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Loose Thoughts About Physical Reality

Started by trdsf, June 02, 2017, 01:16:34 PM

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trdsf

And just to follow up on those roughly half-million ancestors from 500 years ago: that's actually half a million positions on the family tree, not half a million individuals.  It's statistically certain that individuals occupied multiple positions in my ancestry, and probably even across multiple generations.

Of course, to throw a little further perspective on this, I can do no better than to quote Robert Anton Wilson:

QuoteMost of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren't even mammals.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Unbeliever

According to this:

http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-planet-earth

There have been 108.2 billion people that have lived on Earth. That's a lot of ancestors, considering I have no idea who either of my parents were!
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

Quote from: Unbeliever on June 15, 2017, 03:46:49 PM
According to this:

http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-planet-earth

There have been 108.2 billion people that have lived on Earth. That's a lot of ancestors, considering I have no idea who either of my parents were!

Your genes know, approximately, who your biological parents were.  But the really important parents are the one's who raise you.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hakurei Reimu

There's a term for the phenomenon of finding a single person in multiple places in your ancestry: Pedigree collapse.
Warning: Don't Tease The Miko!
(she bites!)
Spinny Miko Avatar shamelessly ripped off from Iosys' Neko Miko Reimu

trdsf

Quote from: Hakurei Reimu on June 15, 2017, 10:18:26 PM
There's a term for the phenomenon of finding a single person in multiple places in your ancestry: Pedigree collapse.
And it's something we all have -- that we must have, in fact, since it's not possible to have more distinct ancestors than there were/are total people that have ever lived.

Parallel to that, if you're European or of recent European stock, you're descended from Charlemagne.  Congratulations, Your Highness.  :)
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Baruch

Quote from: trdsf on June 16, 2017, 07:55:30 AM
And it's something we all have -- that we must have, in fact, since it's not possible to have more distinct ancestors than there were/are total people that have ever lived.

Parallel to that, if you're European or of recent European stock, you're descended from Charlemagne.  Congratulations, Your Highness.  :)

More recently, King Charles II of GB really got around a lot ;-)  Most US Presidents are descended from him.  Obama is a cousin of Cheney.  Inbreeding.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

Quote from: Baruch on June 15, 2017, 08:10:03 PM
Your genes know, approximately, who your biological parents were.  But the really important parents are the one's who raise you.
Well, I was adopted when I was 3, then those folks got divorced when I was 10, and I went to a boy's camp for a couple of years. Then I went to a foster home for four years, then I was in an orphanage for a couple of years, then got in trouble with the law and was "encouraged" to join the service when I was 17.


So, who raised me?
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Unbeliever

Quote from: trdsf on June 16, 2017, 07:55:30 AM
And it's something we all have -- that we must have, in fact, since it's not possible to have more distinct ancestors than there were/are total people that have ever lived.

Parallel to that, if you're European or of recent European stock, you're descended from Charlemagne.  Congratulations, Your Highness.  :)
And if not him, then Genghis Khan:


1 in 200 men direct descendants of Genghis Khan
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

Quote from: Unbeliever on June 16, 2017, 05:50:25 PM
Well, I was adopted when I was 3, then those folks got divorced when I was 10, and I went to a boy's camp for a couple of years. Then I went to a foster home for four years, then I was in an orphanage for a couple of years, then got in trouble with the law and was "encouraged" to join the service when I was 17.


So, who raised me?

It could even be the favorite authors/characters you read before you were 21.  Have any real or fictional heroes you take after?  My situation was more stable, so I was able to imprint off my adoptive parents (their good points only).  But I have had many real and fictional heroes, because of all I have read.  I am still growing ... over 12 feet tall now.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

I didn't spend much time reading in those days. So no idols, no heroes, role models. It was purely an act of self-creation.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

Quote from: Unbeliever on June 16, 2017, 06:23:21 PM
I didn't spend much time reading in those days. So no idols, no heroes, role models. It was purely an act of self-creation.

Sorry, but psychotic individualism ... isn't a good thing.  I am sure you took after some musicians, movie stars or sports stars.  Are you sure you weren't kept locked in a basement for 40 years and dreamt the rest of it?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

trdsf

The whole idea of the comoving distance to the edge of the universe hurts my brain.  But it's a good kind of hurt, like chiles.  Those quasars 13 billion light years away are actually 46 billion light years because space has expanded since then.  Ow.  Mentally yummy, but ow.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Cavebear

Quote from: trdsf on July 06, 2017, 01:07:59 PM
The whole idea of the comoving distance to the edge of the universe hurts my brain.  But it's a good kind of hurt, like chiles.  Those quasars 13 billion light years away are actually 46 billion light years because space has expanded since then.  Ow.  Mentally yummy, but ow.

Even worse, THOSE quasars have the same distance on the other side from us.  And so to those.

When "they" say the universe is 13 billion years old, they only mean the part we can see.  It logically spreads further.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Baruch

Quote from: trdsf on July 06, 2017, 01:07:59 PM
The whole idea of the comoving distance to the edge of the universe hurts my brain.  But it's a good kind of hurt, like chiles.  Those quasars 13 billion light years away are actually 46 billion light years because space has expanded since then.  Ow.  Mentally yummy, but ow.

You have to get into projective geometry ... weirder than Riemannian geometry (of GR).  In higher math, you can't visualize, you have to make up a symbolic game, and play out the game.  Like tick-tac-toe with yourself, all legal moves being allowed.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.