MigL

The 'universe is a simulation' argument is essentially the same as if there was an intelligence guiding the evolution of the universe, i.e. 'God did it'. It is an argument from ignorance which by definition, cannot be substantiated. And even though here is a possibility that either simulation or God may not be fantasy, I prefer the use of Occam's razor to keep things as simple as possible. The Holographic principle is a MODEL, as Swansont has pointed out. That means certain aspects of reality behave AS IF the universe were a projection of the lower dimensional bounding surface. And as Strange has pointed out numerous times the Holographic principle does NOT equate to simulation.

All those people in the clip now have job offers from K-J-U. To work on the North Korean missile guidance systems.

Only SR-71 Blackbirds... And they can't drop much of anything.

Agree with iNow, there won't be a war, nuclear or otherwise. The US, although D Trump is president, is too sensible and has too much to lose in terms of casualties to allies. North Korea, although at the whim of a madman, have been told by China that if they start something, they are on their own. I believe the US has made her intentions perfectly clear. We want North Korea to stop testing and developing nuclear weapons ( already too late ). They entered into treaties and contracts worth US$4 bill in aid, to stop nuclear development, all of which they subsequently ignored. ( can we get our money back ? ) It has to made clear to China that the inflammatory rhetoric coming from both sides is NOT the destabilizing factor. Rather it is K-J-U's missile and warhead testing, along with the occasional attacks on neighbors.

'Spin foam' is a higher dimensional change of a spin network, and relates to LQG. As such, it is vastly different from the Quantum foam that Andy keeps referring to, and was originally popularized by J. A. Wheeler.

The 'spaghettification' occurs near a Black Hole because of tidal effects. And these effects arise because of the radial geometry of the gravitational well. Not the 'steepness' of the curvature. I guess it all depends on the geometry of the drive, and whether tidal effects can be engineered away. ( but that is the least of the engineering problems )

Don't ask me. I'm a Loopy Quantum Gravity guy.

And I don't think nuclear proliferation is the answer, as Sicarii has previously suggested. The amount of trade between China, the world's largest manufacturer, and the US, the world's largest consumer, is HUGE. Gradually increasing tariffs on Chinese imports until the situation is resolved would result in the 'disappearance' of K-J-U within 6 months.

Unfortunately, it is. One madman with one nuclear weapon is equivalent ,if not worse, than a sane one with a whole arsenal. ( yes, D Trump is an idiotic buffoon who is corrupt, self-serving and full of himself, but is still sane )

All science does is build models which explains and makes predictions about existence/reality. Religion does exactly the same thing. It is in fact, the original 'model' which has been superseded many times by better and better models. But as noted by others, there are still 'gaps' in our understanding. We make up stuff all the time to explain away what we don't know. Until 'dark matter' is found, there is just as much proof that God is influencing galactic rotation rates. Until 'dark energy' is identified, it could as well be God accelerating expansion. Until we have a workable Quantum Gravity theory, it could be God at t=0. Not that I seriously consider any of these explanations, but until we have a better understanding, the center of a Black Hole is still an impossible singularity. And a lot of religions are closing the 'gaps'. As Dimreeper has noted the Church of England does; And I would add that the Vatican actively encourages/funds scientific research. Just because a model has been superseded, it doesn't become useless. Newtonian gravity still has its uses, even though GR has eliminated many of its "gaps' in understanding. Just as religion still has its uses( if one ignores the 'gaps' that science has filled in ) in providing guidance, fostering understanding, and concern for your fellow man.

Relativity cannot be incorrect for the conditions where it is applicable. Ever ! It has been tested for a century, and it IS correct. Same with Newtonian gravity. It IS correct where applicable, and has been tested for almost 4 centuries. Keep in mind that these are models. Analogues for the reality which tends to bring masses together. It has been modelled as a force, by Newton, and it works well enough to put people on the moon ! It has been modelled as space-time curvature, which greatly extends the conditions of applicability, approaching billionths of a second after the Big Bang and close to the center, deep inside a Black Hole. Could it be modelled as something completely different in the future, extending our understanding to t=0, and explaining away the infinities of singularities and quantized gravity ? Of course. But that doesn't make Newton and Einstein incorrect.

Did anyone note that the Chinese fired off a slew of missiles close to the North Korean border, during so called war exercises, shortly after it was revealed that the North Koreans had successfully miniaturized their nuclear warheads, D Trump's 'fire and fury', and K-J-U's 'attack on Guam' plans ? A not-so-subtle message, maybe ?

We seem to be a lot more passionate about subjective beliefs and opinions than we are about objective facts. That's the 'attraction' of politics/religion, and why we get so much participation in those forums. ( have you noticed the number of +/- rep points thrown about in politics/religion ? ) I've noticed this in myself as well as other members. If someone tells me I've got my Physics facts wrong about a subject, its no big deal. I thank them and research the matter But if someone tells me my political/religious opinions don't matter or are 'wrong', quite a few of us take it badly and get upset.

"demagoguing large groups of people based on their beliefs is never useful" Really ??? I don't think you really believe that. At least I've never seen you apply that mentality to 'Conservatives'. Wooop! Just hit 3000 posts. Gonna celebrate with a beer !

Wow. This discussion went south rather quickly. I do feel bad for the sheep though. Don't sweat it Koti. The last resort of those losing an argument is name-calling and labelling. "You don't agree with me, so you must be a hateful person, since I have inner peace" And the only argument ever presented, "Ignore it, and it will go away". Consider the argument won.

If you're not willing to fight for "what is right' then you are supporting "what is wrong' And other than ignoring 'the wrong', you still haven't told us HOW you would fight it, Dimreeper.

No it wasn't directed at you, Koti. But the problem with spreading knowledge is that a large number of Muslims ( and most of their women ) either don't get/are not alowed an education, or get religious teachings. So how exactly do you spread the knowledge ?

Sure. And all Muslims are bad because they continue to support and identify with terrorists ? You share similar ideals/morals therefore you are just as bad ? ( that argument was addressed in my original post against generalization )

Maybe instead of trying to be clever and scoffing at others ideas you could tell us how you would intend to fight the fundamentalist thinking which leads to terror ?

While I agree with you wholeheartedly about the US president ( and a lot of the Republican party ), I just took exception to the term 'conservatives'; Which unjustly includes all American ( even D D Eisenhower ? ) and international conservatives. ( sorry for the off-topic jaunt )

So your solution is to pretend there are no terrorists and just live life as if everything is hunky-dory and nothing is happening? Otherwise they've won ? You have a strange definition of winning/losing.

Why does everyone do this ? "Conservatives often challenge..." In the last Canadian federal election I voted Conservative ( but I previously voted Liberal ), so that makes me currently a Conservative supporter, but that may change depending on party policies of the next election. And Canadian Conservatives are much more liberal than American Democrats. Why is there a need to generalize all those negative attributes to me, or to someone who may have voted Conservative in England, or to even American Conservatives. If I said all Muslims are terrorists, or all Catholics are Nazis a lot of people would take exception to that. And if the argument is that the "good' Conservatives are enabling the bad Conservatives with their support, then that argument can also be made for good Muslims, Catholics, etc. So, can we have a little less generalizing, please ? ( and yes, my opening line, where I do the same, was intentional )

You are applying the North American norm, in an international forum, to a world wide religion, Swansont. You can have 'art' depicting Christ and bodily excrement, and nothing much happens; Yet you publish cartoons depicting Mohammed and your offices and employees get shot up. You can write an 'offensive' book about Christianity , as D Brown did, and not much happens; Yet if Salman Rushdie writes a book, Imans all over the world are calling for his death and there are protests in the streets of every Muslim country. That IS an attempt to force respect for the religion through intimidation. No-one has the 'right' to not be offended.

The only science in your post is the 1st line, Andy. Keep the rest for your science fiction novel.

Whether it still goes on or not is not the issue being discussed. And I agree that something needs to be done; I'm just not sure AA is the right vehicle for change. The past ( and arguably present ) wrongs come to light when two equally qualified people apply for the same position and a choice is made to fill that position based on skin color, sex and orientation, age, etc. Always to the detriment of the visible minority. AA provides a 'solution' to this problem, such that, when two equally qualified people apply to fill the same position, the choice is AGAIN based on skin color, sex and orientation, age, etc. Except that now it is to the detriment of the non-visible minority. And I'm not too comfortable with that. In another thread Imatfaal and CharonY made the argument that human rights must apply to everyone. Why is it OK to deny even 1% of non-visible minorities their rights, in order to correct the wrongs perpetrated against much larger numbers of visible minorities ?