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We Are Made of Waves
- illuminant 2y agoWe are made of potential, potential acts and distributes as waves (when not acting like and distributing as a state particulate.) Something tells me we already know this and are continually amazed by new narratives re-explaining these counter intuitive topics. This announcement is like saying "buildings (large architectural structures) are actually moments of force, the cement or stone or wood or steel only exists to keep everything from collapsing in on itself.
- pixl97 2y agoBuildings are fundamental components of the universe?
- azulster 2y agoif your frame of reference is centered on teh building then it could be claimed that the entire universe fundamentally depends on the exact properties of that building on some level
- x86x87 2y agoi believe the intent is to highlight the banality of the claim through an analogy.
- Psillisp 2y agoWaves. You're soaking in it.
- breezeTrowel 2y agoYes. That's why fundamental particles are called the "building blocks of the universe". It's buildings all the way down!
- koolala 2y agodevelopers! of course!
- mensetmanusman 2y ago“Real estate baby!”
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- szvsw 2y ago> buildings are actually moments of force, the cement or stone or wood or steel only exists to keep everything from collapsing in on itself. This is actually kind of a beautiful sentence, especially the first half. I’m sharing it with some of my colleagues who research computational structural design/architecture/analysis as well as historical structural/civil engineering. I think some of them might agree with it, in a weird way. I will also be trying to get the main structures prof to squeeze this line in as a debate opener to one of his lectures for a class that is mixed between architecture and engineering students. FWIW the textbook used for that class is called “form and forces” so you can see how a sentence like that would fit well into the dialogue.
- illuminant 2y agoI've been self studying architectural engineering. I hope to some day build my own home. It may well be a tribute to brutalism, we'll see. This observation is genuine enough, the moment of force is kind of like the quantum super-amplitude of forces, playing out very slowly on the classical scale. The experienced architect (or engineer) can "see" how a structure may future collapse by the intuition of reading moments of force and how they influence forms.
- szvsw 2y ago> I've been self studying architectural engineering. Get the form and forces textbook. It’s fantastic. > I hope to some day build my own home. It may well be a tribute to brutalism, we'll see. Don’t tell any architecture students this, they will rip you apart (just re-visiting their trauma upon you from when they were inevitably criticized for thinking “brutalism is cool” when they first got to arch school). > The experienced architect (or engineer) can "see" how a structure may future collapse by the intuition of reading moments of force and how they influence forms. Absolutely, any structures professor/lecturer worth their salt IMO should always be encouraging students to develop this ability. One excellent way to develop it is through the method of graphic statics (covered extensively in the aforementioned textbook) which was out of vogue for quite a while but has since started to gain some traction again as a pedagogical and design tool. The catenary is the oft-cited (and boring) example of a form-found structure. Membrane and tension structures/the force density method would be another thing to check out in this realm.
- layer8 2y agoWhat the heck is potential? I mean, I’m roughly familiar with the physical notion, but it doesn’t seem very suitable as an ontological bedrock.
- hprotagonist 2y agoThen the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. i’ve always been struck by the aptness of that framing of the state of things.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- HocusLocus 2y agoWe have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmony which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly; we have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and, as it were, tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances. ~Francis Bacon, "New Atlantis" AD 1626
- hprotagonist 2y agoand some years later: https://dood.al/pinktrombone/ https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
- koolala 2y agoim vibin atleast 70%, heart beat does whatever it wants
- ysofunny 2y agothe tricky thing is distinguishing that which is being moved by the wave from the wave itself if the wave is the energy moving, the energy is being moved by the wave, but then what's the wave? clearly not energy if the wave is moving the energy around, the channel (or medium) is the wave!
- neom 2y agoI always thought about it more like water waves, where the wave is both the medium and the channel? I guess I've been thinking about it wrong!
- moffkalast 2y agoBelieve it or not, also a wave.
- layer8 2y agoEverything is necessarily (?) just stuff changing in relation to other stuff. The wave is the change.
- IshKebab 2y agoThe wave is a change in whatever the wave type is (air, pressure, EM field strength, water height, etc.). I think your comment is a bit confused tbh. I did a PhD on waves... and tbh I didn't really understand them until then.
- canjobear 2y agoCheck out Sean Carroll's recent books if you want an introduction to these ideas that conveys the actual mathematical content and not just a word jumble.
- TexanFeller 2y agoSean Carroll's content really hits the spot. Technical and mathematical enough to avoid metaphors that don't hold up to careful thought, but straightforward enough to be enjoyable even after work when my brain is fried. He's incredibly prolific too, hours of content per week that's accessible to people like me go up on his Mindscape podcast and Youtube posted lectures.
- bee_rider 2y agoWaves are just a description of the behavior that’s been observed, right? It is a mathematical model. Physicists cleverly foist the question of what is and why on philosophers (who are happy to ponder endlessly), it turns out “can we model how it works” is much more profitable to follow.
- Koshkin 2y agoAny physical theory is "just a description of the behavior that’s been observed, right? It is a mathematical model." (Saying that 'cat' is just a word describing what's been observed completely misses the point of what science actually is. Philosophy of thought and science has gone much farther than that.)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Aloisius 2y agoIt does seem that many physicists confuse mathematical models with reality or at least do so when communicating to laymen. At the very least, it sells more books.
- whatshisface 2y agoIn the sense that, - You don't know your partner, you know what you remember of what you've understood from what you've seen them say and do. - You don't know the text, you know what was printed. - You don't know which grains of rice you will scoop out from a bag. "Reality" as held above theories (models) and the evidence for and against them is an unreachable standard of truth.
- mistermann 2y agoNon-truth, and the unknown (both realized as such, or not) are also fundamentally important components of aggregate reality. Reality is very complex, but it typically seems very simple.
- croes 2y agoTerrence Howard enters the chat: Told you so!
- mensetmanusman 2y ago“I remember being born”
- emporas 2y agoWalter Russel's periodic table, is very intriguing. Observing the fact that many elements decay to other elements, with time being the only variable changing, is a very strong indication that the classic periodic table might not show the whole picture. I don't know in particular if matter is frozen light, but i think that matter has some properties we overlook.
- calebm 2y agoI'm a wave fanatic. Shameless plug for my wave-oriented art: https://gods.art https://gods.art
- malux85 2y agoThese are awesome, I love “Give and Take”, I’m a computational chemist, you should have a look at Kohn Sham orbitals and google images “the hydrogen wave function” I will reach out to you for a commission
- calebm 2y agoThanks. I actually have one piece which strongly reminded me of the wave orbitals: https://gods.art/math_videos/prism_eye_video_near_spoke4.html https://gods.art/math_videos/prism_eye_video_near_spoke4.htm.... Surprisingly, the orbital-like shapes were a surprise to me that came out of a wave interference experiment.
- financetechbro 2y agoRad stuff!
- xkcd-sucks 2y agoI mean lots of the comments in this thread exemplify the need for this book assuming it is well written enough to achieve its purpose [0] Take for example the dismissal that "waves are just a concept/model/way of describing the universe that is useful and pretty accurate for many purposes". Yes, this is true, but the wonder is to be found in the universe, not in the model, and the model provides a path to that wonder to be found approaching true understanding. Understanding with one may practically profit, and idk motivational salience to see connections where they are present. Like, if you stop and think about it, isn't it like totally nuts that light, "heat", "electricity", etc. just smear out into one another at the right frequency, and that you can predict it? That you can ring all the nuclei in a human's body just like ringing a bell, listen to the tone, and turn that into a like a 3d image of tumors and crap? [1] And, this beauty / intricacy / whatever collides into the need to eat and clean up poop and so forth [2] -- And we end up with microwave ovens used thrice daily until broken and trashed, and relegate the concepts themselves into "just"s, because they are ordinary. And if this sense of holistic appreciation for the universe is more cultivated in more people we'd see more cool stuff or live in a better world or something. [0] idk, helping the reader develop a sense of ... awe, better intuitive understanding (because people have it no matter how wrong), connection, higher order consequences, all embedded in a practical context or something. [1] NMR/MRI more or less [2] which are also emergent consequences of all these heady abstract concepts btw, like what is is that we need to eat, why do we need to eat to begin with, etc.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- standardly 2y agonot ashamed to admit I will never fully comprehend this.
- m3kw9 2y agoThat’s good, but I still have to pay my taxes
- jumploops 2y agoWhat are waves? Just loops over time :D
- MrPatan 2y agoWaves on what?
- criddell 2y agoProbability.
- largbae 2y agoIs this theory going to give us a warp drive?
- ngcc_hk 2y agoGiven we have atoms obviously we are made of waves, but the question really is are we ONLY made of waves and that is most if not only important. ——— Just like any materialist finding our mind is affected by brain area function, and claim we are just brain matter and there is no soul. May be we do not have. But a materialist approach also may not be true. And even if true, are all fields founded. How about G or monad or … may be there is something about dark energy and dark matter we need to think of. And are all universes like us? Even more important even if we are materialist or wave, does it matter that much. After all whilst one can say one can do all chemistry by study physics and all biology by studying chemistry, really? Reduction and mono-theme goes as far as we can and leads no where in many area of human endeavour. Btw should I drive on the left or right? A must. Seems not as we observe both. Can you do whatever you want, also not. Should I do x or y? How to deal with hamas, putin invasion … That is action in context and society. But there are also action in my mind. My action is my individual choice and responsibility … Not saying it is wrong. In fact, I think it is right. Just as said who shave the barber, does it large enough to be self referential and …