Why is science treated like something magical, mythical, enchanted, etc.?

[Atla]

Have you ever considered this idea based on the Anthropic principle: maybe the universe as a whole has no arrow of time, it has no increasing entropy. But exactly because we are human, we have to live in a part of the universe where entropy seems to be increasing. Otherwise for example we couldn't build memories.

Yes. I have. The Anthropic principle may be sufficient for "explaining" the arrow of time. It is insufficient for controlling time.

And if we care about human survival then there is really only one problem worth solving: conquering factorial time-complexity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation ). Controlling (or creating!) time.


This is the reason for my nickname and the reason for my (recently started) blog/pet-project.

http://www.whatisti.me/2018/09/02/Openi ... s-box.html

Well we could also solve the problem of artificial pandemics, nuclear wars and the general destruction of the planet first, to stay alive, and then try to control time.

Btw time is a "feature" of the classical world as I mentioned; the underlying quantum reality is timeless, which is why in some cases we can slow down / freeze / speed up time evolution for small parts of the universe. As I said this has nothing to do with temperature, you may want to look into it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Zeno_effect

I think it's impossible to beat entropy on a large enough scale but then again future technology might come up with something interesting.

[TimeSeeker]

Well we could also solve the problem of artificial pandemics, nuclear wars and the general destruction of the planet first, to stay alive, and then try to control time.

I don't think those are existential risks. We would have to blow up all the nukes at once to wipe out the planet. And yes - becoming multi-planetary is a more realistic short-term goal, but on an infinite timescale... Time-complexity is the only problem (or rather -the only problem that I can't see beyond)

Btw time is a "feature" of the classical world as I mentioned; the underlying quantum reality is timeless, which is why in some cases we can slow down / freeze / speed up time evolution for small parts of the universe. As I said this has nothing to do with temperature, you may want to look into it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Zeno_effect

Thanks. Adding to my reading material. On first reading I can't figure out if that's a theoretical or empirical problem.
The theoretical problem is solved in practice in computer science using the notion of system time ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_time ).
We also have vector clocks ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport_timestamps ) to deal with distributed time.

In practice (at quantum scale) we don't have very accurate clocks and so in classical physics the SI unit for time is derived from from mass. That too is circular hence problem.

I think Time Crystals show potential here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal )

I think it's impossible to beat entropy on a large enough scale but then again future technology might come up with something interesting.

Black holes as computation... Again. I am trying to bridge the theory with something testable/empirical (it's very easy to blur the lines)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxVlGAFX7vA

[Atla]

I don't think those are existential risks. We would have to blow up all the nukes at once to wipe out the planet.

Yes which can happen anytime. I think artificial pandemics are a much greater risk though, and the risk keeps constantly increasing as genetic engineering is advancing.

Thanks. Adding to my reading material. On first reading I can't figure out if that's a theoretical or empirical problem.
The theoretical problem is solved in computer science using the notion of system time ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_time ).
In practice we don't have very accurate clocks and so in classical physics the SI unit for time is derived from from mass. That too is circular

I think Time Crystals show potential here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal )

It's not a problem, it's how the world works. Also it's experimentally verified.
(Personally I think that our nervous systems might be exploiting such time-bending effects even right now, because such things give an evolutionary advantage.)

Black holes as computation... Again. I am trying to bridge the theory with something testable/empirical (it's very easy to blur the lines)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxVlGAFX7vA

Yeah about that. I'm fairly certain that the information paradox, and encoded information on black hole event horizons, is the biggest delusional bullshit that science has come up with in the last 100 years. Don't fall for it.

You see when you assume that quantum fluctuations are genuinely random and not just apparently random, then you are forced to conclude that information is lost, which is impossible.

So they came up with all kinds of nonsensical ideas to fix it.

[TimeSeeker]

It's not a problem, it's how the world works. Also it's experimentally verified.
(Personally I think that our nervous systems might be exploiting such time-bending effects even right now, because such things give an evolutionary advantage.)

Well yes, it's "how the world works" according to how we've interpreted our results. Through the (broken?) lens/conception of our perception of time.
So inventing an "objective observer" may just be paramount.

I have some ideas.

Yeah about that. I'm fairly certain that the information paradox, and encoded information on black hole event horizons, is the biggest delusional bullshit that science has come up with in the last 100 years. Don't fall for it.

Well. We can't really tell either way. can we? We have no idea what happens beyond the event horizon - such is the limitation of information asymmetry. We only assume that some of the laws of physics continue to function the same way. What if they don't?

As far as crazy ideas go, could it be that we are inside a black hole right now? It would certainly explain the "expansion" of the universe. Seeming as we are heading for the singularity

[Atla]

Well. We can't really tell either way. can we? We have no idea what happens beyond the event horizon - such is the limitation of information asymmetry.

We can't tell if quantum fluctuations are genuinely or apparently random. Although I would add that since the universe is at least partially entangled, maybe fully entangled, quantum fluctuations are probably apparently random and there is no information paradox. And that's my view of the world.

Or maybe information really is just lost. That would be awkward but possible.

What we can tell however is that information can't be encoded because in this context it's just an abstraction. So the entire line of reasoning coming from Susskind, Dennett and others is pure nonsense.

I pity Hawking actually, Susskind "won" the black hole war by coming up with a convincing nonsense.

[TimeSeeker]

I pity Hawking actually, Susskind "won" the black hole war by coming up with a convincing nonsense.

Well, the bet repayment was hardly a victory