An interim post while I get used to blogging again...
Here is a very interesting story about a teenager who has never been to school. I heard it on NPR last night as I was driving home with a carload of compost for the garden. At first I scoffed at the idea, but the more I think about it, the more I have concluded that it's a pretty inspired way to teach. The only thing that I think might be hard would be the transition from no structure to university classes, but that's about it. Just think about never going through the typical high school experience, and instead growing up and learning at your own rate, and in your own style.
If it's wet and cold outside, an enjoyable way to pass some hours is to watch Feynman videos. He's got to be one of my heroes - smart, funny, and full of exuberance. I love the above video because not only does it show his quirkiness, it shows how a trained scientific mind works.
I'm still on my quantum mechanics kick. It's some seriously cool stuff, Maynard. I should have taken more physics as a university student. I'm now trying to wrap my head around Bell's Theorem, which (in a nutshell) states that either things don't have an objective existence when they're not interacting with other things, or faster than light interactions are possible. One of the two is truth, but not both, and it's been experimentally verified.
Einstein was horrified by the possibility of the latter (faster than light interactions), because of course it appears to contradict general relativity. It doesn't really, since no information can be transmitted -- but the very idea of faster than light quantum entanglement disturbed him. He called it spukhafte Fernwirkung, or spooky action at a distance.
The possibility of no objective existence bothered him even more. "I refuse to believe," he wrote, "that the moon does not exist when I am not looking at it." That's a simplification and exaggeration of the concept, but it demonstrates the weirdness of it.
One of my favorite little videos in a long time, that one. As someone else put it, "When people ask me how I can be at peace without belief in god or an afterlife, now I can just show them Fallen and save myself a lot of time and effort." I love the way the meteor shakes his little butt with anticipation when he first learns to have fun with his situation, just like Finn wiggles his butt before attacking a fake rattle-mouse on the floor.
I've been reading a lot of physics, lately, particularly quantum mechanics and the various interpretations. The basic theory makes sense, but the interpretations seem to be stretching credulity. For example, there's the Many Worlds interpretation of QM, which says that every time there's a quantum decision to be made, the universe splits in two. Apparently Stephen Hawking believes in that one.
And then there's the Copenhagen Interpretation, which says that faster than light signaling is possible between entangled particles. Niels Bohr (my personal hero) believed that one; in fact, he was its primary author.
I dunno, I think trying to interpret beyond what the simple equations are telling you is probably a futile exercise, unless there is something that you can actually experimentally verify, and for now there's nothing like that. There is something to be said for not fighting the situation that you're in.
I've been away, because I've gotten sucked back into IRC. I never thought it could happen again, but it did. And, well... there I am. I have some amusing things to say about it all, which I will try to mention later. Among the most amusing is that I was made a channel op tonight, for no real reason other than that I seem to have a sense of humor that one of the other ops likes. Granted, not on the most wild-western network, but still.
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