Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree that any part of the universe is insignificant. We're all important.
If everyone is important than no one is.
False dichotomy? :P
Scale of the Universe
41–50 of 83 posts
Re: Scale of the Universe
#42Existential Horror masterpiece.
Re: Scale of the Universe
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
And every one of them is (probably) tiny, and every one is important.
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Re: Scale of the Universe
#44Re: Scale of the Universe
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.)
> 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.
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.
Re: Scale of the Universe
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree that any part of the universe is insignificant. We're all important.
If everyone is important than no one is.
One person being important doesn't negate anyone or anything else from being important. This is not the same as "everyone is special."
Re: Scale of the Universe
#47That largest bacterium's size is incorrect. It shows a chain of them as 750um, but in reality just one can become that large. In the picture, they look as big as a human ovum at 120um, but obviously that's not accurate.
You hope it's not accurate :D
I was saying that the bacterium is -larger- than the ovum. By a factor of 6.
Re: Scale of the Universe
#48Frequent repost. Old. Karmadecay.
Re: Scale of the Universe
#49Obligatory IBM Powers of Ten (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0
Re: Scale of the Universe
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree that any part of the universe is insignificant. We're all important.
If everyone is important than no one is.
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.