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“Imagine waking up one day and realizing that you actually live inside a computer game,” says Mark Van Raamsdonk, describing what sounds like a pitch for a science-fiction film.

But for Mark Van Raamsdonk, a physicist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, this scenario is a way to think about reality.



If it is true, he says,

“everything around us - the whole three-dimensional physical world - is an illusion born from information encoded elsewhere, on a two-dimensional chip”.

That would make our Universe, with its three spatial dimensions, a kind of hologram, projected from a substrate that exists only in lower dimensions.

This 'holographic principle' is strange even by the usual standards of theoretical physics. But Van Raamsdonk is one of a small band of researchers who think that the usual ideas are not yet strange enough.



If nothing else, they say, neither of the two great pillars of modern physics - general relativity, which describes gravity as a curvature of space and time, and quantum mechanics, which governs the atomic realm - gives any account for the existence of space and time. Neither does string theory, which describes elementary threads of energy.

Van Raamsdonk and his colleagues are convinced that physics will not be complete until it can explain how space and time emerge from something more fundamental - a project that will require concepts at least as audacious as holography.



They argue that such a radical reconceptualization of reality is the only way to explain what happens when the infinitely dense 'singularity' at the core of a black hole distorts the fabric of space-time beyond all recognition, or how researchers can unify atomic-level quantum theory and planet-level general relativity - a project that has resisted theorists' efforts for generations.

“All our experiences tell us we shouldn't have two dramatically different conceptions of reality - there must be one huge overarching theory,” says Abhay Ashtekar, a physicist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

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ORIGINAL: needlesandpins

Generally I have a lot of time for BC, but the dude needs to live in my old house for 6 months, and then try claiming there are no ghosts. Hell he can come and live here, and by the old house's standards this one is quiet, tame, and fricking peachy as it brings baby boy's socks in to the house that had no way of getting here, plays music and tapping games with the neighbour's daughter through a room that is packed with boxes, has a spirit that took a hold of my son's ex to guide her in the dark, turns lights on, sits on beds, moves pillows on beds to prop themselves up, puts smoke in the house when no-one here smokes, oranges that we don't have, strong perfumes I don't wear, walking in the bathroom, on the landing and stairs, the opening of doors ... and so much more. My old house is apparent having lots of fun with the new woman in my ex's life, and that house has scared the absolute crap out of a lot of people!

As for energy, and what Ghosts are; I don't care what people believe, but ghosts have always been around me, and I had always said something very specific about where I wanted to live when I was older. I saw a clairvoyant on very high recommendation, because I do know there are frauds, and just as I was leaving she said to me- It won't work you know. You think that if you build your own house on your own land that they will leave you alone, because you will be the only one to have lived there. But it won't work because it's you they are drawn to. They use your energy to help them get to where they need to be. You're a sensitive, and they feel it, but you don't want them. If you trained you could really develop this. Not only that though, someone has always walked this land before us.

She was spot on. She couldn't possibly have known that about me, and our how session was recorded, so I knew there were no hints for her to read between the lines. I saw her first, I booked the session, and it was before the internet. She had no way of knowing.

Needles

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ORIGINAL: needlesandpins

[sm=halloweensmiley_41.gif][sm=afraid.gif][sm=chug.gif]

Needles

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ORIGINAL: CaptR

Those hurricanes are fun at sea aren't they? Been through three in the Atlantic on different trips to W. Africa on 100 ft ocean going tugboats. Lost two wheelhouse windows in one storm and had to replace with plywood. It was like being on a submarine. 35/40' plus seas definitely bring out your spiritual side.

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ORIGINAL: needlesandpins

Generally I have a lot of time for BC, but the dude needs to live in my old house for 6 months, and then try claiming there are no ghosts. Hell he can come and live here, and by the old house's standards this one is quiet, tame, and fricking peachy as it brings baby boy's socks in to the house that had no way of getting here, plays music and tapping games with the neighbour's daughter through a room that is packed with boxes, has a spirit that took a hold of my son's ex to guide her in the dark, turns lights on, sits on beds, moves pillows on beds to prop themselves up, puts smoke in the house when no-one here smokes, oranges that we don't have, strong perfumes I don't wear, walking in the bathroom, on the landing and stairs, the opening of doors ... and so much more. My old house is apparent having lots of fun with the new woman in my ex's life, and that house has scared the absolute crap out of a lot of people!

As for energy, and what Ghosts are; I don't care what people believe, but ghosts have always been around me, and I had always said something very specific about where I wanted to live when I was older. I saw a clairvoyant on very high recommendation, because I do know there are frauds, and just as I was leaving she said to me- It won't work you know. You think that if you build your own house on your own land that they will leave you alone, because you will be the only one to have lived there. But it won't work because it's you they are drawn to. They use your energy to help them get to where they need to be. You're a sensitive, and they feel it, but you don't want them. If you trained you could really develop this. Not only that though, someone has always walked this land before us.

She was spot on. She couldn't possibly have known that about me, and our how session was recorded, so I knew there were no hints for her to read between the lines. I saw her first, I booked the session, and it was before the internet. She had no way of knowing.

Needles

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ORIGINAL: jlf1961

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ORIGINAL: needlesandpins

[sm=halloweensmiley_41.gif][sm=afraid.gif][sm=chug.gif]

Needles

Look, I have been in combat, rode out cat 4 and five hurricanes at sea, rode bulls and broncs, but there are some things that I have seen I do not want to see again, nor do I want to experience again.

This incident tops the list.

Now, should you visit this part of the world, I will gladly give you directions to Fort Phantom hill, and the ruins of the old fort that is there, AND the location of the fort cemetery.

Oh, the fort was built in an area the Comanche buried their war dead prior to the US Cav building Fort Phantom, the name of which was a pointed joke at the local Comanche.

In its short history, the fort had two out breaks of yellow fever, and the river that was its primary water supply shifted its channel by 3 mile, after one of the extremely infrequent earth quakes this part of the US gets.

So YOU figure out what the fuck was going on.