/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14498528
Was there a general reality to phlogiston aside from the mistaken specifics?
You could say phlogiston was just oxygen, but really the concept of phlogiston was supposed to entail behavior of almost the exact opposite way to how oxygen works:
>In general, substances that burned in air were said to be rich in phlogiston; the fact that combustion soon ceased in an enclosed space was taken as clear-cut evidence that air had the capacity to absorb only a finite amount of phlogiston. When air had become completely phlogisticated it would no longer serve to support combustion of any material, nor would a metal heated in it yield a calx; nor could phlogisticated air support life.

>>12671419
>It does not destroy your ego
>The people talking about loosing their ego sure as hell don't tend to act like they did.
Ego death is real, but it's definitely not permanent. The experience is confined to the trip because it's an actual physiological event, not just an idea.
Personally I would go with ego eclipse if I had to name it something other than ego death, though death is a pretty good name for it aside from the problem that some people interpret this as implying it's permanent when it isn't.

>>12296715
It's not up to engineers to replace workers with automated labor.
These automated options already exist.
It's up to *employers" to decide to cut payroll and invest in them instead.
Many could do this but don't, for reasons similar to why you could stop working for a living and automate your income through other means like taking out loans to buy properties and using them as rentals, or buying vending machines and collecting money from them.
Overall the main thing you're not getting is that automation is a risk and an investment someone has to decide to put money into to make use of. Just because automated solutions are able to save money in the long run compared to having live workers doesn't mean employers everywhere are going to immediately cut their staff and put all their money into automations options. If they're already doing well with live workers then they're not going to feel much pressure to try fixing what isn't broken even if it might get them more money in the long run to do so.