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Other => Off-topic => Topic started by: Parodium on January 31, 2018, 02:36:35 PM



Title: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on January 31, 2018, 02:36:35 PM
Bored, so let's share our favourite scientific theories, or even your favourite hoaxes, logical deductions or anything else along the same vein, even if they are completely ridiculous. Heck, even share your favourite TV show theories if the show is widely known.

I'll start.

The one electron universe is a theory whereby John Wheeler proposed that there exists only a single electron in the universe, that propagates itself through space-time in such a way as to appear in multiple places at once.

The One Electron Universe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe)

Another interesting one is the curious case of potential retrocausality in the modified double slit experiment (the delayed choice quantum eraser). This experiment appears to demonstrate information travelling backwards through time to influence the initial conditions of the experiment.

The Delayed Choice Experiment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_choice_quantum_eraser)

I'll finish off OP with another interesting one, the variable speed of light hypothesis posits that the speed of c, typically thought of as constant (in vacuum) throughout the universe, may actually be variable. Potentially having ramifications for interstellar travel and more.

VSOL - Variable Speed of Light (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_speed_of_light)

Bonus reading;

The Ship of Theseus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
Bootstrapping information (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop)

For those still reading, a wizard once told me the bearer of captivating theories is paid in merit. Whatever that means.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 08, 2018, 09:23:04 AM
No comments? Surely there's a few theorists, scientists or philosophers lurking about?


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Intellectual Romanticist on February 08, 2018, 10:50:22 AM
Theory of Quantum Entanglement recently caught my attention.

Makes me think that it is the proof for ESP, Remote Viewing, Telekinesis and such.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 08, 2018, 10:53:32 AM
I quite like the Banach Tarski Paradox. Basically states that spheres in euclidean spaces can be de-assembled into parts and then glued back together into two spheres, both of which have the same dimensions as the original sphere. In short, it's a proven theorem that duplicates spheres.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 08, 2018, 09:38:38 PM
I quite like the Banach Tarski Paradox. Basically states that spheres in euclidean spaces can be de-assembled into parts and then glued back together into two spheres, both of which have the same dimensions as the original sphere. In short, it's a proven theorem that duplicates spheres.

I remember seeing an episode of vSauce about this, very insightful.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Vod on February 09, 2018, 11:13:14 AM
Sorry, mine isn't scientific...

God is supposed to be all knowing - he controls the past present and future so he knows everything that will happen to you. 

He knows from the moment he creates you if you are going to do something bad with your free will and be sent to hell. 

Why create souls just to torture them for all eternity?    God is supposed to be loving...   :-\


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 09, 2018, 11:50:39 AM
Sorry, mine isn't scientific...

God is supposed to be all knowing - he controls the past present and future so he knows everything that will happen to you. 

He knows from the moment he creates you if you are going to do something bad with your free will and be sent to hell. 

Why create souls just to torture them for all eternity?    God is supposed to be loving...   :-\


Predestination Paradox (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_free_will)


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 09, 2018, 11:54:50 AM
Sorry, mine isn't scientific...

God is supposed to be all knowing - he controls the past present and future so he knows everything that will happen to you.  

He knows from the moment he creates you if you are going to do something bad with your free will and be sent to hell.  

Why create souls just to torture them for all eternity?   God is supposed to be loving...   :-\

Imagine being God yourself.

What would knowing past, present and future as well as omnipresence mean?
From a logical perspective it would imply the complete absence of time, or changing moments.

So if I was God in the way that he's being described, I'd be quite interested in limiting my own being in order to actually fucking experience anything whatsoever, even if it meant temporarily suffering or being convinced of mortality. Kind of like we enjoy watching depressing or horrifying movies just to experience something that we haven't yet.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 09, 2018, 11:58:05 AM
I quite like the Banach Tarski Paradox. Basically states that spheres in euclidean spaces can be de-assembled into parts and then glued back together into two spheres, both of which have the same dimensions as the original sphere. In short, it's a proven theorem that duplicates spheres.

I remember seeing an episode of vSauce about this, very insightful.
I watched that episode too, well after having studied the paradox at university. He actually managed to visualize it quite well. Really enjoyed that one.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Vod on February 09, 2018, 06:00:09 PM
Imagine being God yourself.

What would knowing past, present and future as well as omnipresence mean?
From a logical perspective it would imply the complete absence of time, or changing moments.

A concept I cannot comprehend, since I am bound by time...

My point still stands though - this creature may have created multiple universes and destroyed them in his infinite lifespan, but what pleasure does he get creating souls to torture for all eternity?



Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 09, 2018, 06:10:05 PM
Imagine being God yourself.

What would knowing past, present and future as well as omnipresence mean?
From a logical perspective it would imply the complete absence of time, or changing moments.

A concept I cannot comprehend, since I am bound by time...

My point still stands though - this creature may have created multiple universes and destroyed them in his infinite lifespan, but what pleasure does he get creating souls to torture for all eternity?


From the same perspective I've mentioned earlier, all souls would be just a part of that omnipresent/omniscient God and merely appear as individuals. So God would be torturing himself for whatever reasons. This is partially why I don't like the concept of God, it just doesn't make sense from a limited human perspective as it always winds up circular and contradictory.

But when I think about what kind of reality I would create if I could do literally anything and was not bound by mortality, I could see myself going through all kinds of positive and negative experiences that I could possibly conceive of "just because the mountain is there". From a human perspective I would avoid the negative ones for as long as I don't get bored of everything else that I could do, but a God could just do everything at once while feeling like an arbitrary number of individual mortal and tortured beings before returning to his original state of no-change.

What's the difference between everything and nothing?


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 09, 2018, 09:53:34 PM
Some more interesting theories, scientific goodness for the geeks;

Some of these are just random interesting topics, hopefully they'll be eye opening.

The electron that escapes the sealed chamber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition)

Is it a particle? Is it a wave? Oh.... It's both. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality)

The Tunguska event/Tesla's mishap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event)

Genetic parallelism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_evolution)

Imagine losing half your visual field, with no damage to your eyes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemianopsia)


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: stefek99 on February 10, 2018, 12:01:51 AM
https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice

More choice makes us unhappy.

Sometimes it's better to have simple life...


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: reee on February 10, 2018, 12:19:07 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Vod on February 10, 2018, 12:27:11 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2397535/

Thank you for info!  Did not know this movie existed - gonna watch it now.  :)


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 10, 2018, 08:21:34 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)

The trailer says "You will love this film". Guess they really have a time machine. :P

Added it to the list.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 10, 2018, 08:28:47 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)

The trailer says "You will love this film". Guess they really have a time machine. :P

Added it to the list.

Predestination is a brilliant movie, one of my favourites actually. If you like Predestination, you'll also like Netflix's new series "Dark", it's a German language film but has been dubbed, or subbed. Either way, it's brilliant. The Man from Earth is also a good movie with a similar theme.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 10, 2018, 08:30:52 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)

The trailer says "You will love this film". Guess they really have a time machine. :P

Added it to the list.

Predestination is a brilliant movie, one of my favourites actually. If you like Predestination, you'll also like Netflix's new series "Dark", it's a German language film but has been dubbed, or subbed. Either way, it's brilliant. The Man from Earth is also a good movie with a similar theme.
I'll go with the native dub, since translations usually lose a lot of nuance. Thankfully I speak German well enough to watch this one without translations. I've heard about the Man from Earth but still haven't watched it. Is the 2017 movie a sequel? And if so, is it worth watching as well?


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: Parodium on February 14, 2018, 10:29:24 AM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)

The trailer says "You will love this film". Guess they really have a time machine. :P

Added it to the list.

Predestination is a brilliant movie, one of my favourites actually. If you like Predestination, you'll also like Netflix's new series "Dark", it's a German language film but has been dubbed, or subbed. Either way, it's brilliant. The Man from Earth is also a good movie with a similar theme.
I'll go with the native dub, since translations usually lose a lot of nuance. Thankfully I speak German well enough to watch this one without translations. I've heard about the Man from Earth but still haven't watched it. Is the 2017 movie a sequel? And if so, is it worth watching as well?

I've read about the sequel, but haven't got around to watch it yet. Honestly I prefer the German dub of Dark as sometimes the English voices sound too excessive. Dark starts off relatively slow, but by the end you'll be glad you watched it, it is beautifully written and masterfully shot. You might also like The Time Traveller's Wife, Interstellar, Pandorum and if you watch anime, then Noein. These are all related to time travel, parallel universes and the like, and all are great in their own way, particularly Interstellar and The Time Traveller's Wife.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: djangocoin on February 14, 2018, 03:13:47 PM
Am going to go with Moravec's paradox:

Moravec's paradox is the discovery by artificial intelligence and robotics researchers that, contrary to traditional assumptions, high-level reasoning requires very little computation, but low-level sensorimotor skills require enormous computational resources. The principle was articulated by Hans Moravec, Rodney Brooks, Marvin Minsky and others in the 1980s. As Moravec writes, "it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility."[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec%27s_paradox


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 14, 2018, 03:29:15 PM
My favorite is the predestination paradox and my favorite take on this was on Robert Heinlein’s short story called “All you Zombies”. It was adapted into film and titled “Predestination”
(Sings I’m my own grandpa in the background)

The trailer says "You will love this film". Guess they really have a time machine. :P

Added it to the list.

Predestination is a brilliant movie, one of my favourites actually. If you like Predestination, you'll also like Netflix's new series "Dark", it's a German language film but has been dubbed, or subbed. Either way, it's brilliant. The Man from Earth is also a good movie with a similar theme.
I'll go with the native dub, since translations usually lose a lot of nuance. Thankfully I speak German well enough to watch this one without translations. I've heard about the Man from Earth but still haven't watched it. Is the 2017 movie a sequel? And if so, is it worth watching as well?

I've read about the sequel, but haven't got around to watch it yet. Honestly I prefer the German dub of Dark as sometimes the English voices sound too excessive. Dark starts off relatively slow, but by the end you'll be glad you watched it, it is beautifully written and masterfully shot. You might also like The Time Traveller's Wife, Interstellar, Pandorum and if you watch anime, then Noein. These are all related to time travel, parallel universes and the like, and all are great in their own way, particularly Interstellar and The Time Traveller's Wife.
I've watched Noein and Interstellar, both of which I enjoyed quite a lot. Will add the rest to my list.


Title: Re: What are your favourite theory/paradox? (Preferably scientific).
Post by: BTCMILLIONAIRE on February 14, 2018, 03:31:28 PM
Am going to go with Moravec's paradox:

Moravec's paradox is the discovery by artificial intelligence and robotics researchers that, contrary to traditional assumptions, high-level reasoning requires very little computation, but low-level sensorimotor skills require enormous computational resources. The principle was articulated by Hans Moravec, Rodney Brooks, Marvin Minsky and others in the 1980s. As Moravec writes, "it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility."[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec%27s_paradox
It's remarkably difficult to actually move if you really try to think of all the steps that you take in making it work. Which is part of why I'm fascinated by people who believe that they can't ever pick up an instrument, Mathematics, languages, or any other skill. You don't see babies giving up when they fall down after a failed attempt at walking.