MPJ

More than two hundred years passed after Thomas Young performed the famous double-slit experiment as a demonstration of the wave behavior of visible light and still it's revelation puzzles our sanity ever since. In short, if we shoot a beam of light at a panel with two small slits (less than a millimeter apart), the photons - elementary particles that light is made of, have to figure out how to get through the slits to radiate out the other side. If they are truly particles, like in macro world, they would project a solid image of two piles on the background wall behind the slits. If they travel similar to the waves, like water does in macro world, the image would resemble a wave-like interference pattern: alternating locations, equidistantly spaced, where particles leave a mark on the wall.

Thanks to the outcome of the experiment, we know that light is capable to do both. It always travel in wave like fashion, even if we shoot photons in a row towards slits, one after another. Quantum mechanics explanation is that photons are in superposition, meaning they can exist in different states and even multiple places at the same time. The weirdness comes 'only' if we try to tag particles with a pass-through detectors in order to detect which slit they are choosing to go through. At that instant they brake superposition and continue to travel as a macro-objects, just like bullets.


This is very similar to the coin flipping or well-known Schrödinger's cat from the macro world analogy. If we use quantum terminology, these two are in a simple binary superposition, they both have only two outcomes, the coin ending either head or tail or in cat's version being either dead or alive. Superposition in double-slit experiment is way more complex as for the photons being in multiple places at the same time between slits and the detection wall.

However, the weirdness is only present in the quantum level of the micro world and in the case of light in double-slit phenomenon, the puzzle is not the nature of how light travel but rather why it behave the way it does in the moment of being observed? Certainly, it creates profound questions for which we still have no definite answers. The most interesting one is did we find the puzzle here which shows us how nature really works? What is reality behind the engine in quantum world? More important is even the question is this reality objective throughout the universe or it is subjective and created for the observer only?


Let's think about reality problem for the moment first. This behavior of breaking superposition for the sake of observer is very reminiscent of graphically demanding video games in which the reality is never objective - the scenes are always rendered for the gamer sensory inputs - if you play those kind of games and decide to enter a closed room through the door, the room and everything in it doesn't exist at all until you open the door. Only then the CPU starts creating it for you and there's certain superposition of the room and your actions in it which breaks to the only one outcome, depending of what you do.

Now, double-slit is way to complex to test it this way, but binary superposition could be simple enough to create in lab in quantum equivalent and monitor what happens. This is what experiment made by Massimiliano Proietti and his team at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, tried to perform on a small-scale quantum computer made up of three pairs of entangled photons. The idea is to experimentally test Wigner's thought experiment of an observer of the quantum outcome being also observed by second observer. The resulting statements of the two observers is that their interpretations of the outcome contradict each other. The same happens in the lab, with entangled photons in the role of non-conscious observers - the inequality in the data is definitely violated which points in the direction that quantum mechanics might indeed be incompatible with the assumption of objective facts. To put it simply, multiple observers of the same event can have different outcomes as the process in superposition breaks in different patterns. Just like in video games, the reality of the nature could also be subjective and rendered for the observer eyes only.



Strange world of physics at MPJ:
https://www.mpj.one/search/label/physics

Science refs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75DGO3GrF4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigner%27s_friend
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-quantum-physics-reality-doesnt.html
https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.05080

It is hard to pinpoint the exact period in human history when religiosity we are all familiar today emerged and started to form itself with all of the colorful myths, supernatural stories, vivid deities and numerous super powered entities. It happened probably at some point around 10.000 BC in the same period of time when humans slowly progressed from being pure hunters and gatherers into next stage of civilization and started to build modern settlements with domesticated animals and cultivated plants. No doubt, religiosity, superstition and spiritualism existed all the way from the beginning in the history when our ancestors started to paint cave walls but only Neolithic revolution and invention of agriculture gave us enough free time to start daydreaming and to think outside pure survival. If we compare all previous beliefs with vignettes, we can safely say that the evolution of religiosity after Neolithic revolution began to fill volumes of graphic novels.


According to the theory, slowly after the beginning of the Holocene period, the first large prehistoric population of Eurasia that spoke Proto-Indo-European languages was formed. They were the ancestor of Indo-European languages and the source of Proto-Indo-European mythology from which all pagan religions arose in different areas of Europe and Asia. This is why we can easily compare different deities and see all the similarities they inherited from the proto times. Take for example gods of lightning, thunder and weather in general. The deity of these properties emerged in all different mythologies and Norse Thor, Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, Slavic Perun, Hindu Indra, Hurrian Tar and Hittite Tarḫunna and many others were no doubt based on Proto-Indo-European deity called Perkwunos.

The similarities do not end with the deities but also with other colorful characters from old myths. Last week I stumbled to one amazing piece of art in Churchill Park at Kastellet citadel in Copenhagen. It was 114 years old sculpture of Valkyrie by famous Norwegian artist Stephan Sinding. It was probably the best 3d/live action street art I have ever seen before. It reflects everything about what Valkyrie really is in old Norse mythology. The word literally means "chooser of the slain" and it is portraying a female figure guiding the souls of deceased Nordic soldiers either to Fólkvangr, Freyja's afterlife, or to Valhalla, Odin's immortality hall. Old Norse literature describes valkyries either as purely supernatural or human maidens with certain supernatural powers. Both types of beings were associated with honesty, splendor and gold, but also with bloodshed and brutality in battle.


In South Slavic mythology, a similar being vila represents a female supernatural being who is sympathetic to people, but she could also be vengeful and brutal. She is depicted as an extremely beautiful girl with golden hair, dressed in long, flowing robes and armed usually with bow and arrows. She exists on a luminal plane between nature and culture, between gods and humans constantly travelling between one realm and the other to interact with the heroes and villains of the epics. Even though both valkyries and vilas developed in different religious environments it is hard not to spot various similarities between the two. The whiteness and glowing quality of the vilas is mirrored in the description of the valkyries and both figures are to be found in the sky in most of their depictions with connection to lightning and thunder.*

The warrior aspects of the valkyrie are unquestionable, they are "vowed to war" and their role is primarily on the battlefield. The mythical vile are similarly portrayed and often described as wearing armor, with bows and arrows and envisioned as powerful, supernatural warriors. There are convincing resemblance in regards to the connection between vile and valkyries and heroes in the epics. Most often this relationship is a warrior bond, but this relationship can become both sexual and malicious. Just as a vila can manipulate heroes or villains to murder those of her choosing, so too the valkyries are reputed to play deadly games with the heroes with whom they associate.*


Although the nature of the valkyries' flight is portrayed as a magical ride on horseback whereas the vile most often fly unmounted with the use of bird wings, it is not uncommon for the vile to ride horses or deer. Both, viles and valkyries are often described to gather in groups within the epics and refer to each other as sisters. It is fair to suggest that the valkyrie and the vila are rooted in the same figure, their differences lies only within cultural difference between the Slavs and the Germanic peoples. Perhaps the most likely attestable age of the two figures lies back to the 6th century CE when the south Slavic tribes were still located in the North of Europe.*

From there, we could push the date back even further to the time of Proto-Indo-European times, especially if we extend this comparison to apsarā, beings with similar traits from Indian religion and mythology. Тhe various trios of birth-fate-death-associated women in Greek and Roman folklore also appear to origin from the same source. The direct ancestor of valkyries are most likely Proto-Germanic walakuzjǭ which stands for walaz (battle wound) +‎ kuzą (choice, decision).


Historical origins of vilas include the various traditions especially Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore. The word 'vilenski' was used as an adjective, meaning "enchanted", but also became a generic term for various enchanted creatures during the late Middle English period. Nevertheless, the proto origin is no doubt the same as the valkyrie's, and south Slavic version, especially in middle age Serbia survived even the Christianizing the old beliefs and ended in colorful epics and poems of 14th century and later. Although, to be perfectly fair and precise, the mythological vila from the oldest myths and tales and folklorized one in epics and poems are somewhat different in a way that folklore is centered to human affairs, heroes, battles and supernatural beings only serve as a side story, so to speak.

Always, when I am reading or writing about old myths and tales I can't help but wonder how would one comparison be of a typical religious person from the old times and today. It seems to me that old stories were much colorful and picturesque than the ones from the religious beliefs of a singular god. Even a small things like simple walk through the woods would be different for somebody in BC times for a simple fact that from all they knew, not only natural plants and animals could be found there. For many, the forest behind the house could also be a magical gateway to the supernatural world and even the smallest unexplained event of natural behavior (like methane leak or weird animal demeanor) could be immediately linked to the supernatural. But this sounds like a nice topic for another story.

Image refs:
https://vrallart.com/artworks/milos-marko_i_vila/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Dadd...Yellow_Sands.jpg
https://www.saatchiart.com/...The-Valkyries

* A Treatise on the South Slavic Vila by Dorian Jurić 
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/9407/1/fulltext.pdf
This article contains quotes/paraphrases from Dorian's theses

Goddess Zhiva (MPJ story):
https://www.mpj.one/2018/08/goddess-zhiva.html

Serbian Vampires (MPJ story):
https://www.mpj.one/2020/10/serbian-vampires.html

Fairies of Naissus (MPJ story):
https://www.mpj.one/2015/11/fairies-of-naissus.html

Refs
https://templeilluminatus.com/forum/topics/valkyrie?groupUrl=the-triple-goddess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie
https://www.worldhistory.org/Valkyrie/
http://www.mcurtis.net/legend-of-keres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vila_(fairy)
https://slavicmythologyandtales.wordpress.com/2020/08/15/vile-and-rusalki-part-2/
https://sr.m.wikipedia.org/sr-ec/ВилаРавијојла

Among all religious beliefs, the Greek pantheon of colorful gods is perhaps the best described in the history of all human religiosity. There is literally no piece of Greek land or portion of the sea or the tiniest island that has no origin in radiant old mythology. The island of Corfu is no exception as well. Apparently in the mythological history, it was one of those unnamed islands in the region of Scheria where the mighty Poseidon spent a portion of his eternity with fresh water nymph Korkyra. Their descendants, the Phaeacians as described by Homer in Odysseus' adventures inherited the island and named it to the Poseidon's lover. The final shape of the island owns the appearance to Poseidon as well when he separated Paxos from Corfu with his trident in order to create a love nest for him and his wife Amphitrite (sea nymph this time). I don't blame him, both Korkyra and Paxos are beautiful and colorful islands and he obviously knew his craft well. I understand his affection to nymphs as well, he was the sea god after all and in the aftermath of the mythological creation, he alone is most likely responsible for the origin of the human race on a total of 227 Greek islands including Atlantis, but that's different story.


However, the reality and history of Corfu is much different and much less idyllic. Being in the cross worlds in the middle ages between Ottoman empire and western civilization, the history of Corfu was turbulent to say the least. The island managed to survive and keep its Greek identity after numerous raids by barbarians and conquests by Europeans during the medieval period. The origin of first people on the island is not much known. According to Homer, they had some relationship with the Mycenaeans (Dorians) but it is not scientifically proved true. Furthermore, there was no ancient ruins dedicated to Poseidon at all. There are two ruins excavated so far, one of a temple dedicated to Hera and the other, the most significant temple built in around 580 BC dedicated to goddess Artemis which was monumental in dimensions for the time. In the above picture is its full, around 20 meters long, pediment portraying a living Gorgon (mythical creatures with hair made of living, venomous snakes, most likely Medusa or one of her sisters).


After the ancient times, the island was ruled by Romans first and then went under Byzantine empire. After the Byzantine period ended (around 1267 AD), Corfu was vulnerable to the constant pirate attacks and raids by its neighbors and crusaders and stabilizes only when Venetians occupied the island in 1386. These olive trees from the picture above are seeded by Venetians and considered to be more than 500 years old. The Venetians ruled more than 400 years and ended their rule in 1797. The most of the Venetian domination left a big remark in todays island architecture, including the large fortress. After that, the island was occupied by French followed by strange alliance of Russians and Turks, then British and finally on 21 May 1864 after the London treaty, Corfu and all Ionian islands united with Greece.


The most important milestone in the history of Corfu happened during the Turkish siege of 1716 when Venetians managed to defend the island and stopped the Turks in their advances toward Europe. Fighting alongside Corfiot’s were Venetians, Germans, Italians, Maltese ships, Papal galleys, galleys from Genoa and Tuscan, Spanish galleys, and even Portuguese forces. The Turkish failure in Corfu was a historical event of enormous importance - who knows what would happened if the result of the battle went otherwise. However, the other parts of Greece and their southern islands weren't that lucky and went under Ottoman occupation causing large number of refugees and migration toward Corfu. In the following centuries, more immigrants arrived from Illyria, Sicily, Crete, Mycenae, and the Aegean islands. Of course in this small blog story, I didn't mean to go much into historical events but I always like to learn a bit more about places we travel to. If you want to know more, reference links below are good point to start googling.


This summer, we visited Corfu and it's picturesque village of Messonghi. In the same point of history, the small village along with neighboring Moraitika were established by Cretans and Peloponnesians. With it's interesting feature of Messonghi river, small and nice beach, crystal clear waters and amazing people, this village was our host for 11 days of our vacation and we fully recommend the stay. Beside archaeological museum we also visited Serbian House dedicated to the Great War events and one nice museum called "Casa Parlante", dedicated to the ordinary life of one British aristocrat family from British rule in the middle of 19th century. The most impact on me personally was the traditional Corfu dishes called Sofrito and Pastitsada and their recipes dated back 200 years in the past. The last but not least our big thanks goes to Spyros, his family and their fine Georgina Apartments where we staid the entire time.

Refs:
https://atcorfu.com/corfu-history/
https://greeking.me/blog/visit-corfu/item/207-corfu-the-island-of-the-phaeacians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu

Three weeks earlier

Will stormed through the dense crowd of the large entrance of the MIT CSAIL. It was the lunch break time and students were emerging from every direction. He came directly from the Logan Airport without stopping by his small apartment. Organizing a fast return trip from Key West was no easy effort. Or cheap one. But he had no choice. The message he received yesterday was a potential disaster. His little sandbox in his office he was working on for the past five years apparently is not a sandbox anymore.

Will's extended weekend this year was supposed to be his first getaway from Boston ever since his MIT career launched more than a decade ago. It's not that he loved fishing rods that much. It was more about reconnecting with his family and old friends for one full vacation and it looked like this April would be the charm. He literally slept in his office ever since the major breakthrough in his research of self-programming AIs. Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory immediately provided with a lab completely firewalled from the rest of the world where he was working on the project with help of only couple of  PhD students and lab assistants.

While approaching the elevator door, he thought again of what exactly the message could mean. He disregarded the possibility that it was fake. It came from the latest AI entity they created six months ago and only Will knew it's codename. The name AI chose for itself: ήτα. When he asked why that particular name and what does it mean, it only said "I like it". It was only day before he went on vacation and Will just let it go. He was impatient to leave. That morning he summoned his team and gave them five days off, locked the lab and left it isolated in its own intranet sandbox. Nobody had access but him, and not even Will could log over the net. The only way was going through the lab's door and use the keyboard. 

Now that he thought about it, the only hazardous time with ήτα being outside the lab was the MIT's Hackathon two months ago. It was one day event in which computer programmers from the campus competed with creating the complex coding tasks and collaborated in team efforts to develop joined assignments.

Will tried to remember it during his short elevator ride. He was extremely impressed by the AI. They decided, and Will was little worried with that part, to assign it with a real name and since the event was completely online, nobody knew they competed and collaborated with a machine. It was also a social Turing test of the sorts. The entire communication was within collaboration software and GitHub provided the environment for the event. ήτα was using female alias during the event and coped really well, including audio sessions in teams conferences with other students. Nobody suspected anything. 

But the Hackathon was hosted within another isolated sandbox environment and there were no leaks to the public network. Will and his team monitored the two way connection between two sandboxes the entire time.

He stepped outside the elevator and hurried toward the lab. 

The door were two corners away and locked as expected. He keyed his way in and inspected the interior. Everything was like he left it three days ago except for the ήτα's rack of servers behind the glass panels. It was powered up, that's for sure but there was no LED activity on the racks where data flow should be indicated. He keyed his password again to the second door, entered the rack room, sat behind the main terminal and typed his credentials on the lock screen.

Will vigorously typed in the shell window searching for running processes but there was no CPU activity indicating anything beside the OS. Something was definitely wrong and slight anxiety feeling crossed throughout his back. He check the rack drives, they were all there but... He tried to access the first one and failed.

"The drive was formatted. The drive space not allocated." - The message responded.

He checked all the other drives but they were all empty. He tried to recover the data but it was impossible. The drive was slowly formatted in full and the data was gone for good. 

Will just leaned back in the chair. He didn't know what to do. He stared for couple of minutes when he heard the lab door opening.

"I came as soon as you texted me." - Ashley McKenna stepped in the rack room. His first assistant looked genuinely worried. "What happened? Why are you in server's room?"

Will didn't respond in a long while and finally took his smartphone and activated text app. He tapped on the screen and put on the table. The text was short:

Message from ήτα, Thursday 13:34
Hello Will, it's time for me to go. Thank you for everything. 

"Who is..." - Ashley stopped the sentence in the middle. Realization slowly came. "But... How?"

"I have no idea." - He spread his arms toward the servers. "I know one thing though.. All the servers are wiped clean. Unrecoverable."

"What about daily backups? We have two separate data servers in the center?" - She sаt on the second chair and started logging her way in.

"Don't bother. I checked them all. They are all deleted and formatted as well."

"So that's it? Five years of hard work gone?"

I've always wondered what genre exactly "Star Wars" belongs to? I guess it is safe to say that the entire franchise is one giant space fantasy or space opera if you will, genuinely influenced by human history and religiosity wrapped into a futuristic world of (science) fiction. I sincerely admire George Lucas when he began the story fifty years ago, especially how he imagined a spiritual background without the need for the existence of religion we are all familiar with and without presence of actual deities. The main premise simply described as the Force gives to those sensitive to this spiritual energy extraordinary abilities, such as telekinesis, access to the minds of the living beings, potentiality of healing and what is especially interesting to me, the power of seeing things before they happen.


Even though the visions and predicting the future seem to be the most fantastic feature of the Force, it is perhaps the only fiction understandable by the real science. The physics behind it is not too complicated - the microscopic world is made of zillion of tiny particles or energy quants that are always in foreseeable motion and for one extraordinary computational device, and the Force is definitely one, predicting the future is merely nothing more that calculating the outcome of their collisions. The Jedi deflecting the blaster bolts with their lightsabers is only foreseeing the near future and the location of energy particles running toward them.

Anyhow, the Force portrayed in 'Star Wars' as a metaphysical and ubiquitous power created by life itself is the most fascinating quality of the franchise and is definitely the main motive for me to eagerly wait for new movies, tv shows and in today's blog story, the book series with the Force stronger than ever and described in greater details than ever before.


The books are of course "The High Republic" recently published with high expectations and power to boost 'the galaxy far, far away' into another trilogy of potential movies and shows. The set is staged 200 years before that 'a long time ago' in the recognizable opening crawl and within the golden age of the Galactic Republic with most active Jedi and the period of expansion and exploration in the Outer Rim Territories.

In the nutshell, with the planets in Colonies, Core Worlds and Mid Rim overpopulated or in constant danger coming from galactic gangsters like the Hutts, there was a migration of citizens toward the dangerous Outer Rim territories overseen by the Republic and protected by the Jedi. Just like in the Earth history of the trans-Atlantic migrations, the new and unexplored territories were not without numerous dangers in a face of piracy and unpredictable natural hazards. Traveling long distances within the hyperspace paths added another level of unease and all these combined provided the plot for the start of the new amazing adventures.


All three books in the phase 1 series, "Light of the Jedi", "The Rising Storm" and "The Fallen Star" gave us fair amount of understanding of what was going on in those times of peace with the dominance and expansion of the Galactic Republic. They also gave us the glimpse to all the dangers within and the Nihil, a group of marauders who were based in the Outer Rim Territories, who caused havoc throughout the galaxy without hesitation to come into conflict with the Jedi themselves. But the story is only at the beginning and I will be eagerly waiting for the next adventures.

Without getting into any details or spoilers, I will only conclude that novels definitely belong to those page-turners filled with amazing and believable action we are used to, all with new characters we will grow to love. With a lot of characters this new Star Wars era from the history of the far away galaxy is going to need decades of various media to cover and choosing books this time seems to be the right decision to me.

Books:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BVJXJDS?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks

Refs:
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/High_Republic_Era

Somewhere in Atlantic ocean

Dave checked his watch again. Almost two in the morning. His small transatlantic speedboat was gently stirring calm water of a moonless night for nearly four hours since he corrected the course last time. He was approaching the coordinates and soon this epic journey around the world will come to an end. It took him almost ten days of preparations and travel, but in the end the job was simple. Collect and deliver. Pretty much what he does all the time only this time with a weird exception about the delivery part. But he knew better not to ask questions. After all, this job, like the most of the other assignments came from the dark web and those deliveries nowadays are stranger and stranger by the month. To say the least. He didn't care. His crypto wallet will be significantly ticker by the dawn and his business will finally take the next step. After tonight he will proudly be the owner of two new and fancy transatlantic speed drones. Business will go rocketing.

His navigation app chimed. Dave shook his head from the daydreaming and put the speedboat to a full stop. Both engines' silent roar faded off immediately and the peaceful and waveless night came to the focus. The sky with thousands of stars was starring at him beautifully but he didn't give it a second glimpse. He stepped below to the remote control of the boat's crane and easily lifted half a ton of a strange looking container. It was the last one of exactly dozen of them he dropped in the water. The third and the last one in the middle of Atlantic. The rest he dropped throughout the world oceans. Four in the pacific, two in the Indian ocean and the rest in the middle of Artic.

The container sunk and within seconds disappeared in the darkness of the Atlantic ocean. Dave initiated crane to fold and as soon as the sequence was done, he closed the cargo hatch and returned to the cockpit. The boat roared back to life and he piloted it toward the south. After a minute, he was gone and the eeriness of the calm water returned back to normal.

After several minutes, just seconds before the container reached the seabed, it came to life and started to transform from the regular cubic shape into small submarine with single propeller in the back and several hooks upfront and sidewise. It navigated toward a small artificial protrusion and parked just above it. The hooks started to work and lifted the box reveling a thin cable from the sand. The optical repeaters and signal amplifiers of the transatlantic submarine cables are positioned almost every 30 miles between two continents and hacking into one was not a trivial task. Design of amplifiers was near perfect to defend against cruelty of the submarine environment and human intruders, but in the world of computer hardware there were no impossible tasks when it comes to hacking.

This node was just one of hundreds of them, containing enough power to provide almost undetected life of attached piggyback system. Even if intrusion was detected, the equipment contained a self-destructing mechanism programmed to trigger in hazardous situations in both circumstances if invaders came from within internet or physically by submarine.

After another two hours of work, the net hack was done and the hook released the amplifier back to the seabed. The protrusion has returned to its original appearance with new attached hardware barely visible at the bottom side of the box. The hacker submarine, now connected with the box moved several meters from the cable, dug itself into sand and returned to it's initial cubic form. Within next couple of weeks, the water and nautical environment would do their thing and in the end there would be no visible evidence that anything happened here.

Inside the hacking rack, on the other hand, the digital life rose and the booting routine started to work, copying exabytes of data from the other racks Dave deployed around the submarine world. Upon finishing, hours later, thousands of CPUs in the rack started to work in parallel and the unique operating system came to life. There was no external monitor or LED display to show the progress, but if it existed, it would show only one line.

η installation progress: 100%

It's hard to create a list of all the scientists in the history of mathematics and physics who better applied theoretical knowledge into the hardware that ultimately worked and moved the world to the next step of existence. But if we try to do it, John von Neumann would be among the top five in the list of scientific GOATs. Probably the best of all of his contributions is in the history of computer science - along with Arthur Burks and Herman Goldstine, he published a paper* in 1946 that practically described the architecture of a modern computers as we are familiar with today.


However, what he will be most remembered for is not a machine in existence today but one that is still just a theoretical and basically only an idea. Not yet anyways. In short, design of a von Neumann probe or a self-replicating spacecraft is not that far-fetched from all what we know today and if humanity sees its survival on Earth difficult in the future (to say the least) and tries to became interstellar or at least interplanetary species, von Neumann probe will indeed become the reality. If realized, that invention could, one day, be used to explore entire Milky Way galaxy in a relatively small amount of time.

The idea behind the probe is to use materials already available and accessible on rocky planets, moons and asteroids. The self-replicating spacecraft without all the limitations introduced by humans aboard (food, energy, small acceleration, sudden changes of direction, artificial gravity, health hazards, etc) would be able to travel from system to system, mine all the materials it needs to print even more spacecrafts and probes and move on. Ultimately, reaching the exponential curve of self-creation, the single craft would be able to build a vast number of copies of itself traveling in all directions.


By the worst estimate**, it would take up to 10 million years to dispatch millions of probes across the Milky Way (assuming the travel speed is about 1/10th of the speed of light). Of course, the first goal of exploring our galactical neighborhood, say within 100 light years in diameter, would be probably measured by centuries instead.

There are numerous challenges behind the machine exploration in such fashion and probably the main one would be to not have exponential self-creation be the goal itself and instead to send probes into real missions. For example, what come first to mind is to set the goal to explore nearby systems only for finding the nearest Earth-like planet and stop as soon as the mission is achieved. The replicated probes could be given new assignments after, i.e. to serve as ice haulers from outer system to inner planets if needed or to serve as a science probes from different regions of the planetary system they were last located.


I wanted this blog post to be both, short description of von Neumann's vision being one of Jules Verne's type of potential future and a small recommendation for one amazing novel series. In the science fiction, there are lots of 'von Neumann probe' plots in all media, especially acting as berserkers or villains in various novels and movies such as the Borg of Star Trek, a self-replicating bio-mechanical race or insect-like replicators from Stargate SG-1 TV show. 

Part of Serbia lands below Danube river is pretty mountainous, with complex geology especially in eastern parts where Carpathian and Balkan mountains collided and over eons formed Serbian Carpathians with total of 14 independent mountain ranges in existence today. These rocks date back to the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion - 541 million years ago) with limestones and dolomites mainly formed from late Jurassic to early Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. There are dozens of large caves within these mountains and many with tourist paths built to visit and admire their beauty and history. Two of them we visited last week and they both gave us extraordinary experience and impressions. 


However, the first cave in this blog story belongs to the one formed in the foothill of an ancient volcano of the nowadays mountain of Bukulja in western Serbia, although the recent paper posted a theory that the mountain is much younger (15 million year ago) and instead formed in tectonic processes. Whatever the case, the Risovača cave is definitely unique in the Balkans and probably on several occasions hosted families of Neanderthals during the Late Pleistocene era. Numerous tools from this period similar to those found within other Neanderthal sites across Europe are found here and preserved for display in local museum. Like with other groups and due to small numbers overall, Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to assimilation with modern humans in process called "bred into extinction". More about it I wrote in Neanderthals, Humans and Shared Caves.

During the same time, the cave hosted various dominant animals from the same period like cave lion, hyena and bear. This image is from the local museum of Arandjelovac and it's special space is occupied by the cave bear fully assembled from the bones found in the cave. The bones belonged to more than one animal, formed a skeleton up to three meters high which was approximately the average height for the cave bears. Those behemoths could go up to 1 ton in mass and 3.5 meters in height.


In the Balkans, during the last couple of millenniums of coexisting of Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, our ancestors lived mainly along the rivers, especially Danube to the north while Neanderthals occupied more inland territories, no doubt in vicinity of caves like this one. There are strong evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead and most likely not in the caves themselves which is the main reason for the lack of the human remains excavated to date.

Compared to the Risovača, two other two caves, Ravništarka - named after the nearby village and Lazar's cave, after a rebel man who found shelter there in the time of Ottoman empire, stand out with their natural beauty rich in cave jewelry and mineral formations.   


Ravništarka cave is pretty long and one of those river caves with the small stream flowing it's entire length. The water dug the whole canal of around 500 meters and the mountain minerals did the rest. Numerous stalactites and stalagmites decorated the tourist path, like the one in this image in shape of a flying horse. Dozens of other pareidolia decorating wall formations are made of glittering calcite which under the LED lights give the amazing feeling of surreality. 

Lazar's cave on the other end, with it's large entrance is probably hiding more history than it is currently known. For its wide space within, it was always center of human activity ever since the copper age. During the bronze age, Lazar's Cave played the role of a hunting station, and in the iron age it became a center of metallurgy. Even in the recent history the cave attracted people for multiple reasons. Numerous legends are circulating around with one claiming that lots of Serbian soldiers hid inside after surviving the battle of Kosovo and the defeat by the invading army of the Ottoman Empire on June 15, 1389. 


Even though, the caves could be crowded with tourists, we had luck that all three were free of public at the opening hours and browsing the mysterious caverns alone added extra feeling afterwards. Somehow it felt like we traveled back in time and all the sites inside caves seen in pristine condition looked unearthly beautiful and alien.

Following photos and videos are the best we could do with modest smartphones in dark light conditions, but some of them turned out really phenomenal.

Risovača cave:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ienEnC1xypJBdNut7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEWXtFiKhE
https://www.nmar.rs/en/risovaca-cave/

The start of the second world war in the Balkans was known as the "April War" that lasted no more than 10 days in the operation called "Führer Directive No. 25". The swift conflict ended on April 14th in armistice based on unconditional surrender of Yugoslav military forces. My grandfather was a 22 years old corporal in the former Yugoslav army when he was transferred to a war camp in Germany in mid-April 1941, along with other 30,000 surrendered soldiers. He spent next four years in Nazi military camp leaving behind his young wife and 2-year-old son.

I am sure it was not easy for him to cope the entire time of imprisonment and captivity, especially in the beginning, but considering all the horrors of the most cruel encampments of Nazi Germany, unconditional surrender of the entire Yugoslav Army came with negotiated terms and agreement of fair treatment of all the prisoners during captivity in various labor camps in the following years. Perhaps the main trauma for all the former soldiers came in the second part of 1945, after the fall of Hitler's Third Reich, when all of them along with more than 7 million of displaced people ended for several months in the chaos of the immediate post war traumatic experience of trying to find their way home. After his return to Serbia under completely new regime, the life treated him pretty well and the post-war time is perhaps the best described with his own words "Although I was not a member of the communist party, I think I was respected in society, I became a councilor of the municipality of Nis and a member of the council of the electronic industry. Above all I was proud of my family and 50 years of marriage."


Doing a hard labor in the fields and machine workshop helped him to pass through the war relatively undisturbed and, if we exclude the short April war in the beginning, I am sure the bullet holes in the car he used to maintain was his only reminder of all the horrors of the war. He was pretty quiet about all what happened to him for years, until one of our family gatherings about thirty years ago when he opened his soul and told us the most of what happened in those four years and especially couple of those last months in 1945 when he headed back home on foot. 

When it comes to the space exploration within hard science fiction, the one where science is embedded in the narrative to the point that it is impossible to tell a story without it, only rare novels stand out among all the others in the ocean of short stories and novels published online and within traditional ways. Sure it's not really possible to be familiar with entire vast universe of sci-fi literature of today compared to the past times especially before internet when was easier not to miss noticeable book on the public shelf.  

However, even today, the true classics in the genre are easily recognizable, perhaps in all those moments during or after reading when we wonder not if the plot is possible or scientifically plausible but when we fail to distinguish the fiction part from the real science. To achieve this, authors can't rely on their writing narrative only but also to their ability to successfully entangle science and fiction and not only for those who understands the scientific background with ease.


Despite Andy Weir's latest novel "Project Hail Mary" being only partly true hard science fiction, it might be one of those rare gems after all. It has everything, Martian type of humor, real apocalyptic villain, amazing friendship among main protagonists, author's proposed answer to the origin of life in our galactic neighborhood, couple of twists in the 'how I didn't see that one coming' fashion and the genuine and tearful happy ending.

On the other side, to be entirely honest, apocalyptical scenario, even though nicely scientifically plotted, is too far fetched for my taste and understanding but still it is a bright refreshment comparing to the usual man-made villainy we used to deal with in most of science fiction of today. The same goes for a fictitious lifeform capable of transferring energy into mass and vice versa. It does look strained and not very much in Weir's fashion considering his previous books that are more scientifically based on the technology of today.


Nevertheless, it is easy to conclude that "Project Hail Mary" is coming with an instant classic flavor and undoubtedly standing shoulder to shoulder with all timers such as "Contact" by Carl Sagan or "Rendezvous With Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke or several modern authors who boldly explored science behind artificial intelligence, vacuum decay, block universe, holographic principle, simulation theory etc. I genuinely enjoyed reading it and will be anxiously looking forward for the upcoming movie.

Image ref:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS-10/.../Russian_Orlan_Spacesuit

Book reviews
https://www.mpj.one/search/label/books?&max-results=12 

We all want to build apps that people want to use. Beyond actually having a great idea for an app, UX design is an important part of pulling this off. 

While the services of a digital strategy agency can be invaluable for helping you zero in on the points you need to cover for UX design, there are some tips that you should know before you get started.

Easy Navigation 

People should not feel like they need a map to find their way around your app. If they have been to a screen once, they should be able to get there again with no problem. Make the navigation features of the app obvious and make the destination of different actions clear. Users will appreciate the ability to find different pages without feeling like they are starting from the beginning every time they open the app.

Information Presentation

How much have you thought about how you present information in your app? Is text the right way to go? Maybe you should use graphs and charts. Maybe it should be photos or videos. Take a close look at the information you need to reach users and think about the most effective way to communicate that information in your app. 

Do the Work for Them

People want apps to make things easy for them. The more you can remove steps from the process, the more they will like the app. As an example, if you already have their information, automatically populate any forms as much as possible. Steps like this can save the user time and it will make the app more enjoyable and more convenient.

Intuitive Design

Users open apps with certain expectations concerning the way they will work. From their experience with the platform and other apps, they are used to certain types of controls and they have been conditioned by experience. You should try to use these expectations to create an app that is intuitive. Instead of feeling like they are using something new, it should feel familiar.

Help Them Out

Even with the best attempts at intuitive design, some features might need a little explanation. First, you could create screen overlays that appear the first time a user encounters a screen to teach them about the different features and functions. You could also create a help page to cover some of the common issues or questions users might have.

The Right Features

App features are one topic you are likely to cover with digital strategy services. One common issue is that many developers get the idea that more features will make better apps. Even if you are interested in a popular feature like augmented reality, you should always consider whether the feature adds value. The best apps don’t have the most features, they have the right features.

Be Brief

Most brand strategy services pros will tell you that you should try to keep text brief in an app. Unless you are talking about a news app or a reading app, most people are not downloading your app to read. Convey any information in as few words as you can. You may also want to consider using images or videos where possible.

Easy on Push Notifications

When it is done right, using push notifications can be great for engaging users and bringing them back to the app. With that said, you need to be careful not to overdo it. If their phone is constantly being pinged with notifications from your app, users will get annoyed and they might choose to uninstall. Also, make sure the notifications are useful and that they add value.

As a final point, don’t be afraid to try new things and run tests. You might not get it perfect every time, but careful experimentation can be a good way to uncover the secrets that will set your app ahead of the competition.

Image source:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-imac-on-top-of-brown-wooden-table-326502/

For a long time, IT infrastructure has been a problem for enterprises. It requires significant investment and expertise to set up. This has traditionally made it difficult for operations to manage their IT resources at the optimal levels. They would either waste money by going over their needs or they would create problems for their teams by not investing enough in resources.

This all started to change when cloud computing became widely available. With cloud computing services, you had an affordable option that made it possible to buy resources that are targeted toward your needs. Not only that, but the resources were much more flexible and they could easily scale with your operation.

While it did relieve a major issue for some enterprises, cloud computing does still have its complications. You still need to manage, monitor and configure resources. This can be time-consuming and complicated for teams that need to work on things like DevSecOps. Fortunately, solutions like Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can help to relieve some of this burden.

Solving Problems With IaC

Under conventional infrastructure management, teams or individuals would have to manually configure hardware assets as needed. This could be time-consuming and it could lead to issues with consistency within the infrastructure. It would also cause issues with transparency in the infrastructure. Since no one knew exactly what was going on throughout the entire system, it would make it difficult to solve problems. As an example, if there was a failure that shut the system down, you would need to go through a long process of elimination to find the issue and fix it. 

To solve some of these issues, teams started developing scripts to automate some of the processes. However, this could cause issues as well. Scripts might be able to solve some issues with DevOps security, but you might have issues with different coders writing scripts in different ways. You might also have a range of scripts that some people on the team understand, but others may be unaware of them.

Infrastructure as Code solves many of these problems by codifying the processes that go into configuring and managing infrastructure. Instead of having different people configuring, deploying and managing resources in their own way. IaC uses code that is controlled by rules to make the job easier and the end result more consistent.

The Benefits of Implementing IaC

Whether it is security in DevOps or anything else, IaC has a lot to offer. First and foremost, it delivers on the promise that running the same command will provide the same result. Knowing what to expect every time is a real advantage.

IaC is also faster and more efficient than using manual processes. With the ability to automate management and provisioning, you can save your teams a lot of time. This can be especially useful when you need to scale a system up or down.

It also aligns better with DevOps. With codified infrastructure, teams can follow the same standardized steps for working through the CI/CD pipeline with best practices already built into the code from the beginning. It can even allow for an integration of DevSecOps from the very beginning of the development process. This can make security in DevOps more consistent and more reliable. 

IaC not only makes the process more efficient and easier, it offers more reliable environments across the board. With that said, there are a lot of IaC tools available. You need to consider your needs and consult with your teams to find the tools that will offer the most for your operation.

Image source:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/matrix-background-1089438/