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05-11-2019 , 06:34 PM

#4476

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzzer99

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_families

I just got lost in language families for an hour.

I like how down the list there's this:

Wagaydyic languages 2 5 Australia

Ther are two different languages in Wagaydic with 5 people in the whole world who speak them.

Quote

05-11-2019 , 06:36 PM

#4477

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

Quote:

Originally Posted by goofyballer

Watching Chernobyl on HBO led me down a rabbit hole, and ultimately to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natura...ission_reactor

wtf, nothing to see here, just a bunch of uranium spontaneously undergoing nuclear fission for a few hundred thousand years

huh....it's saying it happens naturally?? How odd. Maybe proof of aliens?

Quote

05-11-2019 , 10:29 PM

#4478

Garick

Oberbiergenießer

Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 27,331

Do you even critical mass, bro?

Quote

05-11-2019 , 11:37 PM

#4479

daveT

S.A.G.E. Master

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 23,955

Quote:

Originally Posted by goofyballer

Yeah, nothing to see here. The Sun is just long-lost ancient knowledge. The ancients slopped together a bunch of sand with water then used a tree to whack the fissile material into the sky.

Quote

05-13-2019 , 11:33 PM

#4480

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

Lead Masks Case

Two bodies were found in Brazil...the bodies rested next to each other, partly covered by grass. Each one wore a formal suit, a lead eye mask, and a waterproof coat. There were no signs of trauma or any evidence of a struggle. Next to the corpses, police found an empty water bottle and a packet containing two wet towels. A small notebook was also identified, on which were written the cryptic instructions, "16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask".

Bizarre

Quote

05-13-2019 , 11:51 PM

#4481

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

Timeline Of the Far Future

The timelines displayed here cover events from the beginning of the 11th millennium[note 1] to the furthest reaches of future time. A number of alternative future events are listed to account for questions still unresolved, such as whether humans will become extinct, whether protons decay, and whether the Earth survives when the Sun expands to become a red giant.

Quote

05-17-2019 , 11:14 AM

#4482

Perhaps Shimmy

veteran

Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 2,577

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Saxe-Coburg-Gotha- The once and future king

Became monarch of Bulgaria as a child, was deposed, then returned to become prime minister.

Quote

05-18-2019 , 03:41 AM

#4483

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,648

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dominic

This got me reading about Boltzmann brains again which ****ing terrify me.

Quote:

a Boltzmann brain is a self-aware entity that arises due to extremely rare random fluctuations out of a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. For example, in a homogeneous Newtonian soup, theoretically by sheer chance all the atoms could bounce off and stick to one another in such a way as to assemble a functioning human brain

Boltzmann brains gained new relevance around 2002, when some cosmologists started to become concerned that, in many existing theories about the Universe, human brains in the current Universe appear to be vastly outnumbered by Boltzmann brains in the future Universe who, by chance, have exactly the same perceptions that we do

Quote

05-19-2019 , 01:56 PM

#4484

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

why would that be concerning?

Quote

05-19-2019 , 02:44 PM

#4485

that_pope

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 33,568

Obviously you haven't watched Futurama

Quote

05-20-2019 , 05:58 AM

#4486

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,648

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dominic

why would that be concerning?

Cos odds are you are you are one and you're probably about to stop existing completely. There are millions of times more Boltzmann brains which by chance pop into existence with the exact set of feelings, memories and perceptions you have now than there are brains evolved on the planet and the vast majority of them will pop out of existence extremely quickly.

Quote

05-20-2019 , 05:42 PM

#4487

chillrob

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 23,108

Not concerning at all to me. Suddenly popping out of existence sounds far preferable to the painful way most humans die.

Quote

05-21-2019 , 12:21 AM

#4488

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

Quote:

Originally Posted by abysmal01

why does it mean I'm more likely to "die" sooner rather than, later if I'm this goofy brain rather than a human?

Quote

05-21-2019 , 02:12 AM

#4489

chillrob

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 23,108

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dominic

why does it mean I'm more likely to "die" sooner rather than, later if I'm this goofy brain rather than a human?

Because the brain isn't (likely) supported by a circulatory system or any energy source?

Because it will immediately be ripped apart in the vacuum of space?

Last edited by chillrob; 05-21-2019 at 02:26 AM.

Quote

05-21-2019 , 03:34 AM

#4490

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

so theses brains that might be me are just popping in and out of existence willy nilly?

Huh.

Quote

05-21-2019 , 07:32 AM

#4491

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,648

Pretty much. If once every 10^10^69 years can be called willy nilly. And the chance that you're not one of these brains is infinitesimally small if the universe works the way a lot of cosmologists now think it does.

There's also a bit of a loop here in that only a ridiculously tiny portion of Boltzmann brains will appear with an accurate picture of the universe so if you are a Boltzmann brain you're almost certainly wrong about how the universe works which means Boltzmann brains probably aren't possible so you're not one and you're version of the universe is likely to be correct which means you actually are one. Or something like that.

Last edited by abysmal01; 05-21-2019 at 07:46 AM. Reason: The last bit was just me thinking out loud and is probably really dumb and I'll look back in an hour and think I'm an idiot

Quote

05-21-2019 , 11:45 AM

#4492

JayTeeMe

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 29,419

Quote:

Originally Posted by chillrob

Not concerning at all to me. Suddenly popping out of existence sounds far preferable to the painful way most humans die.

Quote

05-21-2019 , 04:59 PM

#4493

Josem

human chemical weapon

Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 18,247

I imagine there have got to be more painful ways to die than peaceful ways to die, so you're probably out of luck there too, chillrob

Quote

05-22-2019 , 01:24 AM

#4494

Dominic

Tripod

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 75,330

But even if I am this floating brain thing, I don't know it, and my sense of time is just as it would be if I were actually me. So, being a floating brain thing does not, in any way, cause me any discomfort or worry. If I blink into existence one minute and blink out the next, I don't realize that, and feel like I've lived a whole life up to my supposed age of 55.

So whatever.

Quote

05-22-2019 , 07:22 AM

#4495

Howard Treesong

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 13,738

Which is more likely to exist: a Boltzmann brain or Roko’s basilisk?

Neither seems in any way plausible to me. The logic of each seems sensible, but they’re both things that I just don’t buy.

Quote

05-23-2019 , 10:24 AM

#4496

Perhaps Shimmy

veteran

Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 2,577

Quote:

Originally Posted by Etats360

wat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

👋👋👋👋👋

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howard Treesong

Which is more likely to exist: a Boltzmann brain or Roko’s basilisk?

Even rarer: The Knicks or Jets doing something smart

Quote

05-23-2019 , 11:53 AM

#4497

suzzer99

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 100,711

So if we are a Boltzmann brain does that mean I get to eat whatever I want and spend my net worth on hookers and blow this weekend - with zero consequences?

Quote

05-23-2019 , 11:56 AM

#4498

Steve350

old hand

Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 1,873

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzzer99

So if we are a Boltzmann brain does that mean I get to eat whatever I want and spend my net worth on hookers and blow this weekend - with zero consequences?

IOW, just like always.

Quote

05-29-2019 , 08:17 PM

#4499

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,648

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howard Treesong

Which is more likely to exist: a Boltzmann brain or Roko’s basilisk?

Good question. If Boltzmann brains are a thing then we exist in a paradox, though i'm not sure that makes it less likely to be true. Roko's basilisk has always seemed weird to me in that it's supposed to be a good agent that has to cause otherwise unnecessary harm in order to influence the past, which it has no control over at all. It's obviously in the basilisk's interest for people in the past to think it will harm them if they don't help create it but harming their simulacrums in the future won't have any bearing on how they thought in the past, so when it gets to that point, what's the point?

Neither seems in any way plausible to me. The logic of each seems sensible, but they’re both things that I just don’t buy.

Yeah most people seem to have an in built reductio ad absurdum gate that plays a big role in credulity and has little to do with actual logic that lets them move on from this kind of idea without thinking about it too much. Same thing with Pascal's wager not convincing many aetheists despite most of them not having a great reason to reject it.

Last edited by abysmal01; 05-29-2019 at 08:23 PM.

Quote

05-29-2019 , 08:25 PM

#4500

chillrob

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 23,108

Pascal's wager is unconvincing because it makes the mistake of assuming that belief is a choice.

I couldn't choose to believe the sun does not exist, regardless of the reward I was offered for my unbelief.

Quote

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