superposeur

11 ms·

61.
by superposeur 2y ago
A shattering film called Open Hearts (2002) made me appreciate that every day is a miraculous gift and that the proper stance toward life is warm hearted gratitude, as well as an awareness that you are a mote in currents beyond your control
62.
by superposeur 2y ago
At top it should read “L = …” (as it does in the compact form printed on the coffee mug image). Here, L represents Lagrangian density. The integral of L over spacetime (between some initial and some final time) is the action S, which theref
63.
by superposeur 3y ago
You describe a local hidden variable theory such as has been definitively ruled out by Bell/CHSH inequality experiments (see, e.g. (2022 Nobel Prize)[ https://www.nobelprize.org/all-nobel-prizes-2022/ ] ). But even
64.
by superposeur 3y ago
> Many quantum information theorists don’t even believe the wave function is “real” but just a mathematical tool for making predictions about measurement outcomes You are correct that many say this, but this is a constant source of frust
65.
by superposeur 3y ago
To the extent that the physical world and consciousness can be modeled as computations (in order to “simulate” on some hardware), the details of the “hardware” running the simulation are totally irrelevant to the occupants of the simulation
66.
by superposeur 3y ago
Interactions between particles such as quarks are mediated by fields filling the space between them (such as electromagnetic field and gluon field). Ripples in these fields propagate at speed less than or equal to c. This is a classical p
67.
by superposeur 3y ago
Edward Witten bestrides mathematical physics in an Euler-likes way. In math/physics circles, ask the smartest person you know who is the smartest person they know and sooner or later all roads lead to him.
68.
by superposeur 3y ago
I’ve been making his Nutty Pudding as a lunch for the last few months. It’s easy to prepare, portable, satiating, and scrumptious.
69.
by superposeur 3y ago
Great Scot! 21.81 Gigawatts! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fzuO9wHrvGg
70.
Hurricane Larry dumped 100k microplastics per sq. meter per day(wired.com)
4 points by superposeur 3y ago|1 comments
71.
NASA Streams Cat Video from Deep, Deep Space(nytimes.com)
1 points by superposeur 3y ago|0 comments
72.
by superposeur 3y ago
Relevant quote supporting your point that this is his point: > Like Uber, the massive investor subsidies for AI have produced a sugar high of temporarily satisfied users.
73.
Asimov Press, a new biotech publishing venture(press.asimov.com)
2 points by superposeur 3y ago|1 comments
74.
by superposeur 3y ago
Asimov Press, a new publishing venture that will produce books + magazines about progress in biotechnology, launches
75.
by superposeur 3y ago
I agree — it’s a question that takes one right up to the limits of human cognition. Another question like this: “is the universe finite or infinite?” One or the other must be true, yet both options will eventually melt your brain to contemp
76.
by superposeur 3y ago
Well, first, I take it to be an axiomatic goal of science to believe that which is true, disbelieve that which is false and to be agnostic about things we have no evidence about; I.e to calibrate our model of world to the world as it is. Bu
77.
by superposeur 3y ago
The “eventually build dna base pairs” (that continue self replicating) is the uncertain and possibly ludicrously improbable step. See for instance https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58060-0 which argues for a
78.
by superposeur 3y ago
It is “important to remember” precisely because these days people are not remembering this and speak with a sense of inevitability about discovering life elsewhere, which sense of inevitability is totally unsupported. I may gently point out
79.
by superposeur 3y ago
Don't mean to pick on words, but your statement that "the math of probability and the simple components to life" makes life elsewhere an "inevitable outcome" proves my point that the dialogue around this topic is cu
80.
by superposeur 3y ago
I think it's "worth remembering" precisely because it seems not to be the base case anymore! To see this, just look at all the expressions of confidence in life's ubiquity throughout the rest of this thread!
81.
by superposeur 3y ago
This is what I referred to as "speculation" in the literature for life's origins on Earth. This speculation is a good first theoretical stab... or it might not be. Until life is created from inorganic matter in a laboratory (
82.
by superposeur 3y ago
Fair enough. On the other hand, to my ear the title "NASA finds life-sparking energy source and molecule" sets the tone, as though life was sparked, or that we even know could be sparked by the presence of these ingredients with
83.
by superposeur 3y ago
Not in general, just on this particular point. Because, in my opinion, we as a scientific community are currently flush with the (very cool) unexpected discovery of so many exoplanets and it is somewhat distorting our collective thinking ab
84.
by superposeur 3y ago
Ah, but in my opinion we can't call 10^-25 a lower limit since, if life didn't occur in this collection of planets, we wouldn't be here asking the question in the first place!
85.
by superposeur 3y ago
Well, perhaps you know that none of the recent findings are evidence of life, but in my conversations with others I have perceived a great deal of confusion on this point, even among scientifically literate colleagues. Also, the fact that w
86.
by superposeur 3y ago
This is true. It is also true that we have found “not one single shred of evidence that life has ever existed anywhere in the observable universe but Earth”.
87.
by superposeur 3y ago
No is declaring that there is no needle in the haystack. Please actually read my post.
88.
by superposeur 3y ago
I’m certainly not claiming the actual probability is 10^-40 , only using this as an example consistent with an upper limit, which probability would imply life has not arisen a second time in the observable universe. Actually this is way ove
89.
by superposeur 3y ago
These factors are what I call the “trappings of life”. It is a completely open question (and I mean completely ) how likely life is to arise spontaneously when these factors are present. One single instance of life elsewhere or successful
90.
by superposeur 3y ago
Yes and I’m glad we’re doing it! No life or fossilized remains of life of any kind has yet been found.

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