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Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#31

Post by danbmil99 »

transfire wrote: post #6
danbmil99 wrote: post #4

Reversibility is the key to further understanding in physics.

Care to explain?

The laws of physics are time-symmetrical. This is true for both classical dynamics and quantum mechanics.

Various attempts have been made over the decades to try to come up with a deeper understanding. Examples include String Theory, Loop quantum gravity, and computational models such as those espoused by Stephen Wolfram.

What they all seem to lack however is a recognition of the intrinsic reversibility of the universe we live in.

In my opinion, the most promising research in this realm is actually around Quantum computation. By necessity, it accepts the reversibility at the heart of things, otherwise you couldn't have the sorts of logic gates you need to do Quantum computation.

By way of an entrance into this rabbit hole, look up the Ffredkin gate.

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#32

Post by BlindHedgehog »

ojciecczas wrote: post #17

In any windows system this happens: - show your desktop - move your mouse over an icon - keep pressing 'home' on your keyboard (home key brings the focus to top left icon) and then left mouse button (changes the focus to the icon you're over) - do it faster and faster (home, lmb, home, lmb, ...), focus will jump between top icon and the icon under the mouse pointer - when you reach the double-click speed, the icon wi…

Keyboard driver's usually more responsive. Hence why this makes sense.

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#35

Post by dennis_jeeves »

arthurcolle wrote: post #7

Economics and related industrial, business, and commercial activities are designed to systematically control and subjugate individuals by imposing a way and manner of thinking that effectively short-circuits individual thought and responsibility - one feels obligated to deliver arbitrary end-goals because of a misplaced sense of "responsibility" despite having limited (in some cases, zero) real/effective ownership in…

Old news really. Curious, after how many years of working did you realize this?

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#36

Post by me_me_me »

arthurcolle wrote: post #18
starpilot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So there was a whole book about this, Power Elite by C.W. Mills. I suspect quite a few people know this.

I think capitalism can work but we don't have pure capitalism - corporatocratic bailouts have been normalized since the 1990s, and as a result, all systemically important losses are socialized, while the gains are always split across a handful of criminals that exploit a system they partially mold to their own liking in order to propagate the toxicity that enables them to further their own interests. I predict that t…

How do people arrive at this point.

It feels like a religious chant. Invisible hand will self regulate and everything will be great as long as you submit.

In all recorded history there has been no case where due to lack of regulation society 'self regulated' itself into some idyllic dream state.

The less oversight the more rule of the strongest/most selfish prevails.

Looking back at history of European nations, the struggle between classes: Ruling class, aristocracy (wealthy class) and others (people with low on no power), always gives the same outcome when one class out-powers others. In Russia ruling class took all power (to this day really), Poland and Hungary the wealthy took power and gouged kings rights to the point where they ruled. And as they ruled they drained their respective countries of wealth and future.

Then we have Britain with Magna Carta that regulated and prevented each class from winning over others. I don't think I need to explain how that worked out for Britain.

Pure capitalism is actually happening right now, what you point to is nothing but outcome of the wealthy controlling government to do their bidding.

USA where harsh capitalism is for poor, and socialism is for the richest.

Bailouts are nothing less then socialism is for the richest. It was the banks that coined the term 'too big to fail' not some leftwing nutjob.

Gangrene is not bad but because you are trying to heal it your leg will rot.

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#37

Post by jacknews »

OK I'll risk it by saying things I think I know about quantum mechanics that have proved useful in dispelling/illuminating/clarifying popular accounts, that lots of people probably don't get.

Bear in mind that someone quite famous and rather clever once said "if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics", and I think he surely wasn't joking!

- There's no such thing as an independent 'observation'. To observe quantum particles you must interact with them. 'You' might be just a particle.

- All the things you've interacted with look different to the things you haven't.

- Noone really understands quantum mechanics

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#38

Post by jamespetercook »

saagarjha wrote: post #25

My private key :) On a more serious note, and not revealing anything that I really shouldn’t be telling people: I’m sure many people know that there used to be a feature on macOS where you could hold down the shift key while minimizing windows (among other things) and it would slow down the animation comically. This feature seems like it was removed a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t: I was poking around the Dock b…

Thanks! I remember discovering this in my college graphics class and showing everyone. We thought Apple were so cool :D

Re: Ask HN: What do you know almost nobody else does?

#40

Post by JohnDeHope »

jacknews wrote: post #37

OK I'll risk it by saying things I think I know about quantum mechanics that have proved useful in dispelling/illuminating/clarifying popular accounts, that lots of people probably don't get. Bear in mind that someone quite famous and rather clever once said "if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics", and I think he surely wasn't joking! - There's no such thing as an indep…

"There's no such thing as an independent 'observation'." It's not as if you can see macro objects without bouncing photons off them, either. Does this point have to do with QM specifically? At large enough scales the amount of interaction needed to observe something is incidental to the thing itself. At small enough QM scales the interaction needed for observation is non-trivial. But is this a difference of kind, or just a difference of quantity?
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