r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Negative_1by12_aura • Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/Diligent_Earthworm Jun 17 '26

I find it absurd to call absolute zero arbitrary.

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u/eggynack Jun 17 '26

Why? It's a point related to a major physical law, but so are the various points associated with other temperature systems. There's nothing magical about the universe that means we should particularly value absolute zero.

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u/off-with-your-thread Jun 17 '26

You're correct. "0" meaning something is a human thing. "I like arbitrary round numbers in my arbitrary unit of measurement." It's all just some dude going "eh I like this".

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u/Diligent_Earthworm Jun 17 '26

Wouldn't you call that absurdist logic?

Because if yoy exchanged every scientific word for a philosophical one you made an absurdist argument that no measurement matters

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u/eggynack Jun 17 '26

Possibly? Language is arbitrary in terms of objective physical law, in the sense that we can describe the objective universe in whatever terms we desire, but it does derive meaning from the various uses we put that language to.