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
So the whole system is made of alcohol? I'm down.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:19 (seven years ago) link
afawk life is an extraordinarily rare event (that we cannot replicate it yet scientifically suggests as much imo) so figuring out interstellar colonization still seems slightly more probable to me than discovering life, nb that life might be more common but intelligent life exceptionally less common? idk been a while since i thought deeply about fermi.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
i never clicked this thread, never knew it was about space. I have a 5 year old who will have some questions later. specifically about the cosmic web and the limen alpha blob, whatever the hell that it.
― nomar, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
HI DERE
― Disco Blecch and His Exo-Planettes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
imo life either started 0, 1 or many, many times. there aren't going to be 2 civilizations in the galaxy. the unknown parameters would have to be juuuuust right for that.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 19:13 (seven years ago) link
(and we know it's not 0)
0 option presumably the God option
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 19:20 (seven years ago) link
I'd say there is a big difference between "life" and "civilizations" and the first does not imply the second. There are (very conservatively) a quarter million species on earth atm, and life has existed here for approximately a billion years, so the number of species that have ever lived is enormously larger, but only one earth species has created civilizations and our best understanding says it has only existed as a species for perhaps 200,000 years.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 19:28 (seven years ago) link
Do we have any idea how likely it is we'll find water on one of these planets?
― 0 / 0 (lukas), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 19:57 (seven years ago) link
xp i find arguments about odds or scale unconvincing in either direction because the number of times the dice got rolled is so large and uncertain. the choices of rates at which happen that result in a number of civilizations other than zero, 1 or very many are too few.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 20:42 (seven years ago) link
nasa out the gate with hipster art
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2159/
― goole, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:21 (seven years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/XlJ3iiQ.jpg
― 龜, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:25 (seven years ago) link
https://twitter.com/NASA/status/834487010773581824
@InasAhmed16 We think they are tidally locked to their host star, which means they would have permanent night/day sides.
fuck this, not going, ever
― goole, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
xps I agree that, if life arose independently at least twice in the universe, then the number of times it has arisen must be some very large number. Arriving at any sound prediction regarding the number of times life has independently formed civilizations seems impossible to me. Two civilizations would be an extremely improbable number, but any other number you could name would be equally improbable.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:27 (seven years ago) link
dark side is calling me
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:43 (seven years ago) link
Arceon is a man-made satellite that has been re-purposed by an order of reclusive monks who rejected all modern technology. Originally constructed of metal, it was largely clad in wood and turned into a giant floating monastery by the monks. Inside, it consists of numerous levels, some as much as 100 metres high, that are, according to writer Vincent Ward, "layered like an ant's nest, or bee's nest".[1] The small planet contains an abbey, libraries, mess halls, communal lavatories and a large glass works, as well as open fields where crops are grown and sheep are reared, lakes and even an extensive sea on one of its lower levels, which acts as a reservoir supplying water to the population. Arceon maintains a thin atmosphere, while at its center a "technology room" is said to maintain and refresh this atmosphere, allowing the monks to survive. Entry to this room is strictly forbidden.
― 龜, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
tbf civilization has developed independently multiple times on this planet alone, depending on which historical models you consider
― Treesh-Hurt (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
xp is that from the rejected alien 3 pitch?
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:53 (seven years ago) link
presumably "civilization" developed independently multiple times tho bc something about advanced primates have the capability built in (in which case civilization might be an easy problem but developing the right animal to achieve civilization a difficult one). it's not even clear tho to me that making the leap from inorganic material to organic material is an easy problem bc if it could happen randomly w/ the right inputs then we should certainly be able to crack it in our labs (or do i misunderstand something here?). that we can't suggests that there's some variable or dynamic that isn't even on our radar. also we should assume that if the big step is from inorganic to organic material then there could be other planets that have inorganic to some other non-organic but still life-equivalent form.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 22:12 (seven years ago) link
(also if it wasn't obvious my explanation for why we can't replicate this transition is metaphysical in nature)
― Mordy, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 22:14 (seven years ago) link