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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."
seven major issues cosmologists should address in the following ten years
1. Move to a better hosting service.
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
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...
if prenup = false:
select * from MEN where yearly_income > 500,000 and value_of_car > 80,000
else:
cocktease()
SOLVED!
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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, technically, it you believe in creationism then it is no stretch to believe that oil was put in the "propper" place, etc. For example, there are religions that believe that Earth was built modeled after another world. If that was true, you would expect normal geology even if it was built in 7 days.
On the other hand, the true test is:
1) find a black hole 50,000 light years away
2) build a telescope big enough to see Earth at 100,000 light years distance
3) look at the edge of the black hole, using it as a mirror to reflect back the light that left Earth 100,000 years ago
Who says that creationism is untestable? Not me!
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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.
He rested on the 7th.
Bill Lumbergh: Ahh, I'm going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday, too...
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.
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.