[Death Dealer]

A few words about Quantum physics,

The equations of Quantum physics predicted all kinds of strange paradoxical, yet accurate, things about nature. It turns out that all things, even humans, have a degree of uncertainty about them and an associated wave equation to describe their state in the spacetime continuim. Scientifically speaking, you cannot know for sure where you are right now, only where you probably are! And there is a distinct possibility that all your atoms (i.e. you) may in the next moment be 20 feet above your current position. Highly improbable, but not impossible!
But what is really amazing about Quantum Physics is not how good it is at explaining to scientists what's going on, but how it brings human consciousness back into the picture. Remember, the mathematics behind Quantum Physics comes from the uncertainty involved in trying to exactly measure things. So it turns out that Quantum Physics and the universe as we know it would not exist if we weren't trying to observe the universe in the first place. Even if we were able to exactly observe (measure) things, it couldn't be the same universe as the one we are currently in. According to modern science, the structure of our universe has been molded from our attempts to know it, and by the limits to which we are able to know it.

In closing Just something to think about.

[aquamire]

Read Fire In the Mind.. I forget the authors name, and the book is a bit hard to get through, but it explains the uncertainty of man quite well. It talks about the relationship between religion and science.. how they're both quests by mankind to find order, and that strangely, consciousness may be a large key to the development of the universe.

Now what does this have to do with digital art discussion? Eheheh.

[sensoryoverload]

Wow... That's some hardcore stuff, I love it. Topics like these makes me think of the movie or the book "Contact" (which I've seen but haven't read) That movie, and this topic reminds me of how small and insignificant we all are, and how little we really know about ourselves or anything. (makes me wonder sometimes if I'm spending too much time in front of the warm glow of my computer monitor when there's a whole universe out there to explore... )
I love movies like that, the kind that makes you think a little. If any of you haven't seen it you should definitely check it out. Unlike "The Arrival" or "Independence Day" the special effects are mostly in the background. (where they should be for a film like this)
If you guys are into good movies, check out "After Life" (a Japanese film) and "Last Night" (a Canadian film) I won't spoil it by telling you what it's about, but both are very very good and I highly recommend them to you.
Keep posting interesting topics like these!

[Waldo]

Appears to be the driving thought process of your late art postings, Oh Dealer of Death...

[wigin]

where did you cut this from =)...

[balistic]

That's Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle for ya

The other part of not being able to know certain things lies in our own brains. Evolution gave us only the smarts we needed in order to survive . . . to remember where the berries are, to recognize a sabre tooth tiger, and to form strategic bonds with other people. When you start talking about ideas that are far beyond anything a human has experienced, like string theory, you'll find that our brains just aren't very good at conceptualizing alien concepts.

And that's where art can come into play . . . art can provide a simple, visual analogy for a very hard to understand idea.

And here's a brain bender for you . . . it kept me up most of a night when it popped into my head . . . you, me, your mom . . . we're mostly nothing. 99.9% of "you" is absolutley nothing. The distance between the nucleus of an atom and its electrons is something analagous to the distance from the sun to neptune.

And get this, your hand has never really touched anything in your entire life. That is to say, the atoms in your hand have never actually contacted other atoms . . . what happens when you "touch" something is that the atoms of your hand, and the atoms of the thing, hover a few billionths of a millimeter away from each other, repelled by the like charges in their electron shells. The resistance you feel when you push on something is created entirely by magnetism . . . you never actually touch it.

[Pat]

I can't see my own head without a mirror and you expect me to worry about stuff like this?

-Pat

[bld]

My fingers are traveling through time and aging slower than the rest of me as I type this.