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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • A conceivable way could be to disrupt the nuclear force of the target atoms, maybe like an anti-Pion/Gluon ray that self-propagates the reaction through the released energy.

    (As we might remember, splitting the atom yields a bunch of energy, and uncontrolled such reactions go Hiroshima)

    It might be controlled by sub-particle lensing, probably some kind of magnetic field, to be active at a specific distance.

    For the reaction to be contained, either there’s a radially limiting component (air is not particle dense enough to propagate the reaction, or atoms not energy dense enough) or it’s a cascade triggered by the beam which stops when the beam stops (or the reaction gets too far away from it)

    As I believe Pions and Gluons are their own anti-particles, I don’t know how we would go about doing this, but hey, that’s for Science!™ to solve.










  • That’s assuming a lot of ifs resolve our way, and without power needs increasing. It’s more sustainable than coal/gas/oil for sure, but with current energy development needs it’s barely long term (IIRC about 60-140 years)

    Also, on centuries timescale, we will need to find more fissiles in space. And according to our current understanding of the universe, they should be quite rare, especially compared to hydrogen.

    Basically, figuring out fusion power would solve our needs for the first level on the Kardashev scale, and has the potential to be portable fuel for the rest of the lifespan of the universe.




  • The whole reason that it works is because the company can’t afford to lose everyone who’s not complying.

    But promotion blocking seems like a weak move. If returning to office is enough of a workplace issue to be a deal breaker, threatening people with not taking extra responsibilities or challenges seems like a losing proposition. They’re already willing to lose their job over the issue, and you’ve shown that you can’t lose them, so now you’re gonna make it shittier to remain at the company?

    And even besides the perspective that promotions are a benefit, many roles are in place for the company’s sake, to stay organised, are they now gonna not fill those? Or only fill them with external applicants?

    Or is the idea to only promote the compliant ones? That would make some sense, at least.



  • You are right that things would still look like we’re accelerating away from us, even if we were actually contracting.

    Interesting hypothesis! How do we investigate?

    What could we expect from a large central gravitational point? We should have other signs of the gravity well:

    We would expect a point that we contract towards (and that seems ill fitting, as we see the expansion moves as the observer (including earth) moves), we would expect some kind of mass or similar effect, which would also have a size to fit it in (we know that gravity works different when you’re inside the mass, and we would be able to see it, much like black holes or dark matter), we would expect things to orbit the gravity well (which we know that at least our galaxy doesn’t orbit us).

    You might want to actually check on these things to make sure they apply and are true, but at least at first glance it seems the expansion is better explained without a central gravity.


  • Sorry for the late reply, but I’ve now watched the two seasons of Strange New Worlds and just can’t agree with you.

    Strange New Worlds works at establishing plot lines, in the first season telling you a central character plot point and a few episodes later doing an episode around it. Until the J’Gal character plot there aren’t even any twists.

    What I mean with plot weaving would be something like the Vulcan Archeological Medicine fellowships being a secret Romulan plot (established through the multiple glimpses into what they’re studying), or having reconstructed Pike after his premonition so that he can escape it.

    And this totally makes sense, Strange New Worlds is a TOS tribute, and those are notorious for being very episodal, with almost no links between episodes outside the main characters.

    Either we have different interpretations of plot weaving, or it’s extremely subtle that I cant detect it after a rewatch.


  • But the question is not what is simplest for the company. Arguably it would be even simpler for the company not to pay Bob, or anyone for that matter, they could also simplify a lot with not bothering with doing anything beside extracting money from people, slavery and robbery are very simple.

    If we change the viewpoint from people living to serve companies, we might arrive at different conclusions, and maybe even a society better suited for humans, rather than companies.



  • But in several countries it is legally abuse to withhold emotional safety from a dependant, including withholding the right to privacy.

    I know, as I teach this to youth organisations who have a reporting duty against that law.

    As for the health benefits, I’d urge you to read a basic textbook on child developmental psychology. The keywords used in most models are autonomy, privacy and keeping secrets, as important parts of social (and cognitive) development from about the second year, and only get more important with age.