space questions

[abu13]

Talking with my dad the other day after watching a programme on black holes and the scientists working on that sort of thing and we both thought the same thing what do we gain from this knowledge of all this stuff. I can understand going to the moon and Mars as our next step in the universe but why do we need to know about stuff billions of light years away what good does it do surely that money could be used for better things.

I have an overdraft but still went to the pub last night.
there are always better things to spend money on but they are not as much fun.

 

[TCIB]

Well one day we will have to leave this rock if we want to persist as a species.
We need a good propulsion system for that and looking so far out may present habitable planets, gas clouds to refuel and a whole load of stuff we have not even thought of.

The reality is not much money goes to funding telescopes and other imaging hardware and associated projects.
If you think for example of the usa's military spending, if SETI had a fraction of that cash they could search so much more for example.
Half our modern conveniences we take for granted could trace their roots back to the space program.
It is human ingenuity and engineering at it's best. Yes war demands invention but that has the slight bad point of seeing millions die.

 

[marco]

Talking with my dad the other day after watching a programme on black holes and the scientists working on that sort of thing and we both thought the same thing what do we gain from this knowledge of all this stuff. I can understand going to the moon and Mars as our next step in the universe but why do we need to know about stuff billions of light years away what good does it do surely that money could be used for better things.

black holes or inventing the wheel, both the same things in terms of scientific research, its human nature to progress and better what you have, if we want to progress and travel in space we need to know how black holes are born, work and then die

I thought about this the other day, just the moral side to it really, the money spent on finding all this stuff out. I wonder who decides how much money or time we are to spend actively researching this stuff. If the answer is "we do" as in mankind in general, then I reckon in a few hundred years, this kind of question won't even be asked.
What else is there to do? I've found myself asking. We can only keep going as long as there are new things to understand can't we? Do you ever think we'll get the answer to everything? We can't predict the weather can we because of the chaos, but maybe one day we will be able to.
I don't know. How important should discovery be? Is there even an answer to that.

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

 

[TCIB]

black holes or inventing the wheel, both the same things in terms of scientific research, its human nature to progress and better what you have, if we want to progress and travel in space we need to know how black holes are born, work and then die

I thought about this the other day, just the moral side to it really, the money spent on finding all this stuff out. I wonder who decides how much money or time we are to spend actively researching this stuff. If the answer is "we do" as in mankind in general, then I reckon in a few hundred years, this kind of question won't even be asked.
What else is there to do? I've found myself asking. We can only keep going as long as there are new things to understand can't we? Do you ever think we'll get the answer to everything? We can't predict the weather can we because of the chaos, but maybe one day we will be able to.
I don't know. How important should discovery be? Is there even an answer to that.

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

Haha, all this mind bending stuff is best read after a smoke.
I admit being asked if i want one sugar or two hurts my grey matter then but this stuff just crushes my mental ability to envisage.

Even basic stuff like knowing how big the sun is, just the numbers. I can't contemplate these things properly in my mind.
The fact a billion little bits of energy stuff just went through a space on me the size of a thumbnail in a tiny fraction of a second.
It just boggles my mind.

 

[mcfcphil]

Talking with my dad the other day after watching a programme on black holes and the scientists working on that sort of thing and we both thought the same thing what do we gain from this knowledge of all this stuff. I can understand going to the moon and Mars as our next step in the universe but why do we need to know about stuff billions of light years away what good does it do surely that money could be used for better things.

How can you say what we would gain from knowledge that we don't yet have?

 

[TangerineSteve17]

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

I wouldn't go as far to say we are insignificant. Small definitely. But as far we know so far, we are the only things in the universe actually capable of understanding the damn thing. That makes us very special indeed I think. We'll continue to evolve of course, but unless we get a visit, or possibly more likely visit another earth-like planet, and find intelligent life, we might be the smartest sentient beings in all of time.

 

[Stuuuuuu]

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

I wouldn't go as far to say we are insignificant. Small definitely. But as far we know so far, we are the only things in the universe actually capable of understanding the damn thing. That makes us very special indeed I think. We'll continue to evolve of course, but unless we get a visit, or possibly more likely visit another earth-like planet, and find intelligent life, we might be the smartest sentient beings in all of time.

Unlikely. When you look at the sheer vastness of the Universe, the chances are stacked extremely highly that there is a lot of life out there. It seems certain that there is life which is way more intelligent than we are.

 

[marco]

I thought about this the other day, just the moral side to it really, the money spent on finding all this stuff out. I wonder who decides how much money or time we are to spend actively researching this stuff. If the answer is "we do" as in mankind in general, then I reckon in a few hundred years, this kind of question won't even be asked.
What else is there to do? I've found myself asking. We can only keep going as long as there are new things to understand can't we? Do you ever think we'll get the answer to everything? We can't predict the weather can we because of the chaos, but maybe one day we will be able to.
I don't know. How important should discovery be? Is there even an answer to that.

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

Haha, all this mind bending stuff is best read after a smoke.
I admit being asked if i want one sugar or two hurts my grey matter then but this stuff just crushes my mental ability to envisage.

Even basic stuff like knowing how big the sun is, just the numbers. I can't contemplate these things properly in my mind.
The fact a billion little bits of energy stuff just went through a space on me the size of a thumbnail in a tiny fraction of a second.
It just boggles my mind.

me you and probably all the rest on here simply don't have the intelligence to deal with numbers of that size, we are programmed to a 9 till 5 and deal in multiples of 100 and we know 10 X 100 are a thousand and so on but would get completely lost with vast amounts, we cant mentally deal with it because we have never had to and its the same with size

 

[Stuuuuuu]

Talking with my dad the other day after watching a programme on black holes and the scientists working on that sort of thing and we both thought the same thing what do we gain from this knowledge of all this stuff. I can understand going to the moon and Mars as our next step in the universe but why do we need to know about stuff billions of light years away what good does it do surely that money could be used for better things.

black holes or inventing the wheel, both the same things in terms of scientific research, its human nature to progress and better what you have, if we want to progress and travel in space we need to know how black holes are born, work and then die

I thought about this the other day, just the moral side to it really, the money spent on finding all this stuff out. I wonder who decides how much money or time we are to spend actively researching this stuff. If the answer is "we do" as in mankind in general, then I reckon in a few hundred years, this kind of question won't even be asked.
What else is there to do? I've found myself asking. We can only keep going as long as there are new things to understand can't we? Do you ever think we'll get the answer to everything? We can't predict the weather can we because of the chaos, but maybe one day we will be able to.
I don't know. How important should discovery be? Is there even an answer to that.

Well its something that we'll probably always debate. I find it exciting and stimulating, but for me, we should be using that money to make sure everyone on earth is fed and given medical treatment and housing. Then we should explore.

 

[marco]

good post, there was some guy on TV a few weeks back trying to explain if there was an end to the universe, we as humans cant grasp there may be no end because everything we know has or will end, it may end but he was putting forward we may be one universe in amongst millions of others all with different laws of physics, quantum mechanics is very hard to grasp, but one thing is for sure and that's how insignificant we are in scale to our universe let alone millions of other universes

I wouldn't go as far to say we are insignificant. Small definitely. But as far we know so far, we are the only things in the universe actually capable of understanding the damn thing. That makes us very special indeed I think. We'll continue to evolve of course, but unless we get a visit, or possibly more likely visit another earth-like planet, and find intelligent life, we might be the smartest sentient beings in all of time.

Unlikely. When you look at the sheer vastness of the Universe, the chances are stacked extremely highly that there is a lot of life out there. It seems certain that there is life which is way more intelligent than we are.

maybe, but one thing is for certain we will never find out if we are alone unless we can travel faster than the speed of light,there is nothing within 100 light years of earth with life so on the basis of that you would have died of old age before you got further than that point