12.03.2004
The Red Shift: An Explanation
I have some thoughts on what is happening with the extensive mathematical and cartographic analyses of the exit poll results in America, and the subsequently seen "red shift".
The Doppler Effect is not an analogy, it is a law of physics. It happens everytime you start analysing information in the frequency space, and either the observer or the observed is moving.American Elections are a way to reduce clusters of numbers to frequency space.
A screeching train zooms past you with a sharp rise in "observed" frequency. When galaxies are said to be moving away, it is primarily because they are seen as undergoing a "red shift", or a perceived shift towards the longer wavelengths of the spectrum. If they were coming towards us, it would be a blue shift.
The Doppler Effect is a purely informational phenomenon in physics, it's greatest mystery perhaps, since it depends on the movement of the observer and observed. Humans are able to experience it because there is a spiral muscle called the cochlea that converts sound by a Fourier-like transform into the frequency space.
If elections are an information processing system, there is no reason why we should not see a Doppler Effect. The only assumption we need to make is that information flows within a society. The society is the observer of this information. The information is moving. So the final meaning of the Red Shift is this:
The information collected from the polls is undergoing a "red shift". This indicates that the information is not really red, but somewhere in the middle of the opinion spectrum, but because the information is moving, it is perceived as red. Hence, the exit poll results are Dopplered.
Yet another mathematical analyses could perhaps force my opinion stronger. There is an anomaly observed in cosmic "red shifts". If someone who understands this cosmic phenomenon called Fingers Of God better, which appears only in Red Shift spaces, could analyse the exit poll results for such a phenomenon, and if by some stroke of luck he sees this happening, I will be quite pleased.
Please tell me I'm not insane. ¶ 2:25:00 AM
The Doppler Effect is not an analogy, it is a law of physics. It happens everytime you start analysing information in the frequency space, and either the observer or the observed is moving.American Elections are a way to reduce clusters of numbers to frequency space.
A screeching train zooms past you with a sharp rise in "observed" frequency. When galaxies are said to be moving away, it is primarily because they are seen as undergoing a "red shift", or a perceived shift towards the longer wavelengths of the spectrum. If they were coming towards us, it would be a blue shift.
The Doppler Effect is a purely informational phenomenon in physics, it's greatest mystery perhaps, since it depends on the movement of the observer and observed. Humans are able to experience it because there is a spiral muscle called the cochlea that converts sound by a Fourier-like transform into the frequency space.
If elections are an information processing system, there is no reason why we should not see a Doppler Effect. The only assumption we need to make is that information flows within a society. The society is the observer of this information. The information is moving. So the final meaning of the Red Shift is this:
The information collected from the polls is undergoing a "red shift". This indicates that the information is not really red, but somewhere in the middle of the opinion spectrum, but because the information is moving, it is perceived as red. Hence, the exit poll results are Dopplered.
Yet another mathematical analyses could perhaps force my opinion stronger. There is an anomaly observed in cosmic "red shifts". If someone who understands this cosmic phenomenon called Fingers Of God better, which appears only in Red Shift spaces, could analyse the exit poll results for such a phenomenon, and if by some stroke of luck he sees this happening, I will be quite pleased.
Please tell me I'm not insane. ¶ 2:25:00 AM
Comments:
<< Home
American politics could do with a red shift, no? :)
Since the (effect of the) effect depends on the position of the observer, does it all just mean that the Pollsters wanted Politics to 'go away' so that they could get home and stuff themselves with artificial ham sandwiches?
In any case, I do hope it means that elections are in the parting mode.
I'm sure there is something interesting to be found about "God's Finger" in art history, which codified every aspect of "the divine" so that pesky painters didn't get all expressive and lose sight of doctrine. Wonder what "God's fingers" means in the tradition?
(Note: You give me the finger, God gives me The Finger.)
Post a Comment
Since the (effect of the) effect depends on the position of the observer, does it all just mean that the Pollsters wanted Politics to 'go away' so that they could get home and stuff themselves with artificial ham sandwiches?
In any case, I do hope it means that elections are in the parting mode.
I'm sure there is something interesting to be found about "God's Finger" in art history, which codified every aspect of "the divine" so that pesky painters didn't get all expressive and lose sight of doctrine. Wonder what "God's fingers" means in the tradition?
(Note: You give me the finger, God gives me The Finger.)
<< Home
