Unreal Blog

Some beliefs are superstitions, while some others are scientific theories. What exactly is the difference between them? Let’s listen to what Pirsig has to say about it.

Read the rest of "Ghost of Gravity"

Here is an unreal look at the what and why of time. Why do we have a sense of time when none of our five senses can sense it?

Read the rest of "Only a Matter of Time"

When philosophers look at anything, it becomes a bit technical. Their technical analysis may sound boring and irrelevant. Here is an attempt to tilt things in their favor.

Read the rest of "Half a Bucket of Water"

Of truth and beauty — in physics and philosophy

Read the rest of "Change the Facts"

An unreal look at global warming. Are we a virus on the earth? And is the global warming a bout of fever? Published in the Singaporean newspaper, Today, on 1 Dec 2008.

Read the rest of "Global Warming and the Flu"

This post is a collection of reviews of my first book The Unreal Universe. As I’m beginning to work on my second book (Principles of Quantitative Development, commissioned by Wiley-Finance), I felt that these thoughts on my first book might be of interest to some of you.

Read the rest of "The Unreal Universe – Reviewed"

This post is a continuation of my earlier musings on the Big Bang theory. This one looks at the foundational assumptions of quantum gravity. In management speak, it is a high level overview, which sounds like I understand it. In a physicist’s lingo, it is merely a layman description or a hand-waving argument. In other words, the management types out there may like it better than the smart ones. You be the judge!

Read the rest of "The Big Bang Theory – Part II"

This article appeared in the Wilmott Magazine in Jan 2009, and talks not quite about the chaos and uncertainty of the last few months in finance industry can be summarized in two words. It is more about the physics concepts bearing the same names, and how they can be applied to the turmoil in the financial and economic world.

Read the rest of "Chaos and Uncertainty"

This post examines the realness of our space perception. (Why did you think this blog was called Unreal?)

Read the rest of "What is Space?"

This unpublished article is a sequel to my earlier paper (also posted as Are Radio Sources and Gamma Ray Bursts Luminal Booms?). This blog version contains the abstract, introduction and conclusions. The full version of the article is available as a PDF file.

Read the rest of "Light Travel Time Effects and Cosmological Features"

This post is the blog version of my article published in the International Journal of Modern Physics D (IJMP-D) in 2007, soon to become the Top Accessed Article of the journal by Jan 2008. Although it might seem like a hard core physics article, it is in fact an application of the philosophical insight permeating this blog and my book.

Read the rest of "Are Radio Sources and Gamma Ray Bursts Luminal Booms?"

People present the Big Bang theory in physics pretty much like Evolution in biology. But I feel that it is disingenuous to do that. To me, it looks as though the Big Bang theory is so full of patchwork, such a mathematical collage to cook up something that is consistent with GR that it is hard to imagine that it corresponds to anything real. Here is a short list of my trouble with the theory.

Read the rest of "The Big Bang Theory"

This essay, originally written for a Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times, was published in an altered form in a philosophy magazine called The Philosopher. The published article (also posted in this blog — Perception, Physics and the Role of Light in Philosophy) had too much editorial input, I felt.

We know that our universe is a bit unreal. The stars we see in the night sky, for instance, are not really there. They may have moved or even died by the time we get to see them. [...]

Read the rest of "The Unreal Universe — Seeing Light in Science and Spirituality"

One of the few features in physics that have captured the public attention, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle figures way up there with the Big Bang and E=mc2. It is an independent axiom, standing on its own, not reducible to any other more fundamental principles. However, here is an Unreal attempt to derive it.

Read the rest of "Uncertainly Principle"

Richard Feynman on physics and sex. My serious and not-so-serious thoughts on the words of the great man, aptly described as ‘No Ordinary Genius.’

Read the rest of "Sex and Physics — According to Feynman"

In this blog version of an article published in Omega, I discuss how Eastern and Western views say essentially the same things when it comes to the nature of space and time. And how that view can be interpreted as a basis for understanding Einstein’s theories. [Journal Ref: Omega - Indian Journal of Science and Religion, Vol. VI, (Dec. 2007), pp 138-150.]

Read the rest of "The Philosophy of Special Relativity — A Comparison between Indian and Western Interpretations"

The Story So Far a “live” biography of mine. It will be updated, amended and republished whenever I can find time to get creative.

Read the rest of "The Story So Far …"

Another discussion from an on-line forum, this post looks at space and time. [...]The first question we need to ask ourselves is why space and time seem coupled? The answer is actually too simple to spot, and it is in your definition of time. Space and time mix through our concept of velocity and our brain’s ability to sense motion. There is an even deeper connection, which is that space is a cognitive representation of the photons inputs to our eyes, but we will get to it later.[...]

Read the rest of "Unreal Time"

Another short discussion on the interpretations of Special Relativity.

Read the rest of "The Unreal Universe — Discussion with Gibran"

A discussion on the meaning and interpretation of Special Relativity. The perceptual effects are known in physics; they are called Light Travel Time effects (LTT, to cook up an acronym). These effects are considered an optical illusion on the motion of the object under observation. Once you take out the LTT effects, you get the “real” motion of the object . This real motion is supposed to obey SR. This is the current interpretation of SR. My argument is that the LTT effects are so similar to SR that we should think of SR as just a formalization of LTT. (In fact, a slightly erroneous formalization.)

Read the rest of "Anti-relativity and Superluminality"