Astronomy, Existence and truly Understanding our Universe.........?

[Marcus]

I'm a 17 year old male, with a severe ADHD-inflicted brain, just in case you had curiosity pertaining to myself. Also, I believe in no deity, so please if you give feedback, don't bother flinging religious terminology or textual references to religious scripts..

Let's talk about the Universe, which many of us think is infinite or finite (I capitalize Universe because it's my version of a god). While the Universe is the oldest "thing" that we can be certain of, we have this wild perception of time, space and the fusion of the two, spacetime. To myself, perceiving time is just a humanly thing. But our perception of time must have a start and a beginning correct? Even something infinite must theoretically have a start, because it's a term to describe something that "goes on forever". But truly, how could "time" have meaning, when we don't know the starting point, and could very well end, if our planet ceased to exist.

When I discovered Hubble's Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field observations, it really got me to thinking.. If we can visually observe a group of galactic masses, that are 13 billion years of travel at light speed, away from us, then this group could very well be non-existent. In retrospect, an intellectual being in my opposite view located on a planet somewhat similar to ours, could be seeing our galaxy in the midst of so many others, thinking the same thought, and therefore to this being, I could not be in existence..


What this really boils my brain down to, is some pretty general ideas, theories if you may, which can never have human confirmation.

Is time a reality, or is it just a measurement that humans overuse, to sort out the "past, present and future"?

What is the Universe? Is the Universe actually a "thing" or is it just an idea that we promote to protect our minds from what we cannot grasp mentally?

In a pure scientific though, does life actually matter? I see conformity even in those who refuse to conform to society. Even I give in to conformity, almost every second of my life, it's just a human limitation. But why should I waste my time with school, work, emotional pain, love, and death? I know it's brain function, and humans have unique perceptions, but I cannot seem to find a valid reason to live life the way it's designed. Because I know that it's all for nothing. It's really not a pessimistic thought, for myself, somebody who doesn't believe in afterlife, what's the point in working for money, for cars, clothes, power? Personal satisfaction? The warm feeling in your heart? Maybe for some, and most likely for those who believe they have something to look forward to after death, but not I.. so many factors play into so many ideas, something will always conflict with something else, cause and effect style. Democrats will never get along 100% with Republicans. Racism will never become a thing of the past to some. There will never be a day when pain is not experienced, or when love is first felt. It may be the probability that one in the 7 billion humans will experience one of these things, but again, it's just a number. What's it all for? What can my miniscule existence positively provide something bigger than humans, Earth, time, and so forth. I will have initiative, and I'm sure as I grow older, i'll gradually take shape of a moral, good man and live my life with pride. But i'll always have these thoughts...

Sorry for the huge blunder, mainly consisting of rhetorical questions and jabber. By the way, no I don't trip LSD or shrooms! I'm just a weird human.



Give me some thoughts, whether they correlate to my ideas or not. It's comforting to know that I'm not alone with this lovely mess of a brain I have.

 

[Gazlowe]

Read up on Einstien's ideas. A lot of it tries to provide answers to some of the questions you were asking.

There could be many universes. I refer to everything that is or ever was as the Multiverse (i have to think of a better name, but it gets the job done). There is possibility that other dimensions and universes with different laws of physics and different paths of time. There may even be no time movement at all. It could be unstable. There could be colors never before imagined seen through eyes that could never be thought of. Lots of things that sadly we cannot comprehend as humans.

I personally believe that universe is finite. I don't believe anything is infinite, besides the answers in my calculus homework. If anything, my explanation is that the universe is some sort of complex geometry that brings you back to the beginning once you reach the end. Sort of like a mobius strip (8). There is a finite amount of space, but traversing it in one direction leads to an infinite amount of travel.

Time is all relative. Take for example a fact given to me in astronomy class: 2 space ships approach a black hole. One starts to drift towards the center while the other one stay far enough to not get pulled in. Since light cannot escape a black hole, the space that did not get sucked in will NEVER see the other one get sucked into the hole. This is because the image of the ship getting sucked in will never reach the other due to the incredible gravity of the black hole. light cant reach the astronauts eyes. The ship that gets sucked in, though, watches the other as it gets pulled into a crushing death on the singularity. time is what we make of it, it could all very well be an illusion.

Life exists because matter in general seeks to reach the lowest energy it possibly can. This quest for entropy hits a bump in the road when we consider that some order is actually lower in energy than random chaos, such as carbon having an affinity to form bonds than not to. How we came to be the beings we are today is an incredibly complex journey that took an amount of time incomprehensible to even the greatest of scientists. Given enough time anything can happen.

well you hit the nail on the head; life doesn't have a purpose. Due to the number of planets and stars in the universe, I would say it could be a fairly common occurrence given the perfect conditions. Life only exists in VERY specific conditions as compared to the rest of the universe, which cannot ever hope to sustain life. A rare occurrence, but given the right conditions, a very common one. I believe very much that there are other civilizations out there exploring space, or maybe even sitting at a computer asking the same questions you are.

But to answer your question, while life cannot be rationalized, it is the only thing we have. To be able to experience sentience for even a moment is a great thing. good luck in your life adventure.

 

[Gazlowe]

Read up on Einstien's ideas. A lot of it tries to provide answers to some of the questions you were asking.

There could be many universes. I refer to everything that is or ever was as the Multiverse (i have to think of a better name, but it gets the job done). There is possibility that other dimensions and universes with different laws of physics and different paths of time. There may even be no time movement at all. It could be unstable. There could be colors never before imagined seen through eyes that could never be thought of. Lots of things that sadly we cannot comprehend as humans.

I personally believe that universe is finite. I don't believe anything is infinite, besides the answers in my calculus homework. If anything, my explanation is that the universe is some sort of complex geometry that brings you back to the beginning once you reach the end. Sort of like a mobius strip (8). There is a finite amount of space, but traversing it in one direction leads to an infinite amount of travel.

Time is all relative. Take for example a fact given to me in astronomy class: 2 space ships approach a black hole. One starts to drift towards the center while the other one stay far enough to not get pulled in. Since light cannot escape a black hole, the space that did not get sucked in will NEVER see the other one get sucked into the hole. This is because the image of the ship getting sucked in will never reach the other due to the incredible gravity of the black hole. light cant reach the astronauts eyes. The ship that gets sucked in, though, watches the other as it gets pulled into a crushing death on the singularity. time is what we make of it, it could all very well be an illusion.

Life exists because matter in general seeks to reach the lowest energy it possibly can. This quest for entropy hits a bump in the road when we consider that some order is actually lower in energy than random chaos, such as carbon having an affinity to form bonds than not to. How we came to be the beings we are today is an incredibly complex journey that took an amount of time incomprehensible to even the greatest of scientists. Given enough time anything can happen.

well you hit the nail on the head; life doesn't have a purpose. Due to the number of planets and stars in the universe, I would say it could be a fairly common occurrence given the perfect conditions. Life only exists in VERY specific conditions as compared to the rest of the universe, which cannot ever hope to sustain life. A rare occurrence, but given the right conditions, a very common one. I believe very much that there are other civilizations out there exploring space, or maybe even sitting at a computer asking the same questions you are.

But to answer your question, while life cannot be rationalized, it is the only thing we have. To be able to experience sentience for even a moment is a great thing. good luck in your life adventure.