3/ But then, in one last spasm, all of the silicon is fused to iron, and there's nothing left. ...and that stellar atmosphere, which may have been lifted as far as 1 AU (earth's orbit!) ... is suddenly held up by nothing. ...and it starts falling.
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4/ Picture the energy liberated by a human jumping off of the World Trade Center. Picture the energy liberated from a tank falling from an airplane without a parachute. Picture the "colony drop" trope of a massive space station falling from LEO.
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5/ ...now picture something like 1/3 of the mass of an entire star, on the order of magnitude of a million earth masses, falling ... from a height of 200 million miles ... accelerating all the way. It doesn't end well. That's the iron catastrophe.
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6/ ...and that's the analogy that springs to mind when I see the US elite using up all "freedom" as a rhetorical fuel in 150 years, then using up "competent technocrats" as a rhetorical fuel in 50 years, then using up "fighting racism" in 5 years, then ...
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7/ and note that, in keeping with the analogy, as the Cathedral burns up each new form of rhetorical fuel, it gets hotter, it gets bigger, and it lifts its parts further and further out of the gravity well ... storing up potential energy. ...all of which can be liberated >>>
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8/ when the entire thing suddenly has no more fuel to burn, there's no more pressure to keep up the parts, and the whole thing collapses under gravity.
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9/ Remember: the first stage of fusion lasts 1 billion years. The last stage (silicon -> Fe) lasts less than a day.
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ⓘ Dogs don't have thumbs Retweeted Maria - Schizophrenia arc,
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ⓘ Dogs don't have thumbs Retweeted 🍂 The Pectrichory 🍄
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🍂 The Pectrichory 🍄 @The_PetrichoryReplying to @Advanced_COBOL @MorlockP @ctdonathI observe the Cathedral selling out the credibility of the once-prestigious academy for tighter integration with the federal bureaucracy. I observe the law selling out its credibility to anarcho-tyranny, harassing you for petty contrivances while your business burns.2 replies 1 retweet 76 likesShow this thread -
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by "nuclear" you're saying fission, as compared to the fusion I'm referencing? sure, can see that I think the fusion analogy captures the whole thing in more detail tho
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