Want some perspective on where you fit in on the universe?

[Dogg Thang]

Hang on, the analogy you used brought up paper. I didn't bring paper into it. If your analogy doesn't work, not much point in using it. Space is physical though. It's full of a whole bunch of stuff.

['Press Start']

Hang on, the analogy you used brought up paper. I didn't bring paper into it. If your analogy doesn't work, not much point in using it. Space is physical though. It's full of a whole bunch of stuff.

You can't even fold the piece of paper used in the simplistic analogy without causing permanent damage to the page

What did you mean here then?



Paper analogy works.

[Dogg Thang]

You threw me with the word 'fold' which implies an actual fold. Thus leaving a line. That's what I meant. And I'm not sure even gently bending a page over like that wouldn't damage it. It's just we're seeing it on a different scale. When it comes to space, galaxies etc. we're the tiny ones - damage that wouldn't be seen in terms of the scale of the universe could be catastrophic to us.

You also still need access to both Xs. And pretty big fingers. And unfortunately space doesn't seem to be completely flat like a page. That green image above - there's a whole lot of galaxies that just got squished to get those two places to join. I'm not buying it. Just sounds simplistic, requires ifs that are far too huge and it just makes for nice easy science fiction writing more than anything else.

[noobish hat]

I think 'seeing into the past' because of the time it takes light to travel to us from distant stars IS common knowledge.

['Press Start']

You threw me with the word 'fold' which implies an actual fold. Thus leaving a line. That's what I meant. And I'm not sure even gently bending a page over like that wouldn't damage it. It's just we're seeing it on a different scale. When it comes to space, galaxies etc. we're the tiny ones - damage that wouldn't be seen in terms of the scale of the universe could be catastrophic to us.

You also still need access to both Xs. And pretty big fingers. And unfortunately space doesn't seem to be completely flat like a page. That green image above - there's a whole lot of galaxies that just got squished to get those two places to join. I'm not buying it. Just sounds simplistic, requires ifs that are far too huge and it just makes for nice easy science fiction writing more than anything else.

Ahhh I understand. What about the self building robots then???

['Press Start']

Yep, Lyris. Every time you look up at the stars, you're looking back in time, to varying degrees. Fancy telescopes look even further back in time.

I am not trolling you.

I have thought about this and does this mean in all directions we are looking towards the past? meaning in some distant galaxy someone/thing looking at us, towards the future?

Are we (Earth) being looked at from someones past? If so can we not look towards the future instead of the past all the time?

I love the feeling my head is going to explode. I think it's just trying to make its cage a little bigger!

[importaku]

Ahhh I understand. What about the self building robots then???

There you go

[noobish hat]

How would anyone be able to see the future?

[Adam]

You'd have to know about the light before it enters your eyes, easy!

[Dogg Thang]

Ahhh I understand. What about the self building robots then???

That idea not only do I not have a problem with, I'm surprised we haven't done it already. I think it's a fantastic idea. Even with what limited knowledge we have now, we could set it up so at each checkpoint, the robots build robots with each specific leg of the journey in mind, adapting as they go. There must be someone we can write to in order to make that happen...

On looking into the past, well I've often wondered just how well that light survives. I mean, if we ever did find another inhabited planet, or someone found us and was watching light from back in the dinosaur years, is it possible that we (or they) could eventually create telescopes powerful enough to actually see the surface of the planets, individual life forms and so on? I don't know... does light degrade as it travels through space? I'm not sure that's at all possible. Imagine a species somewhere observing Earth right now but they're seeing just the beginnings of life on a raw planet.

But I don't think it's that we're being looked at from someones past - more that they'll look at us in the future from our past. I can't find a way of getting that to work so anyone could see anyone elses future.

[Adam]

Highly recommend watching The Universe if anyone finds this stuff interesting.

[Adam]

I don't know... does light degrade as it travels through space?

Light as we know it appears to get dimmer the further away you are from it, because of what is in our atmosphere. In space there is next to no atmosphere so the light travels for ages. There is a significant amount of dust and other material still and if it wasn't there, space would probably be completely lit up instead of black.

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks for the show recommendation. Just looked it up and it seems the blu-ray release of the show is region-free so I may well go for that.

BBC's Wonders Of The Solar System is pretty great too. Its scale is obviously much smaller than the Universe but interesting stuff and Brian Cox's enthusiasm alone makes it interesting. Not the Manhunter guy, by the way. Professor guy.

[fishbowlhead]

How would anyone be able to see the future?

You would have to know the path and destination of every single particle in existence at every point in space in the universe (and however many subspace dimensions there are) to accurately predict there course, cause and effect on every other particle in existence.

Then just maybe you could just about predict some things that were going to happen before they do.


Of course an easier way to see the future is to actually go there, but of course you have the problem of not actually knowing if it exists yet, and if it does would it be the same time stream your from, as for every millisecond of existence another possible outcome for the future is possible.



Or you could just blag it and hope to get lucky.

[fishbowlhead]

There you go

There not technically self replicating though are they, someone just stops the video and adds another block, section, to the robots. Theres no material or resources for them to manufacture new robots out of there at all?