The Dudeism Forum

Well, yeah... Some people are that stupid. But really, maybe they're just extremely out of their element, like a child who wanders amongst the groundlings, paying no attention to the entrances and exits of the world, yet still demanding to know which player is the lover and which the tyrant...
(been reading The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski recently)

Quote from: Hoopdejoop on August 17, 2012, 04:36:31 PM
Well, yeah... Some people are that stupid. But really, maybe they're just extremely out of their element, like a child who wanders amongst the groundlings, paying no attention to the entrances and exits of the world, yet still demanding to know which player is the lover and which the tyrant...
(been reading The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski recently)

Fuckin' eh, outta their element for sure, dude! And, Hoopdejoop dude, welcome to the party and out not so quiet beach community. Bar's over there, dude.

Back in the summer on one of the rare warm days I was in the cab of my train in Paddington waiting for departure time with the cab door open and a woman came up to me and said, "Is this the train to Slough"? I said "yes it is".She said "can I get in" I said "sure".There was a pause, then she said "but you're in the way".

According to quantum theory there is a sense in which anything which currently exists has always existed so it's perfectly true that the internet was "always there".

I knew someone who seriously believed dinosaurs were made up by the movie people.

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on October 22, 2012, 03:48:40 PM
According to quantum theory there is a sense in which anything which currently exists has always existed so it's perfectly true that the internet was "always there".

If that were true, then I should be able to go down to the bank today and draw out all of the money I will ever have because it should all currently be in my account. Far fuckin' out, man!!

Quote from: meekon5 on October 22, 2012, 04:30:22 PM
I knew someone who seriously believed dinosaurs were made up by the movie people.

Of course they did, here's proof........

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on October 22, 2012, 03:48:40 PM
According to quantum theory there is a sense in which anything which currently exists has always existed so it's perfectly true that the internet was "always there".

Not really. There's the multiuniverse hypothesis which states that every branch of possibility has its own corresponding universe. And there's the quantum superposition phenomenon which states that electrons are in all possible states at the same time. It's not that everything which currently exists has always existed. The MUH states that every possibility has occurred, but in other universes (and it would have to evolve in temporal space, branching outwards into design space), and QS only applies to electrons. The patterns which we see (tables, chairs, white russians) are the amalgamations of the collapse of those quantum superpositions.

Just a word of warning - almost anything "spiritual" or "philosophical" that utilizes subatomic physics to buttress their claims about the human condition is a scam designed to lend the author some pseudoscientific credibility. Poetically true, maybe, but literally there is no connection between that and our reality. Some macro-sized technologies are principled on our understanding of quanta. But that's highly engineered, not a natural relationship.

Quote from: forumdude on October 22, 2012, 09:54:54 PM

Quote from: Boston Rockbury on October 22, 2012, 03:48:40 PM
According to quantum theory there is a sense in which anything which currently exists has always existed so it's perfectly true that the internet was "always there".

Not really. There's the multiuniverse hypothesis which states that every branch of possibility has its own corresponding universe. And there's the quantum superposition phenomenon which states that electrons are in all possible states at the same time. It's not that everything which currently exists has always existed. The MUH states that every possibility has occurred, but in other universes (and it would have to evolve in temporal space, branching outwards into design space), and QS only applies to electrons. The patterns which we see (tables, chairs, white russians) are the amalgamations of the collapse of those quantum superpositions.

Just a word of warning - almost anything "spiritual" or "philosophical" that utilizes subatomic physics to buttress their claims about the human condition is a scam designed to lend the author some pseudoscientific credibility. Poetically true, maybe, but literally there is no connection between that and our reality. Some macro-sized technologies are principled on our understanding of quanta. But that's highly engineered, not a natural relationship.

Forumdude, I just read your post here and had the occasional flashback. Actually, I would agree; it has always bothered me that just about every religion, philosophy, political persuasion and the latest fad diet tries to convince us that their personal reality is with out a doubt proven by an "obvious interpretation of quantum mechanics." Hell, I've even watched a TV evangelist propose that "quantum reality" proves that you should send him a nice big contribution to his bank account; talk about pseudoscientific credibility! Quantum reality? WTF?

Quantum mechanics is sometimes referred to as "spooky physics" for a very good reason; we haven't the slightest fucking idea how much of the world actually works at the sub-atomic level and are only just coming out of the caves regarding the world around us and what is "real." Super String Theory; like one Physicist said; "I'll believe it when I can tie my shoe laces with it." He was commenting in the context of "believing something" can be a problem, because doing so almost always closes the door to expanding your mind beyond what is believed.

"amalgamations of the collapse of those quantum superpositions." ...that sounds to me like a great way to make a hell of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster!

Having said that, check out - http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Zen-of-Quantum-Physics&id=2797437

The head thing! Why would Zaphod need to wear a parrotts cage on his shoulder when dressed as a pirate at a party if his other head is not visible? And Ford does not look like a student from Guildford.
A few months ago,I went to see the original radio cast on tour in Oxford.The original Zaphod had his original two heads and Arthur his original dressing gown.Marvin stole the show.
Steven Hawking thinks that the strings are vibrating to create a harmony or maybe they are just the vibration like sound in air.Each universe has its own tune and its own 'reality'.The image of the Blue Danube in 2001 comes to mind.

surely the internet does not actually exist as a physical entity in itself, busy zeros and ones in the ether, so you could argue its always been there or it isn't there at all.

Quote from: forumdude on October 22, 2012, 09:54:54 PM
...QS only applies to electrons...

And cats (in boxes), and socks (socks are a quantum event, both left or right, until you put them on, even socks labelled "right" and "left", because essentially the label doesn't matter, like socks labelled "Wednesday" are just asking to be worn on Friday).

Perhaps the two most commonly misrepresented scientific ideas in the public domain are 1) That Schrodinger actually was saying that the cat was both alive and dead at the same time (he used the illustration to show how quantum mechanics didn't apply to human-sized conditions, not that they did) and 2) That schizophrenia is when you have two (or more) personalities. Oh, and maybe 3) that science is a "belief system." Anybody got any more good ones?

Quote from: forumdude on October 23, 2012, 07:24:52 AM
...2) That schizophrenia is when you have two (or more) personalities...

Actually schizophrenia is where you hear voices, multiple personality disorder is where you have "two (or more) personalities".

About Schizophrenia.

Multiple personality disorder (now refered to as Dissociative Identity Disorder).