MigL

Phi said... "We're used to tightening our belts/going to extremes in times of emergency" I think the gun related death rate in the US is an emergency. ( never mind the illegal immigrants at the southern border )

I think WTF is saying that a computational engine has to have the choices programmed for it to learn. If the 'AI' is programmed to pick up an object, but not if it detects the temperature of that object to be over 100 deg, then we say it has 'learned' not to touch something hot. That is not equivalent to consciousness. True AI ( and consciousness )would examine the problem, re-write its own code, and attempt to pick it up from the other side which is cooler. And if that fails, make another WAG attempt. Unfortunately we don't use such a computational model ( we use the Touring model ).

Typically, cosmic rays are protons. And they have energies ( and speeds ) approximately a million times higher than the LHC can achieve. ( sorry I edited/added to my post while you were composing your reply )

Wouldn't biodegradable plastics solve the problem ( assuming they don't degrade into something even more harmful ) ? You could have 'grocery' bags and food/beverage containers degrade after weeks to months, while plastics used in appliances/construction would degrade after months to years ( as these are less likely to end up in waterways ).

Sure it can be calculated; but gravitational time dilation would need to be considered. Say you, a faraway observer, throws a light source towards the BH, that emits a pulse of light every second, you will note that as it approaches the BH's EH, the pulses are separated by increasing time intervals, and the intervals approach infinity at the EH. To a faraway observer, the speed of approach seems to slow down, and actually stop at the EH. You should realize that if the speed of light could be exceeded by anything crossing the EH, then it wouldn't necessarily be 'trapped', as it would be able to travel 'out' of its own light cone ( and the EH is defined as the radius where escape velocity is equivalent to c ). That means that BHs would be 'bright' ( not black ) with radiation from superluminal objects. This clearly does not happen. Just wondering, though, if cosmic rays approach the Earth at 99.99% of c , and are then accelerated by Earth's gravity, do your calculations result in their going superluminal also ?

In Swansont's example, the universe is represented ( in fewer dimensions ) by the surface of the sphere, not the interior. As a matter of fact, any topology you can 'picture' is unrealistic, as they would involve 'embedding' in a higher dimension ( extrinsic ). For example, the non-embedded, finite but unbounded torus ( topological donut ) is a flat torus ( intrinsic curvature ). And this has the qualities of the old 'Asteroids' game; when you travel off one end of the screen, you re-appear on the opposing side.

If Mordred was still around, he could probably explain the concept of a false low vacuum energy state a lot better than me. He would probably explain in terms of a 'Mexican hat' potential, or a bowl with a raised 'hump' in the middle. I, however, prefer a much simpler example/analogy. Consider dropping a pencil onto a tabletop. It is extremely unlikely, but the pencil could land on its tip. This is a perfectly symmetric outcome, as you can rotate around it and see exactly the same thing. And you might think the pencil is in its lowest energy state; but it is not. It is an unstable false low energy state. A simple tipping of the pencil will take it off this false low energy hump, and drop it onto its side to the real low energy state. You will also find that the real low energy state is no longer symmetric; the pencil on its side is now pointing in a specific direction. It has undergone a symmetry break. It is the gradual drop, from the false low energy state, to the ( possibly ) real lowest energy state which provide the impetus for inflation, and this was outlined in A Guth's original theory in the 80s. There are now many more proposed models than A Guth's original. The last symmetry break involved the Electroweak symmetry break, which separated Electromagnetism and the Weak force, but prior symmetry breaks may have resulted in the break from the Color ( strong ) force, and even from gravity. This may mean that inflation wasn't smooth but proceeded at differing speeds during each 'roll down' to the next false low energy state. For a more in-depth explanation of Symmetry groups in GUTs look at the Wiki entry for Grand Unified Theory. I believe the most promising ( and Mordred's favorite ) is SO(10) Lie group

Exceeding the Bekenstein bound causes collapse to a BH. The apparent exceeding of the bound, relativistically, will not cause collapse for the same reason that relativistic mass will not cause collapse. The relativistic effects ( mass, and length contraction causing apparent information density increases ) are frame dependent.

Sooooo... I shouldn't get a tan this summer or I'll be denied entry into the US ? ( and when they see my latin-sounding name, MigL, I'm really in trouble )

"Don't post anything you might come to regret or be ASHAMED of at a later date" I don't know Studiot, if you make appropriate use of the forum, and learn new things, you may be ashamed at the lack of knowledge you previously had. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Yes, thanks Stringy, I read that part. Just wondering about any other forcings as they don't seem that big ( to avoid land altogether ); maybe lack of food on land ?

I had read that a certain species of eel-like shark had remained ( relatively ) unchanged for approx. 150 mil yrs. And a type of shrimp, for about 200 mil yrs. ( just adding to the confusion )

I wonder if the environmental forcing that drove them back into the sea was mainly food availability and easier mobility for larger mammals. Somewhat like hippos who spend all their time wading semi-submerged in pools. ( although their rendition looks more lizard-like than mammalian )

So an SR-71 is flying at 80000 ft ( about 20 km, ) and is at equilibrium with the potential at that height. What keeps the plane up ??? Should it not be attracted to the ground ??? You say there is no air pressure in an open system, so there is no pressure differential to provide lift. Why are no planes falling out of the sky ??? Maybe look out the window sometime, and observe reality. You may find it doesn't agree with your humorous notions.

Come on, INow. I expect this from some other members; you're better than this. The implication of this statement... "Again though, if you weren’t merely dismissing this as some PC overreaction, or yet again trying to paint those who lean left as hypocrites, or if you weren’t trying to hold firm against progress around how women are treated in our society, then that’s my bad and mea culpa." is uncomfortably clear. Sure J Biden is a more 'traditional' candidate as opposed to the more 'progressive' fresh candidates. But everything else being equal, we may end up with people voting along party lines again, and even winning the popular vote, the election will again be lost. The strategy has to include stealing votes from the D Trump/Republican base, or else you risk the same outcome as last time.

What do you guys make of J Biden's recent issues with his treatment of women in the past ? I'm not sure about the appropriateness of applying today's norms to past actions. People are allowed to evolve with their thinking. I like J Biden, and hope he declares, because he has the advantage of being able to appeal to some of D Trump's base, while still having a 'progressive' outlook; but the accusations against him are coming from other Democrats. I hope Democrat 'infighting' doesn't make it easy for D Trump, and you guys end up, again, with a moron for the following 4 yrs.

Are you suggesting that since there was no law against the slave trade, it should not be taken into consideration ? There was no law against owning slaves in the American south either. By that flawed logic there is no need for reparations; everything was done according to legalities of the times. If there wasn't a 'demand' or 'market' for slaves in the American south, who would you sell the captured slaves to ? The Southern US ( and unfortunately, other parts of the world as well ) provided the monetary incentive for the slave trade. It was very lucrative, and traders were willing to expose themselves to dangerous circumstances and disease ( at the time ) for those profits. I would think the connections are very clear.

Slaves were illegally apprehended from the African interior, and separated from family and friends, to lead a life of slavery in the American south. Without the 'market' there would have been no need for the capture/separation. The two events are clearly connected. Wouldn't want Ten oz to accuse me of only wanting to discuss certain effects of slavery and ignore others.

Weapon systems, whether bombs or missiles, use three types of guidance systems. Active, passive and GPS. An active system uses a missile's self-contained radar to illuminate the target, and correctly steer itself toward it. Alternatively the 'seeker' can receive information ( such as IR emissions ) directly from the target. A passive system requires illumination from the launcher, firing vehicle, or independent ground based source. The major drawback to this is that the target must be continuously illuminated during the bomb/missile's flight. This is a problem for strike aircraft as it makes them visible/vulnerable to AA systems. The third option, is used only for non moving targets, and only by bombs or cruise missiles, where the target location is pre-programmed, and 'steering' is by GPS

Are we going to consider ALL the effects of slavery , CharonY ? The argument could be made that, in the absence of slavery, a large number of black people would not even be living in the US. Assuming comparable immigration by Canada and the US, I would think the US would have a similar percentage of black people. Canada's population is about 3% black, while the US is closer to 13% ( all numbers from Wiki ). A large number of American black citizens, without slavery, would now be living in central Africa. Assuming they survived the brutal civil wars of the Congo, famines, Ebola and abysmal health care. By all means let's talk about it. Discussion can only clarify people's opinions. But trying to second guess what would have happened in the absence of an event, several hundred years past, gets very complicated, very quickly.

We have a Political Humor subforum. Why not a Science or Physics Humor one also? Some of these ideas are laughable.

Wow, Swansont can be pretty critical. Swanston is much nicer and easier to get along with. ( Hah Hah )

Swansont already has. Electrons ( and other charges ) repel one another, and like to 'spread out'. IOW, they seek the lowest energy state, by maximizing separation.

On the subject of reparations to those wrongfully convicted, I had assumed it already happens. At least it does in Canada. Does it not happen in the US ?

As Ten oz has rightfully stated, China is the world's largest producer, and the US is the world's largest consumer. You'd have to be pretty stupid to destroy this symbiotic relationship. Also the US owes China trillions of dollars. In case of war, this would all be lost. I do see China 'pushing' her neighbors ( Japan, S Korea, Taiwan, etc ) until the US steps in, then backing off for the previously mentioned reasons. China's biggest problem is that, although they have a flourishing economy and many billionaires, they also have over a billion people living in, what we would call, abject poverty. One of these days, those billion people are going to demand their share of the economic pie, and, even if they manage to avoid a revolution, they are going to take the whole world's economy down with them.