MigL

That you do; thank you. Funny how sometimes you lose interest, and can go weeks, or even months, without posting, and you blame the lack of interesting topics. But SFn goes down for 3 days, and you're in a panic because it feels like the end of the world as we know it.

You may have misconceptions about the definition of terms such as 'perception' and observation'. Perception is subjective, and can differ for different people; I may perceive a joke to be funny, while you may perceive it to be offensive. Observation, such as you and I both measuring the length of a rod to be 10 cm, is what science is based on. If we were to measure it to be different lengths, and others measured even more differences, we could never know the actual length of the rod. Observations needs to be repeatable by different observers, or it is not science, merely perception.

The universe doesn't need your 'perception', sensitivity' or 'spiritual vibration' for its function. Anything of the sort implies the universe is subjectively tuned just for you, because those qualities are different for differing people. The laws that the universe complies with, are, by definition, objective and the same all over the universe. You don't think you're special, do you ? I think you've waisted a lot of time and effort on an idea that isn't at all related to science.

A system's physical path in time minimizes S, the action, which is the integral of the system's Lagrangian. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_principles The hard part is identifying the Lagrangian for the whole universe. ( if we could we would have a Theory of Everything )

The exception that breaks your rule ? ( always enjoy sparring with you CY 🙂 ) Maybe 'idealist' would be a better term. He dreamed of a utopia, but didn't take into account the lack of scruples of those that corrupted his ideal system ? After seeing how the American Government of D Trump can corrupt the economy to benefit himself, his family, and his billionaire cronies, at the expense of working people and immigrants ( even though a lot of those dummies voted for him ), one can't help but think "How bad can Communism be ?"

All evolutions of the universe are possible, but the one actually taken is governed by the Principle of Least Action ( a global version of it ). Just like refraction, the double slit experiment, the path integrals of QED, and every other physical process. No checking into the 'future' required.

I thoought I had ... the HUP. ALL descriptions we have of ANY object are due to the causal interactions, which is what we can measure. I recently had this discussion with @KJW as to whether space-time is actually curved, when all we can measure is how it causally interacts with test objects; the underlying 'reality' stays hidden.

Also readily seen in the French Revolution. "Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite'" quickly turned into decapitating anyone you didn't like, by simply making an accusation. Revolutionary 'mobs' can be much more vicious than dictators.

OK. We are not reaching the limits of all there is to know. We may be reaching the limits of all that is possible/allowed for us to know ? That is obviously true in some ways, but not all. Even something as simple as the HUP prevents us from knowing certain aspects of the universe. And sure, there are no 'work-arounds', but often, these 'prohibitions' that the universe erects in our journey to understanding, tell us a lot more about how the universe works than they prevent.

I don't think you'd get any orders for that shirt, Phi, but I would definitely order one like @TheVat suggested. X-Large in Black, please.

The 'Blackshirts', or Squadrismo, the private army of B Mussolini's Fascist Party was founded in 1919 and numbered about 200000 by the time of the march on Rome in 1922. It was comprised mostly of disgruntled WW1 demobilized soldiers, and I assure you, there was a considerable amount of fighting and armed conflicts. Similarly, A Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, inspired by B Mussolini's march on Rome, comprised 600 paramilitary SA members, Finally, in the early 30s, his NAZI party became the largest party in the Reichstag, and President P von Hindenburg relented and made A Hitler Chancellor, which was the beginning of the end for democracy. In the intervening 5-8 years there was plenty of violence and armed conflict perpetrated by the NAZI's private army, the SA 'brownshirts', all of which are documented in a google search of 'Hitler's rise to power'. Contrary to your statement, European Fascist movements did not begin with marches or elections, but with years of armed conflict. And I didn't even mention the Spanish civil war that led to F Franco's Fascist dictatorship in Spain.

I would love to order some SFn t-shirts or golf shirts ... I used to have one that said And God said ( Maxwell's Equations ) and there was light. I would also like one that says I'm lazy because ( principle of least action equation ) Any other ideas for t-shirts to popularize our site, and maybe buy some Cheese Nips for the Admins ? ( my apologies for lack of LaTex )

But why compare a society that has a sizeable Socialist mix of institutions, along with some Capitalist ones, to societies that experienced extreme Fascism, where society exists at the whim, and for the economic benefit, of their dictatorial rulers ? Arguably a Fascist, Capitalist state trying its best to emulate V Putin's supposedly Marxist, Socialist state; with the same methods. ( I'm angry that Canada is considered D Trump's Ukraine ) Extremes of any ideology never benefit the majority ( of people ), as the 10 percentile and 90 percentile of a bell curve have very little area compared to the central 80.

Yeah. I'm reminded of his teacher telling Max Planck not to study Physics as there was nothing new to discover in that field, and it just needed to tie up a few loose ends, before Max went on to unveil a whole new domain of science, and usher in a paradigm change in how we view reality

Of those countries, the only ones still Communist , are dictatorships. I'm surprised you didn't mention Venezuela 😀 . You seem to favor 'Marxism' over Fascism, and I can readily see its advantages. But in reality, it is a system prone to abuse by the 'powerful' ( just like most others ), and where ever it has been implemented, it has caused vast inequality in wealth and power, comparable, if not surpassing pure capitalism. Before his ill-considered foray into Ukraine, V Putin was reputed to be wealthier than E Musk, and China has more billionaires than the US, while close to a billion of its people live in what we would consider poverty ( wait till their revolution ! ). Venezuela, arguably one of the richest countries in South America, has people starving in the streets; where do you think all the wealth goes ? And eventually ( according to some ) even Anti-Fascists become the enemy. All depends on the convenient spin.

Exactly. What is the difference if you 'disappear' people in Chilean jails, so that over 3000 leftist opponents are never heard from again ( A Pinochet U ), or your political opponents are pushed out windows/down stairs, or sent to Siberian jails where they conveniently die of poisoning ( V Putin ). Again, I'm reminded of Moontanman's excellent joke about what happens when you sit on the toilet at 11:59 pm and the clock strikes midnight ...

It's funny that everyone thinks of Mussolini when referencing Fascism, because Dear Benito was an ardent Communist for about half of his life, at least until the syphilis started completely rotting his brain. I prefer definitions that describe how something acts ( being a Physicist ), and in my opinion, if Fascism and Communism act the same at the state level, and use the same methods to control people, then they can be defined by the same terms. As for the treatment of minorities, @CharonY , how did Stalin treat the Ukrainians when he sold their wheat to modernize Russia while 8 million of them starved to death ? How did Mao treat 'capitalists and intellectuals during the purges of the Cultural Revolution, when millions were killed ? How is China currently treating the Uyghurs in the prison camps ? Or don't ethnic, ideological and religious minorities count ?

Communities, root word commune, also of Communism, are not nation-states. It also works quite well within some families ( but certainly not all ), but we weren't discussing those either.

I did say 'implementation'. So give me just one example where it has been implemented as per your description.

One could make the argument that Fascism, in its original definition, meant putting the rights of the nation ahead of the rights of the population, while Socialism/Communism meant the rights of the people are more important than the rights of the nation. Over time, these definitions have changed, and Fascism is now defined by its usual implementation ... "Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy." Notice that if you define Communism by its usual implementation, you get "Communism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy." ( Stalin's Russia, Mao's China and Pol Pot's Cambodia, but I could add others )

Has anyone noticed Russian war strategy hasn't changed in 90 years ? Keep on throwing people against fortified armaments so as to make 'bridges of dead bodies' in order to reach their objective, and shoot them if they try to retreat. Always a recipe for millions of war dead.

Doesn't work anymore. Remember Donald Trump ?

I do think the 'drivers' for these ideological movements are different for the originaters than for the followers. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but take Charlie Kirk for example. I have never heard him, but by all accounts ( from people who have listened to him ) he was a lot more reasonable and not as extreme about 10 years ago. And he did seem pretty quick witted in his debate style, so he was fairly intelligent. I would say intelligent enough to realize that if he put aside his morals, and took advantage of stupid people, there would be a sh*t-load of money to be made. By going to extreme ideologies he founded TP and became a millionaire by a young age, without actually working. It started with 'snake-oil' salesmen in travelling shows, then TV Evangelists, but the internet has seen a proliferation of such people who take advantage of the stupid, and those who refuse to think for themselves. Now the American Government is jumping in for their piece of the pie, and taking advantage of everyone, while supported by these these same people. With AI compounding the problem ( due to Government/Billionaire control ) and even more people not thinking for themselves, I think we are doomed.

While I do agree Immigration should be legal, I, and most people don't agree with rounding them up as they look for work at Home Depot while waiting for their paperwork to be be completed, by masked armed men, and shipping them off to El Salvador. I don't think the UK will ever get to that point; Then again, I didn't think the US would either.

Unfortunately our politicians are always about 20 years too late with regulations. And then, as with social media and digital currencies, just when it looks like we might get some regulations, new governments and billionaire investors come in, gut regulations, and twist them for their financial advantage. ( like having billions isn't enough )