A possible answer to why the speed of light is measurable

The premise:

A recent Veritasium video suggested that the speed of light is unmeasurable due to the absence of experiments that could conclusively prove light speed is the same in all directions.

This is due to (according to Veritasium) having all known experiments that measure light speed done by shining a light beam at a mirror with a known distance and having the beam bounce back to its origin to measure the time it took to complete the round-trip.

These types of experiments introduce the possibility that light could travel at a different speed on its away trip than it would on its return trip, which confines the accuracy of those experiments to only measuring the average of the away and return speeds, and not the absolute speed of light in any given direction.

Here is the well made Veritasium video explaining the premise:

The answer:

My proposed answer is instead of using mirrors, let’s use a fixed interval pulsating light source circling an observer at a fixed radius with a steady speed.

If the observer detects fluctuations in the interval duration of the pulses as the light source travels around the observer, then the answer is yes, light does travel at different speeds based on its direction, otherwise light must have a fixed speed in all directions.

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A solution to Russell’s Paradox

The paradox:
Consider the set of all sets that are not members of themselves.
Is that set a member of itself?

Here is a well made video explaining the paradox:

The answer:

itself‘ and a ‘set of itself‘ are not concrete finite types, they are infinity concepts that can be represented by infinity notations.

And just like any infinity concept, to reach to a concrete finite conclusion, you have to collapse its timeless state by specifying a moment / dimension.

A ‘set of itself‘ is always different than ‘itself‘ when you collapse its timeless infinite state.

Collapsing it is done by specifying a finite time / dimension unit.

Let’s represent a moment / dimension with the letter n, so that ‘itself in moment/dimension n‘ is represented by the function itself(n)

itself(n) = set of itself(n-1)

Removing time / dimension from the above is like asking for the answer to what’s the number for division by zero.

Division by zero number can only be witnessed if we can exist outside time. Hence it’s just a concept in our time bound dimension and not a number.

So a ‘set of itself at this moment‘ does not have a member of type ‘set of itself at this moment‘, it has a member of type ‘set of itself a moment ago‘.

Hence, a set of all sets that are not members of themselves would comfortably contain finite sets (e.g. ‘set of apples‘, ‘set of oranges‘) and infinite sets represented by infinity notations (e.g. a set of itself(n-1))

Cat in a glass box logical puzzle

You’re a private detective. You’ve been called on a Saturday morning to urgently help a wealthy family solve a puzzle setup in their mansion by a psychopath.

You arrived at the mansion and saw the distressed family surrounded by police, friends and family. All trying to solve the puzzle.

You were greeted by a friend of the family (the person who called upon your help) and handed a copy of a note written by the psychopath.

With the note in your hand, you entered the living room, where the psychopath setup his/her puzzle, and noticed the following:

The family’s cat is locked up inside a glass box.

The glass box has two buttons, red and green.

Next to the box is a small computer with a mic.

You looked down at the note in your hand and read the following message written by the psychopath:


There is enough oxygen in the glass box to last the cat 24 hours.

One of the two buttons safely unlocks and opens up the box.

The other button however releases a poisonous gas that instantly kills the cat.

Trying to open the box without pressing any buttons (e.g. breaking the glass, etc..), or pressing both buttons at the same time releases the gas which also instantly kills the cat.

I’ve placed a computer with a mic that could hear and answer only one “yes/no” question (i.e. it can only answer with either the word “yes” or “no”).

The computer knows which of the two buttons unlocks and opens the box and which releases the gas.

You could ask the computer one question to help you solve the puzzle, but there is a catch.

The computer I placed here is actually one of two computers that I’ve built myself.

One of the two computers that I’ve built is designed to always tell the truth, while the other is designed to always lie.

However, I forgot which one of the two computers I’ve placed here, so it could be the liar or the truth teller.

Anyway, you have only one “yes/no” question to ask the computer. Use it wisely.

After reading the note, you now have a full understanding of the puzzle.

How would you solve it to help save the cat? What would your question to the computer be?

Further clarification:
The computer answers only questions that could be answered with either the word “yes” or “no”.
e.g.
it can answer “Is today Saturday?”
it cannot answer “What day of the week is today?”

A world without patents & copyrights

Our civilization evolved through cycles where old ideas and technologies are the building blocks on which new ones are formed.

E=mc^2 didn’t come out of the vacuum with no prior knowledge of mathematics and physics layed out generations ahead of it.

Our individual lifespan is too short to accomodate the civilization we enjoy today had we insisted not to copy the work and ideas of our ancestors.

It’s who we are as a species, through copying, refining, & building on top of ideas by others, is one of the reasons where we are today.

Yet today, we’re hindering our innate nature for advancement just to cater for this one argument : “why should I put the hard work & resources just to see someone else using my ideas without me benefiting”.

The root of all Evil

Some might say money, others, with tongue-in-cheek, might say women. But in the pursuit of such root, if one does exist, we might find the root of all what drives our actions, good or evil.

Give it a minute before continue reading. Think about what could be the root of all Evil.

If you dig deep, you’d reach to the root of all that drives our actions. It’s a root of constant struggle through free-will to achieve a state, by means of not in gaining or obtaining something but rather the absence of something deeply rooted in our conciousness.

Such state can only be the absence of emotional (not physical) pain.

All our actions are just means to achieve such emotionally pain-free state. Everything we do revolve around the avoidance of emotional pain.

If we close examine our actions, we’d realize they are merely reflections of our decisions. Such decisions are formed by our capacity for independent choice (free will).

Strip our independent choice (free-will) and dissect its mechanism, you’d find it always tries to lead you down the path of least resistance to this emotionally pain-free state.

This resistance is controlled by non-other than our conscience.

This conscience in each of us is the one responsible for carving the flow of our choice mechanism by raising and lowering the resistance down the many routes leading us to the choices that lands us on our emotional pain-free state.

It is this conscience that is the root of our good and evil actions.

Give this theory a try, have as much examples as you’d like thrown at this abstract human independent choice mechanism. And trace it down to which road it will lead you.

You’ll find it, remarkably without fail, taking you down the path towards this one particular emotionally pain-free state, through the route of least resistance according to your conscious.

Here is a very basic and simple example to test this theory; someone offering you a tasty ice cream. You could choose to accept or reject such offer.

You’d accept, possibly, to avoid having the discomfort feeling (emotional pain) associated with the thought of unattainable desire.

You’d reject, possibly, to avoid having to deal with the emotional distress of gaining weight and its possible consequence on your social status and/or well-being.

Both choices are laid out on paths with your self-conscience controlling the resistance leading you to the choice that lands you at your emotional pain-free state.

If your conscience is more resistant to the idea of losing social status / well-being, then the path would lead you to the rejection choice.

And if unattainable desire is your conscience’s least resistive path, then accepting the offer is the path of which your choice will take

Apply other examples, but introduce moral judgement, and you’ll find the mechanism is always the same.

Every action seeks the goal of reaching an emotionally pain-free state through a choice path dictated by the conscience.

Psychological Definition Of Love And How To Cure It!

Love seems to be a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. The more you think of a person, the more you cannot stop thinking of that person. Your brain develops a psychological addiction to the repetitive thought of that particular person.

If, for any reason, you wish to learn one way of how to potentially rid yourself from it, read on, otherwise don’t waste your time, instead embrace and enjoy your love life.

The best cure for Love is the prevention from falling in one. How to do that is simple. All you need to do is to cleverly break the Love cycle at the critical point that causes the psychological thought addiction.

Here is how usually Love cycle looks like:

1- You meet a person.

2- You like some of his / her qualities (good looking / eloquent / smart /etc…)

3- Once the meeting ends, you start analyzing what went well and what didn’t go well in that meeting.

4- You start thinking of how to improve on your social skills / performance if you happen to encounter that person in a future meeting.

5- You start rehearsing fictional scenarios of your next meeting.

6- You enjoy the process of rehearsing, and start throwing more fictional scenarios at your brain.

7- You meet that person again.

8- Goto step 3.

That’s pretty much what seems to be the average (more common) Love OCD cycle. Going through it once (or several times) seems to have correlation to the psychological addiction (i.e. falling in Love).

The prevention, as you might guessed it by now, is to break the cycle at step 5. You have to be self conscious and take control of your thoughts.

The alarm signal for falling in Love, that you need to always remember, is the moment you see yourself rehearsing fictional scenarios.

At that signal, you have to say “This is it… The beginning of the cycle… I have to block it right now before it’s too late”.

Also avoid thoughts like: “I’ll just have one fictional scenario, I’m strong enough, I can control myself from falling in Love”.

So that’s pretty much it guys and gals, this is a one way to potentially rid yourself of that thing that is called Love. The key is to be strong enough at thought control (thought blocking). Hope it’ll help you someday.