World, Writing, Wealth discussion

Once the immortality is finally tested and delivered, we'd just need to be a little patient to see what's next, assuming it might be similar to what was the previous .

J. wrote: "Scout wrote: "Anybody have a theory about what preceded the Big Bang? :-)"

You're going to hate this one...

Time is a function of the Universe. Without a universe there is no time. Therefore, the..."

Yep! Something along these lines.

I see time as an abstract concept that permits you to measure rates of change. If nothing is changing, or there is nothing to change, then time cannot exist.

Ian wrote: "I see time as an abstract concept that permits you to measure rates of change. If nothing is changing, or there is nothing to change, then time cannot exist."

Time does not exist if nothing changes? You obviously have never worked at my job....8^)

No, but I guess things changed. Even if you sat at your desk and did absolutely nothing, presumably you went out to eat or went to the toilet :-)

I don't know. There have been moments in my job when I thought that I had caught a glimpse of the Augustinian Eternal Perspective through repetition.

Well, at least you take away a pay cheque. (Or if not, I suggest a change of workplace) So something happens :-)

Things happen in the Eternal Perspective. They just all happen concurrently. That's how Augustine allowed for free will. The Divine perspective isn't predicting the future. It is experiencing it concurrently with the past and present.

Yes, but before you were not paid, and after you were (hopefully).

I'm reading a book now in which a wise Native American says that everything, past present and future, is happening now. I've read and heard this idea many times. It blows my mind. Can you guys explain to me in layman's terms how this is possible and help me understand it and its implications for a person like me?

I think it means everything is determined, so what you do is already written. I don't accept it, but that is me. If I drop an egg on the floor, before dropping I had a well-organized egg, but once it hits floor Humpty can't be put together again. Entropy cannot be reversed, and entropy continues to increase. That is why I regard time as a measure of entropy evolving.

It Takes 1.71 Days to Poop Out a Lego
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

Well, that is good to know. Those who thought it took 1.77 days can breathe a sigh of relief that out it comes, more quickly.

A Woman Just Emerged After Spending 500 Days Alone in a Cave. She Saw Some Things.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/adve...

Scout wrote: "I'm reading a book now in which a wise Native American says that everything, past present and future, is happening now. I've read and heard this idea many times. It blows my mind. Can you guys expl..."

This is what Augustine called the Eternal Perspective. It's the perspective which he proposed as God's. The best explanation which I've read works like this.

Imagine the Now. The Now is the fragment of time which you are actively experiencing. You don't have to remember it. And you don't have to predict it. You are in it. For humans, the Now is the few seconds which our brains have just processed, but which haven't been moved from short-term to long-term memory.

OK, imagine that time is a motion picture. The Now is the frame of the film which is currently being projected onto the screen. The Now proceeds from frame to frame as the film passes through the projector.

A Mortal Perspective is simply a movie of a limited length, with each frame passing in sequence. An Immortal Perspective is simply an infinitely long movie, with each frame passing in sequence.

For the Eternal Perspective, imagine taking an infinitely long movie; cutting each frame from the film; and then stacking the frames so that you can look through each and every frame at the same moment. The Eternal Perspective is an endless Now.

So from Augustine's God's perspective, he doesn't remember Genesis. He is creating the Universe, Now. He doesn't predict the Apocalypse. He is breaking the Seals, Now. He is simultaneously smiting Egypt and inspiring Constantine, giving life to Adam and dying on the cross. From his perspective, we're going through time wearing blinders.

Does that help?

that is about a good an explanation that I have heard yet.

The other alternative is to look at it from the physics point of view. Let something be propelled from A to B without any interference (i.e. no motors or anything else) The path it takes will be the path that takes the least time (in general). The path defines something called the action, and the statement of the least time is the principle of least action, from which all mechanics can be derived. (There are exceptions to least time e.g. when the object is on a saddle point but let's not complicate this any more than necessary.)

If we differentiate the action with respect to length we get something called momentum. That is conserved, and you can demonstrate it with things like Newton's cradle. But momentum makes no sense unless we have something called length. Similarly, if we differentiate the action with respect to something we call time, we get energy, and energy makes no sense at all unless there is something called time in which the object can change its value. (I.e., "now" has to follow "before now" or we cannot differentiate. If we don't like calculus, we can say energy requires action to change with respect to something we call time that arranges the path to evolve sequentially. Effectively, it is a statement that something cannot be in two places at the same time but has to go from one to the other and traverse a path in getting there.

Finally, if we differentiate the action sequentially (in either sequence) with respect to length and time we end up with force. For all those who keep saying force is not a real thing, please drop a brick on your toe. While the brick is in your hand you do not feel a sore toe; once dropped, you cannot go back to toe being unhurt. You have generated a sequence of events, the brick travelled a path in accord with the principle of least action, and hopefully you have demonstrated that time exists. If not, try the other foot.

Please, abstain from inciting self-mutilation

Your foot should survive a brick. The damage should be a lot less than what you see in most sporting events, yet the people strongly support such events. Are we saying that minor bruising to demonstrate a critical piece of physics should be banned, while major damage in sport is supported?

Yeah, I guess it’s a known feature of scientists and inventors to try things on themselves. Many died attempting to fly 🪰. I remember reading that x-ray inventors and early experimenters - Rontgen and friends died of cancer caused by exposure to radiation ☢️.
But here you suggest others experiment at home at their precious toes. You must offer safer experiments for the similar end.
One doesn’t do sport or extreme for getting hurt. They do it for a different reason, just assuming the risk involved.

Cows found dead with tongues missing across Texas. Police investigating mutilations
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime...

Must be the classic manifestation of the butterfly effect of the chaos theory - Ian was flapping his wings in Lower Hutt and now cows are tongueless in Texas. Advise the police at your discretion

Nik wrote: "Yeah, I guess it’s a known feature of scientists and inventors to try things on themselves. Many died attempting to fly 🪰. I remember reading that x-ray inventors and early experimenters - Rontgen ..."

A little logic would not go astray here. For real wusses, or for those who are genuinely prepared to learn, they could use a Lego brick. The heavier bricks should be restricted to persistent slow learners.

Nik wrote: "Must be the classic manifestation of the butterfly effect of the chaos theory - Ian was flapping his wings in Lower Hutt and now cows are tongueless in Texas. Advise the police at your discretion"

Ian would have to have been flapping his wings for some time now. The cattle mutilation phenomenon has been going on for several decades, and it is weird.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattl...

It has been attributed to aliens, satanists, skinwalkers, clandestine government entities, and natural predation. I'm willing to give the first four some rope because in all of my time as an outdoorsman I have never seen a straight incision on a dead animal, unless a human cut it.

According to the link, it has been going on since 1606. I am old, but not that old :-). I plead not guilty.

Ian wrote: "According to the link, it has been going on since 1606. I am old, but not that old :-). I plead not guilty."

Records of that age are a bit spotty, so I tend to focus on the modern incidents which are better documented. Of course, if you have direct knowledge of the phenomenon, please relate it to us.

Actually, I have never heard of it before this thread brought it up, but I can hear some of you saying, "Well, you would say that." :-)

Few centuries is just a miniscule blip on chronometer, well within a permitted deviation. While you yourself claim that time is either a stack of frames or a mix of momentum, action and injured limbs.
Apart from Ian, I'd check with those who worship tongue as a rare delicatessen

Nik wrote: "Few centuries is just a miniscule blip on chronometer, well within a permitted deviation. While you yourself claim that time is either a stack of frames or a mix of momentum, action and injured lim..."

Don't get me started on the flow of time. I had to renew my driver's license this morning. An age of the universe passed while I waited in a half broken, plastic chair. I only made it back to this now with the help of a kindly Brit with a big blue phone booth.

While beef tongue can be tasty, the other commonly removed organs are not, as noted in the above linked article.
Two of the cows also had their genitalia and anuses removed.

J. wrote: "....I had to renew my driver's license this morning. An age of the universe passed while I waited in a half broken..."

Sounds like an epic endeavor on par maybe with cleaning Augean stables. Hope the task is done. Would bet that background checks for purchase of a firearm are more expedient

It's so quick that the Antis swear it doesn't happen. Though if you perjure yourself on the affidavit, it helps if you're a vice president's son.

This Massive Meatball Was Made With Woolly Mammoth DNA
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

Is Time Travel Possible?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...

J. wrote: "Is Time Travel Possible?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar..."
The fact that a number of people are publishing mathematical papers on what happens if it is possible does not make it so. It is just that some academics can publish and nobody can prove they are wrong.

As it happens, going forward in time is easy, but not going back. The article says that the laws of physics allow it but that is not true; the laws of mechanics are time reversible, however, going backwards in time violates BOTH laws of thermodynamics. The second law is particularly troublesome because nobody has ever found a violation of it. Water never flows up-hill (which it would while reversing time.) The statement that there is nothing preventing negative mass is also misleading; there is also nothing that permits negative mass.

Sunday night will be Walpurgisnacht.

Exorcist reveals signs of demonic possession, responds to new demon movie: 'Levitation', pupils 'turn green'
https://www.foxnews.com/media/exorcis...

Pupils activate their chlorophyll:-)

Ian wrote: "Pupils activate their chlorophyll:-)"

Fair point. Does that mean demonic possession fights global warming by reducing atmospheric carbon with your eyes?

Interesting thought. The Greens think global warming is caused by demonic possession.

I thought it was cow burps

Papaphilly wrote: "I thought it was cow burps"

So the aliens are fighting global warming by mutilating cattle?

Nik will need to adjust his working hypothesis.

A Brazilian UFO crash story is making the rounds.
https://youtu.be/qI6Kp813HvM

UFO search: Retired Navy senior chief ‘not going to jail’ to report what he saw in Afghanistan
https://nypost.com/2023/05/07/ufo-sea...

Mystery ‘Grim Reaper’ from King Charles’ coronation explained
https://nypost.com/2023/05/09/grim-re...

Surging Brain Activity in Dying People May Be a Sign of Near-Death Experiences
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

A slightly scarier thought is that the day or so before death, sometimes there is a resurgence of activity. The day before my wife died of cancer, she got up and behaved more or less as if recovering, which I misinterpreted as she was going to last somewhat longer. The day before he died, J. S. Bach, who had gone blind, woke up and he could see.

My condolences.

I've sat watch over the death beds of two cancer patients. Their cancers kept living long after them, leaving emaciated flesh stretched over brittle bones and knowing only pain. For them, the Reaper came as a friend.

Your wife and yourself got one last good morning together. Cherish that.

I cherished that day. Not so much the next, but in fairness, it was good that it happened sooner than I wanted. She was getting little pleasure out of life, other than that one last day. In my opinion, once you get to the point there is no more pleasure in life, it is time to leave.

7,000-Year-Old Submerged Road Discovered Under The Mediterranean Sea
https://www.iflscience.com/7000-year-...

J. wrote: "7,000-Year-Old Submerged Road Discovered Under The Mediterranean Sea
https://www.iflscience.com/7000-year-..."

Fascinating.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the idea that incompetent people are the last to realize it. Now we’re realizing that could be wrong.
https://fortune.com/2023/05/08/what-i...