this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
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No, I don't think it's comparable. We've figured out most of the big picture, now it's mostly just filling in gaps here and there and making correction. I doubt there is an entire new force or field hiding that would allow completley undetectable communications from us. Maybe you could do something with neutrinos, we're quite bad at detecting them for now.
Yeah, I've looked through an infrared camera and seen pictures from x-ray telescopes.
We have absolutely not figured out most of the big picture.
One easy proof example: death. Everyone will experience this feeling, yet no one has a clue what happens with 100% certainly after death. Yet it's one of the most fundamental things about life and existence. What is non-existence?
Of course we do. Unless steps are taken, it's usually rotting and decomposing. There is literally farms where we study what happens to us after death. The physics of death are no mystery.
I'm talking about the nature of the soul and spirit.
But this comment chain is about the limits that physics imposes on technology.
There is no evidence for the existence of souls or spirits, so they don't really factor into that discussion.
I see what you're saying. But I also think the comment chain is speaking to the limits of our knowledge. The "limits that physics imposes on technology" is only based on what human beings have figured out through our limits of testing the rules of existence. What we can't test, we have never been able to prove. And some things we may never be able to test or prove (such as Dark Matter).
It's easy to say there isn't evidence of something, just as easy as it is to say that it's because it's past our limit/ability to test those things right now.
Absolutly, I'm not disputing that.
My point was going in the opposite direct. Some of the stuff we know we can be pretty sure about so I'd say it's safe to assume that even an advanced alien technology couldn't get around them. Like the speed of light, conservation of energy, entropy, etc.
Right, but when considering practical applications, like technology, it doesn't really make a difference. If something exists but I don't know (and currently can't know) that it exists, it might as well not exist. The result is the same.
Lmao. I've heard that one before. Almost 200 year ago in fact.
https://4gravitons.com/2016/03/11/in-defense-of-lord-kelvin-michelson-and-the-physics-of-decimals/#%3A%7E%3Atext=William+Thompson%2C+Lord+Kelvin%2C+was%2Cmore+and+more+precise+measurement.
Just called it a bit too early. But that's mostly where we at now, technology is just catching up to theoretical physics. But I doubt we'll get many more discoveries on the same society-changing level like electricity or radio waves were.
But hey, it would be much more interesting if I'm wrong.