(small and large scale)...they seem to recognize that there probably is a link but where/what/etc.? Amazing with all of the gee whiz stuff we know about the world we live in today, that we can't reconcile these two modes of physics...perhaps a new kind of math or something similar.

Last edited Mon May 20, 2019, 01:41 PM - Edit history (1)

The problem appears to be that everything breaks down that we think we know at that precise moment.

Perhaps our actual mathematics and the principles of physics no longer are in force at that moment. Perhaps they are actually unique to this universe. That's what some think and are proposing. Perhaps there is an infinity of universes we will never be able to even detect, each with its own constants and physics. How fascinating!

Perhaps mathematics itself is a construct of our particular universe, along with quantum mechanics. Perhaps our constants are only constants in this universe. Maybe our universe is an anomaly among universes. That's the fascination with that moment when the universe came into existence. We don't know. And maybe we cannot know. And that would be equally interesting.

But, here we are, in a universe we understand only partially. From there, we are trying to look back to its very beginning. What a challenge!

But, God did it. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Our area of observation is tiny. How can we assume that "our" laws apply everywhere.

It's a factor that is considered these days among cosmologists. The immediate problem is this particular universe. Once that is solved, perhaps they can look at other possibilities. The chief problem is, I think, that we're looking at the situation from inside this universe.

It would probably be easier if we could take a point of view outside of it. But, that's physically impossible, so...

I don't fully understand the details of this thinking. When it comes to multi-dimensional math, I'm totally out of my league. I have to leave that sort of thing to others.

Part of the quantum enigma is that observation SHAPES reality. Schrodinger's Cat or "If a tree fell in a forest...".

It is not just a question of perception. For example, currently experiments are being done on Bell's Theorem which seem to indicate faster than light speed is a reality, which Einstein saw as "spooky action". It may well be that we are already perceiving a point of view from outside our universe. In fact, we may be living it.


Or not.

a software program for Windows 3.1. The program let users design and print business cards on Avery and other brands of card stock that was pre-perforated for easy separation into individual cards. I knew the exact dimensions of the card stock, which were used in the software coding, to create the printed result. The design, of course, showed on the computer monitor, in perfect scale and with all the images and fonts and colors, etc. That was easy.

But, there was a problem with the printer business. Every printer company had to write printer drivers that worked with Windows 3.1, and later versions. They weren't always perfect, those drivers. The card stock, however, was very precisely laid out, within .001". There was no way, in Windows, to determine the quirks of those printer drivers, which meant that the designs might be off center on the cards by as much as .15 inches. That's quite visible in the printed card. Not acceptable.

Since I had no way to know what printers my potential customers might have, it was a problem that demanded a solution. Microsoft was no help at all, since they didn't create the printer drivers. So what's a software designer and coder to do?

Fudge factors. There was a menu item labeled "Fudge Factor" under "Format" on the software interface. In the program's manual and in a dialog box, I instructed users to first print an alignment page on plain paper and then hold that against the card stock with a light behind the two. Then, they measured the offset from perfection and provided horizontal and vertical fudge factor numbers in 1/100s of an inch plus or minus. Once that was done, the software stored those numbers in the program's configuration file and reloaded it every time the program ran. The user only had to find and enter that fudge factor once, as long as they used the same printer.

Was that solution a kludge? it certainly was. But nobody ever complained about that. One they had done the alignment process, the program printed precisely aligned cards every time.

Perhaps that's all that's missing in the cosmology calculations. A constant that is the "fudge factor" for this particular universe.

perhaps you were thinking of this? Interesting! There are debates still on this value...

works out.

2000 years ago, nobody understood why ANYTHING happened, really. So EVERYTHING was 'magic'.

Over the past 200 years in particular, we've discovered WHY so, so many things happen/are the way they are. And guess what?

IT NEVER TURNS OUT TO BE MAGIC. EVER.

And yet, the religious folk cling to this tiny sliver of things for which science hasn't QUITE come up with a perfect answer for ... how was the universe created? How did life itself begin (although to be honest science is damn close on that one)? Etc.

And somehow they conclude that for THESE tiny handful of questions, despite ALL the evidence that NONE of what people thought 2000 years ago about the nature of reality has turned out to be true, nor to have 'magical' properties ... that THESE questions ARE in fact likely to turn out to indeed have 'magic-based' answers ... that never ceases to amaze me.

All available evidence exceptionally strongly supports the idea that there is no such thing as 'magic', people. No gods, ghosts, devils, heaven, hell, afterlives, angels, luck, ESP, psychics, leprechauns, witches ... etc.

There is physics, and its adjunct, chemistry. That's it.

Bummer, I know.

atheist in the Religion Group who writes under multiple screen names. Don't encourage him, please.

But, you're right. The tiny sliver of information that remains unknown keeps shrinking, doesn't it? Even if the geniuses working on that sliver actually solve their equations and learn the answer, some will say, "Yabbut, what about before that? Answer that question. God did it!"

"Where you there?"

The ancient mathematicians were as bright as we are and had figured out that the Earth was round and were very close to it's circumference measurement. There were atheists back then and all sorts. Don't be so down on the "Ancients" they were pretty cluey.

Some mathematicians have won a Noble prize in other fields. I heard the story about an affair, but apparently there is no evidence.

There is a Fields medal awarded every 4 years.

Just letting you know.

Agree that “God did it” is a failing answer in science.

I'm short of cash and I just finished downloading my pastor's certificate from the internet tubes.