Diary (May 4, 2020)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Monday May 4, 2020.

Diary

Cosmic Uncertainty

"We found a hint that that number of the fine structure constant was different in certain regions of the universe. Not just as a function of time, but actually also in direction in the universe, which is really quite odd if it's correct ... but that's what we found."

- John Webb, University New South Wales

Makes me think about Uncertainty ... first the uncertainty that drives scientists to experiment ... then, eventually, the Uncertainty of the limits of our perception, scaled to extremes in space and time ... touch the nuclei of atoms, receive starlight from the Big Bang ... does the Uncertainty come from us mortal fleshy things, or does Uncertainty inhere in Creation?

• Comment @ Facebook
• New findings suggest laws of nature 'downright weird,' not as constant as previously thought - Lachlan Gilbert, University of New South (April 27, 2020)Wales
• Fine-structure constant (nonfiction)

To be a primate is to be highly uncertain, that's for sure

To be a primate is to be highly uncertain, that's for sure.

• Comment @ Facebook

The Days of Our Quantum Lives

Like Einstein tossing dice with Schrödinger's cat, these are the Days of Our Quantum Lives.

We are the Croupiers in this game.

• Comment @ Facebook

Kurt Vonnegut's letter home after the war

Have you read his letter to his family, written at the close of the Second World War? It rings with Survivor’s Guilt, and I consider it a formidable work of art – a real contribution to literature (in the long run, of course; at the time it was a letter home) and a sign of Vonnegut to come.

The relevant excerpts tell all:

• "I was one of the few who weren’t wounded. For that much thank God."
• "On Christmas eve the Royal Air Force bombed and strafed our unmarked train. They killed about one-hundred-and-fifty of us."
• "Many men died from shock in the showers after ten days of starvation, thirst and exposure. But I didn’t."
• "They beat me up a little. I was fired as group leader. Beatings were very small time: — one boy starved to death and the SS Troops shot two for stealing food."
• "On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden — possibly the world’s most beautiful city. But not me."
• "[Russian] planes (P-39’s) strafed and bombed us, killing fourteen, but not me."
• "Eight of us stole a team and wagon. We traveled and looted our way through Sudetenland and Saxony for eight days, living like kings. The Russians are crazy about Americans."

– Letter of Note

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Karl Jones (nonfiction)