this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 47 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, sure, we kinda imbued rocks with lightning and now they can think but it's not magic

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And then we taught those rocks to think in ways we don't really understand, and dedicated cities worth of electrical energy to allow them to think harder and faster, and gave them the means to improve themselves.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's called computer science and it's not magic and why are you making a pyre

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it's memory bleeds, we can kill it.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

It's less bleeding and more leaking, computers don't normally have liquids except for heat mitigation and what's with the stake and rope?

[–] gbzm@piefed.social 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why is the mercury arc rectifier getting a "what the fuck"? I don't know much about them, are they more magic than glowing rocks, runes, levitation and demon cores?

[–] CountVlad47@feddit.org 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just piggy backing this comment to save people a click. A mercury-arc valve is used to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). It probably got a WTF for how weird it looks and how it looks like a crystal ball when it's working.

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Are you telling me that's a full bridge rectifier made of glass, liquid metal and plasma?🧙‍♂️

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

no, but they will also kill you (but not by magic)

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How so? Can I touch it? Lick it?

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

These things are under high voltage, so no. And then there's several kg of mercury inside

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

On this note, one of the best Cosmic Horror shows of all time was Chernobyl on HBO.

A story of a small town affected by forces outside anyone's understanding. Terrible, primal, cosmic power unleashed and uncontained threatening the entire world. It kills indiscriminately in the most horrible ways, melting people alive and contaminating all it touches after escaping a high-security confinement.

A plucky team of brave souls work tirelessly to find some way to stop the monster from burrowing into the Earth and gaining even more power in a race against time.

And what's most amazing is no part of it is exaggerated or sensationalized, it's so accurate to reality that even the actors look like their real-life counterparts. The showrunners went on to work on The Last of Us.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And what’s most amazing is no part of it is exaggerated or sensationalized

That's not true. The show is incredibly accurate for a TV show, but it's still a dramatization and adaptation to western's entertainment. It's not a documentary, and there are many pointed innacuracies.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

No black magic here!

From The dudes using candles, incense, and chanting something about the machine spirit while using this:

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Let's not forget they're fiddling strange multi pronged metal sticks, muttering about impedance matching, in a giant spiky room with large metal doors.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 7 points 1 month ago

Lol I totally forgot about those! now that you mention it it does seem like some demonic room that was converted to some sort of spirit communication chamber that I expect in the Department of Control.

[–] sunoc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Indeed high-frequency electronics only works if the machine spirit is apeased

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

THEY HAVE STOLEN THE MAGIC SMOKE GET IT BACK

[–] Reality_Suit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are universal truths that span time and all eternity. One of those such truths is "The Scooby Doo." That truth states that it is never spirits, demons, apparitions, or anything unearthly that is the cause of the unexplained, but rather It's always someone you know. Usually, the person closest to you.

[–] Kellenved@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

Frequently some breed of capitalist trying to scam someone

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Chakravanti@monero.town 1 points 1 month ago

They don't. If they do, it's a union and they have the strongest untouchable force with their own kind.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

But you want to know what is magic about physics?

Forces. Forces are definitely observable. But they are fictitious. A photon (force mediator of the electromagnetic force) is a packet of energy on the electromagnetic field that creates a curvature in the electromagnetic field such that two particles with opposing charges (intrinsic charge) has that field curved together, resulting in what an observer would see as a force.

Gravity? The thing keeping everything on the ground? Not real. Just a result of the spacetime field being curved by the presence of energy in it. In order to escape the curve, you have to exchange energy, which is to be a force.

[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago

The fact that you knew exactly what I was talking about enough to pull up the relevant XKCD is impressive good sir/ma'am/(actually I don't know what the non binary term would be there. I know military it's "Sir" regardless).

[–] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If physics are not magic, then how do you explain magnets? Checkmate.

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I picture someone like Grand Mage & Dervish Paul Dirac cracking his Special Relativity knuckles as he takes the challenge, "right then...!"

[–] tallricefarmer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

You might enjoy watching Richard Feynman getting asked how magnets work. It is on youtube.

[–] luciole@beehaw.org 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] marcos@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

You will spend a week wishing for an eternity of damnation instead.

[–] saltnotsugar@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Invisible forces controlling literally everything!? Nerd magic.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 3 points 1 month ago

No no no, there are no forces. It's energy controlling invisible fields literally everywhere.

Physics, is it's own terror

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Full bridge rectifiers, not even once.

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Oh boy, just wait until you hear about zero-crossings and phase-lock loops.

[–] syaochan@feddit.it 3 points 1 month ago

Mercury rectifiers are one of the coolest thing I've ever seen (not in person unfortunately)

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Quarks literally named magic, charm, top, bottom, vers.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

It took me longer that I'd like to admit to realize that the magic glowing rocks below Paradis in Attack on Titan were just nuclear fuel all along.