Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:50 pm

No. That particular class constitutes Russell's paradox, and is contradictory, and was in fact one of the motivating elements for a more formal notion of "set" that could eliminate such things.

It might not even be an axiom of foundation issue, it might just be that because for all relations R the statement "There exists an X such that for all Y : R(X,Y) iff Not-R(Y, Y)" is a contradiction. And there's nowhere in ZFC that would imply the existence of such a set. If you had something like a set of all sets you could specify your way down to it, but you don't have a set of all sets (and that definitely IS due to the axiom of foundation).

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 5:51 am

(repost)
Fucking google drive, man
Won't sign in at all in the program. Just a blank window. I don't have 2-step verification set up, so that shouldn't be doing it. And when I sign in via browser I can't seem to upload files either. I uninstalled it and tried again; same deal, blank fucking window. What the hell, man?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:08 am

why do people get the feeling of:"i wanna jump down there, right now!" when they stand at an edge and look down? <.<
i mean, it strikes me as kinda adverse to the survival instincts and stuff x.x

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:24 am

I might be weird but I really don't get that feeling.

Do I like the whole idea of bungee jumping, para jumping or whatever else? Yes and I probably would think of what that might feel like at some very high cliffs or something. But, in general, I don't really climb a mountain, look down and think I should jump.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:54 am

I don't get that impulse either. Other than going down stairs. I like jumping down a flight of stairs, and it was a sad day when I realized my ankles and knees are no longer teenaged or even college aged, and I can't do it all the time now.

Nowadays I might wistfully look at a tree and want to climb. But not jump down.

Foxwarrior · Post by **Foxwarrior** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 1:08 am

Somewhere (it might have been an Ig Nobel Prize) I read a claim that the feeling of wanting to do something that you obviously would not enjoy doing exists to keep you thinking about it so you don't do it on accident.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 1:14 am

Yeah, no urge to leap to my death here. Some flights of stairs, when it's "ten or so stairs, then a square platform, then a right-angle turn and another set of stairs" I'll just jump from platform to platform like I were a fat plumber or a blue hedgehog, but that's about the extent of it. And there's still the desire to slide down the balustrade of course.

Sigil · Post by **Sigil** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 2:55 am

It's common enough that the French have a phrase for it "L’appel du vide" or "The Call of the Void"

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 7:01 am

I have never felt the urge to attempt clearly lethal jumps before, but I regularly feel the urge to attempt jumps that are much more dangerous than is sensible to attempt. For example, just today I was on a balcony, wanted to get down a floor in a hurry, and my first impulse was to jump ~20 feet to the ground. Naturally my common sense won out and I spent the extra forty seconds to take the stairs, but this kind of thing happens to me a lot.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 9:18 am

It's a known issue in me that I tend to fall asleep during movies, specifically movies in dark rooms, such as theatres. I went to see Riddick today and noticed that my eyelids closing tended to coincide with light flashes, such as blasters, quickly moving lightsticks, etc.

Now, it's entirely possible, even plausible, that I just have really shitty sleep habits, and fall asleep in dark rooms because I'm usually running slightly sleep deprived. But is something like "strobe induced narcolepsy" a thing? Is it possible that bright flashes in movies are at least a contributing factor?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:18 am

it's also possible that you just have sensible eyes and sudden flashes of light in a dark room cause them to close because it's too much all of a sudden?

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 7:11 pm

What Stahlseele said. Your pupils dilate in the dark so that you can continue to see in low-light conditions. When lights flash in the dark (for whatever reason), your pupils can't react quickly enough to shrink and thus not be overwhelmed by the brightness... Kind of like turning on a light while wearing night-vision goggles. Because it's so bloody bright, you close your eyes.

Now, if you find yourself tending to keep your eyes shut once they've closed, I'd say you have a problem. And if you know that you just don't get enough sleep, then that seems to be a good starting place to look for a solution.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:52 pm

What sort of gaming laptop would you get if you weren't paying for it?

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:10 pm

Orion wrote:What sort of gaming laptop would you get if you weren't paying for it?

Is "get a desktop and a tablet instead" an option?

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:30 pm

Sort of. I don't actually have anywhere to put a desktop at the moment. But I could get the tablet now and do without a gaming rig until I move.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:27 pm

do you have a big newish TV?
get a good gaming rig, fuck a screen, get a long HDMI cable, have fun using wireless mouse and keyboard.
for working this is sub optimal though, because the writing is tiny <.<

if going for a laptop, it really depends on how mobile you are.
do you have a car? then get an 18.6" monstrosity that weights in at 5 kilos.
if you do not have a car? need to think smaller and lighter then.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:40 am

Orion wrote:What sort of gaming laptop would you get if you weren't paying for it?

If you're not paying for it, Dell Alienware is pretty damn good. They're specifically designed to be gaming machines, they're quite powerful, but you have to pay a bit of extra money (for the components and for the flashy "making it look cool" factor). You don't need anything like that, but if money is not an issue, you may as well.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:12 am

I was reading some science fiction, and this came up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

Are there any other equivalent seed vaults on earth? I'm looking for something resilient enough to withstand major natural disasters or war fallout.

Could somebody get away with submitting unidentified seed species to the Svalbard vault specifically? Say, a corporation wanting to back-up a new genetically engineered species?

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:32 am

There are a fair few. The idea is that there are enough seed vaults that even if one is destroyed, the rest make up for it. Wikipedia says

There are about 6 million accessions, or samples of a particular population, stored as seeds in about 1,300 genebanks throughout the world as of 2006.

IME biologists are pretty conservative about what they accept to facilities like these. You'd be hard pressed to get them to accept an unknown specimen, but you'd probably be able to get away with mislabelling something. You'd be better off making it an inside job. TBH, why would you bother, when it would be easier and safer to hire a bunch of climate controlled rooms throughout the world (even through dummy corps if you require anonymity) and leave your "backups" there.

In a future of genetic modification, it makes even less sense as what you really want to back up is the data of the modifications made, which can then be redone on the original plant.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 4:02 am

Where would the best place be for the soul to be found in a body?

I'm not asking from a religious perspective of actually believing in souls, I'm saying "if someone were writing some fiction and souls actually existed as actual physical things you could poke or eat, what part of the body would you need to cut open?"

Obvious choices seem to be the heart and brain, but has there been some religion or off-shoot or pseudoscientific study that posited it was in the pancreas or something? Do any of the doctors, biologists, chemists etc. here have an idea that "logically, x part of the human body seems to produce the kinds of chemicals that lead to people making conscience-based decisions, therefore that should be it" or "X is not needed in the human body, it no longer does anything, so put it in that"?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:22 am

http://www.livescience.com/19185-soul-eyes.html

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:58 am

Eyes are the best idea ever. Everything about it is amazing. There are tons of little spiritual/semi-spiritual sayings you can twist into setting elements ("eyes are the window to the soul," "if your eye offends you, pluck it out," "see no evil do no evil"). Plus, you get to add sfx to interesting people's/creature's eyeballs. A paladin's eyes burn with actual fiery justice. Necromancers have gaunt, sunken eyes and age terribly because their eyes leak negative energy into their face, and if you aren't sleeping well people start assuming you are up to no good or being possessed or something. Angel eyes are like high beams, and their head looks like a ball of light wearing a mask with eye holes. Demon eyes smoke and smolder or something generic. Mindless undead/liches/things that don't have a soul or keep their soul elsewhere... something something I don't know.

Trafficking in souls actually means trafficking in eyeballs. You don't use soulgems to hold souls, you use magically prepared eyeballs. When you make a deal with the devil, he wants what you've got in your eye sockets (or at least your eyesight). Big purchases in hell involve santa sacks full of squishy very much alive eyeballs.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:40 pm

soulless eyes are usually depicted/described as kinda colourless and empty and glassy.

hmm, wonder what this says about Odin, the Cyclops, Beholders?

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:18 pm

While eyes are somewhat traditional, I once toyed with the eyes of souls as a hive society set up in stem cells since that's pretty much where the growth of the human body happens.

Of course, this also brings up the idea that humans are not unique in that all (most?) multicellular organisms have stem cells. So, in essence, Dogs might be able to go to heaven.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:05 am

Eyes contain part of your brain, so it could technically be the brain that houses the soul, but eyes are the literal window to your brain. Soul trafficking could still be done with eyes since they are great containers for soul residue or just because eyes are altered by the soul's presence and produce more delicious soul juice than straight up brain soul.