New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN • Hacker News Board

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#81

Post by whymad » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:07 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #54

pseudobry wrote: post #42

I recently finished The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest, which explore the concept of aliens using their super advanced technology to mess with the results of Earth's particle accelerators, thereby stopping humanity's ability to develop technology based on new physics. Is this discovery exciting? Or are we living in The Three-Body Problem?

It’s a great book, but it suffers from the same old issue. A civilization that is capable of packing a robot into particle by manipulating higher dimensions doesn’t need to take our planet. They could terraform Mars or any other planet they want.

True for what it is, but this is handled in the books. They literally don’t want our planet, they want our star.

And the dark forest: without a history of correlated interaction we have no reason to believe they will allow us to live, so we can’t allow them to live, so they can’t allow us to live.

Eliding a more major spoiler, they absolutely intended to annihilate us on arrival and they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for, ah, “those meddling kids”. Everything else was cloak and dagger.

They definitely would have terraformed every planet in the system once they were sure we were gone. Or more likely deconstructed them, at that point in their development.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#82

Post by micromacrofoot » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

alasdair_ wrote: post #68

f6v wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a great book, but it suffers from the same old issue. A civilization that is capable of packing a robot into particle by manipulating higher dimensions doesn’t need to take our planet. They could terraform Mars or any other planet they want.

I had the same problem with the books. If the sophon is that omniscient and that powerful, it could do far more than just mess with experiments. I also never understood the wallfacers - why can’t they communicate via encryption, using a private key stored in each individuals mind alone?

Couldn't trisolarans have broken the encryption? Many of our old methods of encryption have been rendered obsolete by our own technology.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#83

Post by ASalazarMX » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #54

pseudobry wrote: post #42

I recently finished The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest, which explore the concept of aliens using their super advanced technology to mess with the results of Earth's particle accelerators, thereby stopping humanity's ability to develop technology based on new physics. Is this discovery exciting? Or are we living in The Three-Body Problem?

It’s a great book, but it suffers from the same old issue. A civilization that is capable of packing a robot into particle by manipulating higher dimensions doesn’t need to take our planet. They could terraform Mars or any other planet they want.

Super spoiler below:

Their tri-solar system was too unstable to terraform, they needed a stable solar system to migrate to. Of course ours was the nearest with an habitable planet (otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story), so they can immediately colonize Earth, and probably begin the centuries-long process of terraforming the neighboring planets.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#84

Post by ASalazarMX » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:10 PM UTC

whytaka wrote: post #76

majkinetor wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You spoiled it for me, I am on 1/4 of the first book :S

Oh blood, I just got this book. Is this a huge spoiler?

It's plot-establishing, but not a huge spoiler.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#85

Post by svennek » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:10 PM UTC

whytaka wrote: post #76

majkinetor wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You spoiled it for me, I am on 1/4 of the first book :S

Oh blood, I just got this book. Is this a huge spoiler?

Well, it kinda spoils some/most of book 1.

But IMHO the book 2 is the best and most intriguing anyways and that is totally unaffected...

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#86

Post by coldacid » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:10 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #22

Gravityloss wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's always many considerations. Energy density, stability, what kind of energy can you convert it to, can it be directed easily, how hard is it to store etc...

Antimatter's reputation for being incredibly difficult to store comes from the fact that it's produced as individual particles. A superconducting antimatter hockey puck would be much easier to store than a cloud of antiprotons of the same mass. And yeah, you'll need a way to build gamma ray mirrors before antimatter reactions will push you in any direction (the energy comes flying out isotropically and we can't prese…

I think that's what the dilithium crystals are for. ;D

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#87

Post by shoto_io » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:11 PM UTC

ASalazarMX wrote: post #83

f6v wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a great book, but it suffers from the same old issue. A civilization that is capable of packing a robot into particle by manipulating higher dimensions doesn’t need to take our planet. They could terraform Mars or any other planet they want.

Super spoiler below: Their tri-solar system was too unstable to terraform, they needed a stable solar system to migrate to. Of course ours was the nearest with an habitable planet (otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story), so they can immediately colonize Earth, and probably begin the centuries-long process of terraforming the neighboring planets.

Oh great! I just started reading the book…

/s

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#88

Post by Zenst » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

skinwill wrote: post #72

Normal human here, can someone speculate on potential industrial uses?

Too early for that, though does open up other science that may well. Might finally pave the way for gravity shields, food replictor...or nothing.

The aspect that this tetraquark breaks down into something with more mass will certainly be interesting for study.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#89

Post by ASalazarMX » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:17 PM UTC

gizmo686 wrote: post #60

FinanceAnon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If aliens don't like us, then why wouldn't they just destroy us, rather than troll our physicists and mess with the results? Why would they specifically mess with the particle accelarators at this point? Why not with earlier physics?

Spoilers below: The Three Body Problem trilogy breaks down if you think about it too hard. The in-universe explanation was that the aliens did want to destroy us, and had an attack fleet heading towards us. However, the attack fleet was relativly slow, and they were concerned that by the time it reached us we would have advanced to the point where we might win in a fight. To prevent this, they sent smaller probes to…

Killing everyone is too much to ask, remember they were ultimately just protons, physically they're not more powerful than cosmic rays.

Their strength was information gathering and special effects.

Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN

#90

Post by wdwvt1 » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

gizmo686 wrote: post #60

FinanceAnon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If aliens don't like us, then why wouldn't they just destroy us, rather than troll our physicists and mess with the results? Why would they specifically mess with the particle accelarators at this point? Why not with earlier physics?

Spoilers below: The Three Body Problem trilogy breaks down if you think about it too hard. The in-universe explanation was that the aliens did want to destroy us, and had an attack fleet heading towards us. However, the attack fleet was relativly slow, and they were concerned that by the time it reached us we would have advanced to the point where we might win in a fight. To prevent this, they sent smaller probes to…

Totally agree with this, the effort to retard development could have been better spent with a myriad of ecosystem destroying actions or geopolitical manipulations. Also just send the indestructible probe to kill every human...

My bigger problem with this book was that the author seems to wholely confuse secrecy for strategy. The entire conceit behind the wallfacers seemed ridiculous to me. The best strategic plan need not be secret (eg MAD). Make it clear that humanity will destroy every planet in the solar system and you've got at least MAD in the centuries the trisolarians will take to arrive.