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Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes

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strider_mt2k
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
Uranium
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Kaiser-Machead
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
This reminds me of that episode of Earthworm Jim, where the universe was just inside a snowglobe.

I'd rather just have a sealed-in aquatic ecosystem. They sell some at Brookstone with red shrimp and algae inside, but it's more fun to make one yourself.
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secretmanofagent
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
Just how many of these would I have to purchase to create a weapon?
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
11/25/08

@secretmanofagent: This will be perfect for my Uranium-238 space modulator.
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Slartibartfast
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
Big deal: my kids' (Chinese) toys are already laced with uranium.
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bosskev
11/25/08

@Slartibartfast: Thankfully, the kids are protected by the heavy coating of lead paint!
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
So wait, if it's quantum, wouldn't detecting it screw with it?
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Detecting it actually causes it to never have happened. So if you want the universe to be created you must not attempt to detect it's creation. Basically, you'll know it worked when you don't know if worked. The moment you actually know it worked it won't work.
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
11/25/08

@Rabid Penguin: When will then be now?

Soon.

How soon?

THIRD BASE!
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Prepare to fast-forward!
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SpeneyG
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
Alright, I'll be the first idiot to ask...Uranium on your desk? This will go great with the radiation badges that Will Wright gives out as Christmas gifts.
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ripfire
11/25/08

@SpeneyG: It's uranium-doped glass. The radiation in it would be really weak, even compared to those tritium glow-in-the-dark wristwatch.
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
Please. That's a pea, stuck to a straw, glued to the inside of the jar's lid. lol, that's brilliant!
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bosskev
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
When I was growing up, we had an uranium glass jar. Whenever we'd drive cross country, Dad would refuse to stop for bathroom breaks, so we'd take the lid off the jar we kept just for that purpose and uranium into it.
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xAnarChisTx
11/25/08

In reply to Artist's Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes
This just continues to baffle me on how big, or how small, a universe can be.

Reminds me of Men in Black 2.
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Gann
11/25/08

@xAnarChisTx: This just continues to baffle me how many people continue to misinterpret quantum mechanics.
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Ridley
11/25/08

@Gann: I read Hawking's book and the Dancing Wu Li Masters and while still a layman, to be fair, quantum theory is really obscure right now. No one really knows "what" they are describing.

That said, Men in Black 2 sucks. Its like they forgot they made a first one when they made the sequel. Are you talking about the galaxy on orion's belt from MB 1?

Anyway, if there are an infinite number of parallel universes (universi?) that would mean there is no free will. I call shenanigans.
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@Optimus-Prime: How are you certain there is free will? Regardless, how would having an infinite number of parallel universes mean there is no free will?
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Gann
11/25/08

@Optimus-Prime: One of the central concepts of quantum theory is uncertainty of observation. smarter people than I have warned against assuming these rules based on the limits of our perception apply also to reality itself.
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lpranal
11/25/08

@Rabid Penguin: Because every "choice" is really just following the predestined path of a given universe, carving a path of "choices" through an infinite sea of universes.

At this stage in our understanding of quantum theory and relative infancy of string theory, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of middle ground between the many worlds theory (all possibilities actual) and the quantum-field interpretation (that many worlds is just a misinterpretation of the probabilities in quantum fields). It seems like it's all or nothing, except in Michio Kaku's parallel worlds, he presents that space time is "foamy" and while there may be universes created and collapsed all the time, our universe is actually quite rare in that it's very stable, whereas most other universes collapse almost instantaneously, and that quantum theory doesn't necessitate that every quantum event necessarily creates a new, nearly-identical universe, but it's possible.
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@lpranal: Just because a choice that is made is known ahead of time doesn't mean there still wasn't a choice.
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ripfire
11/25/08

@Optimus-Prime: Actually, having infinite number of parallel universes doesn't necessarily take away free will. After all, our perception only exist in one universe. You can't have them all.
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ripfire
11/25/08

@Rabid Penguin: If that were the case, then making a choice is simply just a ritual where in you really don't have control of your own fate. It's like watching a snow globe falling to the ground. You know that once it hits the ground, it will shatter make a mess and you really don't want that to happen. You can yell out to warn someone to catch it or attempt to catch it yourself, but to no avail, that snowglobe will hit the ground. One would say 'You just didn't have any choice'.
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Kaiser-Machead
11/25/08

@Optimus-Prime: It seems that you are also a puppet, but a puppet that sees the strings.
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SGlick1980
11/25/08

@Rabid Penguin: Hmmm... I'll take a shot at this.

Let me setup some simple rules:

2. All events have two possible outcomes/decisions, % and &.

1. Every outcome/decision creates a new parallel universe

3. If you were to visualize these splits the universe of origin % would continue in a straight line and & would veer off the the right.

If you wanted to continue in a straight line and remain in universe % you would need to select the decision that continues in a straight line. Any fluctuation would move you into universe &. Therefore, there's no free will within any one universe.
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@SGlick1980: That's an interesting way of putting it, and makes sense. What would happen if I could create a portal and travel between these universes, like the tv show sliders?

Honestly, I don't think there are alternate universes.
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Rabid Penguin
11/25/08

@Rabid Penguin: Your simple rules are out of order though. 2 comes after 1... unless by putting the numbers out of order we moved into an & dimension where 2 DOES come before 1... in which case I'm even more confused.
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