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Nitral's Archive 22

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could the proton and neutron have the same approximate mass if the down quark weighs about twice as much as the up quark? (~4.8 vs ~2.3 MeV/c^2)\n\nDoes the neutron lose mass when it binds with a proton in a nucleus?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You may notice that the masses of the proton and neutron are both almost 1 GeV/c^(2), where the sums of the quark masses amount to a few MeV/c^(2).\n\nThe majority of the mass of a hadron is \"dynamical mass\" caused by the quark and gluon dynamics going on inside, rather than simply the sum of the bare masses of the valence quarks.\n\nSo the masses of the quarks alone cannot explain the mass of the entire nucleon, and therefore the difference between the up and down quark masses cannot be assumed to fully explain the difference between the proton and neutron masses.\n\n>Does the neutron lose mass when it binds with a proton in a nucleus?\n\nYou can consider the protons and neutrons within a nucleus to retain their individual masses, but the mass of the entire bound system will be different than the sum of the masses of individual free nucleons. This difference is all swept into a quantity called the \"mass defect\" (equivalent to the binding energy by E = mc^(2))." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What happens when you sue an individual, and they can't afford to pay the amount?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can garnish their wages, place a lien on their property, or seize a bank account. Unfortunately, the court is usually not that helpful in collecting money, but these tools can help.\n\nThe most important thing of all is to keep track of the debtor, so if they do skip town or something, you can find them and keep up the pursuit." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do some things burn and other things melt?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most things will do both, but one is easier than the other.\n\nMelting is a state change from a solid to a liquid. This requires enough energy (heat) to raise the temperature high enough for the current atmospheric pressure. Some materials simply require too much energy or too low of a pressure for this to happen easily in normal life.\n\nBurning is a chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen. It also takes energy to start (heat), but usually releases even more energy which makes the reaction continue. For some materials, this initial energy is too high to happen easily in normal life.\n\nIt gets more complicated when your substance isn't a single material. For example, wood. While we generally think of wood as \"burning\", there are a lot of other materials in a piece of wood that will melt or evaporate while the cellulose (woody part of wood) burns.\n\nSo essentially, it comes down to which of the two needs less energy for the current conditions. This is known as the combustion temperature (burning) vs the melting point (melt).\n\nA somewhat familiar example is magnesium: this is a solid metal at room normal temperatures and pressures that is commonly used in firestarters because it is so flammable and easy to burn. However, if you put it in a non-oxygen environment at the same pressures, it melts rather easily." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 how a amputee controls a bionic arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There’s electronics that picks up the signals sent to the remainder of the arm and translates this to movement. \nWhen you tell a muscle to contract you send a very weak electric signal. The bionic arm will have EMG sensors that pick up the potential difference between a reference point and the signal source (usually the head of a muscle). Data from multiple sources is used to detect the desired movement." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[40k]If your ship is becalmed in the Warp what prevents you from just exiting the Warp?\n\nRead a couple stories where ships were becalmed in the Warp, i.e. the raging currents they were riding stopped and they just had to sit tight in Hell and wait to get moving again. Much drama was derived from paranoia over how the Gellar Fields were holding up and *if* they had, in fact stopped working and the passengers were just slowly going insane.\n\nThere were no reasons given as to why the ship didn't just exit to realspace and wait things out there. Seems a better option than sitting it out in the most hazardous surroundings imaginable.\n\nTrue, they wouldn't be at the destination they were supposed to be traveling to, but they would probably be orders of magnitude safer while they were waiting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moving from the warp to realspace is complicated and dangerous. The Immaterium is a complex slurry of psychic energies and waves of emotion and thought. Every single being with a soul causes ripples and eddies in the heaving mess. Greater entities like psykers and daemons create massive fluctuations in the warp and the storms presented there can rip a ship apart in an instant. Even when the warp is \"physically\" calm, simply being there is fraught with peril. Daemons and spirits can only be held back by a Gellar Field, else the crew will be possessed, corrupted, or rapemurdered to death by the denizens of the Immaterium. Only Navigators can steer a shit through the shifting tides of psychic energy towards their destination, and only the Gellar Field protects the crew's bodies, minds, and souls. \n\nBasically, traversing from the warp and realspace is less like stepping from the sidewalk to the street, and more like jumping through a brick wall covered with venomous snakes. You can try it, but you might not survive the attempt." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Dishonoured] Why do people pray to the outsider?\n\nWhile I am not a religious person and so don’t entirely get prayer in general, in the dishonoured universe there are several shrines and people who worship the outsider despite it being illegal. I think in one of the games you can even find people tortured or killed by the Abby of the Everyman. Also the outsider states he only gives out his mark to a select few people, only about 10 or so at a time I believe. So why do people worship him if they get nothing out of it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Desperation.\n\nDunwall is a horrible place, a festering oppressive slum run by authority figures who at best don't give a shit if you live or die and at worst actively aim for the latter. The dominant faith tortures and kills on the slightest pretence, the streets are violent and run by brutal crime lords, and the only measures taken against the the plague is making sure it doesn't interfere with the aristocrats parties.\n\nIf you're the average common person, never mind someone poverty-stricken,your odds of living a long life and dying a peaceful death are already rock bottom. Your odds of becoming the next corvo or granny rags may be one in 20,000, yes, but that doesn't necessarily rule it out as being your best shot." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why does your vision continue to spin even after you stop spinning?\n\nYou know, you get in a swivel chair and spin around really fast and then stop but you're vision still seems to \"spin\"? Is my brain catching up or something?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our sense of balance, motion, and direction come from what's called the vestibular system, which is located in our inner ears. Part of this system is 3 small tubules filled with fluid. When when move or spin or change directions, this fluid moves as well, and our brain interprets those signals to determine our orientation and acceleration, sort of like a gyroscope.\n\nWhen we spin real fast, that fluid in the tubules spins too, and when we stop suddenly, it takes a few seconds for the fluid to stop. Think of it like stirring a cup of coffee. Even after you stop stirring, it takes a few seconds for the coffee to stop swirling and come to a stop. The same thing happens in our vestibular system. Our eyes see us motionless, but our vestibular system tells us we're still spinning, so it causes momentary dizziness until balance in restored." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Dark Soul] How is it that I, a lowly undead is able to fell giants, lords and ancient heroes of the age of fire by merely hacking at their ankles repeatedly?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can easily defeat powerful beings from the Age of Fire because the Age of Fire is at its close. The Fire fades and gives way to Dark, and you are *definitely* a creature of the Dark that is gathering power and growing stronger while they weaken. All of them are mere shadows of their former glory.\n\nAlso, quite a few of them might be imposters." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How does a program like blender (which is written in cpp and python) run with no installation?\n\nYou can load blender onto a usb stick and just run it from there. Also, since it's partly written in python, does an interpreter get packages with the software? If not, does the software require an interpreter to be installed on the running system?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Installation means copying the files from somewhere to your computer. If the files are already there, like on a USB stick, then what's the difference if they are copied to your computer or not? They can run the same either way.\n\nBlender includes all packages, interpreters, and other dependencies it has with it, so it doesn't need to get them from anywhere." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What's the difference between \"metaphysical\" and \"ontological\" in contemporary usage? Do two things with the same ontological status necessarily have the same metaphysical status? What about the reverse?\n\nTo elaborate: If I make a claim like\n\n>\"there is no a priori ontological difference between what is human and what is not\" \n\nwhat would be the difference in substituting \"metaphysical\" for \"ontological\"?\n\nOr if I were to claim, \n\n>\"logical possibility entails metaphysical possibility\"\n\nhow is this different from if I had used \"ontological\" instead of \"metaphysical\"?\n\n\n\nThanks dudes!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Metaphysics is more general, ontology is more particular. Ontology is a branch of metaphysics. So something's ontological status is *part of* its metaphysical status. But ontology doesn't exhaust metaphysics. For instance, another branch of metaphysics is mereology, being the study of the relationship between parts and wholes. Consider the ontological status of the City of Gold with its mereology. The City of Gold, presumably, is made up of a whole bunch of city part make of gold--some mixture of golden buildings, golden streets, golden pavements, golden lamp posts, and so on. The city is the whole made up of a bunch if city parts, and this is a metaphysical fact about the City of Gold, where it to exist. But all of that happens independently of whether the City of Gold exists, that is, its ontological status. That's an example of how there is parts of something's metaphysical status which is not part of its ontological status." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why is it sometimes a flame does not emit any smoke, but after the flame is extinguished there is a lot of it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Smoke happens when the fuel doesn’t completely burn. The flame appears because the fuel is burning at full temperature with proper air flow. If either of those is removed, the flame will be extinguished, but residual heat continues to inefficiently burn the fuel, which creates smoke." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How does a neutron emit an electron when it consists of quarks?\n\nWhat is this alchemy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A neutron is heavier than a proton, which makes it unstable outside of a nucleus; if a particle is heavier and there is an interaction that allows it to decay to another it will eventually. It decays into a proton, an electron, and a electron anti-neutrino. It's actually one of the down quarks that decays into an up quark along with the electron and the anti-neutrino. This decay is described through the weak nuclear force and it doesn't always happen inside a nucleus because strong nuclear interactions between baryons make neutrons more stable,this is precisely the mechanics of beta decay though.\n\nWhy that particular decay? Well a few conservation laws have to be obeyed. A neutron turns into a proton because the number of baryons has to be conserved. But uh oh! You've gained charge, so an electron has to be made so the decay has so there is no change in charge. Oh no! You gained a lepton, so an electron anti-neutrino has to be made that way there isn't a net change in the number of leptons. The resultant particles also have their resultant momentum (where they're going and how fast) determined by the laws of conservation of energy and momentum.\n\nTl;dr: not alchemy, just the weak force in action." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How to ask critical questions nicely at a conference\n\nWhen I ask a question after a conference presentation, sometimes it’s critical in nature, but I don’t want to sound too aggressive or hurt the presenter’s feelings. So I want to sound as nice as possible and add comments like “thank you for your presentation, it’s very interesting…” before getting into the question. But sometimes this feels too superficial, and I was wondering what would be a more natural way to sound nicer when asking a critical question at a conference." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Go into it with the assumption that they considered what you're about to ask and have a good reason for having done it their way instead.\n\nInstead of essentially phrasing \"I think you should have done Y instead of X\" as a question, ask \"can you elaborate on your rationale for doing X instead of Y\" or \"what are your thoughts on also attempting this via Y\" or \"what do you think are the pros and cons of doing this via X vs Y.\"\n\nI've seen questions asked this way a lot and answers ranged from a jovial \"great idea, let's collaborate\" to a thorough explanation that probably left the questioner feeling quite stupid because they were wrong (lol), to an interesting discussion about data availability/integration issues (I got to a lot of talks that are studying very large public datasets) that is helpful for many in the audience and occasionally helpful to the author as well." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Fantastic Four] Reed Richards is the smartest man on the planet so why can't he fix Ben Grimm?\n\nReed has been shown to be the smartest man in the ~~MCU~~ Marvel Universe and ever since their accident has told Ben that he would change him back from being \"the thing\" but has never succeeded. Why can't he figure out those damn cosmic rays?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Fantastic Four (who do not yet exist in MCU so this is 616) were on an experiential space flight that was bombarded by cosmic radiation, when a solar flare temporarily boosted the intensity of the ionizing radiation in Earth's Van Allen belt.\n\nThe effects mutated their bodies, changing their very beings and making them \"mutants\" without being mutants. They lack the Homo superior X-Gene, but their bodies have been mutated anyway. \n\nThis means that there isn't really a \"normal\" to go back to, they have been changed from one thing into another and that first thing no longer exists. It's like asking why you can't make toast back into bread - the original thing simply no longer exists as its nature has been changed. \n\nA reality warper could do it, as they can change the nature of reality from one thing to another, or just grant him a new body, but Reed works in science and even for all of his ability there are still limitations. He *has* had some success over the years, but it has been mostly temporary.\n\nSo Reed may be smart, but he has his limits, when something is fundamentally changed it sometimes can't, or is very *very* hard to change back." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Would abolishing the “Tampon Tax” make a difference to prices paid by consumers?\n\nIn the UK there is a debate as to whether the VAT tax of 5% (applicable to sanitary products) should be abolished, as it is seen as an unfair tax on women. Necessities are not taxed, but luxuries (under which tampons come) are. \n\nWould the retail price paid by consumers actually change much on such an inelastic good? I’m assuming that retailers just employ a demand based pricing model for such goods, rather than cost plus pricing model. \n\nWhat would the effect of this policy in terms of intended and unintended consequence?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "> Would the retail price paid by consumers actually change much on such an inelastic good?\n\nI expect that the demand is fairly inelastic. But, that doesn't mean that the change to the tax won't have an effect. Sellers, such as supermarkets are in competition with each other. If one of them doesn't pass on the reduction in tax then a competitor would." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What causes animals to die of old age?\n\nLike why would an otherwise healthy being just die all the sudden? Is death of “natural causes” an actual thing or is it a catchall term for more specific things that just tend to happen as animals get older?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cells in your body are constantly replicating themselves and then dying off. Your hair and nails are made of these dead cells (and that's why your hair and nails grow).\n\nHowever, every time a cell replicates, it's not exactly perfect. There's a piece of the cell that acts almost like a timer. Every time the cell replicates, that timer piece gets a tiny, tiny bit shorter.\n\nHave you ever photocopied something? You know that the photocopy isn't quite the same? There's always a slight be a degradation.\n\nWell, that's what happens with a cell. So eventually, the degradation becomes so bad that the cell can't perform it's function correctly. That's why we get symptoms of old age as well.\n\nThen eventually, the replicated cells just start to fail and that eventually leads to death." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Futurama] How does Earth's military go from being so hopelessly inept to being capable of blockading Omnicron Persei 8?\n\nThe Omnicronians are a society so adept in warfare that they consider planetary conquest something young Omnicronians achieve for a merit badge, and Earth's ineptness at combat has been demonstrated countless times -such as when the entire planet surrendered to a single Omnicronian child trying to earn his merit badge. But shortly after that, in retaliation the Earth forces effectively blockaded Omnicron Persei 8. How was such a proven inept force capable of blockading such a proven overwhelming force?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Earths home defense forces, headed by Captain Zapp Branigan, are hopelessly inept, and thus kept close to home. The expeditionary forces on the other hand are devastatingly effective. This is because president Nixon is far more interested in offense than defense, also because Zapp is in his good ole boys circle." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why can I think about moving my body, but not move it? What's the difference between thinking about moving a body part, and actually moving it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's because the parts of your brain that processes though/cognition are separate from the part that controls movement (the motor cortex). Only when the two communicate are the appropriate messages sent to your muscles to force movement. As an interesting side note, there is evidence that simply thinking about performing an action can make you better at said action." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[The Matrix] When people connect to The Matrix, Don't they need an un-hung phone somewhere to appear out from as they need to answer a phone to jack-out?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They need a \"hardline\" connection, but the signal causing the Matrix representation of the phone to ring is enough to ride on in order for the initial connection, transfer of consciousness, and generation of a Residual Self Image. \n\nThe \"ride out\" requires picking up the phone as a way of engaging the carrier wave for pickup, but the \"ride in\" just needs the initial connection. This can be seen when the crew of the Nebudchadnezzar goes to visit the Oracle, and they all appear around the ringing phone, still in its cradle.\n\nIOW, a particular landline phone ringing might be a signal that someone is about to appear from thin air to kick your ass." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series] Why are people so insistent about calling Arthur some form of simian or monkey, when no one does the same to Trillian?\n\nI've only read the first two books, but it irks me that Zaphod and others will only call Arthur out. Any help would be appreciated, thanks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Despite being told in the third person, the HGttG series is about Arthur and his point of view. We see much less of Trillian's story (and if you keep reading, several books don't include her at all). For all we know, she was constantly called \"some form of simian or monkey\" until Zaphod and others got used to her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "People who are receiving government financial assistance should not be allowed to purchase certain products. CMV\n\nAs a recent high school graduate this is something that confused me through out my entire school career. There was the free and reduced lunch program at my school and at least half of my grade was on it. The only way for a person to get on that list was to be in a family that had a low income. However i noticed that almost all of the people on the list came in every week with a brand new phone and brand new shoes. And Im not talking about a trac phone, they would come in with brand new Iphones each week because they broke their old one at a party they had over the weekend. And on the day of the Samsung Galaxy release at least 15 people came in the next day with it only to break it and get another one a few days later. \n\nSame thing with shoes people would have a $300 pair of shoes each week and then wear them for 2 days never to wear them again, or if they got dirty then they would throw them away. \n\nWhat i dont understand is how if you are living on a low income you can afford to buy such expensive items.\n\nThe same thing goes for adults. I was in the store one day and a woman who was in front of me was wearing about $800 worth of designer clothes, and about $2000 worth of jewelry. She then proceeded to pay for the food in her cart with food stamps. \n\nI believe that if you have to use food stamps and rely on welfare you shouldn't be allowed to buy certain items." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, first of all, as others have noted, your examples are absurdly unrealistic. You're describing kids that are getting $500-600 of stuff each week. Even if somehow that weren't a ridiculous exaggeration, that's obviously not coming from welfare.\n\nNow, putting aside your claimed observations, you should consider the kinds of actual situations that can easily arise.\n\n- If you see someone with designer clothes in the grocery store paying with food stamps, consider the possibility that they used to have a very good job. You shouldn't expect them to sell all of their stuff as soon as they go on unemployment.\n\n- If a low income kid shows up at school with a fancy new gadget or a new pair of shoes, consider that he's only on the reduced lunch program because *his* parents poor. If he's got an uncle or grandparent that gave him something nice for his birthday, good for him.\n\n- Finally, people can still save a little bit even if they're poor if there's a luxury item they want. A kid whose parents are on welfare might still get a $10 allowance for doing chores. If he saves up for a year, he should go ahead and buy something cool. On that note, especially in high school, a kid might have a part time job. This isn't going to pull his family out of poverty, but it gives him some cash to throw around.\n\ntl;dr Your story doesn't sound like it matches reality at all, but in general, there are plenty of perfectly acceptable reasons why people on welfare can still have some nice things, and you shouldn't be so quick to judge if you don't have the full story." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:What prevents kick starter funds from being spent on things other than what they are meant for?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing really. Kickstarter is not an investment scheme and doesn't give you any rights. There's also no guarantee the project will succeed. \n\nKickstarter is just about trying to help something you like get made. You shouldn't expect to get anything in return." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Does an overweight person outlast a physically fit person in a starving to death scenario?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Short answer: probably.\n\nLong answer: it depends on more than just their relative body fat percentages. But, starving to death is not very common outside the developing world and few people there are overweight to begin with.\n\nThe nearest common scenario is something like cancer. People who are very thin tend to die more frequently than people who are overweight. When you have a wasting disease, the more body reserves you have the better, and cancer treatment often interrupts your ability to feed yourself adequately." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Monsterverse] What caused all the titans to become dormant for millennia?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three major events. The first being a lack of solar radiation as the planet formed more completely wiping out most of the titans. Those that survived were wiped out by the Alpha Muto incursion with only a handful surviving their millennia long breeding cycles. Still some managed to survive to be driven into hibernation by the appearance of monster zero and it's devastating effects on the globe. Some are still hibernating as the planet cannot support them still and they will awaken once ambient radiation levels return to higher amounts or called up by an Alpha Titan species. \n\nThe vast majority of the titans did migrate into the hollow earth as the surface became uninhabitable to them. Only the weaker species have remained on the surface in dormancy hiding from Kongs, Godzillas, and the Mutos that all preyed on them." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Lord of the rings] What happened to Saruman after the events of Two Towers?\n\nSince he is one of the Maiar, did he expect to be regenerated like Gandalf was? Or did his defection to Sauron doom him to the same fate?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saruman eventually escaped the tower, and made his way to, of all places, The Shire, with Wormtongue and some lackeys along for good measure.\n\nThey take over the shire for a while, until Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin return, raise the Hobbitry in Arms, and drive them out.\n\nUltimately, Saruman is killed by Wormtongue stabbing him, before Wormtongue is slain by Hobbit arrows.\n\nFollowing this, his spirit was blown away on a gust of wind, and was denied entry into Arda, cursed to roam as a malicious, but ultimately harmless, spirit.\n\nThis is all available through the Red Book, called \"The Return of the King,\" graciously transcribed from the original sources by Dr. Tolkien." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What are the problems of Stoicism?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Classical Stoicism held that Nature was ultimately good, and that all actions in accordance with nature would bring about the good. Marcus Aurelius asserts in Book 2 of Meditations that “nothing natural is evil.”\n\nStoicism then runs into the same trap as some religions that put faith in an omnipotent and benevolent deity - how do you explain horrible events? Alasdair MacIntyre summarizes the Nature problem in Stoicism quite succinctly: “Nature is conceived of as an actively benevolent agent; nature is a legislator for our good” (After Virtue 217)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why is Bruce Lee so famous in comparison to the thousands of other top martial artists before and after him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Uh, well he was not just a martial artist. He was a movie star, which garners a whole lot more fame and fortune than martial arts alone. Besides being a legendary martial artist we was a great actor and a genius of directing and performing action scenes in movies. He partially or fully directed the action scenes of many of the movies he starred in. \n\nHis movies were also very good and had totally badass fights. They were kind of a sweet spot of kung fu movies that really appealed to American audiences in the 70s. They had a lot of style and created a lot of the tropes we see in martial arts films." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I drop LSD into an aquarium, will the fish be affected in any way?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think you'd need quite a bit when diluted in a fish tank. I'll let the real scientists calculate that. If the concentration was high enough, the LSD will impact the behavior of the fish though -- not sure in which way. I've dosed crayfish with LSD before--they would become aggressive at low doses, and get \"locked\" in an aggressive stance at higher doses." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV:I think that there is sufficient justification that reality is deterministic and that free will (in the philosophical libertarian sense) is false.\n\nNow this is a CMV where I would *dearly* love to change my view on this, but I think that there is no reasonable way to have 'true free will'.\n\nWhat do I mean by free will? \nWell, I mean the existence of original thought that is bound to the will of the individual. When a person does an evil act or a good act, they are taking advantage of their intellect and shaping their reality in accordance with their will - they choose to impart an evil act. What happened up and until that act is irrelevant, because in that moment the person chooses to become good.\n\nI think that this is an illusion.\n\nDeterminism merely states that every micro-instance has an antecedent. We are all shaped from a sub-quantum level of micro instances cascading upwards from instant to instant that shapes our fundamental essence. From every observable action that we take, it is the background of the person that shaped that action 'good' or 'evil' based on the subjective morality of every individual person around them. \nTo wit - if every single background event from a persons conception all the way up to their current state, with every decision being met, it would be possible with near perfect certainty to predict their next move. You could argue that there is a slight possibility of the entire universe (ie reality) completely fracturing in an unknowable way, but the only rational explanation for that is that there is an outside force - which is, i suppose the argument for the existence of god.\n\nGiven that we have no evidence to suggest that this could be the case, the only rational and logical explanation is that reality is deterministic. \n\nThere is, undestandably, a group of philosophers calling themselves compatiblists who argue for free will to logically be preceded by determinism, because even if we are able to draw a logical line from existence of the universe to now, we are unable to use that to predict the future, which exists as choice in the mind of the person. I would call that soft determinism; because the part where compatiblism falls down for me is that they don't take into account the persons free choice as a consequence of their determinism.\n\nTl;DR - reality is deterministic. Free will is an illusion.\n\nPlease hit me with your hardest philosophical take downs, i am 100% eager to hear them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "> if every single background event from a persons conception all the way up to their current state, with every decision being met, it would be possible with near perfect certainty to predict their next move.\n\nI think you are wrong on this one. Even at the smallest level we can currently understand (sub-atomic level), we have absolutly no way of knowing what happens, and what will happens.\n\nLook at chaos theory, and quantum phisics to know more, but basically, randomness is something much more present than what you can think. \n\nAnd if a lots of things are random, even at the smaller level, how can anything be absolutly determined by previous knowledge, given that something random will interact with it ?\n\nSo, whatever free will is a thing or not, at least determinism isn't an absolute answer either." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How are glitches/exploits/secrets found in video games, surely people don't spend hours and hours trying to find them with only a small chance there's actually something to find?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That’s exactly how they are found, that and dumb luck. \n\nThe larger / more game breaking ones are usually found in the QA process which is literally doing repetitive motions over and over and over. A few test cases might be something simple like \n\nJump over the box 50 times. Or there might be jump over the box 50 times while unsheathing your weapon mid air and spinning your camera around." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having a bit of a problem with feminist epistemology (not what you think)\n\nRecently I picked up \"Feminist Epistemology\" aggregated by by Alcoff and Potter. It's an interesting discussion and I'm always willing to look at something that questions my worldview.\nI'm kind of lost on what article within it though. In Helen Longino's essay \"Subjects, Power and knowledge\" she goes at such a length to say something that it gets a bit convoluted.\n\n>One way to articulate the distinctions I am urging is to treat analysis of the context of discovery as a primarily descriptive process of how hypotheses are generated and to treat analysis in the context of justification as involving the normative or prescriptive analysis regarding the appropriate criteria for the acceptance of hypotheses.\n\n\nIs she suggesting a more holistic approach to forming a hypothesis? Is she perhaps suggesting much more weight in the qualitative data than of the quantitative?\nPlease help. I feel a bit overwhelmed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Longino is arguing that there is a big difference between the \"context of discovery\"--what scientists do in the lab and the \"context of justification\" what scientists write about what they did in the lab (journal articles, etc). This part of a broader feminist critique of traditional philosophy of science, specifically normative theories about what makes good science good science. Such normative theories (e.g. logical positivism, falsification) are built on what happens in the regime of justification. That is, scientists write that they have a hypothesis that they did such and such to test it and it produced such and such results. But if you ask any scientist about how well the write-up reflects what actually happened in the lab, they laugh. The lab is a messy, messy place and the context of justification pretends that its clean. The end of all this is that Longino and others are arguing that philosophies of science built on the context of justification are built on fictionalized accounts of how science happens and, as such, not appropriate to the reality of scientific practice. \n\nAnd this is only the beginning. If all context of justification is fictionalized then it doesn't make any sense to talk about the \"accuracy\" of findings. And if it doesn't make any sense to talk about the accuracy of findings, then it doesn't make any sense to develop a normative philosophy of science based on accuracy." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What is a derivative? Why are they important?\n\nIn Calculus with a teacher who hasn’t been able to explain the basic concept on a derivative. The internet has given me only complex answers and they haven’t helped me. Can you help?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In algebra you learned to calculate the slope of a straight line. y = mx + b, right? m is the slope.\n\nBut what about a curved line? Then the slope isn't constant. It changes: it's higher when the line is steeper, and lower when the line is flatter. So instead of a single number, the slope is a function of x. At any given x, your line has a certain y value, and a certain slope.\n\nCalculus is the set of math tools that allow you to find the slope function from the original function, or the original function from the slope function.\n\nThe derivative is finding the slope function. For example the derivative of y=x^2 is y'=2x. That means a basic parabola has a slope of 2x.\n\nLater you will learn about integrals, which are the opposite: they allow you to reverse the derivative, finding the original function from the slope function." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[MCU/Iron Man 3] How did Stark pay at the hardware store?\n\nHe's believed to be dead (and he's obviously trying not to be recognized, with the hoodie and sunglasses), so his credit cards probably wouldn't work. And considering he had to leave in a hurry from what was left of his house on Malibu Point, he likely didn't think to grab any cash, and he seems like he's not the kind of person to carry much with him; he probably uses credit everywhere. So how did he purchase all that stuff to build things before he went to the Mandarin's mansion?\n\nEDIT: And how did he get a hotel room?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In addition to his personal credit cards, Tony probably also has some business credit cards for Stark Industries that would still work fine.\n\nIt's possible that he also carries some other forms of payment for when he doesn't want to be recognized or tracked." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What would Nietzsche think about modern day medicine and drugs? (Everything from ibuprofen, to meds for bipolar/schizophrenia, to marijuana, to the \"Limitless\" movie drug... how do these substances contribute to the Übermensch?\n\nLast semester in Ethics I asked my philosophy professor what Nietzsche would have thought about the drug in the movie \"Limitless,\" you know, the one where the guy gets a drug that makes him amazing at all this stuff, super smart / motivated, etc. She said she honestly wasn't sure, because on one hand, it's man made, a \"creation,\" but also could help develop the Übermensch.\n\nSo this semester, I have bioethics with the same professor, and I decided for my extra credit project to really analyze this question I asked a while ago. Here's some ideas I have, but please correct me where I'm wrong, and feel free to offer opinions, passages, quotes, etc. I really want to go all out on this. I've only read The Gay Science and half of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.\n\n* I know Nietzsche used some type of opiate to get rid of the incredible pains (stomach issues/headaches...), so I'm *assuming* Nietzsche would have been okay with taking medicine that helped cure illness. I also know he took some type of sleeping drug that helped him sleep.\n\n* I know he was clearly against alcohol from his famous quote... right? Or was he just against the abuse of alcohol when it came to avoid suffering?\n\n* What the hell would he think of drugs that better you? Like steroids, the Limitless movie drug, speed (in cases like Jack Kerouac abusing benzadrine to write his famous novel in two weeks)...?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Neitzsche seems more concerned with people’s motivations than with their overt behavior. Especially their unconscious motivations. For instance, he negatively evaluates Christian morality on the grounds that it is an expression of deep-seated cruelty, self-hatred, and inappropriate pity. \n\nGiven this, Nietzsche would likely be interested in why people are taking these drugs and whether the motivations are healthy or rather symptoms of decline. This would probably differ in a lot of individual cases." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Batman] Would Batman's no-kill rule been different had his parents been tortured to death?\n\nSay similar to how Dick got tortured by Joker, Batman had to witness his parents get the same treatment. But before the killer could finish him off, the cops show up and rescue Bruce as the killer is cuffed away. Waynes are pronounced dead. \n\nDoes this change Bruce's ideologies as Batman? Does Batman now excessively torture his enemies? Maybe as Bruce Wayne he hires the most sadistic doctors to run Arkham and then as Batman he sends his rogue gallery there to get tortured endlessly? \n\nAnd heck, maybe he kills the Joker after he finds Dick Grayson dead. \n\nBasically, does the prolonged and excruciating death of the Wayne's change how Batman would deal with criminals?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Batman's no killing rule ultimately comes from a desire to not be as bad as the man who killed his parents. It's more a trauma response then a moral code in the conventional sense. \n\n\nSo if anything, it's the opposite- the more sadistic Joe Chill was, the higher standards batman has to hit to not be like him. A batman who's parents were tortured to death might well be an outright pacifist, unwilling to cause pain and trying to talk his villains out of it. To him, torture is the thing the Evil Man Who Took His Parents did, just like killing is to canon bruce, and he'll go to the same extreme lengths to avoid it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: If we die in space will our body still decompose or will it float around relativly uncomposed?\n\nAs in title, if you get detached from your ship in your suit and just keep floating away into nothingness, once you die will your body decompose (maybe from the bacteria that is naturally in the body) or will it stay relativly \"untouched\" and just float around?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bacteria gets killed by the cold. There’s nothing to decompose you, but, freed of a suit (and perhaps regardless anyway) half of you is frizzling with pure solar energy cooking you up nicely, while the lee side freezes in the cold emptiness of space. \n\nI imagine micro abrasion from flying sand particles would eventually wear you down and in time I’m pretty sure you’d wind up getting sucked into a gravity well, perhaps eventually descending to the surface of whatever body that is, most likely being dealt with by whatever atmosphere exists there." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: why can't we produce synthetic gasoline ?\n\nWe are able to make complex molecules in labs, so what's the reason for this ?\n\nEdit : I know it wouldn't be a leap toward ecology, just wondering if it has been done and how. There is surely a powerful lobby which could benefit from such a technology." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In addition to the cost involved, it's important to remember that gasoline is a molecule that can be burned to release energy. In order to create that molecule you have to put an equal amount of energy into it. That energy is stored in the form of chemical bonds. So burning the fuel breaks up the bonds and releases energy. But to create the fuel, you would have to put those bonds together, which means putting energy into it. If it's not biofuel then that energy would have to come from some other conventional source. Since our technology is not flawless, creating the conventional source of energy results in a net loss. Meaning that more energy is put into a power plant than comes out. \n \nSo to create gasoline with a conventional power plant we would have net energy loss." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I want to teach at a liberal arts college. How much does prestige of grad school matter?\n\nI'm getting my PhD in chemistry, and I hope to become a professor at a liberal arts college. I have been accepted to three schools. One is top tier, one is mid tier, and one is bottom tier. (All three are RU/VH.) I'm having a hard time with the decision, and I need some insight. \n\n- I want to be close to family:\nBottom tier school is 30 minutes away. It's in my home state. I would be happy to teach at some of the schools in my home state.\n\n- Research is not the most important thing in my life:\nI am not a workaholic. I will not stay awake thinking about my work until the wee hours in the morning. The top tier school is a pressure cooker, and I'm more likely to have mental health issues if I go there. Mid tier is slightly more laid back, but it's still grad school. 5th year grad students at the bottom tier school said that 40-50 hours a week is the norm. It is a very relaxed department.\n\n- I want to like the research at least a little:\nTop school is amazing. Everything is awesome. Funding and resources are not even a little bit of an issue. \nMid school has cool stuff happening. I would be happy doing that work.\nBottom tier school has only one professor I would want to work for, and even that research wasn't that exciting to me.\n\n**tl;dr** I would go to a bottom tier school if I could be guaranteed the job I want at a liberal arts college. Leaving my family makes me sad, but I feel I may have no choice for the sake of my career.\n\nAny words of wisdom?\n\n**Edit:** I chose the top tier school. It was the right decision." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like any tenure-track position, jobs at teaching-focused liberal arts schools are fiercely competitive. You seem to be under the impression that you can lowball grad school and slide into a teaching position. That isn't going to happen: if you can't publish, you won't get a job. So, you need to be thinking very seriously about what your publishing prospects look like at the mid- and bottom-tier programs. If you lack resources or talented advisors at either school, it's not an option.\n\nYou will also need teaching experience in grad school, so consider which schools would allow you to TA and (ideally) be the instructor of record of a course at some point." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How did it come that japanese economy is smaller than it was 5 and 25 years ago and it seems noone cares and does anything?\n\nI looked for the dynamics of Japanese nominal GDP. It was $4,9 trillion in 1994, and now it's 4,8$ trillion, not speaking about 6,2$ trillion in 2012. Though, throughout the last 25 years the trend seems linear and horizontal, because it fluctuates a lot. This year it grew by 600 billion and after that it fell by 700. How Japanese and everyone kinda okay with that and doesn't pay much attention? I mean their economy is smaller than it was more than 20 years ago and they don't seem accomplishing much in tackling that.\n\nDon't the Japanese react? Change policy? Elect other party and government? Social protests? Though it's only nominal GDP, and PPP grows, I guess it's really a sign that not only indicates current situation but also shows that there's going to be something worse in the long term, if they don't solve it. \n\n\n...or maybe Japan has reached it's slowly growing potential GDP and just fluctuates around it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You should not be using nominal GDP in dollars in your comparison, as the exchange rate fluctuations with respect to the dollar and inflation will have disproportionate effects on the numbers you quote. Importantly, Japan experienced deflation throughout the 90s and 2000s and even in the early 10s, making the comparison flawed since a lower nominal GDP would not necessarily mean a smaller economy but rather one in which things get nominally cheaper.\n\nWhen you look at real values in local currency (chained 2011 yen), Japan’s GDP was 425 trillion yen in 1994, 511 trillion yen in 2014 and 536 trillion yen in 2019, indicating positive, if mild, growth. In fact, Japan has experienced positive real growth rates pretty much every year since the 80s, except for the years of the Asian Financial Crisis (1998-1999) and the Great Financial Crisis (2008-2010)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[MCU] In AoU Captain America said they couldn't leave a single person left to die on Sokovia. In Civil War he says you can't save everyone. What changed his attitude between these events?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can't \"leave\" a single person to die. You try your best, save everyone you can. That's why, in the First Avenger, Cap goes to save the captured soldiers. Sure he might not save everyone, but he's going to try.\n\nThings like Sokovia show him that not everyone can be saved. Huge, extinction level events can happen, and you can't save everyone. But so long as Cap is still alive, he'll keep trying.\n\n> This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time... maybe nobody gets saved.\n\nYou can't save everybody. But if you stop trying, everybody dies. You have to *try*. No one gets left behind on purpose." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[DBZ] When Goku and Vegeta removed MajinBuu from Super Buu why did he revert to Kid Buu and not Evil Buu?\n\nFrom what I remember Kid Buu became Majin Buu after absorbing Grand Supreme Kai. But that had occurred so long ago the process was irreversible. So when Majin Buu got rid of his evil energy he formed Evil Buu and not Kid Buu. And to form Super Buu; Evil Buu absorbed Majin Buu. So I mean logically when they removed Majin Buu from Super Buu he should have gone back to Evil Buu rather than Kid Buu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Evil Buu was comprised of a portion of the original's power without the grand supreme Kai's influence. He was Buu but not enough Buu to form Kid Buu. When Goku and King Vegeta removed Fat Buu, evil Buu had a higher concentration of the original's power and became Kid Buu. \n\nThis raises an interesting side question, How much more powerful was the original Buu than Kid Buu? Considering that Fat Buu still had some of his power during the final battle:" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:What Einstein meant when he said, \"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was referencing the idea that it is impossible to prove that anything exists other than what's in your mind. So, reality can be viewed as only what is in your mind - which can be viewed as an illusion." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why is the mRNA vaccine more expensive than the \"classic\" vaccines?\n\nMy understanding of the process was, that not only the mRNA vaccines are faster to develop, but also easier to scale up in the production. But the prices are between ~20 and ~40 for the mRNA and the AstraZeneca around 4. Why is that so?\n\nIs it only because the production process is new and the factories have to create new production lines for it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New production lines, paying for R&D, the storage requires colder, more expensive to buy and operate freezers, and therefore more expensive shipping too. \n\nThere's also a level of risk present that many other vaccines don't necessarily face that could also factor into pricing." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Does human vision have a better horizontal resolution than vertical resolution?\n\nDoes having eyes in a horizontal line result in better horizontal resolution in humans or is it same in both horizontal and vertical directions? Also, what is the aspect ratio of human vision? Is circular, elliptical or something completely different?\n\n\nI have recently studied few video coding standards and wondered why we have more resolution in horizontal than vertical in most standards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Simple answer: each eye covers an area taller than it is wide, but combining the two human binocular vision is 200⁰ wide and 135⁰ high.\n\nComplex answer:\n\nThere's not that much difference in the up/down vs the left/right distribution of photoreceptors, but most of your \"resolution\" doesn't really come from them in a practical sense.\n\nYour visual perception isn't really light entering your eye. You perceive a model of the world that exists in your visual cortex, this creates an imagination of the outside world dreamt by flesh and guided by sensory input and visual memory; it holds an internal perceptual \"canvas\" that is \"painted\" by your eye glancing at parts of the scene.\n\nThe high resolution part of the eye is the macula at the centre of your vision, it sees an area about the size of a large coin at arms length, and as you look around it paints in most of the detail and colour into your imagined world. Given enough light and 20/20 vision, its practical resolution is roughly that of 8k cinema screen, but it's 360p and blurred within a few degrees.\n\nHuman eyes constantly dart about to keep the canvas fresh, and like a pigeon jerking its head about you're actually blind during these \"saccades\". The movements are driven by the visual attention system, which gives the burning feeling that something must be looked at, and that is in part driven by the outer areas of the eye that detect movement. Force your eye to keep still for too long and the canvas will gradually descend into a dreamlike chaos; visual memory is transient and depends on constant change. Hallucinogenic drugs massively reduce this time window, if you're into that sort of thing.\n\nSo while eye resolution and field of view is part of the picture, eye movements and visual memory drive most of what you actually perceive. The canvas itself still seems wider than it is tall unless you shut one eye, but its characteristics are that of a window into a subjective, imagined 3D dream of the world, rather than being based solely on eye hardware." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Batman in general] Why does Batman leaves his mouth and nose exposed and without make up even though one of the main objectives of his costume is to give the illusion he's a monster bat and not human?\n\nEven if he needs to show he's human underneath when rescuing civilians or talking with cops or making out with Catwoman or whatever; surely the genius billionaire could have added a mechanism to remove parts of a full face mask to reveal what's underneath.\n\nAnd on top of the image concerns; there's also the fact he is often targeted with melee attacks and gas based weapons; both of which are significantly more effective against exposed mouth and nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He’s not actually trying to trick people into thinking he’s a giant bat monster, if he was then he’d definitely opt for a more anatomically bat-like cowl. Probably with fangs and other creepy imagery. He instead is opting for a spooky silhouette that creeps criminals out when he stands in the shadows or they catch glimpses of him as he attacks. \n\nAlso he does sometimes carry a gas mask for specific situations but it would probably hinder his normal breathing to wear at all times." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why people sell to the pawn stars when the item is way more valuable than the money they are getting. \n\nCan't the sellers just sell to auction houses like the pawn stars? They're being ripped off hundreds of dollars and they act like its a norm. Can't they sell to antique stores, it just seems so silly how much money they are getting when the actual value is way higher." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most pawn shops don't operate like Hardcore Pawn or Pawn Stars. Pawn stores generally don't buy items. They pawn.\n\nYou go to the pawn store and give them your guitar/diamond ring/gun/whatever and sign the paper work. They give you money. You have X amount of time to pay that money back. If you pay it back, you get your item back. If you don't, they keep it and sell the object.\n\nThe shows you see are pretty much lies. Real pawn shops are miserable places where peoples broken dreams are on sale." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: String theory\n\nIt has been a year since the last post. Let's have some new perspectives!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The illustrations of strings and such that you'll see if you google this subject are almost irrelevant in an explanation of string theory. In physics at the moment, we have two big theories which both produce very accurate experimental data: quantum theory and general relativity.\n\nQuantum deals with very small stuff (sub-atomic level particles), and general relativity deals with space-time and gravity.\n\nScientists are searching for a Theory of Everything, which would either make quantum and relativity theories coherent with each other, OR it will completely supersede both of those theories.\n\nIn quantum theory, the smallest 'things' are elementary particles (including the old favourites - electrons, photons, bosons, and several more). String theory suggests that those elementary particles are made up of *strings*, so called strings because they have only 1 dimension.\n\nCombinations of these strings allow us to build up our usual three spatial dimensions, plus several more. The maths involved has thus far been consistent, and compatible with our understanding of the universe at large. However, we'll see in the future whether string theory can produce accurate experimental results. Due to the scale involved, experiments involving strings are very difficult to put together!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Spider-man homecoming] If Stark is pro-registration, why doesn't he have Peter registered?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone here is missing the point of Stark being \"Pro-Registration.\" He isn't. He really, *really* isn't. He is a massive fan of the idea of oversight over the Avengers, preferably on the scale of what SHIELD used to be or the World Council or the UN still is, but he definitely thinks that the Accords are *not the way to go.*\n\nWhat they are is the first step there. They aren't the be-all, end-all, they're a step in the path to be discarded the *moment* they're no longer needed. Stark thinks in terms of the future, and plans, not in terms of the here and now. If they ignored UN mandate with the Accords, there'd be no opportunity to sign an edited, looser, *actually effective* version later on. Peter doesn't need to sign because, frankly, he's not relevant to the plan yet. Sure, later on, (when he's no longer a minor) he'll sign an updated version, but why bother when he's not famous, not well known, not under international scrutiny, and not under constant threat of international/inter dimensional threat?\n\nThe kid works out of Brooklyn and is basically internationally irrelevant (or so Stark's lawyers would have you believe if ever questioned). The Accords are basically a first draft of a first draft. Combined... Why would he *ever* have the kid sign them?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baby birds are helpless and mostly drably coloured to blend in. However, chicks and ducklings are walking yellow highlighters. Is there some advantage to this colouration?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It has more to do with how they're raised. Ducks and chicks will often follow their mother at a young age, and being a bright color makes it easier for their mother to find them. Wild birds, especially those that fly, usually stay in their nest until they're old enough to be on their own. Plus, yellow colors appear more often in domesticated birds. Wild chicks, especially ducks, are more drab colored." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What would happen if all of the countries decided to forgive all outstanding debts with other countries?\n\nI asked my government teacher, and she said that she had no idea. Any Economics people out there willing to share?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then the countries that owe more soverign (national government) debt than they are owed would have more money to spend, and those that owe less than they are owed would be screwed.\n\nIt's worth noting that **a lot** of government debt isn't owned by governments." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If plants are constantly exposed to the sun, why don't they develop cancer?\n\nIs there something special about plant cells that shields them radiation that is harmful to humans? It it possible for a plant to \"develop cancer\" or any sort of harmful mutation?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Plants do develop cancer. But their lack of a circulatory system makes cancer not very harmful to plants. Note that, in humans, cancer is usually only deadly when it is able to spread through the bloodstream and start growing in many sensitive areas of the body at once (such as the brain). In plants, cancer just manifests as a local growth." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If neo-nazis follow nazism as an ideology and see nazists as heroes, why do they deny the Holocaust?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They want to dress up the idea of Nazism to make it more publicly palatable. Regardless of your views, murdering six million people in cold blood is a hard sell to people and even hardcore neo-Nazis buy into this idea as a way of insulating themselves against how scary the history really was." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why does water make things slippery, but licking my finger helps me pull out a cigarette or turn a page?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water also has a trait called adhesion, which makes it clingy. This is why you can shake your hands really hard after washing them and they'll still be wet. Water sticks to paper and to your finger, *voilà!* cigarette." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Batman Vs Superman] If Batman can stand up to Superman in a fair fight (using a specialized suit) isn't his whole argument that Superman is to dangerous to live obviously stupid and hypocritical?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not really. It's not as if Wayne just builds a SupeBuster armor and whoops up on Kal-El. In *The Dark Knight* books Wayne has to arrange a master plan around hugely circumstantial conditions that only *have a slim chance* of putting Superman at a critical disadvantage and would only work because Superman had become so confident in his power to overcome any human opponent. Bruce has *one chance* to use multiple layers of surprise and misdirection to get the job done, and if he misses the mark Supes would *actually be careful* in the future and pretty much reduce his chances of being bushwhacked to nil.\n\nEdit: To clarify; Wayne *does* build a suit of SupeBuster armor, it's just not for beating Superman, its to *keep Wayne alive long enough to distract Superman from what's actually going down...*" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Matrix] Why do people resist the Matrix? It seem pretty chill in there and reality is screwed anyways. Whats the point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For most people it's just that you that something is kinda wrong. The world seems weird and you just keep looking for why. For most that's as far as it goes, just a weird feeling you never quite lose, but for a very few it goes further. \n\nLuck, certain skills or chance encounter means that you get contacted by attractive people who tell you that there is a secret and the world is hiding it from you. They say you're special and offer you the chance to learn the secret. It's appealing to believe them, to follow them, to look for more information. \n\nFor a few poor disillusioned souls they go through with a deal they can't possibly understand and wake up in a nightmare world, where humanity is a fragment of its past and they are a tiny worthless cog in a new human world. One much shitter than the one they left. \n\nThey didn't mean to leave, they didn't know what they were giving up, but then it's too late and they either have to accept it, try for a job on a ship to get a few moments back in the world they left, or kill themselves. \n\nPeople don't know they're resisting the Matrix, they just are going on their instinct that something is weird in the world and for a very, very few they get to see a different world and most likely hate it. \n\nThat's what you get for resisting and it's an important lesson. You're better off ignoring those feelings, put them away as part of the human condition and go have a slice of pizza. It's not so bad in here and while you could keep looking, what's the point? Go read a book, watch a play, eat an apple, feel good? Then don't worry about it, you're fine where you are." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is there a philosophical term for holding symbols higher than the ideas those symbols represent?\n\nSome examples: In the collective american consciousness, the flag represents freedom, liberty, etc. but when someone does something involving the flag that people don’t like (Kapernick) they seem disregard the idea that he has the freedom to do what he’s doing. Another example: The Bible and Cross represent Christian beliefs in the teaching of Jesus, but many simply value the symbols without actually learning what the teachings of Jesus were. I guess there’s a similarity between this and the shadows in Plato’s cave, but I can’t think of a term for it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In semiotics, there's a concept of the 'floating signifier,' which is a kind of signifier that lacks a strict signified, so can refer to any number of different things by different people and/or nothing at all. \n\nI think that's what you might be looking for." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How can space bend? or have curvature?\n\nWhere is coming from: I have a stress ball in my hand... I was squeezing it...then I started thinking about space while watching the stress ball now I'm confused as hell. I don't have sufficient knowledge to frame the question succinctly so I will explain.\n\n\nIf space can bend i.e.is \"pliable\", does this mean it exists \"within\" something else? What does it bend into?\n\nIf a two-dimensional \"space\" object can only \"bend\" by moving through a three- dimensional space (like bending a piece of paper?), does this mean that a three- dimensional space can only \"bend\" through the fourth or fifth dimension?\n\nPlease ELI5 so I can get back to work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whether or not our universe exists within something else is unknown at this time, and likely will not be known given our current understanding of physics, simply put, the boundary is accelerating away from us too fast for us to ever catch it.\n\nWhat is often meant with \"bending\" of space time is how gravity distorts the path of objects.\n\nImagine, for example, rolling a marble across a perfectly flat friction-less surface. If no one else touches the marble, we can expect that it will move in a straight line forever.\n\nWhen space-time is bent, it changes the outside perspective of what that straight line is. So if we have a massive object (a planet / star / black hole / galaxy / someone's mom), it bends space-time due to it's gravity. An often used analogy is the bowling ball on a trampoline. If you roll that same marble across a bent surface, you're still imparting the same energy on the marble, but from your perspective, it does not move in a straight line. \n\nNow, with a trampoline, we see that the surface has a slope, but empty space cannot have a slope as it's not actually made of anything. Thus we say that space-time is bent, as forces unseen are acting on the marble and altering it's path. It is often said that gravity is not a force (such as hitting an object with another object, or magnetism, etc.), but a consequence of mass existing in an uneven distribution across the universe.\n\n[Physicists; I've deliberately simplified a few things to make it a bit easier to understand in ELI5 style, be kind.]" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are bullet trains shaped like a rounded bullet? Shouldn’t a sharp tip like a spearhead make it more streamlined?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aerodynamics can get quite odd at high speeds. A needle-sharp point isn't always the most efficient shape. There are also important concerns other than top speed and efficiency, like noise and overall length. Bullet trains need to be quiet, because they pass through a lot of populated areas. Sharp points and steep angles can increase wind noise. Trains also have a maximum non-articulated length that dictates how long any single car can be and still be able to make the turns in the track. The pointier the nose is the less internal volume is left over for all the stuff that needs too be in a locomotive." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How can polls be representative if only the kinds of people willing to talk to pollsters respond?\n\nI'm pretty sure if I got a call asking me to participate in a poll or survey, I'd just hang up. My friends and family say the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A good poll accounts for this--there is data available on the kinds of people that are likely to respond to polls, and the pollster should weight the results to be more representative of the population polled. For example, many polls undersample young people, so giving more weight to the young people who did respond (considering their proportion of the population) corrects this bias.\n\nThis is one reason that it is very important to check a poll's methodology before considering the results. A poll that is poorly conducted is worthless. Since it is political polling season, it is worth noting that even the best of polls are bad indicators of how people will vote--people say one thing, but when they are in the voting booth it is often quite something else. Hence why so many in the Republican field are hoping for a primary win despite polling low." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What would happen if a container was opened and closed in space... then brought back to Earth? What would be inside?\n\nI don't understand very much about space, space physics, etc. so I have no idea what would happen.\n\nHere's my hypothetical: If you opened a container (let's say a tupperware box) in space, closed it after a few minutes, brought it back down to earth, and opened it... what would be inside?\n\nWould nothing be inside and air just get sucked into the box? I'm assuming whatever gas inside the box before opening it would be lost after being exposed in space. I'm expecting a very simple answer and I'm probably just very stupid.\n\nEdit: Awesome! Thank you for all the answers and everyone who has contributed to the discussion; I didn't realize that I wasn't the only one who didn't understand \"space dynamics\" very well. Your collective responses have been amazing and understandable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First off, if you did that with a tupperware container, all you'd get is a bunch of crushed plastic. The pressure differential would destroy the tupperware.\n\nBut yes, if you had an appropriate vessel, what you would return with is a box of empty space. Nothingness. Open the vessel, and air would rush in." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are so many scam call centers located in India?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because labour is cheap, but equally important, because of the legacy of the British Empire, there is a strong tradition of learning English as a second language.\n\nEDIT - worth noting that on occasions where having faultless English with an English accent is important, call centres (sometimes called boiler rooms) are located nearer home. Spain is a favourite for scams targeting the UK." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could humans survive in a 21% Oxygen atmosphere at a similar pressure to Earth's if 78% of the atmosphere was a gas other than Nitrogen?\n\nAnd what gas other than Nitrogen would be the most ideal?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are lots of inert gases that would be just fine. Helium, neon, argon, and probably krypton would cause no problems. Xenon has some not-very-well-understood anesthetic effects, so that's out. \n\nOther gases world be fine in the short term, but would eventually decompose. Sulfur hexafluoride is pretty inert, but given enough time it can hydrolyse into hydrogen fluoride. Hydrogen gas would be okay as long as it doesn't explode.\n\nOh, and don't let anyone feed you some line about heavy gases pooling in the bottom of your lungs and suffocating you. That's a silly chemistry urban legend." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do we even have nightmares? Why is the brain such a massive troll?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are a few theories about the purpose of dreams (and may apply for nightmares too.)\n\n*During sleep, the brain has a lot of activity, and it's possible that random sequences of activity in the areas responsible for seeing and hearing lead to fantastic visions of imagination. If this is the case, random sequences could lead to nice, pleasant dreams or just as easily, terrifying nightmares.\n\n*The brain needs to stay active, so it may use the time that you're asleep to simulate threats that could happen in your life and prepare some sort of response. If this is the case, nightmares seem like they'd be the norm (which they kind of are, as most dreams actually are unpleasant)\n\n*The theory that people seem to hear the most is that the brain is consolidating memories, and it takes different memories and cobbles them together like patchwork. If this is the case, there's no saying how they'd be cobbled together, and it'd be just as likely, if not more so that the dreams would be unpleasant.\n\nSource: Am neuroscience major in college." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why doesn't every American citizen pay the same percentage of income in taxtes?\n\nSuppose the government taxed every citizen 20% of their income. Why wouldn't that work?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because it wouldn't actually be fairer.\n\n20% of your income when you make 20k is a big deal. Sure, it's \"only\" 4k, but you can feed a person for months on that much. In contrast, 20% of your income when you make 500k isn't a big deal at all; it may cost you 100k, but 400k is still enough money to buy basically anything you'd want.\n\nSo if you accept that poor people should be taxed less (which you must, if you think that percentage of income is a reasonable thing to tax), there's no reason to have everyone pay the *same* percentage." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do different animal species have similar anatomical structures?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Similar anatomical structures may be due to homology, which means the structure was inherited from a common ancestor that already had that structure. Humans and sharks both have hearts and two eyes because their last common ancestor did.\n\nSimilar anatomical structures may also be due to homoplasy, which means the structures independently evolved in each lineage. Hippos and alligators both have eyes and nostrils on the top of their head, independent adaptations to living mostly submerged in water." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why does it hurt so much to get kicked in the testicles?\n\nAnd is there an equivalent for women?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The simple answer is because that area is packed with nerve endings. These nerves serve several functions including sensing pain, but some sense temperature, pressure, chemicals, etc.\n\nGetting kicked in the testicles can set off many of these nerves at once, sending a confusing set of signals to your spinal cord and your brain. \n\nThus pain, doubling over, vomiting, etc." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How is the Moon covered mostly fine dust if the erosion forces of wind, water, and plate tectonics do not exist?\n\nIf I remember right there was a point where the moon had mildly active plate tectonics (correct me if I'm wrong), but I still don't understand what other than meteor impacts could cause any erosion on the surface, let alone enough to make a fine dust.\n\nAlso on a side note, I know that relative to Earth meteoroids are called meteors when traveling through the atmosphere and meteorites when they've impacted the ground, but how should they be referenced in relation to the moon since it has no atmosphere?\n\nEdit: Despite proofreading my post I still have a typo in my title. Frick." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Meteors are enough to create the regolith. The moon (and the earth) are constantly bombarded with them, the earth has an atmosphere that burns most of them up before they hit the ground. The moon having no atmosphere has no such protection." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Snowpiercer] Why a train?\n\nWhy wouldn't they make some sort of underground shelter and harness geothermal heat?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some governments may have done just that, but the train was built by a crazy billionaire as a luxury cruiser. It wasn't until the end of the world happened and a bunch of stowaways got aboard that the nature of the train changed.\n\nSome become batman, others become the arrow, others build space rockets of dubious efficacy. This crazy billionaire built a train." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What causes that sound you hear when you cup your ears?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Surfaces reflect sounds. Surfaces of certain sizes reflect sounds of particular frequencies. A cupped hand will reflect some high frequencies more than others. The diameter of the \"cup\" focuses those frequencies into your ear canal, emphasizing them. Since these sounds, which would normally pass your ears unnoticed, are now emphasized, they are perceived as a rushing sound. Also, your position is space is given a reference as your brain interprets sound for clues to your location in relation to all sound-reflecting objects around you. Cupping your hand behind your ear interferes with those clues. Wait until you're older and your hearing naturally becomes less sensitive to those high frequencies and you'll find the effect is diminished or non-existent." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How exactly does “losing” your voice work? What causes it/what is it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The body’s response to damage includes inflammation and swelling. Your vocal cords are thin membranes and are very easily damaged by overuse (either too much or too vigorously- screaming a few times or talking loudly all day long). When they get damaged they swell, and the swelling causes them to become thicker and less flexible, meaning the don’t vibrate as well or make contact with each other correctly, and you’ve “lost your voice.” Illnesses can also cause them to swell." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: If sitting is so bad for us, how bad is the third of our lives we spend lying down (sleeping)?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First of all, that third of your life is spent sleeping, which you would very quickly die without. I'd say that means lying down is *definitely* healthier than *not* doing it.\n\nAs for sitting down, it's unhealthy because it's not a natural position to be in for extended periods. We're supposed to be moving around a lot. You know how blood circulates around your body? Well, your heart is great at pushing it *down*, but not pulling it back *up*. Walking helps your blood circulate - we've evolved so that the muscles we use for walking help push the blood back up our bodies. \n\nWhen you're lying down, gravity isn't that big of a problem. \n\nThat's just *one* reason. We're also not supposed to have a sedentary lifestyle. We're supposed to get a decent amount of sleep (as discussed earlier, lack of it *will* be detrimental to the point of lethality) but other than that we're built to be active and we've not evolved out of that. So sitting around all day means we're conserving way too much energy that our body doesn't have anything to do with, so it stores it was fat, which makes our body *less* efficient and means we need even *more* exercise. \n\nAgain - we've evolved to sleep for ~8 hours, and then be active most of the rest. Not doing either of those is not healthy." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Silly] The philosopher's high\n\nAlright, this is somewhat ridiculous, but hear me out :\n\nApparently, runners get a feeling of euphoria while undergoing the physical effort that comes from running. Well, I find an analogous excitation whenever I understand a philosophical text, or when I'm battling with a demonstration, or whatever intellectual process I'm faced with.\n\nDuring exams, for example, if I have to unknot a complex text, the more I'll write, the more I'll understand, and the more I'll understand, the more I'll write. This leads me to a strangely exciting slippery slope that gets me so hyped my handwriting becomes unreadable, and that I have to stop and breathe deeply for a while. My heartbeat even goes up, and my hands get sweaty !\n\nThe same goes for essays and dissertations : one discovery leads to another, one aspect to another, and soon I'm all fidgety.\n\nWhen reading a text, whenever I begin to understand, I have to drop the book and jog around my room frantically, making silly hand gestures and thinking to myself \"Of course, that makes total sense !\", and I have to scribble whatever on my white board to summarize what I just extracted. This leads to my housemates and friends thinking I am some kind of absolute madman.\n\nI'm here to ask if you guys get the same kind of euphoria from time to time, or if that is an uncommon and weird thing for one to be struck with. Lately it has become even more of a problem, as all the ends of my works are rushed and unreadable, and I systematically have to go through them a second time !" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Definitely not just you. Making a really killer argument or figuring out a really clever way to present some complicated idea is a hell of a drug. Having to go back through your work and revise it for clarity isn't really a problem, since it's something you should do anyway. As Ernest Hemingway said, \"Write drunk. Revise sober.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How do erasers erase?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Take a pencil and write on paper. What happens is the pencil \"lead\" (really a black carbon stick of something called 'graphite') scrapes off and sticks to the paper. It's pretty sticky so it stays and forms letters and drawings.\n\nNow take an eraser to that pencill drawing. Paper was rough and the graphite stuck to it, but eraser materials is a lot stickier than that. So the stuck-on pencil graphite transfers off of the paper and on to the eraser. \n\nThe eraser then wears away from contact with the paper and forms a little tiny plastic or gummy pill that contains the removed graphite, and that gets swept aside or blown off the page. The stickier the eraser, the better it removes and holds graphite, which is why newer white plastic-based erasers are awesome but old pink ones sometimes just make a huge mess.\n\n**TL;DR: Eraser stuff is stickier than paper, so pencil stuff likes it better.**" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Captain America] If Steve Rogers had never been frozen, and theoretically lived a normal life after WW2, would he still look like he had even barely aged since the 40's if you saw him today?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Infinity Formula, which nick Fury Used, effectively retarded aging.\n\nWhen the Super Soldier Serum was briefly removed, captain when all old man. He became young again when it was returned\n\nBased on that evidence I'd say it fixes his body at the age of peak performance. So locked somewhere in between mid 20s and early 30s." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:Is it possible to get cancer in any part of your body? Are there parts of your body that are immune to cancerous growth?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is not (with the exception of hair and fingernails). If a part of your body contains living cells, those cells can turn cancerous.\n\nYou can get cancer of the bone, skin, muscles, blood, cartilage, nerves, etc etc." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How do you design locks that allow several different keys open the entry door to the same apartment complex, but also just the door leading to one of those apartments?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A modern lock have stacks of pins in them where each pin is split in two. Only if you insert the correct key will the pins will align with the cylinder and you can turn the lock. So called master key systems have some pins that is split in three. This means that there are two possible keys that match the lock as there are two different ways to align the split pins with the cylinder. This does weaken the system as now there are more places where a lockpicker can get the lock to open in. It is also possible to have intermediate keys in the system. So for example a cleaner might have a key that only opens some apartments but not all but the manager can open all of them. This is done by having multiple triple split pins in each lock. But of course this makes it even easier for a lockpicker." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: I am a vampire, and I think that humans can and should be sustainably farmed.\n\nAs you know, human blood is required for sustaining our unlife. (Though some SJWs insist that animal blood is able to do the job as well, they should be discounted for this discussion.) It is *not* required to kill humans if we don't fully drain them of their blood; they can easily recover from the anemia in just a few weeks with proper care and nutrition.\n\nUsing this method, a small herd of 20 or 30 adult humans can provide sufficient food for a single active vampire without killing any of the herd. Additional humans can be used as breeding stock to help replace those who become sick or too old to contribute to the feeding process.\n\nI know that there are some radicals who object on the grounds that humans are sentient beings who deserve autonomy. But this is irrelevant. Humans on ranches already live full and productive lives as our food sources and occasionally as our pets (though I think it is a bad idea to become too attached to a potential meal)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The problem is that these ranches operate with little regulation or oversight. While there are certainly some vampires who treat their food source humanely, there have been startling accusations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of humans. Since vampires can't be captured on film, it's difficult to prosecute these offenses even when there's clear evidence that crimes have been committed. There's concern that vampires who engage in sadistic practices with humans could become so desensitized to violence that they attack their own kind. We were all humans once, after all.\n\nSince many vampires don't have the time or energy to keep their own private blood farm, they end up purchasing most of their blood from shops. This removes them from the actual realities of farming. If the blood they're buying is harvested unethically, how will they know? There are no universally recognized standards for sustainable, humane blood farming. There are no regulatory inspections of human ranches. We're all aware by now that \"organic\" blood is mostly a marketing gimmick, and that so-called \"free range\" blood is anything but - \"sustainable\" is likely to be another corporate blood industry lie.\n\nThere are ethical concerns involved in farming animal blood as well, of course, but the higher sentience level of humans should be taken in to account. Involuntary captivity produces significant stress in humans, and there's emerging research suggesting that humans who have been subjected to stressful living conditions have higher blood cortisol levels. Stressed humans living in overcrowded conditions are also disease-prone, requiring high levels of antibiotics and growth hormones to maintain their health. Could these issues be contributing to the growing epidemic of vampire obesity? It's getting to the point where many vampires are too fat to fly, making them easy prey for angry mobs and vampire hunters." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:Why exactly do we need differential calculus?\n\nI have just started learning calculus, and I get the gist of differentiation and integration and stuff, but why exactly do we need to use it ? I mean, for example, velocity/time is already acceleration, so why can't we just use that in place of dv/dt?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is no exaggeration to say that anything university level that requires mathematics will need calculus. In fact it is probably the basics of what you need. Things only get more complicated from there.\n\nDifferentiation is basically calculating a rate of change. Turn that around and you get integration, which basically allows you to find out different things given a function, i.e. a graph. It is easy to calculate the area under a graph if it is a straight line. Once it becomes more complicated, like a curve, then it becomes more difficult. So you use integration.\n\nMany topics in advanced education begin to use mathematical models to define things. Even things you wouldn't expect. And often these mathematical models will involve the use of calculus. For example, in psychology you are often required to take statistics, which uses calculus. Even in a management class you can be given a formula which may model a market or effect of change in prices on demand. **These will use calculus to find an optimal solution to something.**\n\nHow would that work? well we know differentiation is finding the function that defines the rate of change. How would you find the optimal solution to a function; say the profitability of a product is defined by a curved function; it goes up, then starts slowing down (i.e. curving) before going down, due to the idea of diminishing returns. \n\nWhat would be the optimal solution? how do you find the \"peak\"? well that is simple. You find the precise point where the rate of change is 0; it is the precise point from when it increases to decreases. The peak of the curve. \n\nWhat happens if you differentiate that profit function? you are finding the marginal profit; how much more profit you get per unit of production.\n\nWhat happens if you integrate that function? you get the total amount of profit. You can even use it to define the amount of profit you get at different points of the curve." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Toy Story] What happens to toys that don't have faces or bodies?\n\nWould a toy that doesn't have any face or body be able to come to life?\n\nLike a Rubix Cube, or a video game console. \n\nIf they did, how would they interact with the world?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes. There are plenty of toys without faces or bodies that we have seen:\n\n* Mr. Spell\n* Etch A Sketch\n* Hand-in-the-Box\n* Legs\n\nThey can move around using whatever appendages they have (as with Hand and Legs) or just simply by wobbling back-and-forth (as with Mr. Spell and Etch). They can communicate or interact with whatever they have at their disposal, spelling out words, drawing pictures, or with other forms of gestures or pantomimes." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter] How could Voldemort think that he was the only person to have discovered the Room of Requirement?\n\nWhen he stored the diadem in it he assumed that he alone knew of the room's existence. How could that be if the room was full of objects dating back hundreds of years?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How could Voldemort hide a Horcrux in a vault of a known associate? How could Voldemort hide a horcrux in a fucking shack that can be traced to him rather easily? How could Voldemort make his goddamn snake into a horcrux? \n\nVoldemort is bit conceited." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: You shouldn't just throw cigarette butts on the ground\n\nThis one seems like common sense to me, but I see people doing it, so there are apparently a variety of opinions out there. \n\nIn my view, it is wrong to throw a cigarette on the ground; it is littering. There is no special litter exemption for cigarette butts, and they should be disposed of properly like all other trash. \n\nI know it's not *the worst thing you could possibly litter*, but I am just looking at the right/wrong distinction and not the magnitude of the infraction. \n\nIf it helps, the specific scenario I am picturing is the smoker driving down the road and flicking their butt out the window when they're done, though I believe this view extends to throwing a butt on the ground anywhere except a ground-based receptacle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oof. I'll give this a try.\n\n​\n\nOver 80% of smokers say they would properly dispose of their butts if suitable receptacles were available. It's important to note that cigarettes should not be discarded like trash. Trash can be flammable, and disposing of cigarettes improperly alongside trash can be a fire hazard. In environments where there are no suitable places to dispose of cigarettes, throwing them into the gutter is objectively safer." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] Star Killer Base seems like a huge effort for something they only could use twice. The Death Star could use hyper drive and didn't require an outside power source. Why not just make a third Death Star?\n\nUpdate: Thanks again reddit for showing me that I'm completely wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You call eating a star simply requiring an outside power source? This thing eliminates an entire solar system and obliterates planets half a galaxy away simultaneously. It's a planetary fortress with a hyperdrive. Plus, they didn't have to build the entire thing from scratch, unlike the Death Star. Seems like an huge improvement to me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What are the best documentaries/movies about philosophy you've ever watched?\n\nEdit: Thank you, very much for your suggestions!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Derrida documentary is absolutely daft. Have a couple drinks first, but it's a pretty fun ride.\n\n[EDIT: also, unless you're fluent in French, don't have too many drinks, because it's in French with English subtitles.]" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How do countries actually take control of another country once they occupy the capital?\n\nLike, when the capital falls, how does the country fall under the control of the opponent? How does it actually work, can't the existing government just say \"No we're not listening to you we're doing our own thing?\" Not just the capital but like cities in general, when the city centre falls, what makes the whole city fall? Also, if I'm understanding this correctly, can countries just skip the actual war and just occupy the capital if that's how it works?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Occupy the capital\" probably implies that they've pushed their forces through the entire country and successfully reached the capital. \"Take control\" probably means either \"literally holding a gun to the leader's head until they 'voluntarily' declare that you're now in control\", or \"leaving troops all over the country, proclaiming that you're in control now, and daring anyone to argue with your soldiers and tanks and bombs\".\n\nThere's no switch that's flipped or anything, it's just making a declaration, backing it up with either violence or the threat of violence, and being that way for long enough that people just get used to it and accept that you're in control now." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Labyrinth] What was Jareth taking about?\n\nHis last conversation with Sarah was basically \"Be my slave and I'll do whatever you want. It was very hard to discern what he actually meant,his goals, and his plan. Can anyone explain the character a little more?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd do everything for her if she would just allow him to. If she'd just acknowledge him as her king, he would do the flashy and wonderful things that a king can. \n\nThe point is, he has the title of king but he doesn't control her unless she lets him. That gives her the real power. He would do anything for her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: No one cares about anyone but themselves\n\nI don't really know how to give much detail on this. It feels like no one, myself includes, gives a damn about anyone but ourselves. If we cared about other people, we would never hurt them. We would do things to help them. We would actually want to hear what they have to say. They'd never annoy us. We'd always want to spend time with them. I don't think anyone has a single person in their life that meets this criteria. Our family, friends, children, spouses, etc. No matter how much we say we love them, we often use them to suit our own personal wants and needs. We ignore their wants in favor of our own. And often, we do it without thinking twice and without remorse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think you believe that caring and love is a simple dichotomy.\n\nEither you love someone and only want to help them, or you don't care and will hurt them if it helps you.\n\nYou forget that there is parental love where you will send a child to bed without supper in order to teach them to be grateful for the food they receive.\n\nRomantic love often involves hurting people by working and being forced away from them, in order to secure a future where they can be together more often.\n\nUnconditional love and support doesn't exist, and if it were to exist it would hurt those that the person most wished to help.\n\nBut you seem to be dealing with some stuff, so please go get help. Go talk to a doctor." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eli5 Do fish swim slower near the bottom of the ocean? And if so, why?\n\nEvery video I see of creatures swimming or moving close to the bottom of the ocean they move slow and I’m wondering if they always do that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, deep sea fish tend to swim more slowly. The main reason is food, or rather, lack of food. There's not much food way down there, and as a result the animals that live there have to save energy as much as possible. That means moving slowly and not having much muscle." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How does a country just turn off the internet?\n\nIn recent events, Belarus was reported to have shut down the country’s Internet. How does that happen? Does the government control all the servers, or so they have a kill switch somewhere for all the service providers? What about mobile internet? Logistically, it doesn’t make sense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": ">Does the government control all the servers\n\nIn a sense, yes. They send the police (or military) to the server companies and say shut the servers off or face arrest (or worse). They do the same with mobile providers." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why are re-uptake inhibitors used instead of the neurotransmitters themselves?\n\nYou go to the doctor depressed and they say you have low serotonin levels that's why your depressed. So why not just give the person serotonin instead of a drug that just makes your brain not recycle it so quickly?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Multiple reasons:\n\n* They want drugs with long half lives so that you're not taking it every half hour. Serotonin would be rapidly processed. Reuptake inhibitors get stuck in molecular channels and hang out longer.\n\n\n* Your brain has a blood brain barrier to filter out possibly dangerous molecules, viruses, bacteria, etc. Serotonin does not get through the blood brain barrier, so any you took would not make it to your brain." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How it is possible that before 2. world war only men worked and still earned enough for whole family when today we have whole families (mom, dad, child) working and barely survive?\n\nI asume that then capitalists were paying their workers fair (and actually care for them) instead of minimum required and rather buying 5 rolls royces, couple of yachts and jets like today? Speaking for the majority then and now. Can be?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People don't realize that our \"quality of life\" is significantly better than during that era.\n\nEven 20 years ago, we didn't pay for cell phone, internet, cable. Cut that out? That's $200 a month minimum.\n\nEven 20-30 years ago, a lot of people had 1 or 2 pairs of shoes. 2 sets of clothes (daily clothes, church clothes). When you grew out of them, your younger sibling or relative go the clothes. Hell naw did you throw them away or give them to good will.\n\nEverybody has a computer, tablet, electronics and gets new ones every couple of years. If you lived in a modest apartment, had 3 sets of clothes, no electronics, made your own food - your cost of living would decrease probably by 1/2.\n\nDespite people complaining about the inequalities of the rich and the middle/poor, life in a 1st world country is much better." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How do doctors know the prescription for glasses for babies/children who are too young to do the usual sight tests?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They can map the shape of the eye pretty easily and get about 90% of the way to knowing the prescription. Then they need feedback from the patient for the fine tuning. Babies just can’t give that last little part that doesn’t matter much." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How do you estimate the percentage of species not found if you do not know the total the number of species (since they haven't been discovered)?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A field scientist will not likely have enough time to survey an entire rainforest. However, one can easily survey several 10ft by 10ft patches within the area. Suppose you're in an area that's as large as 1 mile by 1 mile. You select several 10x10ft patches and count all the insects in those locations. You find that on average, there are 5 species present that have already been identified, and 5 species present that are new to science. You can then extrapolate and assume that in the entire square mile patch of land, that only half of the species present have already been identified. So yes, there's some guesswork and statistics involved, but it can be very accurate. Of course, you can actually test how accurate the predictions were by fully surveying the entire area, but this is rarely done due to time and funding constraints." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter] Avada Kadavra is a spell that basically insta-kills you, and is considered \"Unforgiveable\", I get that. However, is it also \"Unforgiveable\" to use the effects of other spells to kill?\n\nSuch as setting a building on fire, or pushing someone off a roof?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The term 'unforgiveable' is more about what that spell signifies. Avada Kadavra, Crucio, and Imperio are powerful spells that require a powerful wizard to wield, and, the user must truly understand what using those spells entails. Not just 'know', but, actually *want* to use them.\n\nIt shows intent at the purest level. You'll go to trial for using one, sure, but the indicted pretty much admits to guilt simply by using them." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter] Why does Dumbledore fiddle with Voldemort's cursed basin of poison for just a couple seconds before immediately concluding that the only way to the bottom is to drink its contents?\n\nI don't want that guy in my D&D party.\n\nWhy can't you just flip the basin over or put a hole in it? We know Dumbledore is capable of animating tons of rock and manipulating matter on a fine scale. Why can't you turn the poison into something safe to drink? If you can't do that, why can't you summon something to drink the poison for you, or transfigure yourself into something that can drink the poison safely?\n\nWhat are the limitations of the charm put on the basin by Voldemort? Does it have to be a basin? Does it have to be poison? Is it a difficult spell to cast, or are there first-year troublemakers breaking into Prefect bathrooms at night, pissing in the sinks, and then charming the sinks with that spell?\n\n**tl;dr did Dumbledore drink magic Drano because Harry forgot his Dremel at home?**" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think if Dumbledore could have done something to not drink the poison, he would have. It was obviously protected by a very strong magical enchantment and it was clear Dumbledore knew this was the only option (meaning nothing physical/magical would have changed the state of it).\n\nAnd secondly Dumbledore isn't the kind of person who'd force someone else drink poison." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Cosmos] Tell me about the ship Neil deGrasse Tyson is using." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manufactured by a joint-project between Robert Goddard and the then toddler Carl Sagan in '40. Used one of the first liquid fuel motors ever created. Subsuquently overhauled in '56, for Mercury; '70, for Skylab; '87, after the Challenger tragedy; and lastly in '13 after the retiring of the Space Shuttle.\n\nRuns on a hybrid fuel of Sulfuric Acid and liquified dreams. Can reach a top speed of 42c thanks to Douglas Adams's highly advanced-- and classified-- work in quantum physics. Comes equipped with fully stocked bar and air mattress.\n\nCarl nearly wrecked in 1954 driving home from his high school prom-- boy, was his dad pissed. Other than that, not too many fender-benders or accidents.\n\nIt's got about 16,000,000,000 lightyears on the odometer, thanks to some stunts Steven Hawking pulled with a black hole, after that time Neil accidentally left the keys at Oxford." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Detective Comics] Does the Flash mentally age faster?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mental effects of the speed force are weird, to say the least.\n\nThe Flash can do things like go through thousands of tries of a combination lock, without losing focus or getting bored to death. He can carry on normal conversations with people even though he's perceiving time at such a sped-up rate that normal humans are little more than statues.\n\nThis indicates that the speed force insulates the Flash from ill effects of thinking, perceiving and reacting and superhuman speeds, so probably protects him from rapid mental aging as well." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: Firearms should be required by law to be locked when being stored or not in use.\n\nI believe that states should require gun owners to lock their firearms when they are not being used (often referred to as Safe Storage Laws). Locking can include trigger locks, barrel guards, lock boxes/safes, etc. To me, keeping guns locked seems like the responsible action to take as a gun owner. For example, evidence provided in 2016 showed that in Pittsburgh alone 79% of crimes involving firearms were committed by someone who did not own the weapon. There is plenty of global evidence that supports safe storage laws including suicide by firearm rate reduction.\n\nThis is for a psychology assignment so I am open to all opinions. I only ask that the conversations remain civil." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not everything that is a good idea should be required by law.\n\nFor starters, firearm deaths are way down on the list of death causes. Let's start with heart disease and cancer. We could do save far more lives by making it illegal to sell, make or eat high cholesterol foods. Same with cancer and tobacco products.\n\nNow let's think about enforcement. Are the cops going to come into people's homes to check compliance? If so, let's have them check for smoke detectors, carbon monoxide and faulty wiring (and make those all illegal too while we are at it).\n\nAt root, we have criminalized enough in our society. We have too many people in jail. Try another way of encouraging people to do what's right on this one. Public awareness campaigns, gun lock giveaways, etc." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How can a hacker be tracked after he's hacked a system?\n\nEdit: Thank you everyone, it's all very clear to me now!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can look at styles and methods of one hack and associate it with the same methods being used in other hacks with known attackers. For example, certain malware programs are known to be Russian others are known to be American. Once you know the attack methods, you can often know the attacker. \n\nThe hacker could of made a mistake and left traced that they were there. Those logs might be viable to trace the hacker's origin. \n\nYou can trace the released information backwards. Find out who has the information now, then find out where they got it from and so on until you arrive at the hacker. \n\nIf you have access to the routing infrastructure of the internet (like the US government does) then you might have the ability to track historic traffic. Giving you the ability to tell who was sending packets to where at what times. \n\nOr it could be ways that we simply aernt aware of." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why over the past 15 years, the typical CPU clock speed still remains around 2.8 to 3.2 GHz?\n\nI know you can overclock the CPU to 5.0GHz, but I am not really talking about that.\n\nDesktop CPU clock speed has increased from 1mhz to 2.8ghz over the past 40 years. But has remained at 2.8 to 3.2 average over the past 15 years...\n\nWhy not increase it along with other factors as well? What makes 3.0Ghz so perfect?\n\nAnd if the clock speed is not the bottleneck, why do people that overclock the CPU see improvements in performance?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We're starting to run into some hard limitations of CPU manufacturing. The faster the clock speed, the more heat the chip will generate. If we push the clock speeds much higher than what they are today then people will need some exotic cooling solutions.\n\nThe normal way to increase clock speed without creating more heat is to make the wires thinner which lets the chips use less voltage. But, we're getting very close to fundamental limitations about how small the wires can be. They use to be able to pack twice as many transistors in the same space every 24 months or so. That pace has significantly slowed in recent years.\n\nFinally, when you're talking about things happening in a billionth of a second, you start having problems keeping the entirety of the chip in sync. Electricity flows fast through the wires, but if we go much faster than the time it takes for the electrons to get from one side of the chip to the other will be slower than one clock cycle. This creates all sorts of new problems." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do parents urge/force their kids to finish their food? Won't they just eat what their bodies tell them to?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Children don't stop eating because they're full, they'll stop eating because they want to go play with something or they don't like peas - in either case, they'll be whining about being hungry in an hour." } ]