this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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(I couldn't find a sub for hypotethical questions..)

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 65 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

There's actually a way to make a question so that you can receive 3 possible answers

0, 1, or [No Response]

Or depend on how soon they have to send the answer, more info can be relayed... i mean if the the bit was sent to 1PM and it can mean a different meaning if that same bit was sent to 5PM

So you can actually just write one LONG quesrion that list out a bunch of answers like a multiple choice question:

If answer is [Response A], send "0" to 1PM, if answer is [Response B], send "1" to 1PM, if answer is [Response C], send "0" to 2PM, if answer is [Response D], send "1" to 2PM, if no response, we'll assume ur dead, from the options aforementioned, What [Question Here]?

[–] Ediacarium@feddit.org 34 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Once you're able to use time as an information, they can send a message with a character limit. For every letter they need to wait:

Remaining Message Length^Alphabet Size*Index of Letter*time interval

So, if future people want to sent the message hello and our time unit is 1s, and the max message length is 5, they need to send the bit to exactly 26^4*7+26^3*4+26^2*11+26^1*11+26^0*14 = 3276872 seconds or 54614,5333min or 910,242222h or ~38 days after the start time.

We can choose smaller time intervals, but with a long enough message, we'll eventually reach the year 3000 again. Alternatively, we can move the start time into the past, at the expense of quite a few possible messages.

This is the same problem as trying to map an n-dimensional array to a one dimensional array

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nah, "aaaaa", "bbbbb", and "zzzzz" doesn't need to be one of the "multiple choices"

Don't spell each letter of each word, just use words to "spell out" the sentence instead.

[–] Ediacarium@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If you're not asking about anything that we currently don't have a word for, we can use words as the alphabet, sure.

We then need to transmit a list of words, they're allowed to use, otherwise our count is off, because I'm sure that 974 years from now english won't be the same, as it is today. They'll have a lot more skibid rizz than we do now.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

use Chinese xD

logographic languages tend to last longer, especially now all the characters are digitized.

A "Computer" didn't exist in ancient times, but they still used words that have always existed to create new compound words: 电脑 ("Electric" + "Brain"). Airplanes didn't exist but they still came up with the word 飞机 ("Flying" + "Machine")

[–] bacon_pdp@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Wrong. Assuming 6bit encoding and one bit per minute; a 3 char start and stop sequence. 1024 character message could be sent per 4.3 days. Or a faster response time than my ex.

[–] Hjalamanger@feddit.nu 4 points 5 days ago

You can't send bits at a constant rate in this case. You essentialy get to send one very large number, the amount of time since your decided starting time (plus the one bit we were actually intended to use). The bit count grows logarithmicly with time

Thus, the amount of bits n you can send over t time steps would be

n = log(t)/log(2) + 1

As an example, say they wait 8 seconds before sending you a 1. You have received the number 1000 and the bit 1. That's a total of 5 bits.

If they choose to wait twice as long, 16 seconds, they have in effect transmitted the numbers 10000 and one additional bit, a total of 6 bits. Double the time but only one additional bit.

[–] Aatube@thriv.social 9 points 5 days ago

that's more than one bit, though, which is part of the question's constraints. In practice that means [No response] would be the same as indicating 0 or even 1 and they cannot convey additional information by controlling for time of receipt, likely because they can't control time of receipt

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

if no response, we'll assume ur dead

And there was no response, for Ur - the city - died millennia ago. If only Skippy had stayed in school.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago

yo dawg, dis iz how we gen z txt to ech oder k?

probem? catch me outsid how 'bou dat?

[–] ummthatguy@lemmy.world 46 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

If we're talking binary, the most common response will likely be...

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

The options are 'yes' and 'double yes'.

[–] mech@feddit.org 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What's your favorite comedy bit?

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

In the year 3000, comedy has reverted back to the year 2000. What is this, a year for ants??

[–] Photonic@lemmy.world 19 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Is my great-great-great granddaughter pretty fine?

[–] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And that's how we found Trump's Lemmy account.

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

Not much has changed, but we live under water

[–] aarRJaay@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Thank you for saving me the effort of putting that and not knowing how well it would go down. Do Americans know of Busted?

[–] Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Are we on the right track with physics right now? 1 for yes; 0 for throw it all away and start as fresh as possible.

[–] suff@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Did we ever defeat fascism?

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Year 3000, every single human is born from a biological reactor, they're genetically modified to be subservient and strong and infertile. Everyone on earth serves and praises the few remaining masterminds who locked their brains in jars, kept alive by nutrient tubes

No. Here, I saved you your question, you get to ask something else.

[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

I think the sub you're looking for is "casualconversation"

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The annoying thing is we won't be able to know if we can trust the answer. I f you'd ask now there's also people who'd say yes.

[–] electrotabby@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago
[–] lemming@anarchist.nexus 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

!asklemmy@lemmy.world
!asklemmy@lemmy.ml (how do you link directly to comms?)

[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

'!' and the first few letters of the community name should give you a list to choose from. Comes out like !asklemmy@lemmy.world.

[–] lemming@anarchist.nexus 1 points 5 days ago

Sweet, thanking you!

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago
[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Does humanity solve the climate crisis

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

No response.

[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 days ago

I think we already know the answer to that one.

[–] limpatzk@bookwyr.me 4 points 5 days ago

Is planet earth still liveable?

[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 4 points 5 days ago
[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Is human-made climate change an existential crisis?

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 5 days ago

Eithet 0 or 0 because we've already been told they exist

[–] finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How the fuck are humans still alive?

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

They’re just backup copies hosted in the Galactic Museum. There’s no way a species that stupid would survive long enough to invent FTL travel. Just surviving the nuclear era was borderline miraculous.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty.

[–] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Is life worth living?

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago