Probability Space

Last blog I mentioned that David Deutsch and his team at Oxford have now published a proof that shows mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes. Some links to different articles about their proof can be found here, here, and here.

What has me so excited about this proof it appears to substantiate one of the core ideas of my book and the popular tenth dimension animation - that quantum superposition, often portrayed as unimaginably strange and impossibly obscure, can be equated with the branching choices that occur in our macro world through choice, chance and circumstance, creating what is often known as Everett's multiverse. In other words, free will and quantum mechanics are both aspects of the same way of portraying what is really happening around us as we experience our amazing world.

As regular readers of this blog know, my book ends with the lyrics to 26 songs (26 being a number of some historical interest to string theory fans), a number of which I have been releasing over the last month or two as videos, created very simply with me sitting at my old piano. These videos are being freely released for the enjoyment of anyone interested in my artistic ramblings about how quantum physics and philosophy can be tied together.



A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ikj7ozGMQM

One of the things that has been a hot topic this week at the tenth dimension forum (www.tenthdimension.com/forum) is whether the fifth dimension and the sixth dimension (as per my way of imagining the dimensions) are really the same thing. Clearly, if the fifth and sixth dimension really are completely equivalent, then this would blow some major holes in the logic of my popular animation.

For me, the concept of "probability space" is the difference between the two dimensions. So, if we imagine a version of the fifth dimension that starts at the big bang (or the first quantum observation or yes/no/both collapse from superposition, if that's how you prefer to think about the beginning of our universe), then that particular version of the fifth dimension could encompass every possible timeline that could possibly be experienced by our specific different-initial-conditions universe of 4D spacetime. And in the sense that time is an illusion, this would indeed be the case: as I say in the animation, you can eventually travel through the fifth dimension's branching structures to get to any of the different potential versions of yesterday, today or tomorrow, but it would always be "taking the long way". What I have tried to make clear is that the factors of choice/chance/circumstance create different versions of our fifth-dimensional probability space from there on for our physical world. This means that for where we are right now, on our fourth-dimensional line observing the coming fifth-dimensional possibilities that are available to us at both the quantum and the macro level, there are many possibilities which might have been available to us back at the beginning of our universe, but right now at our point 13.7 million years into our journey, there are a great many potential timelines which are simply no longer available to us, because of what has come before. My song "What Was Done Today" starts with that idea and runs with it.

WHAT WAS DONE TODAY
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

All the tiny little hurts
All the sad little tales
All the wounds that turned to scars
That never went away

All the evil in the world
All the bad turns of fate
All the ignorance and sloth
That never let things change

They steal something precious
They open up a hole
In the lines of possibility
To keep us from our goals
They steal something precious
I see it drain away
Tomorrows that can never be
Because of what was done today

Now if all things are possible
It still must be clear
Because of chance or circumstance
Sometimes you can’t get there from here

And it’s nice to have your wishes
And it’s great to have your dreams
But for a starving child in Africa
They hardly mean a thing
How can they mean a thing?

We’ve all got something precious
A wondrous tiny spark
That drives us to continue
And to fight against the dark
But they’re stealin something precious
I see it drain away
Tomorrows that can never be
Because of what was done today

Big Money
Can’t hear you
Big Power
They don’t care
Big reasons
To change the system
Revolution’s in the air


Enjoy the journey,

Rob

Evidence of Parallel Universes

Click here for a great new article confirming what I have been saying for many years: quantum indeterminacy and the branching possibilities of choice, chance, and circumstance (which I propose are in the fifth dimension) are both tied together. Or let me sum up with the closing two paragraphs from the article, which is entitled "Parallel Universes Exist - Study":

According to quantum mechanics, unobserved particles are described by "wave functions" representing a set of multiple "probable" states. When an observer makes a measurement, the particle then settles down into one of these multiple options.

The Oxford team, led by Dr David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes.

As an interesting coincidence, I have had the following song from my book stuck in my head for the last few days. It gets into the idea that even though those parallel universes are decoherent and inaccessible to our own, there still might be ways that we can sense their existence. The song is called From the Corner of My Eye.



A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f8IBDXv_xI

FROM THE CORNER OF MY EYE
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

From the corner of my eye, I saw it
Thought I caught a glimpse at the edge of sight
Just a tiny inkling
Very hard to see
A flutter like a thousand wings in flight

In a corner of my mind, I questioned
How could there be more than this world of ours
Just a trick of vision
Disorder of the mind?
A pattern of tiny twirling stars
At the corner of my eye

From the corner of my eye
I saw the dance and spin
Of other worlds within
Such a mystery
From the corner of my eye
Hidden in the folds
Those other worlds untold
How can it be

In a corner of my heart, I felt it
There’s so many worlds that we cannot see
Just around a corner
Hard for us to turn
Angels dancing endlessly
At the corner of our eyes

From the corner of my eye
I saw the dance and spin
Of other worlds within
Such a mystery
From the corner of my eye
Hidden in the folds
Those other worlds untold
How can it be

Enjoy the journey,

Rob Bryanton

Connections

A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25WhT8WZQ4

I've just started reading a fascinating book by Daniel J. Levitin: "This Is Your Brain on Music". Written by a well-known musician/engineer/producer who has now become a neuroscientist, it finds ways to describe from a neurophysical viewpoint the fascinating connections that happen when we hear different kinds of music. Dr. Levitin suggests that music may be even more fundamental to our species than language.

This is one of the central ideas from my book: what connects us all across time and space? It's the memes that represent our consciousness, and each of us is part of our own unique meme-system that exists outside of the illusion of time. Whenever I listen to a particular piece of music, there are physical, cultural, and emotional patterns that trigger responses in my mind, and in my body. And in much the same way that body language can transmit anger or fear, or contentment or joy, not just from one human being to another but even across species, the multiple layers of information that are encoded into any piece of music are a powerful example of what is really happening behind the curtain of our observed physical reality.

This song also gets into an idea I explore in my book: creative people who touch so many people's lives may be able to do so because they are more aligned with the central memes that make up larger portions of the general public. What makes pop music so popular? Where does the longevity of the Beatles or Bach come from? All creative artistic endeavors have resonant ties to specific "big picture memes" within their underlying structures. For instance: when I read a Stephen King novel, even when the situation is preposterous, I feel a connection to the underlying ideas and motivations of his characters. As Mr. King himself has acknowledged, some critics say he has been so successful because he is a hack who writes for the lowest common denominator, but I believe that is just a negative way of expressing the idea I'm talking about here: Stephen King has become one of the best selling authors of all time based upon his ability to place us in the heads of his characters. His ability to plug his audience into strongly resonant meme-systems that speak to so many is what makes him or any other successful creator so fascinating, and their work so powerful.

Quantum mechanics tells us reality and information are interchangeable. I propose that the shapes and patterns that make up that information out here at the macro level of reality are tracked within the meme-systems that we move through as ideas rise and fall in popularity, and which makes great art transcend time to communicate across the centuries.

CONNECTIONS
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

Connections in time
Connections in space
Connections we share with the whole human race
Back to the very first chemical chain
That started it all, one thing remains
It’s all about connections

Just another sappy love song
Climbin to the top of all the charts
Go ahead and ridicule it
You can say that it’s not art
But what’s inside that formula
That lets it touch so many hearts?
How could those recycled cliches
Grab so many from the start?

Connections in time…

Shared beliefs, and strong emotions
Connections of common family bonds
Draw us all together
They help to make us strong
This system of thoughts and memories
The “I” inside that I call me
There are parts I share with others here
Now and back through history

Connections in time…

Past life regression
Trips to the psychic fair
If time is an illusion
Then those other lives you share
Parts of them could be right here
Writing the books you love so well
Singing the songs that touch you deeply
Your reincarnate self

Connections in time…

I think I met myself today
I think I saw my eyes
Another me in another body
Livin another life


Enjoy the journey,

Rob Bryanton

I Remember Flying

A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Soe2swgtsE

Last post was a song about contemplating death. One of the central ideas of Imagining the Tenth Dimension is that the system that represents our consciousness is independent from but interacting with the system that represents physical reality. Within that framework, what happens when we die? I believe that the "chain of attention" that represents a personality collapsing the indeterminate wave of possibilities that we look back upon as the line of time has a choice at (or near) death - it can continue to focus on the line of time (Ghosts of Flight 401, anyone?) or it can disperse into its component memes. Here's a few paragraphs from chapter seven ("The Paradoxes of Time Travel") of my book:

It should come as no surprise that the science fiction authors of more recent decades are the source of a cornucopia of delights when it comes to discussions of the nature of time and space. The gifted science fiction author Greg Bear wrote an excellent series of books (“Eon”, “Eternity”, and “Legacy”) in which a privileged class of scientists acquires the ability to navigate through the worldlines that represent the alternate futures and pasts of our universe. Mr. Bear is blessed with the ability to write science fiction that incorporates enough hard science to make his suppositions feel very real, and the “theory of the universe” which he implies within his writing–in not just these particular novels but a number of his others as well–tends to be completely compatible with the multi-dimensional nature of reality as we are describing it here. I owe him a debt of gratitude for the ways which his writing has expanded my own concepts of how space, time and consciousness work together.
Likewise, Stephen Baxter’s “Manifold” series of novels eloquently express the processes of repetition and exploration which are implied within these pages, and are useful in expanding one’s concept of what our universe’s different pasts and futures could contain. In particular, his descriptions of what the “end of the universe” could be like were influential in some of the ideas expressed in these pages.
It could be that there are other ways of navigating through higher dimensions that don’t require us to invent a time machine. What if vivid dreams were actually our minds navigating through other fifth-dimensional realities as we sleep? What if dreams that had illogical/unpredictable jumps in them were because of sixth-dimensional “folds” that jumped us from one fifth-dimensional line to another? What if dreams of flying were actual memories of parts of our system of memes and beliefs (or, if you prefer, our soul) remembering what is it like to be free of our physical bodies and navigate through multi-dimensional time and space, free and unfettered? We’ll explore ideas such as this more in chapter nine.

Personally, I have had vivid dreams of being able to "fly" (or perhaps "levitate" would be a better word for the experience) for as long as I can remember. I had another of those dreams just last night, as a matter of fact. Here are the lyrics to my song about this idea, which is one of the 26 songs associated with my book.

I REMEMBER FLYING
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

I remember flying
Flying so high
I’d push off from the ground
And push into the sky
I would leave the surly bonds
Of gravity behind
I remember flying
From some other time

I remember floating
Ascending to the clouds
Achieving elevation
Then descending to the ground
I remember thinking
It was natural as can be
To be up there floating

I remember moving
In languid slow motion
Like some giant creature
Deep in the ocean
Flying, diving, swooping, soaring, climbing, looping, laughing...

I remember flying
From so long before
And I think that there will come a day
I’ll be flying once more
I remember flying
From more than my dreams
I wish I was flying
Right now

Enjoy the journey!

Rob

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeClGTuhCy4

My mom passed away this past week, thank you all for your prayers and best wishes. I'm so very happy to be able to say that she slipped away peacefully and I was holding her hand as she passed. A permanent memorial to mom can be found at nora-bryanton.last-memories.com .

What happens to us when we die? Does it all just end, or does some part carry on? I have my own firm beliefs on this, which I discuss in my book, and at the tenthdimension forum on a regular basis.

My song "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" is one of the 26 songs found at the end of my book. It was originally written as I contemplated my own death, but it has been on my mind as family and friends gathered to pay their last respects to mom. Here are the lyrics:

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
music and lyrics (c) Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

Now I lay me down to sleep
To rest my weary head
If I should die in slumber deep
Remember what I said

It’s not the end of the world
It’s not the end of the dream
It’s just the end of a body
Not the end of a soul

So what am I so afraid of?
A little bit of sorrow?
It all continues flowing on
The past into tomorrow

Now I lay me down to sleep
My journey finally through
A list of things undone, unsaid
So much left to do

So what am I so afraid of?
The thought that this has ended?
Did I try my best to be
The person I intended?

It’s not the end of the world
It’s not the end of the dream
It’s just the end of a chapter
Turn the page and move on

Now I lay me down to sleep
To rest my weary head
If I should die in slumber deep
Remember what I said


Enjoy the journey,

Rob