What happenned to the tachyon thread?

[JustinLevy]

There was a recent thread started by a vistor asking about time and tachyons. I've seen threads locked or moved before, but this one is completely gone, and I can't even find posts I made in it. A high school friend is asking me similar questions via email and I wanted to quote some of the responses from there.

I agree that thread was going no where since one poster just kept asking the openning question again and again. But please don't delete threads. There was also input from several people on virtual particles. I'd like to have access to these posts.


Anyway, one question that came up in that thread which I am still curious about is:

Since tachyons violate causality, would this force everything to always be at equilibrium?

(ie. interactions cause entropy to increase (2nd law of thermo dynamics) but if interactions can go back in time, then since entropy can't increase in both directions, it would just be constant? ... so tachyons interacting with matter = heat death of universe at all times?).

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm not sure which "tachyon thread" you are referring to. The one that I noticed that was deleted recently was started by a previously-banned member. That's why it was deleted, I think. In any case, if you need a particular content of this deleted thread, I can PM it to you.

Zz.

 

[Fredrik]

I agree that it's pretty annoying when a whole thread gets deleted. It can be really annoying when you have spent hours writing some good stuff in it. I've been saying this before (e.g. here), but none of the replies agreed with me. In this case, it's only a little bit annoying that the thread got deleted, because I didn't work too hard on my posts there, but there was at least one post that I wrote in there that I would have wanted to be able to link to in future discussions about tachyons.

ZZ, can you PM me the posts where I talked about the possible loophole in the standard argument against the existence of tachyons? (The loophole has to do with the time it takes to emit/detect a tachyon).

 

[cristo]

I agree that it's pretty annoying when a whole thread gets deleted. It can be really annoying when you have spent hours writing some good stuff in it.

If every thread by this guy is kept, there would be more than 20 threads on the same topic, asking exactly the same question.

 

[Fredrik]

If every thread by this guy is kept, there would be more than 20 threads on the same topic, asking exactly the same question.

LOL, yes, he was pretty annoying. He kept repeating the same questions over and over in that thread, even the ones that had been answered. But I think it's better to merge the threads than to delete them.

 

[tiny-tim]

But please don't delete threads. There was also input from several people on virtual particles. I'd like to have access to these posts.

I agree that it's pretty annoying when a whole thread gets deleted. It can be really annoying when you have spent hours writing some good stuff in it. I've been saying this before (e.g. here), but none of the replies agreed with me.

But I think it's better to merge the threads than to delete them.

I agree … I don't see the harm in leaving such threads …

it's useful for members to be able to see how to deal with bad arguments …

and it prevents crackpots from thinking "nobody's raised this before (recently)" …

and the fact that it's locked will show that a thread has something wrong with it.

ZZ, can you PM me the posts where I talked about the possible loophole in the standard argument against the existence of tachyons? (The loophole has to do with the time it takes to emit/detect a tachyon).

i still have copies of all the posts (except mine) in my email trash file … do you still want this?

 

[ZapperZ]

The banned member is a persona non grata, and has created numerous (and I mean, numerous) aliases on PF. I think that now, it is a standard policy that any and all thread created by subsequent aliases of this person be summarily deleted. You will note that we don't do this very often, and in fact, this is the only one that we are taking this type of action on. So we didn't decide on this very lightly.

We can still rescue your posts if you need it. However, unless there are some compelling reasons to resurrect it, the thread will remain deleted. This also applies to any future threads that we eventually discover that are created by this person.

Zz.

 

[Kurdt]

If you're really that interested in saving some of your lengthier posts in any thread (whether they are deleted or not) it might be best to set up a file on your computer where you can keep a copy in word or any other program of your choice. It is always good practise to back up ones work.

 

[Fredrik]

i still have copies of all the posts (except mine) in my email trash file … do you still want this?

Thanks, but ZZ has already sent me the ones I wanted in a PM. :tongue2: