Here: Food for thought. (More here.) END

“What is time?” is a misleadingly simple question, one that soon surfaces many difficulties. That is, it is a philosophical issue: phil, being the study of hard big questions. However, it is clear that we need to ponder it here at UD at least at a basic level, if we are to examine relevant concerns such as cosmological fine tuning and the evident beginning of the observed cosmos in a singularity, currently typically projected as about 13.8 billion years ago . . . the following chart based on WIMAP has 13.77 BYA and starts with “quantum fluctuations” leading to a super-luminous stretching of space called inflation: However, we still have not yet resolved the question at even first level. A Read More ›

I plan to award a prize to anyone who can invent a non-trivial 3D machine which can replicate itself. The machine must be able to make copies of itself without human intervention, except possibly to supply the raw materials. Basically a 3D printer which can print a copy of itself which retains the ability to print a copy of itself, which… A page which can be photocopied does not count, because it is the photocopier which actually makes the copy, unless the photocopy machine also makes a copy of itself; a computer program which duplicates itself does not count unless the computer it runs on makes a copy of itself also. The prize: the right to speculate about how life Read More ›