Rod Serling's Olympic Games

Am I the only one who sees it? There must be others who have noticed. The photo on the left is an image from a Twilight Zone episode titled “The Fear” (1964). It took me almost an hour of Googling to find it (because I did not know the name of the episode). The image on the right shows the newly revealed mascots for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Aside from how ridiculous the mascots look… and the fact that money actually changed hands in exchange for their design… I think it very odd that the designers went so far out of their way to come up with gender and nationality neutral mascots… for a venue where the events are segregated by gender and the competition pits country against country.

I can almost hear Rod Serling laughing… from behind that signpost up ahead… in the Twilight Zone.

A disjointed cosmological rambling (or "What I choose to believe") (or "If by chance you understand any of this, I would love to talk with you") (or "Bear with me. There is a message here, for those who choose to find it")

I'm a fan of a multi-verse composed of giant bubbles…floating around in the bulk. I like bubbles. My grandkids like bubbles.They are elegant and easy to visualize. Most prefer membranes though, so I will speak in branes. I believe in level two universes. I have trouble with ours being a level one universe. Level one = infinite = I can’t handle that (i.e. cosmic inflation). The earth is not flat and neither is our universe… I think this even though WMAP begs to differ. The alternatives are flat but not infinite or curved but so huge we cannot measure the curve. I’ll bet on the latter. I am probably wrong. I often am. In the early 1990’s I told my boss Microsoft Windows would never catch on. Maybe there are an infinite number of level ones in each level two… could be… but I can’t wrap my mind around that either. How can a finite bubble hold an infinite amount of anything? How can a government spend more money than it has? Ok… maybe universes are flat.

That means I now believe in branes (multiple string theories plus one additional dimension [the 11th] to tie them all together [and in the darkness bind them] = M-theory = “The one ring theory”). Yes… that means I believe that everything and everyone, including you and I, are connected, at the most minute level. I also believe that everytime two branes rub together, a new brane comes into existence (i.e. brane + brane = collision = big bangs are commonplace = I really enjoy that TV show). I believe in a continuous cycle of branes hitting each other and giving birth to new universes. I believe the multi-verse does not use birth control.

And speaking of parallel universes, can someone please explain to me what differentiates a non-quantum moment from a quantum moment? Is it when a particular outcome depends solely upon how a particular particle in my brain moves? If that is so, thought experiments like this must waste a heck of a lot of space. I really should spawn fewer parallel universes. Waste not, want not. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics... yea... Hugh Everett's work not withstanding... I'll pass on this one too.

And lastly, level three universes really blow me away… and they bother me… because I like being alone. I hate the idea that I may have roommates and I can’t see them. In one of my favorite movies Nicole Kidman called these roomies “The Others” (not to be confused with “The Others” from the TV series LOST). Perhaps level three universes = ghosts (to us) = non-ghosts (to ghosts). I feel myself digressing.

Ok… this armchair cosmologist has finished rambling… for now anyways… level four universes shall remain a mystery.

It depresses me and amazes me to know so little. I need to take my telescope out soon. The answers are all around us… and within us at the same time. They exist equally at all levels of measurement and they hide from us like small children, quietly laughing as we walk right past them in a game of cosmic hide-and-seek.

Be amazed. Be very amazed.