Comments on: #31: Hive Overmind takes over

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 02:13:33 +0000

I´m more concerned about the end of the universe.

Well, I’m predicting one of the new fangled cyclic universe theories will eventually become the leading cosmological theory, so there’s hope there for you.

By: Michel

Michel — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:25:26 +0000

I´m more concerned about the end of the universe.
But that´s me. Always seeing the big picure.

By: Menyambal

Menyambal — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:15:14 +0000

“about how humanity might end and not the whole world”

Thank you for saying that, Phil. Many a time I have heard a discussion about the ending of humanity using the phrase “destroy the world”, and some yo-yo will kick in with something about how we cannot destroy the planet, as if that means that we cannot kill off ourselves, no matter how we try. We can easily kill off all of humanity,very easily and in many ways. And thinking that we couldn’t possibly is a damn good way to see that we do so, casually and almost accidentally.

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:21:51 +0000

@ quiet desperation:

#101 way the world will end: cats will kill us all in our sleep!

By: Michael Swanson

Michael Swanson — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:17:27 +0000

@ #3, Michael Swanson

I’m an idiot. If the time machine in is points A in space and time, and you get in at points X in space in time to back to A, then the machine will travel back in time to points A in SPACE and time. Duh.

By: Graeme S

Graeme S — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:17:50 +0000

Actually Phil, Corey’s technically correct about using the term “world”. The word “world” originally comes from the Old English compound “wer” (man) and “eld” (age), or “age of man”. While its meaning has been shifted to include referring to individual planets (including our own), it is still correct to say that the demise of the “world” need only refer to the demise of humanity.

WORDS

By: Pete Jackson

Pete Jackson — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:56:18 +0000

32. Drilling rig accidentally pulls the drain plug on the ocean floor, and all the oceans drain away! Counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

By: Tribeca Mike

Tribeca Mike — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:23:11 +0000

QuietDesperation — I don’t know how much energy would be needed to travel through time (though I suspect it’s a heap), but the massive volume of cute in that photo should easily do the trick.

Mmm, photographs are time traveling devices, aren’t they? By the by, have you ever read Vladimir Nabokov’s fantabulous novel “Ada”? It’s a veritable cornucopia of time traveling, and absolutely brilliant.

By: Orlando

Orlando — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:20:48 +0000

Off-Topic: Have you ever seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69qhKaaSJVI

Maybe this guy’s right!

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:14:32 +0000

Time travel discussions always omit motion.

Despite its faults, I give the TV show “Seven Days” credit for taking that into account. In fact, it was part of the reason they needed a human pilot for the time sphere.

So if you jump in a time machine for an hour, where the hell are you going to pop out? Certainly not on the corner of MLK and Broadway.

Perhaps, or maybe there’s some sort of temporal effect similar to frame dragging that keeps you in place relative to other masses.

That’s the great thing about time travel. It’s pure fantasy, so my rules are as good as yours or anyone else’s.

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:12:03 +0000

Geez, enough with the doom and gloom topics on the Intertoobers.

How about “20 Ways We Can Turn The World Around”?

Cripes, I’m a black-hearted, misanthropic hater of most of civilization, and *I’m* tired of all the misery topics.

Feh… Needs me some Cute.

Ah, better.

By: Michael Swanson

Michael Swanson — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:45:52 +0000

#24, Time travel. Time travel discussions always omit motion. We are moving on the surface of a rotating body, which moving around a sun, which is revolving around a galaxy, which is moving away from (most) other galaxies in space that is itself expanding. If you travel back in time even an hour, where do you travel to? My location of MLK and Broadway in Portland, Oregon has no special significance. But an expanding universe means that even what you would call the exact location of the time machine is meaningless. Locations in space are only relatively determined by their relationships to other locations and objects, all of which are moving. There is no absolute location.

So if you jump in a time machine for an hour, where the hell are you going to pop out? Certainly not on the corner of MLK and Broadway.

By: Tribeca Mike

Tribeca Mike — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:39:40 +0000

Good stuff. One thing’s for sure, we can’t outrun plate tectonics.

By: Joseph Smidt

Joseph Smidt — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:33:11 +0000

“Maybe we’ll wind up saving the world”

Let’s hope so Phil. I’m optimistic.