Although infants use their memories to learn new information, few adults can remember events in their lives that happened prior to the age of three. Psychologists have now documented that age seven is when these earliest memories tend to fade into oblivion, a phenomenon known as "childhood amnesia." The study is the first empirical demonstration … Continue reading Psychologists document the age our earliest memories fade — ScienceDaily
Category: Zeitgeist
Comment moderation
So, getting more experience with this blogging thing, I've had to delete a couple of very nasty comments in the last day or so, one of which my moderation filter caught, but the other was out there for a bit before I caught it. Gratefully, it was on an old post that no one else … Continue reading Comment moderation
xkcd: Cold
via xkcd: Cold As I indicated in a previous post, we seem doomed to repeat this conversation every winter. Now at least we'll have an xkcd cartoon to point to. (Well, assuming there wasn't one already.)
Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
I’ve been reading for a while now Jim Baggott’s Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth, a fascinating tour through cutting edge theoretical physics, led by someone with a physics background and a healthy (I think) dose of skepticism about the latest declarations from string theorists and the like. … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
SMBC:Revolution: A Guide
SMBC has been on a roll lately with insightful posts. Anyone struggling against the establishment should ponder this one. Click through to get the full size version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. ...and the cycle continues.
Proof that the external world exists?
Eric Schwitzgebel is reading Stannis Lem's novel 'Solaris' and discovers in the novel a test of the existence of the external world: I instructed the satellite to give me the figure of the galactic meridians it was traversing at 22-second intervals while orbiting Solaris, and I specified an answer to five decimal points. Then I sat … Continue reading Proof that the external world exists?
The physics of the multiverse
Fellow blogger agrudzinsky shared this video in a comment, but I thought it was good enough to warrant a full post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywn2Lz5zmYg I like the fact that he repeatedly states that these ideas have not been experimentally confirmed, and the wrap-up where he points out that physics is not philosophy (or at least it's not supposed to … Continue reading The physics of the multiverse
Seven things about evolution – john hawks weblog
What is evolution? In its original sense, evolution meant "unrolling", as if a papyrus scroll were being unrolled to reveal its contents. We may talk about the "evolution" of many things, from an individual's lifetime to the evolution of the universe. In the most general sense, evolution means "change". Biologists are very specific about the … Continue reading Seven things about evolution – john hawks weblog
Why is the solar system flat?
Machines Like Us and others linked to this cool video explaining why the solar system is flat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmNXKqeUtJM I'm not entirely sure the four dimensional stuff was necessary, although it was interesting. One thing to realize though, is that while the solar system is flat, it's not flat in the same orientation as other solar systems, … Continue reading Why is the solar system flat?
Is this life real or a simulation? – Matthew R Francis – Aeon
Our species is not going to last forever. One way or another, humanity will vanish from the Universe, but before it does, it might summon together sufficient computing power to emulate human experience, in all of its rich detail. Some philosophers and physicists have begun to wonder if we’re already there. Maybe we are in … Continue reading Is this life real or a simulation? – Matthew R Francis – Aeon
SelfAwarePatterns 