Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

But if it cannot be measured it by definition cannot have any effect on reality so can be safely ignored.



I assume you mean that in the absolute sense, but one also has to realize that "cannot be measured" can also be a measure of our ability to measure things. So you certainly can have real effects that we're simply not able to measure.

And so in that sense, I'm not sure the premise follows, as some of the things we cannot measure are things like the conditions of the early universe, which certainly did effect[1] us.

[1] It affects us too, but I chose that word deliberately


sorry to ruin the joke if that's what it is, but this is sarcasm, right? (my point being: our instrumentation constantly gets better, and there are things that we can't now measure/might never be able to measure which have a material impact on things we can measure)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: