What is "magical thinking"? And other philosphical confusions.
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, June 11, 2026 03:47
VIEWED: 3564
PAGE 3 of 5
You can buy a novelty toy in a store today, showing an arc lamp of plasma a glowing plasma ball for your kids bedroom, it is no longer a magical thing but a common Novelty Ornament Toy on a Shelf.
For now we still have an Unknown Myserty behind stories of Ball of Lightning, Ghost like Lights from the Marsh, Sprite lightning, Will-o'-the-wisp, Marfa lights, Hitodama, Brown Mountain Lights, Naga fireball off of these unexplained events might relate to a natural way nature has to contain charged Plasma and ionized particles.
Dancing Plasma in the Sky of Earth was once considered a magic 'Bushfire' from the heavens, Greek and Chinese legend written poems of Aurora, Benjamin Franklin stars to think logically and theorized in his paper towards forming an Hypothesis for its Explanation that an aurora was caused by a concentration of electrical charge in the polar regions intensified by the snow and moisture in the air.
Plasma is no longer magic, at one time Vikings or Siberian Eskimo or Aboriginal Australian looked to the skies and watched aurora borealis or southern lights (aurora australis) dancing colored shapes whipping and sway in the sky, we now today know through science that it is a state of matter in which an ionized substance becomes highly electrically conductive, it is the 4th state of matter beyond Solid, Liquid and Gas and perhaps very important for Fusion process, gas exists with energy and when there is enough energy in a system atoms will break into plasma, the 4th state of matter which can be directed by fields and confinement, you have plasma everywhere, flames, neo city lights, the Sun in the sky, natural lightning but it is no longer 'magic', it has a word today.
Digging up Dirt on the Moon as fuel or Making Plasma do work?
What is not to like ...well it has the world 'Nuclear' in it so even if it is as clean as 'The Sun' that Nuclear word is very 'Taboo'
we have Aussie Greens, the Canadian Greens, the France Greens French Les Verts, Germany Alliance 90 and The Greens the German Bündnis 90 Die Grünen, the Euro Greens almost sending the West back to the era of the Donkey with their economic policy...while pipelines explode and Russia gas cut and a Ukraine invasion but let's shut down even more energy reactors
Commercial Fusion probably can be done by Hybrid, 30 years might do it the fuel is abundant, it will easily match energy demands when cracked. It will be a secure energy supply sitting on rocks all over our Solar System, it makes no greenhouse gas, abundant energy. The other so-called 'Green' well there's a problem 100% renewable is not really possible it changes with the Clouds and the Sun and Tides and Winds it is an intermittent system very few regular intervals, some winters it is cold and the Sun won't come out, other times the Wind does not really blow. For an economical reliable grid Fusion could supply the electric energy market, industrial heat, desalination of waters can be powered by Fusion and remove the pollution sources that create Heat to 'Melt Iron' perhaps desalinate water, Fusion excess energy might clean waters or remove pollutants from the Air, a scifi idea of Atmospheric processing or Terraforming Mars might become a thing in the far future, if you want to cut certain pollutants Fusion might maintain Net-Zero excess pollution.
If and when it is cracked the entire grid of Earth changes within 30 years.
In history the horse was replaced by Chemical power and Steam Engines and the Internal combustion engine, animal power increased a thousand times,
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
JAYNZE I think I see what you're saying: we need to keep hope in the future alive, and believing that things can get better. If we don't, then even if there are improvements that can be made, we won't make them
Also - yes, fusion is real. Of course it is! It happens in our sun all the time! The question is, can we make it practical?
****
Anyway, for the most part you've tended to focus on technological development: fusion, fission, rocket engines and so forth.
Technology has done two HUGE things for us:
It's harnessed sources of if energy that allows us to DO MORE THINGS than our slow, tedious, limited muscle power could achieve. As KIKI pointed out, the evolution of technology has been one of harnessing fire, then animal power (plowing, drawing water from wells, grinding grain), water-power (water wheels powering saws, looms etc), wind (sail) power, steam power, oil and gas (ICE) power, electrical power, nuclear power.
It's allowed us to understand and control disease and other aspects of our environment.
All of the other stuff ... Cars, planes, television, smart phones etc... are icing on the cake.
*****
But DESPITE a technology that COULD solve most problems for most people, in fact IT DOESN'T. Large swaths of people are still planting, drawing water, and harvesting by hand. They still cut wood from the forest to cook their meals, walk their produce to the market, die from diseases that have been controlled elsewhere.
Is that a fault of technology??
Will more technology solve that problem?
I think what we have is a PEOPLE problem. And not people in general, just SOME people. A small minority, if you will. If you want to solve most of our problems, solve the human sociopath problem first. Figure out how to keep power from concentrating in so few (malign) hands.
Once we do that we can get back to weather control, or understanding entanglement or the million-and-one puzzles that the universe presents us with.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Magic belief?
Richard Feynman — the world from another point of view
https://twitter.com/whitepill_pw/status/1702337898903970222
As a child, Richard Feynman showed signs of skepticism. For example, when he found out Santa Claus wasn't real, he said he was relieved — the truth was much easier to explain than a story of a man delivering millions of gifts to millions of kids in one night.
In 1975, Feynman learned about Uri Geller, who claimed he could bend spoons with his mind. Given his natural skepticism about such things, Feynman managed to meet Geller at a Hollywood hotel. The meeting was a resounding failure for Geller, who failed to demonstrate his supposedly paranormal abilities
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yes, HOW can you "beam [useful amounts] of power", from one planet to another? Anything other than a laser would just disperse
A laser bean strong enough to draw power from would fry everything it touched
DARPA looks to laser to beam power across the world
https://newatlas.com/technology/darpa-laser-beam-power-across-distance
s/
Quote:
a test to deliver 10 kilowatts of laser power across 200 km (125 miles)
they say it is not a Death-Star
Quote:
A wireless energy web could unlock power from new and diverse sources, including from space, and rapidly and reliably connect them to energy-starved consumers.
In elonmusk
's biography by WalterIsaacson
, a detail emerges about his senior paper at the University of Pennsylvania.
https://twitter.com/whitepill_pw/status/1704228267585351919
The paper, which he wrote in 1994, titled "The Importance of Being Solar," presented a vision: a satellite would use mirrors to focus sunlight onto panels, which would then convert this sunlight into electricity. A microwave beam would then send this electricity back to Earth.
In January 2023, CalTech's Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) independently made a similar vision a reality. Their spacecraft, SSPD-1, launched with the aim of capturing solar energy in space and beaming it back to Earth. The craft successfully generated power on the ground, using a microwave power array to transfer the energy to Earth from orbit, which lit up a pair of LEDs on the roof of a Caltech lab in Pasadena.
Prescient.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Signym, your version of reality inspired a Firefly comic. It is the motivation for the latest Firefly comic: Firefly - The Fall Guys #1. If the sociopath Prime Minister is killed, life in the 'Verse will become wonderful once again rather than a hardship for all but the wealthy.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think what we have is a PEOPLE problem. And not people in general, just SOME people. A small minority, if you will. If you want to solve most of our problems, solve the human sociopath problem first. Figure out how to keep power from concentrating in so few (malign) hands.
https://getcomics.org/?s=firefly
https://getcomics.org/other-comics/firefly-the-fall-guys-1-2023/
https://readcomicsonline.ru/comic/firefly-the-fall-guys-2023/1/22#
Signym's attitude was obviously mocked in a different comic: "I (Signym) haven't learned a new thing in 20 years because all I have to do is consult my existing model of reality as perpetual desolation fraught with conspiracies and I can convince myself I've gotten to the bottom of things! Do you have any idea how relaxing it is to be able to write off all countervailing beliefs as the work of naive ninnies? Everyone seems stupid to me, especially people who know what they’re talking about!" https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/peace-2
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think what we have is a PEOPLE problem. And not people in general, just SOME people. A small minority, if you will. If you want to solve most of our problems, solve the human sociopath problem first. Figure out how to keep power from concentrating in so few (malign) hands.
SECIND: Signym, your version of reality [is] If the sociopath Prime Minister is killed, life in the 'Verse will become wonderful once again
SECOND, are you projecting your fear that an irate mob will come for you with pitchforks and flambeaux??
Your stupidity never fails to amuse!
First of all, PLEASE RE-READ WHAT I WROTE. This time maybe with comprehension .
Did I say anything about killing anyone?
Yanno, in the years that you've been here, you seem to have gotten stupider and stupider. You must be following in Biden's footsteps.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think what we have is a PEOPLE problem. And not people in general, just SOME people. A small minority, if you will. If you want to solve most of our problems, solve the human sociopath problem first. Figure out how to keep power from concentrating in so few (malign) hands.
SECIND: Signym, your version of reality [is] If the sociopath Prime Minister is killed, life in the 'Verse will become wonderful once again
SECOND, are you projecting your fear that an irate mob will come for you with pitchforks and flambeaux??
Your stupidity never fails to amuse!
First of all, PLEASE RE-READ WHAT I WROTE. This time maybe with comprehension .
Did I say anything about killing anyone?
Yanno, in the years that you've been here, you seem to have gotten stupider and stupider. You must be following in Biden's footsteps.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
I'm all about the Gadsden Flag.
But Democrats in current year believe that's a racist emblem of the Civil War because they are incorrectly educated *brainwashed* *cough* *cough*, and need to read a fucking book.
Ain't nobody violent over here. Pacifist to the core, until somebody steps over the line.
Just leave me the fuck alone and I'll be more than happy to oblige you the same courtesy.
Get the message, Democrats. Before it's too late for you.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Magic Think or Propaganda might be Hollyweird trying to re-write history with stuff like 'Hidden Figures' they are so butthurt and don't want to admit former German Nazis helped NASA to beat the Russians to the Moon
in history
Egypt ...maybe ..for sure there were contributions, its location means it connects North Africa to Europe to the Arabs of the Middle East and Asia, it was a cross roads of very clever Empire of different people, Christians and Jews and Pagans.
Not all of Africa was 'Egypt'
when Europeans in ships went down to sub sahara Africa they found people who ran from wild animals who chucked spears at their food, they had no written language, they had mud huts and no building which lasted beyond 100 years, they had not even invented the wheel
'All of math and science was invented in Africa. Is this true or delusional?'
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1731112098233802855
Ever since the BLM Antifa riots there have been an increase of Wakanda Wuz Kangz Forever memes
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Magic belief?
Richard Feynman — the world from another point of view
https://twitter.com/whitepill_pw/status/1702337898903970222
As a child, Richard Feynman showed signs of skepticism. For example, when he found out Santa Claus wasn't real, he said he was relieved — the truth was much easier to explain than a story of a man delivering millions of gifts to millions of kids in one night.
In 1975, Feynman learned about Uri Geller, who claimed he could bend spoons with his mind. Given his natural skepticism about such things, Feynman managed to meet Geller at a Hollywood hotel. The meeting was a resounding failure for Geller, who failed to demonstrate his supposedly paranormal abilitiesQuote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yes, HOW can you "beam [useful amounts] of power", from one planet to another? Anything other than a laser would just disperse
A laser bean strong enough to draw power from would fry everything it touched
DARPA looks to laser to beam power across the world
https://newatlas.com/technology/darpa-laser-beam-power-across-distance
s/Quote:
a test to deliver 10 kilowatts of laser power across 200 km (125 miles)
they say it is not a Death-StarQuote:
A wireless energy web could unlock power from new and diverse sources, including from space, and rapidly and reliably connect them to energy-starved consumers.
In elonmusk
's biography by WalterIsaacson
, a detail emerges about his senior paper at the University of Pennsylvania.
https://twitter.com/whitepill_pw/status/1704228267585351919
The paper, which he wrote in 1994, titled "The Importance of Being Solar," presented a vision: a satellite would use mirrors to focus sunlight onto panels, which would then convert this sunlight into electricity. A microwave beam would then send this electricity back to Earth.
In January 2023, CalTech's Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) independently made a similar vision a reality. Their spacecraft, SSPD-1, launched with the aim of capturing solar energy in space and beaming it back to Earth. The craft successfully generated power on the ground, using a microwave power array to transfer the energy to Earth from orbit, which lit up a pair of LEDs on the roof of a Caltech lab in Pasadena.
Prescient.
Oh,I wanted to get back to this...
It's one thing to transmit enough power to light up a couple of LEDs. It's another thing to transmit enough power to light up a city.
JAYNZE please re -read what I wrote. I never said that you couldn't transmit power wirelessly. What I posted was that transmitting enough power to be useful would fry everything it touched.
Ever burn up a paper with a magnifying glass on a sunny day? That's what I'm talking about.
You talk about math
Do some back of the envelope calculations. How much electricity does it take to power a city of a million people? I'm not sure. Although I can look it up, but my guess is it's in the realm of gigawatts (bcLos Angeles has quite a few power stations each generating hundreds of megawatts. I think that totals up to gigawatts pretty quickly.) And that's not even counting the power required for cars and trucks and home+heating and refining and other processes that directly burn fuel.
Well, in any case, imagine a couple million watts impinging on a surface that's ...say....10000 square meters. (About 300 x 300 ft) Honestly, I don't know of ANY material that wouldn't instantly vaporize if you hit it with that kind of power. If you do, let me know!
As power transmission the idea sucks, but it would make a helluva space-based weapon.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If you do, let me know!
We already collect and re-direct this energy everyday, they are called lightning strikes maybe 5 Billion Watts of energy in a single second, sometimes enough juice to power a small village or town, the Earth has I dunno something like 200 Million cloud-to-ground strikes per year.
Lightning Rods
We can redirect it into the ground, but we are not good at keep it at the moment putting it into a small battery that spike in energy would cause it to explode.
Metric Prefix
Kilo Thousand, Mega Million, Giga Billion, Tera Trillion 10^12 I think next is Quadrillion Peta? We already collect and re-direct energy in the 'Giga'
That is not to say in the future some special battery or way of keeping this energy will never be made
as you said yourself
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
we need to keep hope in the future alive, and believing that things can get better. If we don't, then even if there are improvements that can be made, we won't make them
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If you do, let me know!
We already collect and re-direct this energy everyday, they are called lightning strikes maybe 5 Billion Watts of energy in a single second, sometimes enough juice to power a small village or town, the Earth has I dunno something like 200 Million cloud-to-ground strikes per year.
Lightning Rods
We can redirect it into the ground, but we are not good at keep it at the moment putting it into a small battery that spike in energy would cause it to explode.
Metric Prefix
Kilo Thousand, Mega Million, Giga Billion, Tera Trillion 10^12 I think next is Quadrillion Peta? We already collect and re-direct energy in the 'Giga'
That is not to say in the future some special battery or way of keeping this energy will never be made
as you said yourselfQuote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
we need to keep hope in the future alive, and believing that things can get better. If we don't, then even if there are improvements that can be made, we won't make them
Man... good luck.
I can't even get a set of LED work lights with a voltage regulator that's up to the job. I love my light I got on black friday, but as soon as it's on for 20 minutes and heats up one of the panels starts blinking every 15 seconds and it's like Chinese water torture to continue to use it at that point.
I'd like to use IT as a lightning rod right now.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME