Monday, October 10, 2005





Rudy Rucker goes deep:

Timing Channel Attack on the Computational Ultrastructure of Spacetime

Encryption isn't an obviously relevant notion for exploring the computational ultrastructure of spacetime, and still less does it open an obvious travel route to the world's deeper levels. How could the side channel attack give you information about the structure of the subfab? How could it help you get there?

Suppose you slavishly encrypt your body just like a silf does and then hope that it simply happens that you'll then trickle down into some cracky-crack of spacetime. We won't do this so crudely, though, we won't turn ourselves into, like, radio waves as they did in The Fly. What we're gonna [d]o is quantum-tunnel from a material body to an aethereal body.


Rucker has captured the essential aspects of the ufological cosmologies of Jacques Vallee and John Keel. If our reality is a computation, visitors from "elsewhere" may hail from embedded computations; slipping back and forth could be absurdly simple and completely do away with the need for "nuts and bolts" spacecraft. When abductees describe weird landscapes and the interiors of otherworldly vehicles, they may be reporting on the conditions of some neighboring encrypted cosmos.

Maybe the "aliens" are hackers intent on tweaking code in our universe for reasons we might not appreciate (assuming we could comprehend them). Perhaps our reality is a transcelestial data haven. Or an artificial life laboratory. Or even a vacation spot for weary travelers.

If ufology is nothing more than a contemporary demonology, couched in the technological vocabulary of our time, then the Information Age may provide us with the conceptual tools to understand -- if roughly -- what the "demons" are up to.

10 comments:

JEFM said...

Oh crap, this is good ... very good.

Jon

JEFM said...

Oh crap, this is good ... very good.

Jon

W.M. Bear said...

I brought this back:

Transforming or encrypting yourself with the silfs’ process gives you an “aethereal body” which is, let us say, a congeries of subtle dark energy vortices. Catch: due to the quantum mechanical no-cloning theorem, you can have a material body or an aethereal body, but not both at the same time. So the first person who encrypts into aethereal form is taking a big chance.

Actually, in occultism, you CAN have both an "aetherial body" and a physical body. Does this mean that the occultist's "astral travel" is non "quantum"?

I really, really like the idea that the material universe is "realy" some kind of computational encoding, the result of a "program" running if you will. The only part that troubles me (and it troubles me a lot) is this. On what hardware is the program that maintains/displays(?) our material universe "running"? I suppose that is Rudy's "subfab" but here we're in danger of infinite regress. Is the subfab a universe like ours?

Speaking of occultism, it seems to me that the system of Kabbalah has already worked out a lot of this structure for this basic concept -- minus, of course, the computational analogy/extended metaphor/whatever.

KennyJC said...

Who cares... Nothing is possible...

Cap'n Marrrrk said...

Have you ever read: The Reality Matrix>

W.M. Bear said...

I have to admit the review ("the characters didn't come to life") didn't make me exactly eager to plunk down a chunk of my Amazon.com gift certificate but I'll take it under advisement.

sauceruney said...

amazing

Ken said...

..."Catch: due to the quantum mechanical no-cloning theorem, you can have a material body or an aethereal body, but not both at the same time. So the first person who encrypts into aethereal form is taking a big chance."...

So, uhh, maybe we do this every time we die? And get born? Would this not support the concept of a soul, and "eternal life", reincarnation, etc? Or a some kind of reasonable facsimile thereof?

So, if this actually IS a computer simulation, created by Super Intelligent Beings, then what are THEY, and where did THEIR universe come from? Does this possibility lead to the ultimate, final core of reality, its actual origin, or take us into an infinitely unending vortex of universes? Would it matter? Which would be the "Real"? Would there even BE one? Would THAT matter? Is our "God" a pimply-faced, adolescent S.I.B., and we a good science fair project? Aiyyy. *sigh* Don't know what to think, I don't. :-?

I swear, the more that the very little I understand about Cosmology and Quantum Physics increases, the more parallells I see between Science and several concepts of Religion. Primarily in core (not popularized) Hinduism, and Buddhism, Zen, Tao, Native American concepts, etc.

So, anyway, I copied and saved Rudy's thoughts, will reread, and will sleep on them a few nights. Let the subconscious chew on it, don't 'cha know? Until then, I have nothing intelligent to say. D'oh! :-D

These are the sorts of concepts and questions that keep me awake at night. Thanks

metachor said...

Speaking of occultism, it seems to me that the system of Kabbalah has already worked out a lot of this structure for this basic concept -- minus, of course, the computational analogy/extended metaphor/whatever.

The Quantum Gods: The Origin and Nature of Matter and Consciousness utilizes alternative approaches to Qabalah and quantum physics to explain the nature of reality in a manner resonant with the computational/simulation model of the universe.

W.M. Bear said...

There is the "K" Kabbalah and the "Q" Qabalah (more appropriate, I suppose, to Quantum Reality). Anyway, Metachor, thanks for the suggestion. I just put it on my list. Looks interesting, to say the least.