The Nineteenth Byte

7:00 PM

@flawr No, I was writing mine while you were editing your original. I posted it and it refreshed the comment, so I deleted mine.

flawr

Ah I saw '1 more comment' but when I clicked it it disappeared. But I really never understood the true meaning of *ninja'd*, I think I need a proper definition=)

perhaps something like "you've ninja'd someone if you say the same thing as they do, but faster" ?

Martin Büttner

@flawr you've ninja'd someone if you say the same thing as they do, but faster

TheNumberOne

If you are traveling 99% the speed of light away from the earth, and you turn on a flashlight pointing in your direction of travel, how fast do the light rays travel relative to you.

Geobits

How official do you want? Martin's word is law (obviously), but here's another "source": urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ninja%27d

@TheNumberOne You don't care, because you're dead already.

Sven The Surfer

@Geobits With that attitude...

Geobits

7:05 PM

He didn't say anything about a ship. Just sayin', naked near-light-speed travel probably isn't comfortable :P

Optimizer

@TheNumberOne you have achieved the pinnacle of scientific discovery and all you care about is a flashlight?

TheNumberOne

@Optimizer No, only the light rays coming from the flashlight.

Optimizer

I would rather stop instantly to see a blackhole forming due to the massive amount of force and then escape that blackhole by warping through its center to the other dimension..

flawr

If we are already talking about black holes: spaghettization is what you need to know about.

TheNumberOne

@Optimizer There are easier ways to make a blackhole.

Geobits

7:07 PM

I think stopping instantly would be far more uncomfortable than the travel itself.

Optimizer

@TheNumberOne "alleged"

flawr

@TheNumberOne For example in the very back of the desk drawer at the very bottom of my desk there must be one. Nothing ever came out of there.

Geobits

All you really need to do is throw a few stars together, right? How hard could that be?

Martin Büttner

one is potentially enough

(depending on the star)

Geobits

I'm trying to figure out how to throw a star at itself :)

Martin Büttner

7:14 PM

let me know when you do

Optimizer

we can just wait millions of years for Sol to become one

Geobits

@MartinBüttner You'll probably notice.

Martin Büttner

@Optimizer not going to happen

Optimizer

@MartinBüttner touche

Martin Büttner

our sun won't even become become a neutron star

Optimizer

7:15 PM

I am pretty sure that our science has not evolved yet to know that for a fact

Martin Büttner

sure it has

Chandrasekhar limit

The Chandrasekhar limit (/tʃʌndrəˈʃeɪkɑr/) is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The limit was first indicated in papers published by Wilhelm Anderson and E. C. Stoner, and was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian astrophysicist who independently discovered and improved upon the accuracy of the calculation in 1930, at the age of 19, in India. This limit was initially ignored by the community of scientists because such a limit would logically require the existence of black holes, which were considered a scientific impossibility at the time. White dwarfs resist gravitational...

Geobits

There's just not enough mass.

Optimizer

we have not seen any star's full life cycle.

its all based on theories

Martin Büttner

@Optimizer so is gravity, right? :P

Optimizer

gravity is practical.

Geobits

7:16 PM

So are black holes?

Optimizer

yes (as per the claims)

but then, who knows.

I am just saying that I am all up for possibilities different that what current theories suggest

orlp

one of my gripes

with current astrophysics

is that a lot of it sounds like overfitting

'oh shit our theories totally fall apart - every galaxy should drift apart'

'let's invent 'dark matter' that keeps shit together'

Geobits

My main gripe is that the more I read about astrophysics, the less likely I feel it is that I will ever live off-Earth :(

orlp

'but we can't possibly test that, we can't observe dark matter'

'isn't that great? :D'

@Geobits I think our only hope for interstellar travel is if we somehow become capable of bending space

it's clear that with the expanding universe any velocity-based transport is doomed to fail

Geobits

Yea... :( Like I said, the more I read the more unlikely that sounds.

Martin Büttner

7:21 PM

@orlp off-Earth doesn't really require interstellar travel

flawr

@orlp is there non-velocity based transort?

orlp

@MartinBüttner fair enough

Sven The Surfer

@Geobits Why live off-Earth? I can't think of a better planet.

xnor

is there a short way to take the greater of two numbers in Pyth?

orlp

@flawr wormholes, alcubierre drive, etc

@xnor eS,ab

Geobits

7:22 PM

@SvenTheSurfer Because why not? I like traveling :D

xnor

@orlp yeesh, 3 chars

Optimizer

@SvenTheSurfer because we don't know one yet

@xnor e> get wreckt :P

orlp

@Optimizer either that's very positive

(e.g. we will discover better planets)

or every negative

(we will fuck up earth incredibly)

Optimizer

^ gonna happen

Geobits

I think #2's more likely :P

Martin Büttner

7:24 PM

@orlp likely both

Optimizer

@Geobits ninja'd :P

Geobits

The problem with discovering a better planet is that then we have to actually get to it for it to matter.

There certainly isn't a better one nearby.

Optimizer

agreed, also, with current viewing tech. we would probably be looking at atleast millions of years old picture..

Martin Büttner

@Geobits maybe we could terraform one

Optimizer

and there is no way that a space mission to the planet will be sanctioned given that we have no idea how the planet looks like now.

xnor

7:25 PM

@Optimizer how does that work?

Geobits

@MartinBüttner That would be awesome. We'd have to be careful, though, or we'll mess up the sandworm ecosystem. The spice must flow.

Martin Büttner

@xnor in cjam

Optimizer

for all we know.. some other alien species is right now looking at million year old Earth and getting all excited about how rich of resources and natural beauty it is! :D

Martin Büttner

@Optimizer xkcd.com/1342

@Geobits oh yeah... we also don't want to ruin those nice floating islands

orlp

what annoys me about the universe

is that is seems very, very, very, very, very big

but actually really, really, really young

Optimizer

7:28 PM

its all relative

orlp

consider this