Thoughts on Superdeterminism

A bit of a ramble for my own interest, but I thought I'd blog it.

The only component necessary for free will is ignorance of the future. Is it possible to have a superdeterministic universe and have retain this?

Knowledge of the future seems to be a spiral that could lead to eternal knowledge, but knowledge of what and by whom? To know something is to duplicate its information, yet an exact duplicate, perhaps half of the universe duplicated by the other half, would perhaps not contain knowledge. Instead, it seems that one half chases the other, attempting duplication, racing toward symmetry, yet never attaining it because perfect symmetry contains nothing new. Information is contained within the differences between things; the more powerful the information, the greater the contrast. Errors create drama. The greater the error, the greater the drama and the most stark the difference between what is known and what is unknown. Ignorance is perhaps a vital part of existence, and if so, the most profound truths in science must be unknowable.

At what speed is information gained? At light speed, or a finite speed of maximum limit, at least. Instant knowledge cannot be permitted because a degree of ignorance and inaccuracy are necessary. Perhaps the early universe strove for perfect accuracy, but once the size became impossible to traverse 'instantly' due to distance, errors became inevitable, resulting in asymmetry and thus information.

Can information exist as a duo of perfect symmetry? Not between them. They might contain form, but what third party could observe this? A third party that attempts knowledge, which is therefore partial duplication of form.

If a system should evolve into this perfect symmetry, could it escape? No, and so it is probably not possible that a system could evolve into perfect symmetry. Was the instant of the start of the universe a period of perfect symmetry? If so, that infinite point would not be attainable, so no. Even on the tiniest possible scales, there must be inherent imperfection.

Structures for 3D Audio

I've looked again at upgrading my sound software Prometheus to support surround sound, or 5.1 which is the prevalent option for multi-channel audio, replacing the quadrophonic experiments of the 1970s. The whole situation about this sort of sound is still in flux and not well designed, despite digital technology largely resolving many of the technical problems that made analogue quadrophonic difficult. 5.1 was developed for a cinema and has proven to be popular primarily because of its native support on DVD. This uses 4 audio speakers plus 1 central speaker for dialogue, and a sub-woofer (which is the 'point 1' in the name).

This might suit a cinema, but is a poor choice for music. The sound remains two dimensional, being on one plane. Also, why have one speaker for dialogue, why not more? Or combine the dialogue with the music? Most song music has an inherent mix of speech and music, the balancing between vocals and music is part of the art. For music, a more universal standard would be useful, so I've explored some options to integrate into software.

Current music audio is stereo, left and right. Quadrophonic sound is (or was) normally made from four speakers placed at the corners of the sound area, but this seems irrational given that most conventional music is stereo already, and so front and rear sound would instantly interfere with left and right. It would make the most logical sense to divide the space axially; left and right (LR), front and back (FB), up and down (UD) with six speakers placed in those locations.

It is notably rare for speakers to feature below the listener, under the floor. The Microsoft WAV specification for multichannel audio, at a pinch, includes options in its WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE structure for a front speaker (SPEAKER_FRONT_CENTER), left and right (SPEAKER_SIDE_LEFT and RIGHT), rear (SPEAKER_BACK_CENTER), and up (SPEAKER_TOP_CENTER), but nothing for speakers below the listener. The structure seems to have been developed based on current audio usage rather than have any rational structure. There is, for example, support for back top left and front top left speakers, yet not plain top left or top right. There is no support for speakers below the listener, odd allocations such as a "FRONT_LEFT_OF_CENTER" option, and a single low frequency channel somewhere in the middle of the structure. Bass sounds are harder to locate spatially, so presumably these are assumed to be spatially ubiquitous, or unimportant.

It would be more logical to store data in 6 tracks for 3 dimensions: Left L, Right R, Front F, Back B, Up U, Down D. Sound could be recalculated for different speaker arrangements, such as 50% left, 50% front for a traditional quadrophonic placement speaker, or differently for the 'recommended' placement for a 5.1 music system.

Perhaps dialogue or additional layers would be desirable; in cinema or television, for example, where a separate volume control for background music, dialogue, and sound effects could be an option. These could be stored in a different dimension; a new 6-track layer, so for a 3 layer system we might include speech, music, and sound effects, creating 18 audio tracks.

It's interesting to note that, according to Wikipedia, the SACD format supports 6 channels, which would suit a 3D spatial format. A 7.1 sound card could play the audio back with current technology. Monitoring the audio would require six speakers and a specially designed studio, with a speaker in the floor and ceiling. Headphones could be used with contemporary virtual reality technology to detect the exact orientation of the listener's head.

With the growth of virtual reality and immersive environments, new ways of storing multi-dimensional audio will be needed. The current 2D structures are simply not adequate for a 3D environment, and the most efficient system is to use 3 axis for 3 dimensions, and thus 6 channel audio.

Conclusions

I propose an audio data structure that interleaves 6 channels as such; left, right, front, back, top, bottom.
For additional dimensions, a specifier would be needed on the content type; music, dialogue, sound effects, and others (ambient sound, other additional dimensions).
New virtual reality audio systems should be designed for 6 channels, with detection of the correct head orientation of the listener.