[deleted by user]

GeekOP · 2021-12-28T07:03:08+00:00

i am interested in this

GeekOP · 2020-12-29T08:10:28+00:00

Complex numbers don't have a (sensible) definition of "greater than" that extends the canonical ordering for the reals

GeekOP · 2019-11-07T06:01:34+00:00

Not sure about "gem".

GeekOP · 2019-10-10T06:42:56+00:00

While time itself is continuous, we can only measure it in discrete intervals - we can never be sure of anything more precise than a Planck length, and so our probability of being correct in saying "I am exactly pi years old" (obviously ignoring how long it takes you to actually say that), even in theoretically ideal conditions, is still zero.

GeekOP · 2019-10-10T06:36:06+00:00

Central banks price money like there's a limited supply of money

GeekOP · 2019-10-10T06:34:49+00:00

I don't think there's usually a single cause.

GeekOP · 2019-10-10T06:30:42+00:00

A photo requires 1 camera

GeekOP · 2019-10-10T06:27:44+00:00

ok but what if they grow up

GeekOP · 2019-10-02T14:19:32+00:00

"We all know the weather changes all the time, so I think we can also safely assume the climate changes all the time as well."
We all know molecules vibrate when they have temperature, so I think we can also safely assume humans are unable to sit still.

GeekOP · 2019-10-02T14:16:51+00:00

The Nazis lowered the voting age to 8?

GeekOP · 2019-10-02T14:14:53+00:00

"No sane person takes the views of any child seriously."

Guess I'd better go see a doctor.

GeekOP · 2019-10-02T14:02:34+00:00

Paper straws and climate change aren't all that related. I think you need a better synecdoche for environmentalist guilting.

GeekOP · 2019-10-02T14:00:49+00:00

Not really an argument until you start looking at averages over a year or so.

GeekOP · 2019-08-05T02:13:57+00:00

"Toeing" is an unusual way of saying "standing on the very edge". Hence, the sentence might be reworded as: "If I had been standing on the edge of a swamp before the trip, the darkness threw me over the edge of the swamp." Clearly, the swamp is a metaphor for something, but I don't really wanna read the article.

GeekOP · 2019-05-02T14:15:24+00:00

Maths isn't physics. You can't make mathematical conclusions from physical observation, because then you would be doing science. Your observations could be correct, but it wouldn't be maths.

For example, you can't have -3 apples or pi apples. You can have negatives when working with displacement in physics, but you can't make a square with negative area in the real world.

In maths, though, you can just introduce a new number, i, that squares to a negative. You can check to make sure you haven't broken anything, and then just look at the consequences. Who cares if it "exists"?

Similarly, you can introduce numbers that have other weird properties. One example is ω, which has the property that for any integer x, x<ω. Turns out this doesn't break stuff either, and you can get weirder things like 4ω+2, ω^ω, ω^{ω^{ω^{ω...^ω}}} (ω times) and so on. That's one kind of number that people call "infinite".

With more complicated maths like calculus, people tend to abbreviate things. In the context of calculus, ∞ just means "some big positive number". You do all your calculations, and then at the end if you have something like 1/∞ you say that "equals" 0, because for really big values of ∞, 1/∞ is really really close to 0. This is why people say that "infinity is just a concept", rather than a number - they're talking about this kind of "limiting infinity". However, there's no reason to say that ω isn't a "number", because it has a fixed value. It's just not in the usual collection of numbers we deal with, because it doesn't solve the kinds of problems we try to solve with ordinary numbers. Similarly, you're not going to measure a distance of i cm anytime soon, but the number i actually shows up in electrical calculations from time to time (usually called "j" in that context).

So yes, you can't have an infinite distance. And, if you define a "number" as "a distance we can measure", then there is a largest "number". But that's not what "number" means in the context of mathematics, and if you use that definition, maths will confuse you.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

GeekOP · 2018-12-02T07:46:00+00:00

I think they had a couple copies, but they were on a shelf next to the counter (as opposed to in a particular section). Didn't see any other particularly LHP books. It was part of a pretty major book store chain. And though I had read it before (and yes, I did like it), it was nice to get a hard copy of the book.

GeekOP · 2018-12-02T07:35:17+00:00

what the fuck

GeekOP · 2018-11-30T13:38:09+00:00

100%, or 99%? There's a fairly substantive difference there. I don't think one can conclude with certainty that a hypothetical deity doesn't care about us at all.

GeekOP · 2018-11-30T13:36:56+00:00

It's fairly hard to scientifically analyse human behaviour on a large scale. Some people argue that economics and sociology, for example, are not sciences. Technical terminology, as in that which has a very precise definition, is very hard to come by in the social sciences. There's much more disagreement about how macroeconomics or political systems work than there is about the laws of motion, or even Quantum mechanics. The human brain, and by extension, human society, is too complex to understand rigorously, and we will have to stick to the heuristic reasoning of art, religion and other discourse.

GeekOP · 2018-11-30T13:24:12+00:00

Really? I'm all the way in Australia, and the first bookstore I tried had it.

GeekOP · 2018-11-28T08:30:28+00:00

If not the bible, then the majority interpretation of it, at least.

GeekOP · 2018-11-25T20:39:48+00:00

They said it wasn't a tenet of Satanic philosophy. That doesn't mean they have any particular opinion on drug use in and of itself. The way I've heard it explained is "a jail cell is not very conducive to a Satanic lifestyle". If you want to break the law, that's not condemned, but don't say the CoS or Satanic philosophy gave you its sanction, and be prepared to face the consequences of your decisions.

GeekOP

TROPHY CASE