Origins
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Have been contemplating starting a thread pondering "Life, the Universe and Everything" for a while now. Just haven't got around to trying to put some words together around it all.
The idea grew out of a book I read a few months ago called "Unsolved Mysteries of Science" http://www.booktopia.com.au/unsolved-mysteries-of-science-john-malone/prod9780471384410.html?source=pla&gclid=CjwKEAiA4dPCBRCM4dqhlv2R1R8SJABom9pHTb7aprXYTKhpUTaekoguZb-wHzefzhm5Dcpb7ahcxhoCl2Pw_wcB
which was a study of a whole heap of stuff that we don't really know the answers to.Stuff like:
- why the big bang isn't how the universe started
- quantum physics doesn't explain it either
- what the fuck is gravity anyway?
- how we can only exist in 10 or 21 dimensions because string theory and an infinite number of universes
- what is stuff actually made of (i.e., sub sub sub atomic particles)
- dark matter
And other such stuff that really fucks with your mind
And some less interesting stuff like how birds navigate, where humans originated and how we learn language.
Admittedly the book was 15 years old and I expect "we" know more now than back then (what with CERN and Higg's boson and stuff) only 15 years ago.
At the risk of incurring the wrath or scorn of the religiously anti religious on here it got me thinking about "Why?". Where did it all come from? And pondering the nature of exactly what "god" is. I mean could "god" be defined by the laws of the Universe (or Multiverse or Cosmos) or could "God" BE the laws of the Universe?
Interestingly I've picked up a book with a foreword by Stephen Hawking (called 'The Origin of (almost) Everything'* who echoes a similar thought about "god" (note the lower case g).
- written by some bloke called Gavin Lawton, published by New Scientist. Published 2016 so expecting that a few ideas are updated.
I haven't fully expressed or explored my point in the above, and I really don't know if I have one other than some Rumsfeld-esque ramblings about known unknowns et al. I was intending put pen to paper, well keyboard to ether, over the Christmas break to further explore the issues.
But what prompted me to bring this up now - before i compose a longer even more incoherent waffle - is a related bit of news where Frank appears to have said basically "Believe the science":
Which is huge admission from the head (Western) God Botherer (but makes perfect sense and in my limited knowledge and humble opinion isn't necessarily at complete odds with the Christian creation myth ... likely to cause a few ructions in the more devout areas of Drumpf-central though).
It also sparked me to post this.
In a nut shell I suppose I remain in awe of the shit we just don't know.
Interested in thoughts if any.
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FYI The contents of yhe first book I mentioned are:
How Did the Universe Begin?
How Did Life on Earth Get Started?
What Causes Mass Extinctions?
What Is the Inside of the Earth Like?
What Causes Ice Ages?
Were Dinosaurs Warm-blooded?
Is There a Missing Link?
What Caused the "Big Bang" in Human Culture?
How Do We Learn Language?
Are Dolphins As Smart As We Are?
How Do Birds Migrate?
What Is Red?
How Did Mayan Astronomers Know So Much?
What Is Gravity?
What Is Light?
Why Is There So Much Quantum Frustration?
What Are Black Holes Really Like?
How Old Is the Universe?
Are There Multiple Universes?
How Many Dimensions Are There?
How Will the Universe End?
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These questions have always spun me out.
If the universe had a beginning, what was there before?
If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding in to?
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Who built the simulation? And where did their universe come from?
And can they please stop watching me masturbate in the toilet?
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@mariner4life said in Origins:
These questions have always spun me out.
If the universe had a beginning, what was there before?
If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding in to?
Yeah. Define "nothing".
If there was "nothing" before there was not even time.
And in our concept of "nothing" we probably think of vast swathes of space - a void - but even that is a something ...
And the extension is if "in the beginning" there was nothing then "everything" added together adds up to, well, nothing ...
Eeek ...
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@mariner4life be better if you shut the door once in a while, no body wants to watch that shit...ratings drop to an all time low when you forget the door!
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@mariner4life said in Origins:
Who built the simulation? And where did their universe come from?
And can they please stop watching me masturbate in the toilet?
I'm no longer welcome in the bathroom section of Bunnings either...
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Yeah. Define "nothing".
If there was "nothing" before there was not even time.
Thats the bit I always struggle with, the whole idea that to us there is no "before" because time as we understand it is just another thing created by the big bang itself.
So there is no "before" as there was no such thing as time. Einstein got it & rolled it into relativity, personally I just accept its something I'll never really get my head round. I think they are saying there was something before the BB, but as it was impossible to measure in anyway its irrelevant. IE pre BB mass was infinate & time didn't exist. Much smarter people who have devoted their life to physics get it & thats good enough for me.
Yet I'm more than happy to buy that any super massive thing can distort time (eg black hole) which is in the same ball park. Once you buy that you are buying the idea that time is no different to any other dimension we can measure.
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@mariner4life said in Origins:
Who built the simulation? And where did their universe come from?
Future us.
This cartoon explains why Elon Musk thinks we’re characters in a computer simulation. He might be right.
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