3 ms·

People cross borders all the time, but the charge of an electron has been the same since moments after the birth of the universe and nothing anyone can do appea

People cross borders all the time, but the charge of an electron has been the same since moments after the birth of the universe and nothing anyone can do appears to be able to change it.

throwaway290 3y ago
Great, so if you yourself ever crossed the border you may have noticed that guards are very real and their guns too. Electron meanwhile is only modeled and is not even possible to see.
- nathan_compton 3y ago
  The assertion that the charge of an electron is more real than the border between the US and Canada, for instance, is pretty compelling. What is the former assertion? I would suggest its most reasonable interpretation is that there exist a set of rituals which, when performed, regardless of who, where, or when throughout the observable universe and the vast majority of time, will always produce the same results and that these rituals furthermore imply a compelling ontology which is consistent, with maniacal precision, with a large number of non-ritualized phenomena throughout time and space. That is to say, less poetically, that an electron is a particular realization of the essential character of the universe, or, as physicist like to put it: particles are unitary representations of the Poincaré group. A border is, in comparison, next to nothing. Transient in time and nearly meaningless in space. Surely of consequence to human beings but only via other human beings. Indeed, the very fact that armed men are willing to kill for the transgression of such a pitiful thing is a brutal absurdity which does little to recommend us as a species.
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    I like your poetic take. However, a border has meaning. Electron's charge doesn't. In fact, "electron" is an idea we invented to represent some physical prediction, while a border is a thing we made. Armed men and brutality suck but if you think of countries as living beings (eg. country as anthill and citizens as ants, or country as human and citizen as cell/neuron) then it is kinda understandable.

People cross borders all the time, but the charge of an electron has been the same since moments after the birth of the universe and nothing anyone can do appears to be able to change it.

throwaway290 3y ago

Great, so if you yourself ever crossed the border you may have noticed that guards are very real and their guns too. Electron meanwhile is only modeled and is not even possible to see.

nathan_compton 3y ago
The assertion that the charge of an electron is more real than the border between the US and Canada, for instance, is pretty compelling. What is the former assertion? I would suggest its most reasonable interpretation is that there exist a set of rituals which, when performed, regardless of who, where, or when throughout the observable universe and the vast majority of time, will always produce the same results and that these rituals furthermore imply a compelling ontology which is consistent, with maniacal precision, with a large number of non-ritualized phenomena throughout time and space. That is to say, less poetically, that an electron is a particular realization of the essential character of the universe, or, as physicist like to put it: particles are unitary representations of the Poincaré group. A border is, in comparison, next to nothing. Transient in time and nearly meaningless in space. Surely of consequence to human beings but only via other human beings. Indeed, the very fact that armed men are willing to kill for the transgression of such a pitiful thing is a brutal absurdity which does little to recommend us as a species.
- throwaway290 3y ago
  I like your poetic take. However, a border has meaning. Electron's charge doesn't. In fact, "electron" is an idea we invented to represent some physical prediction, while a border is a thing we made. Armed men and brutality suck but if you think of countries as living beings (eg. country as anthill and citizens as ants, or country as human and citizen as cell/neuron) then it is kinda understandable.