Related
A bit of physics (quite heavy physics at that) has crept up recently in a few other threads, and there doesn't appear to be anywhere specifically created to discuss it.... UNTIL NOW!!
Anyway, I believe that physics and philosophy have a lot of mutual ground. I know that some will agree, and many, from both disciplines, will disagree. Unless I change my mind, though, this is the official place for physics and philosophy discussion.
Go...
Seems we've found quite a few people who have at least a passing interest in physics on here recently, which I think is great! I don't know much - just enough to have a reasonable conversation - but if I can learn more then this thread is definitely worth it!
It'd also be nice to hear other people's philosophical ideas. The more ideas we have, probably the closer to the truth we are!
Much as I love theology, I fear such discussions wouuld breach the rules.
So physics and philosophy is enough for me
xaccers said:
Much as I love theology, I fear such discussions wouuld breach the rules.
So physics and philosophy is enough for me
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That's a good point - I hadn't thought about that. I'm sure just open discussion wouldn't be a problem, but it could incite argument which would obviously be the reason for rules against such discussions.
Let us forget said theology discussions then. P&P FTW
Watched an excellent Horizon program on the Earth's core, much better than the one on chaos which always struck me as a cop out by mathematicians that we used to call margin of error that just happens to produce cool t-shirt designs.
Great idea for a thread tbh. Stops my ramblings overflowing into other threads...and as you may have noticed i have quite a bit to say on the matter!
Always interested to hear what others have to say on the subject too.
DirkGently1 said:
I won't tell you how to complile C++, as i know less than nothing about it, but if you challenge the laws of Physics you had better come prepared!
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Up is down. Black is white
Although, admittedly, there is an argument for black is white.
I wish they taught Ohm's and Watt's laws in schools (especially Slovakian ones) *sigh*
xaccers said:
Much as I love theology, I fear such discussions wouuld breach the rules.
So physics and philosophy is enough for me
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johncmolyneux said:
That's a good point - I hadn't thought about that. I'm sure just open discussion wouldn't be a problem, but it could incite argument which would obviously be the reason for rules against such discussions.
Let us forget said theology discussions then. P&P FTW
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Keeping the thread free of problematic content shouldn't be an issue with your friendly neighbourhood moderator lurking in the background....
xaccers said:
I wish they taught Ohm's and Watt's laws in schools (especially Slovakian ones) *sigh*
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They did at mine....
Sadly though, I dont believe they even teach basic numeracy these days based on some they little buggers I have to suffer on a daily basis...
Okay, so I guess I'll kick off the physics, which surely will segue into the philosiphy part eventually.
What's everyone's thoughts on multiverse theories, concepts of infinite parallel universes as related to m-brane/string theory and such.
If there is the possibility of an infinite number of universes, then all possible combinations of all possible details must/should exist, thereby possibly diminishing our own 'uniqueness' a bit? How likely is the existence of parallel universes? Which theory is the soundest?
A good book to learn about most of the most credible multiverse theories is 'The Hidden Reality' by Brian Greene. He also has a pretty excellent book called 'The Elegant Universe' for anyone interested in a good read about theoretical/quantum physics. I'm a bit of an amateur physics nerd lol. (kinda a common trait of those with Aspergers syndrome)
Let the discussions begin!!
I think the string theory is good on paper but I am little skeptical about it being practical.
Though it solves some complex question about universe, I don't think we have a parallel universe.
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4silvertooth said:
I think the string theory is good on paper but I am little skeptical about it being practical.
Though it solves some complex question about universe, I don't think we have a parallel universe.
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Under certain theories, other universes don't even have to exist outside of the one we inhabit. If our universe is truly infinite (not really that likely tbh) then there are an infinite number of areas of this universe that are too far from one another to ever be affected by other areas (not even light ever reaching each other due to expansion of space itsself) so by that line of thinking, each of these 'separated areas' could be considered like their own 'bubble universe' and an infinite number of these would generate every possible combination of all possible details.
As far as whether string/m-theory are believable or likely to be correct, they are definitely not directly proveable or disproveable due to limitations of current technology to test on such small scales, but much of the substance of theories is indirectly confirmed through process of elimination with already hard-proven science.
I loved my Physics class when I was in high school, but that's about it. Nothing really special can be taught for a year and now I'm looking forward for my Physics class in college.
huggs said:
Okay, so I guess I'll kick off the physics, which surely will segue into the philosiphy part eventually.
What's everyone's thoughts on multiverse theories, concepts of infinite parallel universes as related to m-brane/string theory and such.
If there is the possibility of an infinite number of universes, then all possible combinations of all possible details must/should exist, thereby possibly diminishing our own 'uniqueness' a bit? How likely is the existence of parallel universes? Which theory is the soundest?
A good book to learn about most of the most credible multiverse theories is 'The Hidden Reality' by Brian Greene. He also has a pretty excellent book called 'The Elegant Universe' for anyone interested in a good read about theoretical/quantum physics. I'm a bit of an amateur physics nerd lol. (kinda a common trait of those with Aspergers syndrome)
Let the discussions begin!!
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There's lot's of us about it would seem. We tend to gravitate to the same interests. (Pardon the pun)
I'm not a big fan of String Theory and multiverses, but i am interested in what it has to say about the possibilities of hidden dimensions that we don't know about yet. Perhaps this line of research will answer some questions about the mystery of how gravity is so weak compared to the other forces?
Researchers that favour MOND as a possible answer to the bigger mysteries of our time, had a setback this week:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/09/relativity-and-dark-matter-survive-a-redshif-test.ars
I'd kinda hoped that something would come of MOND. The idea that gravity may not be constant was a nice way of explaining away the discrepancies of the missing Mass in the Universe, rather that having to look for Dark Matter as a solution.
And then there's Dark Energy to explain away and the expansion of the Universe. What is Dark Energy and how is it driving the continued acceleration?
From what I've read, empty space has small amounts of energy, known as Quantum Jitters, where if you look at empty space on a small enough scale, the structure of space itsself would break down to a constantly moving 'foam'. I can only imagine that these small amounts of energy when all added up, since the universe is so huge, would add up to a pretty sizeable amount of energy, just it's so spread out it's pretty much undetectable. If empty space is full of energy, then why wouldn't it expand on its own?
These tiny jitters are what caused matter to group up together in the first place after the BB, if not for them, the universe would have remained evenly dipersed matter, no stars would have formed to create all the different elements, and space would be dark by now. I would find it to be believeable that even those tiny jitters when added up would be enough to fuel or at least contribute to expansion, and the increasing distance between matter would account for accelleration, right?
I'm probably wrong, but that's kinda how I've always thought of it
huggs said:
Under certain theories, other universes don't even have to exist outside of the one we inhabit. If our universe is truly infinite (not really that likely tbh) then there are an infinite number of areas of this universe that are too far from one another to ever be affected by other areas.
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I'll just prove the universe is infinite no matter what.
Consider the universe you know finite or infinite to be a dot on a paper that paper is on a table that table in a room in a house in a street in city... country...earth.. universe now consider all that being a dot on paper on table and list goes on, so in simple thinking universe is infinite.
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Universe is infinite because we can't prove the finite boundaries. Hence, it is observably infinite because we can't observe the finite. Hypotheses rationality.
sakai4eva said:
Universe is infinite because we can't prove the finite boundaries. Hence, it is observably infinite because we can't observe the finite. Hypotheses rationality.
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There's a difference between what we can prove and what is true. Not being able to prove that the universe is finite has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not it is. We just make assumptions, due to not being able to use facts, and that's where a lot of fail science comes from.
johncmolyneux said:
There's a difference between what we can prove and what is true. Not being able to prove that the universe is finite has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not it is. We just make assumptions, due to not being able to use facts, and that's where a lot of fail science comes from.
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Although good science will list the assumptions and perform experiments to test them.
xaccers said:
Although good science will list the assumptions and perform experiments to test them.
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Absolutely, but science based on assumptions... isn't that an oxymoron? There's a lot of "theoretical" science out there, and you may as well just put a Star Trek sticker on it for all the validity it holds.
*Warning!* Contains content that you may not agree with!
I was going through my hard drive and found this cached from Gizmodo, about a year ago. Mature responses only, please! And remember, you can talk to people about your worries, you really can.
Bill Zeller * 2011
I have the urge to declare my sanity and justify my actions, but I assume I'll never be able to convince anyone that this was the right decision. Maybe it's true that anyone who does this is insane by definition, but I can at least explain my reasoning. I considered not writing any of this because of how personal it is, but I like tying up loose ends and don't want people to wonder why I did this. Since I've never spoken to anyone about what happened to me, people would likely draw the wrong conclusions.
My first memories as a child are of being raped, repeatedly. This has affected every aspect of my life. This darkness, which is the only way I can describe it, has followed me like a fog, but at times intensified and overwhelmed me, usually triggered by a distinct situation. In kindergarten I couldn't use the bathroom and would stand petrified whenever I needed to, which started a trend of awkward and unexplained social behavior. The damage that was done to my body still prevents me from using the bathroom normally, but now it's less of a physical impediment than a daily reminder of what was done to me.
This darkness followed me as I grew up. I remember spending hours playing with legos, having my world consist of me and a box of cold, plastic blocks. Just waiting for everything to end. It's the same thing I do now, but instead of legos it's surfing the web or reading or listening to a baseball game. Most of my life has been spent feeling dead inside, waiting for my body to catch up.
At times growing up I would feel inconsolable rage, but I never connected this to what happened until puberty. I was able to keep the darkness at bay for a few hours at a time by doing things that required intense concentration, but it would always come back. Programming appealed to me for this reason. I was never particularly fond of computers or mathematically inclined, but the temporary peace it would provide was like a drug. But the darkness always returned and built up something like a tolerance, because programming has become less and less of a refuge.
The darkness is with me nearly every time I wake up. I feel like a grime is covering me. I feel like I'm trapped in a contimated body that no amount of washing will clean. Whenever I think about what happened I feel manic and itchy and can't concentrate on anything else. It manifests itself in hours of eating or staying up for days at a time or sleeping for sixteen hours straight or week long programming binges or constantly going to the gym. I'm exhausted from feeling like this every hour of every day.
Three to four nights a week I have nightmares about what happened. It makes me avoid sleep and constantly tired, because sleeping with what feels like hours of nightmares is not restful. I wake up sweaty and furious. I'm reminded every morning of what was done to me and the control it has over my life.
I've never been able to stop thinking about what happened to me and this hampered my social interactions. I would be angry and lost in thought and then be interrupted by someone saying "Hi" or making small talk, unable to understand why I seemed cold and distant. I walked around, viewing the outside world from a distant portal behind my eyes, unable to perform normal human niceties. I wondered what it would be like to take to other people without what happened constantly on my mind, and I wondered if other people had similar experiences that they were better able to mask.
Alcohol was also something that let me escape the darkness. It would always find me later, though, and it was always angry that I managed to escape and it made me pay. Many of the irresponsible things I did were the result of the darkness. Obviously I'm responsible for every decision and action, including this one, but there are reasons why things happen the way they do.
Alcohol and other drugs provided a way to ignore the realities of my situation. It was easy to spend the night drinking and forget that I had no future to look forward to. I never liked what alcohol did to me, but it was better than facing my existence honestly. I haven't touched alcohol or any other drug in over seven months (and no drugs or alcohol will be involved when I do this) and this has forced me to evaluate my life in an honest and clear way. There's no future here. The darkness will always be with me.
I used to think if I solved some problem or achieved some goal, maybe he would leave. It was comforting to identify tangible issues as the source of my problems instead of something that I'll never be able to change. I thought that if I got into to a good college, or a good grad school, or lost weight, or went to the gym nearly every day for a year, or created programs that millions of people used, or spent a summer or California or New York or published papers that I was proud of, then maybe I would feel some peace and not be constantly haunted and unhappy. But nothing I did made a dent in how depressed I was on a daily basis and nothing was in any way fulfilling. I'm not sure why I ever thought that would change anything.
I didn't realize how deep a hold he had on me and my life until my first relationship. I stupidly assumed that no matter how the darkness affected me personally, my romantic relationships would somehow be separated and protected. Growing up I viewed my future relationships as a possible escape from this thing that haunts me every day, but I began to realize how entangled it was with every aspect of my life and how it is never going to release me. Instead of being an escape, relationships and romantic contact with other people only intensified everything about him that I couldn't stand. I will never be able to have a relationship in which he is not the focus, affecting every aspect of my romantic interactions.
Relationships always started out fine and I'd be able to ignore him for a few weeks. But as we got closer emotionally the darkness would return and every night it'd be me, her and the darkness in a black and gruesome threesome. He would surround me and penetrate me and the more we did the more intense it became. It made me hate being touched, because as long as we were separated I could view her like an outsider viewing something good and kind and untainted. Once we touched, the darkness would envelope her too and take her over and the evil inside me would surround her. I always felt like I was infecting anyone I was with.
Relationships didn't work. No one I dated was the right match, and I thought that maybe if I found the right person it would overwhelm him. Part of me knew that finding the right person wouldn't help, so I became interested in girls who obviously had no interest in me. For a while I thought I was gay. I convinced myself that it wasn't the darkness at all, but rather my orientation, because this would give me control over why things didn't feel "right". The fact that the darkness affected sexual matters most intensely made this idea make some sense and I convinced myself of this for a number of years, starting in college after my first relationship ended. I told people I was gay (at Trinity, not at Princeton), even though I wasn't attracted to men and kept finding myself interested in girls. Because if being gay wasn't the answer, then what was? People thought I was avoiding my orientation, but I was actually avoiding the truth, which is that while I'm straight, I will never be content with anyone. I know now that the darkness will never leave.
Last spring I met someone who was unlike anyone else I'd ever met. Someone who showed me just how well two people could get along and how much I could care about another human being. Someone I know I could be with and love for the rest of my life, if I weren't so ****ed up. Amazingly, she liked me. She liked the shell of the man the darkness had left behind. But it didn't matter because I couldn't be alone with her. It was never just the two of us, it was always the three of us: her, me and the darkness. The closer we got, the more intensely I'd feel the darkness, like some evil mirror of my emotions. All the closeness we had and I loved was complemented by agony that I couldn't stand, from him. I realized that I would never be able to give her, or anyone, all of me or only me. She could never have me without the darkness and evil inside me. I could never have just her, without the darkness being a part of all of our interactions. I will never be able to be at peace or content or in a healthy relationship. I realized the futility of the romantic part of my life. If I had never met her, I would have realized this as soon as I met someone else who I meshed similarly well with. It's likely that things wouldn't have worked out with her and we would have broken up (with our relationship ending, like the majority of relationships do) even if I didn't have this problem, since we only dated for a short time. But I will face exactly the same problems with the darkness with anyone else. Despite my hopes, love and compatability is not enough. Nothing is enough. There's no way I can fix this or even push the darkness down far enough to make a relationship or any type of intimacy feasible.
So I watched as things fell apart between us. I had put an explicit time limit on our relationship, since I knew it couldn't last because of the darkness and didn't want to hold her back, and this caused a variety of problems. She was put in an unnatural situation that she never should have been a part of. It must have been very hard for her, not knowing what was actually going on with me, but this is not something I've ever been able to talk about with anyone. Losing her was very hard for me as well. Not because of her (I got over our relationship relatively quickly), but because of the realization that I would never have another relationship and because it signified the last true, exclusive personal connection I could ever have. This wasn't apparent to other people, because I could never talk about the real reasons for my sadness. I was very sad in the summer and fall, but it was not because of her, it was because I will never escape the darkness with anyone. She was so loving and kind to me and gave me everything I could have asked for under the circumstances. I'll never forget how much happiness she brought me in those briefs moments when I could ignore the darkness. I had originally planned to kill myself last winter but never got around to it. (Parts of this letter were written over a year ago, other parts days before doing this.) It was wrong of me to involve myself in her life if this were a possibility and I should have just left her alone, even though we only dated for a few months and things ended a long time ago. She's just one more person in a long list of people I've hurt.
I could spend pages talking about the other relationships I've had that were ruined because of my problems and my confusion related to the darkness. I've hurt so many great people because of who I am and my inability to experience what needs to be experienced. All I can say is that I tried to be honest with people about what I thought was true.
I've spent my life hurting people. Today will be the last time.
I've told different people a lot of things, but I've never told anyone about what happened to me, ever, for obvious reasons. It took me a while to realize that no matter how close you are to someone or how much they claim to love you, people simply cannot keep secrets. I learned this a few years ago when I thought I was gay and told people. The more harmful the secret, the juicier the gossip and the more likely you are to be betrayed. People don't care about their word or what they've promised, they just do whatever the **** they want and justify it later. It feels incredibly lonely to realize you can never share something with someone and have it be between just the two of you. I don't blame anyone in particular, I guess it's just how people are. Even if I felt like this is something I could have shared, I have no interest in being part of a friendship or relationship where the other person views me as the damaged and contaminated person that I am. So even if I were able to trust someone, I probably would not have told them about what happened to me. At this point I simply don't care who knows.
I feel an evil inside me. An evil that makes me want to end life. I need to stop this. I need to make sure I don't kill someone, which is not something that can be easily undone. I don't know if this is related to what happened to me or something different. I recognize the irony of killing myself to prevent myself from killing someone else, but this decision should indicate what I'm capable of.
So I've realized I will never escape the darkness or misery associated with it and I have a responsibility to stop myself from physically harming others.
I'm just a broken, miserable shell of a human being. Being molested has defined me as a person and shaped me as a human being and it has made me the monster I am and there's nothing I can do to escape it. I don't know any other existence. I don't know what life feels like where I'm apart from any of this. I actively despise the person I am. I just feel fundamentally broken, almost non-human. I feel like an animal that woke up one day in a human body, trying to make sense of a foreign world, living among creatures it doesn't understand and can't connect with.
I have accepted that the darkness will never allow me to be in a relationship. I will never go to sleep with someone in my arms, feeling the comfort of their hands around me. I will never know what uncontimated intimacy is like. I will never have an exclusive bond with someone, someone who can be the recipient of all the love I have to give. I will never have children, and I wanted to be a father so badly. I think I would have made a good dad. And even if I had fought through the darkness and married and had children all while being unable to feel intimacy, I could have never done that if suicide were a possibility. I did try to minimize pain, although I know that this decision will hurt many of you. If this hurts you, I hope that you can at least forget about me quickly.
There's no point in identifying who molested me, so I'm just going to leave it at that. I doubt the word of a dead guy with no evidence about something that happened over twenty years ago would have much sway.
You may wonder why I didn't just talk to a professional about this. I've seen a number of doctors since I was a teenager to talk about other issues and I'm positive that another doctor would not have helped. I was never given one piece of actionable advice, ever. More than a few spent a large part of the session reading their notes to remember who I was. And I have no interest in talking about being raped as a child, both because I know it wouldn't help and because I have no confidence it would remain secret. I know the legal and practical limits of doctor/patient confidentiality, growing up in a house where we'd hear stories about the various mental illnesses of famous people, stories that were passed down through generations. All it takes is one doctor who thinks my story is interesting enough to share or a doctor who thinks it's her right or responsibility to contact the authorities and have me identify the molestor (justifying her decision by telling herself that someone else might be in danger). All it takes is a single doctor who violates my trust, just like the "friends" who I told I was gay did, and everything would be made public and I'd be forced to live in a world where people would know how ****ed up I am. And yes, I realize this indicates that I have severe trust issues, but they're based on a large number of experiences with people who have shown a profound disrepect for their word and the privacy of others.
People say suicide is selfish. I think it's selfish to ask people to continue living painful and miserable lives, just so you possibly won't feel sad for a week or two. Suicide may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but it's also a permanent solution to a ~23 year-old problem that grows more intense and overwhelming every day.
Some people are just dealt bad hands in this life. I know many people have it worse than I do, and maybe I'm just not a strong person, but I really did try to deal with this. I've tried to deal with this every day for the last 23 years and I just can't ****ing take it anymore.
I often wonder what life must be like for other people. People who can feel the love from others and give it back unadulterated, people who can experience sex as an intimate and joyous experience, people who can experience the colors and happenings of this world without constant misery. I wonder who I'd be if things had been different or if I were a stronger person. It sounds pretty great.
I'm prepared for death. I'm prepared for the pain and I am ready to no longer exist. Thanks to the strictness of New Jersey gun laws this will probably be much more painful than it needs to be, but what can you do. My only fear at this point is messing something up and surviving.
—-
I'd also like to address my family, if you can call them that. I despise everything they stand for and I truly hate them, in a non-emotional, dispassionate and what I believe is a healthy way. The world will be a better place when they're dead—one with less hatred and intolerance.
If you're unfamiliar with the situation, my parents are fundamentalist Christians who kicked me out of their house and cut me off financially when I was 19 because I refused to attend seven hours of church a week.
They live in a black and white reality they've constructed for themselves. They partition the world into good and evil and survive by hating everything they fear or misunderstand and calling it love. They don't understand that good and decent people exist all around us, "saved" or not, and that evil and cruel people occupy a large percentage of their church. They take advantage of people looking for hope by teaching them to practice the same hatred they practice.
A random example:
"I am personally convinced that if a Muslim truly believes and obeys the Koran, he will be a terrorist." - George Zeller, August 24, 2010.
If you choose to follow a religion where, for example, devout Catholics who are trying to be good people are all going to Hell but child molestors go to Heaven (as long as they were "saved" at some point), that's your choice, but it's ****ed up. Maybe a God who operates by those rules does exist. If so, **** Him.
Their church was always more important than the members of their family and they happily sacrificed whatever necessary in order to satisfy their contrived beliefs about who they should be.
I grew up in a house where love was proxied through a God I could never believe in. A house where the love of music with any sort of a beat was literally beaten out of me. A house full of hatred and intolerance, run by two people who were experts at appearing kind and warm when others were around. Parents who tell an eight year old that his grandmother is going to Hell because she's Catholic. Parents who claim not to be racist but then talk about the horrors of miscegenation. I could list hundreds of other examples, but it's tiring.
Since being kicked out, I've interacted with them in relatively normal ways. I talk to them on the phone like nothing happened. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I like pretending I have a family. Maybe I like having people I can talk to about what's been going on in my life. Whatever the reason, it's not real and it feels like a sham. I should have never allowed this reconnection to happen.
I wrote the above a while ago, and I do feel like that much of the time. At other times, though, I feel less hateful. I know my parents honestly believe the crap they believe in. I know that my mom, at least, loved me very much and tried her best. One reason I put this off for so long is because I know how much pain it will cause her. She has been sad since she found out I wasn't "saved", since she believes I'm going to Hell, which is not a sadness for which I am responsible. That was never going to change, and presumably she believes the state of my physical body is much less important than the state of my soul. Still, I cannot intellectually justify this decision, knowing how much it will hurt her. Maybe my ability to take my own life, knowing how much pain it will cause, shows that I am a monster who doesn't deserve to live. All I know is that I can't deal with this pain any longer and I'm am truly sorry I couldn't wait until my family and everyone I knew died so this could be done without hurting anyone. For years I've wished that I'd be hit by a bus or die while saving a baby from drowning so my death might be more acceptable, but I was never so lucky.
—-
To those of you who have shown me love, thank you for putting up with all my ****tiness and moodiness and arbitrariness. I was never the person I wanted to be. Maybe without the darkness I would have been a better person, maybe not. I did try to be a good person, but I realize I never got very far.
I'm sorry for the pain this causes. I really do wish I had another option. I hope this letter explains why I needed to do this. If you can't understand this decision, I hope you can at least forgive me.
Bill Zeller
—-
Please save this letter and repost it if gets deleted. I don't want people to wonder why I did this. I disseminated it more widely than I might have otherwise because I'm worried that my family might try to restrict access to it. I don't mind if this letter is made public. In fact, I'd prefer it be made public to people being unable to read it and drawing their own conclusions.
Feel free to republish this letter, but only if it is reproduced in its entirety.
that's depressing, but it puts things in perspective. I read it all.
thanks.
--sent from my glacier.
Horrible that he got so constantly downed by his family and those around him that he never felt he could trust anyone enough to open up and tell what happened to him. I don 't know that he could have been helped because what he went through had to have been scarring beyond belief, but at least he may have had a chance.
At least the work he did left a positive impact on the world for a lot of people.
Is there a TL;DR version?
jaszek said:
Is there a TL;DR version?
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Skim it. Only version available, sorry.
Sent from my HTC Intruder
Bump. Definitely something worth reading.
This man needed Jesus so badly. It's heartbreaking to hear of things like this.
Since this is off-topic I was just thinking to come up with this subject. I know plenty of people who I consider good-looking but I'm curious what their day-to-day life is like compared to average-looking people. I consider myself average, though I've been called ugly and beautiful throughout my life. I don't really care about that stuff. I just want to be myself (even though in certain situations it seems pretty difficult for me). Not everybody will like me and I think I shouldn't even make myself likeable to everybody. I'd rather be considered average-looking and be happy in my own skin and know that I am healthy than be considered attractive by most people and be getting a lot of negative thoughts/things (like accidents, conflicts, murder) because of the competition inbetween same-sexes. I don't want that to happen to anyone. I'm just sayin'.
What do you think?
Well I'm happy and up myself, also have a healthy diet and am extremely skinny, though I eat tonnes. I'm also very nieve when it comes to bad things in the world and I don't think deeply about the world.
That's my story and I consider myself very happy. Don't know if its relevant though.
In my experience what you look like has nothing to do with how you interpret your time here. The two are mutually exclusive. If you're extremely good looking then it may open some doors for you, both figuratively and literally, but it will not change the core of who you are. That only changes with your own life experiences and cannot be guided or altered by single factors, like "beauty".
Alternatively, if you're extremely bad looking then you may have what others would consider a more difficult life. It all depends on what you think life is, and how you live it. If you spend your life looking for love and companionship, then being extremely attractive or extremely unattractive will probably stop that happening. However, you're more likely better off ugly in that case, as if you do find companionship with someone then you'll know without doubt that they love you for who you are. If you're very attractive then you'll most likely never find the good people in the sea of suitors that are only interested in what you look like, and not who you are.
In all honesty I'd say you have more chance of true happiness if you're simply average. You're more like the majority of people, and you're less likely to be either used or abused because of how you look.
Life is easier for good looking people. That's a simple fact. They're more likely to be hired, get a raise, find companionship and people treat them better and are more likely to help them. There's millions of research papers on this. Even to the point where women wearing high heels are more successful at getting people to listen to a charity speech on the street compared to women wearing flat shoes.
But because everything comes easier to them, they're also usually a lot less pleasant to be around.
If social interaction and companionship is important to you, then yes, being good looking makes you happier. Good looking people have more friends, people want to spend more time with them and they have less difficulty finding partners. Because people are horribly superficial. In theory relationships are based on enjoying eachother's company, but 90% of the time people will pick someone pretty over someone whose personality they like.
Personally I really don't care what others think of how I look. I'm average with a not-so-average hair colour. But as someone who's job hunting I have noticed they always hire the pretty ones over everyone else.
Since when off-topic became a place for very deep discussion?
ironman38102 said:
Since when off-topic became a place for very deep discussion?
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It's the holiday season. People always get melancholy when this time of year comes around.
ShadowLea said:
If social interaction and companionship is important to you, then yes, being good looking makes you happier. Good looking people have more friends, people want to spend more time with them and they have less difficulty finding partners. Because people are horribly superficial. In theory relationships are based on enjoying eachother's company, but 90% of the time people will pick someone pretty over someone whose personality they like.
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I would like to politely disagree to everything stated in the quoted paragraph.
While having a hot girlfriend seems great for a little while, long term people are more likely to stay is a committed relationship if they choose a partner they feel a bond with, brains rather than beauty etc.
Also, lasting friendships are more likely to be made with people based on interests or other bonds, rather than looks.
So it comes down to while people may choose beauty over brains these relationships (friend or intimate) are generally shorter than those not.
Jesse72 said:
I would like to politely disagree to everything stated in the quoted paragraph.
While having a hot girlfriend seems great for a little while, long term people are more likely to stay is a committed relationship if they choose a partner they feel a bond with, brains rather than beauty etc.
Also, lasting friendships are more likely to be made with people based on interests or other bonds, rather than looks.
So it comes down to while people may choose beauty over brains these relationships (friend or intimate) are generally shorter than those not.
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You're free to disagree.
Sadly humans are a lot less decent than you believe them to be.
If people cared more for connection than looks, there wouldn't be so many affairs, cheaters and mistresses.
And even more regrettable is the fact that this this part of the teason humanity made it to the top of the foodchain. Partnering based on looks is as old as humanity itself.
I have seen millions of marriages fall apart because the woman stopped looking like she was 25. In the less modern cultures in the Middle East men take girls of 15 years old as their partners because their faith decides they should. And when the girl's breasts start to sag, they take another. And another. You can't tell me a 60 year old man forcing a 15 year old girl into a marriage (and consequentially sex) has anything to do with long term, brains or connections.
It is human nature for women to crave a long lasting connection (due to children requiring a lifetime connection), and for men to spread out their seed as much as possible to ensure the largest change of passing on their genes.
And by evolutionary reasoning, pretty people have better genes.
Modern society may wear a mask of 'decency' to hide that instinct, but it is still very much an active factor.
Do I sound cold, distant and possibly arrogant? Probably. I am both aromantic and asexual. That allows me to see humanity without the lies people tell themselves to feel like they're not sex-obsessed animals who learned to talk. Does that make me a freak? Many will certainly think exactly that right now.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2
ShadowLea said:
You're free to disagree.
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Thanks. Cause I still do. You may believe that humanity is full of liars, cheaters, and people who value beauty over brains, but once you remove media (which is always so pessimistic) out of the equation and just look at the real world, I believe the percentage of people valuing beauty over brains is actually quite small compared to the opposite.
Maybe I just live in a more positive community, but I generally find many more people who value brains, head over heart etc.
Feel free to continue disagreeing though. I'm interested in others opinions also.
j0k3rz said:
in my opinion, happiness is completely relative. you're only as good looking as you perceive yourself to be, and you only allow it to affect your happiness as much as you want it to. therefore, no probably not.
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Great point! Me being up myself makes me happy. I can believe I'm really good looking but to be honest I'm probably average.
Well I see really interesting discussion over here. Back to topic. I have been considering myself as a average-bad looking person. Lately my psychologist showed me another point of view. Then I realised rather than being bad-avreage looking person I am good looking person. I started to pay much more attention to what people say about my appearance and I realised that people really consider me as a really good looking person. I must admit that realising that I am good looking person made my life happier. Sorry for some mistakes English is not my primary language
i think it has to do with self-confidence and recognizing ones good looks, at least in regard to the subjective opinion of the society.
People may say "It has nothing to do with looks".
I disagree.
Looks do play a part, though it is not everything.
I would say Im good looking. It has some advantages like average people tend to hang out with good looking and popular people.
Key sentence:
Good looks give you a start. Where you go from there depends on who you are.
BUT. Let me also add. If you are a Female. Good looks makes everything very very different.
Good looks for guys is not a big deal. Popularity,machoness, over confidence etc matters. Im good looking, yet a shy guy. Let me tell you life aint too good for me.
Hey everyone! I have an assignment about the topic of the ethics of dissecting animals in high school science class. I have a survey that asks about one's opinion on this topic. I thought it would be interesting to see what XDA members think about dissection in high schools so I would greatly appreciate it if you guys took a few minutes to fill out my survey on Google Forms. It would also be quite cool to hear about your experiences with dissection while you were in high school so feel free to start a conversation about that in this thread. Thanks everyone!
Here's the link to the survey: http://goo.gl/forms/xU2gjBTaQi
Over here animals used in labs for the purpose of education and study are never killed for that purpose. They're all roadkill, natural causes, diseased, etc. (This is in Western Europe, the law does not allow the killing of animals for laboratory pruposes.)
By dissecting an animal, people learn that animals are living creatures made of the same parts as themselves. That is a very important lesson, because the idea of humans being 'more' than animals, either special or better or 'god's favourite', is what leads to animal cruelty.
I always found it highly educational. Except the one time with the tarantula. I bloody hate spiders, dead or alive.
It also gives kids a stomach for blood, a great little reality check, a slap in the face about mortality, and it never fails to leave a lasting impression. Given the attitude of high school kids, that's a knock off their high horse they sorely need. If they cry and vomit, all the better. Life isn't pretty, welcome to the real world.
(A good friend of mine is a medical examiner, I sometimes help out as her assistant when they're short on staff, since I have had basic medical training. It's one of the reason why I do not care for someone's skin colour; I've seen up close that all humans look exactly the same inside their skin and when they're dead.)
I think dissection is fine, and is helpful if the dissector can handle the gore.
I grew up on a farm where we grew angus cattle, and lived off the meat we got from them. I was around during all the process, from the cow being shot, to the final cuts of meat being done. We also sometimes got a pet pig with the full intention of growing it out to eat.
When we started doing dissection I had no problem doing it, though I had a close friend who would stand in the corner, due to him not being able to stomach the gore. I always found dissection interesting, and it helped enforce the knowledge I had learned beforehand, however it was no use at all to the people who couldn't handle the gore.
ShadowLea said:
It also gives kids a stomach for blood, a great little reality check, a slap in the face about mortality, and it never fails to leave a lasting impression. Given the attitude of high school kids, that's a knock off their high horse they sorely need. If they cry and vomit, all the better. Life isn't pretty, welcome to the real world.
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I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT ANY BETTER MYSELF. However I believe more needs to be done at younger ages to ease them into things like this, if you only get shown the gore etc in one full hit when your older, your more likely to be completely against it.
Overall people should be less sensitive, and dissection is good for learning
Will AI(Artificial Intelligence)eventually take all jobs that are currently done by humans or will it create more jobs for people
I am not talking about A.I as it is today or but in the future lets say 2030 - 2060
Or humans will be able to adapt to AI and find new sorts of work in an emerging industry (which doesn't really have to be in IT could be science etc) or re-skill and change their nature of their work or AI may even complement humans but not replace them.
Or AI is over-hyped and it will only ever slightly increase unemployment rate from the current percentage now to 20%-40% worldwide
Or there will be a utopia in 2060 where people get a universal basic income and where people do whatever they want such as travel, gaming etc and let AI take all the jobs and everyday will be like a weekend/public holiday.
Many Thanks
akitadoge333 said:
Will AI(Artificial Intelligence)eventually take all jobs that are currently done by humans or will it create more jobs for people
I am not talking about A.I as it is today or but in the future lets say 2030 - 2060
Or humans will be able to adapt to AI and find new sorts of work in an emerging industry (which doesn't really have to be in IT could be science etc) or re-skill and change their nature of their work or AI may even complement humans but not replace them.
Or AI is over-hyped and it will only ever slightly increase unemployment rate from the current percentage now to 20%-40% worldwide
Or there will be a utopia in 2060 where people get a universal basic income and where people do whatever they want such as travel, gaming etc and let AI take all the jobs and everyday will be like a weekend/public holiday.
Many Thanks
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Welcome to XDA!
During our short history as humans a lot of jobs have been lost but new ones appeared as well.
So hopefully this tendency continues in the near future.
After this generation is gone maybe a lot will change, but hey! Lets enjoy our time here and now!
Enjoy your stay!
I think A.I. will take most of our jobs in the near future. But we can always get back to manual labor, I guess.
Rayray3 said:
I think A.I. will take most of our jobs in the near future. But we can always get back to manual labor, I guess.
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Welcome to XDA too,
I think you and me will be long gone for when that happens.
And yes, manual is the way!
I don't Think it will create more Job than Now, as you can see just because of COVID-19, most people become Job less, and everything performed I think It just a trailer movie is coming soon. But It just my opinion not 100%. calvindude
I'm agreed with you because as a Digital Marketer most of the people come me and Want a Online setup so in this way I like your word that Its just a Trailer. I'm totally Agree.
there is always going to be maintenance required for any piece of technology, so its one of those "when one door closes, another one opens" situations
pojr said:
there is always going to be maintenance required for any piece of technology, so its one of those "when one door closes, another one opens" situations
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Agreed, It may take some jobs but will create more others.
If we are talking about the rise in unemployment due to AI or technology advancements, it doesn't mean AI technology dominates human power entirely. There is no saying which will trump, but if we apply correctly we can achieve bigger milestones even though over longer time periods.
Yes, well...
One epic major solar storm is all it will take to render all this technology a worthless liability.
Sooner or latter this will happen. Even the power grids aren't adequately protected from this.
AI steals the time and privacy of the ordinary man. Before computers dominated society many families had one bread winner with one job that worked 40-50 hour weeks post WW2.
Not so now.
Look no further than China to see how AI can be aggressively misused. AI can and is being weaponized against the ordinary citizen, but not just in China...
The prison was once thought to be a palace, until they went to live there.
AI could potentially become AU (Artificial Unintelligence)!
IMHO
Future
I don't think the future will extend that far.
Despite our self congratulating attitude, the human race is getting noticeably dumber. I think this is the secret weapon that Gods will use to take this particular civilization down and level it with desert sands. Watch "Idiocracy". Half of the things are already reality.
AI
First, there is no AI. It is all just code written by human coders that is unable and will never be able to think. It is only able to follow algorithms and process data. That is not thinking. It's a flashy label underneath which is a rusty same old. So, it will never take over the humans or anything like that.
Jobs
Of course. All intellectually lazy people will have to become consumers on a government dole. Not for long. Extermination is already in the ... This is what communism is always really like, graves, at best, enjoy.
Any job that truly requires talent, ingenuity, out of box thinking and human skills will be secure.
Any job that relies on painstaking performance of series of actions without the need to make a seriously complicated decision, will be automated. Hard jobs requiring constant change of setting, like say a Nurse on call that will travel to see the patient, will survive for a while longer.
Initially we will need humans to write the code to create the AI, and once it is perfected it will kick us out I guess