161–170 of 298 posts
As an experimental physicist, I refuse to get excited about a new theory until the proponent gets to an observable phenomenon that can fix the question.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But where did the Sun got it's low entropy photons to start with? From gravity, empty uniform space has low entropy, which got "scooped up" as the Sun formed. From the Big Bang originally. We don’t know what caused the Big Bang.
The end of the previous Big Bang, a-la Big Bounce ;^) "It's turtles all the way down."
I'm not saying there's no solution; indeed, this is the sort of thing where the problem is that the profusion of proposed solutions is exactly the thing that shows there's a problem there. I think people tend to intuitively think that "lots and lots of possible solutions" is somehow better than "no solutions at all" but they're actually nearly the same thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re right. the cadence is written by ChatGPT. I’m pretty terrible at keeping my thoughts cohesive, so I often use it as a post processor. I’ll try not to do that. Because you had the decency to respond, I’ll spent some more time thinking about this and see if I can come up with a more well rounded response that incorporates more of the traditional language of physics. But to your point about entropy not being a “f…
> would you rather have a book that explains everything and not know how to read it, or trust your own eyes ears and hands, and not be able to share it? Maybe use AI to help you understand TFA instead of writing gut reactions to the title.
I just don't see how this particular article would be beneficial, even if it _were_ correct.
Entropic gravity is like the "brazil nut effect" [0] [1]. The idea is that if you shake a glass full of different sized nuts, the large ones will rise to the top. From what I understand, this is because larger objects have more mass, moving slower when shaked, so as the larger (brazil nuts) don't move as much relative to the smaller ones (peanuts), and because of gravity, there's a cavity left under the brazil nut wh…
are all celestial bodies then a local up and 'away from them' down?
this analogy hurts my brain. please tell me how to make the hurting stop
This seems backwards. Entropy is a dispersive force — it favors distribution and disorder. But the universe clumps. Planets, stars, galaxies — all of them are low-entropy configurations. So how did scattered dust particles form the planet we’re standing on… through entropy? If gravity is just emergent from entropy, then it should be fighting against planet formation, not causing it. There’s a missing piece here — may…
This is not a philosophical discussion
It does none of that, and so I have no responsibility to do so prior to discussing it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Entropy isn't a force. It doesn't "favor" anything. Its a property of statistics, information, and distributions. Also why does this have that particular ChatGPT social media post rhythm to it? Please, Lord, tell me we haven't reached the point where people are writing HN comments w/ AI.
Because it has emdashes and ellipses that Chrome, Firefox, Mac, Linux, and Android text input controls do not natively produce. I don't know about iPhone. If you see these artifacts, it was authored in some other software (be it an editor or LLM) and pasted over.
Like not the actual content or meaning of the text, which I chose to post, but the mere fact that it wasn't typed in to a keyboard directly in a hacker news text box, but rather pasted after using a tool to refine the verbiage.
Honestly? Great test for most posts. We live in a world surrounded by people who are just copy and pasting ChatGPT answers like a magic 8 ball, and I respect your instinct to try to avoid those.
But that's not how I use ChatGPT, because I understand how language models work and choose to use them intentionally to help me nagivate ideas and learn new concepts (as well as write memos after-the-fact). Not just take a hollow "sounds good" response and post it to take up people time.
:shrug:
Entropic gravity is like the "brazil nut effect" [0] [1]. The idea is that if you shake a glass full of different sized nuts, the large ones will rise to the top. From what I understand, this is because larger objects have more mass, moving slower when shaked, so as the larger (brazil nuts) don't move as much relative to the smaller ones (peanuts), and because of gravity, there's a cavity left under the brazil nut wh…
but these nuts move by gravity do they not? and what in the universe is exactly up and down? and why would that matter? are all celestial bodies then a local up and 'away from them' down? this analogy hurts my brain. please tell me how to make the hurting stop
Entropic gravity is like the "brazil nut effect" [0] [1]. The idea is that if you shake a glass full of different sized nuts, the large ones will rise to the top. From what I understand, this is because larger objects have more mass, moving slower when shaked, so as the larger (brazil nuts) don't move as much relative to the smaller ones (peanuts), and because of gravity, there's a cavity left under the brazil nut wh…