News Briefs 04-01-2012

Quasicrystals were first described in the 1980s by Israeli researcher Daniel Schechtman, who was awarded last year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery.

Schechtman's ideas were initially treated with doubt or scorn by some of his peers, who thought the structures were "impossible".

Same old same old ;)

It was pleasing to my ears, and indeed my heart and soul, therefore, when I heard no other than Henry Markram suggesting in a video, that “The Universe may have evolved the brain to see itself, to become aware of itself”.

Now, it is perhaps a bit surprising to hear a modern-day top scientist speculate along such metaphysical lines, which left me thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if he himself would elaborate on this fascinating thought, which, to me, makes perfect sense. It certainly poses a lot of questions too, but if true, it would allow me to be just the kind of atheist I wish to be: A non-believer of Deities, but humble observant of the Universe’s apparent natural inclination towards self-awareness, towards progress, and, possibly, perfection?

What would that perfection entail? A perfect consciousness? Isn't that an attribute of *gasp* the Divine?

I think the problem is coming to term with those concepts from a very limited and fixed Time perspective. We could just assume, in a very counter-intuitive way, that in the far Future (from where we stand) the consciousness in the Universe attains this God-hood perfection, through slow and painful evolutionary processes. But from God's perspective, the Universe comes into being and slowly reaching to join Him/Her/It.

Because if consciousness is a natural property of the Universe, why should it be bound and limited by space/time?

Already there are many Cosmologists who find it easier to explain the history of the Universe by fixing the far Future as the starting point.

Oh man Perceval - that Pingu's The Thing thing's unbelievable!

Henceforth consider yourself SIR Perceval, Grail Knight, Piercer of the Veil!

You are a prick