AbouBenAdhem @ AbouBenAdhem @lemmy.world

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1,568

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2 yr. ago

I don’t think we’re usually conscious of the availability of multiple narratives to the point that we can mentally simulate each one and compare their potential utility.

The choices we consciously make are the ones that arise inside of narratives, not between narratives themselves.

we will choose the one in which we profit the most

I think we’ll choose the narrative most consistent with our existing worldview, even if it hurts our own interests.

Causality, like entropy, is an emergent property that’s hard to pin down formally, but is a critical element of any narrative. I’m with you that far, but how do price tags and double breakage figure in?

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords.

Can some other university give him an honorary degree?

I don’t remember the Constitution defining “slamming” as part of the system of checks and balances.

Your link seems to be showing that it’s down 1.65%?

It hasn’t reduced their ability to extract wealth from the existing economy, but it’s reduced their potential rate of future expansion.

I can still remember that time.

It must have been some eight or nine hours ago now: if you tried to get a pizza delivered back then, they would just give you a message telling you to call back at 10 am when the pizzeria was open.

A new study of one of these spots — located in what is now northeastern China—revealed a refuge where the ecosystem remained relatively healthy despite the Great Dying.

The study looked at Xinjiang, which is in northwestern China, not northeastern (i.e., Manchuria)—the distinction is significant for their argument that plant survival depended on being far inland.

Don Quixote
The Princess Bride
Cold Comfort Farm

Hmm... I thought superheating referred to heating water over 100º by pressurizing it, not by heating it at normal pressure without allowing bubbles to form.

Because technically the steam is dissolved in the water above its saturation point, right? If the gas were (say) CO² instead of steam, wouldn’t “supersaturated” be the correct term?

It would only be able to heat the tea to above 100C if that point of zero nucleation remained undisturbed, and the tea held directly within it; in other words, it’s not possible.

To be clear, the liquid water flashes into steam as soon as it contacts the leaves, so technically it isn’t the supersaturated water itself heating the tea over 100º. But the steam it produces is above 100º, and that’s what heats the tea.

Water is much more likely to get supersaturated in a microwave, because water heats up in the middle of the container where there are no nucleation points. And supersaturated water heats the tea leaves above 100ºC, which can affect the flavor.

This is how Trump will spin his failed conquest of Greenland: it was really just a ploy to extort eggs from Denmark.

Technically it’s a combination of absolute humidity and temperature. Bathrooms can be prone to mold even if they’re not any more humid than the rest of the house, because metal plumbing can conduct heat out of the room into the ground—causing the room to get cold enough for moisture to condense even if the water fixtures in the room aren’t in use.

In theory, authoritarianism is the fastest way to transform a society from one form to another—so it’s rational that regimes that come to power based on the perceived need for rapid social change will be drawn to authoritarianism.

But it’s also rational for institutions to try to preserve themselves—which for these authoritarian regimes means preserving the conditions that led to the belief in their necessity, instead of delivering on the promise of transformation that would lead to their dissolution.

Edit: OP changed the question, but this reply still largely holds—although it should be noted that authoritarianism and autocracy are not the same thing.

They can just take the Nazis’ Madagascar Plan and search-and-replace “Palestinians” for “Jews”.

People only care about narratives, and a side effect of having a scientific/naturalistic worldview is that things like disease become narratively inert.

People used to care a lot more about diseases when they could be given narrative causes like witchcraft or demons.

Yes, but so far the Washington Post (unlike the Times article Trump shared) isn’t openly advocating for purging gays from the military.