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Our understanding is so incomplete that we have to posit the presence of dark matter and dark energy - comprising the majority of the universe - to explain the

Our understanding is so incomplete that we have to posit the presence of dark matter and dark energy - comprising the majority of the universe - to explain the parts we think we do understand. With so much we cannot account for, it seems unwise to have firm beliefs like this about what isn’t possible.

mikrotikker 4y ago
Yes exactly its a bit arrogant to think that we know it all or that we can know it all.
- godelski 4y ago
  There's a big difference between claiming we know it all and that our understanding is incomplete. There's also a big difference between claiming something is incomplete and that something has to be rewritten from the ground up. I believe our knowledge is incomplete, I do not believe there is something out there that requires us to rewrite everything. The problem here is that to go down this path you need to violate quite a few fundamental aspects of physics that we have. Several of which have stood the test of millennia despite many serious attempts to disprove.
  - ikrenji 4y ago
    millennia? modern physics goes back a couple hundred years tops. relevant physics that aka prohibits FTL travel is less than a hundred years old (theory of relativity)...
    - godelski 4y ago
      No, relevant physics that prevents FTL is information flow connected with time. This is why people keep referring to the light cone. In other words, something that happens tomorrow is not a causal factor for something that has happened yesterday. The ancients knew that the order of time marched ever forward and that the future does not dictate the past. Even the concept of entropy and disorder was understood at a basic level for quite some time. Probably even before we were humans we understood that an object that has shattered does not spontaneously place itself back together. Or that a log that burns from fire cannot be put back together. Or that the future doesn't influence the past. These are physics concepts so old that they are often forgotten about because they are so obvious.
  - mikrotikker 4y ago
    A quote that stuck with me is; "not only is the universe queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose" - JBS Haldane

mikrotikker 4y ago

Yes exactly its a bit arrogant to think that we know it all or that we can know it all.

godelski 4y ago
There's a big difference between claiming we know it all and that our understanding is incomplete. There's also a big difference between claiming something is incomplete and that something has to be rewritten from the ground up. I believe our knowledge is incomplete, I do not believe there is something out there that requires us to rewrite everything. The problem here is that to go down this path you need to violate quite a few fundamental aspects of physics that we have. Several of which have stood the test of millennia despite many serious attempts to disprove.
- ikrenji 4y ago
  millennia? modern physics goes back a couple hundred years tops. relevant physics that aka prohibits FTL travel is less than a hundred years old (theory of relativity)...
  - godelski 4y ago
    No, relevant physics that prevents FTL is information flow connected with time. This is why people keep referring to the light cone. In other words, something that happens tomorrow is not a causal factor for something that has happened yesterday. The ancients knew that the order of time marched ever forward and that the future does not dictate the past. Even the concept of entropy and disorder was understood at a basic level for quite some time. Probably even before we were humans we understood that an object that has shattered does not spontaneously place itself back together. Or that a log that burns from fire cannot be put back together. Or that the future doesn't influence the past. These are physics concepts so old that they are often forgotten about because they are so obvious.
- mikrotikker 4y ago
  A quote that stuck with me is; "not only is the universe queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose" - JBS Haldane