or maybe just we've misinterpreted reality more than we thought... Guess what, other models do not require expansion.
Can you refer to any specific theories that don't require expansion? (for reading)
The universe is expanding faster than expected
111–120 of 242 posts
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 1%.
Man, it's very difficult, and very humbling to try and wrap your head around just how big the universe is. I don't think human brains are capable of thinking at that scale.
We actually don't know how big the entire universe is in reality. When people talk about the size of "the universe", they talk about the part whose light has reached us, the visible universe. What's beyond is pure speculation. Also, due to the expansion of space, large parts of even the visible universe are inaccessible to us. Even if you started today at 99% light speed, you wouldn't ever reach them.
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are multiple explanations for why the sky isnt lit up with radio and laser signals from advanced civilisation. The great filter is one explanation, that there are existential crises or threats that wipe out most civilisations or cause them to collapse to subsistence level. Nuclear war, biological weapons, ecological collapse, paper clip maximising AI, etc. I once ran a Traveller RPG exploration campaign where o…
For context, the examples you mentioned are cases of the great filter lying ahead of us. The more optimistic hope is that the great filter is behind us - things like abiogenesis or multicellular life being extremely unlikely to happen. "Great filter" is just the name for "a barrier that stops life from becoming a spacefaring civilization". This explanation is also the reason why finding basic life (say, bacteria) in…
Could the great filter be something like developing language? That's something that seems quite rare (only one species on Earth has it). If so, then discovering bacteria in the Solar System wouldn't be such a cause for worry.
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is because information in your brain is constrained by physics. It takes tangible time for signals to travel between neurons. When you're young, you're small, and the distances are shorter. As you age, you grow in size, and the signal length grows also. Thus as you grow you literally think slower; though hopefully, more effectively (wisdom). Your perception of time changes accordingly.
I'd say that subjective passage of time is more related to the amount of time you've lived. When a year is 10% of your total lifetime, it seems a lot longer than when it's 2% of your lifetime.
There is research that shows that subjective passage of time depends on physiological changes to the brain. The most compelling example is that certain brain tumors make the passage of time seem extremely fast or slow to patients with them. The fact that time “seems to go faster” as you age is related to a normal aging related change (though natural, not caused by tumors.)
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#115> It would be incredibly exciting if there was new physics It would indeed be incredibly exciting if it would lead to a less silly explanation of the redshift than "universe is expanding".
> It would indeed be incredibly exciting if it would lead to a less silly explanation of the redshift than "universe is expanding".
It won't. There is no question about whether the universe is expanding. The issue is over how fast it is expanding; we have two different theoretical models that are giving different answers, and we don't understand (yet) how to reconcile them.
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#116or maybe just we've misinterpreted reality more than we thought... Guess what, other models do not require expansion.
Can you refer to any specific theories that don't require expansion? (for reading)
sure!
Electric Universe (Thornhill, Birkeland, Scott, et al)
Plasma Cosmology (Alfven, Lerner, et al)
Infinite Universe Theory (Borchardt)
Recycling Universe Cosmology (Mitchell)
Subquantum Kinetics (La Violette)
Modern Mechanics (Bryant)
Push Gravity: (various, book: Pushing Gravity)
The Static Universe (Ratcliffe)
Steady State Universe (Hoyle, older)
That's a good start at least. ;-)
All of the above have one or more books written about them.
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#117One thing I've always admired as a Layman about astronomy, is all the eloquent deductions they've been able to make that adds another framework of ways to discover new information, particularly the discovery of Cepheids. Obviously the engineering side is also as impressive, being able to look at objects light years away and using the paltry several hundred million miles our Earth orbit takes us around the sun as a me…
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#118A few years ago, a published article suggested an alternative to the universe expanding is increasing mass. Older objects increase their mass and therefore are red shifted. Why is this alternative plausible theory recieving such little attention? Edit: changed mass decay to increase in mass. I misremembered the theory.
> Why is this alternative plausible theory recieving such little attention?
If you're referring to the paper published by Wetterich in 2013 [1], it's because it isn't plausible at all: his theory requires that atoms are shrinking, and that is easily falsified by local experiments.
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#119what is on the other side, again?
Re: The universe is expanding faster than expected
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
For context, the examples you mentioned are cases of the great filter lying ahead of us. The more optimistic hope is that the great filter is behind us - things like abiogenesis or multicellular life being extremely unlikely to happen. "Great filter" is just the name for "a barrier that stops life from becoming a spacefaring civilization". This explanation is also the reason why finding basic life (say, bacteria) in…
Could the great filter be something like developing language? That's something that seems quite rare (only one species on Earth has it). If so, then discovering bacteria in the Solar System wouldn't be such a cause for worry.
> Could the great filter be something like developing language?
Perhaps it's a combination of factors? Dolphins are social animals that appear to be capable of complex communications among themselves, but don't have hands to manipulate their environment the way we can.
Apes have hands, but don't have complex language.