Mayblog 2021

Alternative? Physics. Muon Wobble.

The current excitement about a possible ‘fifth force’ responsible for the anomaly detected in the spin of the Muon particle may arise from a small interaction with the field associated with the X17 Boson.

The X17 boson remains unconfirmed but suspected from observations of the decay of Beryllium 8 where a putative boson of about 17 MeV decays to an electron and a positron.

In terms of the model under construction at the Physics Department of Arcanorium College this new boson would have the following configuration: -

In this model the X17 has chiral spin 0 and electric spin 0, and like all bosons it has a particle/antiparticle configuration, (Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics). As such it does not really represent a new fundamental force but rather another member of the electroweak bosons, W-, W+, and Z. In effect it consists of a Z boson with both of its half integer chiral spins (grey) going in opposite directions to yield no overall spin.

The horizontal lines represent the spin along the wz axis where z corresponds to the direction of propagation. This model uses the idea of electron bi-spinors generated by non-isoclinic double rotations in four spatial dimensions.

Does this matter? In practical terms probably not, this rare particle seems to play only a miniscule role in the behaviour of reality, however in theoretical terms it may lend some support to hyperspherical models of quanta in extra dimensions, and perhaps eventually to a fuller understanding of exoteric and esoteric aspects of the universe.

Politics.

We have just had multiple elections in the UK, both for the Scottish and Welsh assemblies that have self-designated themselves as the ‘Governments’ of their respective ‘Nations’, plus a large swathe of local government elections and a Parliamentary by-election for one seat.

The English and Scottish wings of the Labour party have performed disastrously enough to raise existential questions about the Labour party. It has lost touch with its robustly illiberal working-class roots and become the preserve of metropolitan champagne socialists and ‘woke’ activists trying to make a power base by starting culture wars and stirring up grievances.

Personally, I have always cheered on Jeremy Corbyn and Kier Starmer, they seem perfectly suited to leading the opposition.

That the Labour party did well enough in Wales comes as no surprise. Over forty percent of the Welsh work for the state in this subsidised region and the Welsh Labour leader, a verbose and reassuringly avuncular old owl, managed to get himself on television just about every day throughout the covid crisis. The Welsh nationalist party did not do well. A majority of the Welsh supported Brexit and can see no point in refusing English generosity and getting into bed with the failing superstate of the EU.

The results from Scotland give cause for deep concern.

The Scottish Nationalist leader shared the same advantage as the Welsh leader during covid and made the most of her daily television appearances. This compensated for the votes she will undoubtedly have lost over her mishandling of the crisis surrounding her predecessor. It seems unbelievable that she did not know about his behaviour for years and bit her tongue for the sake of her own career until the time seemed right to turn on him. Mischievously lowering the voting age to 16 also helped to bolster the nationalist vote. Mature voters in Scotland tend to favour continued union.

Four percent of the population of the UK now apparently want to leave the UK taking thirty two percent of its territory and none of its national debt with them. That four percent represents only half of Scotland’s population, the other half do not wish to be deprived of British citizenship.

This sounds like a recipe for a Northern Ireland situation……….

The leader of the Scottish Nationalists plays an extremely dangerous and divisive game to advance her political career.

Seven hundred thousand people from Scotland live and/or work in the rest of the UK, and many more have family ties across the presently non-existent border. All concerned should get a vote in the unlikely event that the economically, politically, and geopolitically illiterate scheme for Scotland leaving the UK and joining the EU ever gets put to a referendum.

At present every British citizen has the right to live and work in Scotland and to identify themselves as Scottish. The UK government should make it clear from the outset that these rights cannot be given away without a referendum that involves all British citizens.

I regard Ross shire, Sussex, Inverness shire, Somerset, and Gower as all part of my country, non-negotiable, and worth fighting for if necessary.

All political careers end in failure. Nicola Sturgeon would end up with her head on a pike after the implosion of an unviable Scottish state. The best she can hope for is to extract ever more subsidies and autonomy from Westminster and to eventually retire quietly to some beautiful part of a Scotland that stays British and free of Brussels.

Frontier Space War 2. Multiplayer or Solitaire.

Outline. This strategy game models a possible future in which various groups have colonised the nearest habitable star systems and then started to dispute territory, economics, ideology, and alliances. It can accommodate up to five players or alternatively a single player can play each faction in turn to evolve a narrative and perhaps put names to all the star systems and major warships.

The structure of the game can support a variety of backstories. Backstory ‘A’ relates a geopolitical expansion of various human factions into space. Alternative backstories appear at the end.    

Backstory A. In AD 2050 humans discover a warp-drive mechanism that can enable ships to travel to star systems within 20 light years in about 3 months. This fortuitous discovery came at a time when ecological, climatic, population, and political crises on Earth had almost reached breaking point. European backed missions settled large numbers of people on habitable planets in six nearby star systems forming what became known as the Terran Sphere governed according to Synarchist principles by a vast self-perpetuating bureaucracy.   

Over the following decades various factions dissatisfied with the philosophy and politics of the Terran Sphere of seven worlds ventured further into space to colonise other worlds.

Eurasian backed colonists established Vostok on Soviet Neo-Communist principles where hierarchies of endless committees decide everything.

Colonists backed by the Americas established Kalifornia on Darwinian and Capitalist principles where wealth and power and a certain amount of democracy decides everything.

Various mystically and religiously inclined groups, particularly the New-Age-Ecumenicists backed the establishment of Nirvana which operates as an Aquarian Theocracy run by those considered the most enlightened.

Exactly who initially conspired to back the establishment of R’lyeh remains a matter of ongoing debate, but it attracted a mixed consortium of misfits, occultists, illuminati, anarchists, rebels, devils, and chaoists who eventually settled for the collective name of Goths. R’lyeh operates as a Magiocracy run by those considered to have the most magical charisma by popular acclaim.

Within a century the four splinter factions based on Vostok, Kalifornia, Nirvana, and R’lyeh colonised secondary systems in their vicinities and developed increasingly distinct cultures and slightly divergent technologies. Despite interstellar trade and commerce, tensions over resources and the control of unaligned worlds led first to the Treaty of Terra which recognised spheres of influence and neutral worlds, and then to its breakdown as diplomacy failed and factions started building warships and interstellar struggles began.

The conflict plays out with each faction using limited numbers of huge and expensive vessels. Factions can also employ specialised command vessels denoted as Flagships which add to the combat capabilities of flotillas of ships and which factions can exchange in alliances. Some backstories attribute the enhancements conferred by flagships to AI computers, others to genetically enhanced human capabilities.

Factions.      Philosophy     Colour         Capital World      Flagship AI Capability

Imperials      Synarchists     Silver          Terra                    Tactical Attack and Defence

Soviets         Communists    Red             Vostok                 Tactical Defence

Capitalists    Darwinians     Bronze        Kalifornia             Tactical Attack

Aquarians     Mystics          Green           Nirvana                Psychic Defence

Goths           Occultists        Purple          R’lyeh                  Psychic Attack

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

                       Individualist

                                  l

                                  l

       (Goths)               l              (Capitalists)

                                  l

                                  l

Magical -----------------(Imperials)----- Rationalist

                                  l

                                  l

      (Aquarians)         l               (Soviets)

                                  l

                                  l

                         Collectivist

Types of Vessel.

Cost   Type                                                                    Dice             Number available/Faction

5       Fortress                                                           – Icosahedron D20.           4 (all)

5       Battleship                                                       – Dodecahedron D12         2 (1A, 4I)

4       B-Cruiser/H-Cruiser/P-Battleship/Monitor.  – Octahedron D8         (2G, 2A, 2C, 2S)

3       Cruiser (Frigate/Fortress Carrier).                 – Cube D6                           4 (6I) 2I 1

2       Destroyer                                                       – Tetrahedron D4                6 (all)

1      Frigate                                                            – Tetrahedron D4                 (10I)                                            

5      Flagship                                                           – Tetrahedron D4               3 (4I)

Star systems have production values 1, or 2, or 3, or (5, Earth), shown by relative size.

Sequential turns. Throw for first turn.

1) Count production from all occupied systems. Purchase extra vessels if possible and place at a Fortress. If no Fortress, purchase one if possible and place on a home system. Factions may store unused production as markers at a Fortress. The number of ship pieces provided reflects the maximum that a faction can maintain.

* Occupied means either a system held by a ship or fortress or a home territory not occupied by a rival.

2) Move any number of vessels from any star system to any adjoining one connected by a jump route. Frigates and Fortresses can only move if carried in a Frigate or Fortress carrier.

3) Black holes act as long-range jump ports, 1 turn to move directly from one to any other one.

4) Settle any conflicts arising. Risk protocols – up to 3 attack dice against up to 2 defence dice. Players may advance chosen ships into a round of combat in a concealed fashion and then mutually reveal them if desired.

Flagships. Act as combat modifiers to a whole flotilla, (all of a Faction’s vessels at a system).

Tactical AI, Supercomputer using massive parallel calculation. Attack or Defence.

Dice                          Tetrahedron   Cube   Octahedron     Dodecahedron     Icosahedron

Attack or Defence          +1              +2           +3                      +4                       +5

Psychic AI, Quantum computers with a mysterious degree of prescience. Attack or Defence. Roll each dice thrice. Use the highest of 3 rolls.

Initial dispositions, numbers and production values of star systems, and total.

7 Imperials     53 222 11 (16)

8 Aquarians    3 2 111111 (11)

6 Goths           3 22 111 (10)

8 Capitalists   3 22 11111 (12)

8 Soviets        3 22 11111 (12)   

14 Neutrals    222 11111111111 (17)         (Total systems, 51)

Combat Resolution, in each round attacker and defender must put forward at least one piece.

Attacker puts forward up to 3 units. Defender puts forward up to 2 units. Roll appropriate dice. (Adjust for flagships if present.) Pair off dice, attacker highest against defender highest, defender second highest against defender second highest, to determine casualty numbers, defender wins draws. Each side removes the appropriate number of casualties at will, (irrespective of the ship’s dice scores).

Flagships do not need to participate in a round of combat to lend their enhancement to all vessels (including themselves) in a flotilla. A flotilla can only use one flagship to enhance it.

Rounds of combat continue until either all attacking, or all defending forces become eliminated. Or by mutual agreement participants can decline combat. Any non-home territory with more than one faction occupying it does not contribute production.

Treaties.

Any Faction may send a Flagship to assist an allied Faction. It then acts under the control of the receiving Faction. However, the Faction which gave it retains two options: -

a) In its own turn the donating Faction can reclaim it and order it to move.

b) At any point during combat involving the Flagship, the donating Faction can order it to change sides.

Special heavy vessels, dice modifications: -

(Aquarians) Dreadnought – D20 attack or defence, cost 6. (Instead of a second battleship.)

(Aquarians) Heavy Cruiser - D12 defence

(Capitalists) Pocket Battleship, (Goths) Battlecruiser - D12 attack

(Soviets) Monitor – D20 attack, D4 defence.

(All) Fortress in Carrier – D20 in attack or defence. Fortress Carriers can be scrapped to allow rebuilding elsewhere.

Starting Positions.

Each Faction places a Fortress at their capital, and one turns worth of produced ships anywhere on their home-worlds. A second round then begins, and conflict can occur.

Ships may remain on black holes, but no production can occur there.

Victory Points. – Control of Earth +1. Control of another Faction’s Capitol +1. Loss of own Capital -1. Ending with more territory +1. Ending with less territory -1.

The Imperials start with more territory and productive capacity, but rival factions surround them. Alliances prove crucial to the outcome.

Alternative Backstories.

B, Alien Powers. The five factions represent Humans plus four other Alien species with advanced technology that all acquired interstellar capability at about the same time.

C, Neo-Feudalism. The factions represent the five ‘Great Houses’ that developed the biotech that gave them personal dominance over humanity and the ability to devise warp-drive. Flagships represent the personal command ships of senior family members and/or their clones.