Big questions, stretching the imagination and no answers

[D_W]

Perhaps the most interesting thing for all of us as woodworkers is one way or another, we are massively interested in iron.

Without mature stars or star events, we'd probably never have it. That is, for anyone not into stars (I'm not that educated on them, either), star is the last fuel byproduct that no longer reacts. It's the last stop before a star either ceases to operate, or when enough of it is in a star and there's not enough fusion going, the star can collapse on its iron core and the sudden increase in compression causes it to go boom.

Or some such thing like that. Sort of the opposite of stars that release bursts of energy greater than their gravity can hold in without collapsing.

 

[D_W]

If there is intelligent life out there, it will make sure it hides from us. We would plunder its resources, try to kill it, or attempt to use it as an ally to dominate other people on this planet.

Wait til they travel here and labour tells them they owe more than half of their time and stuff to other people. They won't stick around long.

 

[Essex Barn Workshop]

Something I ponder on and find interesting is that should we ever make contact, we will of course not share a common language. Other life forms might communicate in colour or heat etc, not sound. The only way we could begin to communicate is through maths.
Showing our basic base 10 counting system, then indicating through diagrams that we know what Pi is so that they can begin to understand out numbering system, and us theirs, would be the only logical starting point.

 

[Jacob]

Something I ponder on and find interesting is that should we ever make contact, we will of course not share a common language. Other life forms might communicate in colour or heat etc, not sound. The only way we could begin to communicate is through maths.
Showing our basic base 10 counting system, then indicating through diagrams that we know what Pi is so that they can begin to understand out numbering system, and us theirs, would be the only logical starting point.

Dunno, as a communication starting point I doubt that'd work with any strange life forms found on our own planet, let alone extra terrestrials.
Let's face it it wouldn't work with a very large percentage of our own species! They wouldn't know what you were talking about, or waving a diagram about in this case.
A simpler and more productive process would be to hand them a pencil and form with "Tick box if you can read this" on it.

 

[RobinBHM]

Something I ponder on and find interesting is that should we ever make contact, we will of course not share a common language

Every good British person knows that everybody elsewhere understand English, foreign languages are unnecessary.

If they don't understand, just talk more slowly and louder.
If that doesn't work, try a foreign accent

 

[Jacob]

Every good British person knows that everybody elsewhere understand English, foreign languages are unnecessary.

If they don't understand, just talk more slowly and louder.
If that doesn't work, try a foreign accent

German accent could do it; "Ve haf vays off makink you talk" etc

 

[Droogs]

@RobinBHM don't forget about adding an "O" to the last word of the sentence to guarantee their understanding

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Watching another sci-fi movie the other night - aliens invading earth - scientists wanting to communicate, miilitary wanting to defend by launching an attack.

All very predictable, but it got me thinking about how utterly stupid humanity really is.

Aliens from another galaxy have developed to the point they can travel many light years to earth, hover indefinitely above the surface without apparently consuming power, wreak terrible havoc if they want, etc.

And we humans believe we can out think them (the scientists) or out nuke them (the military).

FWIW the successor to the wheel will either be:

• organic - eg: cars could have legs (electrically operated pistons??) not wheels to cope with all surfaces, or
• some form of magnetic technology - where different components repel or attract to create motion (maglev??)

Homo sapiens managed to evolve without wheels which were first used about 6000 years ago. Before then all was organic!

 

[Essex Barn Workshop]

I bought and read a book by Carl Sagan called Cosmos, on recommendation from a former rocket scientist who is now a pure mathematician in the city! She was a customer in a previous job.
Fascinating stuff, worth the read.
Loads of them on ebay for under £8 delivered.
Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Hardback | eBay

 

[Sachakins]

You have to have something in order to make something.
You have a tree, you can make furniture.
Ýou have precious metals you can make jewellery
You have uranium you can make a bomb

They all follow the fundamental law of physics,
matter/energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only change from/to something else.

So let's take the big bang view of creation, there was nothing then bang there is everything.
So the first event never adhered to the fundamental law of physics.

Does that not indicate a massive flaw in the premise of human physics.

So maybe, we are constraining our view of whats possible by working within the scientific formulation of ideas.

 

[Stan]

The term "big bang" was created by astronomer Fred Hoyle to mock the theory it names.

I ask myself "what has all this got to do with the price of bread?"

 

[Droogs]

I bought and read a book by Carl Sagan called Cosmos, on recommendation from a former rocket scientist who is now a pure mathematician in the city! She was a customer in a previous job.
Fascinating stuff, worth the read.
Loads of them on ebay for under £8 delivered.
Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Hardback | eBay

read the book, watched the TV series, bought and listened to the album and watched the remake with the degrassi tyson fella not a patch on the original in terms of presentation and feeling but lots of updated info. Sagan a god among minnows, truly one of the best human beings who ever walked the earth

 

[Spectric]

That is Newtons first law, the conservation of energy but dare say one day it will be challenged.

So let's take the big bang view of creation, there was nothing then bang there is everything.
So the first event never adhered to the fundamental law of physics.

But define what was created, our galaxy, Earth or the universe. If there truly was nothing, complete and absolute nothing then there would be nothing to go bang, nothing to make it go bang or anyone to start the big bang. So does this mean time never started, it must always have existed because the universe has always existed but then where did it start, maybe it never started because it was always there. If time has always existed along with the universe then there is no reason for us to run out of energy because it will always have been there and as it cannot be destroyed, therefore always existing and can only changing form so we just need to find ways of using it in all forms.

 

[Sachakins]

That is Newtons first law, the conservation of energy but dare say one day it will be challenged.



But define what was created, our galaxy, Earth or the universe. If there truly was nothing, complete and absolute nothing then there would be nothing to go bang, nothing to make it go bang or anyone to start the big bang. So does this mean time never started, it must always have existed because the universe has always existed but then where did it start, maybe it never started because it was always there. If time has always existed along with the universe then there is no reason for us to run out of energy because it will always have been there and as it cannot be destroyed, therefore always existing and can only changing form so we just need to find ways of using it in all forms.

Regarding Newtonian physics, and Einsteins theories and quantum physics, there is a minority but growing band of scientists that are of the mind that these laws and theorems may only hold true for our galaxy,.
The problem I see with your energy analogy is that, given the that energy can be neither be created nor destroyed, this excludes the rest of the phrase of the theorem, which includes it can only have its state changed. That change of state may be to a form we as humans can not utilise. I liken it to photosynthesis in plants, if we could derive our bodily energy the same way, we would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, I think the nearest we have to it is photovoltaic energy, but we then turn this into electrical energy, which we use and then lose to another state, some being heat but where and what are the other states it changes to.?

Time? Is that not just a human invented measurement construct.

If you discount it, because it is an invention, then actual we are moving through space, it is because we visualise this movement as linear, we therfore assume there is something in front of us, hence everything we have done must be in the past. To conceptualise this into a structured format, mankind invented this into an artificial abstraction of a physical measurement and labelled it Time. Therefore time is not physical, like say gravity, its an imposed boundary, and as such mankind is stuck with the constrained view of past, present and future, which I see as analogous to needing a beginning a middle and an end. So the existence of everything, given by the trite but possibly accurate phrase of, it was, it is and always will be, this requires no beginning no middle no end, so just a simple answer could be "EXISTS" We label stuff like this as infinity, which is a construct we can not envisage, and a mathematical nightmare, destroying all possible results.

OK, off for some paracetamol for my headache ....

 

[Echo-Star]

It's all theory, nothing concrete. Until such things are proven as fact, then the giant teapot in the sky is as good as any theory.

unacknowledged documentary

 

[Bodone]

Giant turtle and elephants time.

progress should be measured based on us acknowledging the more we find out the more know we don’t know.

 

[Crazy Dave]

What an interesting subject.
Hi all I'm Dave and this is my first post here.

My thoughts are that the big bang wasn't so much of a bang but a tear a rip in space and time possibly caused by a giant black hole in another universe reaching critical mass and unable to contain all that it had consumed, bursting it's contents into a void which we call "the universe". From this point on everything came into existence and the rest is history.

Regarding aliens, they did travel long distances but now they're already here and evidence shows they were here when the pyramids were being built and helped the Mayans amongst other things too, evidence is being found all over the our planet. So where are they then I hear you ask, well they're living in places where we don't, like under the oceans in Antarctica and yes they have been seen traveling at rapid speeds through the water.

Sorry if I crashed the party but I couldn't contain myself.
On a positive note, it makes you realise how absolutely remarkable this planet of ours is so shouldn't we be taking better care of it.

 

[Droogs]

Ah but uncles Albert and Nathan fell into the trap that we all do in that they see time as a linearly observed thing rather than as what it really is - merely a method of observation. And given that the infinity in any calculation is in fact never equal to the infinity in any other then it is possible to both exist and not exist at any given point or points in the observable universe and at any (for want of a better expression) time/moment, all of which could be in the past present or future as we measure it. We just have to do the easy bit and figure out how to resonate at the appropriate frequency to do so. Just remember folks it is all about frequencies

 

[Limey Lurker]

The term "big bang" was created by astronomer Fred Hoyle to mock the theory it names.

I ask myself "what has all this got to do with the price of bread?"

I ask myself, "OK; but WHERE was it?".

 

[Droogs]

I ask myself, "OK; but WHERE was it?".

Greenwich, obviously, where time where the Navy invented time