https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Galaxy_195910.jpg/220px-Galaxy_195910.jpg
― LL Cantante (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 13 October 2016 18:40 (seven years ago) link
My first thought is to ask how does this discovery affect calculations of the total mass of the universe, especially in regards to the amount of dark matter thought necessary to create an oscillating universe?
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Thursday, 13 October 2016 18:42 (seven years ago) link
it likely doesn't very much. the mass distribution of the universe on which those expansion/contraction calculations depend is not found by counting galaxies. it comes from treating those galaxies we can see as probes. how fast they move, etc. tells us how much mass is nearby. so it's not the end of the world if we can't see all the galaxies, at least from the POV of figuring out if the universe is expanding, contracting, etc.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 13 October 2016 19:00 (seven years ago) link
so it's not the end of the world if we can't see all the galaxies
invert that sentence--We can see all the galaxies, and it's the end of the world!--and you have a great bad 1950s pulp story
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Thursday, 13 October 2016 23:53 (seven years ago) link
i think you mean a great good 1950s pulp story
― The times they are a changing, perhaps (map), Friday, 14 October 2016 05:12 (seven years ago) link
If not a good right-before-the-crackup Silverberg story.
― Fustian of this ilx (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 October 2016 06:01 (seven years ago) link
this is a fun story http://nautil.us/issue/42/fakes/the-cosmologists-who-faked-it
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Sunday, 6 November 2016 04:48 (seven years ago) link
Thought that was going to be about Joe Weber.
― 195,000 Momus Threads Can't Be RONG! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 November 2016 12:41 (seven years ago) link
That was a great read.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Sunday, 6 November 2016 18:22 (seven years ago) link
Somehow never thought I would never "hear" Aimless use that exact formulation.
― 195,000 Momus Threads Can't Be RONG! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 November 2016 18:47 (seven years ago) link
Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I contain multitudes.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Sunday, 6 November 2016 18:49 (seven years ago) link
HI caek - I know this is not your field, but I don't know any other scientists to ask, and google searches have not been helpful.
Is it possible that the idea that the time dimension is unidirectional is false, and that it is instead a strong force that we might be able to overcome with technological advances? Like say if you were falling from an infinite height toward a centre of gravity, you would perceive that movement was possible only in the single direction "down." But if you were able during that freefall to harness air resistance and glide, moving you in a lateral direction, or if somehow you could manufacture a helicopter and temporarily overcome gravity to move upward, then you would have unlocked the hitherto tyrannical unidirectionality of space movement.
I get that in this scenario you occupy three dimensions while falling (and are also moving along the single time axis) whereas in the real world there's no perceivable evidence that multiple dimensions of time exist, or that the past or future physically exists anywhen, but I'm willing to chalk that up - for the sake of argument - to a handicap of perception.
Am I on the road to a Nobel or should I quit drinking in the daytime?
― hardcore dilettante, Sunday, 6 November 2016 22:03 (seven years ago) link
time is not just another dimension. it's very different to the three dimensions of space.
there are lots of arguments for this (unlike the other dimensions, it gets multiplied by the square root of minus 1 when it crops up in relativity, and other messed up things), but imo the simplest one is: time is special because of the second law of thermodynamics.
that law states that entropy in a closed system must increase with time. traveling in the direction in which time increases is possible because entropy increases that way. but backwards in time entropy decreases, which is verboten. there are ways around this (by spending energy you can decrease entropy), but hopefully it makes the basic point that backwards and forwards in time are not two arbitrary and equally possible bearings in space like north and south.
basically, you can't make an argument that beings "think of time as being just like space" without being very very careful.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Sunday, 6 November 2016 22:52 (seven years ago) link
the infinite monkey cage special on relativity really helped me with some stuff
im sorry
― the kids are alt right (darraghmac), Sunday, 6 November 2016 23:15 (seven years ago) link
hey i watched this film on time travel a few times. when you say "energy" needs to work against entropy, would a specialized device, powered by a small plutonium reaction, possibly work?
i have acquired a vehicle that i believe could go fast enough to counteract the physical forces, combined with the devicementioned above this setup should work
― mh 😏, Sunday, 6 November 2016 23:42 (seven years ago) link
the most famous example of entropy decreasing (in the short term in cosmological terms) is the evolution of life on earth. the energy source there is the sun. if you don't have a star then perhaps a capacitor of some sort.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Sunday, 6 November 2016 23:51 (seven years ago) link
localized time disruption due to energy from outside sources? idk
― mh 😏, Monday, 7 November 2016 00:05 (seven years ago) link
yeah doesn't that only work if you consider earth as a closed system?
― mh 😏, Monday, 7 November 2016 00:06 (seven years ago) link
forgetting the existence of the sun is one of the ways creationists sometimes use the 2nd law to argue that evolution is impossible.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 7 November 2016 00:28 (seven years ago) link
🎶 it's all just a little bit of entropy decreasing (trumpet riff) 🎶
― flopson, Monday, 7 November 2016 13:03 (seven years ago) link
the square root of minus 1
― hardcore dilettante, Monday, 7 November 2016 13:13 (seven years ago) link
it's just a thing between you and i
― mh 😏, Monday, 7 November 2016 14:21 (seven years ago) link
https://d2t1xqejof9utc.cloudfront.net/screenshots/pics/a028bf2f275780eacd06484c545e6e17/large.gif
― 龜, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 13:33 (seven years ago) link
i dont know what that is but i like it
― jason waterfalls (gbx), Thursday, 29 December 2016 10:45 (seven years ago) link
it is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_drive
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 31 December 2016 19:01 (seven years ago) link
i was in the uk last week and saw some rare crisps 龜 and thought of you
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 31 December 2016 19:04 (seven years ago) link
one of my favourite things is when you have a call scheduled for 9am or whatever and it's getting to 9:05 and you're starting to think "this person isn't going to call"
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 14:06 (seven years ago) link
it's 9:06 now
Update request
This happened to me last week - 16 minutes late - and things got really tense.
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 14:55 (seven years ago) link
they called at 9:09 :-(
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link
then of course there's the 9:00:00 on the dot kind of call, which is like a fresh tray of frozen ice cubes
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 11 January 2017 15:14 (seven years ago) link
8:59 and i'm still in my pjs!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 15:15 (seven years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/science/solid-metallic-hydrogen-harvard-physicists.html
i love how petty everybody in this piece is
― 龜, Friday, 27 January 2017 02:21 (seven years ago) link
haha yes, open contempt. love it.
i'm on team anti-science. this is what they publish http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/11/30/science.aah6990. it's a bad journal.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 27 January 2017 03:07 (seven years ago) link
the dog ate my evidence
― mh 😏, Friday, 27 January 2017 03:15 (seven years ago) link
what are yr August eclipse plans?
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 27 January 2017 04:35 (seven years ago) link
going to try to go to totality for the one in 2024 assuming we're all alive, but i don't think i'll make this one
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 27 January 2017 18:18 (seven years ago) link
I live in Oregon, where the path of totality passes, and I am psyched that this one is in August instead of January, like the only other one I had a chance to "see" through a cloud deck multiple thousand feet thick. (It was still damned impressive despite the complete lack of visibility.) I am hoping to be backpacking up somewhere high in the Cascades on the big day. Best way to beat the crowds.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Friday, 27 January 2017 18:29 (seven years ago) link
DAMN
https://twitter.com/ESO/status/834463153966682113
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/trappist-1-seven-earth-size-exoplanets-04641.html
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
now we just need to figure out how to travel near/at/above light speed or build multigenerational colony ships and we're all set
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:08 (seven years ago) link
don't worry collaborator in chief musk is on the case
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
The more immediate excitement would be the prospect of finding some form of life there, right?
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:11 (seven years ago) link
that would be extremely exciting for sure
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star
damn right it is
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:13 (seven years ago) link
on the scale of excitement, discovering alien lifeforms is definitely way up there
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:14 (seven years ago) link
absent life this is fake news
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:14 (seven years ago) link
All seven planets in this system — TRAPPIST-1b, c, d, e, f, g and h — are similar in size to Earth and Venus, or slightly smaller. At least the innermost six are probably rocky in composition.
conspiracy theory - why is NASA covering up TRAPPIST-1a?
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:15 (seven years ago) link
TRAPPIST-1a is actually a beer
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:16 (seven years ago) link
equal to 40 light beers imo
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:17 (seven years ago) link