Getting to know people

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Astro Cat
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Getting to know people

Post by Astro Cat »

Hi everyone, I know there's an Introductions section, but I'm wanting to sort of do that in reverse to get to know the denizens of the board.

I'll go by Cat for short when "Astro Cat" is just too much to type. I'm in my 30's, am finishing my MS in astrophysics this fall and bridging straight into PhD after that. I'm researching quiescence in galaxies for my thesis, though before that I did research constraining dark energy and its equation of state. I work nights to support myself (pays way more than being a GTA/GRA) so I post mostly at night (in the US).

I don't have a formal background in philosophy, but I do read philosophical literature when I can (and keep a folder in my paper organizer of choice, Zotero). I'll occasionally read what I guess could be called pop philosophy books, but I haven't done that for a while. I can generally keep up with those that do have the formal background as long as I'm able to look up esoteric terms or things that are idiosyncratic to certain philosophers that I might not have read.

I like board and card games, horror as a genre, I get out to live music when I can (covid permitting), I model when I can (pin-up and retro), I try my hand occasionally at writing poetry and short stories (generally horror; and no, I will not share any of this until I don't hate what I write). As I said somewhere else, I try to keep some plants alive but probably wouldn't consider myself a gardener.

Who are you, what are you into?
Phil8659
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Phil8659 »

I am self-educated, due to an I.Q. test early in my life which justified my disdain for those who cannot comprehend what is wrong with our educational systems. I post my work on the Internet Archive, Archive.org, under johnclark8659, however, it would take anyone several years to even comprehend my discoveries in geometry alone, but my interest is the illiteracy of the human race which goes unnoticed, so I do work in the history and evolution of the rational ability of mankind. NOBODY enjoys a conversation with me, unless I pity them and just joke around.
Age
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Age »

Astro Cat wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:42 am Hi everyone, I know there's an Introductions section, but I'm wanting to sort of do that in reverse to get to know the denizens of the board.

I'll go by Cat for short when "Astro Cat" is just too much to type. I'm in my 30's, am finishing my MS in astrophysics this fall and bridging straight into PhD after that. I'm researching quiescence in galaxies for my thesis, though before that I did research constraining dark energy and its equation of state. I work nights to support myself (pays way more than being a GTA/GRA) so I post mostly at night (in the US).
What is 'quiescence in galaxies', from your perspective? And,

What is 'dark energy', to you?
Astro Cat wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:42 am I don't have a formal background in philosophy, but I do read philosophical literature when I can (and keep a folder in my paper organizer of choice, Zotero). I'll occasionally read what I guess could be called pop philosophy books, but I haven't done that for a while. I can generally keep up with those that do have the formal background as long as I'm able to look up esoteric terms or things that are idiosyncratic to certain philosophers that I might not have read.

I like board and card games, horror as a genre, I get out to live music when I can (covid permitting), I model when I can (pin-up and retro), I try my hand occasionally at writing poetry and short stories (generally horror; and no, I will not share any of this until I don't hate what I write). As I said somewhere else, I try to keep some plants alive but probably wouldn't consider myself a gardener.

Who are you, what are you into?
Age
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Age »

Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:31 pm I am self-educated, due to an I.Q. test early in my life which justified my disdain for those who cannot comprehend what is wrong with our educational systems.
What is wrong with your educational system?
Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:31 pm I post my work on the Internet Archive, Archive.org, under johnclark8659, however, it would take anyone several years to even comprehend my discoveries in geometry alone,
WHY what are some of 'your' discoveries?

Would you list some or all of them here?

If no, then wHY NOT?
Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:31 pm but my interest is the illiteracy of the human race which goes unnoticed,
Is this so-called 'illiteracy' of the 'human race', in relation to the WHOLE 'human race', or just in regards to the VERY TINY SNIPPET of the 'human race' that you have experienced in 'you' VERY NARROWED and VERY SHELTERED LITTLE life?
Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:31 pm so I do work in the history and evolution of the rational ability of mankind.
What is the name of the company and the industry, which you 'work in', and which deals in the history and evolution of the rational ability of humankind?
Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:31 pm NOBODY enjoys a conversation with me, unless I pity them and just joke around.
Are you joking around here, now?
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Astro Cat
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Astro Cat »

Age wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:46 pm What is 'quiescence in galaxies', from your perspective? And,

What is 'dark energy', to you?
Quiescence is when a galaxy is quenched (no longer has a healthy star formation rate). Quenching is associated with a lot of different aspects of galaxies such as their morphology (spheroid vs. disky), Sérsic index (drop-off in intensity as a function of distance from the center), AGNs (active galactic nuclei, e.g. their black holes), etc. We observe a buildup of high stellar mass spheroid galaxies with low specific star formation rates at lower redshifts (so, more recent in cosmic time) than at high redshifts, but it's tough to discern what common features of quiescent galaxies might have a causal role in their quenching or what features result from quenching.

Dark energy is any energy density with a negative equation of state that doesn't scale with the scale factor of the universe. It drives the acceleration of cosmic expansion and currently dominates the energy density of the universe, even over matter (baryonic and dark alike).

But these are topics I can speak on in threads dedicated to them if you'd like to open one, or wish me to. I want to get to know co-posters in this thread.
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by FlashDangerpants »

I'm some random middle aged English IT dude with a degree in philosophy and I'm litreally no more interesting than that phrase indicates.
As an utter bastard though, I am super intrigued to work out how to set this Phil8659 guy onto Advocate, that looks like a marriage made in heaven.

I am sort of interested to see what an actual astrophysicist makes of some the the spicier psedudo-scientific stuff that happens on here. Does astrophysics have much overlap with quantumnumunumunums?
uwot
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by uwot »

Well, since you ask, my name is Will. I was in my thirties several decades ago and I have done an MSc in history and philosophy of science. I did my thesis on Medieval cosmology, largely to fill the gap in my knowledge between ancient and modern cosmology. The idea being to write a history of cosmology from Egypt and Babylon up to today. Philosophy Now, the magazine that supports this madhouse, has published three of my articles which are broadly on that theme.(https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Ph ... d_Brancheshttps://philosophynow.org/issues/131/Th ... _1922-1996https://philosophynow.org/issues/133/Ph ... _Millennia) I'm currently trying to peddle a cartoon book I wrote that explains in simple terms how the universe works according to quantum field theory. Part of the strategy is a series of YouTube videos, three of which are available for viewing, ( https://youtu.be/nXW6TD2TpLU https://youtu.be/1ylMYL_yKwQ https://youtu.be/nOw_TT79reI ) more in the pipeline.
My first degree was in philosophy and it convinced me that philosophy is essentially story telling. If a story deals with demonstrable facts, the writer is probably an empiricist. If the premise cannot be demonstrated, 'god exists' for example, it is more likely that the author is a rationalist. Pragmatists are the equivalent of instrumentalists in science. The esoteric terms are usually just a way to obscure the fact that what is on offer is not remarkable by itself, often it's a rephrasing of familiar themes. The joy, and importance of philosophy is that it gives context to facts.
Apart from that I don't like horror as a genre, mostly because it works. Having seen Jaws as a boy in Holland, I am still nervous when I get in the sea. Apart from that I'm growing old disgracefully, still into motorbikes and music. Saw the Red Hot Chilli Peppers the other day in London, with one of my twin daughters. Marvellous.
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Astro Cat
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Astro Cat »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 1:02 pm I'm some random middle aged English IT dude with a degree in philosophy and I'm litreally no more interesting than that phrase indicates.
As an utter bastard though, I am super intrigued to work out how to set this Phil8659 guy onto Advocate, that looks like a marriage made in heaven.

I am sort of interested to see what an actual astrophysicist makes of some the the spicier psedudo-scientific stuff that happens on here. Does astrophysics have much overlap with quantumnumunumunums?
I've seen some of the, ah, cringier pseudoscience here, if that's what you're talking about :P

There is some overlap, yes. I had to take QM as an undergrad and then twice more (QM1 and QM2) during my grad career. We have to make use of QM because we do spectrometry and have to know the behavior of very cold and very hot gases (and everything in between). On the cosmo side someone would want to know QFT (quantum field theory) to work with some forms of dark energy (usually called Quintessence, it's any dark energy with an equation of state that's negative and rational like -2/3) and you'd need QFT to work directly with inflation as well (for the inflaton field).

I haven't had QFT, there's no class offered here (though at our request we did basic QFT at the end of QM2). Some of us may try to take a class remotely and work with anyone that wasn't able to. I've considered doing it just to teach it here at some point. But as of right now I don't have QFT under my belt, and the strictest answer to your question is that the sort of QM we're interested in astro and cosmo is probably different than the QM quacks are interested in.
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Astro Cat
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Astro Cat »

uwot wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 1:06 pm Well, since you ask, my name is Will. I was in my thirties several decades ago and I have done an MSc in history and philosophy of science. I did my thesis on Medieval cosmology, largely to fill the gap in my knowledge between ancient and modern cosmology. The idea being to write a history of cosmology from Egypt and Babylon up to today. Philosophy Now, the magazine that supports this madhouse, has published three of my articles which are broadly on that theme.(https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Ph ... d_Brancheshttps://philosophynow.org/issues/131/Th ... _1922-1996https://philosophynow.org/issues/133/Ph ... _Millennia) I'm currently trying to peddle a cartoon book I wrote that explains in simple terms how the universe works according to quantum field theory. Part of the strategy is a series of YouTube videos, three of which are available for viewing, ( https://youtu.be/nXW6TD2TpLU https://youtu.be/1ylMYL_yKwQ https://youtu.be/nOw_TT79reI ) more in the pipeline.
My first degree was in philosophy and it convinced me that philosophy is essentially story telling. If a story deals with demonstrable facts, the writer is probably an empiricist. If the premise cannot be demonstrated, 'god exists' for example, it is more likely that the author is a rationalist. Pragmatists are the equivalent of instrumentalists in science. The esoteric terms are usually just a way to obscure the fact that what is on offer is not remarkable by itself, often it's a rephrasing of familiar themes. The joy, and importance of philosophy is that it gives context to facts.
Apart from that I don't like horror as a genre, mostly because it works. Having seen Jaws as a boy in Holland, I am still nervous when I get in the sea. Apart from that I'm growing old disgracefully, still into motorbikes and music. Saw the Red Hot Chilli Peppers the other day in London, with one of my twin daughters. Marvellous.
I'm heading to bed from my night shift here, but I'm looking forward to reading your articles tomorrow (well, tonight)! I like your ideas in the second paragraph, comparing pragmatists to instrumentalists and etc. I think we'll get along, I look forward to seeing more of your insights.
Phil8659
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Phil8659 »

I see a number of people, so bright asking Questions about me, when, if they got off their lazy chair, all they had to do is go to the Internet Archive and actually do some real work instead of just making noise to study my work. Universal Language is a PDF volume set, one of those books has my work in geometry in it. There are over 20,000 pages of demonstrations. You can work them using Geometer's Sketchpad and Mathcad.

Do some real work instead of making noise.
Phil8659
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Phil8659 »

Getting to know people is very easy as people are defined by what they actually do, and by what they actually work for. Most people I find are too lazy to search out an answer, even when told where to get one, those people, by example, are simply too stupid to even comprehend an answer when given. I constantly work on my project and have for years and the fruits of my efforts are available world wide on the Archive.
The human mind is explicitly made to effect human behavior and correct behavior produces actual environmental evidence.
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 2:41 pm I see a number of people, so bright asking Questions about me, when, if they got off their lazy chair, all they had to do is go to the Internet Archive and actually do some real work instead of just making noise to study my work. Universal Language is a PDF volume set, one of those books has my work in geometry in it. There are over 20,000 pages of demonstrations. You can work them using Geometer's Sketchpad and Mathcad.

Do some real work instead of making noise.
That's completely impressive. You should definitely meet Advocate, he has answered all the questions of life the univeerse and everything and he has gone one better than you by fitting all that into a single google sheets doc. So reel your neck in, you are second best.


Unless we include Age, who also has all the answers in the universe. So actually you are third best. And that's just on this site.
Phil8659
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Phil8659 »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 3:28 pm
That's completely impressive. You should definitely meet Advocate, he has answered all the questions of life the univeerse and everything and he has gone one better than you by fitting all that into a single google sheets doc. So reel your neck in, you are second best.


Unless we include Age, who also has all the answers in the universe. So actually you are third best. And that's just on this site.
So I take it, your quips are a competition with the depth of dew?

Saying anything is impressive, with the same knowledge as anyone who comments at all about that which they are ignorant has historically been the domain of fools. May I inquire as to where you get your hats?
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Phil8659 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 3:51 pm
FlashDangerpants wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 3:28 pm
That's completely impressive. You should definitely meet Advocate, he has answered all the questions of life the univeerse and everything and he has gone one better than you by fitting all that into a single google sheets doc. So reel your neck in, you are second best.


Unless we include Age, who also has all the answers in the universe. So actually you are third best. And that's just on this site.
So I take it, your quips are a competition with the depth of dew?

Saying anything is impressive, with the same knowledge as anyone who comments at all about that which they are ignorant has historically been the domain of fools. May I inquire as to where you get your hats?
Oh that's me told, I'm completely cowed by your awesomeness now that you have delivered a haughty put down. Frankly my bottom parts are sore and I may not me able to sit for the next week.

But this guy has answered every question in the whole of philosophy, and it's all in one Google spreadsheet, he didn't even need Excel!
So he's like double the genius you are. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=29981
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Astro Cat
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Re: Getting to know people

Post by Astro Cat »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 5:09 pm Oh that's me told, I'm completely cowed by your awesomeness now that you have delivered a haughty put down. Frankly my bottom parts are sore and I may not me able to sit for the next week.

But this guy has answered every question in the whole of philosophy, and it's all in one Google spreadsheet, he didn't even need Excel!
So he's like double the genius you are. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=29981
Do... do I need to get the popcorn out?
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