I don’t have the intelligence to fully understand this. If I used a random three-digit number generator and it presented me with 845, why is this not random? Explain it like you would to a simpleton.
What laws does that three-digit random number generator follow? That three-digit random number generator is the seed, the safe seed. If it was built to generate only a 3 digit random number and everything built from that was based on those 3 digits what would happen if it returned a 2 digit result or a 4 digit result when it was not supposed to? The seed makes sure it follows a pattern. I have yet to see any truly random number generator that isn't ultimatelt based off a seeded value, whether that value is a device built to generate 3 random digits or the seed being the laws of physics. There is always a seed that randomness is based off to ensure everything works properly.
Makes me wonder if randomness actually exist in our universe? Sure an asteroid landing in your kitchen might seem like a random event, but it has had quiet the journey to get there... so has every particle, every atom, every single thing, right? Everything has had a journey to get to where it is.
The value of pi is not a radom value. If you calculated pi to 3 decimal places the result would always be the same 3.141. 141 being the first 3 digits after the decimal place. It doesn't change for each different calculation it is used in. pi is pi and it is not a random number. pi to 6 decimal places is 3.141592. In some scientific experiments pi is used as the seed to a random number generator.
When I, or anyone can understand the world of quantum mechanics, I or they will be the people or persons most qualified to answer this.
I thought one of the first things they worked out about quantum mechanics was that the laws of physics contain true randomness - and that article is about different approaches the technology can take to bringing that randomness into the calculation. But my point was that if the laws of physics contain true randomness, how does true randomness break them (and therefore the universe)?
Let's say for the sake of it that quantum particles (subatomic particles) are capable of true randomness. Here's a pic that might explain what i mean. If the quantum realm is truly random then there is something inbetween quantum mechanics and relativity that filters out results from the quantum world that would break the atomic world. That's why we have, currently, 2 different systems. Relativity and quantum mechanics. The line filters out possibilities that would break everything above the quantum realm. It is the seed by which every value the atomic world is derived from.
The laws of physics contain true random values. Remove the laws of physics and what will you get? True randomness not based off a seed. The random values possible in the laws of physics are random only in the container they are in i.e. the laws of physics. Think about what would happen if true random events were allowed i.e. true random values? I think you are failing to understand what it menas with regards to randomness, and true randomness.
I thought true random events were allowed - I remember they used quantum tunnelling to transmit Beethoven through a brick faster than the speed of light. It's that the randomness does scale up to the atomic world? Certainly that didn't break the universe. I wish they would be a little more cautious though in these experiments in case of black holes. And this line isn't real is it - it's a conceptual line so that the two respective systems of physics don't contradict each other
Think about it this way. Imagine if pi was a radom number each time it was used and not 3.141? Imagine if pi went from 3.141 in one instance to 2.987 in the other, how would the universe be then? That is what I mean by true randomness not being allowed. Everything seems to be based off a safe seed.
Does the universe use pi? Or is number metaphysical? And how does the randomness of subatomic particles' energy-states make pi random? I wonder if, like all infinities are not equal, not all numbers might be random.
It was an example I used, that's all. If truly random events were allowed then the value of pi could change. What would happen then? It would mean this would break: pi is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle 3.141 Now make the laws of our universe work in exactly the same way with pi being 576.987
Maybe:- it can, but the probability of it doing so at a scale we need to bother about is infinitesmally small. I'm thinking of pi as a human ratio that we're deriving from observation and then reimposing. Pure mathematics deals with perfect points and lines that can't exist in nature to experience randomness. So pi is still true there. All the particles in our circle we're studying might vanish - but on average they don't. And at the scale where the probabilities are noticeable we're usually talking individual particles aren't we? Which we can't make into circles anyway so no need of pi.
imo you can’t really break mathematics or any science, a game changing discovery would just open up new fields of research
I'm not sure I've followed this thread well. I thought what Amon was saying was that the possibility of true randomness would destroy the universe... by making pi a random number like 529 instead of 3. We'd have to watch the plugholes in sinks in case they suddenly grew and intersected with us. But we couldn't, because we'd have extremely tiny pupils.
The stuff of science fiction continues to become reality. Scientists are constructing a nano-robot built entirely from DNA and will use it to study the mechanical forces of certain cell processes at microscopic levels. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220728075911.htm
This is one of the benefits of my job. I get to see oddities like this in progress. This appear to be one of those strange incidences where biology and materials science overlap. I'm wondering what the SEM images of this thing look like. By "built entirely from DNA" do you mean engineered structural growth?
Yes, it's engineered, in something called the DNA origami method, using the DNA as construction material. In the image below, DNA origami object from viral DNA visualized by electron tomography. The map is at the top and atomic model of the DNA colored below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_origami
Oooo it's actually small enough to be a part of my field! Transmission electron tomography is pretty cool. Looks like they used electron detectors and Bright field/dark field apertures reconciled with the early generations of the tomography program. But that reconstruction is a pretty old program iteration. 15 years ago on the cover of Nature is a lifetime in TEM and structural biology. Nowadays there's simply a lot more detailed imaging programs with better applications abilities. I wonder how much further they've gotten with this. Seems a lot of hypothesized or theorized applications, but little movement.
The Osprey is unique amoung North American raptors for its ability to dive into water and catch live fish. Ospreys can completely submerge themselves underwater and still be able to fly away with their prey. Most other fish-eating birds of prey can only pluck fish from the surface of the water as they fly by. When they dive into the water, Osprey close their third eyelid – called a nictitating membrane – which is semi-transparent. It acts like goggles and helps them see clearly beneath the water. When Osprey carry their prey, they always re-position the fish so that its head faces forward in a streamlined position for transporting through the air. https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/osprey/osprey
