6 ms·

Trying to comprehend the scale of the universe is deeply unsettling, especially when thinking about our minute, insignificant part of it. Anyway, I hope the st

Trying to comprehend the scale of the universe is deeply unsettling, especially when thinking about our minute, insignificant part of it. Anyway, I hope the startup you're killing yourself over is going well!

loceng 13y ago
I disagree that any part of the universe is insignificant. We're all important.
- kfd1 13y ago
  If everyone is important than no one is.
  - lewaldman 13y ago
    False dichotomy? :P
  - catshirt 13y ago
    important with respect to the universe, not eachother
  - loceng 13y ago
    One person being important doesn't negate anyone or anything else from being important. This is not the same as "everyone is special."
  - talmand 13y ago
    Depends on whether you are comparing everyone to each other or to something outside of the group of everyone. I could imagine we would say that everyone is important as compared to a typical stray photon with a duel-identity crisis.
  - wellactually 13y ago
    False. A group's ability to survive a cataclysmic event, natural catastrophe, epidemic, or genocide depends on its size and diversity. There is safety in numbers and diversity.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  I suppose that depends on how you define "important". We're pretty important to ourselves, I suppose.
pkfrank 13y ago
Consider also that not only are we very, very, minute and insignificant; we are also exceedingly brief!
- ars 13y ago
  We might be insignificant on a physical scale but that's not the right measure to use. We are actually very very significant. We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! This whole enormous universe? It's for us. (And other intelligences, if they exist.)
  - gnaritas 13y ago
    > We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! Yes, but that could be quite common as well. The universe could be littered with intelligent beings who all think exactly this.
    - ars 13y ago
      And every one of them is (probably) tiny, and every one is important.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
    - nirai 13y ago
      Consciousness and life are two miracles of existence that neither the galaxies, nor the atoms seem to manifest. Probably most life forms on earth are not conscious either. From that point of view we seem to be a miraculous needle in the haystack of the universe as we know it.
      - gnaritas 13y ago
        At this point I think current opinion is that pretty much all mammals are consciousness. It's not that rare.
vorg 13y ago
> to comprehend the scale of the universe is deeply unsettling, especially when thinking about our minute, insignificant part of it Humans are 10^27 times smaller than the observable universe, and 10^24 times bigger than the neutrino, presently the smallest observable thing, and 10^35 times bigger than the smallest theoretical distance, the Planck length. That puts humans around the center of the Universe's scale, hardly minute and insignificant, and one could argue on that basis the human brain, even mind, is at the conceptual center of the Universe!
- walden42 13y ago
  Yeah, we're at the center of everything we can observe. That seems to make sense. It might seem the same way from the point of view of a neutrino =)
  - vorg 13y ago
    A neutrino isn't conscious.
- mkessy 13y ago
  But we are at the center of a log-scale. One that for powers much greater than 3 or 4 in either direction takes serious cognitive processing to comprehend. When you start discussing 10 or 20 powers in either direction your brain is woefully under powered. Now that is only speaking of the 3 length-based dimensions, considering a 1000, a million, or 13 billion years in either direction is an even harder task. And besides why would our "centrality" be particularly interesting? Maybe all the fun stuff is happening on million year time scales, or at the quantum level?
higherpurpose 13y ago
You should really play around with this, if you haven't. Going at speed through the galaxy Star Trek-style felt very freaky: http://en.spaceengine.org/ http://en.spaceengine.org/ I imagine the experience would be so much better in VR.
millerm 13y ago
Your comment just made me smile and exhale with a sigh of relief. You hit my sentiment exactly. Sometimes I don't know why we waist it all for silly business ventures instead of enjoying the splendor that the universe has to offer. It's baffling to me. Though, starving sucks, but do we need to try so hard to do such insignificant things (in general)? It's probably why I won't spend my time trying to write another Tetris clone in some obscure language; it's been done, move on. :-) Let's make a real difference so we can spend time reflecting and getting our minds blown by reality.

loceng 13y ago

I disagree that any part of the universe is insignificant. We're all important.

kfd1 13y ago
If everyone is important than no one is.
- lewaldman 13y ago
  False dichotomy? :P
- catshirt 13y ago
  important with respect to the universe, not eachother
- loceng 13y ago
  One person being important doesn't negate anyone or anything else from being important. This is not the same as "everyone is special."
- talmand 13y ago
  Depends on whether you are comparing everyone to each other or to something outside of the group of everyone. I could imagine we would say that everyone is important as compared to a typical stray photon with a duel-identity crisis.
- wellactually 13y ago
  False. A group's ability to survive a cataclysmic event, natural catastrophe, epidemic, or genocide depends on its size and diversity. There is safety in numbers and diversity.
BlackDeath3 13y ago
I suppose that depends on how you define "important". We're pretty important to ourselves, I suppose.

pkfrank 13y ago

Consider also that not only are we very, very, minute and insignificant; we are also exceedingly brief!

ars 13y ago
We might be insignificant on a physical scale but that's not the right measure to use. We are actually very very significant. We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! This whole enormous universe? It's for us. (And other intelligences, if they exist.)
- gnaritas 13y ago
  > We are, as far as we can tell, the only thing that actually notices the universe! Yes, but that could be quite common as well. The universe could be littered with intelligent beings who all think exactly this.
  - ars 13y ago
    And every one of them is (probably) tiny, and every one is important.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - nirai 13y ago
    Consciousness and life are two miracles of existence that neither the galaxies, nor the atoms seem to manifest. Probably most life forms on earth are not conscious either. From that point of view we seem to be a miraculous needle in the haystack of the universe as we know it.
    - gnaritas 13y ago
      At this point I think current opinion is that pretty much all mammals are consciousness. It's not that rare.

vorg 13y ago

> to comprehend the scale of the universe is deeply unsettling, especially when thinking about our minute, insignificant part of it Humans are 10^27 times smaller than the observable universe, and 10^24 times bigger than the neutrino, presently the smallest observable thing, and 10^35 times bigger than the smallest theoretical distance, the Planck length. That puts humans around the center of the Universe's scale, hardly minute and insignificant, and one could argue on that basis the human brain, even mind, is at the conceptual center of the Universe!

walden42 13y ago
Yeah, we're at the center of everything we can observe. That seems to make sense. It might seem the same way from the point of view of a neutrino =)
- vorg 13y ago
  A neutrino isn't conscious.
mkessy 13y ago
But we are at the center of a log-scale. One that for powers much greater than 3 or 4 in either direction takes serious cognitive processing to comprehend. When you start discussing 10 or 20 powers in either direction your brain is woefully under powered. Now that is only speaking of the 3 length-based dimensions, considering a 1000, a million, or 13 billion years in either direction is an even harder task. And besides why would our "centrality" be particularly interesting? Maybe all the fun stuff is happening on million year time scales, or at the quantum level?

higherpurpose 13y ago

You should really play around with this, if you haven't. Going at speed through the galaxy Star Trek-style felt very freaky: http://en.spaceengine.org/ http://en.spaceengine.org/ I imagine the experience would be so much better in VR.

millerm 13y ago

Your comment just made me smile and exhale with a sigh of relief. You hit my sentiment exactly. Sometimes I don't know why we waist it all for silly business ventures instead of enjoying the splendor that the universe has to offer. It's baffling to me. Though, starving sucks, but do we need to try so hard to do such insignificant things (in general)? It's probably why I won't spend my time trying to write another Tetris clone in some obscure language; it's been done, move on. :-) Let's make a real difference so we can spend time reflecting and getting our minds blown by reality.