SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
janrinok
on Monday March 03 2014, @01:30AM
from the its-life-Jim-but-not-as-we-know-it dept.
from the its-life-Jim-but-not-as-we-know-it dept.
AnonTechie writes:
"What If We Have Completely Misunderstood Our Place in the Universe ? A Harvard astronomer has a provocative hunch about what happened after the Big Bang. Our universe is about 13 billion years old, and for roughly 3.5 billion of those years, life has been wriggling all over our planet. But what was going on in the universe before that time ? It's possible that there was a period shortly after the Big Bang when the entire universe was teeming with life. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb calls this period the 'habitable epoch,' and he believes that its existence changes how humans should understand our place in the cosmos. The full article is here"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Life On Earth Might Not Be So Special After All
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 48 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
F.S. Fitzgerald to Hemingway:
"Ernest, the rich are different from us."
Hemingway:
"Yes. They have more money."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Monday March 03 2014, @02:32PM
Take consciousness for example. Many people don't seem surprised that they are even conscious at all, and take it for granted. But I find this consciousness thing one of the really weird and amazing things about this universe. If you use "Occam's Razor" isn't there no need for it? Think about it - couldn't you have machines like us, that behave the same manner we do but not experience this conscious phenomena we experience? Why this extra effect? I'm not talking about freewill or information processing self-awareness - I'm talking about the subjective experience of consciousness.
Maybe you don't experience it but I KNOW that I do experience it for myself! It's one of the only things I can be sure of- everything else could be The Matrix. But I have faith that others do experience it too- I doubt I'd get any proof in my lifetime, but I don't think I am so special. I'm sure other people and many other animals experience this same thing I do.
But why? Would any math and science in the world explain why we get this experience? Couldn't you build a self-aware robot/replicant/AI that didn't experience this consciousness? Or is there some law in this universe that requires that anything doing that would emergently or magically somehow be conscious? Or is everything in this universe conscious and just differ in their abilities and degree to express/experience stuff? Or does it require specific sort of computation/process - e.g. a quantum parallel simulator recursively simulating itself (which still won't explain stuff, but narrow down what is required)?
A unique magic little snowflake like the zillions of other unique snowflakes, special and not so special - depending on how you choose to observe it...
Or could a reason be because this universe would otherwise be a lie if we didn't have this consciousness but merely behaved as if we did?
(Score: 1) by Woods on Monday March 03 2014, @04:16PM
I really want to reply to this, but you managed to already say everything I think about the subject. Sorry I do not have any new input!
I will say that I have pondered over this many times, but it occurs to me that I will never be able to postulate a reason as to my own consciousness, nor the consciousness of anyone else. Which sounds a lot like solipsism.
Typically after I think on the subject for a bit, my brain kicks into self-protection mode and turns on my ADD before it begins to melt from any possible realized implications.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @07:19PM
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.
It's also the kind of stuff that I have completely figured out after I eat a handful of funny mushrooms. Unfortunately, all that hard won enlightenment is gone by morning.