Big questions, stretching the imagination and no answers

[Spectric]

How many think about a topic that can really exercise the brain and imagination but there are no answers or is it something that is dismissed because there are no answers?

We are on a little planet in a solar system in a universe that we know nothing about apart from everything we have so far looked at cannot support life as we know it, is that not a strange situation that this planet supports life and there is nothing else we could live on for many light years and yet we are hell bent on destroying it.

In reality we are so small the entire human race could live on a Knats arse in comparison to whats out there and for all we know there could be funny little green men working in sheds with wood that we have never heard of and they could be contemplating just the same as us. Does this show that there does not have to be a reason or an objective for something to happen or be done?

Another stretcher, all the films depicting time travel, in my opinion much easier to dismiss but it does really fascinate so many people. Thinking logically for time travel to be realistic would suggest time itself is already there so everything you have done will be happening forever and everything you will do has already happened so you can dismiss it, just cannot happen but a lot of people do think the opposite but something else that makes the old imagination work. Where would all the fuel come from to keep things running forever at every point in time?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Makes you think, doesn't it...



I often think about gravity polarisation which is a plot device of Larry Niven books (the Kzinti made use of it as a method of powering spaceships). There's no point to it, but at 4 am when I need distracting from all the things I didn't manage to get done in the day it keeps my mind busy - my version of counting sheep. If anyone has any good plans I'd love to hear them.

 

[artie]

If you could let us know what you've been smoking this morning,

Here's one for you.

What do you know.

Not very much I wager.

We have been told lots of things and we believe lots of things, But what do we KNOW?

 

[user 26575]

[youtube]OKnpPCQyUec[/youtube]
I can never get these things to work.

 

[D_W]

I think we have trouble figuring what else is out there "now" because now is light years away, and in some cases, millions or billions.

The idea that there isn't life as we know it on other planets somewhere seems unlikely when we're still exploring things that exist in our own solar system, and just at the outset.

There are a few good planetary documentaries about various moons, etc, that may be loaded with water or have life existing below the surface (though not of the human kind).

estimates of galaxy count are about 100 billion. Average stars in each galaxy, about 100 billion.

A more interesting question is how many stars had planets with life on them and destroyed by supernovae, expansion or by burning out and collapsing.

What's also interesting about all of this stuff is that there are people who are militant that they have the exact right answer now and everyone else is an idiot. These people should have been politicians.

 

[Jacob]

The answer is 42

 

[user 35906]

If you could let us know what you've been smoking this morning,

Here's one for you.

What do you know.

Not very much I wager.

We have been told lots of things and we believe lots of things, But what do we KNOW?

I know for sure that if I put something down in my workshop / garage and turn around it will take me 10 minutes to find it again

 

[francovendee]

I remember Brian Cox exploring in depth what was needed to come together to sustain some form of life and how amazing that it did on earth.
When answering the question 'Did he think that life existed other than on earth?' he said he doubted it.

 

[Spectric]

We have been told lots of things and we believe lots of things, But what do we KNOW?

Yes we think of ourselves as the most inteligent beings as we are at the top of the food chain but we continually strive to disprove this, why?

Would an inteligent person keep drilling holes in the only boat that is floating and maintain conflict with others rather than just solve the issues.

Physics is a good example where they produce theories to things they cannot understand and people will believe until someone elses theory overides it, yes we really know very little apart from what is continously rejugated and or passed around through generations.

 

[Fitzroy]

Think about them all the time, as have many more capable minds than mine!

Fermi paradox
Pale blue dot
optimistic nihilism
Many worlds / multiverse Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Fitz.

 

[Spectric]

When answering the question 'Did he think that life existed other than on earth?' he said he doubted it.

There you go, an odd answer from someone who is a highly regarded Physicist , although nowhere near the level of Einstein. A good scientist should have an open mind until such time evidence comes to light to support or dismiss an argument.

A good quote is:

As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.

 

[Fitzroy]

Physics is a good example where they produce theories to things they cannot understand and people will believe until someone elses theory overides it, yes we really know very little apart from what is continously rejugated and or passed around through generations.

There are no proofs in science, only maths.

"They produce theories to things they cannot understand and people will believe until someone else's theory overrides it" - you've basically reworded the scientific method. Either you accept what you don't understand and stand still, or you develop a hypothesis about a situation, and test your hypothesis against evidence. If the evidence is supportive you work with your hypothesis, but continue to test as new evidence become available and update/abandon as required.

Fitz.

 

[Ozi]

There you go, an odd answer from someone who is a highly regarded Physicist , although nowhere near the level of Einstein. A good scientist should have an open mind until such time evidence comes to light to support or dismiss an argument.

A good quote is:

As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.

If I may quote ACC "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

 

[D_W]

There are no proofs in science, only maths.

"They produce theories to things they cannot understand and people will believe until someone else's theory overrides it" - you've basically reworded the scientific method. Either you accept what you don't understand and stand still, or you develop a hypothesis about a situation, and test your hypothesis against evidence. If the evidence is supportive you work with your hypothesis, but continue to test as new evidence become available and update/abandon as required.

Fitz.

But there are proofs in math!! working through them let me know that I would stop my math degree after bachelor of science and leave the proofs to the people who could do them 4 times as fast as I could.

 

[Fitzroy]

I remember Brian Cox exploring in depth what was needed to come together to sustain some form of life and how amazing that it did on earth.
When answering the question 'Did he think that life existed other than on earth?' he said he doubted it.

Seemed unlikely that this would be Brian Cox's view so I had to go and research. As far as I can see this is the basis for this missunderstanding, from a BBC programme.

"There is only one advanced technological civilization in this galaxy and there has only ever been one -- and that's us," Professor Cox,

He does not discount life elsewhere, and thinks it likely that we would find simple life elsewhere in the solar system.

Regards

Fitz.

 

[selectortone]

Voyager 1, launched in 1977 to study the outer planets is travelling at 35,000mph and it took 40 years to reach the edge of the solar system. At its current speed, it will have to travel for something like forty thousand years to reach the nearest star in our Milky Way galaxy. It would take approximately 1,756,500,000 years to cross our Milky Way from one end to the other.

And after that, the nearest galaxy to The Milky Way is the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away. 2.5 million years for a radio signal to reach Earth. And that's the nearest galaxy - observations from the Hubble telescope suggest that there are hundreds of thousands of galaxies in our universe. And is there more than one universe?

And from macro to micro: I live near the beach. On walks down there I could ponder this - one of the single grains of sand I'm walking on contains more atoms (roughly 2x10 to the 19th) than there are stars in the universe (very approx 10 to the 12th according to the ESA).

.

 

[francovendee]

Seemed unlikely that this would be Brian Cox's view so I had to go and research. As far as I can see this is the basis for this missunderstanding, from a BBC programme.

"There is only one advanced technological civilization in this galaxy and there has only ever been one -- and that's us," Professor Cox,

He does not discount life elsewhere, and thinks it likely that we would find simple life elsewhere in the solar system.

Regards

Fitz.

I think you're correct My error.
I used google to check my facts and soon found that he wasn't referring any form of life being a likely.
Maybe the Martians will be coming.

 

[Tris]

It may have been and gone many times across the galaxy before life here started, and it may exist in a form we would struggle to recognise.

 

[Spectric]

That is something else that is amazing, the fact you could be just looking at the light from a star that no longer exist, that really helps put distance into perspective but does not answer why this little planet in a far corner of the universe has life on it. Perhaps the creator used earth as a prototype and soon understood the errors so now each race is on it's own planet so far from the next nearest they do not know each other exist and no conflicts or wars.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

On the subject of aliens, Iain M Banks suggested that to spot an alien, the best place to be is on Earth, during an eclipse. The fact that the sun and moon are virtually the same size as viewed from earth is incredibly unusual cosmologically, so there should be lots of exotourists coming to gawp at the rare sight. Next time you are watching a total eclipse, look at the people next to you rather than at the sky.