a convenient truth

My arse.  via mefi.

Few people here in the UK recognise that the British press is one of the worst in the western world. Most countries have some bad newspapers, but only in Britain can we boast a press where the vast majority of the press lie as a matter of course.

These thoughts were prompted by this really quite funny list of claims in the British press about what the EU intends to do. What’s scary about this is how many of these stories have absolutely no basis whatsoever in anything. Some hack was just sat at their desk and thought “crap, I have to get a story in… I know I’ll just make something up!”.

Similar to the Pantone Mugs that have got everyone so excited, here’s some nice mugs from Suck UK that help you decide what colour to have your tea.

via BoingBoing.

Everybody gets bouts of existential angst, and each generation seems to invent it’s own. For the last few generations the focus of that fear was mostly Mutually Assured Destruction by nuke. Now the environment seems a worthy subject to fret about.

There is a bigger subject to worry about though, if you feel you lack sufficient angst. It’s a little theoretical and geeky, but what the hell.

It’s called the Fermi Paradox. Over lunch in 1950 one day the physicist Enrico Fermi was discussing the lack of evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations with colleagues. At one point he asked “Where is everybody?“. This has come to be known as the Fermi Paradox. Become an important physicist and even random lunchtime rants become Capitalized.

Initially it was thought of as a pretty silly question, but over the years it has gained in significance. We have gathered a vast amount of evidence about the universe and two things seem pretty clear:

1. Intelligent life ought to be everywhere. We’ve got a vast, ancient universe full of niches that could occupy intelligent life.
2. We can’t find any

So. Where the hell are they? There are a whole bunch of possible explanations, although obviously we can’t know which is true. The reason for the angst is that few of the explanations are very nice.

Here’s a selection:

God: God exists. He created the universe specifically for mankind for ineffable reasons of his own. We are the pawns of an omnipotent and omniscient being whose purpose we cannot even guess, and He chose not to create extraterrestrials. The stars may not even be real, but just painted on the inside of the Heavenly Firmament. Even death may be no escape from His grasp.

The Simulation Argument: Computers will continue to gain in power until it is easy to run an entire simulation of a planet, at a detail sufficient to provide consciousness (or the illusion of it) to parts of the simulation. In such a world, may millions of organisations may choose to run simulations for their own purpose. In this world, the odds against us being in the real universe are pretty slim - in fact this is almost certainly a sim. c.f. God.

The Weak Anthropic Principle: Actually, for some reason we don’t know, intelligent life is vanishingly unlikely. The vast majority of possible universes are sterile spaces, vast orrerys unpolluted by life. Ours would be, except we happen to be here to observe it which is purely chance - after all, we have to be here to observe it.

Life is hard: Many many intelligent lifeforms have approached civilization only to be destroyed. The combination of resource usage and the advent of mass death weapons proves too challenging for almost all life, and they die out. We too will probably become extinct through our own actions.

Ascendency: There is a spiritual element to the universe unknown by the majority of us. Intelligent life is rife, but with awareness of this spiritual sphere they have ascended there to dwell in whatever marvels it provides.

Singularity: We are approaching a point of technological singularity where the rate of change becomes asymptotic and ‘takes off’. At this point we can make no predictions beyond the singularity. Every intelligent civilization reaches this point, and we cannot know what happens next.

Resource extinction: There have been starfaring civilizations, however competition for resource is intense and few have survived. Most solar systems are surrounded by the looted wrecks of planets. They haven’t reached us yet, but when they do we will be obliterated.

Upload society: The technology required to run a sentient being on different hardware turns out to be pretty easy. By uploading yourself to virtual communities you gain immortality and massive control over your environment. As resources dwindle this becomes the default choice. There are vast numbers of intelligent civilizations, but they are resident in nanoscale computers, living complex and ineffable lives that we cannot perceive.

They are hiding: They know we are here, and are watching us. For their own reasons they are hiding, perhaps in collusion with shadowy terrestrial government agents.

I am sure there are some more I’ve missed too, probably including the real explanation. It could of course be a mixture of all of them. All of those explanations send a shiver down my spine though, although some seem nicer than others.

I have intended to blog about these things for ages, but am always too busy at work.  Since the kids thoughtfully got me up early this morning, I can blog.

First up, War Stories by UNKLE:  utterly unexpected (by me at least), you’d never guess this was the James Lavelle who played Tribal Gathering.  Some fantastically well produced and diverse rock, with guest vocals from Ian Astbury and the outstanding Gavin Clark.

Next, The Religion by Tim Willocks: a rollicking yarn based around the Muslim siege of Malta, defended by the Knights of St John.  Written with a good eye for detail and a pretty brutal assessment of the qualities of the opposing sides, and some excellent characters.

Then, Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge: near-future science fiction with Vinge’s remarkable perceptiveness about both people and technology, with a really original take on the current politics of technology.  Worth reading to get a glimpse of a real possible future, something that seems to be getting harder and harder.

Finally, Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible: truly one of the best recipe books of all time.  We destroyed our first copy by spilling stuff on it while cooking, so got another copy immediately.  Try the divine Coriander Chicken and the toothsome Vietnamese Pork.  I swear everything you make out of this book will become a regular dish.