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Has Cosmology Been Solved?
An anonymous reader writes "In 1998, Dr. Michael Turner published a famous paper titled 'Cosmology Solved? Quite Possibly!' where he outlined seven major issues cosmologists should address in the following ten years. Nine years later, he revisits the list in an interview with the Slackerpedia Galactica podcast. He summarizes progress on each issue, adds some new goals for the next ten years, and even suggests that cosmology is now more interesting than science fiction."
is "solved," is the day that field of inquiry ceases to be science, and BECOMES science fiction
science is a never ending inquiry into the unknown. there will always be the unknown
however, some of the higher level stuff of cosmology strikes me as a little too far out there to be called completely science. it is in many ways an intersection of philosophy, and math, and astronomy, and even religion
i think of cosmology as a sort of soft science, like sociology
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Which of course makes humans important. Funny how it always works seems to work out that way.
Did not read the linked article. Seems to have been slashdotted. Wonder if he wrote, "I have a truly remarable solution for cosmology, unfortunately this website is too small to write down".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Perhaps you've hit on one of the ways that religion is an asset from an evolutionary biology perspective. By giving nice canned answers to these unsolvable problems, you free people up to focus on things that are more directly relevant to their survival.
Any pre-religion cavemen who were sitting around wondering where we all came from probably either starved or got eaten pretty quickly...
> I wonder how they are going to explain a bunch of the population of the world disappearing all at once,
They aren't, because that's not going to happen.
They "don't like admitting"? I have never heard that -- the story is there. Now, people may differ as to the interpretation or the literary harmony, but I've never heard someone claim that the text isn't there.
A pet peeve of mine is that people who post here tend to believe that they're the first to identify a potential inconsistancy in the Bible. These have existed more or less unchanged for a couple thousand years. It's not as though all the minds contemplating the Bible simply skipped over that, and all of a sudden someone on slashdot points it out and "disproves" the Bible.
Well some "scientists" will tell you that they are smarter than God.
I'm sure a few may have implied that - I can't disagree with that - IMHO- as a Physics major.
These same ones know that it takes man thousands of hours to build a computer (which is a joke compared to even the brain of something as simple as a bumblebee), but the human brain evolved from a rock.
I don't understand. I think that god used Evolution as His tool. And He made all living creatures over Billions of Years. Using the timeline of God, we humans will ALWAYS be insignificant.
I wonder how they are going to explain a bunch of the population of the world disappearing all at once, scotty beamed them all up?
I am sorry. I do not understand .... unless, you are joking and making a reference to the Simpsons cartoon! Then, I understand!
No sir,
If you are serious with your argument, God is greater than science. Meaning, science is one explanation of God's will. There is no conflict.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
It's like saying "Math has been solved". Wow, that's terrific!! Thanks for the tip.
Will always be more interesting IMO. It is the human element (emotional, political, and intellectual) that dictates our advancement of research, application of technology, and willingness to integrate new understandings of our universe into the social fabric through education.
The human element is what separates a good science fiction story from an excercise in mental masturbation. On many occasions a solid sci-fi short or novella (my preferred lengths) have helped me gain a new angle on modern day issues.
While religious fervor is a huge culprit in the scisms developing in modern society (I only can speak for the American communities I am familiar with), it should be noted that many scientists spurn the importance of popularizers like Sagan. If anything we need more focus on making scientific progress a matter accesible to non-scientists who otherwise have access only to religious cosmologies.
Presenting new science in layman's terms does not have to = dumbing the information down. Good science fiction can accomplish this.
Regards.
While in principle, I agree with most of what you are trying to say, though I don't understand why you say that a thoroughly known science becomes sci-fi...
But in practice there are many fields, that while questions remain, the field itself has become very stagnant because, quite frankly, there isn't a whole lot of new and exciting knowledge or conceptualization to be done. Consider, for example, that nearly all of the Human Anatomy departments of US medical schools have either folded, or, more usually, mutated into something else, like departments of Cell and/or Developmental Biology. Its not because there aren't new findings in anatomy, nor new unanswered questions, and certainly not because human anatomy isn't taught anymore (every med student still needs to know it), but rather there really isn't enough new knowledge in anatomy per se, to warrant a continuing academic dept, or new faculty, or new graduate students -- we/they/the field has MOVED ON to related, but different branches of science.
You can also ask the question another way: Do we, as a society, ever learn/understand enough about a field of inquiry that we no longer deem it wise to continue funding and using precious resources to further vigorous inquiry, instead of moving on to other, more promising, less well understood fields of inquiry ? Well the answer from the NIH, the NSF, the private foundations, the university, the scientists, the Congress, etc, etc is most certain YES.
when cosmology's solved we'll have a spade that can be used directly to uproot all the religions that make cosmological claims - particularly the genesis-myth-based ones. No smart child will any more join these religions, let alone fight wars for them, or strap bombs to their bodies to enter their paradises.
Uh, no. Evidence and facts and all that stuff are no match for a superstitious mind.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
> These have existed [in the bible] more or less unchanged for a couple thousand years.
LOL - next you'll claim it was in English that whole time, or that it was written entirely by one man or god all those thousand years ago. Seemingly smart people (judging by your other posts, you may be one of them) tend to give way too much credit to "the good book's" intentions. At some point, we are all going to have to admit that the thing was pieced together for largely political ends, and that its basic intent may or may not have been all that benevolent the countless times it has been revised, localized and translated.
http://www.unfocus.com/
#1: it's probably infinite, but even if it's not
#2: human behavior is emergent phenomenon, it's not set in stone. it makes new stuff, it fucks with the status quo, requiring mankind to develop a new understanding of things that are newly opened avenues of investigation
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Ye Philosophers of Olde had severe problems with "deceiver" gods like this -- they couldn't even decide if Adam and Eve had bellybuttons or not. (If they did, it was indication of a past that did not actually occur, and thus God was a deceiver. If they didn't, then they weren't truly in the final human form, hence "made in the image of God" was now suspect.)
Modern religious people seem to have no problem with God being a flat-out liar doing things like making light from stars a billion light years away already be "on the way", and showing events that never actually happened.
Strange. Not only is the Devil testing you by doing things like pre-creating proto versions of Judaism that just look like Judaism derived from it centuries later, in anticipation of God giving the Jews holy writings centuries later. But now you have to deal with God himself deceiving you. And if you are misled by any of it, you get tortured for ever and ever.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Didn't scientists say just before the discovery of quantum mechanics that nature had been pretty much figured out and the rest was just details?
I wish I could RTFA. Does his list include solving the Slashdotting Effect?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Right, and what was man's sin again? Oh yeah, it was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God got mad and said, since you now know good and evil, I shall punish you and all of your descendants. But, ummm, if man didn't know good and evil prior to eating from the tree - how was he supposed to know it was wrong? Sure, God told him not to, but he didn't know that doing something he was told not to do was wrong. The inconstancy starts from the first book...
It's similar to the idea that "Christ came to save you"! Save you from what? He's here to save you from God! Well that's just swell. You'd think the guy who created the world in 6 days could have come up with a better way of "saving" humanity from himself than having a guy tortured and killed.
Yep, I know these aren't original points. Yep, I know I'm never going to sway a true believer with them either. I just like to point this out occasionally so other non-believing boot quakers like myself can have a nice laugh.
Right, because the Black Plague and World War 2 proved that if things are going bad, the end MUST be near! It must be fun to be in a doomsday cult!
We have a version of the Bible that is almost 2,000 years old (Dead Sea Scrolls). It hasn't changed much in the last 2,000 years. From the GP's post, I have no idea if he's a Christian. He's just pointing out that a lot of Biblical scholars are well aware of any apparent contradictions, and already have explanations for all of them.
My least favorite "gotcha" is when people try to claim that the Bible calculates pi to be 3. They don't seem to be able to understand that "round" and "perfect circle" do not mean the same thing. Anyways, the GP is right. Whether or not you're a Christian (I'm not), you're not going to find any "new" contradictions in the Bible. However, that doesn't mean you won't be able to make others aware of contradictions that they didn't know exist. Personally, I'm of mixed feelings on this. On one hand, most fundamentalism is anathema to science. OTOH, à la Kurt Vonnegut (who is now in Heaven), I do not wish to deprive others of their religious beliefs.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
the universe is not static. we, ourselves, human beings, are proof that the unvierse can result in some very strange unforeseen developments: parts of space aware of itself, and aware of its surroundings, and actively seeking to mold it
if you don't understand how fundamentally weird just our existence is in the universe, you don't grasp the really weird potential for what we might do (if we don't kill ourselves or meet with a killer asteroid in the next few cneturies before we get off this planet)
you lack imagination
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Deuteronomy 13:6-10
...
So, yes, a true Christian is absolutely *required* to murder any close friend or relative who points out that their god is an idiotic delusion and they should grow up and start dealing with reality.
This is a fine example of taking quotes out of context in a subject matter one is unfamiliar with and is biased against. Perhaps you should look instead to John 8:1-11, the tale of the adultress where the Pharisees drag a woman accused of adultery before Jesus to demand that she be stoned in accordance with Deuteronomy 22:22. However, Jesus instead responds, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone." When they leave in shame, he asks the woman if any still codemn her, and when she responsds that no one does, then he says, "Then neither do I condemn you, go now and sin no more."
There are many sections of the New Testament where portions of the Old Testament are reinterpreted or refuted. The food laws in Deuteronomy 14 are openly repealed in Acts 10. The mandate to stone to all breakers of the law is replaced by a message of forgiveness and redemption. To miss out on that is to wholly and completely miss the entire point of the gospel of Jesus. This is beyond twisting a few statements here and there. This is a blatant assertion that the message of Christianity is the exact opposite of the gospel of Jesus.
In other words: RTFB, newb. <g>
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
This is the thing that always cracked me up about the "post the ten commandments in every possible corner" sect. I mean, the Old Testament is just that, the old one, and the New Testament is supposed to be "The Law 2.0" (Okay maybe convenant when Adam in Eden is Law v1.0, covenant out of Eden is 2.0, convenant with Noah 3.0, Moses 4.0 . This was a stable build, the various prophets did release upgrades and service packs, before we get the whole new God's Law 5.0: Jesus Christ Edition [If it waS ubuntu would it be Jumpin Jesus 5.0]...;) So I digress, but anyways, the 10 commandments is the old set of rules, the new rules are the Beatitudes. The first time I hear someone saying we should post "Blessed are the merciful" in a court room , "blessed are the poor" on wall street or "blessed are the peacemakers" at the Pentagon, I'll know I've met a true Christian. Poor lonely guy, I'll probably slap him on the back and buy him some coffee.