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Underrated reasons to be thankful V

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Re: Underrated reasons to be thankful V

#71

Post by kragen »

s1mplicissimus wrote: post #64
kragen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In our timeline, the Cunctator, having provoked the Second Punic War through diplomatic maneuverings in his old age, held Hannibal at bay in Italy for over a decade while weakening him, until Scipio forced Hannibal to return to Africa, where the Romans defeated him. But, in another timeline, a mosquito stung the Cunctator shortly after war broke out, giving him malaria, which was then endemic in Italy. He would have…

Air currents are highly complex and almost impossible to model in detail, that does not mean that they are not the outcome of conditions that preceded them (regardless of whether we know the formula). So why were the air currents slightly different? Oh I guess because the surrounding weather must have been slightly different. And how did that happen? Because the surrounding climate was different. And how that? Becaus…

No, it wasn't because the surrounding weather was slightly different. The surrounding weather was exactly the same. The air currents were slightly different because a warm rock in Karnataka thermally emitted a photon 13 years earlier that it didn't emit on our timeline. (This happens, as far as we know, completely at random, without any cause; cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_indeterminacy.) That was enough to cause the global atmospheric system to diverge enough that the mosquito stung someone else.

The findings of chaos theory are counterintuitive, but they are absolutely fundamental to how our universe works.

Re: Underrated reasons to be thankful V

#74

Post by komali2 »

ozzyphantom wrote: post #51

This is a great post. I’m thankful that many of the comments here reminded me why this website’s comments section is not worth reading, ceaseless negativity. Not wasting any more time reading them!

50/50 for me. I've had significantly impactful reads here, leading to experiments with new IDEs, to-do systems, ADHD management techniques, and insight into political ideologies I disagree with.

Whereas on Reddit for example it's just yelling at each other all the time.

Re: Underrated reasons to be thankful V

#75

Post by beeflet »

> 16. That sleep, that probably evolution first made a low-energy mode so we don’t starve so fast and then layered on some maintenance processes, but the effect is that we live in a cycle and when things aren’t going your way it’s comforting that reality doesn’t stretch out before you indefinitely but instead you can look forward to a reset and a pause that’s somehow neither experienced nor skipped.

This is pretty understated. We live in a strangely beautiful world such that our experience of time is shaped like so due to the interplay of energy on the surface of the earth

Re: Underrated reasons to be thankful V

#76

Post by PeterHolzwarth »

NoraCodes wrote: post #61
Aeglaecia wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would you care to explain exactly what gives you the impression of religious undertones ?

The invocation of Gregory of Nyssa, for one.

I dunno, I associate Gregory of Nyssa with the unequivocal rejection of slavery.

Re: Underrated reasons to be thankful V

#78

Post by sleeplessworld »

Izikiel43 wrote: post #73
leflambeur wrote: post #70

Will someone please explain 14 on Gregory of Nyssa?

Slavery is a sin, don’t sin, that’s the gist of it. He lived around the year 400, so pretty progressive for his time.

How did you reach the conclusion that the author specifically meant this part of Gregory of Nyssa's religious thinking? It could just as likely be that the author has come to realise that Gregory of Nyssa was correct in his arguments for the Christian Trinity...? I am just wondering. The author's statements are very entertaining, but they do not seem to be articulated as objects for detailed scrutiny...
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