Virtual Reality? British scientists think deep thoughts
LONDON
Is it all just a dream? Speculation that reality is nothing but an illusion or simulation or controlled environment has been with us for thousands of years, most recently doled out as pop culture brain candy with the likes of the film The Matrix.
But now two respected British scientists, physicist Martin Rees and mathematician John Barrow, are questioning whether all matter and mind we know is not the creation of some mega-supercomputer somewhere.
"A few decades ago, computers were only able to simulate very simple patterns. They can now create virtual worlds with a lot of detail," Rees said. "In the future, we could imagine computers able to simulate worlds perhaps even as complicated as the one we think we're living in."
Martin, an astronomer at Cambridge University, dares a thought that could have been deemed far-fetched among serious scientists only a while back: "The question is: Could we be in such a simulation?"
In this case, the universe would not be all-encompassing but only part of an ensemble Rees and Barrow call the "multiverse." Barrow described in an academic article that it was long known that a civilization slightly more advanced than our own could simulate "universes in which self-conscious entities can emerge and communicate with one another."
In a much more computer-savvy society with vastly more advanced technology, "instead of merely simulating their weather or the formation of galaxies, like we do, they would be able to go further and watch the appearance of stars and planetary systems," he added. "Then, having coupled the rules of biochemistry into their astronomical simulations, they would be able to watch the evolution of life and consciousness."
With the same ease that we humans watch the "life cycle of fruit flies," Barrow said, the machine masters of the universe could "watch the civilizations grow and communicate with each other, argue about whether there existed a Great Programmer in the Sky who could intervene at will in defiance of the laws of nature they habitually observed."
C. Schmidt, AFP
Heart attacks and deadlines
PARIS
The pressure of meeting an important deadline at work increases by a factor of six the risk of suffering a heart attack within 24 hours, Swedish doctors say in research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Health.
They found that a short burst of intense pressure appears to have greater strain on the heart than accumulated stress over 12 months in 3,500 people aged between 45 and 70. The Karolinska Institute study also suggests that praise from the boss could also be a risk factor for employees with weak hearts. In some cases, workers too busy with an important job and were praised by their superior suffered a heart attack within a day.
That risk is hard to quantify, though, because it is unclear whether the stress could be attributable to the deadline, the boss, or both.
C. Schmidt, AFP
US$491 billion
global pharmaceutical sales, unaudited, 2003
US$445.8 billion
gross domestic product of Australia, 2000
US$68.9 billion
global sales of cardiovascular drugs, Feb 2004 - Feb 2005
US$63.7 billion
gross domestic product of Myanmar, 2000
US$10.7 billion
global sales of Lipitor (atorvastatin), Feb 2004 - Feb 2005
US$9.7 billion
gross domestic product of Jamaica, 2000
US$270.5 billion
gross domestic product of Philippines, 2000
US$1.06 billion
worth of Philippine pharmaceutical market, 2001
US$960 million
gross domestic product of Guinea Bissau, 2000
96.3 percent
market share of branded drugs in the Philippines, (US$63.2 billion), 2002
PhP12.27 billion
market share of United Laboratories in the Philippines (18.68 percent), 2002
234
number of cardiovascular drugs available in the Philippines, 2002
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