Prometheus

Apologies if I have caused some confusion here, the opposite of my intention. If you follow the Wikipedia link I gave you'll see there are several types ("flavours'') of nihilism. They can be very different: for instance if you refer to the type SwansonT mentioned, then existence itself is doubted, while another type only states that there is no inherent meaning imbued in the universe. I'm sure we can agree those are quite different propositions and would lead to different discussions. Would you like to discuss one of the above two types of nihilism, or a different one? As to the flavour of scientist do you mean physicists, chemists, biologists etc?

I can imagine early religion being a sign human development. Imagine a river regularly flooding. By linking this with some sort of river god, it implies the people have a concept of causation - the river god causes the river to flood so best keep the god happy. And while we knew no better, this was as good an answer as any. But now we know better, thanks largely to the scientific method, so we can do away with this aspect of religion, and actually improve our lives. Not to say religion has nothing to say on topics concerning humanity. One would have thought religious people would be happy with the rise of science, it means religions need no longer concern themselves with how the universe came into existence and such and can focus on the really important stuff, like how to live a happy life and lessen the suffering of others (not that we necessarliy need religion for that ).

What flavour of nihilism do you want to talk about? There's a few according to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

It's quite a specific claim. If you provide a reference we could get to the bottom of it pretty quickly.

Well if that's all, then we are moving to something comparable (in the UK, other countries might already be there). Patient details are held electronically on a national database and are updated (theoretically) in real time, including the observations listed plus a load else and is accessible to all health professionals with access to the database - which should be the vast majority of them. I guess the difference is that with the wireless wristband data is stored locally (i.e. in the wristband)? Why the need to lock it - are you worried about confused patients?

If they can't remove it, you have essentially enforced a technology that records health details. Not sure people would take kindly to that, plus you'd have to get it passed into law.

Cheers guys. Think i'll take electromagnetism first.

Not sure a wiki page of a film helps the point, but i agree. A calorie is a measurment of energy, but that food containing energy first needs to be absorbed into the body. Eating a large amount of fibre with a meal reduces the amount absorbed. So when we sit down and count the calories in a meal, that might not be the actual number absorbed. Huh - tried to find references to back that up, but googling 'calories' is a minefield for another day.

Cheers, but i'm not totally on my own. Got a friend who did the same modules this year, and i've always got you guys to bug. In terms of the maths required: i understand for EM i will need a good command of vector calculus, whereas QM requires a bit of complex analysis, probability theory and calculus?

Generally there is reason to believe that diet can affect the aging process. Both a Mediterranean diet and dietry restriction (without malnutrition) increase longevity. But the mechanisms are not well understood and such is the subject of much dietetic research. That is not evidence, not even a possible one. It's a hypothesis though - how would you propose to test it?

Sorry to butt in when i know virtually nothing about prime numbers but the talk of probability piqued my interest. Could it be that two concepts of probability are being conflated here? In the typical frequentist sense we might run an experiment many times and observe frequencies, from which we might infer the underlying probability distribution. (Personally I can't imagine the primes to be randomly distributed in this sense. That would mean if we were to run the 'experiment' again, we might get different prime numbers. Surely the primes are immutable). But in terms of degrees of belief we may have reason to guess that a prime exists in a certain location on the number line and attach a probability to this belief. In this manner, and only through our ignorance, we might consider the primes random.

I have a choice of studying an electromagnetism module or a quantum mechanics module next academic year. Whichever i do not study next year i will study the following year. Both are 3rd year undergrad level modules with the open uni. I was just wondering if anyone would recommend studying one before the other, and if so why. Otherwise i'll choose on other considerations. Thanks.

Banks, in the simplest form, are simply forums in which people with money meet people without money. By dealing with a bank creditors are able to mitigate risks and debtors are free from the risk of broken legs (or any other unlawful reproach) for defaulting. Governments borrow money from creditors in the anticipation that the economy will grow exponentially. As i understand this exponential growth is integral to the system - at least it has a central place in econometric models.

I have sympathy with your reaction - it's always harrowing to learn about the worst chapters of human suffering. But America does not have a monopoly on this, and, on a side note, Japan need to acknowledge the suffering they inflicted on their neighbours.

My understanding is that inhibiting the COX pathway also inhibits prostaglandin production thus NSAIDs have an analgesic and an anti-inflammatory effect.

I don't see why these two views are incompatible. Surely one reflects the past and one a possible future. I agree with Thorham that we must have placed the suffering of animals below that of the suffering of our own species, and sometimes below that even of our curiosity. I don't think it's controversial to acknowledge that we put our comfort before the comfort of other species, is it? Of course, that doesn't mean it always has to be that way and attitudes are shifting. The difficulty is in quantifying suffering, especially across species. Does an animal suffer more in the wild that in a lab? I don't know - but the difference is we choose to inflict suffering in the lab, in the hope it will benefit us and lessen our suffering. I would see it as a huge step forward if we regarded suffering as suffering, regardless of species, and tried to lessen it globally. Yes, there are many technical difficulties with this, but the change in mindset is more important at this point.

Turns out it was the product, not the sum. What I neglected to add was that I was dealing with random variables. I knew this was true for Gaussian random variables, but didn't know it extends to all random variables (which what it seems to be true, i'll have to find out exactly why, but I know it's related to convolution theorem).

Cheers. Good old wolfram alpha, didn't even occur to me to check there.

So I want to find the Laplace transform of: [latex] f(t)=\alpha e^{-\alpha t} + \beta e^{-\beta t}[/latex] I make it: [latex]f^*(s)=\frac{\alpha}{\alpha+s}+\frac{\beta}{\beta+s}[/latex] Which I thought simply follows from the linearity of the integral operator. But according to my lecture notes it is: [latex] f^*(s)=(\frac{\alpha}{\alpha+s})(\frac{\beta}{\beta+s}) [/latex] I'm hoping there is a mistake in the lecture notes, otherwise I've totally misunderstood things. I would appreciate it if anyone could comment on which answer is correct.

Thanks. I've handed this one in as I described so I'll just see how it goes for now. In terms of the intuition, at the moment I just imagine the transform as a mapping onto another space because it is easier to perform certain operations in the space. Kind of like why we sometimes work in log space. I've seen a few books but they are all engineering books so they talk about quite specific mappings I'm not familiar with. Can you recommend any good non-engineering orientated books on the subject?

I managed to make some sense of it by letting [latex] g(s) = 1[/latex] in the first integral and playing around with the limits a bit. Still, any intuition behind the convolution integral would be awesome.

If you're in the UK you could consider the Open University (one of those online/distance learning degrees John mentioned - in the UK it has a good reputation). For a physics degree you'd be paying £5000 a year instead of the £9000 a year at a bricks and mortar uni. You can also take on less modules per year there, allowing more time for you to work part-time. I know some people who have given private tuition to senior high school kids in physics and maths - a good way to consolidate your knowledge too.

For part of a homework question I need to write: [latex] f(x,T)=\int_a^b G_{w^2}(x-s)ds [/latex] as a convolution integral, where: [latex] G_{\sigma^2}(x) = (2{\pi}{\sigma^2})^\frac{-1}{2}e^\frac{-x^2}{2{\sigma^2}} [/latex] So my understanding is that I need to express the above integral in the form: [latex] \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(x-y)g(y)dy[/latex] Is this the correct understanding? Also, is anyone able to give a little insight into these convolutions integrals - I find them very strange and do not understand them in the least. Thanks to any and all help.

If we're answering will dying in your dreams always cause real death, then based on the testimony here we can certainly say no. However, the question posed in the OP is can dying in your dreams cause death which is forever consigned to the realm of untestable hypotheses. However, given that there is no plausible biological mechanism (other than the fright given to someone with a 'weak heart', mentioned above, and even then I would rather attribute it to the weak heart than the dream) and the fact at least some have survived dream death lends more credence against the idea. So i wouldn't worry about it.

But if someone dreams that they have died, then wakes up, we have evidence against the hypothesis. I have dreamt i have died several times. Include the fact that there is no plausible mechanism for death being induced by death in a dream, i would say don't worry about it.