
Parents urged to delete their kids social media accounts ahead of possible Israeli hostage videos
Schools in Israel, the UK and the US are advising parents to delete their children's social media apps over concerns that Hamas militants will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days.
2023-10-12 05:25

Microsoft to appeal IRS request for nearly $29 billion in back taxes
Microsoft plans to contest a US Internal Revenue Service request for an additional $28.9 billion in back taxes for the years 2004 to 2013, the company said in a securities filing Wednesday.
2023-10-12 05:18

Microsoft says US has asked for $28.9 billion in audit dispute
By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) -Microsoft said on Wednesday the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in September notified the company that
2023-10-12 04:53

4 trades Vikings can make to embrace the tank for Caleb Williams
If the Minnesota Vikings decide to embrace the tank for Caleb Williams, here are four blockbuster trades the team should consider.
2023-10-12 04:23

NY officials announce legislation aimed at protecting kids on social media
Two new bills meant to protect children's mental health online by changing the way they are served content on social media and by limiting companies' use of their data will be introduced in the New York state legislature, state and city leaders said Wednesday.
2023-10-12 03:47

The 10 Best Cities for Michelin Dining on a Budget
From George Town to Tokyo, these world-class food cities won’t exhaust your travel budget.
2023-10-12 00:21

NFL Rumors: Chiefs star hunting, Davante Adams dark horse, Kirk Cousins alternative
NFL Rumors: Are the Chiefs star hunting? Where will Davante Adams wind up? A healthy alternative to trading for Vikings QB Kirk Cousins.
2023-10-11 23:21

Scientist publishes 'evidence' that we really could all be living in the Matrix
“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room." So says Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus in sci-fi classic ‘The Matrix’ as he offers Keanu Reeves’s Neo the choice to find out just how “deep the rabbit hole goes”. Now, just as Neo discovered that the "life" he'd been living was little more than an algorithmic construct, scientists and philosophers are arguing that we could be stuck inside a simulation ourselves. In a paper published earlier this month, physicist Melvin Vopson, of the University of Portsmouth, offered scientific evidence for a philosophical theory known as the simulation hypothesis. This, in a nutshell, posits that the entire universe and our objective reality are just super-advanced virtual reality illusions. Elon Musk is among the well-known fans of the theory, which – as Dr Vopson notes in his paper – has been “gaining traction in scientific circles as well as in the entertainment industry”. The university lecturer also pointed out that recent developments in a branch of science known as information physics “appear to support this possibility”. Information physics suggests that physical reality is fundamentally made up of bits of information. However, Dr Vopson has gone further and is working to prove that information has a physical mass and is a fundamental building block of the universe. He even claims that information could be the mysterious dark matter that makes up almost a third of the universe. In previous research, the physicist proposed that all elementary particles (the smallest known building blocks in the universe), store information about themselves, much like DNA in humans. Then, in 2022, he discovered a new law of physics, christened the second law of infodynamics, which states that entropy – the degree of randomness or disorder – within an isolated information system either remains constant or decreases over time. In other words, the system becomes less and less chaotic, implying that there is some kind of mechanism governing it rather than random chance. “I knew then that this revelation had far-reaching implications across various scientific disciplines,” Dr Vopson said in a statement released by the University of Portsmouth. “What I wanted to do next is put the law to the test and see if it could further support the simulation hypothesis by moving it on from the philosophical realm to mainstream science.” Is the Universe a Simulation? | Melvin Vopson www.youtube.com Dr Vopson employed the law in a range of different fields, including genetics, cosmology and even symmetry. Here, he found that the abundance of symmetry in the Universe (think snowflakes and facial structures) could be explained by the second law of infodynamics. "Symmetry principles play an important role with respect to the laws of nature, but until now there has been little explanation as to why that could be,” he said. “My findings demonstrate that high symmetry corresponds to the lowest information entropy state, potentially explaining nature's inclination towards it." Again, put simply, nature prefers things to be as well-ordered as possible. He continued: “This approach, where excess information is removed, resembles the process of a computer deleting or compressing waste code to save storage space and optimise power consumption.” As a result, this “supports the idea that we’re living in a simulation.” Dr Vopson is serious about this idea and, last year, even launched a crowdfunding campaign to test it. At the time, he announced that he had designed an experiment to determine whether we are all just characters in an advanced virtual world. “There is a growing community out there looking seriously at the possibility that information is more fundamental to everything than we think,” he said in a statement released back in December. “If information is a key component of everything in the universe, it would make sense that a vast computer somewhere is in control. “Assuming the universe is indeed a simulation, then it must contain a lot of information bits hidden everywhere around us. I’ve devised an experiment that proposes a way of extracting this information to prove it’s there.” His proposed experiment is based on his conclusion that information is physical and that elementary particles have a DNA of information about themselves. He posited that the information in an elementary particle could be detected and measured by using particle-antiparticle collision. “We can measure the information content of a particle by erasing it. If we delete the information from the particles, we can then look at what’s left,” he said in the December statement. “This experiment is highly achievable with our existing tools, and I’m hoping the crowdfunding site will help us achieve it.” And whilst the crowdfunder closed well before reaching its proposed £185,000 target, Dr Vopson still hopes to carry out the ambitious test. Following his most recent paper, he suggested the experiment had the power to confirm the “fifth state of matter in the universe” and “change physics as we know it.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-10-11 22:55

Paraguay jail: Rioting inmates hold guards hostage
Guards are being held against their will during a riot in the overcrowded jail in the capital, Asunción.
2023-10-11 21:18

Israel Gaza conflict: Scottish footballer Clark Robertson tells of escape
Clark Robertson, who plays professionally in Israel, has been able to return home to Aberdeen.
2023-10-11 20:49

Oscar Pareja 'proud' of Orlando City after amassing record points haul
Oscar Pareja reveals his pride at Orlando City's achievement during 2023 after the 3-2 win over New England Revolution secured a club-record points tally.
2023-10-11 16:55

UN 'deeply concerned' over reports women and children killed in Myanmar bombing
The United Nations says it is "deeply concerned" by reports that civilians, including women and children, were killed and injured in a bombing at a camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar.
2023-10-11 14:48