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A rant : Magic (possibly Spirituality to)

Started by NotPublished, December 24, 2009, 01:29:01 AM

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P3nT4gR4m

So they're essentially observing something that's too small to see and describing it as a wave in one set of equations and a ickle ping pong ball in another, depending on what effect they want to produce but if you try to measure it one way the other breaks down. Truth is probably that the phenomena is neither a wave nor a ping pong ball?


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"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

LMNO

That's closer than most people will ever understand, so I'm going to say Yes.

P3nT4gR4m

Yeah I realise I'll never be bang on, on account of I don't get the math but I was kind of hoping this was what was going on. It's only been the last couple of years that I've begun to realise how abstract science is. I thought, probably like a lot of laypersons, that the map was the territory but I'm starting to get my head around the idea that science is full of situations where things are described as "behaving predictably as if..." rather than "it does this because..."

It's kinda ironic that it's taken me this long, considering my approach to self psychology. Shoulda been obvious :lulz:

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
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Awful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.
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walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

Hangshai

The key part I overlooked was how everything works a certain way until you get down to the SMALLEST level of matter, and then it goes apeshit.  Which law or theory is the one about the wave that gets transmitted from the center of the universe, and then gets picked up as two particles that register as opposite values of each other?  I dont know if Im getting that quite right, but I really got a kick out of that one the first time I had it explained to me.
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Kai

Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 06, 2010, 03:59:38 PM
So they're essentially observing something that's too small to see and describing it as a wave in one set of equations and a ickle ping pong ball in another, depending on what effect they want to produce but if you try to measure it one way the other breaks down. Truth is probably that the phenomena is neither a wave nor a ping pong ball?



The best way I have found to visualize it is that a photon is like a hazy orb, that collapses to a point when interacting with other hazy orbs. It's diffuse, a sort of spherical probability field of "energy" (for visualization purposes). So, it can GO through both slits at once.

Or I'm completely wrong.
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P3nT4gR4m

Just out of interest how close together are these slits?

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
Not actually a meat product.
Ass-Kicking & Foot-Stomping Ancient Master of SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK
Awful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.
High Altitude Haggis-Filled Sex Bucket From Beyond Time and Space.
Internet Monkey Person of Filthy and Immoral Pygmy-Porn Wart Contagion
Octomom Auxillary Heat Exchanger Repairman
walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

Hangshai

Im pretty sure it has something to do with our ability to measure things, and the way that you can only measure a particle's speed or position, but not both, at the same time.  If I've been horribly misinformed, I'm sure someone will point it out, but this is how I visualize the wave/particle conundrum.  When you measure speed, it acts as a wave, when you measure location, it acts as particle.  Imagine, if you will, a car speeding by you.  You can take a still photo that measures exact location, but not its speed, which would be particle like behavior.  Or, you can use a radar gun to tell you it's speed, but not its location.  That would be wave like properties.  You WILL be able to tell WHEN it passes you though, by noticing the change in speed.  That is the act of observing the experiment.  I know its not a great metaphor, but it kind of helps me wrap my brain around it.  Also, I dont think the distance of the slits matter.  Its more of the fact that when you measure that 'phenomenon' of the particle, it has wave like properties.  It shouldnt, but it does.  But when you start to measure WHICH slit it goes through, instead of just the PROBABILITY of either slit, then you get particle like properties...  I think.
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Kai

I realized that when Ratatosk was talking about the mutable nature of cause, what he was probably referring to was ultimate and proximate cause.

Proximate cause = mechanism, HOW something happens, the physiological, physical chemical, etc causative for whatever happens.

Ultimate cause = WHY something happened, the reason, meaning and purpose causative.

In the example of missing a red light, the proximate cause is that the person didn't see the red light, that the brain didn't recognize it at that moment. The ultimate cause is having a bad day or distraction by traffic or whatever. BOTH are correct, but they are different questions, one is how, and the other is why.

Incidentally, the three greatest behaviorists Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch all received the Nobel Prize in 1973 for their ability to separate ultimate and proximate cause in behavior, and were the only people ever to receive the prize for behavior work.

Note: this does not mean that cause is mutable. This simply means that the questions you ask when assessing cause need to address both the proximate and ultimate levels.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

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Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

#399
Quote from: Kai on January 07, 2010, 01:03:19 PM
I realized that when Ratatosk was talking about the mutable nature of cause, what he was probably referring to was ultimate and proximate cause.

Proximate cause = mechanism, HOW something happens, the physiological, physical chemical, etc causative for whatever happens.

Ultimate cause = WHY something happened, the reason, meaning and purpose causative.

In the example of missing a red light, the proximate cause is that the person didn't see the red light, that the brain didn't recognize it at that moment. The ultimate cause is having a bad day or distraction by traffic or whatever. BOTH are correct, but they are different questions, one is how, and the other is why.

Incidentally, the three greatest behaviorists Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch all received the Nobel Prize in 1973 for their ability to separate ultimate and proximate cause in behavior, and were the only people ever to receive the prize for behavior work.

Note: this does not mean that cause is mutable. This simply means that the questions you ask when assessing cause need to address both the proximate and ultimate levels.

Kai that is brilliantly stated! It is precisely what I meant though my explaination was clumsy and badly worded. Thanks!!!

EDIT: Also I'd like to clarify what I meant by saying that "correlation" was evidence.

"Correlation" can be evidence that "something is going on". Often investigation begins because of someone looking at numbers and seeing a pattern where there should be none. It is not evidence that "X is caused by Y because they correlate" but rather "Something funky may be happening to X because of this weird pattern... we should find out why".

So for example, when hiring people at Bletchley Park during WWII (where the Brits and Americans were trying to crack German cipher codes) they were careful about the height, age etc of people that they hired. If they hired only the best cryptanalyst, or if they hired predominantly women good at punching numbers... then the "bell curve" would be off and through this 'correlation' they were concerned that the Germans would say "Hrmmm, something isn't right there... what is happening at Bletchly Park?"

I think the reason I stated it directly before is because its an everyday occurrence in my job. Many of my investigations begin because of correlation, particularly Log reviews, scanner reports etc. The correlation isn't evidence that X person did Y thing... but it is evidence that "something out of normal parameters happened here... we must determine what".

Ok, I think I made that more clear...
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Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 06, 2010, 11:00:19 PM
Just out of interest how close together are these slits?

They have to be closer together than the wavelength of the photon passing through them.
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Hangshai

Figured this was a good a place as any for this.  Another vid of an acupuncturist/Qi gong master doing cool stuff with Chi/ki.  Kinda like magic, I guess.  Clip from Ripley's believe it or not.  Entertaining, regardless of whether its magic or not.


Edit - Forgot the link...  Duh..

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2174763/qigong_master_boils_water_with_his_hands_pyrokinesis/
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Bu🤠ns

#402
I can do that with my :






edit: I had to make it smaller.

BabylonHoruv

Quote from: Kai on January 07, 2010, 01:03:19 PM
I realized that when Ratatosk was talking about the mutable nature of cause, what he was probably referring to was ultimate and proximate cause.

Proximate cause = mechanism, HOW something happens, the physiological, physical chemical, etc causative for whatever happens.

Ultimate cause = WHY something happened, the reason, meaning and purpose causative.

In the example of missing a red light, the proximate cause is that the person didn't see the red light, that the brain didn't recognize it at that moment. The ultimate cause is having a bad day or distraction by traffic or whatever. BOTH are correct, but they are different questions, one is how, and the other is why.

Incidentally, the three greatest behaviorists Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch all received the Nobel Prize in 1973 for their ability to separate ultimate and proximate cause in behavior, and were the only people ever to receive the prize for behavior work.

Note: this does not mean that cause is mutable. This simply means that the questions you ask when assessing cause need to address both the proximate and ultimate levels.

In the case of the red light it looks to me like you are giving ultimate causes over all, just at different levels, the proximate cause would be muscle motions within the driver and mechanical operations within the car.
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Quote from: The Johnny on December 24, 2009, 01:49:43 PM
Quote from: NotPublished on December 24, 2009, 08:34:05 AM
So that would mean you have a definition, what is yours?

The similarities are there, Science can do some pretty awesome stuff. Magic is a science itself the way I see it.

Magic is proto-science; in other words, theres a cause-effect correlation that is not explained rigurously yet.

If i tased a native from an island they would say i have "magical powers".

The ancient herbal medicine was achieved thru "magical" attributions (derived from trial and error) to plants, which later on were explained by biochemistry.

The bolded section should have ended this thread.
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