#bootstrap theory

[odinsblog]

“Hard working, self made man” my Black ass. But we already knew this.

👉🏿 https://futurism.com/elon-musk-dad-emerald-mine

[egophiliac]

can't believe that skeleman has turned on us, and Halloween Prom is tomorrow.

(what a top-tier UM...we are about to be just totally obliterated in the absolute silliest way. what possible use could this power have outside of bringing us to the brink of utter holiday disaster.)

[talefoundryshow]

The biggest proof that old civilisations were part of a conspiracy is their names.

They always start the same way. Ancient Egypt. Ancient Greece. How did they know they were ancient?

The only reasonable explanation is that the old world was started by a secret society of time travelers trying to avoid confusion in order to make their trips easier.

[nenoname]

me: oh i totally get it if some folks dont jive with same coin theory, plus it's strange to conceptualise at first--

me when i see people call it lame:

[rowanthestrange]

I know we go ‘Doctor Who never makes sense’, but I really think there’s a point being made. How did The Devil’s Chord actually work out? They released music back into the world, but wouldn’t that imply it had disappeared all those years? Ugh because the Maestro was sealed away all the music went back to its origin point. Then how and why are we here, paradox bait. Is the pianist genius alive?

And now here - the old woman Ruby completed her mission as soon as she stopped them from breaking the fairy ring. So how had she been there to interact with the characters in the episode when the whole point is that didn’t happen? What would she gain from saying anything to anyone? Oh she needs to maintain the loop. Ok but then how would she know what to say or reveal to make people leave like that. Dying Ruby didn’t sound like she’d figured out the answer to the mystery.

Each relies on some paradoxical time travel logic getting smoothed over - it’s ok musical number time, don’t think about it on we go. Clearly since Church the paradox loops are being made to be important, but I think the ‘it’s just a TV show don’t worry about it’ cracks are very deliberate. A character directly calling out we explain the gaps in knowledge of the laws of physics with stories. I think the handwaving is purposeful, and we might find gets more egregious as the fourth walls of the universe start breaking down more.

[biancadavri]

which job would kill you faster, food taster for bhelen or pr manager for trian

[spursthatjinglejanglejingle]

I had a dream that a new religion started where people thought that you chose what you reincarnated into and they would make huge demonstrations in front of ant colonies in front of gas stations and make fun of them for not choosing to be reincarnated as a millionaire instead

[rt8815]

Just watched "Heart of the TVA" and holy shit that ending 🤯

[c-schroed]

Surprisingly, the Time Travel in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" Makes Perfect Sense!

This will involve some heavy spoilers for the fifth Indiana Jones movie, so read at your own discretion. We'll end up with my absolute fav temporal paradox, though, so this might be worth your while. Ready? Okay!

So this time our MacGuffin is the Antikythera mechanism, an Ancient Greek orrery for astronomical calculations. In the movie however, this mechanism has another function. And weirdly, everyone calls it just "the Antikythera", as if they're all on fucking first-name terms with the thing. Antikythera is the name of the island where people found the mechanism, goshdarnit! But I digress.

So, the Antikythera device in the movie is told to detect time rifts that allow for time travel. And of course the ex Nazi bad guy wishes to change the course of World War II with it. So they enter some… target deytinationspace time coordinates? And the devices locates the nearest time rift that will bring them to the 1930s. Or so they plan.

But the Antikythera thingy does not bring them to somewhere 1930-ish. Not at all. Instead they end up 200 BC-ish, just in time to see Syracuse fall into the hands of the Romans. And to meet legendary genius Archimedes. Who in the movie has invented the dial of Antikythera. Indy and the gang chat a little with Archimedes, then everyone gets back into their respective timelines (except for the not-so-ex Nazis, they of course died). And it all makes sense. Because no one had to invent a time machine for this to happen. Even more so, no one had to invent a time rift sniffing device!

Because all that we needed for this plot to be coherent was a mechanism that would put out a specific set of coordinates on request. On any request, in fact, because in the whole movie it is only used once, so no one can say if it really would calculate any other coordinates then the ones that lead to that specific time rift leading from present day airspace to 200 BC-ish Syracuse.

So Archimedes built a device that gives out one specific set of coordinates. That should be possible for a genius of his size, right? And how he knew the coordinates, you might wish to ask now. Well, here's where my favourite temporal paradox enters the scene: The bootstrap paradox.

Archimedes didn't have to find out the coordinates. He just had to read them from the Antikythera dial that Indy and the gang brought with them from a future where Archimedes had already built the thing. Remembering these coordinates after seeing the future device should be easy for the legendary mind of his. As should be to draw the right conclusions about what the fuck had happened and what to do next. And that is where our paradox kicks in, because this way the information about the coordinates comes straight out of nothing. They are there because they always were there, but no one in fact calculated or observed the position of the time rift. Archimedes programmed the mechanism because he saw that it had to be programmed this way for the temporal loop to work.

Information comes out of nothing, and it still makes perfect sense. Gosh. I do love the bootstrap paradox. A perfect circle.

[odinsblog]

Large swaths of the public believe the Trump myth. Across three surveys of eligible voters from 2016 to 2018, we found that as many as half of all Americans do not know that he was born into a very wealthy family. And while Americans are divided along party lines in their assessment of Trump’s performance as president, misperceptions regarding his financial background are found among Democrats and Republicans.

The narrative of Trump as self-made is simply false. Throughout his life, the president has downplayed the role his father, real estate developer Fred Trump, played in his success, claiming it was “limited to a small loan of $1 million.” That isn’t true, of course: A comprehensive New York Times investigation last year estimated that over the course of his lifetime, the younger Trump received more than $413 million in today’s dollars from his father. While this exact figure was not known before the Times’ report, it was a matter of record that by the mid-1980s, Trump had been loaned at least $14 million by his father, was loaned at least $3.5 million more in 1990, had borrowed several more million against his inheritance in the 1990s after many of his ventures failed, and had benefited enormously from his father’s political connections and co-signing on loans early in his career as a builder.

—The Myth of Donald Trump’s Meritocracy

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi, odd question I’m about to ask you. But with Skully did we technically make a time paradox? For example in Minecraft there was this theory that the player went back in time and started everything and became their own great great(a lot of greats) grandparents. So considering the fact that the TWST characters was the reason that Skully became the King Of Halloween and created the Halloween that the TWST characters know to day. Sorry if this is confusing it’s just the only way I know how to explain this.

Yup, I believe the specific term is “bootstrap paradox”. This is when an event makes itself to happen, thus creating a loop of causality.

The NRC characters mention the importance of Halloween in their world, as well as all of their fun traditions. Then they share these ideas with Skully (who was sucked in from his own time period hundreds of years ago) within the book. After leaving the book, their memories of the events within were erased but everyone is still left with a faint feeling resulting from those experiences. It’s based on that vague feeling that Skully is inspired to share the jubilant version of Halloween the NRC boys shared with him all over the world. This made Halloween the phenomenon it is today, and Skully the historical figure in Twisted Wonderland responsible for it. The Nightmare Suit he wears in the real world is even a design he recreated based on the memory of a “dream” he had.

Halloween in the real world continues to be a huge thing… but if Skully was the one who spread Halloween around (it existed in his hometown already but was quite niche beyond his home) then that means he must have already been inspired… meaning he already encountered the NRC students… meaning Halloween is already a big deal… etc. Thus the event causes itself to happen!

[thegoldencontracts]

Is Azul Actually Kind?

I know how it sounds but pleaseee hear me out.

Azul isn't kind. That seems to be pretty obvious, right? His benevolence is clearly a facade, meant to hide the selfish, cunning nature lurking within.

I thought that too. But then I saw something that made me question it.

Namely, Azul's Platinum Suit Vignette, where he looks at the Sea Witch's actions regarding Ariel, and calls it 'tough love'.

He isn't talking about himself, he has no reason to fib. He even brings up his Grandma, making it pretty evident he's being sincere. He views the Sea Witch's actions - punishing deal breakers and setting people on them - tough love.

And the Sea Witch's actions are remarkably similar to his own. He makes deals, and he punishes people who can't fulfill them. But there are some very interesting things that, to be, combine with this to bring about the theory that deep down (or maybe not so deep down) he views it as an act of tough love.

1. Azul almost never harms his clients in a truly crippling manner. The one exception to this is the Prefect, but I feel that's easily explained by the fact that this was shortly before his overblot, and like other characters, Azul too was behaving in a manner worse than usual.

Other than that, though, his punishments are typically servitude, or giving up a talent. Keyword: a talent. Not the thing itself. Someone with a good voice who gives it up doesn't become voiceless, they just start sounding hoarse. This is proven during his backstory.

2. Azul comes from a place where 'survival of the fittest' reigns dominant. This is proven during book 6, where he mentions being hypervigilant and a risk of predators under the sea. This was also heavily implied by the twins.

To him, people who don't understand not to trust others likely seem misguided - especially considering his childhood.

3. Azul and Riddle have a lot of Parallels

This one is interesting. If you look closely, Azul and Riddle share many similarities: Sophomore Housewardens, Honors Students, completely broke down during their overblot rather than still concealing their emotions, tyrannical behavior over underlings, heavily implied eating disorders, incredibly hard-working despite their smug appearance, being short-tempered, the list goes on.

Riddle also truly believed that he was doing a service to the students of Heartslabyul by enforcing the rules the hard way. He likely viewed it as a form of tough love.

And so, Azul being kind in his own, odd way starts to make sense. It would give him another parallel to Riddle. And his 'survival of the fittest', bootstrap-pulling upbringing may be he doesn't actually find his actions that cruel, if anything, he genuinely may believe he's doing them a favor by teaching them early on not to trust others, to only make deals they know they can keep. And he's not exactly crippling them, so it's better him than someone who will.

So yeah, maybe Azul really does think he's being kind - at least, deep down.

Discourse, critique, and requests for proper citation are always welcome!

[sw087]

‘These are the same people that invented the fairy tale about how if we work hard enough and save and spend like smart people, then we can be landlords too! We can own businesses, raise families, chase dreams and be happy if we are smart like they are. But if we can't it's because we're lazy little parasites who need to have our lives portioned out to us lest we waste time that could be earning money for the landlord.’

[bitchesgetriches]

Are there any economics books you'd recommend, or finance books that aren't personal finance? Thanks!

Hell yes. A book recommendation request is like my personal Bat Signal! Here are some of my favorite books by contemporary economists, memoirists, journalists, and sociologists with a focus on finance:

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Desmond, Matthew 

Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou

These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America by Gretchen Morgenson

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry by Olen, Helaine

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Banerjee, Abhijit V.

Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Messenger, Tony

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Kelton, Stephanie

The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It by Reich, Robert B.

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Giridharadas, Anand *

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America by Quart, Alissa

Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Tirado, Linda *

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Mayer, Jane

I expect a book report on each and every one!

Now reblog with your own recommendations, my darlings. I read about a book a week, so I'm always adding to my to-read list.

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[mansand]

i dont understand people who wanna quit art when they see a talented kid. "Oh they're younger and so much better already" hey here's my fuckin philosophy . If they're that young and that good and improved in that short amount of time that means i could too bitch. you could change tremendously in a few years and there are a grazillion resources out ther to help facilitate that. they dont pop out of elementary knowing the fundamentals them kids applied themselves, they filled sketchbooks fast they studied art online, its soooo easy now compared to how it used to be. shit dude, open a morpho book, there's books on perspective and the fundamentals of figure studies. there's shit on colour theory that'll hurt your head its so packed; and guess what the pdfs aint hard to find if you look on the right places. Sorry to be like "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" but honestly I've been bothered by how much people beat themselves up sometimes and consequently discourage talented kids because some oblong motherfucker decided to comment publicly that this reminded them that their art sucks and they'll quit art. GET UP BRO‼️

[a-mel0n]

Okay, so I know we joke about the whole “Invisible String theory” thing a lot for Bucktommy, but this idea just hit me like a fucking train and I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t write it down. So, hear me out:

A Bucktommy “Your Name” AU.

If you don’t know about Your Name (go watch it it’s a good movie), the basic synopsis is that two people keep switching bodies when they fall asleep. The switches are fairly common, but they’re random and not on a set schedule. When they “wake up,” they only have faint impressions of their time in the other person’s body— like it was a dream. To keep track of what the other person does in their body, the pair write small “diary entries” at the end of the day to inform the original owner of the body what happened, and to just talk to the other.

Throughout the film, the two people slowly fall in love with each other before the switches suddenly stop, and all memory of the experience fades, including the memos they wrote each other. All that’s left is the faint impression that they’re searching for something, for someone.

So. Here’s my idea. The switches can start at really any point in their lives, but my idea is that they start switching sometime in Season 6, at least from Buck’s perspective. For Tommy, the switches start when he’s still at the 118.

A crucial part of the swaps is that they’re not only switching places, they’re also switching through time, which prevents the pair from actually meeting, because any attempt to meet someplace would just get fucked over due to the time difference.

They write each other small reminders of things they set up while in the other’s body on the other’s phone or on their body; a small set of rules of things to NOT do while they’re swapped; the occasional back-and-forth; the whole nine yards. Maybe you could have a fun scene of Chimney showing up at the 118 for the first time while Buck is in Tommy’s body and he has to slam his mouth shut everytime he goes to instinctively call him “Chimney” instead of “Howard” or “Howie.”

(Maybe that’s how Chim got his nickname in this universe, a whole bootstrap paradox situation.)

The swaps continue all the way up until Buck gets struck by lightning while in his own body, and that three-minute-eleven-second period where he’s dead is enough to prevent the swaps from ever happening again. Once he wakes up from his coma dream, he’s lost all memory of the swaps, and all the little notes that Tommy wrote on his phone are gone.

Despite that, he can’t help but feel like he’s missing something, or… someone. Someone dear to him, someone he couldn’t have possibly forgotten. And yet, no matter how hard he tries, he can’t remember anything about them.

(Actually… maybe there is a moment where they can talk to each other. While Tommy is passed out due to the gas leak in that mall, Buck is still in his coma dream, and they actually speak face-to-face for the first time. Maybe they promise each other to meet up after they wake up. But, once they do— they’ve forgotten all about the other.)

Tommy continues to live his own life, with this faint feeling that he’s waiting for something. He transfers out of the 118 and over to Harbor in order to satisfy that feeling, and while it does provide some relief, that feeling doesn’t go away. When Howie calls him to help the 118 out with that residential fire, that feeling of “waiting waiting waiting searching” blazes to life again, pulling him towards the ground and the people running around beneath him. It recedes fairly quickly, though, in fact— as he’s flying away from that neighborhood after preforming the water drop.

Buck, on the other hand, is in that post-lightning-strike state. He’s got his super math powers and the newfound appreciation for life, yet the feeling that he’s looking for something (a feeling he’s had all his life, independent of the swaps), has gotten a whole lot stronger and he can’t pinpoint why.

Then the cruise disaster happens, and he has to push those thoughts out of his mind, for Bobby and Athena’s sake. And then… Chimney calls in an old friend for a favor.

(“You and I… haven’t we… haven’t I met you somewhere before?”)