• icelimit@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Actually most constants have been standardized to natural sources. A meter is now a fixed (small) fraction of the speed of light in vacuum. A second is pegged to the duration of a Cesium isotope spinning or something. Just that the multipliers are chosen to be convenient to us.

    Should we need to talk measurements with aliens, we can, and can convert between their units and ours.

    • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      SI being capable of interspecies translation is an interesting thing I hadn’t considered.

      • icelimit@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        What’s more profound is that math is universal - after some teething pains with regards to understanding conventions, any alien technology should be comprehensive by us, and vice versa.