Spring at last.

The few Ravens that we have up in the Scots Pines on the nearby hill have started making funny noises; less raucous crawking, more gentle cooing, hopefully they’re making more Ravens.

As the autumnal Mandrakes at Chateaux Chaos spring into inactivity by shedding their foliage and going to sleep for summer, the pond receives an influx of amphibian guests, toads, frogs, and newts. Herewith a menage a trois of frogs. I later saw six males clamped onto that female. The following day I saw her pale and dead at the bottom of the pond. She has left a mass of spawn, but her tadpoles will face the dragonfly larvae lurking in the depths.

Counterfactual Indefiniteness.

Einstein famously asked if the Moon continues to exist when nobody looks at it.

I can now answer this with a (heavily qualified*) Not Necessarily.

An interesting example of this strangeness cropped up during some collaboration with a terrestrial correspondent upon Hypersphere Cosmology.

If cosmological redshift depends only on distance, then it has to remain indeterminate until measured.

See the graph below in which observed frequency (blue) decreases with distance travelled across the universe. This leads to an asymptotically increasing redshift of wavelength (red).

Note that as frequency decreases directly with distance travelled f_o = f_e (1-(d/L)) see: -

https://www.specularium.org/component/k2/item/322-equation-6

We cannot define what frequency a photon ‘would have’ at any point on a journey between two points, we can only calculate and confirm by measurement what frequency the photon has when we actually observe it. This means that the ‘counter-factual’ - the frequency that we do not observe, cannot have a definite but unknown value.

To take a simple example with rough figures: -

In Hypersphere Cosmology the antipode to any observer in the universe lies almost exactly 4 Gigaparsecs away, (1.23 E26 metres, 13 billion light years).

Imagine two distant galaxies ‘A’ at 2 Gigaparsecs, and ‘B’ at 1 Gigaparsec distant from an observer, with both laying roughly in the same direction. Light from A will have lost half of its frequency when it arrives at the observer. Light from B will have lost a quarter of its frequency when it arrives at the observer. This all accords with calculation and observation.

If we stopped the light from A at B, then we would find that it had lost a quarter of its frequency.

But what about the light from A as it flies unobserved past B? We cannot assign any value to its frequency that remains commensurate with the loss of a quarter of its frequency per Gigaparsec and a half of its frequency over 2 Gigaparsecs!

Plainly we have a quantum effect at play here. The frequency does not become defined until we stop the light and measure it, or equivalently it hits something and acquires a definite value.

Of all the interpretations of quantum mechanics, only Cramer’s Transactional Interpretation seems to offer a ‘reasonable’ or visualisable account of how this can happen. In this interpretation, retro causal advanced waves have to complete a quantum handshake across spacetime in any emission-absorption event before it acquires a definite value.

If, as in standard cosmology, the cosmological redshift arises from recession velocity in an expanding universe, then it can have a classical explanation that preserves the idea of a definite state of the unmeasured light at any point along its path.

I suspect that recession velocity and hence the expanding universe model became selected precisely because it preserved a classical description for cosmological redshift.

The orthodox standard cosmological model, the LCDM Big Bang theory, remains purely classical and relativistic. Hypersphere Cosmology, at least in respect to cosmological redshift, incorporates both General Relativistic and Quantum Mechanical perspectives.

Counterfactual Indefiniteness has interesting metaphysical implications. Does the mind have a definite state when it does nothing for example? Anyone for Zen?

*We can assume that the Moon may continue to exist in some definite form when we don’t look at it, but only because of the zillions of quanta there interacting with each other and with the rest of the universe tend to keep it in a fairly definite form on the macroscopic scale.

Nyarlathotep – Aiwass.

It now seems generally accepted that the alien entity Nyarlathotep posing as Aiwass inspired Aleister Crowley to write the abominable Book of the Law and to found a cult based on slavish obedience to its spittle flecked rantings. Many other messiahs, prophets, ideologues, and demagogues seem to have drunk from the same source in search of power. Nyarlathotep also finds amusement in provoking sentient creatures to explore all manner of antinomian scientific, technical, and political extremes. It expects us to either learn from our mistakes or to destroy ourselves, and it remains indifferent to the outcome, as H P Lovecraft realised.

The universe contains countless sentient species, some will transcend themselves, some will auto-destruct. Nyarlathotep enjoys stirring them to do either, it wears many masks. Sometimes it takes an occultist to see through the metaphors within the metaphors.

AC fell for it. HPL saw through it.

Politics.

Despite the diplomatic niceties, President-Dictator Xi of China has visited Putin in Moscow with the air of a man inspecting the goods on offer in a fire sale. Plainly he sees no prospect of Putin winning the war and will not send him any armaments. Plainly Xi looks forward to heavily discounted fuel from Russia. Xi probably contemplates the prospect of exporting the full panoply of the technology of repression to Russia. Plainly he must now contemplate what sort of new regime in Russia he will soon find himself dealing with.

Putin runs out of friends, only fear motivates his remaining associates. Keep those conjurations coming: -  https://www.specularium.org/blog/item/349-putin-s-war

Scottish Independence RIP. The election of Humza Yousaf as SNP leader probably represents the final nail in the coffin of the secessionist movement. Hurrah! The Scottish secessionist movement stands revealed as an economically illiterate project led by careerist political incompetents, and now even the ethnic tartan romanticism has gone.

ChatGPT.

Despite occasional outbreaks of Artificial Stupidity, ChatGPT can apparently compose poems and essays that can fool university professors.  It only seems a matter of time and computational power before we iron out the issues of humour and nuance.

I intend to feed an AI with all my works, let it absorb my style and ideas, and then sit back and enjoy all the books I haven't had time to write, and collect the royalties.

The royalties will fund an immortal AI version of myself to comfort my relatives and engage my readers after I die.

But until further notice these blogs will continue to originate from the Meatware version of myselves.

FSW4-AD 2222. Humans have spread to surrounding star systems. Following squabbles insurrections and skirmishes, humanity has split into 5 ideological factions. The treaty of 2220 established the militarisation of occupied systems only and the de-militarisation of unoccupied systems and space areas. Peace ensued for two years until factions started building transportable fortresses and a technologically advanced alien race began moving into unoccupied systems and space areas and sought to forge alliances with various of the human factions. Conflicts over systems and control space areas then ensued.

SHIP                      DICE                                    COST               

Fortress                  20                                          6                      

Hive                        20                                         4

Battleship                12                                         6

Serpent                  12                                         4

Battlecruiser           10                                         5                                          

Cruiser/Carriers       8                                         4                             

Destroyer                 6                                         3                                                                

Frigate                     4                                          2

Fighter                     4                                         1(Imperials only)

SURFACE UNITS            

Garganaught           8                                        3

Scorpion                8                                        2               

Devastator               6                                       2

Reaper                    4                                       1

1) Turn sequence. Income, Production, Movements & Combats.

2) Income of (5), 4, 3, 2, depending on system size. Income from any home system not occupied by enemy units, income from any other system occupied by own surface units.

3) Production only on systems where a fortress has been planted. Income units can only move across uncontested (connected) pathways of any length. Ships appear in neighbouring uncontested space. Surface unit appear on systems.

4) Movements & Combats.

A) Ships may move from one area of space to an adjacent one. (Imperial Fighters can only move from one area of space to another in Carriers.) If it contains enemy ships, Combat will occur. The attacking side can elect to retreat to the space it came from, and the defending side can elect to retreat to any friendly occupied or unoccupied space at the beginning of any combat round after the first.

B) Ships may fire on surface units in systems adjacent to the space they occupy. Combat occurs at the discretion of the attacking ships.

C)  Ships may convey surface units between any two systems that border the space they occupy. Surface units may only be moved across one space area to another system in a turn. If surface units land on a system occupied by enemy surface units or fortresses Combat occurs.

D) A fortress may land on a system not occupied by enemy forces, and assimilate its carrier.

5) Combat. Risk Protocols. Up to 3Attack dice against 2Defence dice. by combat rounds, highest dice against highest dice, defenders win draws. Casualties at the discretion of each combatant.

6) The number of pieces of each type supplied reflects the limits of units of that type that a civilisation can support.

7) Initial Production Levels. Imperials 24, Aquarians 22, Chaoists 21, Darwinians 22, Soviets 22. No production on first move.

8) Fortresses. All civilisations start with one immobile Fortress on their largest world, and one fortress in a carrier in a space adjacent to the homeworld. Civilisations may purchase additional Fortresses and Carriers to transport them to other systems. A Fortress only becomes operational when landed on a system empty of opposing assets and its Carrier has become assimilated and removed from the display. Fortresses can only defend and only when not in a Carrier. If attacked in a carrier only the carrier defends.

9) Starting Conditions - Humans. 1 Fortress on homeworld, one next to it in space, all Cruisers, Destroyers, and Frigates deployed at will on any space territories adjacent to at least two home systems.

Reapers equal in number to the production values of all home systems on those systems.   

10) Victory Objectives, conquest of as many systems as possible.

ALIENS. Special rules.

2) Income. From any system occupied by a Hive or Scorpion.

3) Production. At any system occupied by a Hive. (If connected)

Mutations: (performed during production phase) Scorpion to Hive cost 2. Scorpion to Serpent cost 1. Serpent to Hive not possible. Free mutations, Hive to Scorpion, Serpent to Scorpion, Hive to Serpent.

9) Starting Conditions. 1 Hive, 8 Serpents, 8 Scorpions, placed on any un-militarised treaty spaces or systems.

ALLIANCES. 2 Player. Aliens pick any two allies but not Imperials, by picking an ideology to back. The Imperials then ally with the other two factions. Aliens then set up and move first. Play order then established by lot and proceeds clockwise or anticlockwise by lot. Allied ships but not surface forces may occupy the same areas.

The following chart shows the ideological relationships of the five factions. The Aliens can pretend to any ideology to select a pair of allies. The Imperials will adjust their ideology to suit the allies they become left with.

                       (Individualist)

                                  l

         Goths               l              Capitalists

                                  l

(Mystical) ---------Imperials ------------(Rationalist)

                                  l                     

         Aquarians       l                 Soviets

                                  l

                         (Collectivist)

Additional optional tournament rules.

Tactical Attack dice bonus. D4+1, D6+2, D8+3, D10+3, D12+4.

Tactical Defence dice bonus. D4+1, D6+2, D8+3, D10+3, D12+4, D20+5.

Psychic Attack Bonus. Throw all attack dice twice, use highest score.

Psychic Defence Bonus. Throw all attack dice twice, use highest score.

Production bonuses. Add 1 or 2 to the income value of any system.

Leader and Character pieces can be added to the game to add these powers to any forces on a system or space area.