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Because we don't truly know what particles or waves are (in this context), the problem is human-imposed. Nature is doing just fine. We're the ones still playing in the mud.

We each have our strengths and weaknesses, Jon. Look at the parable of the Sower and the Seeds (from another thread in this forum.) You try to ride on your logical abilities because that's what you have. I, too, am logical and often get a "whack" from my dear wife because I overthink...

Nope. Matter isn't matter. It's an illusion caused by a vibrating string of an energy field. The whole universe is a projection - a hologram, perhaps - of whatever reality is related to vibrating energy strings. So God doesn't matter. (Whoops - ISN'T matter.) (Sorry, couldn't resist...

Or was it that their NURTURE define what freedom they had? Because part of their life involved conditioning to be content with the fact that they were a Delta or Epsilon and had to deal with muck.

The reason that Zeno's paradox doesn't apply is because the end goal is incorrectly chosen. You don't care about the finish line. You want one step OVER the finish line. Now, here is where the original paradox fails. I can take my original stopping point and add an inch to it and decide to...

Not a paradox, but rather an example of Goedel's Theorem at work. Basically, a language can be correct or complete but can't be both. In English, you can talk about "approaching infinity" as though such a thing could happen. The scientifically correct description is that something can...

Actually, MY viewpoint is that calling something "science fiction" or "fantasy" or "detective story" or "spy thriller" or "bodice ripper" is for the folks who WON'T have intellectual discussions after reading the book. They just want to bury themselves in print and that classification just...

No argument on the classic nature. But the book IS antithetical to personal freedom. Because in the nature/nurture argument, it is nearly 100% towards the "nature" side of the equation. Still a valuable reference for this discussion (and many others).

Agree, but folks have to remember this about the "grass is greener" syndrome. From a distance you can't tell how much fertilizer (didn't want to say "crap" TOO often) you will be standing in when you are in that field of greener grass.

Wikipedia, if they make that statement, is technically incorrect. The number in question approaches 1 and for all PRACTICAL purposes IS 1 - but technically it is not 1. The infinite series will always be infinitesimally less than one. Yes, I just challenged the accuracy of a statement in...

When you look at 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea you have to call that science fiction even if you realize that almost everything that Verne wrote about has come to pass. When you look at the fictional work, it may be unfair to compare it to current reality. How about something that I don't...

Congrats, Jon. I'll do my part.

Yes. Oh, you wanted more discussion? Take Arthur C Clarke, whose stories predicted many things that are reality today. Two cases in point: Orbiting communications satellites and noise-cancelling headphones. (The latter from his short story "Silence Please" from his collection Tales from the...

Yes, but Elizabeth Warren was outed pretty badly once it got out that she is less than 1/1024 Native American. That number is one such ancestor TEN GENERATIONS ago. Biologists tell us there is no such thing as race. There can be inherited characteristics from your parents, but the ultimate...

This is where limit theory becomes interesting. Two-part answer. In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is a ship that flies to the stars by using a variant of "quantum tunneling" called the "Infinite Improbability" drive. In essence, there is a non-zero (but very small) probability...

Zeno's paradox is fun. That's the one where you have a distance to travel. So you travel half the distance on the first day and half the remaining distance the second day, then half of what is left the third day. Do you ever get where you are going? I.e. you have to travel X miles. So you...

I have to answer some of these... People using this argument as a masculine/feminine thing need to understand that NO PERSON is ever paid what they think they are worth. They are paid what the boss thinks the job is worth. The task isn't to get government to mandate "normalized" pay. It is...

Bee, it's a great movie reference. For me, there is an issue of "big trust" vs. "little trust." For Palmer to believe that Ellie loved her father is an issue of "little trust." Doesn't take much faith to believe a person's statement that they loved thus and such a person. Almost no stretch...

Without doubt. The King James Version of the Bible is KNOWN by those who have researched it to be one of the most poetic translations but also one of the most biased. James II of England was a known misogynist and used the Monarch's Golden Rule: Them that has the gold makes the rules. He...

The USA has always tried to separate religion and government. This split has caused more grief than I care to contemplate. To me it would be a good thing if we finally became an atheist country. I doubt this will happen in Europe anytime soon because of all the Muslim refugees. In another...