reDUcTIon iS gAIn

Relevant XKCD:

Title text: Sure, we could stop dictators and pandemics, but we could also make the signs on every damn diagram make sense.

Well obviously the robots would be good instead of evil that way
- Right, like the guy with the negatronic brain isn't going to be evil. Come on!
test:
e: you can link them directly

Negatrons and Positrons would have been so much better names

Unrelated, but what is the origin of this image? I feel like I’ve seen it often over the years and don’t know where it came from originally.

It looks like a super genetic stock image, and I always assumed that's what it is.
This is the oldest I could find (from 2013): https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/john-niven-were-living-high-2319290

Benjamin Franklin's ultimate prank

What, and live with negativity at the heart of every atom?

Still not as fun as spin up/spin down quarks. Are they spinning? Not at all. And Charm quarks. What the hell does that even mean, science nerds? We also have the strange quark... aren't they all really strange or have you just completely given up?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_particles
The hypothetical particle names get messy, lol.
- Some great names. Sneutrino, zino, wino

What if we just assume current flows from negative to positive?

this would also be society if counterclockwise and clockwise were swapped. it’s the universal way to talk about 2d rotations but pretty much nothing (except a clock) ends up turning clockwise. it didn’t have to be this way

that's not arbitrary - the hour hand of a clock mimics the shadow of a sundial.
it makes sense, in the northern hemisphere, where 90% of people live.
- so it goes the opposite direction that the earth does, great
Ummm.... Have you ever used a screw? Bottle cap? "Right tighty, lefty loosey"? A car wheel when going forward? Literally 99% of things tighten clockwise.
You're the person people have to say "no, your other left" a lot to, aren't ya?
- Just wanna say, a car tire moves a different direction based on your perspective.
  If you're looking at the driver side of the car, the tires move counterclockwise, whereas if you're looking at the other side, the tires appear to rotate the other way.
  Perspective changes a lot of things, it's pretty cool.
  edit: Driver side in my case is (when viewed from the back) the left side
- Also 99% of things loosen anticlockwise. So why preffer tighten over loosen?
- i don’t ever use bottle caps or cars. but in the case of screws (and bottle caps), the choice to make them tighten clockwise and loosen counter clockwise is entirely arbitrary.
  my main point is that i think it’s confusing that clockwise is negatively oriented and counterclockwise is positively oriented (in the mathematical sense). and the mathematical definition of orientation is ultimately dependent on trigonometry. and it just feels wrong that clocks are negatively oriented.
  You're the person people have to say "no, your other left" a lot to, aren't ya?
  no.
You can get a clock that is set up counter clockwise to mess with people
- Ahh! Don't let the secret of time travel get out!