Philosophy Wire: Controlling unwanted states

While conventional computers use binary digits, or 0s and 1s, to encode information in transistors, quantum computers use subatomic particles or superconducting circuits known as transmons to encode that information as a qubit. This means that it is in a superposition of both 0 and 1 at the same time, allowing users to compute on different sequences of the same qubits simultaneously. Transmons can exist in a huge number of states: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. An ideal quantum computer only uses states 0 and 1, as well as superpositions of these, otherwise errors will emerge in the quantum computation. Researchers from the University of Warwick's Department of Physics developed a quantum computer program to detect the presence of 'leakage', where information being processed by a quantum computer escapes from the states of 0 and 1. [1]

Unwanted states.
Funny.
How can anything be limited to the things we want?
How can anything escape those limits if there are none?
Can the cosmos fit into a little box?
Can the cosmos escape a non-existent box?

We believe we found discrete states of the cosmos.
But the only thing we did…
Was to create specific discrete states in our mind.

The cosmos does not stop existing between quanta.
From second to second…
From number to number…
The cosmos is still there.

Even when you see nothing.
Start counting.

0ne…
Tw…

Wait a minute.
What is the next number of one?
Can you walk even a single step?

Funny.

The only way to reach the end of the cosmos is to stay where you are.
And just look carefully around you…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Be dumb! Be dumber!

Using a large dataset and controlling for a variety of factors, including sex, age, height, socioeconomic status, and genetic ancestry, scientists found that people with larger brains rated higher on measures of intelligence and educational attainment. Size was far from everything, however, explaining only about two percent of the variation in smarts. [1] We like to praise intelligence. And yet, what has intelligence ever done to reduce our ignorance? Any new answers just create more questions, which crave for more answers. Do you feel wise because you are answering anything? Try not answering anything. Try accepting the cosmos as it is. Letting the breeze of existence flow through you. And you will see that you are a complete idiot. Accepting that, would be the smartest thing you ever did…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Prejudiced AI.

Showing prejudice towards others does not require a high level of cognitive ability and could easily be exhibited by artificially intelligent machines, new research has suggested. [1] We believe that the more we know the more “freely” we think. We strive to increase our knowledge in order to be able to think more objectively and independently of any prejudice. And yet. Whatever we “know” hinders our ability to learn new things. Whatever we understand breaks the cosmos into non-existent pieces which can never come back together again. All prejudice is based on knowledge. Seek wisdom in children. They know nothing. And that is why they are not prejudiced at all in favor of knowledge…

Do you dare to go and play?

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Reducing noise.

Disruptive noise is almost everywhere, from people talking in the office corridor to road construction down the street to the neighbor's lawn mower. Researchers are looking to improve this noisy frustration. [1] In the beginning there was silence. And we could hear everything. Now there is just noise. And we can hear nothing. Try to cross the river. Then again. And again. Soon, you will not even notice the river. Soon, we will be blind. Just because we see everything… Soon we will drown. And we will not even notice the water…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Specializing… In nothing…

Find your passion' may not be the best advice after all: As the world becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, having diverse interests can help people make important connections across fields, such as between the arts and sciences. A new study suggests that one's belief about the nature of interests might prevent those insights from happening. [1] Every attempt to know something breaks it up into a million pieces. The only true knowledge is non-knowledge. Experience and accept. Never learn. The only way to understand is via understanding there is nothing to understand. Look at the whole. In a cosmos full of parts, it is the only thing which truly exists. Seek knowledge in everything. But without truly learning anything. Pour some tea please... But please, leave the cup empty…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Death. Destruction. Life.

After a giant asteroid hit Earth about 66 million years ago, the planet’s climate went on a roller coaster ride. The space rock’s impact set off tsunamis and wildfires before climate-chilling clouds of sulfur gas engulfed the planet for decades, wiping out most life (SN: 11/25/17, p. 14). [1] Logos as the destructor of Life. Words as the murderers of Truth. Stop reading. Death. Life. Destruction. Creation. Raw untamed processes. Raging fire in a raging cosmos. Events that can’t be put into a scientific paper. Nor can anyone just “read” about them. You must experience death to know it. You must experience life to comprehend its true desperation. You must experience creation and destruction to truly know yourself. Experience. And then be silent… Conveying the message… By conveying nothing…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Learning. Being flexible. (but not too much…)

Researchers have found tantalizing hints that the brains that learn best have networks that are flexible, able to rejigger connections on the fly to allow new knowledge in. Some brain regions always communicate with the same neural partners, rarely switching to others. But other brain regions exhibit more flexibility, quickly swapping who they’re talking with. In a few studies, researchers have witnessed this flexibility in action, watching networks reconfigure as people learn something while inside a brain scanner. Network flexibility may help several types of learning, though too much flexibility may be linked to disorders such as schizophrenia, studies suggest. [1] Don’t move. And you will learn nothing. Start being flexible and ignorance will give its place to knowledge. You will feel good for some time. You will need more. But more leads to nothingness again. The beginning was the end. The end is where you started from. Put down the apple. You were already full.

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Unexplainable activity…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-06-05]: Unexplainable activity in distant stars: Researcher pored through more than 10 years of existing Chandra X-ray Observatory data and found stars that repeatedly survive quick, massive surges in space energy. There are no such instances of this new class of explosive events in our galaxy, as stars are destroyed by similar conditions. [1]

We want to explain the cosmos.

And yet…

Everything is unexplained.
Everything is unknown.

And thus…

Everything is explained.
Everything is known…

A star is somewhere exploding silently. Can you hear it?

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…