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Topic: OT: Comprehending The Incomprehensible (Science) (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 10 February 2016 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | 1  

I was reading a book recently called "Time" by Alexander Waugh. It tried to get its head around certain concepts, i.e. whether time had a beginning. That question bothered me as a child. A teacher said that it did, but my very childlike answer was, "What was happening 20 minutes before time began?"

I have read more on time recently. And I came across the word picosecond. A picosecond is a trillionth of a second. How can ANY human brain ever comprehend that? No matter how much the brain evolves, will we ever understand something like that?

In my view, there are three things that I will never comprehend: infinity, eternity and certain units of time. How can time have always existed (as some say)? If time did have a beginning, what was happening before it began? How can space go on forever? Surely there's an end, a barrier, etc? But then when you reach the barrier, what then?

We can all count a second. We may even be able to comprehend half a second. However, although I had heard of a nanosecond, I hadn't come across the word picosecond until the article. A trillionth of a second?! Come on, no human brain could surely conceive of that. How is such a unit of time even possible? What made it more baffling was that the article stated that the difference between a picosecond and a second is the same difference between a second and 30,000 years!

Do you think there are some things that humans just will never get, understand or comprehend?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 10 February 2016 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | 2  

Do you think there are some things that humans just will never get, understand or comprehend?

••

Of course! But only because every answer seems to lead to a zillion new questions!

The Universe is not CLOSED to us. There is no gatekeeper saying "Nope, go no further." The only limit to human knowledge is, well, us. Our persistent habit of throwing up artificial barriers (like religion) that cloud issues and obscure facts.

Oh, and "Twenty minutes before time began?" Stephen Hawking said that's like asking what lies one mile north of the North Pole.

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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 10 February 2016 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | 3  

Very true. I do feel privileged to be living in this time, sir. When I check my social media pages for details of the latest probe to Pluto, or hear about the possibilities of Mars colonies (decades away, I'm sure), it does remind me of how blessed I am.

I am sure some where blessed centuries ago, i.e. those who first discovered planets, but we have so much knowledge now - and so many ways to obtain it.
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Trevor Smith
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Posted: 10 February 2016 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | 4  

A very timely (heh) topic, as I was listening to a short
talk today by a particle physicist by the name of Harry
Cliff. He was essentially saying that if some new
particles aren't found soon (specifically at the large
hadron collider), we really, truly could be looking at
the extent of our knowledge.

YOUTUBE
LINK
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 6:36am | IP Logged | 5  

Robbie Parry: "Do you think there are some things that humans just will never get, understand or comprehend?"

I think eventually we'll get a lot of what is and what could be, and maybe even what was. But A) I'm not sure we'll still be "human" by that point, and B) I try to stay optimistic that we won't have wiped ourselves out by that point.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 10:00am | IP Logged | 6  

Infinity cannot be fully grokked. That's just the nature of the beast.

If a picosecond blows your mind, don't try and consider a femtosecond!
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Trevor Smith
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 11:32am | IP Logged | 7  

"If a picosecond blows your mind, don't try and consider
a femtosecond!"

**

OK, now you're just making shit up ;)
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Bill Collins
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | 8  

Does time exist or is it just a unit of measurement created by man? If man suddenly became extinct,the universe would continue,but with nobody to measure it,would time? OK Robbie,over to you! ;-)
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | 9  

Don't ask me, Bill. ;)

As for a femtosecond, nah, not even possible. How could it be? Where's my teacher when I need her? Maybe she can answer it!
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | 10  

Who says Man is the one measuring time? Maybe we're just watching somebody else's game!
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 11 February 2016 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | 11  

That's too terrifying to contemplate.

I suspect God doesn't even comprehend time - and he made it (or used it as a 'raw material').

That's a joke for anyone reading, I don't believe in god. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 13 February 2016 at 7:12am | IP Logged | 12  

Who says Man is the one measuring time? Maybe we're just watching somebody else's game!

++++

That's too terrifying to contemplate.

••

Yet, it must be the case, if we accept the notion that the universe is created, moment to moment, by those who observe it. After all, Man is quite new on the scene, even in Earth history, and if Time predates us -- and it does -- there must have been someone else (in fact, a whole succession of someone elses) doing the observing.

The question then becomes who was it who started the whole thing? Who were the original observers, present from the first moment of the Big Bang. The answer there, of course, has to be the Universe itself!

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