this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
646 points (96.4% liked)

Science Memes

10271 readers
2707 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (5 children)

But what if you're just imagining or dreaming that you're doubting..? How do you even know you are the thing that's doubting..? "You" could be a spurious Boltzmann brain, randomly manifested out of quantic chaos, in a state resembling that of a person doubting their own existence, for a mere Planck instant before dissolving back into the chaos from whence you emerged...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Guys stop. "Doubt" is starting to look funny

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Semantic satiation

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

In the grand scheme of things, a human lifespan is in the same ballpark as a Planck instant when considering an infinite universe. That doesn't mean either are insignificant in their own context though.

Time can be infinitely subdivided For all we know, billions of entire universes could be created and destroyed within ours in an instant. Our own universe could be as insignificant as an atom in some higher level universe. We can't know that. But what I do know, is that I exist in this moment, and that's enough for me.

Slightly related is the anthropic principle, or the "observation selection effect", which is nicely summarized by this analogy:

This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

  • Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

The takeaway I get from this is that it's important to appreciate the time we have, since everything comes to an end eventually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yes, all you know is that something exists. And for the sake of argument, we call that 'you'.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

I could be any of these things, but I would still be