Worthy Read: Free Will Or Reality - One Of These Is An Illusion

The cover story of the 18 June 2005 issue of New Scientist provides a thought-provoking perspective on free will and reality.

If Gisin's experiments can be trusted - and most physicists believe they can - and quantum theory is right, then basic logic says there is something fundamentally wrong with our view of the universe. It would be good news for quantum theory, but bad news for some of our deepest preconceptions about the nature of reality. "Either space-time is an illusion," Gisin says, "or free will is an illusion."

But it may be more profound still. There is a third option, favoured by several physicists who have looked at Gisin's work: that the laws of nature may somehow conspire to keep quantum theory's strangest predictions from ever coming true, and that understanding why may point physicists towards a deeper theory from which quantum rules emerge.

Click here to read the preview of the article Discovering the True Nature of Reality.

Posted by logan at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)

Heavenly Stem Earthly Branch

No...Heavenly Stem Earthly Branch is not the sequel to Ang Lee's highly acclaimed movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The Heavenly Stem and the Earthly Branch are actually the basic building blocks of the Chinese Calendar.

There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches. Combined together (1 Stem with 1 Branch), they form 60 permutations.

To find out more about the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches, you may check out this article on the Chinese Calendar System.

You may wonder why you should even bother to care about all these stems and branches.

There's a very good reason: Your birth year, month, day and time, when converted into a set of 4 permutations (of 1 Stem and 1 Branch), can be used to foretell your destiny.

Posted by at 02:16 AM | Comments (0)