specularium

Rebel Physics

Peter J. Carroll

Latest Blog Post

  • Junblog 2024

    Junblog 2024

    Holidays, family visits, seasonal horticulture and aquaculture at Chateaux Chaos, correspondence, and a couple of unfinished sculptures have consumed much of this month, so just a few thoughts on various matters: -

    Ontology and Fundamentals.

    Presently we only seem to have achieved Quantum Epistemology. We have formulae and mathematics which can predict what will most likely occur in the quantum domain apparently underlying reality. Whilst such formulae predict what measurements we will probably get, they give us no adequate words or pictures to describe what ‘really’ goes on down there. The universe seems composed of phenomena which do not behave like ‘things’ at all.

    Can we even have an Ontology about anything truly fundamental? Perhaps human language prevents this if it remains confined to the ‘Subject, Verb, and Object’ grammar of thought.

    We cannot actually perceive ‘being’. We can only perceive doings, similarities, and differences. From these we abstract the convenient fiction that phenomena have some sort of underlying being separate from their observable doing. This perhaps creates a conceptual barrier to finding an ontology of anything fundamental.

    Can we have a better but Non-Fundamental Quantum Ontology? Atomic theory for example looks like an adequate but non-fundamental ontology, Nobody disputes that matter consists of atoms, the theory works so well that almost everyone accepts the ontological reality of atoms, but we account for their varying properties and doings in terms of their constituent protons, neutrons, and electrons. We no longer regard atoms as fundamental. Electrons along with photons and neutrinos still seen fundamental but protons and neutrons seem to have to have bits in them called quarks to account for their properties.

    If we do come to regard some quanta (or quantum fields) as fundamental, can we account for their activities in any meaningful way without ascribing both being and doing to them as the grammar of our thought seems to demand, without implying an unlimited causal regress?

    Cosmology News.                                                                           

    https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/JADES-GS-z14-0

    The James Webb Space Telescope has just spotted the most distant galaxy yet with a redshift of z = 14.32 which in terms of the standard LCDM cosmology model locates it at just 290 million years after a supposed big bang 13.4 billion years ago. That seems a remarkably brief period in cosmological terms for a substantial galaxy to form. The previously predicted cosmic dark age of about a billion years in duration before stars and galaxies formed and ignited has shrunk by at least two thirds. The JWST has the capacity to observe up to about z = 20, and astronomers now expect it to see galaxies all the way to the limits of its observation. In the Hypersphere Cosmology paradigm, a redshift of z =14.32 indicates a distance of 93.5% of the way to an antipode at 13 billion light years.

    https://www.specularium.org/hypersphere-cosmology

    The JWST does not have the power to spot galaxies all the way back to the fog of the CMBR and hence to falsify LCDM in favour of HC, but it certainly casts more doubt on the conventional standard model. Perhaps only very high power radio astronomy that can peek behind the CMBR and detect even more highly redshifted galactic light will confirm the Hypersphere Cosmology prediction that galaxies at all stages in their evolution exist at all points in space and time in a universe finite and unbounded in space and time.

    Data Request. Hypersphere Cosmology theory depends heavily on Perlmutter’s type 1A supernovae data, now more than 20 years old. A great many new observations of type 1A supernovae have become cited in recent astronomy papers. The release of the raw data into the public domain may take some time. If anyone can help me out with access to some of it in the meantime, I will remain eternally grateful. I just need the supernovae catalogue numbers, their redshifts, and their apparent magnitudes. Hopefully such data will help confirm the Hypersphere Cosmology model and allow for a more precise calculation of the antipode distance of the universe.

    I would particularly welcome data on type 1A supernovae with redshifts in excess of z = 0.8.

    Dark Matter Cancelled?

    This latest paper strongly supports a Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) explanation rather than a dark matter explanation for the observed galactic rotation curves.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240617173533.htm

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09685

    Whilst ‘straight’ MOND uses a rather ad-hoc modification to existing theories of gravity, Hypersphere Cosmology can account for precisely what causes the required modification, see: -

    https://www.specularium.org/hypersphere-cosmology/item/319-equation-9

    Politics. The Right and the Far Right have done well in many of the EU countries in the recent elections for the European Sham Parliament. The unelected EU executive and bureaucracy will simply ignore this warning result for as long as possible and try to bumble along with its own Synarchist agenda. Yet national elections within the EU nations will eventually give similar rightward results and then the real horse trading will begin and the next batch of Eurocrats may have to start taking the views of their constituents seriously.

    This rightward swing has many roots. Russia now threatens Europe militarily, America begins to tire of the expense of defending Europe. China threatens Europe economically and geopolitically. Globalisation has had a negative effect on all but the wealthiest in the developed world. The indigenous population of Europe generally fails to reproduce at replacement rate because only the relatively wealthy or the very poor can do so now without quite severe economic consequences. Strident social liberalism has provoked a backlash against the increasingly compulsory affirmation of an expanding range of identity disorders, sexual abnormalities,  and acquired victimhoods. Immigration benefits only those who wish to reduce labour costs and inflate property prices. The mass importation of cultures and religions with philosophies inimical to European values erodes social cohesion.

    Britain faces all these problems as well, and we will soon have a national general election which the Conservative party will probably lose badly. Yet this does not seem to imply an exceptionalist lurch to the left. The Labour party has hastily repositioned itself to the centre and an electorate exasperated with the incompetence and lack of real conservatism from the Conservative party will probably reluctantly chose Labour. Reform UK may well emerge from this election as the surviving custodian of British Conservative values. They do at least have an invigorating manifesto and they might even get to implement it following the election after this one.

    https://www.reformparty.uk/our-contract-contents

    Unfortunately, Reform’s environmental policies seem deeply unsound. All the main parties promise economic growth but that seems vanishingly unlikely to occur unless some massive source of cheap energy comes onstream now that the 20th century fossil fuelled boom winds down. Thus, they all tell porkies and choosing between them becomes a depressing task because you know they can only really offer redistribution, which for Labour means levelling down.

    Plus, the boardgame of Monopoly has led the UK disastrously astray. I love boardgames but I absolutely loathe the game of Monopoly for its tedium and its nonsensical economics. It has taught generations of Britons that property makes wealth better than enterprise does. Try playing it without the absurdity of collecting £200 every time you pass Go, for doing nothing.

    Written on Tuesday, 18 June 2024 20:07 in Blog Read 227 times

Latest Games Post

  • Frontier Space War 4.

    Frontier Space War, version 8.

    FSW8 represents the latest upgrade to this interstellar conflict system. I have used some high quality metallic spray paints on the card discs showing the star systems and the all-metal ships made out of nuts and bolts, ball bearings, plumbing fittings, masonry and plaster anchors, and some two-part epoxy resin as adhesive.

    The five factions here represent: -

    Imperials (I), Aquarians (A), Goths (G), Capitalists (C), Soviets (S).

    Yet they can represent anything from Neo-Feudal Noble Houses to a variety of Alien Races.

    The combat powers of units in attack A or defence D, appear as the type of dice used for such attacks or defences. Icosahedron 20, Dodecahedron 12, Pentagonal bipyramid 10, Octahedron 8, Cube 6, Tetrahedron 4. The system requires 3 sets of attack dice and two of defence dice.

    b/3 means best of 3 dice rolls. (1/tn) means only one shot per player turn. (8*) means Destroyers engaged in rounds of combat with  Capital Ships denoted *, attack or defend at 8. # means craft may jump past enemy craft during movement, but not enemy # craft, otherise all other pieces must halt on encountering enemy pieces.

     

    Unit.                        ATTACK    DEFENCE            COST     MOVE    

    Capital City*                  -                  20                          -               0

    Fortress*                         -                  20                         5               1 NR       

    Battleship*                    12                 12                         5               2                              

    Battlecruiser*               10                 10                         4               2                                               

    Cruiser/Carrier             8                    8                         3              3#                               

    Destroyer                       6     (8*)        6                          2              3#                                              

    Frigate                           4                    4                          1              3#             

    Fort                                -                     4                          -               0

    Monitor*                       4                   20                         3               1 NR

    Devastator(I)                12   (1/tn)     4                           2               3                    

    Fighter(I)                       6                   6                         1/3              01     

    Attack Cruiser(G)        10                  6                          3               3

    Heavy Gunship*(ACS) 20                 4                          5               2                           

    Katusha (S)           b/3   10  (1/tn)       6                         2               3

    Flagships*  as below

    (I)(S) As for Battleship, but attack at 20 and add  +1 to all dice in flotilla A or D.

    (C) As for Battleship, but may deploy its 2 fighters in addition to standard attack or defence 3:2 lineup.             

    (G) As for Battleship, but b/3 to self and one other ship in flotilla, A or D.

    (A) As for Destroyer, but b/3 to self and two other ships in flotilla, A or D.

    All worlds must be occupied by a Fort for income. Any Fortress can produce units up to a total cost of 5 per turn. Unused income cannot be saved.  Any ship costing 3 or more may place a Fort on a world cleared of opposing forces at no cost.

    Player turn: - INCOME(connected systems), PRODUCTION(at Fortresses), MOVEMENT, COMBAT(retreat, out of combat), (PLACE FORTS)

    COMBAT – Risk Protocols, up to 3 Attack dice and 2 Defence dice. Attacker deploys first in each round, up to 3 pieces if available, defender deploys second, must place 2 pieces if available. Compare highest two dice throws in order, defender wins draws. Each side removes one casualty of choice for each loss. After one or more rounds of combat either side may elect to retreat 1 jump from the territory, if possible. NR means no retreat option for unit.

    01 Fighters can only move in Carriers. Only one active producing fortress per system.

    Start – 2 Player game - All pieces on board, at least one ship and a fort per system. Imperials pick 1 ally. Remaining 3 factions ally as Rebels. Alternate All Imperials then All Rebels. Combined ops in attack or defence.

    3 Player game. Imperials versus 2 alliances of 2 others. No combined operations.

    4 Player game. Imperials inactive due to internal collapse, no production, or movement, defence only. 4 other factions fight for supremacy.

    5 Player game. All five factions strive for supremacy. Alliances may form and break but no combined operations except for conquered factions.

    Victory Conditions. Eliminate enemy Capitals. Any remaining forces then become subsumed into an alliance with combined operations.

    Income from star systems, Large 3, Medium 2, Small 1.    

    Starting incomes. (I) 19   (A) 15   (G) 15   (C) 16   (S) 14

    Optional extra:  Psi Weapon Tournament Rules.  

    Psi weapons run on strange esoteric, AI, and quantum principles to modify material and psychological realities. Factions may purchase them during their production phases at a cost denoted by C. Any faction may hold up to one of each type of the eight Psi weapons. The black and red Psi weapons can attack enemy Psi weapons (or other enemy units) at any distance with an attack denoted by A. All Psi weapons have a defence denoted by D. Any vessel may transport or hold a Psi weapon, but if all available vessels become destroyed, so does the weapon.

     

    Local effect weapons. (Within systems only.)

    (6) Yellow – Command Enhancement. Confers  +2, A or D on a Flotilla. C4 D6

    (8) Orange - Navigation – Allows all mobile vessels in a flotilla to move 3, ignoring # pickets. C5 D4

    (1) White – Prescience – Allows a vessel or flotilla to move and make an attack but to completely cancel the entire action if it fails, at the cost of the loss of the Psi weapon. Alternatively, an attacking flotilla with Prescience may require a defending flotilla without Prescience to deploy first in each combat round. C4 D6

    (7) Green - Diplomacy – Allows a flotilla to delay its move for a combined operation with another faction. C3 D8

     

    Non-Local effect weapons. (Effects anywhere.)

    (4)  Blue - Production Bonus -  increases production of fortresses to 8. C3 D6

    (2) Purple - Fecundity Bonus – increases income from all systems by 1. C5 D4

    (5) Red – Attack Magic - attack any Psi weapon. C3 A6 D6

    (3) Black – Dark Arts – attack any Psi weapon or may attack any unit. C5 A8 D8

     

    The following chart shows the ideological relationships of the five example factions.

                            

                           (Individualist)

                                      l

             Goths               l              Capitalists

                                      l

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

                                      l                     

             Aquarians       l                 Soviets

                                      l

                             (Collectivist)

     

     

    Written on Monday, 24 January 2022 13:51 in Games Read 7456 times

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