02-03-2003 13:43									#1
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here is the thread to ask the philosophers all the questions yuo ever wanted to ask them

I will start by asking them what the charge distribution is on a bump on a conductor with a charge above the bump

Jon Miller

	02-03-2003 13:45									#2
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actually, I think I will have that one shortly

ok

how would you make supersymmetric theory and a positive cosmological cosntant work together

Jon Miller

	02-03-2003 13:47									#3
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I'd like to know the value of the keyboard. How does it affect the way we live, how does it relate to other input methods, etc.

	02-03-2003 13:51									#4
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tha's one they will probably like

I was trying to ask them something useful

(since they claim all usefull ideas come from them)

Jon Miller

	02-03-2003 20:58									#5
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I'd like to know how I can avoid catastrophic roundoff error at t = 65, knowing that I still receive the exact same error after I've increased the minimum precision of Mathematica to 50.

I'd also like to know how many peppers are in a "peck."

	02-03-2003 21:58									#6
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Who do I miss you like the desert misses the rain?
Why do I miss you like a masochist misses pain?
As it right to hide my shame?
Is my mother really to blame?

	02-03-2003 23:03									#7
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How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

	02-03-2003 23:12									#8
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It is said that we actually do subjectively experience our time faster as we grow older; known as "time just flies by as you get older" - leaving the average halfway point of our lives at 20 years old

By what units do you measure this changing flow?

	03-03-2003 00:12									#9
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How and why was the Universe created, and what, if any, were the ramifications of this event?

	03-03-2003 01:15									#10
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I'd like to know how to get the ****ing windshield wipers off my acura without breaking the wiper arm by exerting enough force to lift the car. What a nightmare! None of these damn things are the same.

	03-03-2003 01:53									#11
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At first I thought you meant to pull the wiper off the windshield because it had frozen there overnight. But then I realised you live in Alabama.

	03-03-2003 01:56									#12
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Ok, here we go.

- Jon Miller: don't know (both questions)
- Asher: don't know either
- loin: don't know (hmm we have a trend here)
- monolith: I could discuss this, but, well... nice poem.
- Shi: there are known limits to how much wood... hmm, this is far to complicated, never mind.
- Zylka: you're sedated, don't worry about this
- Giant Squid: once again, too complicated...
- SpencerH: check out the manual, page 54.

	03-03-2003 01:56									#13
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quote: I'd like to know how I can avoid catastrophic roundoff error at t = 65, knowing that I still receive the exact same error after I've increased the minimum precision of Mathematica to 50.

Use Maple instead.

	03-03-2003 02:10									#14
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Tried that, got roundoff error at the exact same place. There's something terribly wrong with the equation, and my professor can wrap around my ass. (He was willing to give me the hint that it was roundoff error that was killing me, which is a relief considering that I'm already using a 16th order method.)

	03-03-2003 02:23									#15
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Actually, I'm almost willing to bet that my professor is wrong on this one. I've run my method using a timestep of 1/8, a timestep of 1/32, and a timestep of 1/128, and I get the exact same solution for all three timesteps (well, the same solution to within about 10^-12 or so). There's no way that that could happen if I were suffering from roundoff error, truncation error, or any other kind of error, other than "incorrect answer key" error.

	03-03-2003 02:31									#16
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What is the meaning of bipedal reptoids?

	03-03-2003 02:50									#17
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quote: Originally posted by Frogger At first I thought you meant to pull the wiper off the windshield because it had frozen there overnight. But then I realised you live in Alabama.

Yeah I no longer have to put up with that crap.

Take off to the great white north! Yeah right! Not in winter thank you very much

	03-03-2003 02:51									#18
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My friend broke his wiper the other day pulling it off his windshield...

He looked so forlorn with half a wiper in his hand.

	03-03-2003 02:52									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Alexnm Ok, here we go. - SpencerH: check out the manual, page 54.

Believe it or not I'll have to take the damn thing in to my mechanic. How embarrasing! They're probably designed by the sods who design 'child-proof' caps.

	03-03-2003 02:54									#20
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Is that one of those cars with two different-sized wiper blades? Whoever came up with that idea ought to be shot.

	03-03-2003 02:55									#21
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quote: Originally posted by Frogger My friend broke his wiper the other day pulling it off his windshield... He looked so forlorn with half a wiper in his hand.

Been there, done that, after ruining the damn things you cant use your wipers cos you'll scratch the windshield. Installation at -20C is a ***** too.

	03-03-2003 04:30									#22
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Agathon's not in.
I'll see what I can do, although remember my major is in history, not philosophy.

John Miller:
Define the terms. I'm a philosopher, not a physicist.


Asher:

quote: I'd like to know the value of the keyboard. How does it affect the way we live, how does it relate to other input methods, etc

Ahh. Not bad. I'll frame the question in this way: " Why do we keep QWERTY keyboards in the presence of obviously superior DVORAK designs?"

DVORAK has been shown to improve typing speeds, and worker efficiency, yet the overall majority of keyboards remain QWERTY. The origin postulated for the QWERTY design is to slow typists from jamming keys. Since the development of computer input, said jamming no longer concerns typists or anyone using keyboards. Therefore, the intrinsic advantage of QWERTY boards no longer exists, and we should adopt the DVORAK boards.

Changing the way people time costs time and money, since people take time to change over from one system to another. Would the economic advantages of DVORAK boards overtake the losses due to worker retraining?
Here's where we need the economist.

If the cost outweighs the benefits for already trained workers, schools should shift to DVORAK boards. Training children to type DVORAK will increase the demand for these new keyboard arrangements with much less worker disruption.

As for other input methods, voice can be comparable in efficiency with typing, especially for slower typers. Faster typers still type faster than the voice recognition records.

There are really no other moral questions as to type of computer input, other than the efficiency of the transmission.

quote: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Shi, no moral disputes or concerns. Until we know whether woodchucks can or cannot chuck wood, contemplating woodchucks' woodchucking workloads would be foolish.

quote: It is said that we actually do subjectively experience our time faster as we grow older; known as "time just flies by as you get older" - leaving the average halfway point of our lives at 20 years old By what units do you measure this changing flow?

Better question Zylka:

Can we measure the flow of time at all? I believe that we move through time, that timeflow is an illusion experienced by our senses.

Time can be pictured as solid block that does not change or alter, but we travel through as we live our lives.

So how do our perceptions change as we age? Why does time seem to speed up? One suggestion is that our body temperature decreases as we get older, and that our bodies compensate for this by speeding up our perception of time.

As for 20 being the halfway point, how old are you Zylka?

Giant Squid:

quote: How and why was the Universe created, and what, if any, were the ramifications of this event?

Why assumes the existence of a higher being. The big bang seems to be a good explanation for observed characteristics of the universe, with one big assumption, that everything we see is as old as it looks.

Ramifications?
None. Unless you are a Christian, or believe in an afterlife, then the universe will merely collapse upon itself or expand indefinately without any overall improvement from the initial void.

Nietzche's actually very perceptive compared to most philosophers.

	03-03-2003 04:34									#23
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quote: Originally posted by obiwan18 Agathon's not in. I'll see what I can do, although remember my major is in history, not philosophy. John Miller: Define the terms. I'm a philosopher, not a physicist. [quote]Asher: Ahh. Not bad. I'll frame the question in this way: " Why do we keep QWERTY keyboards in the presence of obviously superior DVORAK designs?"

Very simple: Humans are creatures of habit, everyone knows QWERTY, and it gets the job done just fine (>100wpm doncha know ).

See, all that philosophical junk is rendered useless by one of the most basic human observations.

	03-03-2003 05:03									#24
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quote: Originally posted by Zylka It is said that we actually do subjectively experience our time faster as we grow older; known as "time just flies by as you get older" - leaving the average halfway point of our lives at 20 years old By what units do you measure this changing flow?

When you are 20, the next year represents 5% of what you have already lived, and when you are 40, the next year is only 2.5%. It is like we were subjectively accumulating a stockpile of time, each new piece being smaller than the previous one. At least we feel it.

	03-03-2003 05:08									#25
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quote: Very simple: Humans are creatures of habit, everyone knows QWERTY, and it gets the job done just fine (>100wpm doncha know ).

Asher, I accounted for that. I explicitly said that we need an observation to determine whether the price of upgrading is worth the disruption due to switching systems.

You provided the observation.

Now all the scientists get to attack your brilliant observation.

Not everyone types at 100wpm, you know.

Davout:
Interesting.

	03-03-2003 05:22									#26
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quote: Originally posted by Giant_Squid How and why was the Universe created, and what, if any, were the ramifications of this event?

Ramifications ... Could be :


The universe can be seen as a machine producing something (heavy elements, black holes, some yet unidentified effect, …). Is life contributing to this production, or is it a neutral by-product, or is it the result of a flaw with undesirable effects.
Answering this question would determine whether or not life has a destiny.

	03-03-2003 11:01									#27
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How can I learn to say the phrase "professional philosopher" without bursting into laughter?

	03-03-2003 11:32									#28
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Read philosophy books, and you won't feel like laughing then.

	03-03-2003 11:49									#29
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In the same sense that I don't laugh when I read sci-fi books.

	03-03-2003 23:24									#30
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No, more like reading lawyer's briefs.

Still, some philosophers are better writers than others.

Any recommendations Agathon?