The universe in which we live is a simulation on a supercomputer?

Although it seems science fiction, a group of physicists at the University of Washington has now succeeded in designing a test to prove if indeed we live in simulated on a computer universe.

The idea that humanity could be living inside an artificial universe came in an article by Nick Bostrom, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. The work was published in 2003 in the journal Philosophical Quarterly and since then has not left anyone indifferent.

A group of physicists from the University of Washington are developing a test that could take place in the near future and could help to resolve the question of whether or not actually live inside a computer simulation. 

To do Professor Martin Savage considers it necessary to model only a small part of our world, ie also create a sufficiently large simulation.

Starting from the basic laws of physics that govern the universe have been able to simulate relative success tiny portions thereof on a scale of a billionth of a meter, slightly higher than an atomic nucleus.

"If you get a simulation big enough it would emerge much like our universe," Savage says. Therefore, according to the scientist, it's just a matter of looking at the universe we live in an analog "signature" that they are using in our small-scale simulations.

Something also to Savage and his colleagues, is perfectly feasible. In fact, they suggest that the "signature" that would prove that ours is an artificial universe could appear as a limitation on the power of cosmic rays (the radiation reaching us from distant stars and galaxies).

According to the idea of ​​Savage, the highest-energy cosmic rays could not travel on the edges of the artificial grid that simulates space-time in a hypothetical computer model, but should travel diagonally, so that their interactions would not be equal in all directions, as expected. If it can be shown that such "unnatural" limitation exists, there would be no question that we live within a simulation.

source(in spanish):http://actualidad.rt.com/

Scientist Michio Kaku surprised with finding irrefutable evidence: God does exist

The American physicist and science writer, one of the most respected in the field of quantum physics luminaries, ensures that there is an unknown force that governs everything.

image: http://www.flickr.com/people/34458623@N03

The renowned American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, famous for making the revolutionary string theory (fundamental physics model that assumes that seemingly specific material particles are actually "vibrational states") recently caused a small tremor in the community then scientist who claimed to have found evidence of the existence of an intelligent man unknown force that governs nature that is, something quite similar to the concept that many have of God as creator and director of the universe entity.



In reaching this conclusion Michio Kaku used a new technology created in 2005 that allowed him to analyze the behavior of matter at the subatomic scale, relying on a "primitive semi-tachyon radio." Tachyons, of course, are all those hypothetical particles able to move at superluminal speeds, ie, are theoretical particles able to "take off" the matter of the universe or the vacuum contact with it, thus leaving the matter in its purest form, totally free from the influences of the world around them.



According to the physical, observing the behavior of these tachyons in several experiments, concluded that humans lived in a kind of "Matrix", ie, a world governed by laws and principles conceived by a kind of great smart architect . "I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence, not unlike a favorite computer game, but of course, more complex and unthinkable," said the scientist.

Michio Kaku added, "analyzing the behavior of matter at the subatomic scale, hit by the pitch radius semi tachyon for the first time in history, a tiny point in space, totally free of any influence of the universe, matter, force, or law, is perceived in an unprecedented way absolute chaos. So, what we call chance no longer makes more sense, because we are in a universe governed by established rules and hazards not determined by universal plane. This means that, in all probability, there is an unknown force that governs everything, "said the scientist".

Michio Kaku added, "Someone did Einstein once the big question: Is there a God? And Einstein replied that, first, to be a scientist you have to specify well what is understood as God. If you understand God as a figure that is prayed, a figure that gives and takes part, then the answer is no. But he believed in a God represented by the order, harmony, beauty, simplicity and elegance, the God of Spinoza. The universe could be chaotic and ugly, but instead is beautiful, simple and governed by simple mathematical rules.

more info (in spanish):http://www.guioteca.com/fenomenos-paranormales

NASA's plan to send a digital message to other beings on the spaceship 'New Horizons'

A team of researchers, professors, artists and engineers has proposed to NASA to rise an interstellar message to the New Horizons spacecraft, which is about Pluto.

This project, known as One Earth Message (The Message of the Earth), is being led by Jon Lomberg, who was design director for the gold discs that were placed aboard the Voyager spacecraft of NASA prior to release 1977, with the idea of ​​showing any aliens that might intercept the probes how humankind and its planet. We will never know if our initiative will reach extraterrestrials, but we do know that the people of Earth to participate can literally change your life.

 The goal now is similar, but the new project would be a more global and collaborative effort, asking people worldwide to contribute pictures, sounds and ideas for this 'message in a bottle'. "This is really an opportunity to try to think of ourselves from a broad perspective," said Lomberg to Space.com. "We will never know if our initiative will reach extraterrestrials, but we do know that the people of Earth to participate and play a role in it, you can literally change your life"

 Unlike metal discs with recordings of Voyager, Earth Message One would be digital. The space agency has expressed his enthusiasm, but has yet to officially approve it, Lomberg said. To have the approval, it will be allowed to team up 150 megabytes of data to the memory of the New Horizons spacecraft.

The message would have the same amount of information as the gold records Voyager, maybe 100 pictures and about an hour of audio, Lomberg said. "We are writing a haiku, not a novel," he said. The digital format allow this message to be more flexible and integrated than was possible with gold records, Lomberg added. For example, the message can be changed over time by transmitting more files to New Horizons. It could also include a map of the world, and every image and sound could be labeled the place from which it came. There is another key difference between messages Voyager and New Horizons: While gold records carry information chosen by a small committee (which was chaired by astronomer Carl Sagan), One Earth Message be composed and funded with contributions from people all the world. "It is not just a photo contest" Lomberg said. "It's a process that will find out what people want to send." Lomberg and his colleagues hope to raise at least half a million people around the world through a campaign of Fiat Physica, to build and maintain a Web presence and to find the best way to program the message.


Source (in spanish):http://www.20minutos.es

NASA may have found a way to travel as fast as in 'Star Trek'

Fly to the moon in FOUR hours: The British scientist who says he's found the secret of Star Trek's 'warp speed'

Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Star Trek or a Star Wars film will know how it works.

The good guys are minding their business in outer space when suddenly the Klingons or the Dark Empire bear down on them out of nowhere.

There is only one way out. At the flick of a switch, our heroes are flashed — in a blur of passing stars — to safety elsewhere in the universe. 

Call it warp drive or a hyper drive, it adds up to the same thing: a miraculous power source that allows a spacecraft to fly at unimaginable speeds.

But while it’s so far confined to the realms of sci-fi, the concept could become reality.

U.S. space agency Nasa is thought to have successfully tested a revolutionary new power source that could enable spacecraft to travel to the Moon in just four hours instead of more than three days and to Mars in two or three weeks instead of seven months.

Compact enough to fit into a suitcase, this whizzy new device could — it is claimed — keep flying for eons, at the equivalent of an astonishing 450 million miles an hour.

Load up the spacecraft, we’re all off for a long weekend on Venus!

The invention fuelling such hopes is called an electromagnetic drive or EmDrive — and it’s powered by a device similar to that found in a microwave oven.

It was invented by British scientist Roger Shawyer, who has endured years of ridicule since he unveiled it nearly a decade ago.

Critics insisted his invention was a scientific impossibility because it broke one of the basic laws of physics governing the universe.

This rule is Sir Isaac Newton’s third law: that if you push in one direction, you accelerate in the opposite.

Indeed, every rocket engine ever made has fired burning rocket fuel out behind it, thus powering the craft forward.

But the EmDrive doesn’t use a propellent. It works by converting electric power — from solar panels or a small on-board nuclear reactor — into forward thrust. According to some scientists, it is the ‘impossible drive’.

The scepticism, however, hasn’t stopped EmDrive’s development rights being bought by aircraft giant Boeing and the UK Government funding the early development of Mr Shawyer’s ideas.

Now retired, he acts as a consultant to a British company that is continuing the research, and he says other countries are developing similar designs. In fact, five years ago the Chinese claimed they had built an EmDrive and proved it worked — but no one believed them.

It’s harder to be sceptical when the news comes from Nasa — an organisation that put men on the Moon and sent rockets to Mars.

According to Nasa engineer Paul March, it has conducted the first successful tests of an EmDrive in a vacuum, to recreate the emptiness of outer space.

Some suggest the EmDrive is set to become one of many wonderful British inventions which — for lack of investment and vision — end up being hijacked by someone else.

Examples of this lamentable tendency include the tank, the jet airliner and the programmable electronic computer.

When I tracked down Mr Shawyer to his base in Havant, Hants, he said he was pleased Nasa was ‘having fun’ with his creation and felt some vindication after years of scepticism.

That said, he seemed a bit peeved that the Americans were grabbing all the attention.

An aerospace engineer who worked for the Galileo space project to build a European satnav system, Mr Shawyer unveiled his idea in 2006.

He promised it would not only speed us to new galaxies, but ‘put an end to wings and wheels’ by making traditional forms of transport redundant.

His prototype looks like something sci-fi writer Jules Verne might have dreamt up to blast Victorians to the Moon.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3080846/Fly-moon-FOUR-hours-British-scientist-says-s-secret-Star-Trek-s-wrap-speed.html#ixzz3aApwtKSA