• @waigl
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    642 months ago

    Imagine the following:

    You actually can stop the time by snapping you fingers, but it stops time for the entire universe, including yourself, with the exception of one single observer on some unimportant planet in the Andromeda galaxy. After 100 years from the POV of that observer, time resumes again.

    Would you even be able to tell?

    • Seraph
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      752 months ago

      Wouldn’t you just keep snapping your fingers, wondering why it wasn’t working? You wouldn’t notice time stopping.

      • @Darkmuch
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        122 months ago

        We could have a whole vent diagram of people than stop time, start time, or be immune to it. Imagine just going out for drinks with friends when times stops. But this has happened before so you walk across town, go in some dudes living room, and force his fingers to snap.

        “Ah! Oh it’s you. Time stopped again?” “Yup” “Alright. Well hopefully whoever’s stopping time this time doesn’t REALLY like to snap.” “Hopefully. Well might be seeing more of me again. Bye!”

      • @nialv7
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        32 months ago

        It could be happening for real right now and you wouldn’t know it.

      • @Klear
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        22 months ago

        You’d notice an angry creature from Andromeda punching you in the face and threatening yo break your fingers tho…

    • Nicht BurningTurtle
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      42 months ago

      No. You would have to snap ~25000 times, for the light originating from there, to even reach you (Assuming, that light is unaffected by the time stop).

      • CaptainBlagbird
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        2 months ago

        Time not stopping for light, but (almost) everything else, would cause a whole lot of problems. Sounds like a nice scenario for What If

        • Nicht BurningTurtle
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          2 months ago

          If we take this in consideration and assume, that his equivalent of air is also affected and therefore cannot be moved. The affected would be stuck and unable to move and die of asphyxiation in a dark void.

          EDIT: Another interesting factor to consider is, that if the affected were able to move, he would have an undefined acceleration due to delta v / 0.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 months ago

          I saw a short story about a hero who could stop time but he could only see things he was looking at before he stopped time or was walking towards so only looking directly ahead. It was established by a thought experiment or something that addresses the reader. I really wish I could remember the name of the story but it was so long ago I don’t think I could remember the name even if I heard it

          • CaptainBlagbird
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            22 months ago

            The Man Who Could Work Miracles by H.G. Wells maybe?

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              Like I said it was so long ago I wouldn’t know the title even if I saw it but it was in a middle school English class if that info helps at all

      • @Wogi
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        102 months ago

        This hypothetical scenario assumes that stopping time is universal and instantaneous. Simultaneity in two reference frames, even when that doesn’t make sense. Someone on earth snaps their fingers, and in that same instant, some unwitting observer spends 100 earth solar cycles in frozen, abject terror.

    • @someguy3
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      2 months ago

      Entire universe no. Stopping this particular galaxy and not the others, the average Joe wouldn’t notice. But I think the astronomers could tell?

        • @waigl
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          62 months ago

          Because after moving very slowly and steadily for just about forever, the other galaxies will suddenly make a jump of like ten thousandth of a degree.

          • Sonotsugipaa
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            22 months ago

            I don’t know how many light years the nearest edge of this galaxy is, but I’d wager it would take some time for the jump to be apparent to us.

            • @cynar
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              12 months ago

              Various events around the universe occur on human timescales. If time stopped for use, we would effectively skip ahead on the view of them.

              I actually think we could reliably catch 1 second time stops. Scientists monitor various pulsars. They spin multiple times a second, throwing off radio wave pulses. If all of them suddenly went out of sync with our clocks, it would definitely be noticed. It might take several, however, to prove it wasn’t a weird hardware glitch.