Did you know there’s a chance we could be living inside a video game right now? With titles like Sid Meier’s Civilization, The Sims and Grand Theft Auto we already have some amazing life-simulation games, and if computers keep advancing, the simulations will inevitably get better and more realistic, which is why some philosophers and prominent scientists believe that it’s possible we’re living in one already.

The theory that we’re living in a simulation was made popular by The Matrix in 1999, but it got a bit of academic credibility with the Simulation Argument, which was written by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. One of his main arguments is that it’s inevitable that historical simulations will happen because human progress is always moving forward. Therefore, at some point computers will be powerful enough to simulate a universe.

Source: www.commondreams.org | Original Post Date: May 8, 2012 –

A new a study* from McGill University and the University of Minnesota published in the journal Nature compared organic and conventional yields from 66 studies and over 300 trials. Researchers found that on average, conventional systems out-yielded organic farms by 25%—mostly for grains, and depending on conditions.

Embracing the current conventional wisdom, the authors argue for a combination of conventional and organic farming to meet “the twin challenge of feeding a growing population, with rising demand for meat and high-calorie diets, while simultaneously minimizing its global environmental impacts.”

Unfortunately, neither the study nor the conventional wisdom addresses the real cause of hunger.

Hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity. For the past two decades the rate of global food production has increased...

Source: www.fractalenlightenment.com | Original Post Date: November 4, 2003 –

The Fibonacci Sequence

The Fibonacci sequence is possibly the most simple recurrence relation occurring in nature. It is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89, 144… each number equals the sum of the two numbers before it, and the difference of the two numbers succeeding it. It is an infinite sequence which goes on forever as it develops.

The Golden Ratio/Divine Ratio or Golden Mean -

The quotient of any Fibonacci number and it’s predecessor approaches Phi, represented as ϕ (1.618), the Golden ratio. The Golden Ratio is best understood geometrically by the golden rectangle...

Source: www.trueactivist.com | Original Post Date: December 14, 2012 –

The tiny Nordic European island country of Iceland is presently experiencing one of the greatest economic comebacks of all time. After the privatization of the banking sector completed in 2000, the economy was thrown into a tailspin when over a five-year period, private bankers borrowed 120 billion dollars (10 times the size of Iceland’s economy). A huge economic bubble was created, causing house prices to double, and making a small percentage of Iceland’s population rich enough to buy up overseas investments, mansions, yachts, and private jets, while leaving an absolutely unpayable debt for all Icelanders. Iceland was facing national bankruptcy.

In response to the failed banking system, in October 2008, Iceland’s revolution against this financial tyranny began, rather casually in the street, in front of the Icelandic general assembly.