He's a scientist; I'm in computer support.
Let's talk about Avi Loeb and his theory about alien
He's a scientist; I'm in computer support.
The interview above is worth a read, and a lot of serious thought, because there's an idea there that's really critical to science, and it isn't whether or not aliens have visited (exactly).
In particular he compares his theory on alien visitation with the multiverse theory.
Which of these is more deserving of ridicule?
So bizarre that there's no really good theory for what it might be. Except maybe for Dr. Loeb's theory.
The hypotheses we form can and should help guide us in how we look.
And because "Aliens!" is based on observable phenomena: us.
The competing theories are all about phenomena with NO prior observations.
Why is it unsafe to talk about "Aliens!" but safe to talk about the "multiverse"?
Yet the notion has always (to me) been utterly absurd.
But this isn't the scientific theory of the multiverse at all.
But under this theory, there'd be an infinite number of "adjacent" universes spinning off of that one single particle at the tip of my pinky toe.
In such a multiverse system, the "nearest" (by measure of similarity) million, trillion... heck the nearest googol of alternate universes would be utterly identical to ours.
And really, an utterly pointless one.
https://t.co/XiHA9cRwjR
So THAT'S why we never saw Oumuamua leaving the solar system. https://t.co/pSlwmRMctU
— Thomas A. Fine \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8 (@thomasafine) February 27, 2020
https://t.co/hj1ytCbFDH
But the thought that's been running around in the back of my mind for the last two years is... if all of a sudden something shows up in orbit around the Earth, I'd be very suspicious of that something.
— Thomas A. Fine \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8 (@thomasafine) February 27, 2020
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This thread will cover only a tiny fraction of the work on Mantella cowanii because, being so charismatic and threatened, it has received quite a bit of attention.
#MadagascarFrogs
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Boulenger placed the species in his new genus, Mantella, along with ebenaui, betsileo, and madagascariensis. He recognised that the other Malagasy poison frogs were distinct from the Dendrobates of the Americas, although he did keep them in the Dendrobatidae.
#MadagascarFrogs
As more specimens were collected, it became clear that the species was highly variable. In 1978, Jean Guib├й wrote with interest about this variability, describing a new subspecies, M. cowani nigricansтАФtoday a full species. #MadagascarFrogs
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Typically, when we see zero-carbon electricity coupled to electrification of transport and buildings, implicitly standing behind that is totally unprecedented buildout of the transmission system. The team from Princeton's modeling work has this in spades for example.
But that, more even than the new generation required, runs straight into a thicket/woodchipper of environmental laws and public objections that currently (and for the last 50y) limit new transmission in the US. We built most transmission prior to the advent of environmental law.
So what these studies are really (implicitly) saying is that NEPA, CEQA, ESA, ┬з404 permitting, eminent domain law, etc, - and the public and democratic objections that drive them - will have to change in order to accommodate the necessary transmission buildout.
I live in a D supermajority state that has, for at least the last 20 years, been in the midst of a housing crisis that creates punishing impacts for people's lives in the here-and-now and is arguably mostly caused by the same issues that create the transmission bottlenecks.