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"Alien life could be so advanced that it........." Topic


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478 hits since 20 Nov 2016
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Bowman20 Nov 2016 5:53 p.m. PST

…….becomes indistinguishable from physics."

This is something that I hope is of interest to Great War Ace and John the OFM. The former for his love of fringe science, while sometimes ignoring the rigors of actual science, and the latter for his aversion to the concept of Dark Matter. I hope they both skim the article, at least.

link

Now the author, Columbia University Astrophysicist Caleb Scharf has been complaining about how poorly the press have been reporting on his musings in a non-scientific article.

"Feeling appalled (but not surprised) at how 'journalists' have re-cast/mis-interpreted my little essay musings the past 48 hours..good grief"

From here in case anyone cares:

link

Give it a read. See what you think. Might just be the astrophysicist's version of "stoner talk among the lava lamps" of the Ivy League.

Winston Smith20 Nov 2016 10:12 p.m. PST

Either Dark Matter exists or it does not. Either case is totally independent of my belief in it. But if it does depend on my belief…. Holy Cow! grin I would be even more insufferable than I am now. Let me go back and consult my notes on Philosophy 101. I'm sure Descartes wrote something about the Tinkerbell Phenomenon.

Actually I'm fine with Dark Matter. It's Dark Energy that makes me cock an eyebrow. It reminds me of Ptolemaic Epicycles. Those worked too, in making the equations come out right, way back in another time when all the Great Minds agreed on a Consensus.

Bowman. Obviously you care what I believe. Or what Ace thinks too for that matter.
You care enough to comment on it on line 3 of your OP.
Why do you care what Ace or I think? Are you in touch with some organization charged with enforcing Orthodox Scientific Thought?
Are you afraid we might infect The Children with impure skeptical thought?

Bowman21 Nov 2016 8:43 p.m. PST

Why do you care what Ace or I think? Are you in touch with some organization charged with enforcing Orthodox Scientific Thought?
Are you afraid we might infect The Children with impure skeptical thought?

You have great powers of projection.

Actually I thought you would be interested in Scharf's musings. Since you didn't even mention his article, I'll just assume I was wrong.

Btw, why write and peruse a public message board if you don't care what others think?

Winston Smith21 Nov 2016 9:55 p.m. PST

I'm just wondering why you care what I think.

Winston Smith21 Nov 2016 10:19 p.m. PST

As for the original essay, perhaps my education is stilted. That's the first time I have read that "things speeded up" 5 billion years ago. That's news to me. But then, I'm behind on my reading.

Again, if I am reading it right, Global Warming is a Good Thing. At least from the standpoint of the Universe as a whole, if not for the Planet.
So maybe we Skeptics are looking at the Big Picture. evil grin

Bowman22 Nov 2016 10:06 a.m. PST

As for the original essay, perhaps my education is stilted. That's the first time I have read that "things speeded up" 5 billion years ago. That's news to me. But then, I'm behind on my reading.

It's called inflationary cosmology. I think De Sitter, a colleague of Einstein, first mentioned it in the 1930's. Here is the Wiki article:

link

You can read Neil deGrasse Tyson's and Donald Goldsmith's book Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, Norton+Co.

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP22 Nov 2016 6:55 p.m. PST

Seems to me he's basically arguing for the existence of a deity (or deities).

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