Tag: theory

ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES

(Animation by Dave Strick)

Rather than asking someone, “do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life?” You might instead ask, “is it possible, or even likely, that life beyond this planet does not exist at all?” Is it possible to truly possess an ardent rejection of the concept of extraterrestrial life? Well, of course it is, belief is quite often unimpeded by reality (whichever variation happens to be accurate). Interestingly, unlike Ghosts, Demons, Goblins, conceptual beings which have the potential (regardless of the legitimacy of their existence) to exist only as a byproduct of human imagination, extraterrestrial life has one attribute, that cannot be denied: the existence of our species.

The fact that we can ask “is anything else out there?” indicates that all the conditions CAN be met in this universe, for something else to be asking the same question. The universe (seemingly) has the potential to spawn/harbor life (theoretical abiogenesis), otherwise the question would/could not be asked in the first place. (Someone might say “religion could disprove that statement”, but if we’re here by the will of God(s), then by the same notion, that will ‘could’ have created life elsewhere also?)

So then, if extraterrestrial life exists, why hasn’t it been discovered? It must either be in its primordial stages of development, or very, very far away? Then of course, there is another possibility, rarely considered to the extent that it deserves. What if extraterrestrials, are so very advanced, so incredibly adept, that they interact with us almost constantly, walking among us, entirely undetected?

ᵀᴴᴱ DECOY, dictionary.com

  • a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals. “a decoy duck”.
  • a person or thing used to mislead or lure someone into a trap. “we need a decoy to distract their attention”

verb (used with object)

  • to lure by or as if by a decoy: They decoyed the ducks to an area right in front of the blind.

The genetic similarity between a human and most avian species is around 60%, yet our species possesses the ability to deceive all of them. Simulate their calls to further lure them to a position or manipulate their behavior. In fact a great many animal species which share even closer genetic similarities with us, can be deceived with an array of decoys. We use robotic decoys to infiltrate highly social mammal groups, to study and monitor their behavior. Often (during closer inspections) the decoys fail, but as a species we have the ability to completely deceive another species, into thinking an object/machine is an acceptable member of that species’ social group.

Many of the animal species on this planet lack the ability to perceive the cues that would suggest illegitimacy, it’s a prospect (almost) entirely inconceivable to the animal world. Even after rejecting a decoy, its highly unlikely an animal would understand the nature of why the foreign imposter existed in the first place. When it comes to perception and self-awareness, the bulk of animal species on our planet don’t have much of an understanding of self. This is further investigated in research surrounding the mirror test.

(The Mirror test, a method used to determine an animal’s ability (or lack there of) to visually identify itself. Researchers place a mirror in front of various animal species and observe their behavior. Despite the arguments surrounding how substantial the results of the mirror test are, very few species on this planet actually pass the test.)

ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES?

A wolf in sheep’s clothing is no new concept. Even in bygone ages suspicions of demonic beings, otherworldly entities wearing the skin of men as a guise was always a prospect (of a paranoid mind). If you think its a stretch of the imagination to envisage a member of our species presuming another is ‘something else’ in disguise, you should familiarize yourself with the various witch trials that proceeded throughout Europe and the American colonies.

Even today, with various AI systems, we attempt to decoy one another. False emails, automated calls. Eventually our species may be able to create the perfect decoy, undetectable from an organic life-form. Could we achieve that feat within the next 100 years? Would our species be scrupulous with that kind of technology, or use it for unprecedented levels of exploitation and manipulation of one another?

If, however, highly advanced technology existed ‘today’, these beings, these hollow ones, could be existing among us, right now. The question would be, if you gave the concept any credence, what are ‘they’ working to achieve? What are they doing right now, this very moment? Are they monitoring us, testing us, planning our demise?

I’ve spoken to many of the belief that if such a theoretical situation were to take place (or if it is taking place) they would not do it if they weren’t gaining something from our species. I’ve heard adamant opinions, in regards to this topic, that the decoy is the tool of the hunter, that ultimately any being that shrouds their very existence in secrecy, does so because their purpose is purely nefarious.

But I couldn’t honestly agree with that sentiment. I’m (currently) incapable of abandoning the notion that with true advancement, with ultimate theoretical evolutionary development (ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE), a being would display a certain level of benevolence. Ask any naturalist, or someone whose worked on a documentary filming the natural world, it takes a great deal of restraint to observe from afar as the lions close in on the baby gazelle, and do nothing. To possess the power to intervene, but the understanding to know you can’t.

Maybe a being from a time, and a place so far removed from here and now, living the human experience is all ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES are interested in? An entirely unremarkable person wanders through a crowded city, but her eyes transmit what she beholds to a group of beings in another dimension. She bumps into you, and says “excuse me” and smiles, you part ways, never giving it a second thought.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

TIME TRAVEL ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ ʟᴀᴡ ᴏғ THERMODYNAMICS

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

In some ways the birth of our universe could be compared to the lighting of a candle, the “Big Bang” was when it was first lit. With this now burning wick, entropy increases, the once stagnant unaltered order/state of the wick and candle’s pristine structure begins to diminish as time passes. So begins the gradual decline into total disorder. Total disorder being the incineration of the wick, the form of the candle being lost, and equilibrium is achieved. The energy (wherever it came from) has been transferred, converted, but for all intents and purposes, it is gone (a process is deemed ‘irreversible’ if dissipation occurs, which in most instances, it does). As the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states, in all processes that occur (including spontaneous) the entropy at least in regards to thermodynamics, is irreversible.

So just as the flickering flame of the candle will at some stage burn out, so too, as theorized by some, could/will our universe reach its equilibrium and enter a phase known as “total heat death”. In this outcome of achieved equilibrium everything in the entire universe would be the same temperature. The height of entropy, total disorder, no transference of energy or structure. No rhyme or reason. Just stagnate remaining mass, moving unpredictably in an eternity of darkness.

Entropy is intrinsically linked with the Arrow of Time (in physics). Coined by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington. Eddington gave three factors regarding, the arrow of time:

⦿ It is vividly recognized by consciousness.

⦿ It is equally insisted on by our reasoning faculty, which tells us that a reversal of the arrow would render the external world nonsensical.

⦿ It makes no appearance in physical science except in the study of organization of a number of individuals.

These three factors pertaining to the arrow of time are extremely localized around human perception.

In a way, time going in one direction only → relies on the basis that nothing ever happens/happened after theoretical “total heat death”. Because if something did occur (which it is theorized to be nigh impossible), then we could readdress the definition of the direction of time. As the system of the universe is no longer irreversible. For instance, after total heat death, a gradual pooling of mass begins to occur. Taking billions and billions and billions (times infinity, why not) years, so much mass could be drawn together that a high-density and (and even less likely) high-temperature state is reached. In that scenario, could the “Big Bang” occur again? Could that be the process that occurs over and over and over? If that were possible, the process of our universe’s creation could be deemed reversible. Rendering time no longer linear, but cyclic and infinite.

Meaning time isn’t a straight arrow → pointing in one direction, but rather a circle ↻ that always returns to a structured state, a starting position. In a process larger than we could ever hope to imagine.

If that wasn’t as extremely far-fetched and hypothetically scientifically offensive for you to consider, then consider this, what if everything forms, exactly the same, every single time the universe goes through this cycle? (There are some that argue that there is no such thing as a truly random outcome of events. It merely appears that way to our understanding, as we cannot perceive what is going on at the most finite level.)

As it stands, our current time traveling abilities are extremely limited. We have access to such a tiny portion. At best, around 100 years. We’ve mastered travelling forward through time. We’re doing it right now. As your eyes trail over this text, the words previously read give an indication that you are progressively moving forward.

But consider this science-fiction scenario:

The adult son of two prominently known archeologists (by some extraordinary hypothetical means) manages to momentarily travel back in time, some 145 million years, for a total duration of 15 seconds. He travels to a region somewhere in North America, during the Cretaceous period. Where his brief appearance momentarily distracts a pack of deinonychus (the 100kg version of the 15kg velociraptor) from noticing a tenontosaurus in the distance, prey they would have otherwise eaten. Thus, eliminating the specific archeological dig site where his parents first met. Subsequently, either, eliminating himself from existence, creating an alternate reality. Or whatever other scenario someone might imagine.

One of the many problems with this hypothetical scenario is that small, minuscule detail skimmed over at the beginning. The act of travelling backwards in time. It’s virtually impossible to imagine a means by which anyone could travel backwards through a process while entropy is taking place.

Unless, a being was somehow capable of making itself entirely independent from the process (the universe reaching equilibrium). In which case, according to the theories suggested (total pseudo-science, if that wasn’t obvious already), the way to travel backward in time could be to actually go so far forward, that you catch the past as it occurs again for the first time, in one of the next formations of the universe.

Perhaps beings beyond our comprehensible universe have been aware of this cyclic order of things longer than we even have words to describe what we call “time”?

Could God himself be a being who discovered how to isolate himself from the process? Or perhaps his ability to escape the process is innate?

If extraterrestrial life does have an interest in our planet, could it be monitoring the formations of this universe each cycle? Comparing our status with last time and the time before that? Eternally making comparisons to previous visits. Maybe they require things that occur so rarely, they come to a specific point each cycle to gather a valuable resource.

These theories are just a handful of many theories that are more than likely, all completely wrong (like most theories). But, it’s still intriguing (for some) to entertain the thought. Maybe we’ll never truly understand the mysteries of the universe, maybe next time around?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 2

ᴛʜᴇ INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM

Imagine leaving a monkey alone in a room with nothing but a typewriter. In most instances, you might observe it inspect the contraption, then toss it carelessly against the wall (many humans might do the same under similar circumstances). Maybe in 10 recreations of this event, the typewriter is destroyed every single time. But with every recreation of this scenario and the unpredictable nature of monkeys, whether it’s the 10th time or 110th recreation, a monkey will eventually hit the keys of the typewriter as the device is intended to be used.

“849ty342hgrf8djssssdddddddfx”

— Hypothetical Monkey, 2019.

The desired outcome may not be immediate, you may not witness it in your lifetime, but the belief that it will never occur, is mathematically impossible. The means to achieve the outcome are possible, its only a matter of time, a matter of rolling the dice, over and over and over and over again, possibly times ∞.

That is not the Infinite Monkey Theorem, put forward by Émile Borel in 1913. The Infinite Monkey Theorem suggests a hypothetical situation where you have found a monkey (or even an ∞ amount of monkeys also, to speed up the variations), that is not only eternally interested in randomly striking the keys of a typewriter, but also an immortal. The monkey alike the experiment are completely unscathed by time and space. Our universe may/will not be as old as this experiment may/will go on.

This monkey does not sleep and does not eat. Eternally striking the keys of a typewriter for an infinite amount of time. Minute by minute, hour by hour, as the days turn into years and the years into centuries. Thousands of years fly by only to be followed by millions, then billions of years. But the monkey keeps typing, as it always had and may always do so.

So what is the monkey capable of randomly coming up with?

According to Émile Borel’s theory, as the variable outcomes stack up exponentially with the possibilities that infinity provides, eventually a monkey would write an entire page of comprehensible English. By the same logic, eventually a monkey would also type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, possibly the greatest human writer to ever exist.

In one computer simulation of this experiment carried out in 2004 by Dan Oliver of Scottsdale, Arizona, he discovered that after 42, 162, 500, 000 billion, billion years, one of the hypothetical monkeys typed:

“VALENTINE. Cease toIdor:eFLP0FRjWK78aXzVOwm)-‘;8.t”

Nineteen consecutive keystrokes that appear in Shakespeare’s ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’.

Another simulation was conducted by the website ‘The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator’, in 2003. Where after 2, 737, 850 million, billion, billion, billion years a simulated monkey typed:

“RUMOUR. Open your ears; 9r”5j5&?OWTY Z0d”

Identically matching twenty-four characters from ‘Henry IV, Part 2’.

It’s difficult for most of us to even contemplate the existence of a number like 2, 737, 850 million, billion, billion, billion. But as mind-numbing as it is to try (for me at least) that number doesn’t even scratch the tip of the iceberg with ∞. Even that reference is flawed, because the iceberg has a limitation to its size. Infinity has no limitations, it’s always beyond reach. By its very nature, it can have no end. It goes on eternally.

There are some, who believe that the Infinite Monkey Theorem is not purely limited to a hypothetical textual outcome. Throughout recent history in science-fiction literature the concept of infinite realities has been explored. The very instant the term ‘infinite’ is applied, then too, endless possibilities must also apply. Just as the endless variables have been addressed in reference to the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Which suggests there are infinite, slight variations of all things even remotely conceivable (or inconceivable! to quote Vizzini from the Princess Bride) throughout various realities or dimensions.

What this could mean, is that there is a reality exactly like this one, only 1 second behind our version of “time”. Then there is another reality, which is 1 second behind that second reality. This could go on infinitely, creating a relative constant of every moment of your (and my) existence, which actually lasts for an infinite amount of time collectively. Meaning, among other things, every second of every one of our existences is perpetually being lived in an incessant and infinite loop throughout the dimensions. That is one version of an infinite possible variations of realities.

Is there any link between the outcomes, the variations of events? Who knows. By the theory alone, no, there is not. Merely independent outcomes from purely random lines that have some significance to us, as humans. But mathematically, there is no sentimentality to any of this. There is no significant meaning or reason, it is merely the summation of all outcomes. Some of which just happen to mean something to us. But there are also an infinite amount of outcomes that mean absolutely nothing to us.

Whose to say definitely what (or who) controls the vicissitudes of fate? Or more puzzling still, why anything exists in the first place?

Que será, será,
Whatever will be, will be.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 5