# "My theory is that ...."
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 15, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202 "2005-02-15T15:51:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/41 "2005-02-17T08:40:01Z")
> [@bitwise](#):
>
> All recording mediums physically decay with time. No matter how hard you try to preserve your information, you will always have some loss. My theory is that information is not loss because materials decay, but that materials decay because information must be lost. Information loss is the more general principle. Unfortunately, I do not know enough about information theory and thermodyamics to rigorously formulate this.
Couldn’t binary data theoretically last forever? You’d probably have to have some kind of human hands at work, of course, but unlike, say, a decaying medium like a vinyl record or the shroud of Turin, you could always take a DVD that hasn’t been completely ruined and make a new backup of the exact same binary data, but with zero corruption. Keep repeating the cycle every so often, and you have information that lasts forever. Or maybe you could make a really big CD made out of pure diamond and bury it in an airtight time capsule for 1000 years…could that ever work?
> [@siberia](#):
>
> I think humans are the least-evolved species on our planet.
Annoying nitpick: Technically, we aren’t “more” or “less” evolved than anything else. Human beings have had the same amount of evolution as an amoeba, namely, a few billion(?) years.
Taking the layman’s meaning of the word “evolved,” though, one theory I have is that television is a _huge_ leap in the evolution of our species - for better or for worse - and we have only begun to understand its true consequences.
One crazy theory I have - more of a “What if?” than a real theory - is that the percieved acceleration of everything in the universe away from everything else might be something else entirely. Specifically, what if everything, including the fabric of space itself, was _shrinking_ at a constant rate? If our galaxy and the galaxy next to us are both half the size they were 5 billion years ago, and yet they’re almost the same distance apart, wouldn’t that be indistinguishable from what would happen if they were twice the distance they were 5 billion years ago? I suppose the speed of light would also have to shrink at the same rate in order for that to work. I don’t know enough about the big bang theory to say if there’s anything wrong with that theory, but what if?
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/42 "2005-02-17T13:26:33Z")
The laws of physics aren’t absolutes but depend upon local environmental conditions.
For instance, the speed of light is not a constant. It is much higher when away from a star’s gravity well. This also explains “gravitational lensing”. The star’s mass does not curve space-time so that the “straight” line followed by the light becomes curved. Rather, the speed of light drops near the star, so the light is refracted towards it, just like light does when it crosses an air/glass boundary.
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/43 "2005-02-17T13:53:37Z")
> [@Q.N. Jones](#):
>
> Haven’t read anything about it for awhile, but a few years back a study seemed to indicate that very Type A, competitive women are significantly more likely than 50% to conceive boys.
Huh.
I have a cousin by marriage that has 7 boys.
And she was very, very competitve in high school in sports. (she’s a bit of an amazon.)
I would like to second this theory.
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/44 "2005-02-17T14:00:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Not so Serious
> Why is it that when you’re out with your significant other you rarely see anyone you know, but when you’re out doing something you shouldn’t you see the whole world including your significant other!
ooooh! I have the answer!
When you are _Doing What You Shouldn’t Be Doing_ (applying to men) or _Dressed Like A Hag_ ( applying to women) your brainbox sends out _Guilt /I Hope Know One I Know Sees Me_ rays. Like a beacon of ESP to the most obscure peoples of your life to make them suddenly want to go to Target and walk directly down the skin care aisle and see you looking at Industrial Strength Zit Creme for reasons that are more than painfully apparent.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/45 "2005-02-17T14:04:16Z")
I hypothesized that some dinosaurs had feathers long before any paleontologists were saying so. I even wrote a letter to National Geographic about it once.
Vindication is sweet.
My other hypothesis is about Indian mounds. Almost everything written about them says they were built for “ceremonial purposes.” Bah. All the Indian mounds I’ve seen are hard by rivers, and built on flood plains. I say that the mounds were built as a place of retreat for times when the river flooded unexpectedly. They may have also been used for ceremony, or as home for a chief, but they were built primarily for a utilitarian purpose. IMNSHO
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### Author:  [@Sevo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevo)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/46 "2005-02-17T14:39:06Z")
> [@snow](#):
>
> My theory is that when Einstein said the speed of light was a constant that he did so to simplify his math.
> He knew that it was just as relative as anything else, and he could chose anything to pin down as his starting point and he just chose that. If he’d picked something like an atomic clock as the starting point, then light would be seen to sometimes go faster. And time would not compress at high speeds. But the math would have been trickier, and he wasn’t interested in traveling near the speed of light when he picked the “constant”.
Whoa…I think I just achieved enlightenment.
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### Author:  [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/47 "2005-02-17T15:29:25Z")
> [@Mirasol](#):
>
> Socks getting lost in the laundry: My theory of increasing differences
>
> I believe a significant number of socks lost in the laundry are only _apparent_ and not _actual losses_. These apparent losses are due to the pairing of similar but-not-quite the same socks after the wash, leaving single leftovers that are more apparently distinct from each other than the unintentionally mis-matched pairs. These leftovers give the illusion of missing socks.
I like your theory, it feels quite plausible.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/48 "2005-02-17T15:47:08Z")
So in my years of observing the fairer sex, I have come to a few conclusions about them.
1. All women have inherant lesbian qualities. Perhaps they are born predisposed to liking other women, and then learn to like boys. The evidence: Women are, on the average, more affectionate with each other than men. When two lifelong women friends meet, they might hug…men might punch each other in the arm. In addition, it seems that women are more likely to admit that they are attracted to the same sex, but not consider themselves homosexual or bisexual. For instance, in the severla threads we ahve had about ‘who would you go gay for,’ women dopers seem to respond more and with more vigor than male dopers.
2. Al women love cheesecake. Evidence: Do i really need any? Just look around people!
3. All women love chocolate. See #2.
I have met no woman that contridicts #3, a handful that contridict #2, and only one that contridicts #1. That same woman also contridicts #2. When I say I have met only one woman who contridicts #1, what I mean is that in my lifetime of noticing this phenomenon, only one woman I have met that I have probed about this said she doesn’t find any women attractive, ever. She does not like being ‘touchy-feely’ with other women, and certainly wouldn’t ‘go gay’ for any woman, since she doesn’t find any attractive.
(please note: I’m just being silly. I’m sure they are plenty of women out there who hate cheesecake, chocolate, and other women…well, ok, not chocolate, but the other two certainly.)
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### Author:  [@deena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deena)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/49 "2005-02-17T16:50:10Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Junk food manufacturers are putting powerful addictive chemicals in their products to get us addicted.
Speaking of junk food…
McDonalds made a huge claim that they switched their oil used for their fries to make them “healthier.” Come to find out, they are still using the same trans fat oil they were using before.
To make themselves look better, they agreed to pay the American Heart Association 7 million dollars for educational purposes.
Whether that money will actually be used for such causes remains to be seen, however it just goes to show how full of crap corporate America is.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/50 "2005-02-17T17:03:48Z")
> [@plnnr](#):
>
> The Universe is exanding and will continue to do so up until a point where it begins to converge back into a black hole. There will once again be a “Big Bang” and the whole process starts all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat forever (which is a very long time).
That same thought has occurred to me. A “pulsating universe” theory.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/51 "2005-02-17T17:51:23Z")
My theory is that the government and political figures take advantage of the fact that we have a bi-partisan system and know that they could never exsist without an opposing party.
Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats for all the ills of government. With this scape-goat they always have a place to put blame instead of fessing up to the fact that government as a whole is doing a shitty job.
The public, rather than taking a stance of either “the government is succeeding” or “the government is failing” is forced to take a stance of chosing a side and then giving their side credit for successes, and blaming the other side for failures.
Dems and Reps know they need eachother, for if they didn’t they’d run the risk of complete public disapproval.
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### Author:  [@FlippyFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlippyFly)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/52 "2005-02-17T18:01:10Z")
> [@nocturnal\_tick](#):
>
> I have a theory that either:
>
> 1. The universe is merely a creation of my own imagination, and that I am the only “real” person in existence. The universe therefore is no bigger than my senses allow at any one time, and everything I am not aware of ceases to exist until I should become aware of it. The entire reason for the universe’s existence is to allow me to experience “life”.
>
> 2. The universe is actually one single consciousness acting out in an almost infinite number of tangents in order to enact every single thought, experience, event, emotion and mathematical possibility that could ever occur and I am simply a infintessemal, yet ultimately important part of this experience
>
> 3. Hi Opal! is merely a creation of my own imagination, along with Og, I burning your dog and 18"DHIBJD. Gotcha Ya! however I take no claim to whatsoever.
Isn’t that just existentialism?
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### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/53 "2005-02-17T19:06:26Z")
I have a theory that the nation state is heading for extinction. The reason is that the extremely destructive weapons these states have developed will more and more fall into the hands of people intent on disrupting the state (and its economy). Whereas in the past states were able to absorb the relatively small scale attacks that occurred, in the future they will be unable to do so.
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### Author:  [@FlippyFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlippyFly)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/54 "2005-02-17T20:23:54Z")
I have a theory that all it takes to attract women as a man is to not be weird - and I don’t mean weird like quirky and unique, I mean just weird. A lot of my friends just do strange things that freak women out… say strange things, do strange things… all you have to do is be normal, and you will get your fair share of dates.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/55 "2005-02-17T21:07:31Z")
> [@FlippyFly](#):
>
> Isn’t that just existentialism?
More like solipsism.
Bertrand Russell once reported receving a letter from a woman (in response to a debunking of solipsism in an editorial) who claimed that not only was she a solipsist, but she was suprised that more people were not, as well.
Er, lady…uh…you know, there’s…um…kind of a…oxymor–ah, heck, never mind.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Mirasol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasol)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/56 "2005-02-17T22:38:52Z")
> [@Coil](#):
>
> I like your theory, it feels quite plausible.
Thanks. I always thought so.
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### Author:  [@JeffyDMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffyDMan)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/57 "2005-02-17T22:46:20Z")
Well…
My theory is that monkeys evolved from US! Yes, that’s right folks. We are going to “devolve” into feces chucking tree-swingers.
Sounds kinda fun, actually!
Disclaimer: My parents kept pointing out families of monkeys on PBS National Geographic and telling me they were my real parents! I could be wrong!
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### Author:  [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/58 "2005-02-17T22:46:31Z")
That everything has some form of a finite, discrete manifestation (the molecules that make up a table, the number of stars in the universe) – including time.
That corporate-bought politicians of both parties are cutting education in order to deliberately dumb down the population and make it easier for the upper-upper classes to retain power.
That human beings are the “pinnacle” of evolution. In fact, we’re an evolutionary mistake, creating intelligent beings that can manipulate the natural world and therefore eventually destroy it.
Death is either: (a) nothing more than a minor loss of information from the viewpoint of the cosmos, a byproduct of chaos or (b) a gateway into reincarnation-- but not as an individual “soul” (floabw), more like a comingling of souls, a chunk of which becomes part of a newborn. This assumes that a person’s memories, learning, etc. follows something like the laws of thermodynamics.
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### Author:  [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/59 "2005-02-18T00:10:15Z")
Related to **bouv** ’s theory, I’d like to suggest that men view cheese as women view chocolate. Both substances probably cause similar alterations in brain chemistry. All I need is a grant and my SO and I will immediately begin testing this theory on each other.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-is-that/290202/60 "2005-02-18T01:50:28Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> My theory is that all brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and belongs to me and I own it, and what it is too.
Well, this theory of yours seems to have hit the nail on the head.
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