Geeky thought of the week: an intense beam of light

I was reading about recent improvements in voice to text technology and the Government's ongoing goal to broadly track conversations from YouTube, government placed cameras, and other audio sources.

It occurred to me that there is a parallel with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle here. You might remember Heisenberg and his finding that you can't study something without changing it. He was speaking of quantum theory and atomic particles. The smaller the wavelength of light, the more energy it contains. To measure a subatomic particle you need a tiny wavelength with a corresponding powerful blast of energy that drastically affects the subject being studied. This finding has had philosophic implications from the start. Hawking cites the Uncertainty Principle when saying it is impossible for us to know the state of the Universe before the big bang, to know the conditions that precipitated it, or what higher power may have had a hand in its formation. This principle has also been used to show the logical shortcomings of our intelligence. Even with unlimited resources we can't know the state of the Universe, nor calculate its next steps.

A tool powerful enough to study every small conversation is not innocuous. The ray of observation affects us all, and it is impossible to say what results may come. It does not seem that outlandish to expect that many branches of communication will be affected and that ordinary people will change their habits and approach to securing communication. Quantum mechanics teaches us of the inherent difficulty in tracking complex systems, perhaps we should take that lesson to heart.

So how does the Universe really work

Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories.... Philosophers reduced the scope of their inquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of the twentieth century, said, 'The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.' What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to kant!

If we do discover a complete theory, it should it time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.-A BRIEFER HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

This year I have read three books trying to upgrade my physics knowledge and my understanding of the universe. I have enjoyed the topic, but it reminds me of how much still can't be explained, and maybe never will be. Granted my knowledge of Higgs boson and string theory is a little thin. That being said, here is a short list of that which amazes and confuses me.

• The two most complete theorems for how the universe works are General Relativity and Quantum Physics. The former doesn't account for the quantum uncertainty principle and the latter doesn't explain the force of gravity. Our two best explanations for the universe contradict each other. In spite of that experiments designed around each theories are consistently prove specific aspects of each of them independently.
• The Universe is both expanding and accelerating. What force is causing the acceleration?
• The Universe looks the same in all directions. All of the galaxies seem to be moving away from ours. The background radiation from the big bang comes from all directions. Are we in the center of the universe? What are the odds of that?
• Experiments with electron refraction show that a single electron when moving takes all possible paths at the same time. How does that work?
• Einstein shows that speed and gravity affect time.  The GPS satellites orbiting the earth hold highly tuned atomic clocks. Since the clocks are farther away from the earth, time moves faster for them.  These satellites have to be adjusted according to the theory of relativity. If they weren't the clocks would be off by 45 microseconds a day (10 KM of accuracy in a GPS fix) http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html
• String theory also seeks unlikely to explain the universe. There are too many dimensions needed to make it work, and I'm a little hung up on that. But I haven't yet read that much on the topic yet.

If anyone has any recommendations on higgs boson reading let me know.

Brecon birth announcement

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My Switch to Chip Credit Cards

You have probably seen stories on the security problems with standard credit cards and the push to switch over to Chip And Signature cards. The Target data breach is providing a lot of motivation. After Europe switched to Chip and Pin cards they saw a huge decrease in credit card fraud.

After some consideration I decided to be an early adopter and switch over to a Chip and Signature credit card. There are only a few banks in the US that are offering these cards, although the target for the US switchover is 2015. Because chip cards are required overseas, the available choices are often aimed at travelers. So I applied for a new card and just now received it. In the next week or so I will see how widely I can use it and report back.

Geeky details for those who are interested

I can’t find a lot of technical detail on the chipped cards, but I can do a little reading between the lines. The card contains a computer chip that stores a private code along with the more public card/account number. The chip can also execute an encryption function (probably a one way hash). The reading terminal would likely pass transaction details like the date/time and vendor name to the chip on the credit card, the chip would then compute an authorization code based on the private code and the transaction details. The private code is never communicated to the terminal, only the authorization code is. The authorization code changes based on the cyphered transaction details and is extremely difficult to fake. Because each authorization code is pseudo-unique, the code can’t be reused in a fake transaction. The credit card company also has a copy of the private code, and when provided with the transaction details they can easily generate the authorization code and verify that it matches what the vendor sent.

September 2014 Update

I got my chip card after noticing how many stores around me had the new readers. I found grocery stores, home depot, Target, Walmart, and Subway locations in my area that had the brand new card readers. But while everyone had the hardware, only Walmart has turned it on. It was very disappointing to go to all these locations and find that I couldn't use my card in readers designed for it. I continue to be amazed that a year out from the nationwide switchover most retailers are still so far behind. This is kind of hard for me to say, but here goes. Good job Walmart, thanks for looking out for your customers.