Category Archives: Thinking Wonder

“Physics advances one funeral at a time”

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Here’s a fine article about astrophysics and scientific enquiry from Ethan Siegel: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/11/16/scientific-theories-never-die-not-unless-scientists-choose-to-let-them/#3ae8a4a24ccb

Mr. Siegel summarizes scientific investigation thus:

“When it comes to science, we like to think that we formulate hypotheses, test them, throw away the ones that fail to match, and continue testing the successful one until only the best ideas are left. But the truth is a lot muddier than that. The actual process of science involves tweaking your initial hypothesis over and over, trying to pull it in line with what we already know. It involves a leap-of-faith that when you formulate your theory correctly, the predictions it makes will be even more successful, across-the-board, than any other alternatives. And when things don’t work out, it doesn’t always necessitate abandoning your original hypothesis. In fact, most scientists don’t. In a very real way, scientific theories can never truly be killed. The only way they ever go away is if people stop working on them.”

Tweaking is the draw. And it truly is fun to discover when errors are in a hypothesis, as this offers the chance to discover and tweak further. This is happening with the 17th Century Atlantic Seaboard limestone smuggling hypothesis at my Cartoproblematica page. There’s an error in part of the geology. That’s neat. It means more discovery. And got me refocusing on another aspect of that same geology – narrowing the physical search area from ~1200 km2 down to 138 km2, and thence down to 4.5 km2.

  • – David Huer

Image: Churchyard – nige_hurll modified by D.Huer
https://pixabay.com/en/churchyard-gravestones-graveyard-2812800/
CC0 Creative Commons

 * Starts With A Bang “is dedicated to exploring the story of what we know about the Universe as well as how we know it, with a focus on physics, astronomy, and the scientific story that the Universe tells us about itself. Written by Ph.D. scientists and edited/created by astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, our goal is to share the joy, wonder and awe of scientific discovery.”

Is our universe a “wormhole”?

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Portal Vortex Time Travel Wormhole Warp Space{a set of (solutions of Einstein field equations)}, such that an outer “envelope” feeds a singularity at the “centre”?

About problem: Commenced thinking about the nature of neural networks and organization of orbital space some 30-years ago = liquid membraning helps; came to a hypothesis somewhere between 2010-2014; and decided to post it as a puzzle, along the lines of the diagramatic sequences they have for US college tests; and then publishing it on December 7, 2014. Not many takers except Clément Vidal at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Clément and I have chats and he read my Bangivore hypothesis.

Puzzle published December 7, 2014.

if you look at the original diagram (select image to go there), there are fine protuberances along the edge of the black circle second from right.

New phrase: Would Kessler data cascades influence “multiverse billiards”? Data cascading is what happens when a thought-investigation (for me, at least) unlocks into a solution key or key-set. Which invariably splits into all sorts of interesting new questions.

Kessler cascades and collision sets are fascinating – applicable to neat problems like:

  * Neural nets (growth; and collapse ie. epilepsy?);
  * ocean garbage collecting into gyres (and then colliding down to be food for plankton?); and
  * the hypothesis I’m working on that floodwater/saltwedge “density differentials” produce a trigger transforming foreshore waters into a “saltwedge dam” that floodwaters rebound against

Links:
Puzzle (Dec-7-14): https://davehuer.com/puzzle-03/
Bangivores: https://davehuer.com/blog/prokaryote-starivores-bangivores/
“Wormhole”: http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Portal-Vortex-Time-Travel-Wormhole-Warp-Space-2514312: Creative Commons Zero – CC0.
Billard balls: By Andrzej Barabasz (Chepry) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Kessler cascades:
1) Donald J. Kessler retired from NASA in 1996 as NASA’s Senior Scientist for Orbital Debris Research.
1) http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-debris/kessler-syndrome/don-kessler-envisat-kessler-syndrome/
2) http://iaass.space-safety.org/awards/jerome-lederer-space-safety-pioneer-award/space-safety-pioneer-award-hall-of-fame/kessler-biography/
3) Generated image of orbital debris estimate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Debris-GEO1280.jpg

– end –

 

SOLCO: A new space treaty to break the Orbital Investing Sound Barrier

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CityMoon : Getting back to the Moon

Earlier this summer, a friend and got to talking about space industry. Why industry and the authorities still had us stuck on Earth. It’s been 50 years. They played golf. And got us a bag of rocks. All the other promises were empty. And NASA keeps insisting that we ought to be making riskier long-duration trips to Mars vs. bootstrapping like entrepreneurs do. But got to thinking, concluding that the old Outer Space Treaty (UNOOSA, 1966) is the barrier to entry. The national space agencies really have little choice, because signatory states all agree that no one can own private property off-planet.

CityMoon.org : website
Treaty proposal video (CGI animation)

Well, who invests in that. 

The strategy here? A new treaty to break the investment log-jam. That’s been the project of the last few months. I will periodically post and welcome guest commentary.  It takes all of us to make the world better. And all of us dialoguing to move our civilization forward.