stared 15 hours ago

My favourite "wacky theory" is that Einstein general relativity can be derived from quantum computing, https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0501135.

In general, I love such novel concepts (rather than slight refinements of existing). They are like seeds - the vast majority of them won't sprout, but one in a thousand (or million) will change a field.

The same way as one erroneous paper on superluminal communication got refuted by the non-cloning theorem - which gave raise to quantum cryptography and quantum information in general. I recommend reading the backstory in "How the Hippies Saved Physics" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Hippies_Saved_Physics).

  • RangerScience 12 hours ago

    I don’t know how much of this paper I can understand but

    I find it pretty interesting that, AFAICT, the dominant engineering paradigm of an era is also the dominant “this is what reality is” metaphor: cathedrals and architecture and the spheres; steam and clockwork and mechanical; now - computation and information!

jnurmine 14 hours ago

If one were to simply assume that yes, electrons are in fact photons in a toroidal configuration... are there special "hacks" enabled by this configuration which could be tested?

aaronax 14 hours ago

Scott Locklin is one of my favorite reads, in occasional doses though. Kind of unhinged-seeming but always some perspective that seems fresh.

He's like Casey Handmer turned up to 11, and throw in a use of the word "retarded" in pretty much every post which surely is some repellent just to make certain types of people go away.

Actually I'm not sure I really get anything out of reading either of them but they provide some enjoyment and glimpse of a possible future.

  • cpp_frog 13 hours ago

    One of the most fascinating characters out there for sure, without fail his posts make me consider a new perspective.

    He left HN unfortunately, he might be too brash for this site (or this place is too wimpy for him).

    • IAmBroom 13 hours ago

      Or, you know, the community might just not like people who are deliberately a-holes to others.

IAmBroom 13 hours ago

Hit this quote from the author in the Comments section:

> This is the same psychology that causes experimental physicists to wear paper covid-cuck masks[...]

The Never Read The Comments Rule still applies. "Wacky" is one word for his ideas...

  • rickyhatespeas 13 hours ago

    The base tone of the post is written for chronically online right-wingers, the dog whistles are really obvious.

    "Purple hair", "retarded", "media bad", "post 1945 order".