From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Sep 09 1997 - 17:43:16 MDT
Sarah Marr wrote:
>
> Besides, I have to stay around because I need someone to explain to me why
> extreme space-time curvature within the event horizon of a black hole
> should lead to the tearing apart of a body of matter, when, within the
> reference frame of that body, space-time is not distorted, since it cannot
> be considered in relation to any other version of otherwise distorted
> space-time.
The gradients, the change in curvature between one point and another, are too
large. If there's a tidal difference of 100 gravities between head and toe,
you'll be ripped into shreds - and the tidal forces are very much larger than that.
> And similar things. Like, why does the temperature of my shower
> always change from perfect to boiling or freezing the moment I step under it?
When you stick your hand in the shower to test the temperature, the sensors
for your hand *only* acclimate. Soon it seems perfect, but when the rest of
you steps in, it feels just like it did when you first stuck your hand in. To
avoid this, stick your hand in only for a few moments, and test it with your
*other* hand before entering.
> Sarah
Eliezer "There's an explanation for everything, I'm sure of it" Yudkowsky.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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