Wednesday, August 27, 2008

James has special vu

James:
Jamais vu is interesting. I get that relatively often.

You ever get that? "I know I have been here/met this person/etc. before, but for a moment it felt totally new and disturbing."

Every time it happens I get paranoid that I'm a clone who was vat-grown and neurally programmed just this morning, and there are small gaps in the brain imprint. Because, you know, people would love to spend billions on human cloning in order to make me.

Amber:
*snort*

James:
"Okay, I've got ten billion dollars burning a hole in my pocket. What should we do with it?"

"Clone some random unremarkable guy and send his brain-imprinted clone out to take his place in his normal life while we keep the original guy in a cage and throw fruit at him?"

"Urm... actually, I was thinking about invading a small Middle Eastern nation... but your plan is good too."

Friday, August 22, 2008

James explains quantum millinery

Rebecca:
I'm putting on my potential congratulatory hat

Scott:
...so it's a kind of Schrodinger's Hat?

Rebecca:
Yes, just like that

Scott:
Its a little known fact that Dr Seuss' 'Cat in the Hat' was a scientific paper describing an attempt to combine Schrodinger's two thought experiments, namely Schrodinger's Cat and Schrodinger's Hat.

James:
*observes Bec's hat*
Oops, I think I just collapsed the waveform

Scott:
Was anyone wearing the hat at the time? Have we suffered any skull blow-outs?

James:
You're obviously ignorant of the standard theories of quantum millinery. If the hat was in a state of quantum flux, both there and not there, then the observation would not cause it to simply appear. The observation will collapse the waveform and at that point the hat will have _always_ been there, even during the period when it also wasn't.

Scott:
So old photographs of a hatless you will suddenly show you wearing a fineshiny tophat?

James:
Only if the photographer took your photo without looking at you and nobody looked at any of the resulting photos.

Scott:
Wow, quantam millinery is more complicated than I had ever imagined!

Friday, August 8, 2008

James builds an interweb for Michelle

Woohoo! I look forward to assembling your interwebs for you.

"Let's see... cute cats photos go here, angry political rants go here, porn goes here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here... and here... and here and here... and here..."