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How Capitalism Is Like The Matrix
An iconoclastic economist at Cambridge University has likened free-market capitalism to that of the brainwashed characters in the film The Matrix, unwitting pawns in a fake reality.
An iconoclastic economist at Cambridge University has likened free-market capitalism to that of the brainwashed characters in the film The Matrix, unwitting pawns in a fake reality. "In a controversial new book, the Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang debunks received wisdom on everything from the importance of the internet to the idea that people in the United States enjoy the highest standard of living in the world; an iconoclastic attitude that has won him fans such as Bob Geldof and Noam Chomsky. ... South-Korean born Dr Chang aims to disprove what he sees as economic myths, including the idea that people are paid what they are worth, that the "trickle down" effect of increasing wealth among the rich helps the poor, and that education makes countries more prosperous."
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Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics
Famous physicists like Richard Feynman think 137 holds the answers to the Universe.
31 October, 2018
Pixabay
Surprising Science
- The fine structure constant has mystified scientists since the 1800s.
- The number 1/137 might hold the clues to the Grand Unified Theory.
- Relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics are unified by the number.
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<p>Does the Universe around us have a fundamental structure that can be glimpsed through special numbers?</p><p>The brilliant physicist <strong>Richard Feynman</strong> (1918-1988) famously thought so, <a href="http://www.secretsinplainsight.com/why-137/" target="_blank">saying</a> there is a number that all theoretical physicists of worth should "worry about". He called it "one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a <strong>magic number </strong>that comes to us with no understanding by man".</p><p>That magic number, called the <strong>fine structure constant</strong>, is a fundamental constant, with a value which nearly equals <strong>1/137</strong>. Or 1/137.03599913, to be precise. It is denoted by the Greek letter <strong>alpha - α.</strong></p><p>What's special about alpha is that it's regarded as the best example of a <strong>pure number,</strong> one that doesn't need units. It actually combines three of nature's fundamental constants - the speed of light, the electric charge carried by one electron, and the Planck's constant, as explains physicist and astrobiologist <strong>Paul Davies</strong> to <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/number-fascinates-physicists-above-all-others" target="_blank">Cosmos magazine.</a> Appearing at the intersection of such key areas of physics as relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics is what gives 1/137 its allure.</p><p>Physicist<strong> Laurence Eaves,</strong> a professor at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Nottingham,</a> thinks the number 137 would be the one you'd signal to the aliens to indicate that we have some measure of mastery over our planet and understand quantum mechanics. The aliens would know the number as well, especially if they developed advanced sciences.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="44c1d427122da546f1311c7215a5935e"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WlSLIW0gZtk?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The number preoccupied other great physicists as well, including the Nobel Prize winning<strong> Wolfgang Pauli</strong> (1900-1958) who was obsessed with it his whole life. </p><blockquote>"When I die my first question to the Devil will be: What is the meaning of the fine structure constant?" Pauli<a href="http://www.academia.edu/172763/The_Meaning_of_the_Fine_Structure_Constant" target="_blank"> joked.</a></blockquote><p>Pauli also referred to the fine structure constant during his Nobel lecture on December 13th, 1946 in Stockholm, saying a theory was necessary that would determine the constant's value and "thus explain the atomistic structure of electricity, which is such an essential quality of all atomic sources of electric fields actually occurring in nature."</p><p>One use of this curious number is to measure the interaction of charged particles like electrons with electromagnetic fields. Alpha determines how fast an excited atom can emit a photon. It also affects the details of the light emitted by atoms. Scientists have been able to observe a pattern of shifts of light coming from atoms called "fine structure" (giving the constant its name). This "fine structure" has been seen in sunlight and the light coming from other stars.</p>
<p>The constant figures in other situations, making physicists wonder why. Why does nature insist on this number? It has appeared in various calculations in physics since the 1880s, spurring numerous attempts to come up with a Grand Unified Theory that would incorporate the constant since. So far no single explanation took hold. <a href="http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/constant.cfm" target="_blank">Recent research</a> also introduced the possibility that the constant has actually increased over the last six billion years, even though slightly.</p><p>If you'd like to know the math behind fine structure constant more specifically, the way you arrive at alpha is by putting the 3 constants h,c, and e together in the equation --<strong></strong></p><p><br><img src="https://assets.rbl.ms/18785791/980x.png"> <small></small><small></small></p><p>As the units c, e, and h cancel each other out, the "pure" number of 137.03599913 is left behind. For historical reasons, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/number-fascinates-physicists-above-all-others" target="_blank">says Professor Davies</a>, the inverse of the equation is used 2πe2/hc = 1/137.03599913. If you're wondering what is the precise value of that fraction - it's <strong>0.007297351.</strong></p>
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Americans under 40 want major reforms, expanded Supreme Court
Younger Americans support expanding the Supreme Court and serious political reforms, says new poll.
22 October, 2020
Demonstrators In Louisville calling for justice for Breonna Taylor.
Credit: Jon Cherry/Getty Images
Politics & Current Affairs
- Americans under 40 largely favor major political reforms, finds a new survey.
- The poll revealed that most would want to expand the Supreme Court, impose terms limits, and make it easier to vote.
- Millennials are more liberal and reform-centered than Generation Z.
<p>A new nonpartisan poll of Americans under 40 finds they want serious reforms in the American political system. The survey, conducted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, showed great support for expanding the Supreme Court, terms limits, and abolishing the electoral college.</p><p>In particular, the researchers looked at opinions from 1503 people between 18 and 39 years old, representing <em>millennials</em> – those born from early 1980s until mid-1990s to early 2000s, and the succeeding<em> Generation Z </em>– those born in the mid-to-late 1990s until early 2010s. Overall, most everyone agreed that the political system is quite broken, with only 24% having trust in the government. Interestingly, millennials appear more liberal-minded and want reforms more than the younger cohort.</p><p>The majority of the polled (52%) were in favor of upping the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 13, with 66% of the millennials and 62% of the Gen Z'ers supporting. 72% of all surveyed wanted to do away with lifetime appointments of the justices and impose term limits. 79% of the millennials and 62% of Gen Z approved this measure. 84% of all surveyed wanted Congressional term limits.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">Political science professor John Cluverius, associate director of the </span><span style="background-color: initial;">UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion</span><span style="background-color: initial;">, which carried out the poll, sees a correlation between the views of the younger Americans and the politics in the run-up to the 2020 elections:</span></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's no coincidence that as Joe Biden's lead has grown in the polls, the more comfortable Americans are with expanding the size of the Supreme Court," said Cluverius in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/uoml-nnp102120.php" target="_blank">press release</a>. "As the chance of Trump holding a second term and appointing more justices dwindles, the opposition to court-packing dwindles as well. Saying Americans are opposed to expanding the court used to be conventional wisdom; now it's a commonly held misconception."</p><p>Americans under 40 also want to eliminate the Electoral College and rather pick Presidents by popular vote, with 58% overall in favor to the idea. That includes 64% of millennials and 54% of Gen Z people polled. 69% of all adults also like the idea of "no excuse" absentee balloting for any voter. Additionally, 71% of millennials would rather see more than two political parties being competitive in the U.S., compared to 61% of all and 59% of Gen Z participants.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1OTE1OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTc5NDI2NX0.GCiPQgPiUWv7qkONIvergMHcuAiMwrs3ksV2Hkmm0Gg/img.png?width=980" id="f3fb1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b9e0e653081a68fd9e920e0ae80641f2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>On the issues of social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement, the poll found 8% fewer overall saying that black people are treated less fairly than whites, in contrast to a similar poll from August. 43% of the respondents had such opinions, with Gen Z'ers leading in this belief at 54%.<br></p><p> Joshua Dyck, director of the Center for Public Opinion and associate professor of political science, commented that the ideological divide didn't break down in an expected way:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"What I find most interesting is that it is not always the youngest Americans who espouse the most liberal viewpoints," <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/uoml-nnp102120.php" target="_blank">he shared</a>." Here we see millennials, the oldest of whom are about to turn 40, as the driving force behind the vision for a more progressive future."</p>
<p>The poll also revealed that the vast majority of Gen Z (84%) and Millennial (85%) responders are very likely to believe that human activity contributes to climate change. They also think the U.S. government has not done enough to combat it, with 64% of Gen Z'ers and 65% of Millennials holding such views.</p><p>Americans under 40 are also largely in favor of canceling all student loan debt, with 66% of Generation Z and 66% of Millennials supporting. In telling comparision, the older generations are less on board, with Gen X'ers (those born from mid-60s to early 1980s) split, with 51% favoring the idea. Only 38% of the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and 31% of the Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945) back the notion.</p><p>Check out the <a href="https://www.uml.edu/Research/public-opinion/polls/default.aspx" target="_blank">detailed results of the poll.</a></p>
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Can you solve what an MIT professor once called 'the hardest logic puzzle ever'?
Logic puzzles can teach reasoning in a fun way that doesn't feel like work.
21 October, 2020
Credit: Prostock-studio via Adobe Stock
Mind & Brain
- Logician Raymond Smullyan devised tons of logic puzzles, but one was declared by another philosopher to be the hardest of all time.
- The problem, also known as the Three Gods Problem, is solvable, even if it doesn't seem to be.
- It depends on using complex questions to assure that any answer given is useful.
<p> Despite the general dislike of mathematics that most profess to have, many people enjoy logic puzzles. This is strange, as many logic puzzles are just variations of math problems. Gleefully ignorant of this fact, many mathaphobes will try to solve riddles and puzzles of tremendous difficulty using reasoning tools they fear to employ when the subject is an equation. </p><p>Today, we'll look at a puzzle, the polymath who devised it, and why you should consider picking up a book of logical puzzles next time you are at the library. </p>
<iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E27v83WWiGo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> This puzzle was written by the brilliant logician <a href="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Smullyan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Raymond Smullyan</a>. Born in New York 101 years ago, Smullyan earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago and his doctorate in mathematics at Princeton, where he also taught for a few years. </p><p> An extremely prolific writer, he published several books on logic puzzles for popular consumption and an endless stream of textbooks and essays for an academic audience on logic. His puzzle books are well regarded for introducing people to complex philosophical ideas, such as <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goedel-incompleteness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gödel's incompleteness theorems</a>, in a fun and non-technical way. </p><p> Skilled in close-up magic, Smullyan once worked as a professional <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/us/raymond-smullyan-dead-puzzle-creator.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">magician</a>. He was also an accomplished <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yamGR6XpwZw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pianist</a> and an amateur astronomer who built his own telescope. Besides his interest in logic, he also admired Taoist philosophy and published a book on it for a general audience. <br> </p><p>He also found the time to appear on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E27v83WWiGo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Johnny Carson</a>, where, as in many of his books, he argued that people who like his puzzles claim to dislike math only because they don't realize that they are one and the same.</p>
The Three Gods Problem
<iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyOGZk7WbIk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> One of the more popular wordings of the problem is:<br> <br> "Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for <em>yes</em> and <em>no</em> are <em>da</em> and <em>ja</em>, in some order. You do not know which word means which."<br> <br> Boolos adds that you are allowed to ask a particular god more than one question and that Random switches between answering as if they are a truth-teller or a liar, not merely between answering "da" and "ja." <br> <br> Give yourself a minute to ponder this; we'll look at a few answers below. Ready? Okay. <strong><br> <br> </strong>George Boolos' <a href="https://www.pdcnet.org/8525737F00588A37/file/31B21D0580E8B125852577CA0060ABC9/$FILE/harvardreview_1996_0006_0001_0060_0063.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">solution</a> focuses on finding either True or False through complex questions. </p><p> In logic, there is a commonly used function often written as "iff," which means "if, and only if." It would be used to say something like "The sky is blue if and only if Des Moines is in Iowa." It is a powerful tool, as it gives a true statement only when both of its components are true or both are false. If one is true and the other is false, you have a false statement. </p><p> So, if you make a statement such as "the moon is made of Gorgonzola if, and only if, Rome is in Russia," then you have made a true statement, as both parts of it are false. The statement "The moon has no air if, and only if, Rome is in Italy," is also true, as both parts of it are true. However, "The moon is made of Gorgonzola if, and only if, Albany is the capitol of New York," is false, because one of the parts of that statement is true, and the other part is not (The fact that these items don't rely on each other is immaterial for now).</p><p> In this puzzle, iff can be used here to control for the unknown value of "da" and "ja." As the answers we get can be compared with what we know they would be if the parts of our question are all true, all false, or if they differ. </p><p> Boolos would have us begin by asking god A, "Does "da" mean yes if and only if you are True if and only if B is Random?" No matter what A says, the answer you get is extremely useful. As he explains: <br> </p><p> "If A is True or False and you get the answer da, then as we have seen, B is Random, and therefore C is either True or False; but if A is True or False and you get the answer ja, then B is not Random, therefore B is either True or False… if A is Random and you get the answer da, C is not Random (neither is B, but that's irrelevant), and therefore C is either True or False; and if A is Random...and you get the answer ja, B is not random (neither is C, irrelevantly), and therefore B is either True or False."<br> <br> No matter which god A is, an answer of "da" assures that C isn't Random, and a response of "ja" means the same for B. </p><p> From here, it is a simple matter of asking whichever one you know isn't Random questions to determine if they are telling the truth, and then one on who the last god is. Boolos suggests starting with "Does da mean yes if, and only if, Rome is in Italy?" Since one part of this is accurate, we know that True will say "da," and False will say "ja," if faced with this question. </p><p> After that, you can ask the same god something like, "Does da mean yes if, and only if, A is Random?" and know exactly who is who by how they answer and the process of elimination. </p><p> If you're confused about how this works, try going over it again slowly. Remember that the essential parts are knowing what the answer will be if two positives or two negatives always come out as a positive and that two of the gods can be relied on to act consistently. </p><p> Smullyan wrote several books with other logic puzzles in them. If you liked this one and would like to learn more about the philosophical issues they investigate, or perhaps if you'd like to try a few that are a little easier to solve, you should consider reading them. A few of his puzzles can be found with explanations in this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/11/obituaries/smullyan-logic-puzzles.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interactive</a>. </p>
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Surprising Science
New tardigrade species withstands lethal UV radiation thanks to fluorescent 'shield'
Another amazing tardigrade survival skill is discovered.
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