replied, "Oh emperor, my running too is an illusion, everything in this world is an illusion."... more
What comes to mind here is the classic excuse of Stan Laurel for falling asleep during his watch: "While I was asleep, I was dreaming I was awake, and then I woke up and found myself asleep".
High Energy Cosmic Rays Could Give Clues to Whether Our Universe is a Simulation Quantum chromodynamics is the theory that describes the strong nuclear force, how it binds quarks and gluons into protons and neutrons, and how these form nuclei. Simulating quantum chromodynamics on computers is a way to examine what kind of complexity arises from it. The premise is that simulating physics on such a fundamental level is akin to simulating the Universe itself... more
The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality As we go about our daily lives, we tend to assume that our perceptions — sights, sounds, textures, tastes — are an accurate portrayal of the real world. Sure, when we stop and think about it — or when we find ourselves fooled by a perceptual illusion — we realize with a jolt that what we perceive is never the world directly, but rather our brain’s best guess at what that world is like, a kind of internal simulation of an external reality. Still, we bank on the fact that our simulation is a reasonably decent one. If it wasn’t, wouldn’t evolution have weeded us out by now? The true reality might be forever beyond our reach, but surely our senses give us at least an inkling of what it’s really like... more [video=youtube_share;WcgbLwn_yYE]https://youtu.be/WcgbLwn_yYE[/video]
What do you mean by reality ? 1. What our brain constructs for itself ? 2. Matters, energies, time, space and observable things ? 3. The universe itself (and many things that we are not aware) ?
Bank of America analysts think there's a 50 per cent chance we live in The Matrix Analysts at Bank of America have reportedly suggested there is a 20 to 50 per cent chance our world is a Matrix-style virtual reality and everything we experience is just a simulation. The report, which was issued to clients, also implies even if our world was an illusion, we would never know about it. Bank of America Merrill Lynch backed up the claims by citing comments from leading philosophers, scientists and other thinkers... more