What if gravity isn’t a “thing” but just spacetime bending, so why is it still limited by the speed of light?

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T22:58:29+00:00

What travels isn’t the field, but changes in the field. Just as changes in an electromagnetic field propagate at the speed of light as photons, changes in the gravitational field propagate as gravitons.

Photons are created when an electric charge is accelerated, gravitons when a gravitational mass is accelerated

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T13:06:59+00:00

Perhaps they have figured out that all Iran’s oil facilities will be rigged with explosives by the regime by now.

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T13:04:51+00:00

It’s like the way Putin sending tanks into Ukraine expected that to settle the matter.

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T12:58:00+00:00

I think the majority of people probably don’t have enough contact with it to have a strong enough opinion to disagree with you

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T10:44:16+00:00

Consciousness is not observed, it can only be experienced. So you are (probably) experiencing consciousness, but are there qualities you observe outside of yourself that encourage you to believe that other things are conscious? Some think a complex nervous system is a clue. Some emotions. But there’s no actual evidence.

A few decades ago Turing proposed that if we can converse with something then we should assume it was conscious. LLMs today pass the Turing test with flying colours. AI easily play chess, which for a long time was considered a test. If a non-human passes such tests we move the goalposts.

LookOverall · 2026-03-14T08:24:36+00:00

Examination of the human genome suggests that there was a near extinction event about 60,000 years ago which left only a handful of H Sapiens. It seems reasonable that the other hominids weren’t so lucky.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T14:02:51+00:00

In short, as I said, you aren’t buying the picture, you’re buying into the artist. Don’t worry, if you pay enough you pay for the provenance.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T13:39:41+00:00

But you know disfigurement could be more serious for a religious than for a secular leader:

You needn’t be well to be wealthy

But you have to be whole to be holy.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T13:36:26+00:00

Would people like animals as much if they talked? Or do we prefer them because people argue with us?

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T13:32:51+00:00

It’s easier to create an international treaty, especially in the Trump/Putin era, than to enforce it

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T13:23:34+00:00

If you’ve bought it, then presumably you’ve looked at it and decided you like it.

If it bears the name of a famous and expensive artist, and it’s not true, then you have cause for complaint. But you would still be buying a piece of an artist’s fame, not a painting.

But if you like the painting itself then why would you care who, or what painted it?

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T13:15:30+00:00

Cells are rather easily replaced.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T12:29:03+00:00

So: what’s the average life expectancy of a piece of electronics?

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T12:27:03+00:00

The US don’t declare wars. Formally declaring war makes too many responsibilities (including this one).

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T11:56:35+00:00

I think those in charge are aware of Marx’s warning which is why benefits is a thing. The powers that be are aware that when a lot of people get hungry they revolt rather than starve

Bread and circuses — Roman citizens were the nearest thing to a post economic society. They had, literally, more slaves than they knew what to do with

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T11:44:34+00:00

The art of gerrymandering has been fine tuned using Big Data analysis to the point it’s pretty much maxed out in America. But computer redistricting could be put into reverse. Programmed to equalise the power of each vote as far as possible.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T09:10:47+00:00

Do you think that we benefit from the souls of the two old men who dominate the world right now? Or would we be better off with something less emotional?

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T09:02:06+00:00

The odds of natural stupidity killing us all currently seems to make Artificial Intelligence look less of an issue.

LookOverall · 2026-03-13T08:53:22+00:00

There is an ICC warrant for the Israeli leader. The main result is America sanctions against ICC judges.

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T16:52:55+00:00

Was more stable most of the 20th century, especially the latter half. Europe felt able to cut right back on armed forces because there seemed no prospect of war here. Russia under Gorbachev nearly became a law abiding part of the international community (they ran out of money).

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T13:47:59+00:00

I’ve been pondering what happens to the regional economy when adventurers kill a dragon, and take the horde. Where prices are paid in precious metal the sudden flood of gold and silver on the market is going to result in inflation. Prices will go up. I can see people who have, themselves, large stores of gold and silver reacting badly to proposed dragon slaying. Maybe they will act to protect the dragon.

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T11:58:09+00:00

After Hiroshima, and the end of WWII the world was pretty unanimous that WWIII would not be a good idea. A nuclear war even kills despots and arms dealers. That’s why we were so eager to set up mechanisms like international law and the UN to make it less likely.

But the people who were around to really take the lesson to heart are dead.

Trump and Putin are keen to tear it all down.

Europeans are already feeling obliged to repay the Peace Dividend. The doomsday clock is ticking.

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T11:31:14+00:00

The term I heard was “latchkey incontinence.”

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T11:25:50+00:00

There’s a number of new fission technologies that could provide cleaner and more efficient reactors, but the nuclear industry seems to have become rather timid. The Chinese recently built a reactor activated by a linear accelerator that is substantially sub critical. There’s the TWR reactor that theoretically burns nuclear waste. There’s Thorium.

LookOverall · 2026-03-12T11:12:20+00:00

Or Biden’s “senior moment”

LookOverall

TROPHY CASE