On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Nigel Dyer <l...@thedyers.org.uk> wrote: > I continue to be reminded of a (Isaac Asimov?) science fiction story I read > as a child where a group of scientists are shown a film of what they are > told is an anti gravity machine, which takes off, flies a bit then blows up. > They are told that the inventer, the only person who knew how it worked, > was killed. They then spend six months(?) working together and produce a > new anti-gravity machine. They are then told that the film was a fake and > there was no such inventor.
Nigel, this thought actually occurred to me a while back and it has an interesting credibility. Everyone thinks that Steve Jobs created the iPad; but, it was not SJ. It was actually Gene Roddenberry. He also created the cell phone and many other devices which are not yet created. We all look forward to teleportation; but, that one might belong to Alfred Bester. Along these lines, one might think that nuclear weapons belong to HG Wells in "The World Set Free" in 1914. And what of the yet to happen (or not) alien invasion? Cold fusion certainly does not belong to the Spiderman II. How far back in science fiction does that one go? There is a strange thing being touted lately called Quantum Jumping (Google it). If you are not happy with your reality, jump to another. Actually, this is an idea that occurred to me in my youth back in the 70s (thanks to some mushrooms growing in cow dung in south Georgia). Every time we are faced with a decision, both choices are created; but, we choose the path to take. It has a basis in string theory. Ask Leonard Susskind. It does explain the paradox of free will versus predetermination. T
