This picture puts things into perspective

The thing is is that we cant even get close to these other galaxies because our spaceships move very slowly. We would have to go faster than the speed of light to get there in a life time, but science has proven that matter cant go the speed of light, so we are fucked.
 
I think the foremost theories today are saying that the universe is constantly expanding outward from the center of the universe. It's still moving outward from the big bang. So it doesn't have an end, it's constantly getting bigger. My theory is this: Black holes suck in literally everything, including other black holes. The big bang theory requires certain conditions to be met in order to have a big bang. Those conditions are having all matter compressed into an inconcievably small space. That condition is the definition of the center of a black hole. So my idea is that the lifespan of the universe is cyclical. Eventually, one black hole will swallow up the entire universe, and then it will all start over again with another big bang. It makes sense right?
 
INSANITY!! just this think that it's infinite is crazy enough... yeah we may be insignificant, however, we need to concentrate on our world. Because if we get too caught up with "something out there" we lose sight as to what's here, right in front of us.
but still, effing cool!
 
Reminds me of something my friend brought up. We developed to have the senses we perceive, but that doesn't mean that they are the only ones that exist. There could be a lifeform that exists with a completely different set of senses, thus could live amongst us without our knowing. Not sure about how I feel about the whole concept, but it's interesting to bring evolution and our perception into play.
 
makes sense to me, except one thing. If that theory was true, the universe would not be accelerating. It has been proven that everything in the universe is not slowing down, as one would think after the big bang, but it is speeding up away from the epicenter of the bang.
 
Love this thread,

I have been reading a new book that is blowing my mind. It is called "The Singularity is Near" By Ray Kurzwile (Sp) And it is awesome. He plots human innovation, computing power, economies, population. Pretty much every litmus test of human progress and it is a straight line on an exponential scale. This means that we are living in exponential times. More data was created, transferred, and processed in the past 2 years than all of human history combined. Moores law dictates that computer power doubles every 16 months. We have millions of times more computing power than just a few years ago.

Anyway, we are on the "heal" of the curve. Meaning that up to this point human innovation seamed linear beacuse the start of an exponential curve is linear then it goes almost vertical. Basically hold on to your fucking tits because what is going to happen in our lifetimes (which could be thousands of years) is going to drastically change everything we know.

Nano technology, molecular computing, in 40 years we will have computers more powerful than the human brain and be able to directly connect with computers. Think about this for just one second. If you are directly connected with a human strength computer, then connected to the internet, you could communicate instantly with any one in the planet and have instant, seamless, access to the entirety of human knowledge. Even uneducated people could solve proofs that today stump even the brightest scientists. There are no hard problems there are only problems that are limited by levels of intelligence.

Anyway I highly suggest the book and I also recommend that you get a degree in math and science it will be worth exponentially more than a degree in communications or some bull like that.
 
The problem is that we will never even begin to comprehend the actual workings of the universe. We can understand it to a point, but there will be a point where we just cant know anymore, simply because of the limitations of being human, along with the way the universe works and the things we are able to observe etc.

I think however, that once a unifying theory of physics (between the quantum and non-quantum worlds) is made, we will be able to gain a vast amount of knowledge.

However, it is a bit like trying to ride a bike to Pluto... Understanding the real workings of the universe is something that we just cant do... Because when it all comes down to it, the universe only exists because we observe it...

That probably made no sense.
 
hahahahhahah. but for real that is crazy. i agree with whoever said thats why there must be other life somewhere in the universe. i mean the chance for life to begin is really really really really small, but the universe is really really really really big. but man. that suff is hard to imagine
 
yeah dont even get me started on this.

if it does end, whats at the end, and how can it just end because then what is after the end? nothing, how can there be nothing, makes no sense.

if it doesnt end, how is that possible, how can something go on forever, its impossible.

but i love talking about this stuff.

in referece to OP, those pics were crazy, i always kinda believed there was the chance that there was other life out there, but now im certain
 
so how bout this. The speed of light is about 300,000,000 meters per second. So then what is the speed of darkness?
 
it doesnt end. humans are not supposed to comprehend "infinity". space goes on forever. it never stops and its almost impossible to understand that.
 
Ive always wondered if they could make something like a solar powered spacecraft, and put a bunch of non related people on it, and then send it to some galaxy thats crazy far away. The people could have kids to carry on the mission. Almost no chance it would work, but Ive always wondered that.
 
in space, time is different. in some instances it cant even be considered a constant because of the scale. We can see right through time because the light doesn't travel fast enough. in fact, our sun could implode right now and we wouldn't know for 8 minutes. Because of the scale, in space time cannot be measured in days or hours.
 
think of it this way, our lifetime (approx. 80 years) is so insignificant to the rest of space that it practically doesn't even exist. our PLANET even makes up a fraction of the universe so small we cant even imagine it.
 
Epic!
That's why i laugh when people believe the world and universe was made in 7 days?!!!
It's is all beyond the Human Brains capability to understand.... so awesome...
 
have you heard like the new facts known about the human brain though? humans only use a maximum of 15% of our brain. and thats only a select few of people like newton and einstein. theres theories that if a human could use 100% of our brain, then we could do things like telekenisis and teleportation, not to mention figure out things like how to go back in time, or how to travel faster then the speed of light.
 
allthough we may not be alone in this universe.. think about the timescale!we humans have discovered science for like 300 years ago, and we have been trying to kill eachother since the beginning of our race. when you think about how long our race have existed in comparrison to how long the universe has, and you scale that time down to 24 hours. our race haven't even been around for a sec. And when you think about the countless civilasations that may be out there, also think about that they also may have destroyed eachother looooong time ago. and that a time-window for one civilasation is soooo tiny. and the distance between us all is sooooo big! It would be nothing but a miracle if any of us would detect eachother because, 1: we would not live in eachothers time, 2: even if we did, we would not see eachother, cause all we ever see over huge distances is the past, and 3: we would probably kill our own race looong before we would even exist long enough to witness any contact from an alien race.
 
thing about time and space like this:

you are playing "age of empires" ( the old kickass game ) the map is the whole universe and the fucking FOG is everywhere. how the **** are you gonna find and discover all the enemies, even if there may be billions ??

sucks doesn't it?
 
HOLY TRIPLE POST BATMAN!!!

That being said, that picture makes me, a human, feel incredibly small and unremarkable.
 
Misc-OhSnap.jpg
 
i bet the other galaxies have some insane mountains and just have snowfall year round with an unbelievable park and backcountry
 
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