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In my fever dreams these galaxies and their theoretical descendants the elliptical galaxies are the result of intelligent life engineering them in a way that is
by cgriswald 3y ago
In my fever dreams these galaxies and their theoretical descendants the elliptical galaxies are the result of intelligent life engineering them in a way that is practically required by physics. A sort of natural outcome produced by the inevitable evolution of intelligent life in a galaxy of a certain size. (The evidence for this is essentially negative, fwiw. It’s just a day dream.)
- svieira 3y agoYou might like Count to the Eschaton (starting with Count to a Trillion) by John C. Wright. IFF I'm understanding you correctly, there's a great moment in it that is very much like this fancy.
- cgriswald 3y agoThanks, I always appreciate an apropos recommendation.
- throwaway290 3y agoOr they are a manifestation of conscious life at scales incomprehensible to us.
- cgriswald 3y agoDo you mean like some sort of collective (or galaxy-scale) life?
- throwaway290 3y agoMaybe something more like Wolfram's "intelligence in the universe".
- AlecSchueler 3y agoOr Hinduism's brahma consciousness.
- throwaway290 3y agoThat's a bit too esoteric for me but sure...
- AlecSchueler 3y agoI'm not sure what you mean by that, could you expand? I wouldn't have considered Hinduism esoteric with several billion followers.
- throwaway290 3y agoWell, we were keeping to science and physics mostly until now, and I don't see why it needs justification that hinduism is esoteric in that context. As in, too "magical". Not many [astro]physicists would apply hinduism in their work I imagine. Same for any religion I guess
- AlecSchueler 3y agoAh, I found it intellectually stimulating to draw the comparison to such an ancient and commonly followed school of philosophical thought so it felt worth sharing. I'm not sure there's anything less "mystical" about Wolfram's postulations though. Is there a new scientific basis for these beliefs?
- throwaway290 3y agoInteresting. To me Wolfram's writing seems following logic/reason from first principles more so than what I know about Hinduism, but I guess I don't know that much about it...
- edgyquant 3y agoThe word you’re looking for is religious or mystical. Esoteric means hidden amongst a small group
- icapybara 3y agoCreationism, but with a science-y spin this time.
- cgriswald 3y agoI'm not sure in what sense this would be Creationism at all.
- o_____________o 3y ago> intelligent life engineering them in a way
- cgriswald 3y agoCreationism is about creation. I’m talking about intelligent life spreading through a galaxy and manipulating it over the course of billions of years. Is an iphone creationism?
- Ensorceled 3y agoCreationism is LITERALLY the belief that the universe and was created by a supernatural and divine being(s). Supposition that intelligent life may have developed the technology to modify things at a galaxy scale in no way implies a divine being.
- strogonoff 3y agoWithin the framework of falsifiable natural science, of the following three viewpoints two are hopelessly incoherent and one makes rational sense; can you spot which one that is? A. “Per our understanding of the universe, which is now finally provably correct and complete, no intelligent life whatsoever could have been causally involved in the emergence of various stellar objects or humanity itself.” B. “Since our understanding of the universe is most likely incorrect and/or incomplete, some kind of intelligent life we are not yet aware of may or may not have been causally involved in the emergence of various stellar objects or even humanity itself.” C. “We were made by fantasy abstract creature(s) not subject to any physical laws of this universe. We should probably worship them.”
- ck2 3y agoIt's never aliens (until it is). Reality may be "boring" in that earth just may be super dooper lucky to have an accidental massive moon, a liquid iron core and a seasonal tilt to have made life. We also may be one of the first early conscious life in the universe (which would suck). The really sad part is due to the laws of physics there is only a very limited bubble of time that we can ever see into the universe even if humans survive millions of years (unlikely).
- cgriswald 3y agoI tend to think that one of the better results it that we are early. I think, given the evidence, the only other good scenario is that we just don't know what we're seeing.
- colechristensen 3y agoMy guesses are that either new physics makes civilizations invisible to us once discovered or the much more mundane intelligent life develops along a path as to not care to be visible or do the kinds of things we could see. If individuals had billion year long lifespans, sightings might just be staggeringly rare.