Questions no one knows the answer to

In this relatively short TEDtalk, inspiring speaker Chris Anderson takes us through two of the more prominent truly speculative questions in contemporary astronomy. Enjoy!

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Picture of Geekster80 achievements

+13 1. Geekster (admin) commented 12 years ago

OK here's a good one [ not a single proffesor in my engineering university was able to awnser it] : I usually think of a lot of stuff, and one day I was thinking: everything moves. Us, planets, solar systems galaxies ETC. because of the universal expansion. Even when you sit on a chair, then get up go to the fridge and then go back on the chair, your are not in the same place where you was when you first stood on the chair, because Earth is moving trough universe at high speed. And my question is: HOW do you know when you stay perfectly still in one place? For technical reasons, this will only be possible in outer space because Earth is moving. Every time you measure something, you actually compare it to something else, like measuring height or lenght ..... But how can we manage to do this ? because there is no not-moving reference position to compare your position to it. Imagine that some phenomenon could happen if this will happen , no one knows ,and no one can prove me wrong, because nothing in this universe stays still... it keeps moving :) I gotta say, this really put me on thinking. And now on video topic : I personally thought on every single fact in this video, and I must say, it was VERY interesting to watch. worth every second 8-)
Picture of frieD19519 achievements

+10 2. frieD195 commented 12 years ago

It depends on your "frame of reference". It depends on how you look at things. To me, it looks like you are looking at "moving VS. not moving" from the standpoint of an observer "outside" the universe looking in. In that case, what are saying is true, there is no "not moving" frame of reference. But, if you were looking at moving VS. not moving from the standpoint of an observer watching (from within your living room for example) as you get up, go to the fridge, come back and sit back down on the chair, you would, in fact, be in the same place (assuming the chair didn't move when you sat back down AND were in the EXACT same position as before you got up, then yes, you and the chair would be in the same place. But since you want to get technical, you could say that even if all macroscopic objects were frozen in place (simply not moving), the atoms of these object would still be moving since atoms are continuously vibrating (if not moving freely through 3d space) even if they are in a crystalline lattice.
Picture of oleHashow30 achievements

+2 3. oleHashow commented 12 years ago

outer space isnt fixed, only thing that might be fix location would be center of the universe .... where the big bang and streaching begun.

and about multiverse thingy isnt that just one bigger universe.

as for alien maybe we just dont know how to look for them and they dont have time to bother with us.
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-8 4. iwinu commented 12 years ago

i agree with all of this but one thing is that the Big Bang is FAKE!!
Picture of huldu34 achievements

+9 5. huldu commented 12 years ago

Humans can barely leave the planet, let alone do any worthwhile exploration of the universe so no, humans will not find any alien life any time soon.

Even if there were aliens nearby with the ability to do space travels why would they even bother wasting time on this planet? It would be like if you had a conversation with a worm. Kinda pointless don't you think? You might consider humans as "enlightened" and all that, but seen through other beings eyes you might be nothing more than rabble.

Humans are a very destructive being, still too primitive. One day things might be different as mankind truly starts to evolve. For now i believe humans will end the life on this planet in one way or another, most likely destroying themselves in the process.

As long there is greed and need for power, humans will fail.
Picture of jrin228 achievements

+5 6. jrin2 commented 12 years ago

Great Vid!
Picture of HellsVacancy40 achievements

+5 7. HellsVacancy commented 12 years ago

Damn, i was enjoying that, reality soon hit me when i looked away from my laptop screen that i was STILL in my living room

I love getting stoned and thinking about space/universe, its the stuff down here i dont like to think about so much

+1 from me
Picture of Natan_el_Tigre52 achievements

-2 8. Natan_el_Tigre commented 12 years ago

Well, we can at least answer one of the questions: No, the future has not already been written.

And if you believe that it has, you ought to seek counseling for an explanatory style adjustment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
Picture of mwak48 achievements

+3 9. mwak commented 12 years ago

#8 I'm sorry, but can't see why it proves anything about this question.

We are amounts of matter and energy interacting with unimaginable amounts of other matters and energies. In fact if we could calculate all those interactions and the deducting reactions, we could be able to know the future.

The only thing that makes us believe in randomness is that we don't know yet how to explain it. Look in the past, there where so many facts that where attributed to divinities that we can now explain, and we call it science. We just have to get deeper in the understanding of our reality.
OK, we are far from it and maybe it's a good thing. But we are on the way. Even today processors have pre-emptive capabilities that pre-calculate what is supposed to happen based on what happened and learn about their fails.

If you want another experiment that prove this : just get a dice and launch it. There are so many factors that you can only use statistic theories to estimate what is going to happen.
Now change some of the experiment points, as having more of the same number on the faces or having a glued face or anything that we already know (estimate) the impact and interactions with its behaviours.
You can now reduce to the maximum what is going to happen "randomly", in fact you can predict something that was impossible couple of minutes ago, just because you know (estimate more precisely?) how things react.

Just get it to smaller scale, maybe smaller than the quarks and you will see how a small reaction at subatomic level makes a lot of impact on what we know as visible reality ... well we can't for now ... but maybe someday we will. :)
Picture of PaterSin42 achievements

+3 10. PaterSin commented 12 years ago

#1 its not as easy to explain it is all relative but here are 2 videos that explain it somewhat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pAnRKD4raY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajhFNcUTJI0
Picture of archis51 achievements

+1 11. archis commented 12 years ago

#1
''HOW do you know when you stay perfectly still in one place?'' You must define what is one place to answer this question. You say our planet moves true space, true some space coordinate grid. I say earth stays perfectly in ''one place'' and everthing else moves around us.
Picture of Jingle20 achievements

+1 12. Jingle commented 12 years ago

#1
if all moves and u dont't.. than u move too.. becuse the only other possible perscpective is moving with all other.. so if u look from it u move.. becuse u are than the other perspective...

is easy.. called "time" or "process" i think
Picture of Havix25 achievements

+2 13. Havix commented 12 years ago

If this is close to what they think and we are going faster apart from all the galaxies around us and that we are speeding up. And that the faster that you go the slow that time moves. There should come a point were time stops. Then would we not be standing still.
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+2 14. cyberdevil commented 12 years ago

How do we even know that we exist? What if life is all but a thought, a self-projected illusion, what if the universe is a creation of our mind? What if all individuals we interact with are our own creations? If life is life though, what if the universe is neither endless nor limited but instead a loop? How can we even try to explain something when we don't know what we are trying to explain. We can only understand things we know, but what do we really know? The only truth is that there is no truth, trying to explain the universe is like trying to describe a color we have never seen. Maybe there are colors the human eye can not perceive, what do the colors we imagine while trying to think of one we don't know look like? This video is inspiring. :D
Picture of fulmar25 achievements

+1 15. fulmar commented 12 years ago

I know the answers.
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+2 16. iovnzu commented 12 years ago

Hey Chuck Norris! You have some questions to answer ;)
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+1 17. cretia commented 12 years ago

I know there are aliens ,i believe my neighbors are aliens
Picture of knospi36 achievements

0 18. knospi commented 12 years ago

#1 that is a nice thought. I studied some inertia systems. some are very clever and use lasers to find out if something is moving. because light has a maximum speed and will not travel faster if you run with a torchlight in your hand, it might be possible to determine your absolute speed and rotation. take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_laser_gyroscope. this thing can measure rotation without reference points. it should be possible to adapt this technology to find out about your absolute movement.
let me know what you think about it.
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+2 19. SlyButHigh commented 12 years ago

when Vtec kicks in.. it moves the earth... all the Vtecs in the world make it spin round :)
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-2 20. schlafanzyk commented 12 years ago

This is exactly why at some point in the night, I stop thinking about the universe and physics, put on some porn, beat off, go to bed and enjoy the next day without even thinking about it for one more second - until I get bored again. Knowledge and the desire for knowledge can become an addiction dragging you down while, to a certain degree, ignorance makes life a shitload of a lot easier. I wish my parents had made me realize that earlier in life, so I would be able to embraced it more often instead of starting to think in these dimensions at the age of 8 or less.
Picture of jaaaan14 achievements

-2 21. jaaaan commented 12 years ago

what? no proof of aliens? what about some unexplained crop circles? we do not have a technology to make them the way they have been made!!! some are of course human made but some for sure not!!! piramids around the world were built with use of alien technology 15.000 yrs ago (not 5000)..etc etc. watch "crossing the event horizon" - very good lecture.
Picture of Irvin16 achievements

0 22. Irvin commented 11 years ago

Two possibilities exist, either we are alone in the universe or we are not, both are equally terrifying.

-Arthur C.Clarke