Wonders of the Universe

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by KeithT

Our universe is such an amazing place isn't it. I liken it to the movement of a fine Swiss watch, but several trillion times more complex.

It might not be as complex as it seems, it just appears so.

Originally Posted by KeithT

It is such a shame that man is hell bent on destruction by sending debris into space and raping planet earth of all its true benefits out of greed.

I'm not sure I agree with this statement, as the drive that makes us try to understand the universe and the way it was created, is the same drive that produces greed.

[KeithT]

It's all smoke and mirrors, OldBoy. Your point of view is valid though, and I dare say some have benefitted from global greed; though not everyone has benefitted globally from greed. I think destruction is in the nature of man. Sometimes it is for altruistic reasons (progress) and other times it is for personal power. I guess that's where the war is really taking place. I say enjoy the universe while we still have it.

[pburness]

Originally Posted by KeithT

It's all smoke and mirrors, OldBoy. Your point of view is valid though, and I dare say some have benefitted from global greed; though not everyone has benefitted globally from greed. I think destruction is in the nature of man. Sometimes it is for altruistic reasons (progress) and other times it is for personal power. I guess that's where the war is really taking place. I say enjoy the universe while we still have it.

Well, I guess if popular theory is to be accepted the Universe will be around a lot longer than our little world or the garbage we dump in it...

With that in mind it might be best to concentrate on something we may be able to control:
Global Warming
Famine
Poverty
Health
Freedom
Human Rights
etc....

BTW KeithT - if you like Mike Oldields - the songs of distant earth, have you listened to Enigma's - Cross of Change? A similar style of music, Enigma probably has more vocal inputs though.

Phil

[pburness]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

Watched it all. Didn't agree with all he said but still found it very good to watch.

If you go onto the Hubble site there are loads of cracking photos of galaxies, stars and planets, some of which have had false colours applied to bring out the beauty of the universe.

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

While the photo's of planets etc. are great, it's the scenic shots that got me - lighting, location, composition etc. While this was filmed, I'd of loved to have been there with my still camera.

Phil

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by KeithT

It's all smoke and mirrors, OldBoy. Your point of view is valid though, and I dare say some have benefitted from global greed; though not everyone has benefitted globally from greed. I think destruction is in the nature of man. Sometimes it is for altruistic reasons (progress) and other times it is for personal power. I guess that's where the war is really taking place. I say enjoy the universe while we still have it.

We will always have the universe. Some theorist belive that the universe is they way it is because man is here. Without us the universe wouldn't exist. The Physics is so fine tuned, that a very small change in any one of a number of different parameters, would mean that the universe couldn't exist at all.

Think of all the gadgets you have in your home/life, the way life for most people is better now than it has ever been in the history of the world. Without the push to make more money where would we be now? Greed is required for man to progress into the future. If greed was removed from our DNA then, progess would stop and the human race would die out.

[KeithT]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

We will always have the universe. Some theorist belive that the universe is they way it is because man is here. Without us the universe wouldn't exist. The Physics is so fine tuned, that a very small change in any one of a number of different parameters, would mean that the universe couldn't exist at all.

I think the theorists have got that **** about face, OldBoy. Surely we are here because the Universe first came into being?

We may well always have the universe, but that doesn't stop it from evolving and changing. Stars come and go as supernova burns them out. If our sun burns out, and it will do at some point in time (hopefully not ours) then we can kiss the world goodbye as we know it (or knew it). To coin a cliche of my wise old grandmother ... 'nothing lasts for ever'.

[DavidVenables]

AAH! Memory Lane. Did you ever see the film 'The Final Program' though Oldboy, 'The Condition Of Muzak' and the 'Dancers at the End Of Time' trilogy were great.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by KeithT

I think the theorists have got that **** about face, OldBoy. Surely we are here because the Universe first came into being?

According to the strong anthropic principle, we see the universe the way it is because we exist. The universe came into being with all the parameters set so that we could exist. If the size of the electric charge of the electron was different or, the ratio of the masses of the proton to the electron was changed slightly then, we would not exist to ask the question. If gravity was slightly stronger then the universe would have collapsed before it expanded. On the other hand, if gravity was slightly weaker then the stars, planets and galaxies couldn't have formed, and we wouldn't be here to ask the question.
No theory can predict these values, we can only get them by measurement, but this is regarded as adhoc so theorists believe, the values must have been set by us being here. Not all theorists accept this theory and have put forward different versions, to try to account for these parameters been set the way we see them. Some even suggest that at the time of the big bang, billions and billions of universes were created but only one had the right parameters for us to exist.

Originally Posted by KeithT

We may well always have the universe, but that doesn't stop it from evolving and changing. Stars come and go as supernova burns them out. If our sun burns out, and it will do at some point in time (hopefully not ours) then we can kiss the world goodbye as we know it (or knew it). To coin a cliche of my wise old grandmother ... 'nothing lasts for ever'.

The universe would last for ever if it is flat or slightly curved on the plus side. If it is slightly curved on the negative side then, it will collapsed into a big crunch. Some even think our universe could be cyclical, that at some point in the collapse it will reach a critical mass and rebound thereby, creating our universe again and so on for ever. Our sun will destroy the earth in about six billion years time thus, giving us plenty of time to find other earths to live on.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by DavidVenables

AAH! Memory Lane. Did you ever see the film 'The Final Program' though Oldboy, 'The Condition Of Muzak' and the 'Dancers at the End Of Time' trilogy were great.

No, didn't see the films but read most of his books about forty years ago.

[KeithT]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

According to the strong anthropic principle, we see the universe the way it is because we exist. The universe came into being with all the parameters set so that we could exist. If the size of the electric charge of the electron was different or, the ratio of the masses of the proton to the electron was changed slightly then, we would not exist to ask the question. If gravity was slightly stronger then the universe would have collapsed before it expanded. On the other hand, if gravity was slightly weaker then the stars, planets and galaxies couldn't have formed, and we wouldn't be here to ask the question.
No theory can predict these values, we can only get them by measurement, but this is regarded as adhoc so theorists believe, the values must have been set by us being here. Not all theorists accept this theory and have put forward different versions, to try to account for these parameters been set the way we see them. Some even suggest that at the time of the big bang, billions and billions of universes were created but only one had the right parameters for us to exist.



The universe would last for ever if it is flat or slightly curved on the plus side. If it is slightly curved on the negative side then, it will collapsed into a big crunch. Some even think our universe could be cyclical, that at some point in the collapse it will reach a critical mass and rebound thereby, creating our universe again and so on for ever. Our sun will destroy the earth in about six billion years time thus, giving us plenty of time to find other earths to live on.

I see. Or rather I don't. Oh well, Einsteien I'm not.