what is the universe?

deepriver

seriously I would like to know, I am in the school that reckon we are little life forms clinging to a pebble in a muddy swamp of the actual real earth that is inhabited by some vastly superior master creature, like we are quite basic in our habits and outputs, we consume resources, we multiply, we die and we do it all over again, everything else like fashion, music, art, giant mortgages and property booms are a minor blip that all records of will be wiped out by a meteor crash or something similar to what happened to the dinosaurs

like when you step out of your house in the morning, do you ever wonder how your car is still parked in front of your house, given that it is loosely held by gravity to a ball that is flinging through the universe, it amazes me every morning that I take having a car for granted or that I fret about work, or the things that happen in work or what people think of me, these things at some point will not exist and it would be hard to prove they ever did exist, as de boitton put it and dont quote me we are 'vapourous streams of consciousness', but anyway I would be interested to hear what people think that vast unexplored matterless space we float around in actually is...

nyarlothothep

Its an angry beefed up Loki revelling in mischief and vengeance. Apparently it may be expanding in a non uniform way. I don't know to be honest, just that its a strange alien and cold place.

heavyballs

deepriver wrote: »

seriously I would like to know, I am in the school that reckon we are little life forms clinging to a pebble in a muddy swamp of the actual real earth that is inhabited by some vastly superior master creature, like we are quite basic in our habits and outputs,

I would be interested to hear what people think that vast unexplored matterless space we float around in actually is...

i'm in the same camp as you,it's so frustrating the amount of time i think about the universe and our reason for our existence. It only serves to frustrate me the more i think about it.I love star gazing on a really clear night,Friday night was such a night,i sat out in my back garden for almost 2 hours and became deeply entranced.I beleive we are doomed as a race.I beleive in aliens or far superior beings than ourselves who are capable of creating matter including planets.I beleive we've messed up this planet so much that we are one of probably millions of forgotten experimental planets.We were created to a level of inteligence where we have the ability to philosophise but when we die that's it game over.

sells

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Its an angry beefed up Loki revelling in mischief and vengeance. Apparently it may be expanding in a non uniform way. I don't know to be honest, just that its a strange alien and cold place.

I like youre reference to Loki one of the norse gods, interesting. Ok shall I let you in on a secret to the meaning of the universe, or what the universe is, yeah. Well, the universe is too huge to even think that youll ever know about it, so whatever u think it is, thats what what it is. you and everybody basically is the universe.

L31mr0d

Whatever the Universe is, you nor I can comprehend it.

Here's a little mind game. Picture 10 pebbles, you can see them clearly right, now picture 100, ok 10 rows or 10... still possible. Now picture 1000... ok eh, well there's 100, stand back that's 10 rows of 100, wait I can't clearly see the bunch of 100 pebbles anymore.

That's your brain for you. It's so primitive that conceptualizing quantities larger than around 200 is impossible. About the ~150 mark you start seeing the items as a pile, or group or bunch.

It's hard to get people to understand how infinitesimally small the Earth is because when we say our solar system is 1 in a billion of other stars and our galaxy is in itself, 1 in a billion, this means nothing, because your brain has no ability to even begin to picture what 1 billion might look like.

Also of note is that in the time it's taken you to read this post you have in fact been hurtling 1000's of miles through the Universe. Not only is the planet moving around the sun, but the solar system is moving around the galaxy, which in turn is moving. The spot in the Universe you are in right now, you will never occupy it again, ever.

Amtmann

heavyballs wrote: »

I beleive we are doomed as a race.I beleive in aliens or far superior beings than ourselves who are capable of creating matter including planets.I beleive we've messed up this planet so much that we are one of probably millions of forgotten experimental planets.We were created to a level of inteligence where we have the ability to philosophise but when we die that's it game over.

What do you base all these beliefs on?

heavyballs

this i the philosophy forum,i don't need to give reason to anything i beleive in,that's my philosophy and has been for some time now,maybe i should have used the word 'think' instead of 'beleive',either way imo we're doomed and whoever created us has headed on a long time ago.If i had my way all serious criminals,murderers,child molestors etc would be put on a huge ship in the middle of the ocean that's left on a circular course and let them die there,the reason for the analogy is that's how i see the earth as a planet,our maker has deserted us a long time ago.

Amtmann

It is a forum about philosophy, which in turn is about wisdom and thought. You seem to just believe the things you wrote above almost as an article of faith, and since you didn't give any reasons to justify your beliefs, I thought I'd ask how you arrived at them. As far as I can see, one may as well believe that there are pixies at the bottom of the garden as believe that aliens can create matter and planets and societies, and that we are wastrels as a species.

koHd

heavyballs wrote: »

this i the philosophy forum,i don't need to give reason to anything i beleive in,that's my philosophy and has been for some time now

You're confusing philosophy with religion

I don't know where the myth that everything in philosophy is baseless opinions.

From my little understanding of philosophy I've seen it's a very complicated area in which ideas you put forward undergo rigorous debate and investigation by everybody until you get to somewhere close to a logical conclusion.

Don't be under the illusion of it's just a bunch of beardo's voicing crazy opinions without any logic.

For some reason this is what is being portrayed as philosophy.

nyarlothothep

sells wrote: »

I like youre reference to Loki one of the norse gods, interesting. Ok shall I let you in on a secret to the meaning of the universe, or what the universe is, yeah. Well, the universe is too huge to even think that youll ever know about it, so whatever u think it is, thats what what it is. you and everybody basically is the universe.

I don't think its entirely divisible to that. From what I can see someone born in Darfur will have a vastly different perception of their existence than someone whose lucky enough to grow up in the Valley. Its not like they have much of a choice to begin with. Its a lottery, you could have existed as a fox or an ant and that would be a harder life than being a human born into poverty in a first world country etc etc. This is the gloomy, impersonal and unfair aspect of the universe vis a vis the human experience. Life isn't fair, not that I agree that this must always be so, ontologically if we advance far enough to change it which is most unlikely.

History101

I think it is amazing that none of the great scientific minds have noticed the similarity between the universe and an atom ie. nucleus(sun)protons and neutrons (planets) etc. is it possible we live in an atom ? are there millions of universes(atoms)under our fingernails ? just a thought !

Joe1919

History101 wrote: »

I think it is amazing that none of the great scientific minds have noticed the similarity between the universe and an atom ......

There is no coincidence here. The planetary model was familar to scientists and this suggested to them them a model in which to base their theory on.

However, remember, this is only a theoritical framework or model for us humans to conceptualise or visualise matter. It may not be the 'thing in itself' and there are criticisms and limitations with this model.

Its quite possible that science could scrap this model (or theory) in the future if they come up with a better one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noumenon

extrinzic

The Universe.

From a scientific point of view.. The entirety of all objectively demonstrable cause and effect, held accountable by falsifiability.

From a philosophical point of view.. A conceptual framework that is derived from phenomena, fallible due to its subjectivity.