Longest Running Thread EVER

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

So just think for a moment what the Renaissance would have been like if it had Plato's complete myth of Atlantis and a complete scientific unified field theory. THe birth of science would have been completely different. Mindblowing.

Yeah, though that is just as anachronistic a combination as speculating how much more the Roman Empire would have conquered had they completed their own Manhattan Project and could drop nuclear fission bombs on their enemies.

[RPMiller]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

I'm of the opinion that Plato's Socrates in his dialogues is written in a deliberately mythic manner. Thus trying to use them for accurate history is like trying to do the same with Shakespeare's plays' date=' and to a lesser perspective Hollywood 'based on a true story' films. [/quote']

 

So do you believe that Socrates was not a real person?

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

So do you believe that Socrates was not a real person?

 

Oh, yeah he was a real person. I was discussing Plato's treatment of him in his dialogues.

[RPMiller]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Ah, very good. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding you correctly. I can see your point, and it has a lot of validity, I think. I think it is unanimous among most students of philosophy that Plato definitely held Socrates in high regard. Some have even said that Plato pretty much worshiped the man, in a non-religious sense. So I can definitely see him writing Socrates into his works in exactly the manner you've stated.

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Ah' date=' very good. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding you correctly. I can see your point, and it has a lot of validity, I think. I think it is unanimous among most students of philosophy that Plato definitely held Socrates in high regard. Some have even said that Plato pretty much worshiped the man, in a non-religious sense. So I can definitely see him writing Socrates into his works in exactly the manner you've stated.[/quote']

Agreed about holding Socrates in high esteem. Plato wrote 'fan fiction' (or should that be 'fan myth' ).

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Yeah' date=' though that is just as anachronistic a combination as speculating how much more the Roman Empire would have conquered had they completed their own Manhattan Project and could drop nuclear fission bombs on their enemies.[/quote']

 

For me there is a difference between acquiring the scientific/philosophical knowledge and making technological use out of it. I'm not suggesting that the Roman's would have had the technology to take advantage of it (eg a Manhatten Project), are you?

 

Nor am I suggesting the Italian Renaissance could have made technological use out this knowledge, I'm just positing that they could have had a unified field theory from Plato. Which I still think would be awesome. I included Pico della Mirandola as an example of the flow on effect that could have occurred if the Hermocrates dialogue was written and completed. If it was, I'm assume that Pico della Mirandola's physics would be been more complete and perhaps more modern as well.

 

I also assume that our current scientific knowledge outways our technological utilisation of it. Hope that explains my reasoning a bit better,

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

To misquote a popular source, only this time to refer to "unified field theory" instead of "inconceivable". ... "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Probably not. IIRC my GM told me about it in 1998.

[archermoo]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Probably not. IIRC my GM told me about it in 1998.

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=unified+field+theory

 

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

He might have meant TOE, "Theory of Everything". There isn't one of those that's worth the electrons it'd take to transmit it, either.

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

He might have meant TOE' date=' "Theory of Everything". There isn't one of those that's worth the electrons it'd take to transmit it, either.[/quote']

 

42.

 

 

 

 

or Love.

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=unified+field+theory

 

thanks and for what it is/was worth I was discussing how to kill a superpowered archdevil who was henchmen to the ruler of the 3rd plane of hell.

 

Whatever unified theory is...I do know that the blackhole idea I got from Hawking's Brief History of Time...worked! No more pain in the backside who was out for revenge in a BIG WAY.

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Yeah, I suppose dropping a major enemy into a black hole is one way of dealing with them.

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Yeah' date=' I suppose dropping a major enemy into a black hole is one way of dealing with them.[/quote']

 

And this was D&D too.

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

And this was D&D too.

 

And I was trying yo learn economics too at uni. During the lecture break, I think about this rather than the lecture material. Seemed the black hole idea was the most effective way to deal with it. The archdevil regenerating in Hell, and me on the Prime Material Plane. IIRC the blac hole was completely him, I reduced his body to a singularity then blew it apart. He failed his save - need to roll better than 3 on 20 sided dice.

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

The "blowing it apart" thing sounds like the GM set the target number way too low. To do that, you should have had to roll a 666 or better when tossing a coin whose outer rim is a Möbius strip and whose visible face says "i".

 

(Yeah, I like that funky coin meme this morning.)

[Bazza]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

The "blowing it apart" thing sounds like the GM set the target number way too low. To do that' date=' you should have had to roll a 666 or better when tossing a coin whose outer rim is a Möbius strip and whose visible face says "[i']i[/i]".

 

(Yeah, I like that funky coin meme this morning.)

*chuckle* the number (saving throw) was set by the rules.

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Just about time to go downstairs and do the Final Exam thing. Then it's grading frenzy weekend.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Caffeine for the rotund constellation at the corner table!

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Well, there'll be alcohol needed, too, I expect.

[RPMiller]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Cancer,

 

What would you think if you had a professor tell you, "I won't be able to get your grades to you or respond to emails because I have three other classes I'm teaching." Then after the course ends, no grades are posted for a month.

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Everywhere I've been, that's BS. I am contractually obligated to have final grades posted no later than noon on the Wednesday after the end of the term. If there's no grades, then that's a reason not to continue contracting that instructor. A complaint to department chair, and Dean, and Provost can & should be made.

 

Now, it's legit to say, "I'll be away and unable to answer questions about individual grades for a month", but that's different. I have done that, but I was back when I said I'd be back and handled questions then.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Moral fiber, that man.

[RPMiller]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Everywhere I've been, that's BS. I am contractually obligated to have final grades posted no later than noon on the Wednesday after the end of the term. If there's no grades, then that's a reason not to continue contracting that instructor. A complaint to department chair, and Dean, and Provost can & should be made.

 

Now, it's legit to say, "I'll be away and unable to answer questions about individual grades for a month", but that's different. I have done that, but I was back when I said I'd be back and handled questions then.

 

That was exactly my feelings and response as well. I just wanted to hear it from an actual professor. To me it was the same thing as me telling a customer, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to help you because I have other tasks I need to do." Students are the customer at a university, and I think that some professors forget that.

[Cancer]

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

 

Mind you, it was just about impossible to contact me during that month. I doubt it was possible to email any place on Rarotonga in 1993, and no one at the department had any more specific data than the island name about where I'd gone. The sign on my office door was even less specific; it just said I'd "fled the continent".