i think there's a documentary about all this, The Matrix i believe its called. i think the whole dark matter thing of most of the mass of everything isnt there (im paraphrasing) also leads itself to being in some kind of simulation.
If you know about the History of Quantum Mechanics then you'd know we've already been here before: The Luminiferous Aether.
At the time, it was the best way we had to explain the wave properties of Light. Even when it failed every test we had, it was clung on to for dear life.
It took a genius like Einstein to come up with a new paradigm, a new way of looking at things.
That's really where we are now, Dark Matter and Dark Energy are just the plasters holding the old paradigm together.
We have some bright minds about, but no-one has come up with a completely new paradigm since Einstein (except perhaps String/M Theory). We are overdue. Then in another hundred years that will look out of date and false, and on it will continue.
Of cause, but no one will think them stupid, they will see them as laying the foundations of the path that leads to the truth.
'It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer' - Albert Einstein
Einstein is an absolute GOLD MINE of awesome quotes if nothing else.
I dunno, I'm a fan of Korzybski, I have no problem with the map not being the territory. And even though he wrote Science and Sanity a long time ago now, its still taking time to establish semantics properly into science. Occams Razor clearly tells us the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Which sounds more plausible to you? Our theory of gravity needs updating to make it work on the galactic and quantum scales. or The Universe is filled with magical pixie matter and energy that we can't see or measure that does magical things.
Einstein kind of postulated the idea of dark energy though, with his concept of the cosmological constant. He described that as the biggest blunder of his life, but it may well turn out to be yet another thing he smashed it on.
But that was based on a static universe versus gravity. We don't know what he'd have made of an expanding universe that seems to be accelerating its expansion.
I have suspicions that something is wrong with the data. Maybe redshift behaves differently at great distances? Dunno.
Seems odd though that we have all galaxies accelerating away from us and Andromeda smashing into us because of gravity at the same time....
You could say I believe we are at a period of low genius density.
We have no evidence of that. Just because there are no big brains in the media spotlight we can't assume they're not out there. Most likely the best brains the world has ever known are currently holed up in remote think tanks around the world trying to sort it all out on the low.
Call me crazy but i think we are in a time when they have pulled back on releasing ground breaking new finds for fear of short circuiting the general public's collective top box. Such is the magnitude of the finds i believe may have been uncovered behind closed doors over the last 20 years.
None of this "proves" the existence of other life elsewhere in the Universe.
The Drake equation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation) does indeed throw out stupendously large numbers which make it seem impossible that we are alone, however given all available data, the probability that we ARE alone can still also be 1.
What's driving me nuts at the moment is the Planck Length. A tiny tiny tiny distance, which according to many of the latest theories is the smallest distance anything can move. Everything moves in "quantised" steps of that length in most of these theories.
Like a digitised waveform, that instead of having smooth curves, jumps from one sample point to the next with no in-between.
If true, it means the Universe isn't analogue, but digital.
Is it all just a computer simulation?
I always thought the universe might be some kind of binary system. Oppositely charged mattter/energy from the microcosm Upto the macrocosm. Like with quantum entanglement, you can have 2 quantum entangled particles on either side of the universe that effect each other instantly and oppositely, hence the talk of quantum computers etc etc. Fascinating stuff
You could say I believe we are at a period of low genius density.
We have no evidence of that. Just because there are no big brains in the media spotlight we can't assume they're not out there. Most likely the best brains the world has ever known are currently holed up in remote think tanks around the world trying to sort it all out on the low.
Call me crazy but i think we are in a time when they have pulled back on releasing ground breaking new finds for fear of short circuiting the general public's collective top box. Such is the magnitude of the finds i believe may have been uncovered behind closed doors over the last 20 years.
*Takes tinfoil hat off and goes to the gym.
I dunno, I think generally the population has been dumbed down and their brains polluted both chemically and with false/interfering knowledge that doesn't encourage free thinking. It would make sense there is a period of low genius density.
< Message edited by STIMPY -- 7/6/2012 5:46:18 PM >
Figuring out what gravity is and how to manipulate it will be a big one. I wouldn't say there's a lack of geniuses its just th at the next step is a ducking big one.
People come up with theories(best guesses) and try to find evidence to support them. We are in the realms of theoretical science where actual experimentation on these theories is very hard to perform.
That's why the LHC was built..
They're looking for the higgs boson but noboddy knows if it actually exists, its a theory/best guess/extrapolation based on earlier findings, they may find something completly different and adjust the theories to match.
Although I will admit that it sometimes takes a spark of genius from one individual to knit theories together I'd say that pooled scientific findings and resources is the way of the future.
But instead of admitting Einstein only got it partly right, they invent magical fairy matter that has no effect on light and that we can't measure in any way. Scientists can be very stupid at times imo.
I don't think this has ever been the case, unless you ARE an incredibly daft scientist. People accept and use Einsteins theories, but to claim they aren't "admitting he only got it partly right" is false. Any scientist worth their weight in salt knows none of it is finite, and that one day it'll all be rewritten again, and again, like you said.
edit: inafter all this has already been said, fml
< Message edited by alexmac -- 7/6/2012 7:19:14 PM >
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