D&D 5E Scientist background

[Garthanos]

This is going to be lost on almost anyone (even most mathematicians and physicists) but its actually a little unclear whether math or physics is truly the most fundemental and also whether math really is immutable or if thats a grand illusion of some sort. Sounds silly right?

Sounds utterly reasonable to me...

Well, at such extremes as the fundement of reality things get a little silly. The reasons it gets a little unclear are...well probably unfathomable in number and scope, but the following will possibly give a little sense of some of them. Currently, its uncertain what the absolute most basic building blocks and units of existance are and whether all of them actually are entirely consistant. Moreover, currently there is reason to believe that information itself is actually somehow a more basic building block than the simplest units of space, energy, and matter and also actually less capable of being created or destroyed in its most basal form. Great, so what's the issue? Well, this actually means its hard to sort out if these most fundemental pieces are fundementally and primarily math first and physics second or vice vs. The "mathiness" of this info may only be an emergent thing. Basic logic works kinda weird all the way down there. Or is it up...there? Point is its a weird time in math and physics and basically the line between the two is getting very blurry.

Someone pointed out in a more philosophical context I preface that even basic math allah addition was a descriptor of a physical phenomena the ambiguity might just be because math and physics arent all that discrete.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Sounds utterly reasonable to me...

Someone pointed out in a more philosophical context I preface that even basic math allah addition was a descriptor of a physical phenomena the ambiguity might just be because math and physics arent all that discrete.

There are also some fields going back decades now where the modern limits for observation and development of precision tools seem to be butting up against ceilings imposed by basic facts of reality.

The thing about math and physics is, they may be starting to approach a similar phenomena not just in development of precision measurment tools but also in the limits imposed by our physical brains and bodies.

"Man...we just cant win" is something ive begun hearing some physicists jokingly say in reference to the fact that more and more of the field is dominated by time spent trying to figure out tricks to avoid these aparent hard limits which seem to be multiplying now faster than new physicists are born.

 

[Garthanos]

There are also some fields going back decades now where the modern limits for observation and development of precision tools seem to be butting up against ceilings imposed by basic facts of reality.

The thing about math and physics is, they may be starting to approach a similar phenomena not just in development of precision measurment tools but also in the limits imposed by our physical brains and bodies.

"Man...we just cant win" is something ive begun hearing some physicists jokingly say in reference to the fact that more and more of the field is dominated by time spent trying to figure out tricks to avoid these aparent hard limits which seem to be multiplying now faster than new physicists are born.

Theoretical physicists say hmmmm and come up with things and it takes a very long time for the more concrete measurable evidence to come down which confirms their theories like detectable gravity waves. All though emissions from black holes was at-least within Hawking's life time.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Theoretical physicists say hmmmm and come up with things and it takes a very long time for the more concrete measurable evidence to come down which confirms their theories like detectable gravity waves. All though emissions from black holes was at-least within Hawking's life time.

actually there are still a lot of physicists who arent really even sold on black holes existing. Most of those still find them (or something sufficiently close to the concept) more likely to exist than not though.

Also, while the volume of data is accelerating, signifficant conceptual advancements seem to be slowing. So while it has always been the nature of confirmation to sognifficantly lag behind theory, both are slowing down in the ways that matter most. Quality over quantity, and conceptual precision/accuracy over measurement precision/accuracy.

 

[abe ray]

How would a wizard from dnd handle our world?(just a different point of view)

 

[seebs]

yes, its a quote attributed to Ernest Rutherford (the guy who split the atom) but it was first reported in 1939, 2 years after his death in a book that made the statement "Rutherford used to divide science into physics and stamp collecting"

Degree-Off

xkcd.com

 

[jaelis]

How would a wizard from dnd handle our world?(just a different point of view)

Without an actual framework for how wizardry works in the dnd world, it would be pretty hard to say how a wizard's skill might carry over into ours. All we really know is that a wizard has to be pretty smart.

 

[Tonguez]

Degree-Off

xkcd.com

Thats rather ironic given the Covid pandemic

 

[tetrasodium]

How would you fine people build a scientist from our world as a background for 5th edition dnd?
This is mostly for curiosities sake.


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Rising 190/191 has a section on a sample arcane workshop

Spoiler: the pages

it also has larger sections about various research institutes like the arcanix, library of korranberg, etc. I'd do it an awful lot like a scientist from now but instead of scientific research for a scientist it's arcane research for an arcanist (also a term in various eberron sources.) This post from Keith baker on magical education along with this other one on magewrights may help as well. beyond that it depends on what you are looking for from it & not having read the 4 pages of this thread there might be some extra stuff that sheds light on your goal that I'm missing

 

[seebs]

Thats rather ironic given the Covid pandemic

I dunno, I don't see physicists doing anything to protect us, and the biologists and epidemiologists are why we're talking about such tiny numbers in the first place. (Without them, it'd be a lot worse, and it'd seem a lot more normal.)