Poll: Absolutes

[crudus]

Temperature has nothing to do with potential energy. temperature is a measure of the average kenetic energy of a particle, sinse u cant have negative, it means that all of the molecules have stopped moving. Doestn prevent the mass from being on a spring or suspended in the air, giving it potential energy.

Atoms do have potential energy. Regardless my statement was wrong to begin with; atoms still move at 0 kelvin. Atoms just can't transfer any energy.

 

[Jedoro]

I pretty much live by one rule: this rule is the only absolute you'll encounter.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

What is truly written in stone is the fate of life.
What isnt written in stone is what we do with our life.

 

[Salakayin]

It's absolute that I currently have eyeballs in my head and they work.

...It's also absolute that the sun will some day go super nova and the Earth will die. Have a nice day!

I thought the sun didn't have sufficient mass to go supernova.

The past cannot be undone, it is absolute. Or set in stone, if you will.

Geprge Orwell might have a thing or two to say about that.

The past cannot be undone, it is absolute. Or set in stone, if you will.

1984 would like to have a word with you, good sir.

But in all seriousness, the past itself is absolute. It's just the perception of it tends to not be absolute in nature. In relation to the topic, there are absolute aspects that are around us, as others of y'all have mentioned. I'm relatively sure of that fact.

Edit: Gah, curse you Megalodon! Ya stole my thunder!

I'd like remind you both that George Orwell's 1984 is a work of fiction and therefore has little baring on reality.
And stickily speaking what has been done cannot be undone. You cannot go back and change what you have done in the past. So in that sense the past is absolute.

The eventual point of my post was that, despite that the past in itself is absolute, the perception of the past is not. What happened is what happened, that is absolute. But if that was fully the case, then why would we need historians to constantly try to determine and analyze the events of history? The perception, and thus bias, that is present in the recollecting of the events of the past. It's that aspect of the past that is not absolute. Skewed memories, skewed records, propaganda...all that can change how the events in the past are perceived and thus change the past in the eyes of the people.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

*snip*

The eventual point of my post was that, despite that the past in itself is absolute, the perception of the past is not. What happened is what happened, that is absolute. But if that was fully the case, then why would we need historians to constantly try to determine and analyze the events of history? The perception, and thus bias, that is present in the recollecting of the events of the past. It's that aspect of the past that is not absolute. Skewed memories, skewed records, propaganda...all that can change how the events in the past are perceived and thus change the past in the eyes of the people.

Yes I know. Your point was not lost on me, which is why I felt the need to clarify what I originally meant.

 

[Tri Force95]

Absolute: "Life is pain. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something."

Its true, we all do die a little everyday, whilst we don't feel it, but at the same time, we don't always feel pain, or what pains us either.

Gotta love the Princess Bride.

 

[Florion]

Yeah, I think it's safe to say there are absolutes. 2 + 2 will always equal four, you know...

Oh ho ho, I tried that on my ex-boyfriend and his answer started something like, "But in base 2..."

And GLaDOS says you're not always correct either: "2+2= (bzz bzz bzz) ten. IN BASE 4, I'M FINE."

We talk a lot about absolutes in English Literature class because of post-modernism... "History is the mother of truth." We read a short story in which a fictional author rewrote the Don Quixote word for word, but because he was writing at the beginning of the 20th century, it meant something completely different from the original. In the original, "History is the mother of truth" would have meant something like, we learn the truth by studying history; in the rewritten context, it means that our understanding of the truth is based on and coloured by history. So there isn't really truth, only interpretations. I adore pluralism for this reason, but at the same time, where does reason fit in? I'm still struggling with that. 2+2 doesn't always equal four, but to a certain extent... ?

 

[SloshedUberman]

The past cannot be undone, it is absolute. Or set in stone, if you will.

Not true
you can't prove that we will not discover time travel in the future, go back into the past and change it
so it may not be set in stone

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The past cannot be undone, it is absolute. Or set in stone, if you will.

Not true
you can't prove that we will not discover time travel in the future, go back into the past and change it
so it may not be set in stone

*sigh* I already covered this! YES YES, but until we actually do discover time travel (assuming it's possible), the past remains absolute, unchangeable, and set in stone.

 

[Hashime]

-273.15 degrees Celsius or 0 Kelvin. These numbers are set in stone, nothing can be colder.

What about -273.15000001!!!!!!!

No, at that temperature, entropy reaches its absolute minimum. Any colder and the system cannot exist in our universe.

In this universe yes, but who says it can't be colder in another universe, another reality?

Every assumed absolute has limits. Our assumptions are based on what we know. Ask any scientist worth his salt, a theory is valid until it is disproven. Every thesis is an hypothesis.

I said the first, and yes, things can be disproven. Unfortunately if this is disproven all of our understanding of the universe, chemistry, particle and wave physics will be rendered obsolete, which would be "eventful". At this point in time, and throughout history this number has been the limit. Scientists have reached very close to this temp in the lab but have been unable to go any lower than it. Experimental evidence basically proves this number.

 

[cheese_wizington]

Death and Taxes baby, Death and Taxes.