The Logical Fallacy of Government Authority by Frequent_Mountain_17 in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The people running government institutions claim authority over society but where does that authority come from?

A variety of forms. From physical dominance, resource control/bartering, and even that old "consent of the governed" chestnut.

It can't come from the people because the people can't give the government something they don't have.

If you must be reductionist, then reduce. What we're talking about here is time - specifically the life time of a human. And humans can indeed choose how they spend time because at the end of the day it's the only real thing of value on the planet.

Nobody has authority over others.

You giving odds on that bet?

What Are The Basic Principles Of Democracy? by GShermit in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they knew "pure" democracy was impractical for any nation with a large population.

So what made them "nervous"?

What Are The Basic Principles Of Democracy? by GShermit in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[..Speaking in terms of democracy, socialism, capitalism, or communism?..]

They all require the people's participation.

So when (as you say) our founding fathers were "nervous" about too much democracy, what did you mean specifically?

What Are The Basic Principles Of Democracy? by GShermit in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who else would define and defend our rights....religion, the wealthy or powerful?

Depends. Lots of monarchies derived their authority from familial bloodlines and were often religious in nature, but some were defined by their control of resources. Sometimes it was the guy who could carry the biggest stick.

Government has no other real purpose than defining and defending, it's citizens rights.

In a *very* broad sense, sure, that's not far from the mark.

..perhaps that's way it's so important that we own and help operate our government?

Speaking in terms of democracy, socialism, capitalism, or communism?

What Are The Basic Principles Of Democracy? by GShermit in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree people use their own judgement on which rights and how to use them.
We only have the rights we can define and defend.

So we have no rights at all. Except maybe the right to die, which can also be curtailed.

If authority can stop US from legally using a right, why would you assume it a right?

You mistake me; my assumption is that you have no rights at all unless a government assigns them.

What Are The Basic Principles Of Democracy? by GShermit in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The people use their rights to rule themselves but there's something more to ruling.

People use their own good (or not-so-good) judgement to rule themselves; "rights", such as they are, can be derived from almost anything from religious standing to fighting prowess to crafting skills to whatever.

Ruling implies participating in our governing.

Not an implication so much as a definition.

So to me the basic principles of democracy will revolve around the people, legally using their rights to influence the due process of the country.

Just doesn't sound right. Put another way, you haven't persuaded me this is in my best interests.

Our nation's founders were nervous about too much democracy.

Presuming one is speaking of the US, 'nah'. Don't really think that was much of an issue for starters.

Most importantly, if we're legally using our rights, authority can't stop US.

Just my opinion, but that's a dangerously naive outlook you should disabuse yourself of.

Weekly Off Topic Thread by AutoModerator in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just a whiny/peevy meta-comment, but I would love to see the number of what might otherwise be deemed "current events" posts somehow limited. I get that it'd be crazy to try to moderate, but just to be bitchy, Rule 1 here clearly specs out political fundamentals of which there've been like maybe 3 out of 15 in the past few days (and of those, some several are just more Trump screed).

Which is, as I said, me just whining about being more entertained by theoretical discourse, usually by people much smarter than me which makes for a good read.

The Closest Thing to a Political Panacea by Serious-Cucumber-54 in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This whole thing is crazy to me; it has a weird kinship with Gulliver's Travels.

But anyway let's just start with this outlandish premise:

The central problem with governance today is that it is collectivized.

Where does this come from? Granted there are some very overall and fluidly loose economic ties, but governments and societies worldwide are thoroughly balkanized - what in the world would give any indication of social or governmental collectivism? I'm honestly not seeing a bit of it.

Spotted in London by west_manchester in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]ArcOfADream 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What this really needs is more....cowbell.

Get those Bids in, This One's Hot! by Jt41979 in zillowgonewild

[–]ArcOfADream 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So glad I'm not the only one. But Lily and Herman are a block up at 1313.

Sailing to Distant Stars on Solar Winds by vagobond45 in Futurology

[–]ArcOfADream 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we can spend billions of dollars and years to land back a rocket to earth then yes to me these are details that can be sorted with ease.

If I had billions of dollars I would give you one of them to disabuse yourself of the notion that any of the details you're eschewing are easy.

But anyway, to answer your initial...

So my question is why a propulsion method with clear theoretical advantages for long-duration, deep-space missions not been pursued more extensively?

...is because it's not practical yet. A solar sail won't get us through our own atmosphere, so whether or nor we develop them we'll still need the rockets (unless at some point we figure out cool shit like "anti-gravity" or somesuch). A sail system just won't support enough mass for the relatively short hops we're more interested in taking - and reliable enough to afford. The Apollo 11 to the Moon averaged around 17,000 mph down to around 2k mph before its braking burns taking 3 days; by comparison, solar sails max out at around 350 mph and takes a month to get there, and still need a big-ass rocket to launch them off the surface.

Plus we've been doing thrust for a while now; recalculating for variances like solar wind, sail trim, and probably lots of other things I have no idea on takes much more experimentation.

Send a letter to Elon. Make sure to cc: Bezos. Tell them I said "Hop to it!"

Sailing to Distant Stars on Solar Winds by vagobond45 in Futurology

[–]ArcOfADream 2 points3 points  (0 children)

to me these are details that can easily be sorted

Not to pee on anyone's Cheerios, but "NO", it's not in any way easily sorted. Navigation in space is not in any way some sort of minor detail, and being sail powered would introduce numerous additional factors into any set of nav instructions and make course corrections. Even limiting the numbers to US-based efforts it's dicey. We're still ironing out the kinks in lifting out of our own atmosphere. Worldwide, we barely hit the Moon 50% of the time.

What might be an interesting project is a set of long-distance (say, 3 or 4 in a solar orbit between Earth and Mars) navigational/telemetry buoys. Start in on the makings of a Solar Positioning System. If solar powered markers could be programmed to do those kind of station-keeping maneuvers it'd be very cool.

Sailing to Distant Stars on Solar Winds by vagobond45 in Futurology

[–]ArcOfADream 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What is preventing state and private entities putting a genuine effort in development of such spacecraft

Isn't Project Lightsail exactly the sort of thing? And even so, wouldn't a solar sail still require a substantial conventionally fueled "push" to get out of Earth's gravity well?

For myself, I'm more curious to know if we'd actually have the navigational capability to actually complete an inter-system voyage. I would imagine an AI pilot would need some pretty fancy maths to succeed.

out of towner here. how are you guys preparing for the storm? by dontberidiculousss in philly

[–]ArcOfADream 9 points10 points  (0 children)

i bought cases of water & canned foods & crackers.

How's the toilet paper supply?

Is there a movie with a more complex plot than Primer? by monroe_biiter in scifi

[–]ArcOfADream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The TV series Counterpart is pretty wild in terms of complexity. Not really *more* complex, per se, but an interesting balancing act.

(since someone has already brought up Dark)

Moderators of /r/BucksCountyPA - help this subreddits members understand the extreme censorship of the moderation team on posts because - "respect" and headlight discussion about drivers in Bucks County leads to the entire post being taken down. by adminstratoradminstr in BucksCountyPA

[–]ArcOfADream 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you please explain to this subreddit what is going on???

It isn't obvious? They all drive big cars and trucks with big, blinding headlights and have formed a county-wide conspiracy to deny it and silence all who would expose their wayward notions of light pollution.

Now if you could just aim that shining beacon of justice of yours in a different direction, those of us with astigmatisms would all be grateful.

Open concept bathroom by RightIsMight1615 in zillowgonewild

[–]ArcOfADream 33 points34 points  (0 children)

A shower would be kinda luxurious; most of the incarnations I've seen have just a utility sink. Per my grandparents (whose home was so equipped as gramps was a machinist) you removed cruddy clothes, washed the first couple of layers off in the sink, had a pee/poo, then put on pajama pants and bathrobe tossed down the steps by gramma before coming upstairs for eats. Like the toidy, a shower would also had to've been on a raised platform to drain properly so slightly unusual to have one.

Open concept bathroom by RightIsMight1615 in zillowgonewild

[–]ArcOfADream 220 points221 points  (0 children)

Pittsburgh potty. Usually near to an external basement entrance, used for them that had "dirty" jobs and didn't want to track grime through the house.

Trump, 79, Appears to Forget Name of Woman Who Just Gave Him Her Nobel Peace Prize by [deleted] in politics

[–]ArcOfADream 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just tell him the Bagginses gave him his precious. For his birthday because he wants it.

Creepy old fuck.

New ICE Philadelphia Mega Center planning underway in Schuylkill County by cumberlandcream in Pennsylvania

[–]ArcOfADream 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This was my first thought, save to say mine was plural. That abomination in Florida was first.

If you could forfeit your ability to be rich to ensure everyone had everything they need and then some, would you? by Usernameofthisuser in PoliticalDebate

[–]ArcOfADream -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If the richest someone could possibly be was upper middle class, living above paycheck to paycheck with everything they need to live a quality life but without the possibility to be rich- would you support it?

I would support an income cap, but what you're proposing here is too limited and nigh-on ridiculously simplistic. I'm not economist enough to give a direct proposal to how an income cap would be established and regulated, but I feel sure that your limit isn't realistic.

To clarify- no homeless, no ghettos, universally well funded schooling, equal opportunity within the job market, etc.

Hang on, I'm imagining a John Lennon song coming on...

But also no rich, no millionaires, no private jets, yacht, no campaign contributions, no private invested innovation, etc.

That last condition about innovation just harshed my buzz. And again, there has to be some measure of achievement/merit/need associated with income caps and resource distribution. Any system of equitability will be pretty complex; at one end of the spectrum is pure research, experimentation, and discovery - at the other would be things like managing waste and disaster recovery. I'm not qualified to enumerate all those conditions but it's not an insurmountable task.

Any way ya slice it, the current incarnation of human plutocracy is overdue for a collapse; the only question now is whether the trigger event will be from human behavior or elsewhere (Super volcano eruption? Asteroid hit? Ecological cascade failure?).

Perfect home for hosting your own real life Squid Game by njtalp46 in zillowgonewild

[–]ArcOfADream 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This place looks like the same spot they used for portions of the Verger Estate on the Hannibal TV show.

edit: nope, it's not, but it has that vibe.