Hello, world.
That seemed like a good opening bit, because I'm about to launch headlong into a 'who-am-I' kind of introduction. So here's the deal: I'm a 40-year old software guy (hence the "hello world" geekdulgence - other bitheads will get it) who has decided it's about time to get himself some learnin'. Every once in a (short) while I find myself noticing an article that makes me think, "dammit, why didn't I go deep into Physics and, who knows, make some Astounding Discovery about what makes existence exist?" Usually it's an arstechnica blurb about the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) and some amazing stuff discovered, or perhaps ruled out there. And I wonder, "What's a Hadron and why don't I know?"
So the other night, I happened to watch "What the #$*! do we know?", and got all excited thinking it was going to take me to the edge of what's known (sadly, it didn't, it was more a recruiting video for some sort of metaphysical cult with a pseudo-scientific cover story than it was an episode of Nova). It occurred to me then: I need to get deep into knowledge. I want to get some understanding of quantum mechanics. I know that there are, or might be, things called string theory, entanglement, Higgs bosons... and that the best thing you can say about them is that they're models that best fit what can be observed, predicted, and tested. But I don't know much beyond the names. I figure: I'm a smart guy and I should be able to get a handle on this stuff so why not start it now?
So my options are: go back to school and take a ton of math and physics courses. OR, see what I can learn from what's out there (i.e., Wikipedia) and blog about it along the way, starting with what I remember from school and halting wherever I find myself confused, stuck, and needing to get comfortable. Pretty obvious which one I picked. Don't have the time or money for the first option, and besides, I'm a lazy mofo and prefer the easy way. I also thought there may be other folks out there like me who would like to know this stuff and may appreciate the breadcrumbs I intend to leave. This blog will be littered with links, which may or may not be relevant or stale, to sites with info and/or evidence of what I find out as I go.
About the title. As a software guy, I encountered the phrase "deep dive" a few years ago, liked it, and construed it to my own needs. In my career I've encountered very large piles of "legacy" source code that it takes an awful lot of time and diligence to understand. I'll be assigned a bug along the lines of "system crashes once in a while with a kernel panic" and set about understanding what's going on at the time, how to reproduce the problem, and drill down into the software to figure out what's gone wrong and why. I "dive" as deeply into the code as I need to go to understand the problem, come up with a fix, test it, and move on. Sometimes it's a typo. Rarely, but it has happened, I've had to go deep enough that I'm modelling what the CPU does inside to explain the phenomenon (this has resulted in satisfying sheepish noises from the other end of the phone when an engineer at the CPU company admits "I thought we fixed that"). So the phrase "deep dive" resonated and stuck with me. I intend this blog to be my own notes and documentation as I try to understand what is understood about what exactly everything is.
So here's what I plan: when I find time (and I've got family buy-in to dedicate time to this venture) I will spend an evening researching and summarizing what I've found on this blog. I will try to keep the blog accessible, entertaining (because can't you already tell that I'm a deeply engrossing story-teller?), and informative. Here are some ground rules:
1) This blog will NOT be political. I of course have my own political bent, but that has sweet-bugger-all to do with this knowledge pursuit. I will try to keep politics out.
2) I'm not going to dig deep into math and proofs, unless I really need to. I accept the skill and vigour with which those who have discovered, postulated, and published have found what they have found. I hope to scale the backs of those giants and gaze into the distance from their shoulders (thanks, Newt). If I have to take every painstaking step, derive everything from first principals... let's face it, I'll come down with the effits and go find some hockey highlights. Instead I take it on faith that what the scientific community endorses has been subjected to all due rigour and can be counted on, like a trusty lighter).
3) If I do at some point develop a following, I may or may not be ruthless with comments. If there is controversy or drama, I will expunge the offenders (that is, if I can navigate blogspot well enough to figure out how to do that) with no apology. Sex stuff, political stuff, religion stuff... bugger off. Hockey stuff is fine though.
4) No post is gospel. I will probably come back and edit, because there is a decidedly nonzero chance that I'll have some alcohol in my system as I write, and may find myself less than enthused with what I publish.
5) Let's face it: this is a vanity project. This is a midlife crisis induced attempt to seek meaning in existence. I feel like I should be accomplishing something with my life and, well, besides being a family guy, I'm not too satisfied with shifting bits around for a living. I figure if I can learn and share a lot about a little, that might be a worthwhile contribution to humanity. As for the vanity... well, I'll be psyched if I get followers, but on the other hand, I won't care too much - I'll be learning stuff.
OK. I've killed enough time with nothingness here, time to leave off with my starting point. Atoms. That's as low as I really know - at some point in life I learned that everything is made of atoms, and that atoms themselves are made of protons, electrons, and, hydrogen excepted, neutrons. And that those things are made of, well... smaller things. And those things I don't know. There's a gaping fissure (I might even call it a quantum leap, but that's a little cheesy) in my knowledge between that versatile little two-places-at-once electron and the Higgs boson. Baby steps: next time I'm going to explore, understand, and blog about a good high-level overview of just What An Atom Is.
So welcome! Join me for the adventure...
