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It's interesting zero was somewhat of a later addition in math. At one point in time people thought 'Nothing is just nothing, not its own concept'
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Jul 25, 2022 04:02
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The only thing I know about aliens using math is what Carl Sagan depicts in Contact: they use prime numbers to get Earth's attention. The signal arrives as one pulse, then two, then three, then five, and so on, proving the signal is artificial. Pretty much the only mathematical concept needed to accomplish this is division. I recall pi being important, too, but it's been years since I read the book or saw the movie, and all I can remember now is the ending from the book: On the aliens' suggestion, Ellie builds a program to calculate as many digits of pi as possible, and eventually ends up with the digits printing out in the form of a circle, suggesting an intelligence behind the universe. Off topic #1: I'm in the middle of a short vacation to New York, and today I had my first experience of an all (or nearly all) Greek Divine Liturgy at St. Gerasimos. One of the parishioners told me that nearly everyone there is from Keffalonia, which is where St. Gerasimos is from. Unfortunately, everybody was out of town for the summer, so attendance was low; even the priest was in Greece (they had a substitute). They did, however, just finish the new icons on the wall a few weeks ago, and they even had a few relics: a couple of St. Gerasimos's shoes. Off topic #2: I'm also getting an Orthodox YA vampire novel published by Park End Books this fall.
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Jul 25, 2022 05:35
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Bar Ran Dun posted:The more basic assertion would be that we are all in the Real. Math is another language we use to talk about that and like any other language would require translation. Translation would be difficult or impossible exactly because we would not exist in the -same- Real. What we consider immutable reality is more like a cloud of interpretable bits that people interpret only according to their ability. Because of differing cones in our eyes, we do not see the same reality as a bird or a dog. Don't even get me started on the amount of smell 'bits' available only to non-humans! With aliens I doubt the conversation can even be had.
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Jul 25, 2022 07:00
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Tias posted:With aliens I doubt the conversation can even be had. I doubt the conversation is even possible between people. I have faith the conversation is possible through the Logos.
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Jul 25, 2022 07:06
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Tias posted:Translation would be difficult or impossible exactly because we would not exist in the -same- Real. What we consider immutable reality is more like a cloud of interpretable bits that people interpret only according to their ability. Because of differing cones in our eyes, we do not see the same reality as a bird or a dog. Don't even get me started on the amount of smell 'bits' available only to non-humans! With aliens I doubt the conversation can even be had. Unless something gets in the way, but eh, that's karma for ya
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Jul 25, 2022 07:37
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"Life sucks, get a helmet, earthlings. What do your helmets look like?" I like it!
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Jul 25, 2022 08:37
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Tias posted:"Life sucks, get a helmet, earthlings. What do your helmets look like?"
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Jul 25, 2022 08:43
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Nessus posted:I once got someone mad as heck by suggesting, while we were brainstorming things that humans in a sci-fi setting might be 'uniquely good at,' that perhaps for humans it would be "peaceful diplomacy and reconciliation." Our actual conclusion was environmental and dietary tolerance, cardiovascular endurance, and throwin' poo poo Do you ever think about how much of our brain is devoted to eyeballing ballistic trajectories in a hurry?
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Jul 25, 2022 08:44
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Ohtori Akio posted:Do you ever think about how much of our brain is devoted to eyeballing ballistic trajectories in a hurry? is it actually a lot? I'm poo poo at throwing things, maybe it's another part of humanity I just got shortchanged on
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Jul 25, 2022 09:28
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I hope that there are other forms of life and I hope they are having a good time of it.
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Jul 25, 2022 10:34
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Nessus posted:I once got someone mad as heck by suggesting, while we were brainstorming things that humans in a sci-fi setting might be 'uniquely good at,' that perhaps for humans it would be "peaceful diplomacy and reconciliation." Our actual conclusion was environmental and dietary tolerance, cardiovascular endurance, and throwin' poo poo Humans most basic quality at large is curiosity.
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Jul 25, 2022 13:24
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Tias posted:is it actually a lot? I'm poo poo at throwing things, maybe it's another part of humanity I just got shortchanged on
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Jul 25, 2022 16:29
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Nessus posted:Your "poo poo at throwing things" is likely significantly beyond the capacity of most animals other than specialists, and if you spent an hour a day training to throw rocks at bottles you'd likely improve a lot. People in the past have told me, when talking about other animals building "civilizations", that humans benefited a lot from simple things like being warm-blooded or having thumbs. A lot of other animals simply are stuck by virtue of lacking these basic tools we have used to thrive. Of course, humans have other flaws most animals don't. I guess our big ol' brains came at the expense of horrifyingly ugly and dangerous childbirth, as well as our children being defenseless for an unusually lengthy period of time.
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Jul 25, 2022 16:37
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Gaius Marius posted:It's worth noting the average person uses non decimal coutning more than one realizes. Twelve hour clocks are Duodecimal. 24 Tetravigesimal. Ounces are Hexadecimal. But I came here to rage at my own denomination. The Anglican World Communion is a weird beast. Originally, it was the Church of England, and it was headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed by whoever was ruling the UK at the time. As countries split off from the British empire (which wasn't technically an empire all of this time, but w/ev), their bishops often paid only token homage to the overarching denomination, and it's all way more complicated than that. In 2003, the American Episcopalian church ordained its first gay bishop, Gene Robinson. This was widely It's a mess, because several African countries (among others) loathe gay marriage, and the horrific history of colonialism in the Church of England factors in to their outrage. In 1998, at the Lambeth Conference, where all the Anglican bishops get together to talk, Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma of Enugu, Nigeria attempted to exorcise the “homosexual demons” from the Reverend Richard Kirker, leader of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. For the 2020 Lambeth Conference, held in 2022 for obvious reasons, opposite-sex spouses of bishops were invited, and same-sex spouses were explicitly excluded. A week before the conference was to start, a list of Lambeth Calls (essentially resolutions, but again more complicated) was released. "For each call, bishops will vote electronically either to affirm: “This call speaks for me. I add my voice to it and commit myself to take the action I can to implement it”; or: “This call requires further discernment. I commit my voice to the ongoing process.” AKA "Yes" or "I'll keep thinking about it". One of these calls -- again, released a week before the conference's start -- included quote:Historical exploitation, deepening poverty, and prejudice continues to threaten human dignity. Amid these threats, and our own divisions and discernment, we call for: (i) an Archbishop’s Commission for Redemptive Action; (ii) the establishment of an Anglican Innovation Fund; and (iii) the reaffirmation of Lambeth 1:10 that upholds marriage as between a man and a woman and requires deeper work to uphold the dignity and witness of LGBTQ Anglicans.” Lambeth 1:10 (1998) is "we love you not-straight people a lot, but don't have sex." --sorry, "homosexual practice" is the exact text --"or get married." I am seething in rage. Come quickly, sweet schism. An excellent overview of the history of this issue in Church Times. ‘Lambeth Calls’ to Consider Sexuality, World Crises, Mission Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 17:16
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NikkolasKing posted:Also, if we're talking about this from an explicitly religious perspective, wouldn't clones get souls? The soul is the true essence of a human being is a pretty consistent idea in Christianity from The Bible to now. I won’t pretend to speak for all Hindus but a common perspective is that humans are like antennas for God/soul/consciousness. I suppose a major difference being that for many Hindus there is one grand consciousness or soul. I think a cloned human would just be another antenna picking up the signal. Ram (God) said to Hanuman: “Who are you, Monkey?” Hanuman replies: “When I don’t know who I Am, I serve you. When I know who I Am, I Am you.”
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Jul 25, 2022 17:41
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For the alien talk, higher beings were known to travel to earth on vimanas. From the Ramayana: "The Pushpaka Vimana that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent Vimana going everywhere at will ... that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.'
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Jul 25, 2022 17:54
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Nessus posted:Your "poo poo at throwing things" is likely significantly beyond the capacity of most animals other than specialists, and if you spent an hour a day training to throw rocks at bottles you'd likely improve a lot. Binocular vision and primate style shoulder mechanics make us very, very good and tossing stuff. Consider how fast even a small child learns to throw a ball. We make a sport of throwing a leather wrapped piece of cork around at 100+ mph and trying to hit it with a stick, after all.
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Jul 25, 2022 22:14
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Keromaru5 posted:
Oh dang congratulations!!
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Jul 25, 2022 22:17
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NikkolasKing posted:People in the past have told me, when talking about other animals building "civilizations", that humans benefited a lot from simple things like being warm-blooded or having thumbs. A lot of other animals simply are stuck by virtue of lacking these basic tools we have used to thrive.
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Jul 25, 2022 22:23
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Nessus posted:You also don't generate your own vitamin C and lately you are discovering the perils of success in the form of diseases of affluence. I'm certain parrots or elephants could get by, though, one way or another. I sorta skipped a few pages and out of context I had no idea which thread I was in....
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Jul 25, 2022 22:27
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Nessus posted:You also don't generate your own vitamin C and lately you are discovering the perils of success in the form of diseases of affluence. I'm certain parrots or elephants could get by, though, one way or another. I was told older elephants basically starve to death. They lose all their teeth and can't eat nearly enough plant matter to supportt heir great weight. When I mentioned this in a discord I'm in, I was told whales fuckin' drown when they get too old. What a sick jokes nature is. Congratulations! Against all odds you have survived through most of your natural lifespan. As your reward you get to die slowly and horribly. (I looked this up because I heard alligators and crocodiles show no real signs of aging. They could actually live forever or something)
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Jul 25, 2022 23:47
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Lobsters live forever I think, unless killed! Like they don't age. As a result I don't eat lobster, it feels incorrect somehow.
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Jul 25, 2022 23:53
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NikkolasKing posted:I was told older elephants basically starve to death. They lose all their teeth and can't eat nearly enough plant matter to supportt heir great weight. When I mentioned this in a discord I'm in, I was told whales fuckin' drown when they get too old. I imagine a lot of elephants get that old given that a reasonably hale elephant can beat the rear end of just about any potential predator. Hence the elephants' graveyard. A similar case with whales. I don't see it as a joke; I see it as everything being impermanent. If elephants grew new teeth like sharks they would perhaps live longer, but then every old elephant might eventually die when they go blind and get stuck in something while tramping around. HopperUK posted:Lobsters live forever I think, unless killed! Like they don't age. As a result I don't eat lobster, it feels incorrect somehow.
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Jul 26, 2022 00:00
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I've wanted to get a lobster for a pet that I could potentially hand down to future generations indefinitely. My wife is not in favor of this idea. Don't know what to do about the molting problem, though. I have to overcome the spousal veto first.
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Jul 26, 2022 00:07
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The intergenerational lifespan thing is one very good reason I plan to not own any pets that naturally live more than 20 years or so. My potential kids don't need to worry about mother's bird that knows a lot of slurs, when they could be worrying about their own lives.
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Jul 26, 2022 00:11
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We have plans for our desert tortoise that extend to at least 2150.
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Jul 26, 2022 06:17
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Mr. Wiggles posted:We have plans for our desert tortoise that extend to at least 2150.
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Jul 26, 2022 06:21
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Thor Thorvaldson will last the ages.
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Jul 26, 2022 06:35
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tortoises rule, it is pretty cool to be the caretaker of something that by rights will be trundling along chewing on veggies for decades longer than yourself
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Jul 26, 2022 06:39
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Everything being impermanent is a joke. A cruel one played on the universe as a whole. Some things should b allowed to carry on. To change but continue.
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Jul 26, 2022 15:24
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Plenty of permanent things. Souls, markers mostly just those two really
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Jul 26, 2022 16:10
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Josef bugman posted:Everything being impermanent is a joke. A cruel one played on the universe as a whole. Some things should b allowed to carry on. To change but continue. Well that’s also everything my dude if that’s you’re definition of impermanence. Matter is never created or destroyed but only transformed, energy is never created or destroyed but only transformed, momentum is never created and destroyed but only transformed. All things in the universe are the changed, carried-on, and reassembled things of the universe ten minutes ago.
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Jul 26, 2022 16:30
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Yes, the old line is the example of "your atoms and molecules become part of the soil and then the plants grow in the soil and are eaten by the animals," but the principle is true. There's no joke; nobody DID it, that's just the way it is (by Buddhist thinking).
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Jul 26, 2022 16:40
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Where's a good place to order statues of gods online? Specifically Bast and Ganesh. I know Ganesh is Hindu and we have a Hindu temple here but it feels wrong/insulting to contact them for what they might perceive as a souvenir. The reason I ask is that my friend follows them and I would like to get them a decent sized good quality statue of these gods. I don't know of any place that would sell it other than Amazon and their selection is either too expensive or really tacky looking. I want something that a legitimate follower of these gods would want to have in their living space and not like I picked it up a Gods'R'Us for a dollar. Edit: I also don't know if it's considered sacrilegious to have statues of these gods so if it is then please let me know before I make a mistake. Cowman fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jul 26, 2022 |
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Jul 26, 2022 17:48
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I do not believe Bast is currently held as sacred by a substantial living faith. Ganesh obviously is... and I can't comment on Hindu practices though we do have several practitioners here. I will say that you may just have to accept that the statue of Lord Ganesh will look tacky. Think of it this way: You're not doing it for you now are you?
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Jul 26, 2022 18:04
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Cowman posted:Where's a good place to order statues of gods online? Specifically Bast and Ganesh. I know Ganesh is Hindu and we have a Hindu temple here but it feels wrong/insulting to contact them for what they might perceive as a souvenir. I go to Etsy for my murti needs personally. It is not in any way shape or form sacreligious to have them in your home. Any Hindu would be pleased to see them displayed even if you don't share beliefs. I think about the large statue of Shiva displayed at CERN for example. The presence of murti is there to remind you of a higher self- whether that be a reminder to be mindful, take a deep breath, recognize the impermanence of life (physical Avatars of god are impermenant on this planet!), or for you it may just be a sense of peace with your decor. e: if there are any local Indian, Himalayan, or spiritual shops in your town that is great too. I went to Denver recently and I bought a small statue of Hanuman to add to my desk collection. In Galveston I found a Witchery that among its curiosities was a selection of Hindu murti. Additionally, I was in a head shop and they had a corner dedicated to devotion with items for sale. e2: Krishna would be pleased with your username. 
LuckyCat fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jul 26, 2022 |
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Jul 26, 2022 20:39
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I used to work with a chap who had a little Ganesh statue on his desk. It was frickin adorable.
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Jul 26, 2022 20:42
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Cowman posted:Where's a good place to order statues of gods online? Specifically Bast and Ganesh. I know Ganesh is Hindu and we have a Hindu temple here but it feels wrong/insulting to contact them for what they might perceive as a souvenir. There are several people on Etsy who sell very nice carved wooden statues of various deities and there's a guy whose shop name is Blagowood who does lovely work and IIRC has one of Bast. If it's the one I'm thinking of then she doesn't even have her tits out and when it comes to Bast that can be surprisingly hard to find. It would not be considered sacreligious to have a statue of an Egyptian deity, but I can't speak for the Hindus, obviously.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:12
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Go to a yoga-mom-rear end occult book store. They'll have plenty of statues of both. Edit: Places like this https://g.page/earthlore?share UwUnabomber fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jul 26, 2022 |
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Jul 26, 2022 22:24
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Shitstorm Trooper posted:Go to a yoga-mom-rear end occult book store. They'll have plenty of statues of both. Yes, but they will most likely be bland polyresin that you see literally everywhere which has also inexplicably become horribly expensive. I was running a Summer Solstice ritual at a small local pagan festival in June and I wanted a statue of Re for the altar. I haven't purchased a deity statue in a very long time, so when I was doing some online window-shopping I was quite shocked to see that even a fairly small statue goes for well over $70CAD these days. The last time I picked anything like that up it went for maybe $40 which seems like a rather precipitous increase.
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Jul 27, 2022 15:13
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