cynar
@cynar@lemmy.world
- Comment on send thoughts and peer review 2 days ago:
There’s some evidence that mammals never lost the ability. Unfortunately, our scarring response is massively faster and locks wounds down.
A few years back, they engineered mice to lack a gene, to find out what it did. Initially, someone got in trouble for not properly marking the modified mice (via holes in their ears). They later discovered the holes healed completely, including regenerating fur etc.
Unfortunately, it also makes recovery from larger wounds difficult, since without a scarring response they don’t close quickly.
- Comment on Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them 1 week ago:
It’s worth noting that this is talking about plug in solar, so would be at standard mains voltage.
1kw would be around 4A in Europe, but 8A in the USA. Also, since resistive losses scale with I^2 that’s 4x the heat dumped in the walls.
At least in the UK, they tend to run 3 phase to a road, but only a single phase goes into a given house. You need to get a special hook up to get 3 phase to a domestic premise, and they don’t like doing it.
- Comment on Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them 1 week ago:
I had a chat about this with a friend who works for the national grid (UK).
Apparently the problem is keeping the grid balanced and stable. Basically, the grid struggles to react fast, so they plan ahead. Things like large scale solar can provide predictions on output. Home solar can’t.
When clouds pass over an area it can cause slumps and surges in the local grid. The more home solar, the worse it gets. The current grid is designed to work top down, with predictable changes in demand. It needs upgrading to deal with large scale bidirectional flows.
The plug in units are (potentially) even more ropey. If used properly, they are no worse than normal home solar. Unfortunately, being cheaper, there are worries over the microinverters not shutting down. Either due to the manufacturer cheaping out, or turning on an “off grid” mode.
There are also worries about overloading household circuits. Back feeding bypasses the household circuit breakers and RCDs. They could overload wall wiring and cause fires, or stop an RCD tripping, allowing for a person to be shocked.
I don’t know how much this would apply to the American Grid, but I would imagine it would be worse. Your grid is older and larger. You also use 120VAC which makes the current overload issue a lot worse.
- Comment on Nuclear energy enjoyers vindicated again after the rise in oil and gas prices. 1 week ago:
Combustion engines will likely have a place for a long time. Large equipment just doesn’t do well on battery power. They can’t get the required runtime. Also, in places where they are used, electrical power is often limited.
Hydrocarbons are an excellent way of storing energy. We will also need to overproduce renewables, to keep grids stable. Synthetic hydrocarbons could be a good solution to both issues. Currently, they are nowhere close to competing with fossil fuels, but that will change in time.
- Comment on Call off King's US state visit over Iran war, urge Lib Dems 1 week ago:
Likely true.
I can still hope that there are some people with a bit of integrity, willing to rattle the cages, when they can.
- Comment on Call off King's US state visit over Iran war, urge Lib Dems 1 week ago:
It’s easy to prove he shared the files. It’s harder to prove (legal proof) that he raped children. It’s akin to Al Capone being convicted of tax fraud.
I’m personally hoping it’s a “shake the tree” charge. By going after a royal, they will hopefully unnerve others with similar material in the files. They can then potentially use plea deals on those to go after the bigger fish.
- Comment on How to I prove to someone that the U.S. moon landing wasn't staged? 1 week ago:
It perplexed me quite a lot. I think it was the only way he could mentally maintain his worldview.
Dealing with that mindset is exhausting. I try and keep an open mind. Unfortunately it’s possible to have it so open your brain falls out.
- Comment on How to I prove to someone that the U.S. moon landing wasn't staged? 1 week ago:
I lost a good friend a similar way. He insisted there was a global conspiracy to suppress “free energy” (over unity generators), among other things.
My background allowed me to personally prove some of his arguments wrong from almost first principles. He then accused me of personally being part of the conspiracy. At that point I concluded he was a lost cause and parted ways.
Most of his “evidence” was in YouTube videos. I went through a couple. It mostly had the build-up, explanation, consequences, and conclusions. It missed any actual evidence. It’s amazing how someone can fill 2 hours with nothing of substance.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
The energy to spontaneously create a planet is vastly more than a brain. Then again, with the weird maths of infinities, it might play out.
Though to recreate the full illusion would require something closer to the big bang itself.
It’s well into the “here he dragons” realms of science however. Speculating well beyond reliable evidence.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
Our best ideas on the big bang put the universe as huge, but finite in space. (Way bigger than the observable universe) The question is time. If time is infinite then Boltzmann brains win.
Matter has a finite life, energy differentials run out. Stars run out of fuel. Black holes evaporate. Even protons eventually fall apart to energy. Then there is endless emptiness.
That emptiness would be finite in space, but infinite in time. Without that last boundary, weird things happen to maths.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
When the results are inseparable, then complexity is the only element, it doesn’t prove anything, but it does bias.
Also, most gods don’t fall into this debate. Most gods would be quite happy interfering. This is (in principle) distinguishable from the null. It was aimed primarily at the simulation hypothesis. A perfect simulation is indistinguishable from a base reality.
- Comment on Stubborn, maybe, but if it ain't broke 2 weeks ago:
It’s also a local maxima trap. To shift to chewing, they would have to change both bite behaviour, and teeth structure. The intermediate stage is a lot worse than either style.
Even if chewing was the better option, it’s inaccessible from the crocs current method.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
It’s not 3 points, but 4.
Atheist==>Theist Agnostic==>gnostic
There are agnostic atheists and agnostic theists.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
If things are not all equal, then we can slice off a section of the axiom, and start dissecting it, via science. The axiom only applies if things are exactly equal.
E.g. Gravity wave detectors have found oddities, just above the noise floor. These are likely equipment artifacts. They are also consistent with us being in a simulation, and us touching close to the resolution limit. If true (quite unlikely) then it would prove the axiom false.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
The logic is that the universe of big bang matter has a limited lifespan. This sets a hard limit on the number of humans via “normal” means.
Boltzmann brains are due to a quirk of quantum mechanics. Matter can come into existence spontaneously. The rate is proportional to the amount (technically the energy content). Given enough time and space, something that would fit the definition of human could spontaneously appear. The odds of this are unbelievably long, but, so long as it’s finitely large, in a true infinite universe it will happen an infinite number of times. It’s a bit of infinity Vs very large number weirdness.
End result is that there will be a large but finite number of “normal” humans, but an infinite number of Boltzmann brain humans. Therefore, the chances of being an actual “normal” human is effectively infinitesimal.
Agreed about it not mattering, day to day. It’s one of those things that is of interest to theoretical physicists, since it might tell us something interesting about the nature of our universe.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
It’s more reasonable via Occam’s razor (more complexity is less reasonable, when everything else is equal). However it is still just a belief axiom. You have to assume 1 holds.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
You say that, but, if the universe has an infinite lifespan (as current models suggest) then we would almost certainly be Boltzmann brains. (There would be an infinite amount of Boltzmann brains, but only a finite number of humans)
I personally believe I am not, and the universe actually exists, rather than a sensory/memory ghost.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
It’s useful to understand the mechanisms, it helps you to understand both what it can do, and its limitations. E.g. they can only mirror the parts they see or talk about. The parts of yourself that you hide away will be lost from their imperfect model.
For more info, it generally falls under “mirror neurons”. They help us empathise with others. E.g. when we smile, certain mirror neurons start firing. When we see someone smile, the same ones fire. We feel the appropriate emotions because of this. They also fire preemptively. E.g. when you hear your mother yelling about the mess, even though you’ve lived alone for a decade.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
It’s an assumption, not an extrapolation. Assumptions, without evidence are beliefs.
We assume several unprovable axioms to allow science to function. A lot of work has also been done to collapse them down to the core minimum. What is left is still built on belief.
The fact that the results are useful back validates those beliefs. It doesn’t prove them however.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
Belief in a null is a lot more reasonable than belief in something so powerful it can pretend to be a null.
Belief that I am not in a Truman show like environment is a lot more reasonable (without evidence) than belief that I am in a Truman show, and they are doing a perfect job.
That doesn’t mean I don’t try disproving the null hypothesis.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
I think consciousness is more than just our neurons, it’s an active waveform riding and guided by them.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it survives death. Without the underlying structure, it collapses to noise.
Interestingly, our brains have special circuits, design to emulate others. In effect, our consciousness imprints onto theirs. It’s not the full pattern, and imperfect, but a part of us lives on in the consciousness of everyone who knows us.
Like ripples in a pond. The water of the initial wave is no longer involved, but it has passed to others.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
The belief would be that your senses aren’t being actively deceived. Also, that you’re not a Boltzmann brain hallucinating in the void.
I personally believe all the axioms of science apply. It’s still fun to poke at them.
- Comment on big facts 2 weeks ago:
It’s actually a really REALLY fat cable. We spend our entire time inside it.
- Comment on xkcd #3211: Amperage 3 weeks ago:
It’s less based on the capacity, and more on how much time is likely a premium.
E.g. motorway services are more expensive, since people need the power and want to get back on the road. It’s exactly the same logic as the price of petrol there.
- Comment on AI Is Destroying Grocery Supply Chains 3 weeks ago:
PhD level and up are notorious for over specialisation.
My university had a personal assistant, dedicated to 2 professors. Half their job was to make sure they made it to lectures on time. They still managed to be late sometimes.
- Comment on High IQ men tend to be less conservative than their average peers, study finds 4 weeks ago:
What would you replace it with? While it’s not a good metric for individuals, in group studies, it’s a useful proxy for information processing intelligence.
- Comment on Thoughts about my (potential) first server? 4 weeks ago:
The rule of thumb with servers is
- Performance
- Reliability
- Power usage
- Noise
- Size
The trick is to remember you don’t actually need much performance. A home server isn’t generally a powerful machine. What matters is that it is always there.
A raspberry pi would actually make a wonderful server. It’s power efficient, small and quiet, with enough grunt to do most jobs. Unfortunately, it falls down on reliability. Arm servers seem more prone to issues than x64 servers. Pis also seems particularly crash prone. Crashing every 3-6 months isn’t an issue for most pi usages. When it’s running your smart home, it’s a pain in the arse.
I eventually settled on a intel NUC system. It’s a proper computer (no HDD on usb etc), with a very low power draw. It also seems particularly stable. Mine has done several years at this point, without a crash.
Bigger servers are only needed when you have too much demand for a low powered option, or need specialist capabilities 24/7. Very few home labbers will need one, in practice.
It’s also worth noting that you can slave a powerful, but power hungry system, to a smaller, efficient one. Only power it on when a highly demanding task requires sorting.
- Comment on Twenty four US states are now considering legislation to allow small, plug-in solar power systems that connect directly into a wall socket. 4 weeks ago:
I fully agree. It’s the same over here in the UK.
The key is to get a (semi global) get of regulations in play asap. If China can’t sell them, then they won’t make the lower quality products. Unfortunately, getting them back out of circulation will be a LOT harder. The safety rules need to go in early.
- Comment on Do you ever feel guilty for trying to sign up for government assistance programs? 4 weeks ago:
I will say, as a tax payer, if you are eligible for them, FUCKING TAKE THEM! Take every ¢ you can make reasonable use of!
I pay into the pool to provide a safety net to everyone. I’ve bounced off it myself, when I was younger. I want to know that it is doing its job for those that need it.
Proviso, I’m based in the UK. I’m quite sure a lot of tax payers, world wide, feel the same and would also give you “permission”.
- Comment on Twenty four US states are now considering legislation to allow small, plug-in solar power systems that connect directly into a wall socket. 4 weeks ago:
The problem isn’t when it’s done correctly, it’s when it gets half arsed by cheap Chinese suppliers. A lot of the corner cuts are not easily detectable to layman consumers.
The biggest is matching protection. The solar needs to shut down within ms of an RCD going (RCDs take 30ms). Otherwise it could continue to shock a victim, or risk a fire.
The most insidious would be to stop any with an “Off grid” mode. Grid workers already fear generators being backfed during a power cut. It turns cold lines live, with no warning. Having a switch to get your lights and TV working again would be far too tempting to too many people.
Speaking of the grid. One of the biggest issues is grid instability. Solar can do offline VERY quickly. Micro solar is even worse for this. Without major upgrades on the grid, it’s akin to having a small child “helping” you move heavy furniture up some stairs. In theory you’re better off. In practice you spend more resources countering the chaos than you save.
My personal view is that all new homes should have power feed in capabilities baked in at the mains entry point. It can then have proper cutoff/cutover capabilities, from fully approved parts. No chance of Chinese cheap crap killing people. It also puts the breakers back inline with the power. Home solar (balcony or rooftop), battery backup, generators all can be fed in via a known safe method.