There's a Planet Stuck to The Bottom of My Shoe And I Can't Get It Off
The tyranny of interstellar distances. A quote from one of the books in Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos where humans have populated a large part of our spiral arm of the galaxy, referring to the collapse of an interplanetary society after the sabotage of their versions of star-gates. Every planet suddenly in isolation, travelers marooned hundred of light years away from home with no means of returning.
As an unqualified cosmology enthusiast, this line has stuck with me since I first read the books in the 90s. I sometimes feel trapped on earth in spite of not having seen 99.9% of this beautiful rock, but more on this later.
I have often caught myself where it feels like the universe has some built-in mechanism to deliberately isolate and prevent possible civilizations from making contact. Thoughts like these are immediately quelled of course because there exists absolutely no evidence for it and it is impossible to prove.
The universe seems at times to be deterministic and to people with limited knowledge about the natural order of things, it is easiest to take this as an axiom. In fact, more than half the world's population believe it to be so.
But take a mathematical and scientific look and it is obviously random with no evidence of any outside directive. In fact, our universe does not allow for anything to enter or to leave. It is an isolated system, completely self-contained and its total energy is the same as it was a nanosecond after the Big Bang and will always be the same, even if protons started to decay after trillions of years, each spread far apart by the expansion of space.
Then there is entropy. A highly underrated physical law to the person on the street. To most, it is a synonym for disorder and decay. It is indeed, but it also drives and facilitates complexity. It allows for an isolated system such as the universe to consist of energy dense open subsystems with room to move, where it then acts like a power supply for amazing things to happen.
Take our sun; it is currently in quite an ordered state, but it's the slow death of our local star, the transition from order to disorder, which drives smaller systems of great complexity (life on earth comes to mind). We are powered by decay.
Regarding living systems, it's algorithms all the way down. We also have a host of other immutable laws and constants and weird uncertainties, but the big picture tells a story of a universe that is creative in and out of itself and by chance. If it was created with intent, it's definitely a set-and-forget project with no interference so far.
And that concludes my argument against a deterministic universe to those who are still reading. The distances between worlds is a result of us being tiny. And that stupid governor better known as the speed of light. And to make things even worse, The Hubble Constant where space is expanding and of course it doesn't end there because the expansion is actually accelerating!
I would really like to experience much more of the universe. The shit out there must be insane. Lifeforms adapted to completely different conditions. Even non-living systems. Imagine beholding the biggest star in the known universe?
How about visiting the relatively nearby Trappist system with its seven terrestrial planets. It's only 40 light-years away, yet impossible to ever reach. All sci-fi films and series employ the deus ex machina of the warp or jump drive. I don't see such technology to ever exist. Maybe in a century we can power a ship to 10% of the speed of light. That could come in handy within the confines of our own solar system, but would still take 400 years to get to Trappist. And if you get there, any communication with earth will have an 80 year delay.
But here I am, stuck as part of a very peculiar species. Evolved from the dirt of planet earth and adapted to it and it alone. I am grateful though for my human brain. It can take me anywhere when I'm in the right mood or engrossed in some hard speculative sci-fi.
Still a bummer to only experience an immeasurably small fraction of reality.
Mind blowing. Yet Something from nothing seems a little hard to swallow.
That is the big problem, right. No evidence for what caused it.
That is not true - E = MC^2
It was a massive conversion of energy into matter.
Atomic or nuclear explosions are the reverse of the big bang.
Atomic and nuclear explosions followed and governed by the law of thermodynamics - entropy will always increase in the physical world.
Thank you for your input @zeitlini. It's very hard to swallow. That's why it's open for discussion. I think my friend was just expressing his view to make clear his wonder at it all. Sometimes it's so mind blowing to really consider that. It feels good to talk about it. I don't think he was trying to start arguments over anything. And we'd both be receptive to any respectful conversation on varying viewpoints. That's what makes this existence even more beautiful. We all draw our own conclusions. We're so diverse. There's beauty in that. (That's how I see things.) I see good in us all. Your view is valid and I would never be so rude to tell you otherwise. It's personal.
So totally a bummer. I agree. We agree. It's real big-like, in'nit? Something I'll never fully understand and everything that I'm made up of and the reason I breathe. Yet, I'll forever be perplexed. And that's why we invoke a God. I get why anyone would. It's comforting. It's an answer to and excuse for intellectual laziness. It's just another thing that's entirely human of us to do. But - I rather like the questions and the wondering. I'd like the wandering even more. If we only ever could. But then, do we really want to do that? Hm. Might be the death of us, but I doubt that's really worth worrying about at this point since we seem to have already taken care of that problem. The human problem. Humans are a problem aren't we? What are we good for, afterall? Wondering...and then we die. Shall I share the song now? I think I will:
Totally not a cynic. That's a happy song.
And on listening (if you're still listening):
You see the problem here? If we're all working five jobs and raising little Einsteins and plugged into the matrix 24/7...how are we ever going to stop long enough to listen? We won't. So they do. I'm thankful for that. Not that hopeful, but you never know. And that's the point. We don't know -till we find out. Highly doubt we'll last long enough, but oh how amazing it all truly is. My awe is always followed by that feeling of angry sad at our damned and doomed reality, though. I miss Carl Sagan. He got it.
(Nice writing, btw. Totes worth my two, err, one cents. It makes cents. Your writing makes cents. Don't feel bad. That's a compliment.)
You get it. I wasn't trying to be clever. It was just a slightly bloated piece on what you are describing above. Never being able to know WTF is going on. The cosmic joke.
Elton John manages to elevate bleak futility into an ode to acceptance. Carl Sagan changed my world too.
That was genius gold and I smiled my first smile since last night. Just please note that it wasn't the resort man from the Virgin Islands who put me in this mood. I'm not petty like that. It's more a question of having been hit by a bus yesterday and while I'm lying in agony, a bee comes along and plants his ass in my nose.
I feel happy for anyone who comes along and views this post after all this. Turning out to be pretty funny. I think we've proven a point too. Ponder your existence and ye shall go mad. Join us? Anyone? That's when they all go running the other way.
I think its better for everyone if we focused on what we're good at. It is obviously not sciency stuff, even though my post was purely philosophical
Your post was wonderful. Wtf are doing taking it down? Criticism will come. It makes the post more interesting.
No one even cared to look at it and I'm in no mood for debates in the comment section. I'll restore it for what it's worth with some redactions. I made it clear that I'm unqualified to speak with authority, but the theories I invoked are the best ones we currently have, with the most convincing measurements and evidence.
There is also a lot of religious people on here who may take exception to the inherent nihilism of my post and that I could never reconcile this reality with the gods of men.
Have you ever heard the saying opinions are like assholes? They are, everyone has one and most of them stink. I think his points were valid. He was just rude about it. That last sentence you just wrote says it all, too. Any time you approach this subject there's going to be someone argue "scientifically" what's really just a ruse for their religious hope. I still liked your post. Do you know how many times I've second guessed myself from doing something because I was afraid it wasn't perfect? Way too many times. Don't be like that. You write better than I do and know more than I do too. I can tell you do.
You want me to delete my comments too? I can.
No, I'm just going through a rough patch. This article is about me being frustrated at being infinitesimally small and thwarted by the laws of the cosmos, preventing me from experiencing the whole thing. It was late and I was losing concentration and one paragraph came out a mess.
You communicated that very well. He was just looking to split hairs. Which is fine, but that wasn't your aim. I got that. I appreciated it for what it was. I'm no Stephen Hawking, either. None of us are. (And, fun fact, even Hawking says he doesn't quite know. He also says we're all doomed.) I think we plebeians should be allowed to discuss these things too. I've had an ivy league snot try to put me in my place on here too. Dealt with it all my life and probably always will considering I'm an autodidact and unashamedly so. Maybe that could be a subject of a post. Everyone blabbing about freedom on here. Freedom from class distinction in these subjects of debate, that would be revolutionary. But you see it follows...even here. Get back to work and wash my windshield, poor man. Don't let it get you down.
Have you ever had Spam? It looks like rancid bologna in a can with garbage juice inside.
We have a product called Bully-Beef which I think is corned beef, whatever that means. Not great. I don't know the product Spam, but it seems to be a pinker version of Bully-Beef. The latter is pretty awful, but nothing good ever came from a pink meat product...
Parts of me might take offense to that, but such thoughts remind me...it's prolly past my bedtime. Butts gonna be shitty. Bully-Beef is a pretty apt name in this case. "Hey bully, you gotta beef with me?" Naw, just some spam. Proceeds to comment - bloviate - opinions.
Hahaha, you are revealing more and more of your amazing wit.
I must reserve a little mystery. Gotta keep my ass covered. Wouldn't want you to see how smart it is.
Hahaha. No, actually. I don't think I have. This wasn't spam. He's a great writer and he let that goofy guy make him feel bad. Help me kick his butt lol.
How I feel about it. Goodnight, and good luck.
What the hell, actual decent music still being produced today? I gave up some years back. This actually says something and with surprising technical twists in the production.
A fascinating article!
.
done.
Obviously it was not copied - because it is pure conjecture and flawed - no sh*t here.
@nonsqtr -
29 comments, 36 views, and 1 vote.
Need I say more?
If you really want to show the world more of your pettiness. You are not in on our joke. You are it.
Did you just wake up and we were the first thing on your mind? I know how many comments my friend and I made as we spammed my own article.
Go fix your website little man.
@nonsqtr - I have had it with your bad manners and disrespectful of disagreeing views.
Good bye! You are out of my view - go talk to yourself.
Sir you, may be correct in your assessment that he's been rude to you. He was, I agree. He has his reasons, I'm sure, as have you, for being rude to him. But you have to realize you approached him with rudeness. With insults. You struck a nerve and angered him. And if we're as you see us (lost in a fallen world) wouldn't that be our natural response to anger pointed towards us? It would be. It's a natural human reaction to feeling attacked. He felt attacked by you, because you did exactly that. Please listen to my video shared with you. I'm speaking from my heart. This sort of communication over religious belief truly breaks my heart. I've seen a lot. A lot more than you realize. I hate the fighting. You have valid points and wisdom to share and you're unable to communicate it this way. And so do we. We are people with hearts and emotions and whole entire life stories that you know nothing about. We all live on this earth together. This fallen world as you see it. Please consider what I've said. I'm not angry at you. I'm sad. I'm sad over this.
"peace and nihilism? What a joke!
They don't call it a circle jerk for nothing. We do what we want.
The use of entropy is pure conjecture and contradictory:
"Some would argue that entropy is proof that life is some kind of supernatural miracle (it is in a way, but not supernatural) because life apparently "beats" entropy as it becomes more ordered and complex over time. What they fail to take into account is that the universe is still very ordered with fairly low entropy at this juncture and with trillions of pockets of highly concentrated energy such as galaxies and the stars they contain. All of these can be seen as entropy engines and multipliers of probability."
The time scale of what is observable and what is measurable are so vastly different - light-years apart!
Life on earth and the corresponding "beating" entropy (over 100 years for humans and a few thousand years of recorded human history) cannot possibly be compared with "universe is still very ordered with fairly low entropy" which is calculated to be billions of light-years away from the "big-bang" which is a mathematical calculation based on a whole lot of assumptions.
Just like the flat earth theory - it could very well turn out to be miscalculated.
.
The reach of our (human race and civilizations) sensors were very limited in the large distances and in the miniature scales - in astronomy and in microscopic scales.
We did not discover the outer space, the deep oceans floors, the bacteria, the molecules until recent years - recent w.r.t. the light years in "big bang" scale.
That's why I used flat earth - and use calculate as in "miscalculated" to explain my point.
I challenge anyone to show me the numbers and calculations to back up any theory!
"big bang" was a theory based on very complex calculations published for peer review.
However, it remains a theory because there is no way to prove it or even validate it.
BTW - only mathematics and logic can be proven - not science.
I am a scientist, an engineer as well as someone who have analyzed and applied mathematics and logic in real world computer applications, so, I welcome any debate based on facts and calculations, mathematics and or logic.
People who proposed that illnesses were caused by invisible and tiny organisms have been similarly called: "ridiculous hypothesis of the currently mentality deranged " until they were proven to be correct years later and often after they were dead. So, don't be so quick to call anyone "ridiculous hypothesis of the currently mentality deranged as it could very well apply to you and I wrongly!"
I love your comments. And I think they're logical points to be made, but I still second @nonsqtr's assertion that flat earth theory is total horse spit.
Thanks for the comment - although you and @nonsqtr totally missed the point!
No one can or should judge from a different place and or time - That is my point.
To further expand on that point, space includes scale - we cannot and should not judge creatures of different scale especially a scale that is beyond our sensory range - ants and bacteria or molecules. Have you or @nonsqtr been able to examine the atom? the electron clouds in atoms? the strings in the string theory? ah ha, we have all seen animations of them but they were all made up and fictional - renditions by artists.
Without applying mathematics and logic to any theory, they are all theories - flat earth or big bang.
So, whether you support them or ridicule them, I'll say:
"Show me the money - mathematics and logic" behind or underneath your position or conclusion.
I am a scientists and I have used this approach to refute many claims, including "global warming" and have no one reply with facts, mathematics and logic.
So, flat earth was "fact" back in the days but we know now it is not true - because? We are in a different time and space!
If I were to tell people in the past (via time travel) about airplanes, electricity, mobile phones, microwave ovens, etc. - what will they say or do to me? ha?
No one can or should judge from a different place and or time - That is my point.
All the best!
I know. You noticed that I said "I see your view". I got it. My friend @nonsqtr was just having a hard time last night. Emotionally, and probably otherwise. If you'll read through his other posts, you'll see where he mentions some pretty serious health issues he deals with. I think he was hoping to approach this from a philosophical angle and was struggling to find the right words. He just wasn't in the right frame of mind for a debate, I think. (I'm sure he can speak for himself.) And yeah, you're totally right on your quibblings here. Or rather, it's I who has quibbled. (I just wanted to use that word, quibble, heh.) And honestly, as a scientist, you and I both know that you're more educated on the matter than the rest of us here. I, personally, don't try to argue things I'm not very educated on, and this is one. But we can all agree that it's a mind boggling subject of wonder for us. I think that's all he was trying to say.
I love debate and I love a good critic. I like that we can all chime in and have our say on anything and everything. But you get it. Play nice. We play nice over on this playground. Or you take your toys and you go home. Idk, more like we might throw rocks at you, I guess, hahaha. Anyway, thanks for the comment. You did give me a good angle to think on.
quib·ble
noun
"the only quibble about this book is the price"
synonyms: criticism, objection, complaint, protest, argument, exception, grumble, grouse, cavil;
More archaic
verb
I was using humor, self-depreciating humor on myself to show you kindness and levity. You seem to have missed that.
You might like this video in some way. This man was a Christian now turned Atheist (he has Christian children who he raises that way because it's how they choose to believe) and he's made it his mission to make his life an outreach to bridge the gap between Atheists and Christians so they might better understand one another. It's a very good video and an example of the ideal "civil" discussion that I wish we could all have on these matters. It would take us so much further. And it would help your cause so much more. You instantly turn others off from anything you might say when you come at them from anger. You might be surprised how many of us irreligous people are quite open and curious about our existence and would be open to ideas of any kind. It's all in the way you present them. And the way you're doing it just won't work. You can't shame or beat someone into believing your way. It just doesn't work. I don't mean to embarrass you or show any hatred towards you. This world needs peace more than anything. Please work with me for that. Everyday in everything we do it should be our aim, no matter what we believe.
No one can or should judge from a different place and or time:
Ah ... the amazing creature - ants:
Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,
Proverbs 30:24
Four things are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:
Proverbs 30:25
The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their food in the summer;
"Ants: Creatures with “Character”
by F. Jaco Viljoen
A closer look at the world of ants, and the book of Proverbs, reveals a wealth of meaning you can apply to your life.
They are fascinating to watch while dragging an object many times their own body weight. Or they can be a terrible nuisance when you find a seemingly unending line of black insects trailing the kitchen counter. But most often, you walk right by them—destroying their highways, or even squashing them without noticing as they march down sidewalks.
While ants are everywhere, we generally think little of them. Yet the Bible tells us to study and learn from these insects: “Go to the ant…consider her ways, and be wise”"
source: https://rcg.org/youth/proverbs/0903-acwc.html
I've fully read your reply and respect your engagement. But you know what's sad about this way of communicating that you're using. You're coming about it to us from a place of anger. I'm saying that from my heart to as another human being. I respect your beliefs and your right to believe it. (You may not believe this because you haven't bothered to speak to me on a deeper level so that you truly understand, but I was raised charismatic christian and through my life have run the gamut of Christian denominations, and likely have spent over half my life in a church pew. I've even gone on missions before.) But you didn't bother to speak to me enough to find that out. I do hope you'll consider this point I'm making. I know your viewpoint within some reason akin to your own, because I've believed it myself before. I've even preached it. I respect you and your views. The problem here, is that you've not shown proper respect to me. Cutting my "intelligence" down by throwing definitions at me will not work in your favor to convince me of anything, no matter your viewpoint. And once again, I fully respect your right to your beliefs and consider them wholly valid. And I have christian friends and relatives who I am very close to in my life. I volunteer at a church once a week on Wednesdays as well. I also work at the local homeless shelter on holidays to serve means, which is run by Christian people and preaches a religious message. I really do wish we could share in our humanity and see the humanity in one another when having these arguments. When we fail to do that these things make me very sad. Truly, they do. I use humor in my life because I've been through a lot of trauma and it helps me add levity to my life and it's a non-pill form of self medicating. I don't wish you any harm or ill will, but if you wish to speak to me and convince me of anything, you'll first have to approach me with some level of humility and respect. As I believe the bible does say..."do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It also says to "turn the other cheek" on those who persecute you. This is why I'm not going to retaliate towards you in the same manner. I may not agree with your viewpoints but I respect your moral foundations. It's such a pity you can't see that. I hope that in some way you would. Please be well and peace to you.
You know, about missing the point... I think sometimes we get so caught up in our arguing over details that we do miss the larger point. The point he was trying to make here. We live in a damn beautiful, strange and wonderful and magnificent, and a lot of other pretty words for something beyond our wildest imagination and comprehension - universe. Let's all just sit back and marvel at it and feel how small we really are...together. Let's all shut up, don't argue about it, just admire. I wish we did that more. There's a place for science. Reality, I get that. But I think we were more trying to have some hippie church over here.
You have been muted.
Crocodile tears mate. Hail Satan
If not for me and my comments - will there be anyone reading this?