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SpeedRacer

Why is there something rather than nothing?

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Bumping this up again. My other thread (about the Big Bang) got off on a tangent of discussion about specific Biblical passages, which was not my intention. So, does the universe exist so that you can have a place to put your beer, or what?
:P

Speed Racer
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because of the anthropic principle.



Ding Ding Ding.

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because of the anthropic principle.



Weak or strong?

Quantum mechanics forbids nothingness. Violates the uncertainty principle.

It's still based on principles that "we" (as humans ) made up.

How do we know that fish or dogs (or whatever else) don't have a totally different take on the Universe, which is governed by principles we do not have the capacity to understand.
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
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because of the anthropic principle.



Weak or strong?

Quantum mechanics forbids nothingness. Violates the uncertainty principle.

It's still based on principles that "we" (as humans ) made up.

How do we know that fish or dogs (or whatever else) don't have a totally different take on the Universe, which is governed by principles we do not have the capacity to understand.



Actually, dogs view the Universe according to the Caninic Principle, under which all matter and energy in the Universe eventually compresses into a single canine, which curls up to lick its balls, curling into an ever-tightening ball, eventually compressing into a single black hole until it explodes, beginning the cycle all over again.

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because of the anthropic principle.



Weak or strong?

Quantum mechanics forbids nothingness. Violates the uncertainty principle.
It's still based on principles that "we" (as humans ) made up.



If our minds are physical products of evolution, then it is possible that there ARE other possibilities of making a universe which has an entirely different set of physical laws.

However, our minds, being products of evolution within THIS particular universe, are incapable of conceiving of such an alternative universe.

So just because we can't wrap our minds around something doesn't mean that the thing could not exist.

ooooh....it would be time for another drink at this point , but I have to work tomorrow.

;)
Speed Racer
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"Why is there something rather than nothing?"

Taken as a whole, the universe is far more nothing than something. We tend to think of the universe as consisting of a lot of something, but really all the things in it combined would still be rather trivial.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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How do we know that fish or dogs (or whatever else) don't have a totally different take on the Universe, which is governed by principles we do not have the capacity to understand.



Step away from the bong Momenschwanz.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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Because the laws of physics don't forbid it, and anything that can happen, will.

It does not violate any laws of physics that Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johannson would have a threesome with me. According to your theory then, that will happen.:)


You're bastardizing the quote. It's more like "All possibilities will come to pass, GIVEN ENOUGH TIME." So the inference is that if there is an infinite amount of time, and the conditions making something possible exist forever, that the possibility would eventually not only be likely, but certain.

So the flaw here is that people live for only an infinite amount of time; and would you really want to have sex with her anyway if it took 18 bajillion years for her to come around to seeing your good qualities?
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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Actually, dogs view the Universe according to the Caninic Principle, under which all matter and energy in the Universe eventually compresses into a single canine, which curls up to lick its balls, curling into an ever-tightening ball, eventually compressing into a single black hole until it explodes, beginning the cycle all over again.



Is there anything in those Principles about eating one's own shit?

One of our dogs still eats it's own shit. I'm thinking with all the dog food it eats, combined with the fact that it eats it's shit; that he should explode like an overblown balloon at some point. I mean, all that is really being voided and not reconsumed is the piss.

Where is he puting all the shit?
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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Well, isn't "nothing" actually "something" if you look at it the right way?

Look. I have no point to make. Thus, my point is I have no point.

Nothingness can be described. Thus, nothingness is something.



No no no.

Nothing is the absence of something.

No wait.

Nothing is the absence of anything.

No, hmmm.

Nothing is the absence of all things.

Except for the no thing.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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Well, isn't "nothing" actually "something" if you look at it the right way?



You're right!

And here we have a sort of classic example of language getting in the way of being able to understand something.

I believe that when most people use the terms "something" and "nothing" they are referring to matter and I believe that is completely justified in normal human experience.

If a magician shows you an "empty" hat, one could justifiably say there is "nothing" in the hat but most of the time they'd be horribly wrong because there would at least be air in the hat and air is most definitely "something".

In a sort of likewise yet opposite fashion, if the magician showed you a rabbit, most people would say that's "something" yet if you took all of the protons, electrons and neutrons of the rabbit and could somehow squeeze them down so that there were no spaces between them, it would be nearly impossible to distinguish the "something" amidst the huge volume of "nothing" surrounding it.

All of THAT said, the "nothing" would still exist in at least four dimensional time and space, which is clearly "something".

From a matter point of view, the universe is MOSTLY composed of nothing.

From a time and space point of view, the universe seems to be composed of quite a bit of something with "nothing" outside of it.

The "nothing" is only called "nothing" though because it is not possible for anyone inside of our universe to see outside of it. This is the exact same issue with the problem of "What came before the Big Bang?" In all likelihood, it wasn't "nothing", but rather "something" just not able to be seen or even accurately conceived because we're inside this universe.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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