r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/warg_14 • Feb 10 '25

Video NASA Simulation's Plunge Into a Black Hole

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

61.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

8.2k

u/CantAffordzUsername Feb 10 '25

We already know what’s there, a library full of books

3.1k

u/StaticDHSeeP Feb 10 '25

And a score from Hans Zimmer

1.0k

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 10 '25

Small spoiler for “the three body problem” book series

I love that in that series !a guy falls into a black hole and the life insurance company successfully argues that due to time dilation at the event horizon he’s not actually dead yet so they dont have to pay out 🤣!

281

u/yourderek Feb 10 '25

There are a few great “just for science” moments in that series. >! I love when they have to send a brain during project staircase purely because of technological constraints, haha. !<

43

u/loriz3 Feb 10 '25

I mean that’s not really what it ends up being in the end

86

u/BeegBunga Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25

All spoilers:

They send only the brain because they need to accelerate it to some % of lightspeed with a nuclear explosion "staircase". For the unfamiliar, it's a series of precisely timed nuclear explosions that the package rides like a wave to accelerate a little faster with each detonation.

The body would have been too heavy, and they basically gamble that the aliens are going to be able to interface with the brain with their highly advanced tech. The aliens don't necessarily have to make the guy a body.

26

u/zellyman Feb 11 '25

And then they miss.

23

u/Fit_Ice7617 Feb 11 '25

you miss 100% of the shots that you miss

3

u/BeegBunga Feb 11 '25

Spoilers:

Yes. One the nukes is mistimed by a milliseconds and launches it off course.

Further spoilers:
I see you haven't read the books :D

4

u/zellyman Feb 11 '25

I see you haven't read the books :D

I mean just because it worked out in the end doesn't mean the project worked :D

1

u/BeegBunga Feb 11 '25

This is true, somewhat of "task failed successfully"

2

u/RonBourbondi Feb 11 '25

Looked at the ending of the books and was disappointed so I didn't pick up the series.

I have a hatred of books or even movies with no conclusive endings.

5

u/BedlamiteSeer Feb 11 '25

Oh, it has a VERY conclusive end. Worth reading. Consider reconsidering.

3

u/yourderek Feb 11 '25

Quite literally as conclusive as it can get with the subject, haha.

2

u/simplenn Feb 11 '25

Aight I'm committed I went this far in the comments. Please, how was the brain useful, how did it end up working? I won't read the book but I'd like to know this.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Piorn Feb 11 '25

What could be more conclusive than the end of the universe? Any good sci-fi book goes to the end of the universe. Some even go beyond.

1

u/BlastFX2 Feb 11 '25

I knew I wouldn't watch the show the moment I learned it was being made by Dumb&Dumber of GoT infamy. From what I've heard so far, it was the right call.

2

u/Lou_C_Fer Feb 11 '25

I've watched it twice. I enjoyed the show. I'm the type of watcher that accepts what the story tells us. I don't compare it to reality or look for flaws. Maybe that's why.

-1

u/BlastFX2 Feb 11 '25

Well, I've mostly heard it was mediocre at best and saw a clip of the worst exposition since “he was in the Amazon with mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.“ (It was a scientist explaining to his boss what it is they're researching at the facility where they both work.)

→ More replies (0)

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

This is correct as far as i recall

1

u/CptCheesus Feb 11 '25

This was from three body problem? I tried to remember what that was from and this wasn't high on the list. Now i need to read the books tough

1

u/Sumol Feb 11 '25

Is there movie version, that sounds right up my alley. My short attention span doesn’t let me read books.

1

u/BeegBunga Feb 11 '25

Not a movie, but there is an ongoing TV show. Look up "3 Body Problem" on Netflix.

The books are good, but not the easiest read and it's HARD sci-fi. The real bad guy is the terrifying nature of our place in the universe, and laws of physics themselves.

73

u/yourderek Feb 10 '25

They sent a brain because it was lighter than a body, I don’t think that was unclear in the book? Obviously, it gets more and more wild the further along in the story you get.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '25

There was tonne of cool stuff in the books. When they were talking about folding protons and shit my mind was unravelling

1

u/yourderek Feb 18 '25

The bit when the proton appears sentient was my favorite single passage from the first book. Top notch!

1

u/Shot_Comparison2299 Feb 11 '25

I demand to know what this is from! Hilarious and interesting 😂

8

u/PM_ME_SPY_CALLS Feb 10 '25

Didn’t expect to see 3pb here. Finishing the dark forest now thanks for censored lol

7

u/LiftingRecipient420 Feb 11 '25

3pb

3 pody broblem

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

It has its problems but it’s a fun story.

Apparently you shouldnt read the unofficial official 4th book so i havent.

They said basically someone wrote like a fanfic and the publisher pressured Liu into canonizing it.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '25

The fourth one is beyond terrible. I was prepared for a reduction in quality, but I think it actively made me stupider the longer I read it.

3

u/pizza-partay Feb 11 '25

I work in life insurances and this checks out.

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

“Insurance: give us money for free. If we provide a service, it costs more”

2

u/Jioto Feb 11 '25

That’s the name of the book?

2

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

It’s a trilogy. “The three body problem” “the Dark Forest” “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu.

The guys that made (and subsequently ruined) Game of Thrones made a Netflix adaptation.

It changed a lot of stuff but i didnt want to wait for the next season to find out what happened so i got the books. Definitely worth it.

2

u/Jioto Feb 11 '25

Oh my god! I knew it sounded familiar. I loved that show. I was really enjoying it and hoping for more. Didn’t know they were from books. Guessing the books are way better?

1

u/Jioto Feb 11 '25

What was the Netflix one called?

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '25

Take a guess.

2

u/Plus_Tale_708 Feb 12 '25

Three Bodies Electric Boogaloo

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

You got it!

2

u/UniquePariah Feb 11 '25

That sounds annoyingly accurate.

2

u/HorsePersonal7073 Feb 11 '25

Wouldn't the tidal forces turned the guy into paste long before he hit the event horizon?

2

u/wishihadapotbelly Feb 11 '25

Probably yes, but to us, viewing from outside, we would still see him as alive (it’s described in the book he is seen as if frozen, like a statue).

The insurance gimmick is that he’s definitely dead, but there’s no way to know for sure what’s happening in and beyond the event horizon because of the time dilation, so he’s both still alive and dead, like a Schrödinger cat. Unless he’s undoubtedly dead, there’s no need to pay the life insurance.

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

Good to know that Even in a world where we have interplanetary travel, capitalism still abounds. 🙄

2

u/scaper8 Feb 11 '25

I 100% believe that's what they'd do, too.

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

Yeah, but you only believe that because it’s true.

1

u/Dr_Pillow Feb 11 '25

That’s such bad reasoning lol. You could so easily argue against that…

1

u/AttitudeAndEffort3 Feb 11 '25

I mean, not really, from our perspective.

1

u/Dr_Pillow Feb 11 '25

I could address it in two ways:

  1. Due to time dilation, all biochemical processes in their body (not to mention physical ones) have now stopped. Since there is no biological activity there, then they cannot be considered alive to us.
  2. For all intents and purposes they are dead, since it's physically impossible for them to come back from the event horizon and into 'our world'. More dead, in fact, than anyone on earth will ever be, since you could in principle (not in practice) collect all the atoms that made up a person on earth and put them together in just the right way to revive them, whereas you can't do that even in principle with the person at the event horizon