The Factory Floor

Green

01:47

@Shalvenay hey, how goes it?

Shalvenay

03:09

@Green alright, had my first raw oyster today :D

Secret

05:37

Hauntology

Hauntology (a portmanteau of haunting and ontology) is a concept coined by philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Spectres of Marx. The term refers to the situation of temporal, historical, and ontological disjunction in which the apparent presence of being is replaced by a deferred non-origin, represented by "the figure of the ghost as that which is neither present, nor absent, neither dead nor alive." The concept is derived from Derrida's deconstructive method, in which any attempt to locate the origin of identity or history must inevitably find itself dependent on an always-already existing...

We really need an umbrella term to describe things like amotality, nowhere, nowhen, partial existence etc.

Because that might be the true nature of ??? in that diagram i drew many weeks ago where things like limbo and oblivion arises

??? = some 'thing' that fit into no categories and has the potential to be an anomaly and hence breaking the rules within any systems imposed on it. By itself, it and its related concepts obey very few rules. It can be any of those categories, or none of them, or such classification or description simply not apply

and hauntology seemed to be governing the temporal facet of ??? based on the description of that philosophy

Identity (philosophy)

In philosophy, identity, from Latin: identitas ("sameness"), is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles (if x and y share all their properties, are they one and the same thing?), and questions about change and personal identity over time (what has to be the case for a person x at one time and a person y at a later time to be one and the same person?). It is important to distinguish the philosophical concept of identity from the more well-known notion of identity in use in psychology...

Hmm..., ??? is not an unknown (except maybe by name), thus they has an identity of sorts

Secret

06:12

(Notes jotted down: Add "Abstract" to the shopping list, will sort that out later)

dot_Sp0T

10:26

Those 'disputed' flags are really getting me. If the OP of a question does flag an answer as NAA shouldn't that be reason enough to treat it as such?

Secespitus

@dot_Sp0T People don't see who flagged something. Did you leave comments that explained why it doesn't answer your question? Was it a frame-challenge that you think was badly executed where others might disagree and think that it's acceptable as a frame-challenge?

dot_Sp0T

@Secespitus It was not adressing the question. It was elaborating on facts already defined in the question that are not changeable.

But yeah, I assumed users that can see these flags also see the user who flagged

Secespitus

10:42

I looked through my review history. I was one of the people who said it looked okay. While skimming the answer I read stuff about shielding and energy and something about half-lifes and no moving parts and decades to centuries. I should have looked closer, but the things I remembered from initially reading your question seemed to be discussed in that answer and as there was no comment discussion I gave it the benefit of doubt. I flagged it again and upvoted your comment, sorry.

dot_Sp0T

No bother

It's my fault for not spending (even) more time on telling people what the question is not about.

I might push another question just about looking for a coolant fluid that does not degrade over the course of decades to centuries and then simply stay with my obviously flawed solution hoping nobody inspects it too closely

btw is it common practice to just skim answers and qs on the review queue..? I mean I just skip everything that I don't want to take a serious look at

Secespitus

10:59

I skip everything that I don't want to read, but when reviewing I tend to skip words I don't know like radioisotope thermoelectric generators. That's what I call skimming. Normally I catch whether an answer adheres to the basic question, like "Does it discuss shielding?". Together with the benefit of doubt because nobody told the author what's wrong I won't go and just delete his stuff.

Secret

11:49

I have many levels of skimming text:

1. Random skimming: Basically read the text as if it is one whole block and let the eye to capture as many words randomly in the paragraph as i can within 1-2 second

2. Quick horizontal scanning: Read from the first line and scan from left to right, ensure not to look at each word more than 1-3 seconds. The emotions and the brain's own guessing routine will then kick in as what you consciously thought to be an growing pile of half read and incomprehensible words, then let your brain to do all the guesswork by the intuition alone

3. Quick detail scanning: Look for keywords by running through the lines quickly

4. Quick detailed scanning: Similar to 2, but ensure every word you at least understand. Google comes in very handy here

Future Historian

12:09

Back.......

So, let me guess: the Visitors would probably not even consider our artworks as art?

@FerretCivilization? How would the UV light vision affect their culture and technological development?

Say for example: would they see our works of art as dull at best and ugly at worst? How advanced would they be in astronomy early on compared to humans? That kind of thing.

@dot_Sp0T? Just out of curiosity sake, would the Visitors being able to see through both the UV and visible light spectrums would make them consider our artworks as.....well, NOT art?

dot_Sp0T

@FutureHistorian I would say that this is one of the freedoms you, as a writer, have. Seeing something as art or not art is an 'ability' that is conditioned into us by culture and personal need for freedom and expression. It is something very different to each of us. So I do not think there is a scientific answer that can be used here.

Future Historian

Oh.

Well, I just want to know how UV light perception plays an influence.

dot_Sp0T

It does play an influence on perceiving an image, and seeing detail. It does not have an influence on what a culture defines to be art though I'd say

Future Historian

That makes sense.

dot_Sp0T

There have been many attempts to classify art and to my understanding none of these has been useful over the whole spectrum. I personally see everything that is created by people as art, as there is no way for someone to do something without having their personal aestethics play a role in the process

Future Historian

12:22

Hmmmm. Good point.

I wonder how Mona Lisa would look like from a UV light perspective or Michaelangelo's work.

dot_Sp0T

Then there are some people for whom art must have a certain price-tag attached to it first

@FutureHistorian google.com/search?q=mona+lisa+uv+light

Ferret Civilization

Ha, you asked me that already.

Future Historian

So, basically, something like a green-ish thing.

But then again, the Visitors also see visible light.

As in: they have three UV light receptors and three visible light receptors.

dot_Sp0T

Yeah, but now there's an issue: How do they process light? Have you read the shrimp article yesterday?

Future Historian

12:44

Not in detail.

But I perhaps should.

Hmmmmm. This is one weird species.

16 different light receptors, 12 different colours and six UV light receptors and filters.

Wait a minute.

Hmmmmmmm.

@dot_Sp0T? Just how deep below the ocean do those shrimps live?

Oh.

Subtropical, shallow ocean environments.

And tropical ones as well.

And....oh, bloody hell, it is already weirder than I thought.

dot_Sp0T

13:03

From my understanding of the article it seems that the shrimps have more receptors so perception does not need to be processed by the brain and instead reactions can be hardwired into the system.

Johnny

G'morning.

Secespitus

Good afternoon @Johnny

Johnny

I never expected my question about centaur-mounted guns to get so popular.

I'm wondering if I should start a centaur warfare discussion.

Secespitus

13:23

Sometimes you are looking and hit the HNQ which brings in lots of views. Congratulations, especially if the concept is funny.

Johnny

What's the HNQ?

Secespitus

Hot Network Questions

Johnny

Ah, perhaps that was it.

Secespitus

Pretty sure I've seen it there.

Johnny

That's pretty cool.

I guess people liked the creative humour of the engineering problem.

Secespitus

13:47

Mixing mythology and engineering is a big part of what this site is about

James

15:00

Morning wubbers.

AndyD273

@James Morning!

James

Whats shakin?

@dot_Sp0T I don't know what the context was but no one fears you...

dot_Sp0T

@James at least two people do according to the starboard starboard

James

15:15

Those are pity stars.

dot_Sp0T

@James well, you have to know

Johnny

I don't really understand.

James

@Johnny Care to specify your conundrum?

Johnny

Something about starboard starboard, and pity stars, and I have to know.

Future Historian

Back.

So, I had an idea.

Secespitus

15:19

@Johnny On the right side of the chat you can see chat messages that were starred by users. That's called the starboard. One of dot's messages is starred and says "Fear me mortals", but James is our Allmighty Overlord of far too many names

Future Historian

In War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells mentioned some sort of black smoke that is used as a chemical weapon by the Martians in 1897 classic. Does this mean that H.G. Wells predicted the use of chemical weapons in WWI?

Secespitus

@Johnny You can star messages by hovering over them and clicking on the star on the right side. BTW: The arrow besides the star allows to respond to a certain message, which will leave a little arrow on the left of the posted message so that you can follow the conversation if multiple conversations are happening simultaneously.

Johnny

Oh, I thought you were talking to me.

That explains it.

Future Historian

@Secespitus? Question: do you feel H.G. Wells predicted the use of chemical weapons in WWI (by accident)?

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian I have no idea what you are talking about. (Like most of the time.)

5

Future Historian

15:25

I mean War of the Worlds in particular.

The novel.

It actually features the use of chemical weapons on account of the Martians.

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian I have never read that novel.

AndyD273

@Johnny Right = Starboard, So Starboard Starboard

Future Historian

Oh, right.

SPOILER ALERT: Halfway through the book, the Martians use chemical weapons to wipe out an entire artillery division during the Battle of London, as I will henceforth call it, by the use of some sort of black smoke (which is not exactly scientifically accurate in hindsight, but perhaps was for its time) that literally chokes people to death on contact.

In fact, this was during the initial offensive along Richmond and Kingston Hills respectively.

The Martians in the novel managed to use chemical weapons to breach the defences in London.

And there. I just spoiled literally the halfway portion of the book.

@AndyD273? You think H.G. Wells predicted chemical weapons by accident?

Considering that after the 1897 publication, chemical weapons were used in WWI.

AndyD273

@FutureHistorian I'd be surprised if the idea hadn't been thought of, even if no one had used in war.

Future Historian

@AndyD273? You mean prior to WWI?

Well, in that case, you might want to see this.

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells first serialised in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the mos...

In fact, there is a subsection at the end of this section that details the use of chemical weapons in WWI.

And I quote from the opening sentence of that first paragraph in that subsection.

"Wells's description of chemical weapons – the Black Smoke used by the Martian fighting machines to kill human beings in great numbers – was a daily reality less than 17 years later.[23]"

Martian fighting machines = Martian tripods.

AndyD273

15:38

Hmm, it could be that he had the idea first. Fritz Haber was working on developing some of his processes in his 1897, but I don't know if it was generally known, or if the theory of poison gas had been expressed before that by anyone else.

Fritz Haber

Fritz Haber (German: [ˈhaːbɐ]; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. This invention is of importance for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. The food production for half the world's current population depends on this method for producing nitrogen fertilizers. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid...

Future Historian

I know, but let us just say that H.G. Wells predicted the commonplace use of said weapons by accident.

After all: Syria uses chemical weapons as we speak, and Total War: World War I Edition had a little label in tiny letters saying "chemical weapons included".

Get it?

drums play in the background

@AndyD273? Still, you think that H.G. Wells may have had accidentally predicted WWI's use of chemical weapons?

Or do you think that H.G. Wells' inclusion of black smoke (as a representation of the general concept and common weapon of war) was probably just coincidential?

Future Historian

15:58

@AndyD273? Is it a good idea to post a question about "Which economic system would best be useful for managing and rebuilding an otherwise post-apocalyptic planet?"

Especially when talking about a planet under an extraterrestrial occupation?

0

Q: What kind of economic system would be needed to rebuild and manage Earth if it was occupied by extraterrestrials?

So, in this situation, it is 2024. More specifically, the 22nd of August of 2024. The majority of Earth's conventional armies have been wiped out, along with 3.9 billion human lives out of a pre-Invasion population of 8 billion beginning on the 17th of August of 2024. The last of the initial heav...

Not sure if this question being asked on the site is a good idea.

@Secespitus? Is asking the question I just linked a bad idea?

On the site, I mean?

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian You realize it's too late to ask this after posting it?

3

Future Historian

Possibly, but I will ask anyway.

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T I need someone with expertise in being swiss. The claim in the first comment of this post:

7

Q: What city (or cities) in the U.S. would be a good sanctuary after apocalypse?

After an apocalyptic event (worldwide weaponized plague knocks out 90% of the population, say), what city in the U.S. would make a good sanctuary for survivors and the new capital for the remnant government? I'm thinking proximity to natural resources, plenty of hospitals/research facilities for ...

society government apocalypse geography post-apocalypse

Is that Switzerland has nuclear shelters in every home, and enough shelters in the mountains for all their population and some extra people as well.

True or false?

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian You already did.

kingledion

@FutureHistorian To answer your question, its a bad idea and that post will almost certainly be closed.

sphennings

16:14

@FutureHistorian Seriously dude slow down and think.

Secespitus

@FutureHistorian I added my close vote as well

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion true to some extent

In Switzerland every citizen is required to either build themselves an air-raid-/bomb-proof-shelter (the dictionary is throwing words at me here) with enough space for them and other people living in the same house(hold) OR pay for a space in the next closest public shelter. Public and bigger shelters are usually also rated as fallout shelters. So the part about there being enough space for the whole populace and some more people is def true

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T Thats pretty neat.

Are you guys prepping for a Nazi resurgence?

dot_Sp0T

In addition there are military and civil defense shelters and command shelters with additional space that are reserved for people that would serve and work during a crisis, they are usually a tad more luxurious in that they have multiple rooms, showers, toilets, freshwater storage, boilers, generators, sleeping rooms (3 story bunks, usually some 20-30 * 3 beds per room unless it's a city shelter, they can easily go 10-20 stories below ground with thousands of beds, etc.)

(cont) separated command areas, emp-secured radio equipment, phone equipment and all the fancy stuff

@kingledion no, that's just caring for the populace I guess

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T Well, in my next post apocalyptic truck question, I'm going to have the plot as driving my truck to Switzerland, then.

dot_Sp0T

16:26

so yeah the part about every home having nuclear shelters is def off. Home shelters are meant as shelters/safe-rooms, they won't withstand a nuclear blast or any serious radiation; only the military/civil defense shelters have rad-showers and scrubbing areas

Also most shelters in the mountain that I know off are either built/rented by companies providing safe storage for harddrives/documents ; or belong to the military and are off-limits to civilians. There's plenty of gun emplacements in these mountains though :)

kingledion

I feel like I need to build a civil defense shelter now. Maybe a sub-basement basement.

dot_Sp0T

And there's plenty of airplanes in the mountains :)

kingledion

Ok, general question for the chat room. I want to ask a question that roughly goes, "I wake up tomorrow in the magic land of whatever. The people are as human as I am, but the language grammar bears no resemblence to language families on earth, though the sounds are the same (i.e. I can make them). How long does it take me (an adult) to learn to communicate in this new language through total immersion?"

Close or no close?

Bellerophon

No close.

sphennings

I'm leaning towards close.

Secret

16:31

need more context...?

kingledion

@sphennings Since you're the closiest person around (except Molot), why?

sphennings

How long does it take someone to pick up a language isn't directly a worldbuilding thing.

kingledion

@Secret What do you need?

@sphennings It is certainly a reality check situation. I could propose a time that it might take

@sphennings What I really want is for people to find anecdotal evidence that I haven't found for this type of situation.

Secret

there should be at least some kind of syntax or grammar that is known even if resembles no human language, if the language is just an arbitrary language that resembles no human language, then there are so many factors to consider the learning curve of such language...?

sphennings

@kingledion I don't think that every reality check is a good fit for this site.

kingledion

16:34

@sphennings Ouch

HDE 226868

@kingledion Just FYI, there might be something similar to that on Language Learning SE.

sphennings

@kingledion I like the question. Linguistics is a personal interest of mine.

kingledion

@Secret Well it would be equivalent to me waking up in pre-historic Papua New Guinea, the language is unknown, and we don't know how unknown it is, but we can assume that if I had come there as a 1 year old, I would pick the language up like any other.

HDE 226868

The answer could probably be calculated based on linguistic distance. I do think it's borderline on/off-topic, to be honest.

kingledion

Hmm

HDE 226868

16:37

The problem is, those results are often determined empirically . . . which you couldn't do.

See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicostatistics.

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion there's also plenty of fortresses and huge caverns maintained by the military and off limits to even civil defense. Most people assume they are well maintained, but nobody but the actual military echelons know how much truth is to that

@kingledion close as opinion-based probably

kingledion

Bah humbug, I'm going to go sulk then

sphennings

@kingledion Have you looked at the openiest people on this site yet?

kingledion

@sphennings That would be Will, who has by far the most contributions while never casting a close vote. At least, as of the Datapalooza he had not.

Some other high rep, high vote users rarely vote to close, like CortAmmon.

sphennings

@kingledion I'm thinking vote to keep open / total close queue votes.

kingledion

16:51

I can't see that. Votes are only held ephemerally in the database. If a question goes a certain amount of time without being closed, the close votes vanish out of the database. You can see that with qustions that have maybe 2 close votes, then those close votes go away after a while

So Will may have close voted, but he never close voted on a question that eventually got closed.

sphennings

He doesn't seem like the type to VTC much. He's very good at "Yes, and" style answers.

kingledion

The site needs all kinds. Will just gets excited about the knowledge, it seems like. Loves finding out cool things to answer.

@sphennings One thing I don't think I can find from the public database is how many reviews people have done, so I don't know if he does the review queues much.

sphennings

@kingledion I've used this but it's numbers are very different than what you've come up with.

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/review/close/stats

I like their answers. It'd be nice them become more involved with the site.

kingledion

@sphennings Yeah, I'm reasonably certain that isn't available in the public database.

I think that is stripped on purpose so you can't use data explorer to cast aspersions at people who close-voted your question.

Which doesn't make that much sense, since you see who close voted if it eventually gets closed

I know that SE strips voting data from the public database, to ensure that votes are anonymous.

sphennings

I can understand why they make people who successfully VTC/VTO questions public.

kingledion

17:00

@sphennings But you know, another factor is that different people don't review different in the same way. For example, JDlugoz and Molot aren't that high in number of reviews done, but they both throw a ton of flags putting things into review.

And Secespitus has 288 all time reviews but 1105 all time edits

sphennings

Doesn't flagging something automatically turn it into a vote if you're of sufficient rep?

kingledion

So there are a lot of various ways to contribute

Yes, but it doesn't count as a review.

Thats only if you go through the queue.

sphennings

@kingledion That is true.

kingledion

@sphennings Wow so this guy if... has the marshal badge but basically no other contributions.

if....

133 3 3 9

And lets not forget gnat with over 16000 all time votes:

gnat

101 1 2 5

The way different people contribute fascinate me; I wish more of the data was public access.

sphennings

Those are some impressive edge cases.

Especially since gnat can't downvote so those all must be upvotes.

kingledion

17:11

I wonder if the system counts his downvotes, even though they are not visible?

dot_Sp0T

I need more upvotes

HDE 226868

@Green Out of curiosity, are you planning a math book question at some point, or is that getting bundled into the physics one by chance? I suppose pure math has less practicality than the other subjects, and the math you'd need to know would already be described in the other books.

dot_Sp0T

@HDE226868 I assumed he would pair Math with general Logic

kingledion

@sphennings Actually, there must be a way to see reviews, they are held for at least some time

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/review/close/42461

Yeah, and here is a review from site launch:

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/review/close/26

@sphennings So there must be some way to count people's review actions, since I could count them manually from user's 'All Action' tabs, if I didn't have anything to do for the next two weeks.

dot_Sp0T

3.5k to go for the 10k - I need more trainworld questions

kingledion

17:22

@dot_Sp0T You need more answers!

That is how us rep whores do it

2

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion but most questions already have good answers when I get a look at them

HDE 226868

Yeah, I've found that answers are more efficient than questions. They tend to get more votes, and each vote is +10 rather than +5.

The thing is, you're at the mercy of others to ask a question about a topic you know enough about.

Ferret Civilization

Has anyone used the answer your own question feature successfully here?

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion don't you want to ask something I can answer with my extensive knowledge of Switzerland?

HDE 226868

@FerretCivilization Several times, yes. A couple times a while after the fact - in one case, I wrote two answers months later - and a couple times right off the bat.

dot_Sp0T

17:24

@FerretCivilization @kingledion that might be something for the next datapalooza

Ferret Civilization

Then where is the need for being at someone else's mercy, ha.

kingledion

@FerretCivilization I've done it several times

@dot_Sp0T The secret to rep whoring is to get in on questions that you think might hit the HNQ bar within the first 12 hours.

HDE 226868

I only usually do it if 1) I have a decent idea but still need more suggestions, or 2) I've gotten loads of answers and haven't gotten many satisfactory ones.

kingledion

Then, as long as you have a good answer, you can rep cap for a couple days, no need to be the first answer

So you want to answer every question that you think might be good, with a reasonably well researched answer. Also, spiffy formatting and pictures help.

dot_Sp0T

How do you get rid of the feeling dirty at the end of a rep-whoring day?

Bellerophon

17:27

@dot_Sp0T Just make 20 sock puppet accounts and have each of them upvote every one of your answers.

dot_Sp0T

@Bellerophon that is brilliant

HDE 226868

. . . and illegal.

Ferret Civilization

If you get caught.

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T For example, this question I was the 5th to answer, 12 hours after it was posted

48

Q: The 10'000 year skyscraper

If someone wanted to construct skyscrapers (bigger being better) that would survive thousands of years without maintenance, what would they make it out of? It can be built from any plausible current/cutting edge/semi-futuristic materials but should be something that you can actually picture peop...

reality-check architecture construction

dot_Sp0T

that is horrible

kingledion

17:30

@dot_Sp0T And to answer your question, on a good rep whoring day, I have all day to get over it, since I rep capped this morning before I even got to work :)

dot_Sp0T

yuck the answers filter only does more-than comparisons

I remember rep-capping multiple times over on gamedevSE once, it was horrible

kingledion

Haha

dot_Sp0T

I wanted to scream at these people to stop upvoting my answer

kingledion

Now you know what JonSkeet feels every day

stackoverflow.com/users/22656/…

dot_Sp0T

don't make me James my drink

5

kingledion

17:34

The most impressive true Jon Skeet fact is that he has averaged over 265 rep per day since Stack Overflow launched.

dot_Sp0T

I wish starboard starboard stars would give rep

I don't feel bad using James name in vain, and it gets me plenty of virtual recognition

@kingledion also that is sick

kingledion

For comparison, that is the same amount of rep as the highest ever week average on Worldbuilding

HDE 226868

I wonder if I've ever hit 265 rep on a single day here.

kingledion

...Lets find out!

HDE 226868

Oh, wait, I have. At least one bounty of +400.

And one of 350.

kingledion

17:38

You did, four times

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/627/…

On the 350 bounty you gave away a 100 bounty the same day and barely made it :)

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion did I?

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T If I tell you, you'll just feel dirty, and I wouldn't want that

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion make me feel dirty

wait, that was wrong

kingledion

Ummm....I think I have to go to lunch....

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion you better run, better run

kingledion

17:41

Ok, when I get back I do have one thing to investigate: you may have the record for most negative rep in one day. You got -597 on Dec 13th for putting out 600 in bounties.

Bellerophon

Wow, Amazon's delivery times are a little inaccurate. I ordered a trumpet mouthpiece yesterday, it said it would take a week to arrive and yet it arrived today.

Ferret Civilization

Better to surprise than disappoint eh.

Bellerophon

I guess.

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/89953/17720 needs reopening.

dot_Sp0T

18:03

@Bellerophon ?

Green

18:22

@Bellerophon that's better than one of my recent deliveries where they shipped USPS to an Amazon facility then did the last mile delivery to a post office address. Bros! Just ship it USPS the whole way!

HDE 226868

18:50

@Bellerophon I ordered three textbooks from Amazon and was told they'd be delivered together by today. Only one has gotten here so far. I assume the others didn't survive the journey. Or perhaps this book ate the other two. A sort of book-delivery Donner party.

kingledion

@HDE226868 Maybe this textbook is a McLeod? There can be only one textbook! Presumably, this book now has the knowledge of all three.

dot_Sp0T

So if I eat books I can absorb their knowledge just as well? Or would I need to eat the author?

HDE 226868

@kingledion Well, I'll have fun learning pure math from a physics textbook, then.

kingledion

@dot_Sp0T You'd need to eat the author

And good news @dot_Sp0T you are officially the WB member who has lost the most rep in one day! Yay for Data Science, where everyone can be in first place!

Seoncd place is Jim2B who lost 525 on three bounties on Jul 12 2015

HDE 226868

What's dot_Sp0T's record total?

kingledion

18:56

-597

HDE 226868

That's impressive.

Ender Look

0

A: Only Three Books: Restarting Medicine after civilization collapses

deez nuts deez nuts deez nuts deez nuts

Secespitus

@EnderLook Thanks for bringing it to the chat

HDE 226868

Boom.

Ferret Civilization

Take the picture for the meme, there is never enough.

kingledion

19:04

Keep an eye on his profile, fellow chatters. These sorts of trolls tend to strike more than once.

He's already asked a dumb question to close vote

Secespitus

@kingledion Pretty sure I've seen it two or three times today with something that should be closed / deleted

Green

19:19

Would someone check my reasoning on my three books for medicine answer? It makes sense in my head but I don't work in the medical field.

sphennings

@Green Medicine is a broad subject. Three books on the fundamentals of surgery is a different three books than 3 books about drug interactions, or oncology, or radiation therapy, or stem cell based treatments, or emergency medicine, or first aid, or childbirth, or geriatric medicine, or....

dot_Sp0T

@kingledion YAY

@kingledion can't, the answer is gone so I cannot find im

sphennings

@dot_Sp0T worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/46602/justin-koski

Green

@sphennings true and that's the same problem that physics and chemistry have too. All these fields are stupendously complex and highly interrelated. I'm aiming for a level of development where one person might really know everything...or close.

sphennings

@Green No three books can encapsulate that for physics, chemistry, or medicine.

The more advanced you get in any field the more specialized you get.

There's not way to encompase the knowledge in any field into 3 books.

kingledion

19:30

@sphennings You don't have to encompass all the knowledge, that isn't what the questions are asking. You have to lay the foundation for rebuilding the knowledge

The key is teaching experimentation and fundamental breakthroughs

IMO that is easy for Chemistry, not so easy for Physics, impossible for Medicine

sphennings

Then the question should ask for which three books would provide enough foundational knowledge to be able to bootstrap the rest with time.

@kingledion Another tack would be to have some other specific goal for having the three books. Say "What three books would provide sufficient knowledge to be able to synthesize basic medicine?"

or produce an integrated circuit.

kingledion

I like the questions the way they are :)

sphennings

@kingledion I'm kind of iffy about them. I was on the leave open side for the first few but I put my vote in on the medicine one.

@kingledion Don't get me wrong I like the question. It's a conversation I've had with friends of mine on multiple occasions. I'm increasingly skeptical that WB is the place for them.

dot_Sp0T

this is glorious

Green

@sphennings I thought they said that already.

kingledion

19:47

@sphennings What is worldbuilding for then?

We can't narrow the scope of our site out of existence

What i imagine that worldbuilding is for, is an online reference, like stack exchange\

Instead of asking questions, people go there to find answers to questions already asked

That is why we should have a wide scope of questions, well answered and clearly formatted

Then eventually, the internet search gods will catch up with us, and everyone who ever wants to know if you can move the earth to prevent global warming can find the answer on Worldbuilding

Obviously, we aren't there yet, there aren't a lot of searches that lead you here

sphennings

@kingledion If we go down the list of reasons to close a question off topic, unclear, too broad, POB. I have very iffy responses to most of the questions.

kingledion

But I think that is supposed to be the end goal. A wide range of answers makes the site more applicable to more people

sphennings

@kingledion I think that's a great goal for the site.

kingledion

I think that getting to that goal requires an expansive view of 'on-topic'

sphennings

@kingledion That I don't necessarily agree with.

Future Historian

19:54

I am alive.

Sorry about the mess.

:(

I will rewrite the question soon (Internet died earlier trying to do exactly that).

sphennings

In particular I think that questions that could be about worldbuilding, or the real world should make the effort to clearly be a worldbuilding question.

Mostly because it forces the OP to put in some effort to fit into the SE model.

kingledion

My take on Worldbuilding is that if it requires imagination, it is worldbuilding. Imagination + Physics = closed question. Imagination + Worldbuilding = HNQ bar and many reps

sphennings

Optimizing For Pearls, Not Sand

Jeff Atwood on June 13, 2011

In March 2010, we rebalanced our reputation system to favor answers.

While we value good questions (and asking a great question is absolutely an art), we want to explicitly encourage people to provide the best possible answers. Without people interested in providing good answers, the questions are moot. We know that answers have more intrinsic value than questions, and the reputation balance should reflect that.

The question asker already enjoys a substantial benefit beyond reputation gain from upvotes on their question — namely, they get great answers to their question! Thus, the asker shouldn’t need as much reputation gain. …

Future Historian

@sphennings? Is it too late to fix my question?

Or is there still time?

sphennings

@kingledion I'm all for imaginative questions as long as they are specific and answerable.

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