Timelines Timeliness

(Image from eBay)

Just in time to assuage unhappiness with current politics, the concept of multiverse timelines has caught fire:

On Joe Rogan’s podcast last month, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen explained his theory that “the timeline has split twice in the last nine months. . . . The world was going to head in two totally different directions.” The first split was when Donald Trump was shot in Butler, Pa., on July 13. The second was on Election Day. Twitter is awash with posts from some users exclaiming that they “love this timeline” and others lamenting that they “hate this timeline.” Ezra Klein, doyen of the intellectual left, said in a Nov. 19 podcast that he’s watching Mr. Trump’s nominees “to see what timeline we’re in.”

The notion of this timeline implies the existence of that timeline—an alternative reality in which things unfold differently. Much as the idea “We are living in a simulation” saturated social media during the Covid-19 pandemic, “this timeline” is the latest exclamation of discomfort with our present reality.

Though it’s especially prominent among those who are online and anti-Trump, references to the timeline aren’t the sole province of the left. Last month, David Friedberg, co-host of the tech podcast “All-In,” repeatedly used the term to indicate his elation with political circumstances: “I am so shocked and surprised in a positive way that we ended up on this particular timeline. . . . We’re on this timeline and I do think the United States, as Neo, dodged a lot of bullets here.”

The invocation of Neo, hero of the film franchise “The Matrix,” is telling. The concept of timelines originates in science fiction and is linked intimately with the multiverse, the idea of parallel realities with similar people and personalities but different events and outcomes. This connection to science fiction is perhaps why the theme has resonated with Silicon Valley’s newly right-leaning techno-utopians, as well as members of the left.

Human beings have always believed--or imagined--that there are realities different and maybe better than the one we are stuck in. From heaven to reincarnation, from a simulated universe to a multiverse, there may be a super-reality where our good behavior is rewarded or our lives can have a second chance.

Just as Marxists saw benefits in religion because it was the "opiate" of the masses, conservatives won't decry multiverse-ology because it keeps many leftists quiet, and besides, it may be true (!). Meanwhile, your humble blogger has given up trying to understand the current timeline and is just enjoying the show.

Stock Market: A Crazy Monday

Like some games this weekend: fall behind quickly, things get worse, recovery to eke out a win.

The craziness of the football weekend extended to the stock market, which plunged Monday (the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 1,100 points) then recovered to close slightly higher for the day.

Yes, I know that these phenomena should not be related, but what do we really know, dear reader? What if the simulation is just playing with us, to see the reactions of the laboratory mice as the rules of reality break down?

In the meantime for conservatism's sake, I have to assume this reality--let's not get distracted by the infinite possibilities of the multiverse either--is the one that counts. And the reality is that the stock market slide since January 1st has hit the portfolio about 10%. When the NASDAQ fell mid-day another 5%, it sure seemed like a "selling climax."

Your humble and oft-humiliated blogger-investor put a small amount of money into a high-flying stock that had fallen over 30% this month and was pleased to see that it bounced 10% higher before the close. The investment was fun, a spark of light in the gloominess. Let's hope the rise continues.

Update - 7 a.m. PST, Tuesday: the indices are down 2-2.5%, which doesn't surprise. There are too many negatives weighing on the market (higher interest rates, threats of war, supply-chain issues, the Great Resignation). It will be a nervous climb higher.

Before You Can Simulate the Universe, You Have to Map It

Perlmutter is named after Berkeley Lab’s Nobel
Prize-winning astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter.(WSJ)

A powerful supercomputer will use artificial intelligence to map the universe in 3-D:

The real power of Perlmutter, Dr. Bailey said, will come into play as the data starts to build up and researchers begin creating maps to judge their progress. Processing a year’s worth of the data, for example, would take weeks with an existing supercomputer, Dr. Bailey said.

However, Perlmutter—which will be shared with other research teams working on other scientific projects—should be able to accomplish the task in a matter of days...

HPE says the NERSC computer has a peak AI performance, or speed, of almost four “AI exaflops,” which the company said would make the machine the fastest AI supercomputer to date. An AI exaflop is roughly mathematically equivalent to performing 250 petaflops per second, it said. A petaflop is 1,000 trillion, or one quadrillion, operations per second.

Today's smartphone is more powerful than all of NASA's computers used for the moon landing. Perlmutter will seem as primitive to data scientists 50 years from now as NASA's computers appear to us today.

Given the speed that computing power is progressing, we may soon have the power to populate this 3-D map of the universe with beings who think they are "conscious." Of course, that doesn't have to mean anything about our world.