Underused Search Function - A Remedy?

I once asked Heisenberg if he was certain about his uncertainty principle… He said, “I’m pretty sure, but you can’t be too sure about these things!”

Let’s bring this back on topic, shall we?

The Search function:-

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is relevent: You can either find exactly what you’re looking for and not know why you wanted it, or you can have no idea what you’re searching for and find everything else.

Oh, please, tell us you’re not going to segue into the many-worlds interpretation; we get enough of that from Marvell… :crazy_face:

1 Like

I’m not averse to the concept of immense gravity wells collapsing into tear-drops of ever expanding universes … each black hole functionally a doorway to another universe, with ours being a tear-drop from another. An infinite of infinites. Impossible to prove currently … but could fit the models.

2 Likes

Still, highly speculative.

I mean, sure, MWI suggests the wave funcyion never collapses; and that all possible outcomes of a quantum measurement actually occur in separate branches of the Universe; ergo, the multi-verse…

… but, this is only an attempt to reconcile the Schrödinger equation.

With respect black holes… well, if information is preserved in superposition, that could… maybe… address the information paradox inherent with black holes…

… and potentially without violating quantum mechanics proper.

I’m not sure I can wrap my head around it :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

I think I may have used the Forum Search a couple of time, but was not happy with the results returned… they seemed not really related to my search,

In any case my go to is to use DDG or IXquick, I find the results I get are more pertinant, and broader in scope than just searching a single Forum.

I’m not sure — I could be misremembering things — but I seem to recall that the search algorithm on the previous incarnation of the forum yielded more accurate results. :thinking:

The problem with that is that you can easily come across information that is either only applicable in other distributions, and/or information that is already hopelessly outdated.

Case in point, less than an hour ago, I myself did a search via :duck::duck::man_walking: on how to set a minimum password length, and even though I’ve tried different iterations of “Linux” and “Arch”, I got several results pertaining to setting a minimum password length in Microsoft Windows, as well as links about setting up password managers, and a couple of links to outdated information from several years ago, and only with regard to RedHat.

Eventually, the only useful link I could find was a literal hardcore man page for a PAM module, but even then still, I had to adapt that to the Arch ecosystem, because with systemd and its logind component, the traditional organization of the files under /etc/pam.d that you’d find in most UNIX-family operating systems no longer applies.

So you have to use your old noggin and figure out what file to edit — for anyone interested, it’s /etc/pam.d/system-auth — and what exactly you should change to the content of the file, because PAM isn’t exactly the easiest thing to comprehend.

So that was what I got when I was using a search engine, but of course, I was also perfectly aware of how I would not have gotten any results at all if I had done a search here at the forum, even if only because Manjaro simply imports pam from Arch with all of the default settings — which are not all that secure¹, but then again, Arch assumes that its users are either savvy enough or that they’re willing to do their homework if they’re not.


¹ The default setup has no minimum password length and actually even allows for blank passwords.

Sometimes the problem is you don’t even know what you are searching for. So you first need — through some other results — refine your search, pick correct words, etc.

Anyhow, maybe you are interested in this as well: Security - ArchWiki

1 Like

Interesting.

the following yielded good results for me

Linux Recomended Minimum password length

Your problem might be your current location… Middle-Earth :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes

It’s difficult to consider this, even speculatively, beyond the realm of science-fiction. However, in terms of the traverse of information and the search for truth, these concepts could potentially be an underused search function.
… unless that’s too much of a stretch. :crazy_face:

If assumtions are sound, I doubt this could be proved; period.

Looking at black holes, as a model: Once information has passed the event horizon, destined for singularity, that information is lost; irretrievable. This is one of the fundamentals, as I understand it, that allows and predicts the existence of black holes, within the framework of general relativity.

Now, we have proof that black holes are not only possible, but are numerous; most, if not all galaxies have at least one black hole at their core. Interesting in itself, if you consider them as counterweights to expansion.

“Nothing can escape a black hole; not even light” – that’s the inescapable inference of everything we have learned about black holes. Fine.

Let’s move on to quantum entanglement. Firstly, we note that QE aka spooky action seems to violate the FTL prohibition; from the perspective of special relativity. Simply stated, information can not travel faster than C (lightspeed).

Within the MWI, when two particles are entangled the combined state becomes a superposition of all possible outcomes; each corresponding to a separate branch of the multi-verse. Now, the MWI also maintains that there is no superluminal communication between parallel branches of the multi-verse; meaning, that information can’t travel from one branch to another (any faster than C). Subject to the physics of spacetime the escape velocity, if you will, of any given branch, would need to be in excess of C.

From the perspective of any one branch, measurement of an entangled particle seems instantaneous. This is due to the correlation of entangled states; each branch is independent and evolves separately within its own spacetime.

The MWI is then consistent with special relativity in that no information is transmitted faster than C within any particular branch of the multi-verse – the apparent perception of non-locality observed [arguably] becomes due to the existence of multiple fractures of spacetime; and by extension, the multi-verse.

Extrapolation:- if the MWI does not inherently violate special relativity; or the FTL prohibition, this means (in a nutshell) that we can’t possibly know of the existence of the multi-verse; because akin to black holes, no information can traverse the event horizon or a similar boundary, if it exists.

This is the point where speculation leads to the EPR paradox; and where science-fiction takes the lead – time and relative dimensions in space; wormholes, and such.

E&OE.

3 Likes

simply force new users to use the search function by re routing the title they tried to post to the faq, after three times of this anyone should figure it out, also post this in red letters all caps right next to the post reply button

This talk of yours reminds me of “History of the Universe” youtube channel, where they talk a lot and tell very little. :smiley: And they throw in and mix 1000 different subjects every 90 seconds, so your brain can’t quite follow and you go “OMG so smart”.

It’s lowercase c. And yes, it matters. To me at least. :smiley:

Has everyone been taking angry pills today? Two threads in a row I’ve just read where people are being either very rude or very pedantic towards other users.

I think I might have to take a mental health break from this place for a while…

My talk, as you describe it, probably wouldn’t survive scrutiny on Ted, especially considering it was only an attempt to rationalize a response to a previous comment; in the context of my understanding. I’m sorry you couldn’t follow it; I’m not even sure I can, at times; but I try.

The rapid-fire approach you refer to might often be employed by professional politicians throwing a series of questions or statements into the mix in quick succession; this aims to confuse and hinder the ability of an opponent to respond effectively. In the case of YouTube, there are the pause and rewind buttons that should help your brain to catch up.

Lowercase ‘c’? Thanks. That sure is handy to know, or would be, if I were a theoretical physicist and actually needed to substitute my meanderings with actual equations. I’m not. However, I’m pretty good with conceptual schema; and I do have an enquiring mind.

I’m actually quite surprised that your pedanticism didn’t extend to my use of lightspeed when ‘the speed of light’ is the more formal and scientifically precise term. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

More correctly, c is the speed of light in a vacuum. :wink:

There are instances where electrons or other particles can actually travel faster than light inside a certain medium, because the medium slows light down but does not affect these other particles.

When this happens, the particles traveling through the medium faster than light can will give off a blue light, called Cherenkov radiation. :wink: :point_down:

2 Likes

True, that.

1 Like