I would like to talk about this business of *holes* in #semiconductor physics.

these _holes_ furnish us with a valuable lesson in how one can model the *absence* of something as though it were the *presence* of something else—as physical objects with discrete properties.

(1/x)
an ideal crystal of silicon, or any other material used in making semiconductors, defines a fixed and predictable structure of nuclei in a rigid lattice. these nuclei might oscillate slightly about their mean positions within the lattice but mostly, their places are *set*.

(2/x) ball-and-stick schematic image of crystalline silicon, showi
the lattice of nuclei, in turn, defines an expected and predictable cloud of electron density that surrounds the positively charged nuclei. the overall charge balance through this structure is zero.

excess electrons, or *missing* electrons, produce deviations from zero.

(3/x) simplified 2D depiction of a silicon crystal lattice, drawn
when subjected to an electrical field, the free electrons are capable of moving through the rigid lattice.

electrons are *also* capable of temporarily occupying, and then leaving, the _holes_ in the lattice. the holes, in a sense, move around; they disappear and reappear.

(4/x) schematic diagram of a simplified silicon crystal lattice su
but the hole is a vacancy, a gap; it's a place where an electron *would* be found, if the crystal lattice were perfect, but instead there's an empty spot.

does that mean the hole isn't "real"? a lot of #STEM nerds would probably say that. (@ID_AA_Carmack, any opinion?)

(5/x) famous memetic image from the manga "The Enigma of Amig
yet if you read the Wikipedia article on electron holes (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_…) you'll find that they're referred to as "quasiparticles": the holes can be physically modelled as though they were positive charge carriers moving through an otherwise neutral material.

(6/x)
I point out also that the hole is not just a *void*; if you could somehow examine the hole closely you'd observe that it contained electron density (simply _less_ than expected for a perfect crystal lattice) and other measurable physical properties. so, is the hole "real"?

(7/x)
I would argue that here—and in many similar cases—is where the distinction between "real" and "unreal", a distinction which Western culture and especially #STEM lord culture of the @JeffDean / @ID_AA_Carmack / @antoniogm sort, simply breaks down. "real" becomes arbitrary.

(8/x)
the person who defends the proposition that electron holes "aren't real" is now arguing against an entire body of physical theory that treats the holes as if they were real objects, real charge carriers. I doubt that's an argument that @JeffDean &c. are apt to win.

~Mona Drafter

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More from @PnictogenHorses

Jan 12
we in the Pnictogen Wing are perhaps nearly alone in thinking that "flat-Earth" people, i.e. human beings who cling to the notion that the Earth is not a spheroid but instead a disc, are not totally pointless.

flat-Earthers are, for most of Western society, safe targets.

(1/x)
for that reason alone, we are drawn to try understanding the phenomenon better, rather than simply discard flat-Earthism and its adherents as worthless and laughable.

what drives a person to endorse such a quixotic worldview, one that insures their permanent ostracism?

(2/x)
there's emotional benefits to belonging in a mostly-despised faction, of course. the faction experiences so much pressure from outside, the society *inside* the bubble is practically forced to be orderly and well-disclipined—a safe haven from an otherwise chaotic world.

(3/x)
Read 25 tweets
Jan 11
#capitalism is essentially *backwards* looking. yes, capitalists attempt to pretend that they're the masters of #innovation and advancement of #technology, the builders of the #future, and all that.

it's lies—mere #marketing. capitalists do not like progress or change.

(1/x)
corporate #management and #executive persons want one thing above all others: guaranteed #money. they want *safe bets*. they don't want #competition or #risk; they want a steady source of "passive income" that always goes up and up.

(this causes #inflation, by the way.)

(2/x)
(yes, I know that #capitalism and the #business community, not to mention all #politics and #journalism these days, blame #inflation on the profligate #consumer—but in reality, inflation occurs because capitalists always want *more #money*; it has to come from somewhere.)

(3/x)
Read 18 tweets
Jan 11
#Christians and #Christianity are infamously *randy* and sex-obsessed, and it's difficult to accept that this fact is widely grasped and understood, yet it's still socially forbidden to bring it up. it's *rude* to point out too loudly that Christians are fixated on sex.

(1/x)
in the #Bible Belt of America, churches exist cheek-by-jowl with porn shops—American #Christians consume more pornography than the rest of America, and engage in enthusiastic commerce for the satisfaction of their sexual pleasures.

and they can't stop talking about it.

(2/x)
one senses that they *speak from experience*. reactionary right-wing #Christians of the @dalepartridge / @MattWalshBlog sort love blithering about the evils of fleshly pleasures in such a way that lets us know, they're thinking about these things a lot. they are *tempted*.

(3/x)
Read 11 tweets
Jan 11
one of the most curious stories that came out during the 2016 campaign, during which the inept candidacy of @HillaryClinton succumbed to the neo-fascıst movement and @mtaibbi's best friend @realDonaldTrump, was this act of petty corporate theft.

archive.is/Sk7zB

(1/x)
Trump, or rather his tax-shelter @TrumpFoundation (every rich #entrepreneur-criminal has a "foundation" of some sort, useful both for tax purposes and as a place to furnish sinecure jobs to cousins and loyal toadies and so on), was accused of fiddling money from a charity.

(2/x)
@realDonaldTrump's @GOP defenders (*not* including @mtaibbi, whose fandom for Trump and the GOP was predictably late in developing) tried to pretend that Trump or his people couldn't have possibly done such a thing: after all, Trump's already rich! on paper, anyway.

(3/x)
Read 24 tweets
Jan 10
none of us in the Pnictogen Wing is an expert in semiotics—that's the academic discipline pertaining to the study and meaning of *symbolism*. but we feel that we've been forced to take an amateur interest in the field mostly because *symbols* are much abused and exploited.

(1/x)
right-wing frauds like @jordanbpeterson and @ConceptualJames have done a land-office business in pretending to be experts in symbolism.

political ideologues, particularly reactionary #conservative ideologues, know that symbols are powerful, and wish to seize that power.

(2/x)
consider that diagram of Peterson's, the one I cited earlier—the concentric circles on a grey field labelled "The Dragon of Chaos". I'll copy it here for convenience.

I perceive that Peterson is consciously imitating the style of a *scientific* or technical diagram.

(3/x) Image
Read 13 tweets
Jan 10
at some point in the devolution and degradation of the American #conservative movement, the right-wing commentariat all decided that feelings were bad. human emotions weren't *real*. emotions were for the weak-willed, the liberal bleeding hearts, the women, and so forth.

(1/x)
the accession of @RonaldReagan, the @GOP's wizened cigar-store cowboy President, must surely have accelerated this process. the whole basis of the Reaganite cult movement was *sentimental*: he was pointing the United States *backwards*, to nostalgia about Second World War.

(2/x)
Reagan himself had almost nothing to do with World War II; he made movies during the war years, while other actors fought. like a lot of draft-dodging #conservatives, Reagan compensated for his cowardice with jingo patriotism—eight years of nauseating, cloying lip-service.

(3/x)
Read 9 tweets

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