Champernowne number: We all exist in it eternally!

Mathematical existence is a slippery concept, and I don't think anyone knows exactly what its nature is. But I do think most of us strongly believe that the number '3' has a kind of existence. Even if there were no people to count them, wouldn't there still be a three-ness existing about three rocks together? I know that the planets orbited in our Solar System before humans used math, but to stay in those orbits, they needed to follow mathematical laws, laws which necessarily involve PI. PI preceded life.

Champernowne's constant is also a number, which has its own existence just like the number '3.' Champernowne's constant is the number constructed by listing all of the integers in order -- 1,2,3, ... 145,146, ... forever, after a decimal point, creating an irrational number like PI (3.14159...) which is a decimal expansion that also goes on forever. So, Champernowne's constant = 0.123456789101112131415161718192021... (never-ending). PI is also a never-ending, never-repeating decimal, and its existence, and Champernowne's constant's existence as numbers are certainly no less real than the number '3.'

What is amazing about Champernowne's constant that every finite sequence of numbers appears somewhere in its decimal expansion. '7181' -- you can find that in the small portion of the decimal expansion which I gave just above. It turns out that we can prove that every sequence of numbers of any length will exist at some point in this number.

Now, consider digital representations of reality. Take a JPG:

This is a file which a computer stores as only a sequence of numbers. Every point (pixel) in the image is coded as a number representing the color, and the width and height are also coded in the file as numbers. The JPG above exists as a number sequence somewhere within Champernowne's constant. Video sequences are also able to be represented as a string of numbers, one image after another. Add sound -- no problem. All your mp3's are just strings of numbers. Somewhere in this number is a high-definition (as high-def as you want) copy of the movie Avatar and every other movie ever made, yet to be made, or ever possible to make. Add a third dimension, rather than a flat image, and a whole room or galaxy and its motion and change over time can also be coded as a string of numbers. They all exist at a specific location in Champernowne's constant just as '7181' does. Our brains have a physical configuration and electric potentials that are just as easily represented as numbers, so our thoughts are in there too.

The dramatic implication of this is that my life (in 3D video, sound, smells, and all other senses), your life, and everyone's life, and the details of the whole universe (or any conceivable universe) over any time-frame can be found represented to any desired accuracy somewhere within Champernowne's constant.

As numbers exist, everything that ever has, ever will, or ever could exist will always exist.

We cannot completely cease to exist as long as the number '3' cannot either. Mathematical existence seems like a real kind of existence to me, but perhaps that is as much illusion as our material existence is also probably illusion.

Fun stuff.

Interstellar Beings - Voyager 1 Exits Solar System

Congratulations humans!! NASA has announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has become the first man-made object to venture out of our solar system into interstellar space. We awake now to the dawn of interstellar travel.

Also according to NASA, Voyager 1 is more than 125.4 astronomical units, or 18,759,573,023.4 kilometers from the Earth. This distance is equivalent to circling the Earth around the equator more than 468,111 times. Driving your car non-stop at 65 mile/hour (104.607 kilometers/hour), you would reach this distance in approximately 20,471 years!

Smile! We are now interstellar beings.

Imbolc 2013 is Exactly Feb. 3 16:07 UT

What and when is Imbolc?

I have calculated the exact time of Imbolc in 2013, to the minute, halfway between the 2012 Winter Solstice and the 2013 Spring Equinox. February 3, 16:07 UT (11:07 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) is the precise Imbolc time between Dec. 21, 2012 11:12 (UT) (Winter Solstice) and Mar. 20, 2013 11:02 (UT) (Spring Equinox).

Imbolc is an important landmark in the seasonal cycle of the year, and many cultures closer to the land than ours have considered it the start of Spring. Imbolc is the traditional festival which has survived in America in the form of Groundhog Day.

The pagan "Wheel of the Year," has eight festivals, composed of the 4 quarter days:

-- The Vernal (Spring) Equinox, when the Sun is aligned with the Equator, and begins the half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere when the daylight is longer than the dark period of night.

-- The Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and when daylight begins getting shorter each day.

-- The Autumnal Equinox, the counterpart of the Vernal Equinox, when day and night are equal, but now beginning the half of the year when the length of nights will be longer than the days.

-- The Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and when daylight begins getting longer each day.

The solstices and equinoxes are the main quarterly changes in the growth, diminishing, and dominance of daytime or nighttime.

The cross-quarter days are the four traditional festivals, each of which falls halfway between two adjacent quarter days:

-- Imbolc, around February 2, has the same daylight ratio as Samhain, but with increasing daylight. Imbolc ends the darkest three months of the year.

-- Beltane, around May 1, has the same daylight as Lughnasadh, but with increasing daylight. Beltane begins the lightest three months of the year.

-- Lughnasadh, around August 1, has the same daylight as Belane, but with decreasing daylight. Lughnasadh ends the lightest three months of the year.

-- Samhain, around November 1, has the same daylight as Imbolc, but with decreasing daylight. Samhain begins the darkest three months of the year.

The modern celebrations of Groundhog Day, May Day, and Halloween are derived from the older festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, and Samhain respectively.

Happy Imbolc 2013! Happy Spring!