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Scale of the Universe

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Re: Scale of the Universe

#21

Post by deletes »

biot wrote: post #13

Is there not a virtual world which can represent a contiguous series of locations larger than that of Minecraft?

You can try I-War 2:Edge of Chaos( space action-simulator with newton physics and inertia ) where the total contiguous world map is around 10^20 km( at least ). But of course most of it is empty as the solar system takes a relatively small place in the center of the map. And similarly to Minecraft if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things start to happen.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#22

Post by hadem »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #15

Not a plug for Nikon, but their version of this concept is far superior IMO: http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/

I disagree. The user interface is poorly designed. It immediately slides everything past in a blur. I wanted to look from smallest to largest, but when I click the icon to go to the smallest scale, I'm asked to "restart". If I use the scroll wheel and get to the smallest scale, I'm also asked to restart. When I restart, I'm shown the blur of objects again and have to go through the entire process over again.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#23

Post by kfd1 »

loceng wrote: post #12
fideloper wrote: post #2

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!

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

If everyone is important than no one is.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#24

Post by pkfrank »

fideloper wrote: post #2

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!

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

Re: Scale of the Universe

#25

Post by ars »

pkfrank wrote: post #24
fideloper wrote: post #2

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!

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

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.)

Re: Scale of the Universe

#26

Post by danso »

Everytime I see one of these things, I think of "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" and the Total Perspective Vortex:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex#Total_...

> The Universe, as has been observed before, is an unsettlingly big place, a fact which for the sake of a quiet life most people tend to ignore... which is why the Total Perspective Vortex is as horrific as it is. When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."

Re: Scale of the Universe

#27

Post by thangalin »

hadem wrote: post #20
thangalin wrote: post #9

A few of my 3D renders on the topic of scale: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg - http://davidjarvis.ca/dave/gallery/star-sizes/ It is incredible to consider that the largest known stars are the size of the Solar System.

What software did you use to render these images? They look nice.

http://www.blender.org/

Re: Scale of the Universe

#28

Post by jurjenh »

fideloper wrote: post #6
giantrobothead wrote: post #4

When I was a little kid, I used to lay in my bed, in the dark, and think about the size of the room around me. Then I'd think of the size of my house, then the size of my hometown, then the size of my home state, then the size of the United States, then the size of the planet, and so on until I couldn't conceive of the scale of what I was trying to envision. It was at once exciting and absolutely terrifying. This doe…

It is terrifying, which is interesting to analyze. Why should it be? Must be something deeply ingrained in us humans.

I wonder if it is an instinctive reaction:

a large new space has a lot of unknowns -> some of these unknowns could be dangerous -> a very large new space has a lot more unknowns -> very large spaces are to be feared.

This is based on nothing more than my imagination, but seems like a sensible evolutionary precaution.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#29

Post by TeMPOraL »

deletes wrote: post #21
biot wrote: post #13

Is there not a virtual world which can represent a contiguous series of locations larger than that of Minecraft?

You can try I-War 2:Edge of Chaos( space action-simulator with newton physics and inertia ) where the total contiguous world map is around 10^20 km( at least ). But of course most of it is empty as the solar system takes a relatively small place in the center of the map. And similarly to Minecraft if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things…

> if you teleport yourself into the high numbers you will get experience floating point accuracy problems, and weird things start to happen

Weird; in case of a space sim this should be a simple thing to fix (octree, for example).

Re: Scale of the Universe

#30

Post by BlackDeath3 »

loceng wrote: post #12
fideloper wrote: post #2

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!

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

I suppose that depends on how you define "important". We're pretty important to ourselves, I suppose.
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