Re: My week with Linux: I'm dumping Windows for Ubuntu to see how it goes

On Mon, 19 May 2025 10:07:19 +0000, Farley Flud wrote :

Perhaps the only thing we can truly know is that we know nothing...
or is that just another thing we think we know?
 

 
Quantum mechanics gave humans the first inkling that the human brain/mind cannot
comprehend ultimate reality.
 
Some still attempt to rationalize quantum theory but the wise folks don't
bother and just use it as a (supremely accurate) calculation tool.

Ah, a fellow traveler down the rabbit hole of quantum weirdness who
realizes the limits of a monkey brain - which is - after all - us.

It's certainly humbling to consider that our evolved wetware, honed for
navigating the macroscopic savanna, might be fundamentally ill-equipped to
grasp the true nature of reality at its most fundamental level. We're
simply monkey brained hominids after all. We evolved to survive. Not to
comprehend the weirdness of the universe.

Perhaps our attempts to "rationalize" quantum mechanics are akin to a dog
trying to understand calculus - impressive effort, but ultimately barking
up the wrong equation.

So, while we may not comprehend ultimate reality, the fact that quantum
mechanics allows us to make predictions with such astonishing accuracy
suggests that we've at least stumbled upon some remarkably reliable rules
of the game, even if the rulebook remains written in a language our brains
can't fully parse.

It's a bit like using a sophisticated GPS without understanding the
satellite network - it gets us where we need to go, even if the underlying
technology remains a delightful enigma.

The fact that Gravity isn't a force means we need to understand what
gravity is, which, in Einstein's mind, was due to the curvature of
spacetime, a concept that feels as intuitive to our "monkey-brained
hominids" as, well, quantum superposition.

It's a profound shift from Newton's "action at a distance," painting a
picture where mass and energy warp the very fabric of reality, guiding
objects along the resulting curves. And considering the Earth's outward
expansion due to electrostatic molecular forces, a constant acceleration of
9.8 m/s/s, it's rather mind-boggling that this inrushing curvature of 4D
spacetime, at precisely 11 km/sec for Earth's mass-energy, perfectly
counteracts it, keeping our feet firmly planted.

It's a delicate cosmic balancing act, orchestrated by the geometry of
spacetime itself, a far cry from the simple pull we once imagined. So,
while quantum mechanics reveals the fuzziness at the smallest scales,
Einstein showed us the elegant curves governing the grandest ones, both
pushing the limits of what our savanna-honed intuition can readily grasp.