STRAUSS
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EU and Japan gun for 100Gbps fiber optic internet speeds via new research projects
The European Commission and Japan have just announced a series of research projects to help speed up replacement of their soon-to-be-antiquated internet backbones. One of them, the STRAUSS project, will be shooting for 100Gbps fiber optic speeds -- a whopping 5,000-fold gain over current Euro data rates. It'd do so by combining new optical packet switching technology, optical transceivers and other hardware with updated controlling software. The next step will be testing it on a large scale at sites across the EU and Japan. That project, along with five others aimed at boosting terrestrial and wireless bandwidth security and capacity, will receive €18 million in funding over the next several years. The EU commission estimates that traffic will increase 12-fold in the next five years, so if you don't want any more internet lag than you already have, you may want to wish them Godspeed.
We're all in the Red King's dream
In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Alice is told by Tweedledee that she only exists as part of the Red King's dreams. "And if he left off dreaming about you," Tweedledee ponders, "where do you suppose you'd be?" As Carroll illustrates, the concept of self-referential realities is not new. Whether discussing the potential pitfalls of a book-based time-travelling plotline that ties a protagonist into the role of being their own grandparent, or focusing attention on the weltanschauung that supports reincarnation and clan-line prophecies, humans seem to have a need to write themselves into the story wherever they can, compartmentalizing fact, fiction, and speculation.
