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Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of over thirty highly-acclaimed books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction. Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, the associate editor for several journals, author of colorful puzzle calendars, and contributor to magazines geared to children and adults.
The Los Angeles Times recently wrote, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought." Wired magazine wrote, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." Pickover's computer graphics have been featured in many popular magazines and on TV shows. His web site, www.pickover.com, has received over a million visits.
Secrets of Math |
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| Saturday September 12, 2009 |
Author and futurist Dr. Cliff Pickover discussed his latest work, The Math Book, which explores how mathematics is the key to higher dimensions, aliens, infinity, parallel worlds, time travel, simulated realities, and Tunisian ant brains.
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Host: Ian Punnett
Scientific Creativity |
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| Wednesday April 23, 2008 |
Author Clifford Pickover discussed his latest work on scientific laws and the great minds behind them, and also touched on such topics as time travel, parallel universes and alien life. Some of the best scientific laws have the widest applications, he said. For instance, Fick's Law of Diffusion can explain such disparate areas as insect communication and the migration of early humans. And Newton's Law of Cooling has been used to determine the time of a person's death. Pickover noted that some laws have the ability to change our way of thinking, such as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion (the universe is constantly expanding). Stephen Hawking is one of the most recognized scientists of our day, for his laws about black holes, he added. There's often a correlation between creative genius and near-madness or depression, Pickover reported, suggesting that great minds are tuned differently. Tesla was obsessive and quirky, and had a fear of women's
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Host: George Noory
Virtual Realms |
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| Thursday May 17, 2007 |
Futurist and author Dr. Cliff Pickover discussed his new novel, The Heaven Virus, which explores spiritual technologies for the 22nd century,virtual universes, and immortality.
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Host: George Noory
Möbius Strips & Parallel Universes |
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| Monday July 3, 2006 |
Returning from vacation, George Noory welcomedauthor and researcher Cliff Pickover who discussed his latest bookThe Möbius Strip, as well as parallel universes, higher dimensions and time travel. Möbius strips, named after the 19th century visionary scientist Dr. August Möbius, are surfaces that have only one side-- a model can be created by twisting a strip of paper and then merging the ends of the strip together to form a single strip. For Pickover, such a design represents the borderland between art and mathematics, and offers a possible look at how the universe and other dimensions might be structured. He favors two theories of parallel universes: the "multiworlds" of quantum mechanics, in which a new world is created each time decisions branch off into different directions and "carbon copy" universes in which we also exist in just slightly different versions of ourselves. Because the human mind has certain constraints to its thinking, Pickover suggested that computers w
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Host: George Noory
Borders of Reality |
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| Thursday September 29, 2005 |
Dr. Cliff Pickover, author of thirty acclaimed books, discussed his latest Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves, which explores the borderlands of science and reality. We are limited in our understanding of reality by the size and capacities of our brain, he noted, and he wondered what aspects of the universe might be shielded from us.Time travel may eventually be developed, said Pickover, but when a person goes back in time they may be visiting a slightly different universe. Parallel universes are increasingly thought to be possible by theoretical physicists, and scientists could one day possibly deduce the presence of some of them by studying gravitational effects, he explained.Pickover has been fascinated by his research into the effects of the drug DMT. Users often report similar experiences of being engulfed into a sparkling city or palace that is inhabited by intelligent "machine elves." He has not drawn a conclusion as to whether the beings exist independently or are
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Host: George Noory