How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
Book I – Dualism: #34 Understanding Digital Reality
“Reality by a Thread” Upgrade coming June 21st! FREE (PDF) Substack Edition of Book One with paid Upgrade!
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
“Your Universe is in consciousness. And it’s a teleological process of unfolding patterns...” – Alex M. Vikoulov
CONSIDERATION #34 – “UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL REALITY”
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Last week we learned that analog technology reflects the reality of our perception based on our five senses. If we go to a concert that becomes a “Live Album,” and then listen to the vinyl recording of that album, we are essentially listening to the same concert we heard “live.” There will be some differences based on the acoustics of the venue, where we sat within it, what kind of microphone was used, the play-back system, however, the “vibrations” will be very similar. The vinyl record allows us to “play back” the original vibrations created at the live concert. Analog recordings capture and replicate analog vibrations in the real world so they can be recreated and re-experienced by us later. However, analog products deteriorate over time with use, exposure, and other physical factors.
“Analog products, like analog realities, eventually get old, wear out, and die.”
Records wear out with use. Paintings and images fade over time. Fragrances and aromas dissipate with the memories they once held. Even luxurious fabrics such as velvet and silk lose their delicate sheen and texture with age. Analog products, like analog realities, eventually get old, wear out, and die. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Analog to analog. Digital technology, however, has the potential to create products that can last forever. That is because digital products are not created from physical sensations; they are constructed from pure mathematical abstractions.
CONSIDERATION #34 – Understanding Digital Reality
“Reality is not temporal, it’s digital... Time, or more specifically, the flow of time, is not fundamental, neither is space, nor is mass-energy. Deep down it's pure information — waves of potentiality — and consciousness assigning 'measurement values' to it all.”
– Alex M. Vikoulov, The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics.
In digital technology, physical information, such as sound vibrations, is not physically reproduced as a copy. Instead, the physical information is sent to a “digital converter” that translates the physical data into a binary code of “0’s” and “1’s” that can later be decoded back to sound in the “real” analog world. There is no music in a Compact Disc and there are no images on a Digital Video Disc; only numbers. Once translated, it can be played, copied, and reproduced indefinitely with absolutely no loss or degradation of sound quality. That is because what is played, copied, or reproduced are numbers, and numbers do not degrade with use, reproduction, or time because they are eternal abstractions.
“Essentially, we are now commonly taking transient physical sensations and quantifying them into eternal abstract mathematical equations, based on dualism in the form of binary code.”
Although this process has become second nature to most users, it manifests a model of reality manipulation that is quite astonishing. Essentially, we are now commonly taking transient physical sensations and quantifying them into eternal abstract mathematical equations, based on dualism in the form of binary code. This binary code can then be reconverted back to physical sensations in the spatial-temporal world. Perhaps you have never thought of it that way before! Here is how it works.
To show the potential complexity possible from a simple binary code, I am going to shift to one of Descartes’ favorite examples of physical sensation: color. A bit contains two possible values, therefore in terms of digital color, one bit represents a monochrome screen. So, the number “0” might represent black and the number “1” might represent white. The original Macintosh and PCs had one-bit color, or black and white, monitors. However, the world of black and white is a very limited reality. All we need to do to bring color into our digital world is to add a few more bits and some color options.
“This example clearly demonstrates how by continually adding additional possible combinations of choices, seemingly limited options can become virtually unlimited very quickly.”
The common starting point for most digital color applications is 8 bits, or 1 byte. In an 8-bit color system it is possible to reproduce 256 colors, or 2 to the 8th power. This is accomplished by using 3 color sources (red, green, and blue – RGB) in conjunction with 8 possible binary combinations to produce 256 different possible colors. Here is where the math gets fun. If we double the bits from 8 to 16, we don’t double the possible colors to 512, but instead increase our color possibilities to over 65,000, or 2 to the 16th power. However, pixels also contain bits related to pixel-depth that expand our options to over 16 million colors! This example clearly demonstrates how by continually adding additional possible combinations of choices, seemingly limited options can become virtually unlimited very quickly. We begin to see the possible complexities manifested through the simple dichotomy of only two.
“As resolution is increased through the expansion of bits, everything created becomes less and less discernible from ‘real life.’”
Digital sound, images, and video are all limited only by hardware and software in terms of their resolution capacity. As resolution is increased through the expansion of bits, everything created becomes less and less discernible from “real life.” It appears that the only real limitation to digital reality is resolution, or bit, limitation, and the power necessary for processing the increased capacity. Even if Moore’s Law, stating that computer power will double every two years, begins to slow down, it is only a matter of time until there is enough power to adequately reconstruct physical reality into an indistinguishable mathematic equation. There is no good reason we could not eventually create a digital reality that is indistinguishable from physical reality in the future. Perhaps, the very near future.
“The totality of your digital reality is what your conscious mind implicitly or explicitly chooses to experience out of the infinite.”
– Alex M. Vikoulov, Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality
The clear Cartesian line between physical perception and abstract reasoning is now beginning to blur, or perhaps even merge.
POSTSCRIPT
In terms of time and history we are only at the beginning of the digital revolution. Where this new Digital Dualism takes us is not yet known. With the advancement of technology and Virtual Reality we can now visualize a time, in the not-too-distant future when analog and digital “human beings” are virtually indistinguishable. If machines become more intelligent than we are, what kind of “mind” might they develop? Our current and future digital technology are the direct result of our rational consideration and investigation into dualism. It is the current technological link in a very long chain of interrelated causality between people, ideas, and events.
Next week we encapsulate our journey from the apple in the Garden of Eden to the Apple in Cupertino, California.
New “Reality by a Thread” Upgrade Coming June 21st!
