Small.Island.in.World.Three

Age old question (came across it again recently): Why is there something rather than nothing?

The question presupposes two possibilities. There being something, and there being nothing.

But wait a tick... are there? I mean, are there really two possibilites?

I can understand why we would think that the first "possibility" is a genuine possibility. The stuff around. That can seem a rather compelling case.

The other "possibility"? What should make one think that "there could have been nothing" is a genuine possibility?

Should I apply the concept of subtraction to the concept of a set of all things, and then assume that the somethings and nothing are going to behave like the concepts of them? In the history of humans, somethings haven't always been so "nicely" behaved, and I'm not sure that nothing has either.

I don't really have much personal experience with nothing. Not much for me to induct upon when figuring out if it is possible to have, without having the somethings here and there too.

What kind of basis would even make a good ground for deciding? Is this something I should ask a more skilled physicist? They know much more about the type of nothing with somethings here and there too, would they be able to extrapolate what nothing without the somethings would behave like, and if it is possible? And how far off should I think real nothing will be from such a theoretical nothing? Could there be good error bars on these predictions about nothing?

Not much to go on.

Short entry before going out.

First, my tissues seem to be mending (albeit slowly). So, I'm optimistic that the doctor's theory about my uninformative pain is correct. That being, inflammation of the connective tissue around the muscles that were recently overstrained. It was such a different feeling pain that I dismissed a connection too quickly. Lession learned: neighboring tissues can generate quite different sorts of pain. Yet, the best part of the theory is that it came with an expert's calming authority. With my worry circuits thus quieted, the discomfort became a pale shadow of itself. Second lession (this one relearned, again): expectations frame perceptions and thus our reality.

Master's thesis work is proceeding as desired. Some techs are in town installing a neat e-beam deposition machine with some angle control bells and whistles. I'll be watching that a lot more tommorrow.

Nice potluck lastnight. I pulled from the far past for a cornbread+. Stephen gets credit for starting my work on cornbread+. Although it is a great dish and seldom comes out badly, I usually come away thinking that I didn't have much control of it. I choose what to add for the "+" and where they should be in the cornbread, but there is still that "put it in for 20 min and cross your fingers" part of baking something, I guess. I want to try versions in an assortment of container shapes, which should keep me busy until I can think my way around the problems with "Encapsulation".

First off, thanks for the positive feedback.

Next topic, our frail bodies age poorly. We need modificaitons of the right sort. As they are, they give us less than the most useful of information while they decay.

Example: couple weeks back, running a machine at hidec was physically isomorphic to hours of low impact bend-squat type exercise. This overstressed some muscles and tendon type bits of my construction. No biggie, nicely these parts are capable of self-repair with only some annoyance while they do so. Still, it caught me by surprise a whole 24 hours after the stressor activity. Leading me to realize that they could have done better to just let me know about that stressing while I was doing it. Why no early reporting system leg? Just a little fyi sent in for us neurons to know changes in your situation before they are such trouble, or heck even when they become trouble. Twenty-four hours is a bit of a time lag.

Forward to now, and another pain. The sensors, again, don't supply the more helpful bits of information I would like to have about it. Make an area hurt while walking about to (among other things) get sustenance? Sure, they can do that. Tell me which of the several subsytems in that general area is in disfunction? Nope, no sensor data on that. Sure the squeaky wheel..., but not if it is one of dozens which can't be told apart by squeak alone. Such poor construction.

Bionic organs and tissues will someday put messages in our inboxes with slide shows of anatomical reminders, links to doctor advice, etc. In the PKD version of this future vision, someone, sometime will be forced to wonder if their kidney really needs this medicine that it wants them to buy, or if it is just trying to sell them something. In my version, we just forward such messages to our stem-cell organ and it schedules a replacement cycle.

Talked with H.Y. more than usual today. Which is good. He will likely keep me moving at a good pace. Then we met with V.J.V., which went nice enough.

Then, after eating, I got a long overdue haircut. Hot weather has started and my head was not yet properly topped. So gone is the mop.

Then more water dripping for science. Seemed to go well, only it skirted the edge of my proto-principle of "not setting up a situation where success is one of the worse things that could happen." See, the measure of when the dripping was going well equalled when it was getting more and more painfully slow. This instance only hits the edge of the proto-principle (so called, because I've yet to find the perfect, memory-friendly/catchy, phrasing for it) because it wasn't like it really took all that long even when it got slow; so I'll supply a more quintessential example.

Imagine that you are trying to open some recalcitrant jar. So you place it in vice, or some such, which happens to be about face high. You apply a wrench, or some such, and then start pulling with all you got. Now, within this situation, the worse thing that could now happen is for you to succeed with your original goal or opening the jar, as that would also mean that some wrench handles are coming at your face, rapidly, for an interface.

Now I'm sure that the reader saw that problem coming, which is why it makes a good illustration of the principle. But I think we, more often than we realize, frame our goals and/or construct our solutions/strategies in such ways that put us in more complex versions of essentially the same situation.

A longer term example. Hunger, desire for sustenance, leads one to form a goal of "getting food", then that goal is framed with "quick as can be done". This leads, for some, to the behavior pattern of eating fast food more than is healthy; which can lead to health problems. See, without knowing it, the worst thing that could have happened for the person who has eaten this way for years and starts off for the local burger joint again, is for them to actually get there as planned. The car breaking down, thus forcing them to walk and realize they are out of shape, might have been a failure for the way they were directing their energy, but it also might have been better for them. The source of the problem can be traced back, not to the reasonable goal of food, but to the framing around the goal of "quick" instead of "good stuff". Gotta watch the framing.

Anyway, enough rambling. You see why I need a catchy phrasing. That mishmash explanation above. I need something that compresses it all quick and neat.

Went with some friends to see Thank You for Smoking last night. Quite funny. Best line: "It almost makes me want to stop eating sushi, but I guess you have to."

Completed the dreaded federal taxes computations. So that minor bit of stress is put to rest. I fall into the poor student category, and as such my taxes are so simple that I'm forced to wonder why I should be asked to do any of it. I mean, all my sources of income already report the relevant information to the IRS at the same time they report it to me, don't they? I think they do, and if so, the IRS already figures out all the numbers. So why make me do it too? Seems like just setting me up for a chance to make a mistake and be penalized. They should just send me the results of their calculations, and if they look right to me, I'll sign and send back. When my taxes stop being so simple as to admit of this process, I'll stop signing and then do the calculations myself.

Learned more clean room equipment this week and thus brought my scheduled training sessions to an end. Fun, fun. Then, Friday I watched water drip... for science. Tomorrow morning I will go in to do some more stuff, which might seriously wreck my usual sunday errands and throw off some chore schedules. Oh well.

New Dr Who episodes are starting on the other side of the planet. Bless the internet. :-)

I can't seem to make another break through on Splash Back. Darn.

Sean is in town. Just got back from going out to see him. Should give some events to the weekend.

Been a bit since my last writing. Heck, that was before spring break. Went home to see the fam. Good time there. After getting back, my potluck dish was a new transnational one, Tortelloni Curry. Still learning how to temper curry heat properly.

Last weekend some architects were in town, some I knew even. Very nice night out with them on the historic last night of food serving at Brewski's. About that, this town has lost a place for fine burgers, and everyone that voted for that smoking ban should feel at least a little ashamed for it.

On the school front, Master's thesis stuff is moving along. I've recently learned how to operate the XM-8, which is a fun sputtering machine. Soon, oxide deposition, lithography, etc. Other classes seem a dull, blur. Which might explain why I have let a few deadlines creep uncomfortably close.

SplashBack is still the reigning flash game. I've cleared 29 levels. Oh what a great day that was. Still brings warmth to my heart. It started as an ordinary game, perhaps even a bit badly, then it turned around and my goo tank rocketed up into the 30's. When the crash finally found its teeth I was at level 25, and it took a while to bring me down. Even so, around level 21 to 22 is my current, typical good game.

Sleep. Much to do tomorrow.