FlowVoid

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FlowVoid , (edited )

Energy use increases with bpm, change in pressure (systolic - diastolic) and the stroke volume (amount of blood pumped per beat).

Note that there is also an inverse relationship between stroke volume and bpm because the faster the heart beats, the less time for blood to return to the heart for the next beat.

That said, heart “strength” is more about reserve capacity (ie ability to ramp up when necessary) than efficiency. It’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Corolla: at 100 mph the former can still increase its power whereas the latter is getting near its limit.

So if the Ferrari has a “car attack” and suddenly loses 50% of its max speed then it can still keep up on the highway, the Corolla maybe not. That’s more important than which one is more energy efficient.

FlowVoid , (edited )

I wouldn’t say that Sabine is among the “least biased”. She strongly advocates for superdeterminism, and her videos on the subject presume it is true even though it is still unproven and currently accepted only by a minority of physicists.

FlowVoid ,

Even once you understand that the uncertainty principle is not the same as the observer effect, I think it’s still mysterious for the same reason that “the wavefunction is the only thing that exists” is mysterious.

If anything, it’s more mysterious once you understand the difference. People are more willing to accept “Your height cannot be measured with infinite precision” than “Your height fundamentally has no definite value”, but the latter is closer to the truth than the former.

FlowVoid , (edited )

There are even plenty of questions, like the delayed-choice quantum eraser, that have already been solved

No, it has not been solved. At least not solved to the satisfaction of many physicists.

In one respect, there is nothing to solve. Everyone agrees on what you would observe in this experiment. The observations agree with what quantum equations predict. So you could stop there, and there would be no problem.

The problem arises when physicists want to assign meaning to quantum equations, to develop a human intuition. But so far every attempt to do so is flawed.

For example, the quantum eraser experiment produces results that are counterintuitive to one interpretation of quantum mechanics. Sabine’s “solution” is to use a different interpretation instead. But her interpretation introduces so many counterintuitive results for other experiments that most physicists still prefer the interpretation that can’t explain the quantum eraser. Which is why they still think about it.

In the end, choosing a particular interpretation amounts to choosing how QM will violate ordinary intuition. Sabine doesn’t actually solve this fundamental problem in her video. And since QM predictions are the same regardless of the interpretation, there is no correct choice.

FlowVoid , (edited )

Right, but in order to get the observed effect at D1 or D2 there must be interaction/interference between a wave from mirror A and a wave from mirror B (because otherwise why would D1 and D2 behave differently from D3 and D4?).

And that’s a problem for some interpretations of QM. Because when one of the entangled photons strikes the screen, its waveform is considered to have “collapsed”. Which means the waveform of the other entangled photon, still in flight, must also instantly “collapse”. Which means the photon still in flight can be reflected from mirror A or mirror B, but not both. Which means no interaction is possible at D1 or D2.

FlowVoid , (edited )

When the first photon hits the screen and collapses, that doesn’t mean its twin photon collapses too.

Yes, it does. By definition, entangled particles are described by a single wave function. If the wave function collapses, it has to collapse for both of them.

So for example, an entangled pair of electrons can have a superposition of up and down spin before either one is measured. But if you detect the spin of one electron as up, then you immediately know that the spin of the second electron must be down. And if the second electron must be down then it is no longer in superposition, i.e. its wave function has also collapsed.

FlowVoid ,

In the electron example, if the two electrons are entangled then the wave functions must be the shared. The new superposition for the second electron would therefore be shared with the first electron. So if you measured the second electron along z+ and got up, then if you measured the first electron again, this time along z+, it would give down.

Likewise if the twin photon is still in superposition, then the first photon is also in superposition. Which is hard to accept in the Copenhagen interpretation, given that the first photon has been absorbed. If absorption doesn’t completely collapse a wave function, then what does?

FlowVoid ,

Entangled electrons are entangled in all directions. If you measure one along any direction, you can completely predict the measurement of its pair in the same direction.

FlowVoid ,

Well, if the second photon is in a new, weird superposition then the first photon must also be in the same new, weird superposition. Again, I don’t that’s compatible with Copenhagen given that the first photon no longer exists.

Note by the way that 50% y+ and 50% y- is how all photons start. So if that’s also the final state then there is no reason for it to prefer any detector over the others.

FlowVoid ,

That doesn’t really explain why obesity has increased. If anything, it is often easier to get by without a car today than 20 years ago. For example, my own city is full of bike paths that did not exist then.

FlowVoid ,

Sure, it’s still not good. But that can’t explain why people are more obese now than a couple of decades ago, since bike infrastructure was even worse then.

FlowVoid ,

If we follow your reasoning, then there is also no reason to punish someone who kills a pedestrian while driving drunk.

FlowVoid , (edited )

We are choosing to address drunk driving, as we have for years, through stricter prison sentencing, which has never improved or otherwise addressed the root causes of drunk driving. Punishing drunk drivers makes everyone feel better, because…children dying is fucking devastating and we need someone held accountable, and drunk drivers do bear at least some responsibility. But just because it makes us feel better doesn’t mean it is effective.

There are many other things that need doing–many, many things–to make a dent in drunk driving, and we keep pulling out the same useless tool.

Do you disagree with any of that?

FlowVoid , (edited )

The choices of those parents also hurt someone else. Accidentally poisoning children is not inherent to opiate addiction - in fact, it is less common than accidentally killing a pedestrian while DUI. And there are resources for both alcoholics and opiate addicts, usually under the same roof.

FlowVoid ,

They aren’t completely different, they have in common a direct link to harming bystanders. And usually we punish people who cause harm to bystanders.

So if you have a specific difference in mind that justifies lenience towards opiate addicts who harm bystanders but does not also apply to alcoholics who do the same, then you should spell it out.

FlowVoid , (edited )

I already replied to them.

Both of you are trying to argue that opiate addicts deserve more leniency than other types of addicts, but I don’t think you’ve made your point well at all.

FlowVoid ,

I could’ve sworn you were arguing against the “heavy hammer of justice”. But if you aren’t actually calling for leniency then we agree: these particular parents deserve to be charged, and addicts of all types deserve more systemic support.

FlowVoid ,

The article says that it could become a hurricane, not that it’s expected to do so.

FlowVoid , (edited )

I don’t hope that aid is held up. It’s going to Floridians in need, many of whom already hate DeSantis. And anyway it would set a terrible precedent for a President to try to punish people living in states where the governor is a political opponent.

On the other hand, I do hope that DeSantis is politically humiliated by the federal aid.

FlowVoid ,

You are looking at the copyright issue from the wrong perspective.

Suppose I were an artist and wanted to create a new video. To obtain inspiration, I go to Pirate Bay and torrent the complete works of Steven Spielberg.

It makes no difference whether my eventual video is “transformative” or not. It makes no difference whether I even complete my video at all. I broke the law as soon as I illegally downloaded all those Spielberg movies. Even if I was inspired to create the greatest movie of all time, I broke the law.

That’s why AI developers are being sued. Before their AI could do anything at all, they needed to download a bunch of training data. That training data often consisted of work protected by copyright, and it is illegal to use a web scraper on copyrighted works without permission. Even if the AI used the training data to create transformative art, the developers broke the law.

FlowVoid ,

Gravity is not exponential. It is linear with mass and inverse square with distance.

FlowVoid ,

No.

A field is a value assigned at every point in space. It is not “made of waves”. But if the field is perturbed by an acceleration, then the perturbation is propagated as a wave.

Simple analogy: every point in the sea has a “depth”. That’s like a field. If a motorboat creates a wake, the “depth” changes temporarily. You see that change as a wave.

FlowVoid ,

If a photon collides with a particle, virtual or not, then the particle will eventually emit another photon.

Area of gravity at the center of large, dense celestial bodies...

I’ve read that at the center of large celestial bodies there’s zero gravity (or close to). While confirmation would be nice, if true, I’m wondering how large that area can actually be and moreover, does it scale up with more mass and/or even size - that is, does the sun have a larger center area of low (zero?) gravity than...

FlowVoid ,

Inside a sphere of constant density, gravity is linearly related to distance from the center.

So for example the Earth has a radius of ~4000 miles. Assuming it has constant density, you would experience 0 gravity at its center, 0.1% of surface gravity at 4 miles from the center, 1% of surface gravity at 40 miles from the center, half of surface gravity at halfway to the surface, and so on.

FlowVoid , (edited )

A linear relationship would exist if the sun were uniform in density, but it isn’t.

Though there is still a nonlinear change in gravity as you approach the center of the sun.

FlowVoid ,

I think the best way to visualize it is that when you are inside a star, you are effectively “standing” on a smaller star. Everything behind you can theoretically be ignored. When you are very close to the center, you are standing on a very tiny star.

FlowVoid , (edited )

I’m not sure what you mean by “surface”.

Imagine you are standing on the surface of Earth, and you weighed 200 pounds.

Now imagine Earth were magically transported to the center of the sun, completely replacing an equal volume of solar core. Inside the very middle of the sun, standing on planet earth, you would still weigh 200 pounds. The gravity of all the solar mass surrounding the Earth would cancel out.

If you traveled upwards, to the surface of the sun, your weight would increase. At the sun’s surface, you would weigh 5400 pounds.

FlowVoid , (edited )

Manchin consistently votes with Democrats whenever his vote matters.

When his vote doesn’t matter, I don’t care how he votes or what he says.

FlowVoid ,

Democrats had a supermajority for only ten months, and in that time they managed to pass a major piece of legislation on a highly controversial topic.

If you expected more than one in that time frame, then you really don’t understand how American politics works.

FlowVoid ,

Democrats do plenty, especially at the local level.

The problem is that some voters have barely the attention span necessary to watch an entire TikTok video. They start complaining unless they see something new in their feed every day so they can click “like”.

But that’s not how democracy works, in fact that’s never been how it worked. To take just one example, abortion opponents developed a long term strategy that only came to fruition after several decades.

That’s who you’re up against: people who know how to play the long game. So if you are frustrated by a lack of short term gains, then you aren’t cut out for American politics.

FlowVoid ,

The infrastructure bill was resurrected as the Inflation Reduction Act, which Manchin voted for.

FlowVoid ,

You’re right about Franken. But Kennedy’s death didn’t immediately end the supermajority, since his temporary replacement was also a Democrat.

[News] Pentagon warns of disruptions as Army, Marines both lack confirmed leaders for first time ( apnews.com )

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that troop readiness and retention is at risk as the Army’s chief stepped down Friday, leaving the military’s two ground combat forces without Senate-confirmed leaders for the first time in history....

FlowVoid ,

“Actings” generally can do some but not all of the things that a confirmed candidate can do.

FlowVoid ,

That’s not karma. Those are community points, which are subreddit-only points that have been on the blockchain for years.

If you’re not on the crypto subreddits, you’ve probably been blissfully unaware they exist. But it sure gets the crypto subreddits excited, especially when they can announce that their pet coin is moving to a New And Improved Blockchain ™.

FlowVoid ,

Community points are different. They are only used within a community, mainly in crypto communities.

The idea is that instead or in addition to worthless upvotes, you can send users a sort of tip for their comments and posts. The tip is a digital coin, and the recipient can give it to other users or sell it for real money (presumably to another user who will use it to give someone a tip).

Obviously if real money is involved then blockchain is preferable to trusting reddit admins. And the idea isn’t totally stupid, IIRC there is/was a similar internet currency that you could use to “buy a coffee” for your favorite content creators in the pre-Patreon days. But I have no idea if the reddit version is implemented sensibly.

What if solving interstellar travel isn't about figuring out faster than light propulsion, but how to extend our own lives?

So I was day dreaming and I caught a thought. What if what we understand about physics is actually all there is to understand? What if you objectively cannot move faster than the speed of light because you can’t do the time traveling things necessary. This would mean that the only way to travel amongst the stars would be to...

FlowVoid ,

No need for people at all then, just send another rover / probe.

FlowVoid ,

You’re not the only one, but nobody is interested in giving any of you an all-expenses-paid trip to deep space.

FlowVoid ,

Gerrymandering won’t really affect a presidential election.

FlowVoid ,

This isn’t really the same. RFK Jr didn’t fart, one of his supporters did during an argument with another supporter.

For his part, RFK Jr supposedly “remained stoic” throughout. That said, he is still an idiot.

FlowVoid ,

Dechert (the guy who farted) is a clown, he also asked the reporter to refer to him as a “beer fueled sex rocket”.

FlowVoid ,

Redshift depends on the observer, so photons do not “experience” redshift until they are detected in an ordinary reference frame.

Furthermore, I’m not sure there is a good way to define the “experience” of a photon. Photons simply move through space until they interact with matter, and matter is never in the same reference frame as light.

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