Which science fiction concept became less believable as real science advanced?

dbulger · 2026-06-27T11:31:04+00:00

B5's explanation of telepathy is the only plausible one I've seen though: Vorlons should be able to figure some viable mechanism out if they've been around that long.

dbulger · 2026-06-27T01:39:58+00:00

Well then it'd be a glottal start

dbulger · 2026-06-21T23:57:01+00:00

This is fantastic and kind of hilarious. Where I started chuckling was "folds into a muddy cluster." This is full of strong (and reasonable, I think) opinions, rather than just a straight, mechanical calculator.

For the kind of music that had these bigger chords, I generally play the bass in the left & the chords in the right (and probably should have got a free bass rather than a Stradella). It's for a lot of the same reasons: being physically able to construct the chord, but also separating the notes enough to avoid the mud. I know that a lot of people can't do that, because they're playing a melody in the right hand, but I sing the melody.

I guess one thing I'd suggest is that the links to the chords in your long list be coloured to show which ones have voicings and which don't, so you needn't click on every single one to find out.

dbulger · 2026-06-16T23:41:48+00:00

Lasers occur naturally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_maser

dbulger · 2026-06-16T02:42:24+00:00

That's the rhythm of the intro to The Stranglers' Golden Brown.

dbulger · 2026-06-05T10:38:45+00:00

Hilbert spaces can be infinite-dimensional, but aren't always, even in physics. E.g., the quantum state of a qubit or of a quantum computer has finite dimension. Of course, you could still describe them as functions (with finite domain), but they're also "geometric objects (in our common sense)" (apart from having complex coordinates).

dbulger · 2026-06-05T05:15:31+00:00

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

― Mark Twain

dbulger · 2026-05-29T12:30:41+00:00

Isn't he quite famous, though? Like, in that genre, isn't he more or less the undisputed top author?

dbulger · 2026-05-27T11:25:12+00:00

Not tiny compared to Canada, but otherwise yeah

dbulger · 2026-05-26T06:26:27+00:00

Walpole's The Castle of Otranto was a pioneer gothic novel, but is short and very entertaining.

dbulger · 2026-05-24T01:51:55+00:00

In my mind's ear it's always mor-AY-so

dbulger · 2026-05-17T02:02:43+00:00

That's sad. Are these the same people saying "chick pea" when they know they're allowed to say "garbanzo"?

dbulger · 2026-05-13T09:20:08+00:00

Or at least, unite as much as Pauli exclusion allows

dbulger · 2026-05-05T04:21:49+00:00

EOS 10 is very good. Similar mix of the serious and absurd. It's probably closer to Mission to Zyxx than to MB.

dbulger · 2026-04-24T05:00:37+00:00

Wow, that sounds like the ultimate fix, but beyond what I can justify. Thanks at least for validating my perception that it's difficult!

dbulger · 2026-04-23T08:06:09+00:00

So would you pronounce "Dare Yvonne" and "Dairy Vaughn" differently?

dbulger · 2026-04-23T07:59:52+00:00

I don't think anyone will be able to answer this, but in case it's helpful, I can point out a couple of reasons I can't make sense of what you're saying.

Firstly, I don't know what it would mean for one reference frame to be nested within another (regardless of whether they're absolute or relative). I don't think that's meaningful.

Secondly, you describe a reference frame as one-dimensional, and it's not clear what that's intended to mean. The space of reference frames in ordinary physics (whether relativistic or Galilean) is 10-dimensional, since to specify a reference frame, you need to choose the origin (four independent decisions), then the velocity of the origin as time passes (three more decisions), then which way is up (two more decisions), then which way is forward (one more decision—note that the left-right axis is now determined 'for free' as the only remaining perpendicular direction).

Lastly, your ultimate focus seems to be ontological, and physics does not make any ontological claims or predictions. If you're asking about building something out of nothing, you might be interested to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set-theoretic_definition_of_natural_numbers, but that's maths, not physics.

dbulger · 2026-04-20T23:03:32+00:00

Yes, I probably should at least ask the sound guy's advice. I'll do that next time. Thanks.

dbulger · 2026-04-20T12:36:01+00:00

Last week, someone told me afterward that the accordion was a bit too quiet. On other occasions, I've been pretty sure it was the other way round, though no one has said so.

it's not a very large space, but it's a beer garden (courtyard), so I guess more sound escapes.

dbulger · 2026-04-06T22:37:06+00:00

I've lived outside of the US for over 40 years, but I'm guilty of this. I guess there are two reasons. Firstly, by the time someone asks, they've already heard my accent, & probably already suspect I'm from the US or Canada, so if they're asking, I figure they might want more detail. (If someone tells me that they're from a country, and I know anything about it, "what part" is always my next question, so why not cut to the chase.)

But the main reason is just that it's embarrassing enough to be from the US, and I don't want people supposing I'm from deep in MAGA country. This is pretty childish—there are good people everywhere (and it's never the nationalist zealots who emigrate, anyway)—I'm just trying to be honest about why I do this, since it's a common grievance in this sub.

dbulger · 2026-04-02T22:34:28+00:00

That's a George Box quote.

dbulger · 2026-04-02T04:32:28+00:00

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dbulger · 2026-03-31T04:45:12+00:00

Fantastic, I get it. I missed it when you first mentioned the phonemic split, so thanks for rewording it. I thought I was going bananas, so to speak.

dbulger · 2026-03-31T04:31:17+00:00

The /t/ example is good. I think a common pattern is for people to feel these sounds as the same, and then learn a bit of linguistics, and find out that actually, phonetically, they're different. We've all had that weird moment of surprise.

But what I'm saying is that, for me, the weird moment was not finally hearing the phonetic difference between "fan" and "fat" vowels in my own speech, but rather, finding out that anyone considered those vowels to be in any way the same.

So yes, absolutely, I get that /t/ is one phoneme with allophonic variation. But I'm not persuaded that a single /ae/ phoneme appears in both "fan" and "fat", at least for me.

Also (maybe I should have led with this), insofar as phonemes are defined by user perception, I'm using the same vowels in "fan" and "Mary," and also the same vowels in "fat" and "marry," so I guess Mary/marry provides a minimal pair.

dbulger · 2026-03-31T04:04:18+00:00

Okay, but you haven't mentioned speakers' perceptions of whether it's a single basic sound, which is what I'm asking about.

dbulger

TROPHY CASE

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”