this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago (5 children)

If a Maxwell's demon was ever proven practical it would basically disprove the second law of thermodynamics.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wait, why? What does knowing a perfect state of system has to do with the law of thermodynamics?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (15 children)

I don't know for sure, but there are some debates that simply don't make sense to me. For example, whether or not dark matter/energy exists is something many just absolutely insist upon. To me, I would imagine, if something exists, being "measurable" is a badge or prerequisite of its existence, but here we have a name for the black omnipresence essence everywhere, the substance of nothing, so to speak, to the point where one of the theories put forward about the gravitational anomalies in the outer solar system is that it's simply dark matter. I'm not buying it. I'm of the school of thought that what we see really is just plain nothingness. For those who constantly accuse the "it could be aliens" theory, it ranks up there to float around a go-to for everything.

Another one are the constant asteroid theories. What made the moon? An asteroid. What tipped Uranus? An asteroid. What killed the dinosaurs? ~~The ice age~~ An asteroid. It doesn't come off as very critical, especially when imprecisions are growing out of them all, for example people went from saying dinosaurs were all genocided specifically by the asteroid to some people saying there were some who became birds to some saying all of them became birds and animals to saying the asteroid did almost nothing to any whole species.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

FYI, dinosaurs are not extinct; they're quite abundant, and we walk alongside them. For example, chickens are dinosaurs.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I think you're right about black matter, it might just be the modern day aether. The asteroid theories not so much, there is proof for the dinosaur extinction event being caused by an asteroid, and there is a measurable anomaly in the earth core which gives evidence to the moon origin theory (which was not so much an asteroid but a Mars-sized object). Also, asteroids are considered proven to excist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

FYI, dinosaurs are not extinct; they're quite abundant, and we walk alongside them. For example, chickens are dinosaurs.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (4 children)

ELI5: Why didn't the asteroid also reduce life the first time or also create a second moon the second time? Why those specific outcomes for those specific asteroids?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

First one was before the Solar system finished forming, no life, it was also the size of Mars. The Moon is a combination of matter from that object and matter thrown up from Earth. Second one was tiny by comparison and we actually are pretty sure we found the crater

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

To add onto Size/Difference, also time. When the moon was created; life wasn't what it was say during the time of dinosaurs. Also imagine that we say dinosaurs, but thats a massive amount of time. There were numerous periods of near total extinction events, where populations and species bottlenecked. A meteor was only one of these events over our 4+billion life span as a planet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Because there was no life around yet the first time, and because the second time is was an actual asteroid instead of a planet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

size/impact difference.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nature religions were right and we're all part of a single bigger organism of which every part can feel and communicate with every other part.

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (22 children)

None. Flat Earth is characterized by their denial of science. By performing empirical experiments then rejecting the results.

That is antithetical to the very core of science. So any scientist who is given experimental data that contradicts their theory is, should make new theories.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with saying the Earth is flat, and then thinking about the implications, and then verifying the implications match reality, and then when you get bad data you modify your hypothesis. We need creative and curious minds to challenge the status quo with new measurements data and science. It's the rejection of empirical data that is the death of science

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I imagine there are many academics that won't budge from their current beliefs even when confronted with proof.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They might be academics, but definitely not scientists

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Some scientists, might. There is no shortage on hubris in the scientific community.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Some, sure. And they are indeed acting like flat earthers. I think they're likely to be the minority though and they're not acting like scientists if they do that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, it's just how I phrased the question. Sorry to be a Debbie downer but I was really interested in the answer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

No need to apologise mate, sorry if my answer came across as curt, wasn't intended that way :-)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Yup! I don’t understand the downvotes, because this absolutely happens. Especially when technology has progressed to enable us to answer certain questions that we couldn’t in the past. Old curmudgeonly academics can definitely be resistant to accepting that they’ve been wrong, even when confronted with proof. Sometimes the only way for old theories to die is for their proponents to die or retire. It’s a shame, but ego can be a massive problem in some disciplines.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Consciousness being an emergent property of the universe instead of the universe being an emergent property of consciousness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I came here to say this.

Modern physics already gives special status to observer objects and properties that “non-observer” objects don’t have, and every universe needs to be defined from some particular point of view instead of “objectively” from outside. There are a couple other weird things but those are two big ones to me.

And so a physicist from the 2100s where physics is defined in relation to consciousness asks a modern physicist, so why did you think it was all just atoms and numbers in an “objective” universe?

And the modern physicist says what the fuck are you talking about don’t get all weird and religious on me

And the future physicist says okay dude good luck then

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

You're fundamentally misunderstanding the concept of an "observer" - it's not a conscious entity literally observing something. It's simply an object whose state depends on the quantum particle in question.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

Thank you for this. I was just thinking about it and how it implies consciousness is shared or linked in some way.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

When we finally figure out and understand, in a real world mechanical sort of way, quantum mechanics, all bets will be off.

It'll open up a new perspective on the Universe (dare I say Metaverse?), and where we fit in with everything.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Something simple like if we just ignored Gravity we could move faster than light.

Or time maybe?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
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