this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
0 points (NaN% liked)

Asklemmy

43945 readers
574 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some 'organic element' since I couldn't accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

top 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] alokir@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Using engine brakes can cause your car to not use fuel in some cases.

I've read and heard this from different sources (even driving instructors) and I don't get how it's possible. Your engine is still running, doesn't it use at least as much as it does while it's idling?

Edit: thank you all for your answers. I knew how the engine brake effect worked, my confusion was about exactly why the engine didn't consume fuel in the process. I now understand so thanks all.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yo OP. We're carbon based, which you accept. Diamond is stronger than almost all metal, and it's pure carbon. Why wouldn't we have metal in our veins? We atomically won that round before inflation was even over.

I'm just playin, carbon under high enough pressure is metal too.

Twice over, my favorite fact is that humanity has only existed during the time frames that the moon and the sun have been the same size in our sky, this allowing total eclipse - which is so obviously ridiculously rare I don't see the point in quantifying with maths.

I think it's bizarre to think we have free will. Everywhere around us, in all our tech, tools, toys we see the realities of determinism. Cause and effect. To think that our minds are somehow not governed by this in a universe that unequivocally is is beyond Babel levels of arrogance.

Beyond that, the idea that's gaining ground about shared consciousness I find really intriguing. Rather fascinating stuff.

Consciousness is the biggest mystery of the all, after all.

[–] exi@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm mostly with you except for the determinism. Not only do we KNOW that the universe is fundamentally probabilistic and not deterministic, all our technology works extremely hard to combat random errors because small electronics are absolutely not deterministic, they are just engineered to have a low enough randomness so we can counteract it.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Allowing for quantum randomness does not help the free will argument. Randomness might be "free", but it is certainly not but "will".

[–] exi@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

But it does. If the universe was deterministic, choice would be impossible because all outcomes would be predetermined.

Quantum randomness may not directly provide free will but it does exclude determinism, which would make free will impossible.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is about 8.1 billion people in the world. Assuming romantic cliches to be true and that we all have exactly one soulmate out there, we would have a very hard time sifting them out. If you were to use exactly one second at meeting a person it would take you 257 years to meet everyone alive on earth at this moment, which due to human life span being significantly shorter and the influx of new people makes the task essentially impossible without a spoonful of luck. Moral of the story: If you believe you have found your soul mate, be extra kind to them today.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Soul mates are made, not found. You get with someone compatible to you, and through the sharing of experiences and affection, if nothing goes excessively wrong, they become unique for you.

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Soul mates are made, not found. You get with someone compatible to you

That catch is, you need to find that someone in the first place, and that takes a bit of looking around. So in effect, soul mates are found.

[–] troutsushi@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

It gets much easier once you factor in that you, yourself, aren't static and constant. The task isn't to find someone capable of becoming perfect for you, it's finding someone whose compatibility and willingness when taken into account with your own offers a fair chance to grow into a symbiotic relationship.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Definitely agree and beautifully put :)

[–] evatronic@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The sun could've gone nova 8 minutes ago and we wouldn't know for another 20 seconds or so.

[–] zirzedolta@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Interesting fact: the sun becomes 1 million tons lighter every second.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The ton is not a unit of brightness

[–] Turun@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You sure? The wacky system of units has a lot of different meanings for the word ton. Among others, it is a measure of power.

[–] hstde@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Diet specialists hate this trick.

[–] swab148@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago

Well, we'd know by now

[–] 018118055@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Calcium is a metal. We have metal bones.

[–] lemann@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh my... I refuse to accept this as reality

We're all organically powered metal meat machines? 😭

[–] Turun@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

In the same sense that we contain a massive volume of gas, because there is a lot of hydrogen in our bodies. Yes, hydrogen is a gas, and yes, there is a lot of it on our body. But it's bound, so it doesn't count.

It would be more accurate to call it stone than metal, because the calcium in our bones is also bound to other elements, which means it does not exhibit its usual metal characteristics.

[–] Rocky60@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There’s no such thing as tides. Gravity holds the water as the earth rotates

[–] Turun@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

You mean in the same way that there is no centrifugal force?

Technically right, but doesn't matter if you are in the rotating frame of reference.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 0 points 1 year ago

Tides are a phenomenon where the height of the edge of a body of water shifts relative to the shore. A phenomenon is a thing. Why should explaining its cause in those terms have any effect on that?

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

That "I" am pretty much just the construct of electrons flying around my brain.

That you need to lay down K.O. for many hours every day, otherwise you get insane.

That we are always only 2min or so away from death, if we stopped breathing.

That everything I eat actually gets digested into mousse and bacteria are in my body, digest it and I get the elements into my blood.

That our world is so big, but you could also walk to China ~~Japan~~ from the EU, if you had enough time. But also its crazy how huge our common trade routes are.

That a weird minicomputer in my pocket can store 128GB of information, access a wireless network from across the whole planet, and can remember so much more than my brain

[–] Magnetar@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Walking through the Sea of Japan is a bit of a challenge, though.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Haha okay there is some water thats true.

[–] redballooon@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Between Japan and the EU, there is an ocean. You also need to swim, not only walk.

[–] Kissaki@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Swimming is walking in water /s

[–] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That you need to lay down K.O. for many hours every day, otherwise you get insane.

That's not true though. You need REM sleep. Sleeping doesn't mean you're K.O. You're processing things and regenerating. That's like the exact opposite of being K.O.

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But you're out. That processing is so intense you have to de-link nearly all environmental inputs.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's necessary to clean out all the lactic acid buildup from thinking.

Ive suffered insomnia. It's wild how after long enough you stop developing short term memory. Which; when experienced, translates to; it's 10am. You just got done cleaning the garage cuz...cuz. You're drinking coffee watching clips from the today show on yr phone. You look up. It's 9pm and dark outside. You're sitting on the couch. You felt no time pass in between. You ask yr wife about dinner with her grandparents that you were supposed to go to. Oh. You did go. And you drove (wait....WHAT). Apparently you were as charming as ever. No memories of it.

It's like someone else is living your life.

That's when I went to the Dr. for sleep meds. I trust myself to be myself... but naw fam, life's too short. I never blanked out work so fuck that

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Omg that sounds crazy.... like in Memento.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Okay true, but you also need deep sleep a lot otherwise you dont regenerate. Also the body is fully K.O. which may make more sense

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Time relativity always boggles my brain, I accept the fact but I find crazy that if I strap my twin and his atomic clock to a rocket and send them out to the stratosphere at the speed of light, when they return he'll be younger than me and his clock will be running behind mine. Crazy

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago

Please dont do that

[–] beteljuice@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Your bones are made of calcium, which is also a metal. You've got a metal frame inside your body.

[–] JoYo@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

there's people that don't like music.

[–] Sombyr@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago

I used to be like this, but with movies. When I first met my wife, she was utterly baffled at the concept of somebody not enjoying movies, and she made it her mission to make me enjoy them.

Come to think of it, she actually doesn't like music much. I've failed to change her opinion on that though because my taste in music is shit (and I'm proud of it.)

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The hell that giving birth can be.

A lot of women endure having a baby...and holy. shit. No.

[–] Sombyr@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago

Every time that comes up, I think to myself "Something I've gone through must be more painful, right? I've gone through some pretty hellish things, and you're trying to tell me something MORE painful exists? Not just a little more, but dramatically more? For my own sanity, I'm gonna have to live in denial of that."

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

Queuing theory can have some fun surprises.

Suppose a small bank has only one teller. Customers take an average of 10 minutes to serve and they arrive at the rate of 5.8 per hour. With only one teller, customers will have to wait nearly five hours on average before they are served. If you add a second teller the average wait becomes 3 minutes.