Scientists Say Time is Slowing Down

Spanish scientists have come up with a new hypothesis on to explain the rate of expansion of the universe: time is - literally - slowing down!

A decade ago, astronomers noticed that distant supernovae - exploding stars on the very fringes of the universe - seemed to be moving faster than those nearer to the centre, suggesting that they were accelerating as they shot through space.

Dark energy was suggested as a possible means of powering this acceleration of the expansion of the cosmos.

The problem is that no-one has any idea what dark energy is or where it comes from, and theoreticians around the world have been scrambling to find out what it is, or get rid of it.

The team’s proposal, which will be published in the journal Physical Review D, does away altogether with dark energy. Instead, Prof Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock that needs winding.

"We do not say that the expansion of the universe itself is an illusion," he explains. "What we say it may be an illusion is the acceleration of this expansion - that is, the possibility that the expansion is, and has been, increasing its rate."

Instead, if time gradually slows "but we naively kept using our equations to derive the changes of the expansion with respect of ‘a standard flow of time’, then the simple models that we have constructed in our paper show that an "effective accelerated rate of the expansion" takes place."

Link

As if that’s not mind-boggling enough, another scientist had proposed that time is actually two-dimensional:

Time is no longer a simple line from the past to the future, in a four dimensional world consisting of three dimensions of space and one of time. Instead, the physicist envisages the passage of history as curves embedded in a six dimensions, with four of space and two of time.

"There isn’t just one dimension of time," Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles tells New Scientist. "There are two. One whole dimension of time and another of space have until now gone entirely unnoticed by us."

Bars claims his theory of "two time physics", which he has developed over more than a decade, can help solve problems with current theories of the cosmos and, crucially, has true predictive power that can be tested in a forthcoming particle physics experiment.

If it is confirmed, it could point the way to a "theory of everything" that unites all the physical laws of the universe into one, notably general relativity that governs gravity and the large scale structure of the universe, and quantum theory that rules the subatomic world.

Published in Neatorama

Big brain theory: You are just an illusion

A New Series Of Calculations Paint A Bizarre Picture That Rattles The Field Of Cosmology

Dennis Overbye

It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.

If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.

This bizarre picture is the outcome of a recent series of calculations that take some of the bedrock theories and discoveries of modern cosmology to the limit. Nobody in the field believes that this is the way things really work, however. And so there in the last couple of years there has been a growing stream of debate and dueling papers, replete with references to such esoteric subjects as reincarnation, multiple universes and even the death of space-time, as cosmologists try to square the predictions of their cherished theories with their convictions that we and the universe are real.

The basic problem is that across the eons of time, the standard theories suggest, the universe can recur over and over again in an endless cycle of big bangs, but it’s hard for nature to make a whole universe. It’s much easier to make fragments of one, like planets, yourself maybe in a spacesuit or even — in the most absurd and troubling example — a naked brain floating in space. Nature tends to do what is easiest, from the standpoint of energy and probability. And so these fragments — in particular the brains — would appear far more frequently than real full fledged universes, or than us. Or they might be us.

Alan Guth, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who agrees this overabundance is absurd, pointed out that some calculations result in an infinite number of free-floating brains for every normal brain, making it “infinitely unlikely for us to be normal brains.” Welcome to what physicists call the Boltzmann brain problem, named after the 19th-century Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, who suggested the mechanism by which such fluctuations could happen in a gas or in the universe. Cosmologists also refer to them as “freaky observers,” in contrast to regular or “ordered” observers of the cosmos like ourselves. Cosmologists are desperate to eliminate these freaks from their theories, but so far they can’t even agree on how or even on whether they are making any progress.

If you are inclined to skepticism this debate might seem like further evidence that cosmologists, who gave us dark matter, dark energy and speak with apparent aplomb about gazillions of parallel universes, have finally lost their minds. But the cosmologists say the brain problem serves as a valuable reality check as they contemplate the far, far future and zillions of bubble universes popping off from one another in an ever increasing rush through eternity. What, for example is a “typical” observer in such a setup? If some atoms in another universe stick together briefly to look, talk and think exactly like you, is it really you?

New York Times News Service

Flashes from Swami Vivekananda - 3

Need for knowledge to mature into wisdom

Today, the whole world is seeking for, is in need of, this kind of spiritual growth which releases that type of divine energy resource to match with, and to digest, the energy resources released by modern physical science and technology. The latter has annihilated physical distances between man and man, but the problem of annihilating the mental and emotional distances remains to be solved. On the other hand, that mental distance is increasing, not diminishing, in spite of scientific knowledge and technical power. This is revealed in the ever-increasing violence, crime and delinquency, even juvenile delinquency in all parts of the world.

What is the reason for highly disturbing social phenomena? Certainly, these are not physical maladies. Modern man has better physical bodies and health than in past ages, thanks to his knowledge of science of nutrition and his vastly improved techniques for increased food production. He is also immensely nourished mentally and intellectually compared to his predecessors, thanks to the explosive output of scientific knowledge; and yet, we find modern man getting increasingly alienated both from himself and from others. He is unhappy, tense, without peace, given often to inflicting violence on others or suicide on himself.

Swami Vivekananda spent four intense years in the West preaching Vedanta and helping to broaden and deepen its religion and inner-human relations. He saw the above tragic situation developing in his time, towards the end of the last century; and he warned of its intensification in the decades ahead, and emphasized the need of modern civilization to change its direction from human sensuality to human spirituality. And he preached the philosophy of Vedantic humanism, with the vision of infinite divine possibilities in man, and man's organic capacity to realize these in life. This is wisdom, this is the knowledge maturing into wisdom, that India developed in her ancient Upnishads and the Bhagvad Gita, which got retested and re-authenticated in succeeding ages by Buddha, Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and many other luminous sages, possessed of briliiant intellects and universal hearts. They never thought or taught in narrow terms of sects, creeds, nationalities or races. They saw man as man, saw his divine possibilities.

Extracted from Swami Vivekananda, his humanism: Moscow University Lecture by Swami Ranganathanandana

Ramanujan's Philosophy of Numbers

I couldn't post since last few days because of my Mathematics exam. I'm hoping to pass in this paper, although the equations of life remain unsolved. Is there an absolute answer to everything? Does our manifested reality traverse between the infinite extremes? Do all equations become more complex as we try to simplify them?

I found an interesting excerpt on Ramanujan's Philosophy in Mr. J.V Badami's book, 'Musings on Arithmetical Numbers'. Thought it's worth sharing with the world.

Ramanujan, the famous Indian Mathematician, born genius, thought that the pursuit of mathematics was a pursuit after God. He often used to say that mathematics alone can lead to realization of God. He used to ask, 'What is the value of 0/0?', then answer himself, 'it may be nothing; the value cannot be determined.' He spoke of zero as a symbol of the 'Absolute' - Nirguna Brahma. The infinite is absolute and is immortal. That is, 'Reality' to which no qualities could be attributed, which cannot be defined or described by words. It is completely beyond the reach of the human mind.

Ramanujan used to say that 2ⁿ-1 will denote the Primordial God and several Divinities. When n is 0, the expression denotes 0. That is, there is nothing. When n is equal to 1, the expression denotes unity, the infinite God. When n is 2, the expression denotes Trinity - the Trident of Shiva. When n is 3, the expression denotes 7, the Sapta Rishis (the constellation Ursa Major, which is known in India as Sapta Rishi i.e 7 sages) and so on.

Ramanujan was highly religious. He not only admired God, he adored Him too.

The Art of Robert Hardgrave

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”
-Carl Gustav Jung

American artist Robert Hardgrave feels the same, as he points it out on his site.



He achieves excellence in modern art as his paintings describe a strange and oblivious description of life. His strokes express that can be called 'on the threshold' realism.

Robert Hardgrave's art takes a meaning with a preternatural outrage of the soul trying to communicate itself to what can be within it's grasp. 'Xenoglossy' is another of his exceptional works.



“In this particular body of work I am attempting to relate my idea of the many possibilities of reincarnation,” Hardgrave says. “Not necessarily in the sense that when one dies they become a wombat or a newt, but that life can continue in the memories of the living.”

His other works can be viewed on Farmer Bob's Farm.

Tajmahal - Star Circus

Undoubtedly the best down tempo/chillout album of 2007 is Stephane Gallay ie DJ Tajmahal's Star Circus. Featuring himself and other stars of core psy-relaxation music, his tunes give a different level of refreshing gratification.


The tracks take you into a groove which urges you to cool off, forget about everything and get cozy n' comfortable. It's the next level of foot tapping sounds defined by Tajmahal and friends.

The best part I like is when the beat starts in the first track, Do I Care (Antariksha mix). Also the awesome effect used in Butterfly Ritual (rmx). This album is truly worth if you like down tempo beats, if you have a massage parlor by the bay, a coffee shop which boasts of music, or a mind which wants to stop thinking once in a while...

Track list:

1. Do I Care (Antariksha mix)
CHILLED C'QUENCE AND TAJMAHAL

2. Star Circus
TAJMAHAL

3. Butterfly Ritual (rmx)
MASTER MARGHERITA VS TAJMAHAL

4. Lunar Sea
MORPHONIX AND TAJMAHAL

5. The Secret
TAJMAHAL FEAT PHYTOSOPHIE

6. Electro Therapy
CHILLED C'QUENCE AND TAJMAHAL

7. Olgasm
TAJMAHAL FEAT FLOOTING GROOVES

8. Escape (rmx)
TAJMAHAL VS.MUNGUSID

New Year

"...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one. The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."

- Albert Einstein

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

- Douglas Adams

"Time discovers truth."

- Seneca

"What is time? If nobody asks me, I know; but if I were desirous to explain it to one that should ask me, plainly I know not."

- Augustine of Hippo