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Is the Universe Concious?

PDX Dopesmoker

Active member
the god complexes that i see usually occur in the medical profession
lots of little gods there
science starts with speculation
most of it doesn't go very far, but every now and then something big gets found
and speculation is cheap, no money needed to crank out speculations
and the amount of money that goes to 'out there' science?
compare to other government expenditures, on a chart it would likely be near invisible

In that area of science near field study and efforts of potential real value take a back seat to looking at distant dots searching for worthless clues about cosmology. Thats what I'm talking about with god complexes and why people walked on the moon 50 years ago almost, but growing weed on Mars is still science fiction. Pretty pictures from the space telescope isn't progress, its just colored dots on a screen, a distraction from the lack of progress.
If a dinosaur extinction type asteroid smashes humanity before we have a 2nd planet then the cosmologically inclined egotists who have been wasting most of that sector of budget trying to make a name for themselves by unlocking the secrets of the big bang are responsible for the end of our species, not that it would mean anything at that point.
I worked for the National Optical Astronomy Observatories in Tucson in the 1990s, anyone involved with anything in our solar system was lower than dirt. It was very depressing to see up close the reason for the lack of progress and why some of the sci-fi dreams of my youth will never come true.
In 1994 cosmologists turned the Hubble Space Telescope to Jupiter for a few minutes and watched Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smash Jupiter with an impact equivalent to a billion large hydrogen bombs and they didn't learn a thing at all.
 

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
...
I worked for the National Optical Astronomy Observatories in Tucson in the 1990s, anyone involved with anything in our solar system was lower than dirt. It was very depressing to see up close the reason for the lack of progress and why some of the sci-fi dreams of my youth will never come true.
...

i can see there's a personal tie in for you
i just thought the article was interesting, nothing more than that
 

oldchuck

Active member
Veteran
I think the idea of panpsycism makes sense. I happy to see more scientists paying attention to it than there were 10 years ago. Thanks for that article.
 

PDX Dopesmoker

Active member
i can see there's a personal tie in for you
i just thought the article was interesting, nothing more than that

It probably is interesting, but not as interesting as the 100' tall pot plant you could grow in reduced gravity on Mars. I have a comrade still there in Tucson who stuck it out longer than me, a genuine asteroid hunter. Three times in the past three decades he has been able to give advance warning of what turned out to be near misses with severe catastrophe. If/when the one is out there and anyone is going to be able to do anything about it, its because of him & dudes like him, but in his field he doesn't get much respect or reward or access to the extremely large pool of available resources. If you're on a boat crossing the ocean the dude watching out for icebergs is a lot more important than the chaplain.
That kind of thing bothered me and thats why I left, so I think that you can understand now why I can't resist the opportunity to pounce on cosmologists and attempt to ruin their reputation at every turn. This isn't an completely oddball opinion I have either, Buzz Aldrin expressed similar sentiment in his autobiography (not the part about mean spiritedly attacking cosmologists at all turns, but the part about the deleterious effects on our own lives and the impending avoidable danger of the elimination of our species caused by the misallocation of resources for essentially religious reasons by people who claim to be men of science and logic).
 

shithawk420

Well-known member
Veteran
thats some heavy shit PDX.i know i would go insane if im not already.iwas tutored by actual geniuses and they were very soft spoken.the idiots that do nothing but talk to hear there own voices should be fired
 

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
It probably is interesting, but not as interesting as the 100' tall pot plant you could grow in reduced gravity on Mars. I have a comrade still there in Tucson who stuck it out longer than me, a genuine asteroid hunter. Three times in the past three decades he has been able to give advance warning of what turned out to be near misses with severe catastrophe. If/when the one is out there and anyone is going to be able to do anything about it, its because of him & dudes like him, but in his field he doesn't get much respect or reward or access to the extremely large pool of available resources. If you're on a boat crossing the ocean the dude watching out for icebergs is a lot more important than the chaplain.
That kind of thing bothered me and thats why I left, so I think that you can understand now why I can't resist the opportunity to pounce on cosmologists and attempt to ruin their reputation at every turn. This isn't an completely oddball opinion I have either, Buzz Aldrin expressed similar sentiment in his autobiography (not the part about mean spiritedly attacking cosmologists at all turns, but the part about the deleterious effects on our own lives and the impending avoidable danger of the elimination of our species caused by the misallocation of resources for essentially religious reasons by people who claim to be men of science and logic).

you have reasonable points, some of the same thoughts have occurred to me
and there was a period of time where the asteroid detection was really underfunded
i think that's changed to some extent
but the deep spacers have pulled out a few discoveries, dark matter, dark energy, and a probably flat universe(?)
now will any of that have down to earth practical uses? not yet, maybe though
 

maryjane481

Member
The purpose of life is to give the universe conscious, through all of us.
Therefore the purpose of life is to experience it.
So let's party.
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
The purpose of life is to give the universe conscious, through all of us.
Therefore the purpose of life is to experience it.
So let's party.

yup. the purpose of life is the living of it, not how many toys you accumulate along the way. you can't buy memories...:tiphat:
 

Floridian

Active member
Veteran
What is living what is life?Existencial horsehockey.You're born you die if you're cool you try not to hurt people along the way and keep a sense of humor always..This thread seems to be about people trying to "outdeep" each other lol.I'm soo intrinsic lol.No you're a totally imperfect motherfucker with no deep answers only shallow questions just like me.This thread has me holding up my pantsleg
 

Floridian

Active member
Veteran
I question if some of my fellow human beings are conscious half the time.Reality is a precious commodity though it oftentimes sucks.Some would rather deal in a made up world
 

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
there were a number of lines of conjecture in the article
1 i thought could be on the dark side
the notion of fusing 2 brains together, i guess mice were the likely test subjects
i am not excessively sentimental, i do take wild game for food from time to time
killing is one thing, torture labelled as science is something else
i could see that process as a very grim thing
though i suppose if people volunteered to try it first
 

barnyard

Member
Exactly igrowone, "volunteered"

Does the Universe posses choice? Balance is conditional not based on alternative options or choices.

Can Uranus make a concious choice of orbits?

Is conciousness the essential attribute of "the wise one"? The universe strives directly for equilibrium ~ balance is not a consideration or choice. Homo sapiens reflect and consider beyond direct experience which is the nature of conciousness.

People can make a CHOICE because we are concious. the Universe is not concious because it is pure experience and lacks any reflexivity.
 

oldchuck

Active member
Veteran
Pancychism suggests that everythingm even a rock, is part of something called consciousness. Okay, what's consciousness? Am I conscious when I am asleep? How about totally knocked out with an anesthetic? Well, not really but I am still alive. Consciousness = self-awareness? Well, I have a problem with that too. One measure of self-awareness is the ability to recognize your own image in a mirror. Can a cat do that. I have my doubts but I have no doubt that my cats are self conscious.
 

Floridian

Active member
Veteran
Aw fuck how can one of my ilk resist??I really can't say if Uranus can make a conscious choice of its orbit,but I can make a conscious choice of the orbit around MYanus.I prefer counterclockwise with an ending ball to taint motion..
 

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