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Posted by hhs 19 hours ago

Einstein's relativity rules chemical bonds in heavy elements, new research shows(www.brown.edu)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aei1285
341 points | 148 commentspage 2
14 15 hours ago|
I had a couple drinks so having one of those moments. I am always so fascinated by the science and experiments done to prove what we know. I consider myself at least of average intelligence probably slightly above but the things scientists research and solve always blows me away.

My guess to the Fermi paradox is that there actually are intelligent life across the universe but just like in Star Trek they stay quiet until we reach a certain level of knowledge.

devmaster2 5 hours ago||
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zkmon 14 hours ago|
In general, anything that is observed to be true at a smaller scale or context can't be extended to much larger scales. That involves assumptions on logic and mathematics to be homogenous across all scales. A pure theoretical extrapolation without bounds is quite common in mathematics, such as proof by induction etc.

Also, the foundational axioms of logic themselves could be valid only at a scale that is familiar to humans. For example, the strict bounday between true and false might get blurred and things could be true and false at the same time at other scale.

red75prime 13 hours ago||
> things could be true and false at the same time at other scale.

Being true and false at the same time is a contradiction. But yeah, there is such a thing as mathematical intuitionism that rejects the law of excluded middle (which is not "being true and false at the same time"). It's just one philosophical stance among others though.

zkmon 9 hours ago|||
It is a contradiction only because you chose to call it so, or you built a framework that interprets something as a contradiction. Logic and mathematics are built on shaky grounds on larger scale.

Similar to how Earth's tectonic plates are floating on liquid magma, while appearing to be fully solid and fixed at the surface.

red75prime 3 hours ago||
Attempts to formalize dialectics do exist, but it mostly stays at a word-weaving level.
worldthruword 7 hours ago|||
Isn't superposition a contradiction for classical physics? Being partly here and there.
red75prime 3 hours ago||
Classical physics doesn't have particles that are simultaneously here and not here. It's a discrepancy between theory and experiment. And there's no point of accepting contradictory statements that are both true to deal with that. You can't fix a wrong description of reality by using some fancy logic that allows (apparent) contradictions.
vatsachak 13 hours ago||
P ^ not P => _|_

The axioms of a logic that are consistent will definitely not let a statement be true and false at the same time.

zkmon 9 hours ago||
Those axioms do not have a basis other than observations at human scale.