Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is it necessary to wash your hands after picking up dog poop with toilet paper? I do. Rick Rosner: I’m not sure if it’s strictly necessary, but I’m in the habit of washing my hands frequently. It’s a habit that started during COVID—or maybe even earlier when I was living in New …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1291: Handwashing, NYC Hygiene, and Public Spaces
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Hey, Rick. What about when theologians say the universe is fine-tuned for life? Most sufficiently large universes, with many planets orbiting most stars, likely have conditions that support life. I would assume that it's difficult to create a universe without at least some habitable regions. Certainly, planets can be negentropic—they receive energy …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, can the universe be meaningfully said to exist if there are no observers? Rick Rosner: You could argue that the universe observes itself. If you accept the premise that the universe is fundamentally made of information and that information requires a supporting structure, then yes, you can say it exists. The …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, hey, Rick. How would you calculate the information content of the universe over time in an IC model? Rick Rosner: Well, I’m sure that if we checked Wikipedia, we would find a roughly agreed-upon estimate of the universe’s information content, likely measured in bits, based on physical principles like the Bekenstein …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Bear, writer boy—what have you been writing? Rosner: The novel I’ve been writing begins with something close to a murder. Jacobsen: Dark? Rosner: Yes. I’ve been going through that chapter again, ensuring the logistics and the action make physical and medical sense. Because it’s not as simple as putting a bullet in …
Rick Rosner: Speaking of the future, let’s talk about 2026. Right now, the Trumpers have a trifecta—they own the Presidency, the House, and the Senate. That means they can pass a lot of shit with simple majorities. Not everything, though. Some stuff still needs 60 votes in the Senate, and they only have 53. But …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1286: 2026 U.S. Elections, Trump’s Influence, and Global Power Shifts
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, they’re considering merging ChatGPT models this coming year, or what Sam Altman is posing as AGI. If that’s the case, we’re looking at a total re-evaluation of human analytic abilities. High-level analysis is the most valuable thing humans bring to the table right now. In the future? It’ll be more about …
Rick Rosner: In physics, there are many conservation laws or principles that are generally supported by experimental evidence. For example, energy is conserved, and momentum is conserved. The conservation of information is a more complex and debated topic, particularly in quantum mechanics and cosmology. While there are arguments that information is conserved in quantum mechanical …
Rick Rosner: A simple reason to suppose that an action potential is not the atomic action of cognition is that biological systems evolve toward the thermodynamic limit of sensitivity across every domain. And an action potential is a million times larger than the Landauer limit. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That’s the thermodynamic lower theoretical limit of …
Rick Rosner: So, Trump announced that he’s drafting an executive order to abolish the Department of Education. Which is fucking ridiculous. Education got its own department under Carter, in 1979. Before that, it was part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Now, the people arguing to get rid of it only look at …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1282: Educators, Anonymous, Ratings
Rick Rosner 