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Hm, I don’t think the “gravitational force” (as in the thing that pulls you towards the Earth) is a result of a gravitational wave; rather it is a result of you being in a static vector field. Gravitational waves are waves that travel through that field, e.g. the stuff that LIGO is measuring.
I’ve tried thinking about how it would work with portals. The problem is that the definition for gravitational field is g = -∇Φ where gravitational potential Φ(x) = ∑i(-G·mi)/||x - xi||, which depends on there being a single unambiguous “distance between two points” (x and xi in this case). But think about two points on the opposite sides of one “portal entrance” (e.g. imagine a portal entrance on a wall in front of you, with your friend on the other side of that wall). What is the distance between you and your friend now? If we’re to say it’s the same as it was without a portal, then (1) we get straight back to our problems with energy conservation, (2) there is no physical path between you and your friend that matches this distance as there’s a rift in space on that path. It would also be weird to conclude that it’s infinity - you can just go around the wall in our example and be right next to your friend. So we almost have to conclude that the shortest path would have to go around the portal somehow. Let’s just say that it would be the length of the shortest path around the portal. By the formulae for the gravitational field, this means that the gravity will pull you towards the shortest path to Earth’s center. If you placed one portal on the surface of Earth (let’s assume that the center of Earth is sufficiently far away that the gravitational field can be approximated as uniform in direction and magnitude) and another one somewhere far-far away in deep space (where let’s say that gravitational field is 0 for simplicity) it would look something like this:
Note how while the gravitational potential (Φ) is defined along the red line, the gravitational field would be undefined as there would be no gradient in the gravitational potential.
Now let’s try thinking what would happen on the other side. I’ll assume that our portals are just flattened wormholes with short throats. Thus we’ll just assume that portal entrances are actually “two-sided” (e.g. if they are just floating in your room, you can walk around them and see whatever is around the other portal at all times), and that the distance between them is 0 (let’s not think about how that works for now). Now the distance between an object on “one side” of first portal entrance and “the other side” of another portal entrance is even more messed up - I think the shortest path would technically be one that travels from first object to one of the “edges” of the first portal entrance and then from the corresponding edge of the second portal entrance to the second object. Thus the gravitational field around the other portal would look like this (I’ve added eyes to clarify how I’ve linked up portal sides):
The red line once again means that the gravitational field there is undefined.
Whew, it’s complicated, right?
Now, let’s put the second portal close to the first one. Note that I’m assuming here that only the shortest distance to the center of the earth matters.
The two red lines from before now overlap, and there’s another one - there’s no gradient when the distance to the blue portal and to the earth is the same. It’d actually be longer than what I’ve drawn, and some sort of parabola in those areas, but I’m too lazy to do that. Hanging in the middle of that red cross would be a weird feeling - your top half would feel as though you’re hanging upside down, while your bottom half would feel normal, and your arms and legs would be pulled in slightly different directions.
Although, I think that Newtonian definitions of gravity are playing tricks on us here. We should probably try using general relativity instead, but I am too tired to even attempt that right now, and I’d probably fail given that the fields involved there are a lot more complicated.
2·2 days agoIt’s not rotten but working exactly as intended. The problem is precisely the intention.
It already is in all modern societies except like the USA.
Given the original commenter was talking about “the left”, I’m critiquing AES countries (e.g. China) here. USA is a lost cause when it comes to human rights anyways.
You seems to root awfully much for these bad people
That’s just basic human empathy combined with practicality. They are still human and deserve humane treatment, and also most of them (like 80% if we look at Scandinavia) can be reintegrated into the society in some way.
I’d say let’s help them when we have helped all their victims
You won’t be able to help them if you murder them
Yeah, of course, death penalty is never acceptable and must be abolished entirely. Even setting aside that no proof of a physical event can be 100% solid, or all the other practicality arguments; even the worst rapists, murderers, terrorists and billionaires are still humans and do not deserve death.
A lifetime imprisonment is more inhumane than a death sentence.
Change my mind.jpg
Most death row inmates fight for their life all the way until execution. That’s proof enough.
(If there is enough solid proof ofc. You can’t roll back a death penalty)
How is the verity of the conviction related to how humane the punishment is?
Well, the videogame kind are definitely impossible, but if the gravitational field could travel through the portal then it would probably still conserve energy. The gravitational interactions around vertical portals would be exceptionally weird. If they were close enough, you’d probably experience weightlessness while in between them, but I can’t wrap my head around what would happen as they move further apart. That makes me hope someone tries to make a mod that models that in Portal…
Holy shit, how did I not know about the mobile version…
I don’t know what “other countries” you’re talking about, but where I’m from, a “can opener” looks like this:
(I’ve been using one just like this for my entire adult life, and guess what - it’s ok!)
If we’re also talking about vehicles… I’m about average height (~180 cm) but have long-ish legs, and this means that I simply don’t fit well into the driver’s seat of most cars. Even with the steering wheel adjusted all the way up, seat slid all the way back and reclined all the way forward, my legs are hitting the steering wheel and yet I can barely reach it with my hands. Because of this, I sometimes have to take my shoes off while driving.
Also, almost every car has some annoying things like your oil plug; simply because a modern combustion engine is really quite complicated and there’s not enough space under the hood to give every component a convenient place. E.g. my Delica has the starter located below the engine and quite far back, so it’s mostly covered by the engine protection plate. Good luck banging on that starter relay if it sticks in the off position and refuses to start, while you’re stuck in the mud! However I do agree that making periodic maintenance painful, like in your case, is way worse.
Alec from Technology Connections is known for his extensive rants about household appliances: https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections
As for me, I’m just trying to avoid things in general, and things I don’t enjoy in particular. Perhaps the only things that I find annoying at my home are:
- An awful flow-through gas water heater, which requires me to wait for like a minute before water gets up to temperature every time I need hot water (I’d go with an electric one myself, but unfortunately I’m a renter for now). It’s also a poor design because it’s going to fuck over humanity in a couple decades via climate change.
- Packaging on almost all processed food. I don’t need everything I buy to be in a plastic bag. It’s an incredibly poor design because it is almost always non-recyleable, either because it has a thin foil layer or it’s a mix of plastics or both, filling the landfills forever and contaminating everything with microplastics.
- Poor window frame design, combined with inevitable building settling, has resulted in a cracked window twice within the last year.
I have many more gripes about things, some of the most prominent:
- Most modern smartphones just suck. Gimme back the headphone jack, an SD card slot, and a back that I can open with my fingernails! (thankfully my current phone has all of those despite being only a couple years old and very cheap)
- Generally everything that has a battery which I can’t replace
- Bluetooth headphones without a headphone jack or at least audio-over-USB are an awful design, it would cost the manufacturer like a dollar do add that functionality that can come in really handy and yet they don’t
- Fuck clothes without pockets!
- Cheap plastic crap from wish.com or similar that’s designed to fail after one use, it just shouldn’t exist. I hope CPC bans this shit soon. (although I find it fun to pull out broken christmas lights from recycling, fix them and then get free christmas lights for every New Year’s)
- “Teflon” or similar frying pans. Just get a cast iron one. Lasts forever, doesn’t poison you, also allegedly enriches your food with iron
POTUS? Nobody. No single person should hold a position with such power.
I’ve never done something on the scale I’m describing, so this is mostly just speculation, but I hope it could be useful.
First of all, find the people who do care. Talk with them. Make a local antifascist group in a secure messenger (Matrix/XMPP, or at the very least Signal), or join an existing org that you disagree with the least (don’t be afraid of the word “socialist” if you stumble upon them). Do not discuss anything illegal, as it could spell trouble for everyone - you live in an (increasingly) authoritarian country with a wide range of tools to repress you. Keeping it legal at least makes it less likely.
Now that you have a support network, you can start reaching out. Until/unless your organization gains serious traction, unite over common goals instead of squabbling over your differences. DO NOT guilt anyone for being financially well off, voting for the wrong candidate, believing in stupid things, etc. Find people who are somewhat unhappy or unsure about concentration camps. Try convincing them that concentration camps are bad - it probably would be easier if they are on the fence already or if they are being unjustly treated themselves. Show compassion. Do not be condescending or use the words that may trigger them (Nazism, etc), instead appeal to humanity and empathy to specific people who are being repressed. Bring some examples of unjust repression with you. Do not overdo it - you don’t (yet) have to agree on anything except that these concentration camps are bad. Propose to do something together - it can be small at first, like calling your representative or organizing a picket - common action builds connections and mutual understanding.
Actually, I don’t remember if I ever thanked you for your work; We don’t always agree on everything but your positions are thought-provoking, your delivery respectful, and your patience seemingly infinite. So, thank you. I wish there were more people like you on the left.
Yep, but the rest can mostly be replaced with a mailing list. Or, if you’re allergic to email, there’s also https://forgejo.org/.
Federated browsers
That’s literally just regular browsers, you can interact with any one of billions of webservers
Federated github
Git is federated by nature, you can add as many remotes as you wish and push/pull to all of them. Add in a mailing list for issue tracking and “pull requests” (patch submissions) and you’re golden. You can look up sourcehut to self-host a well-integrated combination of the two.
Federated hosting providers
Not sure what exactly you mean by this but maybe take a look at IPFS, although it’s more P2P then federation.
Federated internet
Internet is already fairly federated by nature - most commonly used protocols in the OSI stack are open and you can host your own components of critical infrastructure. Getting others to interact with them might be difficult due to security & privacy issues.
Honestly, I think I’m mostly set already (as I often go backpacking and there’s no internet there). I have offline maps for the country I’m in and neighboring regions downloaded in OsmAnd and mapy.cz (two sources just in case), Wikipedia in Kiwix, and my custom NixOS setup as a bootable ISO on a flashdrive. I’ll probably miss being able to watch science/maths edutainment on YouTube, but it’s not something I’d download.
If the Internet went away, we’d have a little time before batteries were not viable even if replaceable, as distributing those batteries would get problematic.
Good thing portable solar panels & lead-acid batteries exist that can easily power a couple of laptops even if their internal batteries are cooked. Solar panels last for a very long time if cared for, and lead-acid batteries can be (somewhat) useful almost indefinitely if you replace the electrolyte.
No, we’re all gonna need to learn how to fight, and live without hospitals and drugs and probably electricity.
So it would be really handy to have instructions for maintaining or even building weaponry, medical/medicinal literature to find useful herbs or other remedies, and engineering literature/textbooks/software to help us rebuild the electrical grid and then the Internet.
Honestly, while fun, those videos don’t provide too much value per GB - and I say that as someone who’s watched almost all of them. Their main actual benefit besides entertainment is (IMHO) getting people interested in the relevant field so they study more thoroughly. They often explain simple yet dazzling concepts which get you hooked but don’t provide much value on their own, and don’t directly enable you to solve real-life problems. Even more involved videos like those by 3blue1brown are still edutainment at their core, as acknowledged by the author. In an apocalypse (which, let’s face it, is the most likely reason the internet would indefinitely go down in a developed country) you would be much better off with engineering (mechanical, electrical, etc) literature and textbooks, maybe a couple science textbooks for good measure (I have a drawer full of the Feynman lectures in case something like this happens).
You’re advocating for death penalty.
In countries that abolished it, if someone was executed it would be considered murder. So yes, you are advocating for murder.
What do victims have to do with this? I’m not proposing we kill them.
Surviving victims should of course be offered treatment, both physical and mental, as well as fair compensation. It is irrelevant to the question of the death penalty.