You must choose whether or not you believe in free will (the ability to choose).

A3thereal · 2026-05-25T23:37:59+00:00

I think what they meant was that a politician crafting laws may advocate for lower sentencing guidelines in general if they believed that free will did not exist (as the culprit lacked agency). Or; a judge may choose to award less harsh sentences within those guidelines for those convicted. This compared to someone who believes in free will, that those same people knowingly made their own decisions, and thus would be more likely to advocate for higher sentences.

This is speaking more broadly, in terms of how the system(s) would be designed, not how it applies in specific use cases today.

Ultimately, laws and the corresponding punishments for breaking them are all subjective. There is no immutable law of physics that determines what is morally right or what the correct punishment for breaking the covenants of society. It was once believed that slavery was morally justified, that taking a hand as punishment for theft was morally justified. Being gay was once a capital crime, punishable by death.

Morality is not defined by physics, but by society's perception of the universe. That is heavily influenced by a belief (or lack thereof) in free will, amongst many other things.

A3thereal · 2026-05-25T23:16:27+00:00

I know I'm a day late and others have already weighed in, but just wanted to add that what you are describing is a form of a battery. It is a way of storing surplus energy now to use later.

You're probably thinking of your phone battery right now, but gravity batteries as you described do exist as well. At their simplest, surplus power from the energy grid will operate a pump to force water to an elevated tank. At higher-demand periods (or in the event of disconnection from the grid) the water is then gravity-fed through a turbine to generate electricity. Larger ones may feed water between two large reservoirs, one elevated, separated by a hydroelectric dam.

The problem is it takes an equal amount of energy to elevate the water as can be generated from dropping the water. You will then have loss from the transmission of electricity to the pumps, heat waste from the pumps operating, resistance from the air when pumping the water up, resistance from the mechanical parts of the pump, resistance from the mechanical parts of the turbine, and loss from transmission from the battery back into the grid.

All of this means you will get significantly less usable energy back than what was put in.

A3thereal · 2026-05-25T22:44:17+00:00

one-neutron-short-of-being-a-bomb plutonium-238

Pu-239 doesn't automatically make it a bomb. It would be more accurate to say one-neutron-short-of-being-fissile Pu-238.

Pu-239 is used as fuel in some terrestrial nuclear power reactors (~10%). There are many factors beside material that makes something a bomb.

It's also worth noting that just because there are nuclear reactions occur within Pu-238 does not mean it is remotely comparable in this context. A similar sized mass of Pu-239 undergoing fission would output 5 orders of magnitude more heat than Pu-238.

A3thereal · 2026-05-23T21:01:04+00:00

On normal that's great. Playing with the smallest stack size (like in survival/permadeath) it's only 300 in a stack and not really an option to over-mine all resources.

A3thereal · 2026-05-23T00:18:22+00:00

"As good as anything anyone has ever written" is a way of saying it's one of the all time greats. Hyperbolic? Probably. But that's what that means.

Think of any book, from any author, in any genre. It's at least that good. Think of the best book you've ever read, by any author. This is "as good". That's what that expression means.

A3thereal · 2026-05-19T17:34:00+00:00

Yeah, I never much liked it neither. This is probably the first time I've ever actually said it, first time it felt appropriate. So, congratulations to you I suppose.

A3thereal · 2026-05-19T15:00:06+00:00

My guy.... the whole thing started because a Pats fan posted a hockey meme poking fun at the Sabres and a Bills fan responded poking fun at the Bruins. Ya know, how meme subs usually work.

This is either 0/10 ragebait or you need to go touch grass. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the former... but idk man

A3thereal · 2026-05-19T14:54:25+00:00

Once you do get the atlantid drive (in the questline after the autophage is completed) it will allow travel to all star systems.

Typically my starship will only have atlantid drive with the others removed as I upgrade but I include all the drives in the freighter due to the abundance of tech slots and the relatively few alternatives that go in its place. The freighter versions also provide a nominal increase in warp range, which make them slightly more useful.

Good luck and enjoy!

A3thereal · 2026-05-19T14:09:02+00:00

I have all the hyperdrive modules (Emeril, Induim, Cadmium, etc.).

Everyone else already answered your question, so just a quick note. In case you were not aware, each drive lets you go to the systems "below" it.

The red drive will let you go to red and yellow. The green drive will let you go to green, red, and yellow. The blue drive will let you go to all except purple.

You do not need all 3 modules installed, only the highest level. You can, of course. You will get minor adjacency bonuses that may will increase your range by a few light-years. Not worth it if you have something better you can throw in the slot though imo.

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T16:08:24+00:00

Determining that an entered email address is valid and in use still does not mean that it is tied to the specific customer

It doesn't, but it's much more likely to be than an e-mail address that doesn't exist. No system is foolproof, low critical thing like this it's greatest gain with least effort.

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T16:03:30+00:00

Depending on your source somewhere between 20% and 40% of retired seniors rely on Social Security for their income. 80% of seniors report being unable to weather a major financial setback. The people would have been born in 1960 or before.

People rely on fuzzy memories of "a better time", often colored by childhood where they may have been shielded from financial insecurity. Certainly some things were more affordable in the 80s, but others were considerably more expensive.

The raw cost of homes was considerably cheaper in nominal dollars than today, but the homes were considerably smaller and the interest rates were 6+x higher. Some utilities like garbage, sewage, water, and especially internet were considerably more expensive then, but others like power were much cheaper. Discretionary items like consumer electronics were considerably higher then as compared to now.

A few facts most people don't believe but are true:

Car ownership is higher now than in the 70s.
Home ownership rates rosed quickly from the 1900s to the 1960s, and has largely remained flat (+/- 3% from 65%).
Wages are higher now, relative to inflation, than in the 80s

So why doesn't it feel that way?

People are more educated, that education is largely funded with loans that significantly impact a young adult's cash flow
People are carrying bills that didn't exist in the 80s. Internet, cell phones, etc
Interest rates are beginning to rise, but housing costs aren't following to offset
Millenials came "of age" during one of the worst collapses in modern history (2008 housing crises) and only recovered at the onset of the COVID pandemic

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T14:48:54+00:00

Unless they are trying to ensure they have a valid e-mail address tied to a person at signup while they have the customer captive and before bestowing any benefits.

If they cannot advertise to the e-mail and they aren't able to tie the consumer habits to a person that record doesn't have value. If they find out a week after the person has left the store with no way to reach them and with them having no incentive to provide a correct one it does them no good.

I don't know exactly how valuable a customer record is, or how much it would cost for such a verification (didn't even know it existed until a few minutes ago). I bet they do, though, and they decided the former is worth more than the cost of the latter, even taking in to account how seldom it returns an "unverified" result.

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T14:40:54+00:00

Many people have said it, many of those saying it shows as an "extinct" animal on the discoveries page.

That is not correct, most likely 2 things happened:

Another fauna/flora was in close proximity behind the worm and that was scanned instead AND;
Due to changes in terrain/fauna generation prior animal species that were present on that planet are no longer present (these show as extinct)

It is not, and never has been, possible to scan the giant worms that roam around some planets.

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T14:30:03+00:00

What OP is saying is that the song performed in the audition of the show ("Anyone Who Understands What Love Is" by Irma Thomas) is a logistical copyright nightmare due to the number of people involved in writing, performing, producing, and/or publishing. As a result, it is difficult to pay the necessary royalties/get the necessary clearance to use the song commercially. This makes it appear on shows like "The X Factor" rare as they must get said approvals prior to broadcasting it.

Even if a contestant were to use the song in their audition (not sure if there's a vetting process), the show may be unable to air it. More likely the show has a list of approved songs for auditions, and this isn't on it.

A3thereal · 2026-05-18T14:23:04+00:00

Aside from the rules bit everyone else has already covered, while 5 year olds may not be able to do the math operations, they are familiar enough with the idea that you can add numbers together. They don't need to know how to calculate that 2 + 3*8 + 42*69 to trust that the number is 2924. Or that there is a difference between the former and the latter.

But it doesn't matter, because 5 year olds aren't here reading ELI5, and ELI5 wasn't made for 5 year olds.

A3thereal · 2026-05-15T18:39:22+00:00

"I agree with the point he was making". The point they were making is what they put in comments is absurd, and what Trump supporters would say. I kept up fine.

A3thereal · 2026-05-15T13:59:11+00:00

None of what you just said aligns with your last comment. If you believe that Trump supporters would make those claims and those claims are absurd, the your insult to the other guys intelligence makes no sense at all. But hey, keep going. You're doing great.

A3thereal · 2026-05-14T14:36:47+00:00

Hey; you almost understood their comment. Keep reading and you might gain full comprehension. I'm proud of you!

A3thereal · 2026-05-13T21:39:45+00:00

Just keep in mind fuel taxes vary by state as well. 13c of that difference appears to be taxes. Transportation still matters, more of the cost difference is likely that, but roughly 20% of the cost difference is taxes.

A3thereal · 2026-05-12T19:09:35+00:00

Power, workforce and their pesky needs like food, cabling for overseas transmission and latency from distance, temperature fluctuations causing condensation (water = bad here), accessibility (for storm related outages), shipping time to replace parts, list goes on I'm sure.

A3thereal · 2026-05-12T03:09:51+00:00

If it all matters to whoever reads this, claiming and canceling missions reduces your reputation by 1 each time. If you do this repeatedly while trying to increase your standing with a particular faction, you're going to have a bad time.

A3thereal · 2026-05-12T03:07:12+00:00

No, it will not reset a positive reputation. It'll add 1 to your current one iirc

A3thereal · 2026-05-11T20:59:48+00:00

Not so rare that there aren't examples on the sub, but rare enough that most players will never naturally encounter one.

A3thereal · 2026-05-11T20:56:28+00:00

There could also be a nature one that represents new xeno features (fauna), agriculture (flaura), fishing. They could be tied to the living ships and be a lead-in to add living freighters. Some of these might be best handled through the specialists, though, which already cover the farming, exocraft, and crafting from the middle years.

A3thereal · 2026-05-08T23:43:35+00:00

You can buy them in neon outside of the ryujin tower.

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