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The Universe


dont_do_it_doug.

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And yet a human being is as much larger than the smallest subatomic particle as the known universe is bigger than a human being.

 

i.e on the scale of smallest to largest, where you'd probably expect us to be very close to the small end of the scale, we're actually about halfway.

 

Is that in the book?

 

Christ on a stick, another must-read, how the **** am I supposed to read them all.

 

 

Not the one I referenced upthread, no. But it's in lots of others.

 

Or just have a go with this: The scale of the universe

Edited by mjmooney
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I find it more fascinating that there is sense to be made of it all, whereas you'd expect everything to be completely chaotic.

 

Maybe in some universes it is.

 

We just happen to be in the one that has this kind of structure.

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And yet a human being is as much larger than the smallest subatomic particle as the known universe is bigger than a human being.

 

i.e on the scale of smallest to largest, where you'd probably expect us to be very close to the small end of the scale, we're actually about halfway.

I'm being slightly pedantic, but sub-atomic particles don't have something that could conventionally be described as "size". Mass, charge, spin, charm, but not size. How would you define the outside edge of a waveform probability? It is unbounded so you'd have to limit on an arbitrary probability, which means you can choose whatever "size" you like. From the point of view of an observer, all sub-atomic particles are necessarily infinite when considering the entire waveform probability.

 

There's at least one expansion of the equations which allows that there is only a single electron in the universe.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUe0_4rdj0U

42:50->

I like that example. It shows perfectly that whatever we find out is influenced by our perspective and place in time, and thus can be completely wrong.

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Amazing to think how insignificant we really are...

Au contraire, the complete opposite is true. NOTHING is insignificant. In fact, as the only known intelligent life in the universe is say we're pretty **** significant.

 

 

do you mean humans ..or planet earth in general ?

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Amazing to think how insignificant we really are...

Au contraire, the complete opposite is true. NOTHING is insignificant. In fact, as the only known intelligent life in the universe is say we're pretty **** significant.

do you mean humans ..or planet earth in general ?

I mean the only species of any kind capable of contemplating the universe. That we currently know of.

I'd be surprised if your average dolphin looks up at the sky and ponders where those pretty lights are.

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