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	<title>Comments on: Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain</title>
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	<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/</link>
	<description>Random samplings from a universe of ideas.</description>
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		<title>By: Exploding Aardvark &#187; WHICH IS MORE KNOWING: GOD OR A ROCK?</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-2/#comment-19272</link>
		<dc:creator>Exploding Aardvark &#187; WHICH IS MORE KNOWING: GOD OR A ROCK?</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:56:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19272</guid>
		<description>[...] Kinda sorta related, and &#8216;varked here for my own convenience: Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain (Cosmic Variance, via Maciej) [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Kinda sorta related, and &#8216;varked here for my own convenience: Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain (Cosmic Variance, via Maciej) [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Arbitrary Chronological Signifiers &#124; Cosmic Variance</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-2/#comment-19273</link>
		<dc:creator>Arbitrary Chronological Signifiers &#124; Cosmic Variance</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:25:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19273</guid>
		<description>[...] Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Coast to Coast &#124; Cosmic Variance</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19262</link>
		<dc:creator>Coast to Coast &#124; Cosmic Variance</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Dec 2006 02:38:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19262</guid>
		<description>[...] Boltzmann&#039;s Anthropic Brain [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Paul Valletta</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19223</link>
		<dc:creator>Paul Valletta</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:33:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19223</guid>
		<description>Time reversed scenario&#039;s/equations, must take into considerations some fundamental processes?

What happens for a reversed Blackhole process, white-hole?, could not occur without DarkMatter becoming visible?..Darkmatter would actually have to be the radiative source of visible Matter.

Einstein field equations have an expression for Darkmatter to convert to Light Matter, entropy in a time-reversed universe would insist that particle collisions, become more feable and less energetic, producing less visible light from atomic interations, light would tend to be fading to grey!

The further one travels back along a &quot;time-reversed&quot; arrow, the more one becomes entangled into a &quot;ONE-PARTICLE&quot; quark soup ?

The initial state may be comprable to that of a Bose-Einstein-Condensate singularity ?..a &quot;one-particle&quot; fluctuation would really be an &quot;all-particle&quot; fluctuation!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Time reversed scenario&#8217;s/equations, must take into considerations some fundamental processes?</p>
<p>What happens for a reversed Blackhole process, white-hole?, could not occur without DarkMatter becoming visible?..Darkmatter would actually have to be the radiative source of visible Matter.</p>
<p>Einstein field equations have an expression for Darkmatter to convert to Light Matter, entropy in a time-reversed universe would insist that particle collisions, become more feable and less energetic, producing less visible light from atomic interations, light would tend to be fading to grey!</p>
<p>The further one travels back along a &#8220;time-reversed&#8221; arrow, the more one becomes entangled into a &#8220;ONE-PARTICLE&#8221; quark soup ?</p>
<p>The initial state may be comprable to that of a Bose-Einstein-Condensate singularity ?..a &#8220;one-particle&#8221; fluctuation would really be an &#8220;all-particle&#8221; fluctuation!</p>
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		<title>By: Sean</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19259</link>
		<dc:creator>Sean</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:22:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19259</guid>
		<description>Hugh, general relativity is definitely time-reversible, although specific solutions might not be.  The time-reversed version of a black hole is a white hole, which is a perfectly good solution to Einstein&#039;s equation.  We don&#039;t see white holes in the real world, but that&#039;s precisely because of entropy considerations.

I think the same is true for quantum mechanics, but will readily admit that I don&#039;t understand the details and might be wrong.  Wavefunction collapse ala the Copenhagen interpretation is definitely not reversible, although evolution according to the Schrodinger equation definitely is.  My suspicion is that a more complete understanding will be able to derive the apparent collapse of the wavefunction from ordinary Schrodinger evolution plus thermodynamic considerations, but I don&#039;t think this is well understood right now.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hugh, general relativity is definitely time-reversible, although specific solutions might not be.  The time-reversed version of a black hole is a white hole, which is a perfectly good solution to Einstein&#8217;s equation.  We don&#8217;t see white holes in the real world, but that&#8217;s precisely because of entropy considerations.</p>
<p>I think the same is true for quantum mechanics, but will readily admit that I don&#8217;t understand the details and might be wrong.  Wavefunction collapse ala the Copenhagen interpretation is definitely not reversible, although evolution according to the Schrodinger equation definitely is.  My suspicion is that a more complete understanding will be able to derive the apparent collapse of the wavefunction from ordinary Schrodinger evolution plus thermodynamic considerations, but I don&#8217;t think this is well understood right now.</p>
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		<title>By: Hugh Allen</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19260</link>
		<dc:creator>Hugh Allen</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19260</guid>
		<description>The foregoing seems to assume that the laws of physics are time-reversible. It has always seemed to me that both quantum mechanics (at least in the Copenhagen interpretation) and general relativity are not. Wavefunction collapse can&#039;t be time-reversible. And what about black holes? Matter can fall in but can&#039;t escape? If GR were time-reversible then under suitable initial conditions matter could be ejected from a black hole (and I&#039;m not talking about Hawking radiation).

(my personal opinion is that wavefunction collapse doesn&#039;t occur and black holes don&#039;t exist, but I only studied physics up to 2nd year of university, so please correct any misunderstandings I&#039;ve made)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The foregoing seems to assume that the laws of physics are time-reversible. It has always seemed to me that both quantum mechanics (at least in the Copenhagen interpretation) and general relativity are not. Wavefunction collapse can&#8217;t be time-reversible. And what about black holes? Matter can fall in but can&#8217;t escape? If GR were time-reversible then under suitable initial conditions matter could be ejected from a black hole (and I&#8217;m not talking about Hawking radiation).</p>
<p>(my personal opinion is that wavefunction collapse doesn&#8217;t occur and black holes don&#8217;t exist, but I only studied physics up to 2nd year of university, so please correct any misunderstandings I&#8217;ve made)</p>
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		<title>By: Plato</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19199</link>
		<dc:creator>Plato</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:13:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19199</guid>
		<description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/0511057695&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;D-branes represent a key theoretical tool in the understanding of strongly coupled superstring theory and M-theory. They have led to many striking discoveries, including the precise microphysics underlying the thermodynamic behaviour of certain black holes, and remarkable holographic dualities between large-N gauge theories and gravity.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/0511057695" rel="nofollow"><br />
<blockquote>D-branes represent a key theoretical tool in the understanding of strongly coupled superstring theory and M-theory. They have led to many striking discoveries, including the precise microphysics underlying the thermodynamic behaviour of certain black holes, and remarkable holographic dualities between large-N gauge theories and gravity.</p></blockquote>
<p></a></p>
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		<title>By: Rapped on the Head by Creationists &#124; Cosmic Variance</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19222</link>
		<dc:creator>Rapped on the Head by Creationists &#124; Cosmic Variance</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:28:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19222</guid>
		<description>[...] Right now, trying to understand hierarchies in particle physics and the arrow of time has led people to seriously contemplate a vast multiverse beyond what we can see, perhaps populated by regions occupying different phases in the string theory landscape. Wildly speculative, of course, but that&#039;s to be expected of, you know, speculations. Ideas are always speculative when they are new and untested; either they will ultimately be tested one way or another, or they&#039;ll fade into obscurity, as I made perfectly clear. The ultimate goal is undoubtedly ambitious: to construct a theory that has definite consequences for the structure of the multiverse, such that this structure provides an explanation for how the observed features of our local domain can arise naturally, and that the same theory makes predictions that can be directly tested through laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations. To claim success in this programme, we will need to extend our theoretical understanding of cosmology and quantum gravity considerably, both to make testable predictions and to verify that some sort of multiverse picture really is a necessary consequence of these ideas. Only further investigation will allow us to tell whether such a programme represents laudable aspiration or misguided hubris. [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Right now, trying to understand hierarchies in particle physics and the arrow of time has led people to seriously contemplate a vast multiverse beyond what we can see, perhaps populated by regions occupying different phases in the string theory landscape. Wildly speculative, of course, but that&#8217;s to be expected of, you know, speculations. Ideas are always speculative when they are new and untested; either they will ultimately be tested one way or another, or they&#8217;ll fade into obscurity, as I made perfectly clear. The ultimate goal is undoubtedly ambitious: to construct a theory that has definite consequences for the structure of the multiverse, such that this structure provides an explanation for how the observed features of our local domain can arise naturally, and that the same theory makes predictions that can be directly tested through laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations. To claim success in this programme, we will need to extend our theoretical understanding of cosmology and quantum gravity considerably, both to make testable predictions and to verify that some sort of multiverse picture really is a necessary consequence of these ideas. Only further investigation will allow us to tell whether such a programme represents laudable aspiration or misguided hubris. [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Plato</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19263</link>
		<dc:creator>Plato</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:52:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19263</guid>
		<description>okay,

If you allow &quot;monte carlo&quot; methods, then I suggest the valuation of &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://astro.uchicago.edu/~andrey/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Boltzman&#039;s brain&lt;/a&gt;&quot; held a time of &quot;illumination&quot; and supersymmetriclaly explained the universe in expression?

&quot;Reimann hypothesis&quot; has to have some (phenom)validation process? :)

So ya, &lt;a href=&quot;http://asymptotia.com/2006/08/07/weve-all-been-there/#comment-163&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is one way to occupy your mind while explaining supersymmetry? :)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>okay,</p>
<p>If you allow &#8220;monte carlo&#8221; methods, then I suggest the valuation of &#8220;<a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/~andrey/" rel="nofollow">Boltzman&#8217;s brain</a>&#8221; held a time of &#8220;illumination&#8221; and supersymmetriclaly explained the universe in expression?</p>
<p>&#8220;Reimann hypothesis&#8221; has to have some (phenom)validation process? <img src='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>So ya, <a href="http://asymptotia.com/2006/08/07/weve-all-been-there/#comment-163" rel="nofollow">here</a> is one way to occupy your mind while explaining supersymmetry? <img src='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<title>By: Plato</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19264</link>
		<dc:creator>Plato</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19264</guid>
		<description>John Baez:&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;i&gt;So, the arrow of time is a subtle thing even before take gravity into account. But in our universe, gravity makes it a lot more subtle.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

Was the universe ever really flat? Sorry for layman generalizations, with increase in curvature, it being qunatum dynamcial views seems consistent with and up to a point?

While these seem like &quot;simple generalized deductions&quot; I think one must want to have current &quot;experimental developement&quot; caring the thought processes along some road currently being explored. :)

While one talks about &quot;reductionistic processes&quot; we are still refering to the universe as it was developing along the microseconds, &quot;still&quot; within the capability of the universe in expression.

&lt;a href=&quot;http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/auger/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, is a multinational collaboration of physicists trying to detect powerful cosmic rays from outer space. The energy of the particles here is above 1019eV, or over a million times more powerful than the most energetic particles in any human-made accelerator. No-one knows where these rays come from.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/a&gt;


Not pet theories. &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-110125&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Strominger&#039;s theory&lt;a&gt;(?) perhaps along with the basis of particle creation &quot;pointing&quot; the way towards entropic complexity and expansion, in the resulting particle showers? :)

Does this all fit?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>John Baez:<br />
<blockquote><i>So, the arrow of time is a subtle thing even before take gravity into account. But in our universe, gravity makes it a lot more subtle.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Was the universe ever really flat? Sorry for layman generalizations, with increase in curvature, it being qunatum dynamcial views seems consistent with and up to a point?</p>
<p>While these seem like &#8220;simple generalized deductions&#8221; I think one must want to have current &#8220;experimental developement&#8221; caring the thought processes along some road currently being explored. <img src='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>While one talks about &#8220;reductionistic processes&#8221; we are still refering to the universe as it was developing along the microseconds, &#8220;still&#8221; within the capability of the universe in expression.</p>
<p><a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/auger/" rel="nofollow"><br />
<blockquote>The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, is a multinational collaboration of physicists trying to detect powerful cosmic rays from outer space. The energy of the particles here is above 1019eV, or over a million times more powerful than the most energetic particles in any human-made accelerator. No-one knows where these rays come from.</p></blockquote>
<p></a></p>
<p>Not pet theories. <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-110125" rel="nofollow">Strominger&#8217;s theory</a><a>(?) perhaps along with the basis of particle creation &#8220;pointing&#8221; the way towards entropic complexity and expansion, in the resulting particle showers? <img src='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Does this all fit?</a></p>
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		<title>By: Mark</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19177</link>
		<dc:creator>Mark</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:54:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19177</guid>
		<description>No need at all to apologize Kea. I&#039;m referring to the repeated discussions of people&#039;s own, personal &quot;theories&quot;. They come up on many of our posts and we usually try to stop them derailing the discussion. Cheers,</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>No need at all to apologize Kea. I&#8217;m referring to the repeated discussions of people&#8217;s own, personal &#8220;theories&#8221;. They come up on many of our posts and we usually try to stop them derailing the discussion. Cheers,</p>
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		<title>By: Kea</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19179</link>
		<dc:creator>Kea</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 23:07:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19179</guid>
		<description>I think all the posts have been on topic. Unless we&#039;re only allowed to talk about Boltzmann and Price, in which case I apologise.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think all the posts have been on topic. Unless we&#8217;re only allowed to talk about Boltzmann and Price, in which case I apologise.</p>
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		<title>By: Qubit</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19178</link>
		<dc:creator>Qubit</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:26:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19178</guid>
		<description>Maybe you have the Boltzmann brain the wrong way round, It&#039;s not &quot; hey I exist&quot;, but &quot;Hey! How come I never existed?&quot; When the only real probability shows that I did.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Maybe you have the Boltzmann brain the wrong way round, It&#8217;s not &#8221; hey I exist&#8221;, but &#8220;Hey! How come I never existed?&#8221; When the only real probability shows that I did.</p>
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		<title>By: Mark</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19180</link>
		<dc:creator>Mark</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 14:17:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19180</guid>
		<description>Wow - I hadn&#039;t been paying attention to this thread. Since I&#039;m not sure if Sean is able to look at it currently, I&#039;m going to ask commenters myself to please stay on topic. I know some of you have your own ideas about a number of different areas of physics, but the best place for discussing those is on your own blogs, if you have them. If you don&#039;t, then you could start one. Please don&#039;t get into them here. Thanks.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Wow &#8211; I hadn&#8217;t been paying attention to this thread. Since I&#8217;m not sure if Sean is able to look at it currently, I&#8217;m going to ask commenters myself to please stay on topic. I know some of you have your own ideas about a number of different areas of physics, but the best place for discussing those is on your own blogs, if you have them. If you don&#8217;t, then you could start one. Please don&#8217;t get into them here. Thanks.</p>
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		<title>By: Andi Chapple</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19182</link>
		<dc:creator>Andi Chapple</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 14:02:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19182</guid>
		<description>Sean - thanks for the post. I could follow quite a bit of it! and the best bit for me was your explanation of why arguing from anthropic principles wasn&#039;t as simple as it at first seems when you hear of the idea (I mean, we&#039;re here, aren&#039;t we?)

now, as for following the comments ...

cheers

a&gt;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sean &#8211; thanks for the post. I could follow quite a bit of it! and the best bit for me was your explanation of why arguing from anthropic principles wasn&#8217;t as simple as it at first seems when you hear of the idea (I mean, we&#8217;re here, aren&#8217;t we?)</p>
<p>now, as for following the comments &#8230;</p>
<p>cheers</p>
<p>a&gt;</p>
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		<title>By: amanda</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19189</link>
		<dc:creator>amanda</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 07:19:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19189</guid>
		<description>I realise that Sean is travelling, but it would be really good if somebody would weed out all the obvious psychoceramictry in this thread --- I nearly missed John Baez&#039; comment because of it. Worse, it killed off the serious discussion that was going on here.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I realise that Sean is travelling, but it would be really good if somebody would weed out all the obvious psychoceramictry in this thread &#8212; I nearly missed John Baez&#8217; comment because of it. Worse, it killed off the serious discussion that was going on here.</p>
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		<title>By: Kea</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19221</link>
		<dc:creator>Kea</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:41:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19221</guid>
		<description>The point being, of course, that the RHS is a time parameter.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The point being, of course, that the RHS is a time parameter.</p>
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		<title>By: Kea</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19220</link>
		<dc:creator>Kea</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:08:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19220</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;A determinism at planck scale?&lt;/i&gt;

Determinism here means that the Planck scale itself goes to zero as hbar does. L^2 = G(hbar)/c^3 which means that L goes like c^(-2) in Louise&#039;s picture. In Padmanabhan&#039;s thermodynamic gravity the Euler equation sees horizon area entropy in that S = (A/4)L^2 = (A/4)c^(-4).</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>A determinism at planck scale?</i></p>
<p>Determinism here means that the Planck scale itself goes to zero as hbar does. L^2 = G(hbar)/c^3 which means that L goes like c^(-2) in Louise&#8217;s picture. In Padmanabhan&#8217;s thermodynamic gravity the Euler equation sees horizon area entropy in that S = (A/4)L^2 = (A/4)c^(-4).</p>
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		<title>By: Kea</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19200</link>
		<dc:creator>Kea</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19200</guid>
		<description>Hi Island. I&#039;m not really sure what the contention is here. You bring up an interesting point.

&lt;i&gt;In Einstein&#039;s static model, G=0 when there is no matter.&lt;/i&gt;

Rather, G=0 when there is no matter density, no mass generation, just as G-&gt;0 in the new class of massless spin foam QFTs. The use of a so-called (LQG) cosmological constant to &#039;perturb&#039; about this point doesn&#039;t mean taking Lambda literally in the classical theory. On the contrary, this sort of perturbation appears to destroy the validity of GR at large scales.

In the Cornell thread you recently pointed out that

&lt;i&gt;In the static state, pressure is proportional to -rho ...&lt;/i&gt;

which, again, is a kind of topological condition in the spin foam constructions.

&lt;i&gt;Dirac&#039;s Hole Theory works to hold this model stable and &quot;flat&quot; ... &lt;/i&gt;

It turns out that we need a better physical picture than this to get everything to work, so this is where we begin to disagree. &#039;Flatness&#039; should be a direct result of a Machian principle, which of course was never implemented in GR. But any naive attempt to consider the mutual dependence of local acceleration and &#039;distant&#039; stuff runs into a problem analogous to that of instantaneous action in Newtonian gravity, so something has to give.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Island. I&#8217;m not really sure what the contention is here. You bring up an interesting point.</p>
<p><i>In Einstein&#8217;s static model, G=0 when there is no matter.</i></p>
<p>Rather, G=0 when there is no matter density, no mass generation, just as G-&gt;0 in the new class of massless spin foam QFTs. The use of a so-called (LQG) cosmological constant to &#8216;perturb&#8217; about this point doesn&#8217;t mean taking Lambda literally in the classical theory. On the contrary, this sort of perturbation appears to destroy the validity of GR at large scales.</p>
<p>In the Cornell thread you recently pointed out that</p>
<p><i>In the static state, pressure is proportional to -rho &#8230;</i></p>
<p>which, again, is a kind of topological condition in the spin foam constructions.</p>
<p><i>Dirac&#8217;s Hole Theory works to hold this model stable and &#8220;flat&#8221; &#8230; </i></p>
<p>It turns out that we need a better physical picture than this to get everything to work, so this is where we begin to disagree. &#8216;Flatness&#8217; should be a direct result of a Machian principle, which of course was never implemented in GR. But any naive attempt to consider the mutual dependence of local acceleration and &#8216;distant&#8217; stuff runs into a problem analogous to that of instantaneous action in Newtonian gravity, so something has to give.</p>
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		<title>By: Plato</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-19185</link>
		<dc:creator>Plato</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Aug 2006 18:12:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/08/01/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain/#comment-19185</guid>
		<description>Layman scratches head again and again...

If the conditions are found to be inherent in high energy physics(QGP) then how would such a condition run counter-intuitively to what curvature had been implied?

A &quot;state of equillibrium&quot; in a highly curved world?

&lt;b&gt;Georgi Dvali&lt;/b&gt;:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/200&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The cosmic acceleration of the universe indicates that the laws of General Relativity get modified not only at very short but also at very large distances, Dvali says. It is this modification, and not dark energy, that is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

A &quot;determinism&quot; at planck scale? :)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Layman scratches head again and again&#8230;</p>
<p>If the conditions are found to be inherent in high energy physics(QGP) then how would such a condition run counter-intuitively to what curvature had been implied?</p>
<p>A &#8220;state of equillibrium&#8221; in a highly curved world?</p>
<p><b>Georgi Dvali</b>:<a href="http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/200" rel="nofollow"><br />
<blockquote>The cosmic acceleration of the universe indicates that the laws of General Relativity get modified not only at very short but also at very large distances, Dvali says. It is this modification, and not dark energy, that is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.</p></blockquote>
<p></a></p>
<p>A &#8220;determinism&#8221; at planck scale? <img src='http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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