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I don't think we will ever know the answers to fundamental philosophical questions such as why or how the universe exists. However, dark matter is measurable p

I don't think we will ever know the answers to fundamental philosophical questions such as why or how the universe exists. However, dark matter is measurable physics. I'm sure if technology and knowledge keep getting better we'll be able to solve this one, but it won't help with the aforementioned fundamental philosophical questions.

pavel_lishin 10y ago
The how is likely just another question of physics; I recall watching some PBS special that hypothesized some collision of higher-dimensional branes.
- ghkbrew 10y ago
  Even if it is a question of physics that doesn't mean it's an answerable one. There may be impenetrable barriers between us and any supposed higher-order multiverse. Even in this universe, it's possible to be entirely cut off from regions. What does a black hole look like inside its event horizon? We have models, but it's impossible to measure. On a larger scale, assuming the continue expansion of the universe, the furthest galaxies will eventually be receding from us faster than the speed of light, making them un-observable.
- StyloBill 10y ago
  So how do these branes exist? The fundamental question remains.
  - iaw 10y ago
    I don't think the fundamental question is how these branes exist. The fundamental question is: what's the most basic truths that we can ever know? If there are hyperdimensional branes the likelihood is that we wont be able to learn much about their origins because of their relationship to our universe. An acceptable answer then becomes "We can't know how they exist..."
- flukus 10y ago
  I was watching a documentary on an early christian sect (forget which one) the other day who believed that the earth/physical universe wasn't created intentionally but the result of a great cataclysm on a higher realm of existence. Brane theory was what came to mind immediately for me.
danbruc 10y ago
That seems prematurely pessimistic to me. We are only in the science and physics business for a relatively short period of time, even if you take ancient developments into account. And if you focus on modern science and physics, it is more like a blink of an eye. Only a century ago we realized how wrong we were about the fundamental things because we only had experiences at human scales before. Who is to say that there will not be another revolutionary change in our understanding of the universe just like relativity and quantum mechanics? Or two or five. In ten years or a hundred years or a million years? Maybe it comes from a totally unexpected direction. Maybe we next learn how minds work and this makes us discover that something build deep into it obstructs or view of reality. It wouldn't be the first time that our natural intuition about the world lead us astray for millennia.
russdill 10y ago
Certainly one of the more interesting questions about the universe. Are there properties of the universe that are unknowable? Who knows, maybe a whole class of interactions are so rare or have such low energy we may only ever receive the slightest of hints that they exist. As a programmer, another interesting question involves dimensionless physical constants, such as the fine structure constant. Are these numbers rational? Irrational? Uncomputable? In computing theory, an uncomputable number is one that no finite algorithm given infinite time and storage can produce. Things like Pi and e are computable. Any randomly chosen real number is almost certain to be uncomputable. We may never know if the physical constants of the universe are computable, but I think it would tell us something very fundamental about our universe.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >Certainly one of the more interesting questions about the universe. Are there properties of the universe that are unknowable? Well, there's a very well known (pun intended) pair of properties that are XOR unknowable (you can only know one or the other with any precision).
  - russdill 10y ago
    That's why I tried to frame the question in regard to properties of the universe itself. There are a ton of things that are unknowable, such as what is beyond the cosmic horizon.
hasbroslasher 10y ago
Specifically, "what is it?" is a weird question. People have been answering it in increasing detail for a long time and it still frustrates us. First it's elements, then atoms, then a stew of protons and neutrons, which happen to made of sub-atomic particles themselves, until we reach the new "fundamental". Someday, a particularly crafty scientist will be able to solve the quark parity problem or manage to crush one into bits and then we'll have a whole new layer of stuff beneath quarks. Or maybe they won't, but we'll still wonder what a quark is and why God or nature made that the smallest unit, and we'll always want to split it into two.
- dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
  I mean, existence itself is arbitrary, and that's going to frustrate the rational so long as questions exist.
iaw 10y ago
The why of it goes back to Feynman's explanation of magnetism to me. At some point we should be able to reach a set of fundamental laws that may be themselves be a manifestation of an unmeasurable set of fundamental laws. The takeaway I had from quantum mechanics was that, given infinite time and resources, we will reach a point where the answer is: "we can't know" or "that's the most basic truth we can ever show" Why time is unidirectional may be answered, but questions about why there is time in the first place or what came "before" it will forever be fundamentally beyond the grasp of our science.

pavel_lishin 10y ago

The how is likely just another question of physics; I recall watching some PBS special that hypothesized some collision of higher-dimensional branes.

ghkbrew 10y ago
Even if it is a question of physics that doesn't mean it's an answerable one. There may be impenetrable barriers between us and any supposed higher-order multiverse. Even in this universe, it's possible to be entirely cut off from regions. What does a black hole look like inside its event horizon? We have models, but it's impossible to measure. On a larger scale, assuming the continue expansion of the universe, the furthest galaxies will eventually be receding from us faster than the speed of light, making them un-observable.
StyloBill 10y ago
So how do these branes exist? The fundamental question remains.
- iaw 10y ago
  I don't think the fundamental question is how these branes exist. The fundamental question is: what's the most basic truths that we can ever know? If there are hyperdimensional branes the likelihood is that we wont be able to learn much about their origins because of their relationship to our universe. An acceptable answer then becomes "We can't know how they exist..."
flukus 10y ago
I was watching a documentary on an early christian sect (forget which one) the other day who believed that the earth/physical universe wasn't created intentionally but the result of a great cataclysm on a higher realm of existence. Brane theory was what came to mind immediately for me.

danbruc 10y ago

That seems prematurely pessimistic to me. We are only in the science and physics business for a relatively short period of time, even if you take ancient developments into account. And if you focus on modern science and physics, it is more like a blink of an eye. Only a century ago we realized how wrong we were about the fundamental things because we only had experiences at human scales before. Who is to say that there will not be another revolutionary change in our understanding of the universe just like relativity and quantum mechanics? Or two or five. In ten years or a hundred years or a million years? Maybe it comes from a totally unexpected direction. Maybe we next learn how minds work and this makes us discover that something build deep into it obstructs or view of reality. It wouldn't be the first time that our natural intuition about the world lead us astray for millennia.

russdill 10y ago

Certainly one of the more interesting questions about the universe. Are there properties of the universe that are unknowable? Who knows, maybe a whole class of interactions are so rare or have such low energy we may only ever receive the slightest of hints that they exist. As a programmer, another interesting question involves dimensionless physical constants, such as the fine structure constant. Are these numbers rational? Irrational? Uncomputable? In computing theory, an uncomputable number is one that no finite algorithm given infinite time and storage can produce. Things like Pi and e are computable. Any randomly chosen real number is almost certain to be uncomputable. We may never know if the physical constants of the universe are computable, but I think it would tell us something very fundamental about our universe.

coldtea 10y ago
>Certainly one of the more interesting questions about the universe. Are there properties of the universe that are unknowable? Well, there's a very well known (pun intended) pair of properties that are XOR unknowable (you can only know one or the other with any precision).
- russdill 10y ago
  That's why I tried to frame the question in regard to properties of the universe itself. There are a ton of things that are unknowable, such as what is beyond the cosmic horizon.

hasbroslasher 10y ago

Specifically, "what is it?" is a weird question. People have been answering it in increasing detail for a long time and it still frustrates us. First it's elements, then atoms, then a stew of protons and neutrons, which happen to made of sub-atomic particles themselves, until we reach the new "fundamental". Someday, a particularly crafty scientist will be able to solve the quark parity problem or manage to crush one into bits and then we'll have a whole new layer of stuff beneath quarks. Or maybe they won't, but we'll still wonder what a quark is and why God or nature made that the smallest unit, and we'll always want to split it into two.

dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
I mean, existence itself is arbitrary, and that's going to frustrate the rational so long as questions exist.

iaw 10y ago

The why of it goes back to Feynman's explanation of magnetism to me. At some point we should be able to reach a set of fundamental laws that may be themselves be a manifestation of an unmeasurable set of fundamental laws. The takeaway I had from quantum mechanics was that, given infinite time and resources, we will reach a point where the answer is: "we can't know" or "that's the most basic truth we can ever show" Why time is unidirectional may be answered, but questions about why there is time in the first place or what came "before" it will forever be fundamentally beyond the grasp of our science.