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Scale of the Universe

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Re: Scale of the Universe

#61

Post by ars »

gnaritas wrote: post #58
nirai wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At this point I think current opinion is that pretty much all mammals are consciousness. It's not that rare.

Yah I read that silly article too. They call them conscious because they redefined the term. It's nonsense.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#64

Post by higherpurpose »

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!

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/

I imagine the experience would be so much better in VR.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#65

Post by Dark_Eternal »

ars wrote: post #61
gnaritas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point I think current opinion is that pretty much all mammals are consciousness. It's not that rare.

Yah I read that silly article too. They call them conscious because they redefined the term. It's nonsense.

Which article is that?

They may not be self-aware, but it seems reasonable to assume that animals like dogs (for example) have inner lives, after their own fashion, and are capable of experiencing qualia. Certainly more reasonable than to assume that they can't.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#66

Post by millerm »

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!

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.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#67

Post by benched »

ars wrote: post #61
gnaritas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point I think current opinion is that pretty much all mammals are consciousness. It's not that rare.

Yah I read that silly article too. They call them conscious because they redefined the term. It's nonsense.

I guarantee you other animals are first-class conscious. I can't prove it to you, but that's a problem with epistemology, not a problem with the other animals.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#68

Post by nsxwolf »

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!

Scroll the slider to the left and we are HUGE.

Re: Scale of the Universe

#69

Post by walden42 »

vorg wrote: post #57
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!

> 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, ha…

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 =)
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