A few thoughts I should have put in my last post before I went to bed last night:
Inhabitants of the Blogosphere have often commented on the resemblance of so many current events, and commentaries on them, to the sci-fi concept of 'Bizarro World', where everything is the opposite of our world. This is true enough, but I have a slightly different analogy.
Is the difference between the Blogosphere and the Bogusphere like the difference between matter and anti-matter? Does the general symmetry visible in the construction of the universe necessarily imply the fourth term in the analogy matter : anti-matter :: mind : anti-mind? If so, anti-mind would be a substance exactly like mind except that it is the complete opposite. As with matter and anti-matter, when mind and anti-mind meet the result is quite unpleasant. Unfortunately, there is a lot of anti-mind floating around in our particular corner of the galaxy. It sometimes seems to be raining anti-mind in most of the Middle East.
Are there elements in the anti-matter universe? If so, would the shorter, more positive, name for anti-Strontium-90 be 'Rallium', 'Sontagium', 'Fiskium', or 'Chomskium'? It depends on which sounds most virulent, I suppose. Or would Chomskium be the shorter name for anti-Americium? What would be good names for anti-arsenic and anti-lead? How about anti-Uranium 235 and 238? There's no lack of names to assign, and my comment section is open.
All this reminds me of a joke -- or rather a true story. A few years ago astronomers discovered that Saturn was not the only planet with rings, just the only one whose rings are visible from earth. The other one's rings are parallel to the plane of the earth's orbit and so cannot be seen, even with the best telescopes, except by space probes that leave the orbital plane. (I'm too lazy to look it up, but I believe they are only a few feet thick.) Anyway, at the time of the discovery I happened to be visiting relatives, sitting around with my older brother (who reads this blog: hi, Steve!) as he read Time and I read something else. At one point he looked up and said: "Have you heard? They've discovered rings around Uranus!" I said: "Rings around my what? . . . Oh, the planet."
Posted by Dr. Weevil at May 19, 2002 03:26 PM