Modern Physics is really a strange science!

When you read about modern physics in, say, Scientific American, you see some really strange ideas float by. They can be mesmerizing.

Take these quotes from an article on the SciAm Web site recently, in the article "Do Naked Singularities Break the Rules?", discussing a piece of exotica revolving around black holes. In a black hole situation, a star collapses in on itself as it runs out of nuclear fuel, and as it collapses, gravity becomes stronger and stronger, until it reaches the point where even light can't escape -- which is why they call it a black hole. Ultimately, at least in theory, even the black hole (which may be the mass of a star in a space the size of a Manhattan townhouse) collapses in on itself, into a single-dimension point, if you can imagine such a thing -- the point is called a Singularity -- mainly because it is unique in its physics; quantum mechanics and Relativity are thought to break down at this point. But nobody knows because nothing escapes the "event horizon" beyond which nothing can escape the black hole. This introduces a number of oddities physicists are trying to think through.

"The breakdown of general relativity at such a location [the singularity] may not be a failure of the theory per se, but a sign that space and time have an edge. The singularity marks the place where the physical world ends. We should think of it as an event rather than an object, a moment when collapsing matter reaches the edge and ceases to be, like the big bang in reverse."

IN other words, if everything can arise out of nothing, then it can return to nothing.

If that doesn't give you pause, you have no sense of wonder and should avoid the sciences as an area of study. And check your pulse.

Another quote explains why string theory and similar far-advanced guesses as to the ultimate nature of reality need some smidgen of evidence to support their speculations -- they currently have none at all. "Quantum gravity theories in the making, such as string theory and loop quantum gravity, are badly in need of some kind of observational input, without which it is nearly impossible to constrain the plethora of possibilities." Too many speculative options.

Isn't that amazing?

Book Review: "Fantastic Voyage"--Good guide to living forever--BUT boy, is it depressing !

"Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever"--by Ray Kurzweil

I am reading Ray's Singularity book, where he makes a convincing case that tech is moving forward so incredibly fast that there's a good chance that if you can only make it to 2020 still alive & functioning, you might live a much longer life than we do now, and in a much better state of health.

I know Ray eats lots of health pills and stuff, and wanted to get his recommendations for what exactly to do to actually live to 2020 (when I will be 80). The book does a good job of methodically working through all aspects of a healthy life, from exercise and stress to diet, with a heavy emphasis on diet. It is certainly "actionable" since he tells you what you need to do.

Problem is, what you need to do is give up anything you've ever liked to eat in your life, and spend the rest of your life (or until 2020) eating stuff that has no flavor, no taste, no fun, no jazz. Give up sweets, simple starches like potatoes, macaroni, spaghetti, bread other than whole-wheat with pebbles in it, ice cream and milk and all other dairy products, and every form of meat except salmon -- not even tuna and swordfish because they have high mercury levels. No gravies or sauces, no mayo, only olive oil--and only certain specific expensive olive oils, too.

Instead you are to revert to your hunter-gatherer ancestral dietary load of raw everything, fatless everything, little meat, little sweet, little tasty -- if it's tasteless, dry, chewy, and flavorless, then good. If you find yourself smiling after you take a bite--then spit it out, it's killing you!

Kiss off mealtime and snacktime as joyful enterprises in your life. Eating is something you will from now on do for fuel only, not for pleasure.

To be fair, Ray and his partner make two points: First, if you really do try to reduce yourself to this level of eating, after a while you will get somewhat used to it -- it's supposedly true that, for example, if you eat a lot of sweets you become addicted to sweet tastes, whereas if you forgo sweets, after a while your sweet tooth diminishes. So it's not torture forever--just for the months (or years?) it will take your body and your taste buds to adjust. I suppose that might have some truth to it. God knows if I have chocolate milk for breakfast (so shoot me!), my sweet tooth for the rest of that day becomes more like a sweet fang.

Second, he says that by the time we reach 2020, medical technology breakthroughs will make it likely that we'll be able to go back to abusing our digestive tracts somewhat, since medicine will be able to offset or compensate for our poor choices and we'll have sin without guilt once again. Ah, Eden!

But for now, I just get depressed every time I look in the fridge, or walk the aisles of the grocery store, knowing that every single thing that catches my eye will kill me outright, or at least before I reach 2020. It will be really, really annoying if I am the last man to die from 20th century body malfunctions! But if I had that much discipline and self control, I'd be a much better person than I have ever been. And how likely is that?

(This review posted to Amazon May 2, 2008)