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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • thumbs up minute physics brought you here

  • I just realized how small special and one of a kind I am

  • @Bluemann being one of a kind and being special are mutually exclusive.

  • @JohnF30Music Why? If you are one of a kind that might make you special in 50% of circumstances I would think?

  • "you could be a random fluctuation out of the nothingness" -what a punch line, it honestly rocks*.

  • @scanningpiranhas s, so my entire life is just a random jumble of accidental stuff, tears will be shed tonight :(

  • At 12 min after describing that fluctuations should be minimal and that it is more likely that a brain would appear that thinks there is an outside universe than actually creating a real outside universe, he just asserts that's wrong.

    BUT notice he does not justify why it is wrong! It very well could be that the universe just at this moment fluctuated into a brain state that had your conscious experience and memories within it. There isn't a way to prove this isn't the case!

  • @Promatheos He cited the Feynman quote. If the universe were a fluctuation, then we wouldn't expect to look at two different places and see similar things.

    And while you can't prove that you exist, you certainly must assume it in order to gain any kind of functional knowledge.

  • God made the universe

  • @mookie9439 God IS the universe.

  • @mookie9439 lol troll

  • I know very little about this but I was thinking that if black holes condense everything why dont in a reaaally long time they take EVERYTHING (including eachother) and condense all of it until they with nothing left and colapse and it all starts over with a packed in thing like he was talking about the big bang coming from? Please respond with your thoughts!

  • @coolguyinblack LOL no. what kind of a question is that....has nothing to do with what i just said. -_- zzzzzz

  • @teentitans0789 Actually it has everything to do with what you said. You asked why there is such a strong belief of the big bang. The answer is that it's currently the most useful theory (i.e. you / we don't have a better one).

  • why is the big bang accepted as fact. it's still a theory. i'm not a christian bashing ideas, but i mean in all reality we have no idea how it started, yet i see the big bang being used more and more like we saw it happen, when we didnt. it is dangerous to assume - especially with the origin of our universe.

  • @teentitans0789 it is the most accepted theory, one of the predictions of the big bang was the background radiation which was later confirmed, and that's how good theory goes, it not only explains what you want it to explain, it also predicts new things=)

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  • @teentitans0789 Scientific theories are not assumptions, they are built on evidence, observation, and predictions. Also I'm curious why you think it would be so dangerous to assume the origin of the universe? It seems utterly irrelevant to me (though interesting) in daily life etc more of curiosity than anything else.

  • @DSBrekus *more of a

  • I didn't like this guy until the part he said there's a chance the big bang may not have been the beginning of the universe. It keeps the mysteriousness mysterious. More fun space theories..yay.

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  • The answer to the second conundrum is very simple. If three-dimensional space is infinite in all directions, then all possible combinations of these thermal fluctuations are happening somewhere at random points in space, and always have been, and always will be.

    We just happened to arise in one of the larger ones.

    Right now, there are entities in other systems (much smaller and much larger), at distances too vast for the human mind to comprehend, asking themselves the same questions, about us.

  • all hail the great mother chicken!

  • Every possıble formation of the molecules ın the room would occur on a long enough tımescale? Fascınatıng that ıncludes the formatıon every person there becomıng a duck and a broadway musıcal ensuıng.

  • @eoineoineoin Yes. It's like if you had an infinite number of monkeys sitting at typewriters for an infinite amount of time. Eventually, they'd type out the complete works of Shakespeare.

  • @CoNiGMa actualy lookin into infinity monkeys don't have to tipe all that, because infinity means anything that can happen will happen and will actually happen an infinite amount of times, the probability of it happening determing the distances between instances of it happening but because time is infinite, those instances althaugh far apart, are also infinite :D so in conclusion, any type of matter can and will eventually arrange itself into shakespeare writings an infinite amount of times :D

  • @chiciu That would also be true if looking at it through the eyes of infinity itself. I was looking at it more simplistically, but you are also correct. =)

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  • I'm not convinced by the current dark matter theory models, what I believe is that the Universe is like a great big breathing lung, expanding after the big bang, eventually running out of momentum, gravity wins over, collapses in on itself into a point where it dies and is reborn again in a new big bang.

    If an infinite Universe is your theory where everything is possible, what about the possibility of the destruction of the Universe? Then it's no longer infinite.

  • @Irishfreedom If that is the case, then it never actually dies. There has to be something left in order for it to be reborn. Ergo, it would still be infinite.

  • @Irishfreedom If thats how you choose to view the universe at its' largest scale, well more power to you.

  • This really clicked for me. Infinity seems to be the key. With an infinite number in the equation an interesting viewpoint starts to emerge

    I always assumed that the universe would end when all the mass was ‘stuck in time’ within black holes resulting in no time or mass, no universe. However, if dark energy remains then the universe is infinite, very interesting.

  • Alan Alda....  (:

  • His voice has much smooth but heavy oscillation fluctuation, alternately deep diving my ear drums and spiking my pattern recognition. He is making apple pie from the apple tree in the woods that no one could hear falling.

  • @sverr0r

    and here we are rejecting the pie he's trying to give us...how rude!

  • @xjustamem0ryx That pie may contain remnants of nuts! Seriously though - its certainly a bit over my head, even though its a lifelong subject of interest. Just responding with what language I have that resonates with what I do pick up on. I wasn't willfully trying to be rude, though I can appreciate that simple layman's terms being used to respond to a scholastic talk can come across as such.

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  • @sverr0r

    heh I was just having fun. to be honest, I've never understood anything more clearly than in terms of metaphor (laymen or otherwise) :P

  • So dark energy had limitless energy?

    if it can continually expand forever, as described, it should surely have infinite energy also. Doesn't this break a certain foundational law of science?

  • I got to 7:00 before my cerebellum began to bleed.... profusely... 

  • We all know Zeus, Jesus and a Unicorn made everything? He obviously hasn't let them into his heart and accepted their words. To bad for him when he dies he won't spend eternity on Candy Mountain with Zeus, Jesus and the majestic Unicorn.

  • @ChoasTheory2000

    theyz b h8in!

  • @ChoasTheory2000 hey CT2000 - don't be silly. This guy is very smart - but out on a limb with amazing ideas but, I must say, NO facts. He just has ideas, not even hypothesis really. Now, as a historian, I bring in your blanket "Zeus, Jesus and the majestic Unicorn (sic)"... I know some respondents are ignorant, but there's no need to BE ignorant when using hyperbole. Jesus IS a strong historical figure and there's no need to stoop to 'silly-ness' in your comment by assembling him with myths...:)

  • @phillnovaskill Well first of all I was just poking fun at the God hypothesis, which also has NO facts as you would put it, but alot of people buy into for some reason. And second of all your claim that Jesus is a historical figure and not myth is absurd seeing as their isn't any evidence of his existance other than hearsay and a forged sentance in a text that has been copied so many times it would be un-reliable at best. So in terms of evidence you could easily put him in the "Myth" category.

  • @Jaspian I guess you didn't get what I was meaning. "nothing(ness) is infinite".

  • I don't like this guy. He talks about a bunch of theories like they're fact. Time could result from any number of different things. Entropy is not necessarily the governing factor. Hawking radiation has never been observed... its just a mathematical deduction based on existing unproven theories. Dark Energy is actually sciencese for "we have no clue but I made this thing up and it makes the math work, so we're going with it".

    Its irresponsible for him to go on like these are facts.

  • Nothing is infinite. That is to say that nothingness has no end. Conversely, the shape of everything is all that exists outside a dot...

    And if you stare at that dot long enough, you will see a chicken.

  • @Panyc333 Something is infinite, otherwise we couldn't be here.

  • @Jaspian

    or just immensely finite?

  • @Panyc333

    baby's got chicken tonite!

  • you can listen to him.... or you can live your life with no such questions in your mind

  • he's a man of great faith

  • @phillnovaskill He's an outspoken atheist...

  • @TheKulaffle606

    n yer an outspoken Utoobr!

  • I hate the fact that my english is too poor to understand this properly. Makes me sad :(

  • @suffocatejav90 the divinity of numbers ;)

    Got to love philosophy!

  • @xjustamem0ryx dark energy perhaps? Or the combination of both (dark and light energy)? ;)

  • Way too much speculation!

  • so in other words, dark energy is just the lack of zero pressure. well duh.

  • My theory of everything starts with : one and ends in one.

    If one can explain his own existence, one can explain the universe IMO.

    To be more precise : consciousness.

    We're all made of the same stuff, what is it(consciousness)that allows the "stuff" to reflect on it's own existence.

  • @DurexDurpaneu2 Consciousness is an abstraction of the processes that occur inside our brains. In order to be consciousness there must be matter, to form a brain; and energy to make it work.

    I think that the Omniverse (totality of existence) has always existed. It is eternal.

    And I would say that the number is zero... infinite posibilities to the left and to the right of that number....

    peace man!

  • @SuffocateJav90

    are we just holograms? ;(

  • He looks like the weird guy in role models.

  • @TheDemorphium YES! thats exactly what i was thinking! hahaha that guy is in forgeting sarah marshal too!

  • Lovely to see some nice educated guess work in motion.

  • to say "the future is much longer than the past" is an absurd statement on any level.

    and the talk makes a lot of sense if you have faith in such non-facts, because then you probably also believe that new energy is created as empty space increases at an accelerating rate due to a big bang, where a tiny bit of something turned into everything and that it will eventually all be gobbled up by black holes which we can't really see, and all proven by math we're all to stupid to understand of course.

  • what if...like...we're all just dreams. dreams of ourselves, dreaming each night. and then we like..wake up and get on with our lives which are exactly the same as our dreams...

    woow duuude. im like a physiciatrist or something!

    v

    v

  • @romanpr1nce

    I don't see why not. dreams are holograms of past, present and future.

  • So, as Stephen Hawkings believed, the universe started from an infinitely small and infinitely dense point into the Big Bang. Black holes condense everything into an infinitely small and infinitely dense point. If there is a multiverse as I'd like to believe, what if a black hole in another universe is just the birth of a new universe (ie. a new Big Bang)?

  • @CoNiGMa Put that into a coherent theory and work on the math!

  • @CoNiGMa That's a good theory, especially since Stephen Hawking change dhis original black hole theory and said that the black holes hold their contents for eons but themselves eventually deteriorate and die. As the black hole disintegrates, they send their transformed contents back out into the infinite universal horizons from whence they came.

  • @CoNiGMa a very plausible theory. even in this he hints at that idea in "that space appears finite, there is a horizon beyond which we cannot see."

  • @CoNiGMa I've always wondered if that was the origin of the big bang. It doesn't answer the question though of where DID we come from - but it is an interesting and completely plausible possibility as far as I am aware.

  • @YourBrainOnReligion The only thing is, it still would not explain where the original universe came from. So, we'd still be stuck with the same questions, only more stretched out.

  • @CoNiGMa Precisely; and worse, opens the door to infinite regress. :\

  • @YourBrainOnReligion  Aw...why the door to infinite regress instead of progress?

  • @tvswnet Not sure if you were joking or what, but if your question was serious:

    Infinite regress is counter-intuitive *to* progress, which is why it's unacceptable. There would still have to be a beginning somewhere, somehow, which is what we all ultimately want to know more about. It's also intellectually stifling because one must logically conclude that we can't ever know - and that's just antithetical to science and intellectual progress altogether :)

  • @CoNiGMa it is....;)

  • @CoNiGMa but why would the black hole suddenly burst?

  • @charliemeon As the guy in the video said, when you squeeze things together, the temperature goes up. So, if you have an infinitely dense and infinitely small point, it could explode because of the massive amount of heat generated from it being so compressed.

  • @CoNiGMa guess so...

  • @charliemeon Why wouldn't it? :-) Perhaps it's really part of the infinite macro/micro universal birth-death-birth cycle...the role of the black hole might be to "destroy" in order to create...sort of like a really great cosmic recycling factory...

  • @CoNiGMa It's Stephen Hawking not Hawkings

  • @scotttuohy Yes. It was a typo that I realized after posting my comment and didn't feel like removing and retyping it.

  • @CoNiGMa Very sensible conclusion. Are you familiar with Nassim Haramein? If you want a sort of extreme but interesting theory along those lines, check out his work (Schwarzchild proton, crossing the event horizon). He has some other ideas about our human history that are a little harder for me to fully take on, but I do enjoy his physics theories.

  • @CoNiGMa Ive thought about the same thing. Tautological argument, like the chicken and the egg. Dont say matter auto-propogation, bc then where did the propagator come from? bam.

  • @CoNiGMa exactly what i think, our universe is the inside of a black hole in another universe and so on and so forth! :-)

  • @drtydawg73 Univerception?

  • @CoNiGMa Who is Stephen Hawkings?

  • @majestic93 See my previous response about the typo. Stephen Hawking is how it was meant. If you still don't know who that is, you need to move out from that rock you are living under.

  • @CoNiGMa Sorry bro.

    I just really hate it when people write it incorrectly. Hope you understand.

  • i listened. i was riveted. i also had no idea what he was talking about...

  • Homework??? Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

  • fire up the millenium falcon already, earth is so last year.

    let's hunt for life in parallel universes in shat.

    how long is it going to take to be able to safely traverse inter-galaxies etc?

  • @xjustamem0ryx

    Too long for you.

  • @sdrawkcabgnipytmi

    well that blows lol

    wish I was born 3000 year from now

  • infinite universe.....lady gaga said that in her video "born this way" lol copy cat!

  • there should be a long pause after have stated hundred bilion, as if we were counting, just to grasp the idea of how much that really is.

  • @newhorizons1970 I recall Arthur C. Clarke once writing that, aside from being the number of stars in our galaxy, 100 billion is also the approximate number of all humans who has ever lived on Earth. Thus there is essentially a star for each one of us.

    Even more mind boggling is the idea of each galaxy holding 100G stars. Hence the number of stars in the universe is around 10^22.

    And the next step is to think about what that means for the number of planets in our universe.

  • I pity western science and theoretical physics in particular. CERN, Hubble etc..built on the concept that the universe is made only of matter. They ignore consciousness which is the ground of time, space, energy and matter. Study Hinduism. Also the big bang is not the "age" of the universe.

  • @acidcrashguy

    Yes, let's replace the theoretical work based off physical observations collected over the last 50+ years and the collective thinking of thousands of top minds so we can accept... Hinduism... Which we all -know- has no flaws or holes in it's "explanations".

  • @atheistchaos Your sarcasm notwithstanding, you got it mostly right. It is as perfect as human knowledge can get. This is why every science that has spun out of Hinduisms basic concepts - Yoga, Ayurveda, Astronomy, Vedanta don't contradict each other. Theoretical physics has its place but it has been stuck since the laws of Quantum Mechanics. Hinduism has been around 10,000 yrs. The "Top minds" of today have a lot of catching up to do - we know the human brain hasn't evolved much since then.

  • @acidcrashguy

    We've gained more knowledge in the past 100 years than we have in the last 1000, there's no catching up to do. As stupid as the average person is today, they've still got more basic knowledge than the most intelligent people even 200 years ago.

    It hasn't been stuck either. New concepts and information come in frequently.

  • sound = light, dark matter is lower Entropy particles of sound, not admitting light radiation.

  • If objects that are farther away seem to move faster away from us than the objects that are closer, then shouldn't that mean that the universe was expanding faster in the past than it is today?

  • mind = blown

  • Mein Vortrag. Ich bin total platt. Er hat es erkannt. Ich bin nicht alleine ...

  • Are bluish dress shirts mandatory or highly recommended when giving a TED lecture?

  • @SheHasALovelyMinge Its theoretical physics but if we knew what dark energy and dark matter was maybe a testable theory can be made. To say it cannot be tested you would need a lot more information. At one point in time almost everything in science today couldn't be tested.

  • Douglas Adams and Sean Carroll would have gotten along famously... I couldn't help but think about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series multiple times throughout this. ^.^

  • My universe didn't come out of no cosmic chicken, it was a cosmic platypus!

  • My brain just exploded.

  • @SheHasALovelyMinge No, because, you see, where science's experiements can be tested and verified or rebuked, the bible's "facts" and "theories" are constantly proven false or not in accordance with testable theories.

  • HE DISCOVERED THE SECRET OF IMORTALITY  9:57

    we need to figure out how to make life live independent of time.

  • Love the hopefully intentional Douglas Adams reference at 0:00

  • First TEDTalk that i don't understand anything

  • Is SO easy to imagine Sheldon Cooper doing this TEDTalk

  • I think the cosmos continually experiences bangs/crunches, and that each cycle would be considered a parallel universe. My brain hurts.

  • I always thought that the ultimate end of the universe (total entrophy - literally a universe of nothing) would go on to produce a singularity out of nothing, and the whole scenario repeats itself. If that is so, then 'existence' or 'reality' is eternal.

  • Thank goodness there wasn't a pointless and stupid ad at the end of this TED video! What a dumb idea.

  • Which leads to the idea that intelligent design could also exist.

  • @poopdude yes, agnosticism is the word!

  • @poopdude Could exist, yes. Get to testing it. Make sure it's not the work of the FSM!

  • Phew. Another TEDTalk without a nonsensical ad at the end.

  • dark energy? Phaha. Dark energy is just Humanity's misunderstanding of gravity.

  • @TehNewV I find it hard to believe that all the brilliant cosmologists and physicists that have struggled to uncover the mysteries of the universe through empirical evidence have made a simple mistake in inventing a whole new form of energy which is accepted by the majority in the scientific community. Also, I find it very hard to believe that some schmuck on youtube posting a comment without any evidence has any brilliant insights about the phenomenon.

  • @chessfan6

    Actually, we didn't invent a whole new form of energy; "dark energy" is really just an admission of our ignorance as to what is causing the universe's expansion. It seems to be related to Einstein's "biggest blunder," which is the cosmological constant or vacuum energy. This is why we believe it has something to do with an inherent energy of space-time, rather than a misapplication of gravity. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard that a flawed understanding of gravity is suspect.

  • @ultramerton Well if at first there was no dark energy, then scientists postulated its existence... obviously we invented a new form of energy - that of empty space. That is simple logic.

    What is ultramerton's explanation of why the universe is expanding anyways?? It seems to me dark energy is a very reasonable idea.

  • @chessfan6

    Sorry, perhaps I didn't make myself clear: I meant there is no new energy in the conventional sense (i.e. electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces). This new "energy" is something of which we have an incredibly meager understanding. We know it's a repulsive pressure (for now) and we know its magnitude (that of the cosmological constant), but no more.

    Also, I absolutely accept the existence of dark energy; I'm not sure why you're requesting an alternative explanation.

  • @chessfan6 Look, it's not hard to understand, dark matter was just made up to fill the hole left by our old newtonian way of portraying gravity. Your arrogance and conformity to old ideas reminds me of the numerous other times the entire scientific community agreed on something but was later proven wrong. There are 6+ different HiggsBosons that account for the two "schools" of gravity, near and far field, if you plug the math in you'l find it's the most elegant solution. :]

  • @chessfan6 Furthermore, of all the tests to detect dark matter (WIMPs) with germanium crystals there have only been 2 interactions and they cant even justify the existence of D.M. since they could be pretty much anything else..... Wheres the fucking proof for DM eh?

  • BRAINPORN!!!!! I want more!!

  • I laughed at the apple pie part. xD

  • This guy is full of crap....basically one can disprove his theory if one can predict the future or that one can prove that another dimension exist.

    Well, I know we can predict the future.

  • this is crap

  • Enlightening video!

  • My brain just exploded.....

  • @ChowZeb holy crap! ...mine too!?!

  • "the universe is really big" - understatement of the century...

  • Funny how his name is very similar to Carl Sagan. Entropy in action?

  • Apparently he had no need of a god in his scenario of where the universe came from. Echoes of Laplace's defense of his universe to Napoleon. It's about time we outgrew mankind's foolishness and primitive ignorance on gods.

  • @emaildoctor He did mention god, in form of a universe-chicken that crapped our universe out

  • "the universe is really big"

    love the intro

  • hades from hercules (disney movie)?

  • loved it :D

    

  • The intro sucks!!! Stop making it so loud!

  • i dont beleive ithat the universe is hold by some power it is what should naturally should happen and we are just trying to undrestand why not very smart person this one

  • so from this I'm to believe that it's easier for the universe to create a god, who will eventually create the universe, than it is for the universe to create the conditions where man evolves to the point, where he creates a story about a god creating a universe.

    The emperor has no cloths folks!

    If you believe everything presented to you by anyone in the name of science, then yes, wow, this talk was enlightening.

    Otherwise, just science fiction without a plot.

  • @waysworth But then that 'god' would be within the laws of physics. Not the same as the nebulous, undefinable 'god' people normally think of.

  • Feynman is the man!!

  • Matter and energy are made up of the electrical and chemical reactions of the "universe brain". Dark energy and dark matter are the "universe brain tissue" (aka empty space). The big bang was the sperm entering the ova and starting "universal fertilization". The space between galaxies is accelerating because the universe hasn't reached maturity yet (universal adolescence). Eventually the acceleration will end and we'll hit equilibrium for a while until "universal cell death". Done deal :)

  • @manofaction2828 you do know that once acceleration ends, it will still expand?

  • @Nyocurio My point was that we really don't know anything, we're making wild yet educated guesses from our tiny viewpoint. I was speculating that the universe may be developing in a similar fashion to the brain. So even though it is accelerating at the moment, I was jesting that it would eventually reach a full-grown size and come to a more static/stable state. So in answer to your question... no, I don't know what will happen to the universe, and neither does anyone.

  • what was the primal imperative for the existence of natural laws? is their 'necessary truth' sufficient to secure their existence?

    was the universe constipated? could the quanta not keep from dancing? why should they have danced at all!?

    do souls count as something out of nothing or are they recycled for equilibrium like mass and energy?

    is existence just a complex series of fractals?

  • @xjustamem0ryx

    The universe is likely one single complex fractal :o

  • @manofaction2828 That can be proven if you're able to find the right formula. I'm not joking.

  • This was fantastically educational.

  • So this is based on my crude understanding of the subject matter... Is there a reason why these configurations not repeat? Is there a reason why during that time of Empty Space that a another configuration can mimic our own and the universe as we know it can be birthed again?

  • @MobiusCoin Eventually, it would. And if the fabric of space really is infinite, then another universe on our scale is probably happening right-now, somewhere so far away that it can't even be measured in light-years. And in between, there are a whole lot of less-complex systems getting blipped into existence.

    Heck, over infinite space and a few quintillion millennia, sheer random chance would cause this exact universe to repeat itself. So I'm typing this exact sentence again, and again, and...

  • @Sylocat

    "Heck, over infinite space and a few quintillion millennia, sheer random chance would cause this exact universe to repeat itself. So I'm typing this exact sentence again, and again, and..."

    like a cosmic treadmill? this current existence could be one of many prior repetitions?

    but why shouldn't merely nothing happen over and over, even after a few quintillion millennia?

  • @xjustamem0ryx I believe the video explained that part for you.