Science General Discussion

Started by Legend, Sep 02, 2014, 07:17 PM

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the-pi-guy

I should really click this thread more! As a physics student I cried a little reading this. "smallest unit" really doesn't make any sense. You can always go smaller if you had a way to measure that small.
Yeah, but to be fair a lot of small stuff doesn't make any sense. 

Like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. 

Legend

I should really click this thread more! As a physics student I cried a little reading this. "smallest unit" really doesn't make any sense. You can always go smaller if you had a way to measure that small.
Well it depends on how the universe works. String theory is all about having a fundamental element with nothing smaller than it.

Xevross

Yeah, but to be fair a lot of small stuff doesn't make any sense.  

Like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.  
Well it kinda makes sense, in that you can understand the explanation of it... but thinking about the universe actually acting that was is super weird. Small stuff is super odd to be sure.

Well it depends on how the universe works. String theory is all about having a fundamental element with nothing smaller than it.
I really don't know much about string theory. There's a lot of odd theories out there.

the-pi-guy

Well it depends on how the universe works. String theory is all about having a fundamental element with nothing smaller than it.
*Finds out this is also a common misconception*

Legend

Well it kinda makes sense, in that you can understand the explanation of it... but thinking about the universe actually acting that was is super weird. Small stuff is super odd to be sure.
I really don't know much about string theory. There's a lot of odd theories out there.
String theory is in a weird spot. Mathematically it's an awesome theory but so far it hasn't made any predictions that we could test. If it was really how the universe worked, you'd think after all this time it'd at least have some supporting evidence.

Legend


Legend



I love videos like this.

This is from the surface of a comet.

the-pi-guy



I love videos like this.

This is from the surface of a comet.
Surface of a government conspiracy more like.  

the-pi-guy

Quote
It seems more likely to me that the issue is simply that society building organisms are rare, perhaps extremely. We see this on our planet, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of species, trillions of organisms, that we share this planet with and none, but us, carry a lasting multi-generational record of knowledge of any obvious consequence. Human beings have gone beyond being biological organisms and become the cells of an informational organism. A human being left in the woods from birth to death, kept separate and alive would be nothing more than an ape, but when that same animal meets the memetic, infectious organism that is language... that is history, that is society, that's when a human being is born. We envision hive minds in our science fiction as something very alien to us, but isn't it that very nature that makes us alien to other living things? This whole interaction, this very thing you're experiencing right now where a completely seperate member of your species who you have no physical contact with and no knowledge of is creating abstract ideas in your own mind through the clicking of fingers to make symbols, phonemes and words, is immensely weird on the scale of a context that doesn't simply declare anything human normal by default. We can do this because we are connected, not by blood or skin, but by the shared infection of a common language, the grand web of information that is the most immortal part of each of us.

That's not something that has to happen to life, that's not somehow the endpoint of evolution in any meaningful way, and humanity was nearly wiped off the face of the earth several times over before we got to that point. I wouldn't be surprised if billions of planets have developed life that is exactly like the life on earth, sans humanity, creatures that live and die without language and leave no records, no benefit of experience, no trace.

What if advanced aliens haven’t contacted us because we’re one of the last primitive planets in the universe and they’re preserving us like we do the indigenous people? : space

Legend

I don't think that's right. Civilizations might be incredibly rare but it's wrong to act like evolution doesn't converge in this direction. Almost every animal on Earth has complicated social interactions with others of the same species. From that point you just need enough intelligence for oral history to occur. It seems like humans are the first to reach this point, but that others have the capacity to reach it too with enough time.


Also if it is right, it's just a long and poetic way to say that society is a great filter.



The fermi paradox is really interesting to me because it just doesn't seem to have a solution given our current understanding of the world.

Dr. Pezus

I don't think that's right. Civilizations might be incredibly rare but it's wrong to act like evolution doesn't converge in this direction. Almost every animal on Earth has complicated social interactions with others of the same species. From that point you just need enough intelligence for oral history to occur. It seems like humans are the first to reach this point, but that others have the capacity to reach it too with enough time.


Also if it is right, it's just a long and poetic way to say that society is a great filter.



The fermi paradox is really interesting to me because it just doesn't seem to have a solution given our current understanding of the world.
I've got a present for you from your friend SWORDF1SH:

This is the year,
This is the year,
This is the year,
This is the year you will release a game in Europe for the first time.

Legend

I've got a present for you from your friend SWORDF1SH:

This is the year,
This is the year,
This is the year,
This is the year you will release a game in Europe for the first time.
Well I sure hope so.

Xevross

I don't think that's right. Civilizations might be incredibly rare but it's wrong to act like evolution doesn't converge in this direction. Almost every animal on Earth has complicated social interactions with others of the same species. From that point you just need enough intelligence for oral history to occur. It seems like humans are the first to reach this point, but that others have the capacity to reach it too with enough time.


Also if it is right, it's just a long and poetic way to say that society is a great filter.



The fermi paradox is really interesting to me because it just doesn't seem to have a solution given our current understanding of the world.
Finding some fairly intelligent alien life is the one thing I really want to happen in my lifetime. Its gonna be so awesome.

the-pi-guy

I don't think that's right. Civilizations might be incredibly rare but it's wrong to act like evolution doesn't converge in this direction. Almost every animal on Earth has complicated social interactions with others of the same species. From that point you just need enough intelligence for oral history to occur. It seems like humans are the first to reach this point, but that others have the capacity to reach it too with enough time.


Also if it is right, it's just a long and poetic way to say that society is a great filter.



The fermi paradox is really interesting to me because it just doesn't seem to have a solution given our current understanding of the world.
Right.  That's my issue with it.  

We have already had several humanoid species (Neanderthal and some a bit less related).  If the right conditions came along I don't see why we couldn't have had a few at the same time.  

Besides, doesn't really make sense to try applying Earth to the Universe when so far it seems to be a rare exception.  

Legend


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