7 ms·

Sorry, why can this not be a coincidence? I understand that the universe is smooth across large spaces similar to how a fog is smooth on larger spaces, and coar

Sorry, why can this not be a coincidence? I understand that the universe is smooth across large spaces similar to how a fog is smooth on larger spaces, and coarse on smaller ones. But even then, given a large universe, why would this be mathematically impossible? If galaxies formed evenly everywhere, couldn't this have happened by coincidence? Which theory is violated here? Sorry my knowledge is a limited "The great courses Cosmology" course from 2009

simonh 3y ago
It should be possible to calculate them likelihood of distributions with a given degree of apparent structure. Not a given structure, but the degree of variance from a typical random distribution.
The_Colonel 3y ago
This structure is too large in relation to our observable universe for it to be explainable by a mere coincidence. It's 1.3bn light years in diameter, while the observable universe is 93bn light years in diameter. This is also not the only such structure found, some other examples are even larger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cosmic_structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cosmic_structu...
- danparsonson 3y ago
  > This structure is too large in relation to our observable universe for it to be explainable by a mere coincidence. It's 1.3bn light years in diameter, while the observable universe is 93bn light years in diameter. Why is that important?
  - d3ckard 3y ago
    I would guess it’s too big for a local anomaly.
  - yetihehe 3y ago
    It's like a fog coalescing into a ring only on a roundabout. It's typically not a coincidence or a random fluctuation, but there's some underlying reason.
andreareina 3y ago
It's not a hard violation, just that they are large enough and there are enough of them that you would not expect them to form in a universe that is otherwise described by the cosmological principle. A random array of points can form a grid, but if you see a grid somewhere the natural assumption is that it wasn't formed by a random process.
- prmph 3y ago
  Then why is life, which is more complex and structured, assumed to have arisen by chance? If random processes can give birth to structure, then one can also argue that maybe this ring is a fluke. Remember that randomness is not necessarily uniformity
  - dTal 3y ago
    Life is an extremely interesting and complex phenomenon worthy of study. It's not a counterexample to the observation that structure and complexity indicate interesting phenomena, rather than "coincidence".
    - prmph 3y ago
      Yes, this ring could be an example of structure, but what caused the structure? One explanation is that it is not due to any new physics; it is just that randomness happened to produce that apparent structure. So my point is, if we go looking for some new physical phenomena that could have produced the structure, then why the unwillingness to probe unknown forces that could have produced life?
      - mc32 3y ago
        Because of ideology. They’re both inquisitive but one veers to close to other subjects considered fanciful such as simulations or some creator force, whereas the other seems to seek other types of scientific explanation.
  - candiodari 3y ago
belter 3y ago
https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Sol_gate https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Sol_gate

simonh 3y ago

It should be possible to calculate them likelihood of distributions with a given degree of apparent structure. Not a given structure, but the degree of variance from a typical random distribution.

The_Colonel 3y ago

This structure is too large in relation to our observable universe for it to be explainable by a mere coincidence. It's 1.3bn light years in diameter, while the observable universe is 93bn light years in diameter. This is also not the only such structure found, some other examples are even larger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cosmic_structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cosmic_structu...

danparsonson 3y ago
> This structure is too large in relation to our observable universe for it to be explainable by a mere coincidence. It's 1.3bn light years in diameter, while the observable universe is 93bn light years in diameter. Why is that important?
- d3ckard 3y ago
  I would guess it’s too big for a local anomaly.
- yetihehe 3y ago
  It's like a fog coalescing into a ring only on a roundabout. It's typically not a coincidence or a random fluctuation, but there's some underlying reason.

andreareina 3y ago

It's not a hard violation, just that they are large enough and there are enough of them that you would not expect them to form in a universe that is otherwise described by the cosmological principle. A random array of points can form a grid, but if you see a grid somewhere the natural assumption is that it wasn't formed by a random process.

prmph 3y ago
Then why is life, which is more complex and structured, assumed to have arisen by chance? If random processes can give birth to structure, then one can also argue that maybe this ring is a fluke. Remember that randomness is not necessarily uniformity
- dTal 3y ago
  Life is an extremely interesting and complex phenomenon worthy of study. It's not a counterexample to the observation that structure and complexity indicate interesting phenomena, rather than "coincidence".
  - prmph 3y ago
    Yes, this ring could be an example of structure, but what caused the structure? One explanation is that it is not due to any new physics; it is just that randomness happened to produce that apparent structure. So my point is, if we go looking for some new physical phenomena that could have produced the structure, then why the unwillingness to probe unknown forces that could have produced life?
    - mc32 3y ago
      Because of ideology. They’re both inquisitive but one veers to close to other subjects considered fanciful such as simulations or some creator force, whereas the other seems to seek other types of scientific explanation.
- candiodari 3y ago

belter 3y ago

https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Sol_gate https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Sol_gate