Does the universe even want to be explained.

[Something Amyss]

I love the casual approach to science. "Well, I don't really understand the world, and other things I don't understand are confounding the things I don't understand, so magic."

In this case, failure to understand the CERN experiments confounding a relative lack of understanding of the universe means it's fucking with us.

It couldn't possibly be that higher levels of understanding and greater ability to test our environment will almost certainly lead to at least some of our models being outmoded, simply because they were "as we best understand things now."

They could at least throw a tea party to calm us all down.

The tea party only comes if they need your brain. If they offer you a tea party, RUN!

 

[Something Amyss]

Although I conclude from a few reactions that a sentient universe is a bit farfetched, I will stay by my theory that for every answer will come a new question to take the old ones place. Until it is disproved by a combination of cynics, critics, and people who actually know what they're talking about(Calling out to all sensemakers!!!)

That's not a theory. Gravity as it's understood by us is a theory. It needs to not only be consistent with all current knowledge, it needs to make verifiable predictions that are then...well verified.

It's a theory as understood by the populace. As in, "a couple of brain cells made a half-assed attempted at sparking some neural activity, so I'm gonna run with it like it's important!"

Or, as it's better known, "Doctor Phil Syndrome."

 

[Versuvius]

The universe wants nothing, thinks nothing and believes nothing. It will just get on with what it has always done regardless of what we do. End of the world scenarios? Usually they are end of life scenarios and the earth goes on spinning, maybe on a different axis because of a meteor strike. What we do is inconsiquential in relation to everything beyond what is on our globe, which is fairly insignificant.

 

[huser]

Now, with all the things going on about particles going faster then light(thought to be impossible) and theories like Schrodinger's cat to confuse us even more, I have concluded that the Universe is sentient and will not and cannot, for some reason, let itself be fully explained. My theory is that for every mystery we solve will be another confusing situation, and it will carry on like a match of ping pong for the rest of all eternity, until the Universe decides to cheat and wipe us off itself like a human wipes an ant off of his knee. Thoughts, arguments, and opinions.

Interestingly enough Neil Degrasse Tyson gave a lecture basically explaining this. You join minds no less impressive as Ptolemy, Galileo, Newton, Laplace, etc that basically made their truly epic contributions to the sciences, couldn't explain the problem BEYOND the problem they had just solved and so invoked God controlling the rest.

What's of course interesting with this particular lineage of thinkers is that the NEXT guy in the line explained (completely secularly with math or observation) the thing the previous guy thought only the supernatural could explain.




TLDR: Just because it's currently complicated or even paradoxical doesn't mean it needs to be supernatural. In fact, the line of human science for millenia proves otherwise.

 

[cthulhlu]

Things are hard to explain because we are trying to make sense of a eleven dimensional time/space interaction using brains evolved to throw rocks at things, and using a language designed to tell other monkeys that This Is My Tree! My Tree! Grrr!

Also Schrodinger cat wasn't supposed to be a metaphor about quantum states, it was a joke to show how stupid the observer/uncertainty principle was at the time, it's basically a giant piss take that people now think is science.

 

[kypsilon]

I believe that the universe doesn't need to be explained, it needs to be understood.

 

[theonecookie]

Yes, that's it why did I not see this before the universe must be sentient its the only explanation that makes sense can't have anything to do with our limited understanding of the universe in any way (you know the whole point of science) nope the universe is alive and making it as it go's just to fuck with us you know because it's got nothing better to do being the universe and all.

In fact why don't we go full retard and declare that the universe is nothing more than a power source for a 10th dimensional beings fucking toaster (cookie for reference)but that sad thing is that's much more likely than the shit you just sprouted

In fact if your idea is true (Its fucking not)why didn't any one notice until you had this great epiphany and why do the new rules of the universe make more sense than the old ones what you've got to realise is that most of science come with a sticker that says under all tested conditions , gravity works under all tested conditions ,mass and velocity work under all tested conditions ,the basic understanding of the universe works under all tested conditions and so on but no low and behold element 234 shows up and is immune to gravity surly this means anre understandings of gravity are all wrong nope it just means we've never seen element 234 and so we need to re-look at the findings and adjust the theory

Also i would like to point out that your idea is a logical fallacy and that if the universe was sentient and fucking with us it no longer is because its been figured out so congrats your wrong even if your right but then again I expected no less for this stupid idea

science out

 

[Belaam]

Since you can't prove that the Universe is sentient nor not, I conclude that it is both until we observe it.

So it seems like you would agree with the logic of the following:

Since you can't prove whether or not you are a Leprechaun making these posts from a magic powered laptop on the back of a unicorn, and not a human with internet access, I conclude that you are until I observe you.

Just having two options does not give them equivalent odds of being true.

 

[BrownGaijin]

Ah yes the Universe. That big thing that's around us. Perhaps I'm old, no wait you know what this guy can say it better:

Spoiler

Emphasis on the happy part.

 

[brownie212]

Observer Effect, meaning that any observation we explain will leave a spot to be filled in with another observation that we have to explain, until there is nothing left and the universe has no choice but to make us cease to exist.

oddly there is actually a theory that states that if the universe was ever fully explained it would be instantly destroyed and replaced with something much more weird, but then there is a part of quantum physics which states that the whilst the present does not affect the future it does effect the past, in other words the first time an event is observed it is entirely reasonable that it's at that point the universe decides just how it happens and not before.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Your theory sounds a lot like the origin of religion.

The universe is not sentient. It is complex, and for now beyond our capacity to understand its secrets. Whether our less secular-minded counterparts want to accept it or not, the universe - or its supposed creator(s) - isn't hiding its secrets behind clever manipulation or magical powers. It does take some of the mysticism out of it, but chances are the galaxy is much more boring than we want/hope it to be.

Then again, maybe we're here to someday expand that universe... to make it more than it is. To create art, to create stories, to forge dreams. To make the unreal real. Maybe the universe isn't God's gift to us, maybe we're God's gift to the universe.

The debate goes on, much as it has since the first human being looked up and wondered what was out there.

 

[teebeeohh]

why does this sound like "god can't be explained, thus i default win any argument"?

 

[Sparrow]

Things are complicated, therefore the universe is sentient and does not want to be explained.

Yeah, I've not got much more beyond this. That's not a theory buddy, that's just wild guessing. Alternatively, if the universe is sentient, I would like the universe to stop hindering our progression into the future because I want a jetpack, dammit!

 

[R0cklobster]

The way I think about it is that it could simply be that humans simply are not smart enough to be able to explain the universe, in the same way that a cat isn't going to be able to understand the inner workings of how an iPhone works.

 

[huser]

Things are complicated, therefore the universe is sentient and does not want to be explained.

This isn't a theory. It's barely a hypothesis, there's almost nothing connecting the premise and the conclusion.

This is exactly what I thought when I saw this, thank you for saying it for me

This made me think of;

Man, I hate that guy and his ilk. It's one thing to be amazed by the efforts of the ancients, but to say humanity couldn't possibly do these things because it would be difficult today just really gets my goat, on a petty level I've even grown to dislike the accent.

I especially despise how they address ancient wonders individually (the pyramids, Stone Henge, the Antikythera device, Easter Island, etc). Thus, in a vaccuum, each one looks so amazing as
to clearly be beyond ancient humans.

Nevermind that collectively the most obvious conclusion is that ancient humans could do a lot.

It would be like individually examining every record breaking feat every athlete has ever had, and say "SEE, clearly they were an alien because NO ONE could possible accomplish this!"

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

The way I think about it is that it could simply be that humans simply are not smart enough to be able to explain the universe, in the same way that a cat isn't going to be able to understand the inner workings of how an iPhone works.

Key difference: cats can't count. We may not be natural mathematicians, but we are able to calculate (and create machines that calculate almost instantly). Whether we can comprehend the ultimate answer is doubtful, but it's certainly possible for us to find it.

 

[rayen020]

blackholes <--- Proof that universe doesn't want to be explained.

Also a quote;

The regress towards smaller and smaller parts. behind atoms we find electrons and behind electrons quarks. Each mystery solved open news doors but also new mysteries.

Yeah we may figure it all out but it'll probably be the Dwemer figure it all out where just as we realize what we've done it causes a cataclysm that wipes out humanity.

Also the particles going faster than light was disproven, turned out to be a computer syncing problem and not adjusting for the rotation of the earth. Also Schrodinger's cat is more of a thought experiment than an actual scientific one, especially when science requires that we observe effects and if you observe the cat the after the radiation it ceases to be both and becomes either alive or dead.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

Well, hold the phone for just one second here. Schrodinger's cat is theoretical science, though it does correlate with some verifiable quantum science. And you're right, we've collected a lot of data which would suggest that we have absolutely no idea what is going on. Things like the Observer Effect or some of the Quantum Entanglement experiments which are going on suggest that the basic particles of our universe actually do change their behavior when subjected to a conscious observer. We have absolutely no idea why that is, though personally speaking I would wager that it is not that the universe is trying to prevent us from knowing its secrets, and that it is actually that observation plays a much more important role in the universe than any of us realized.

I didn't know that the Schrodinger's cat theory and the Observer effect were not the same thing, although I can understand that since they're basically the oposite thing. I was aware of this effect and that actually looking at something can influence it, as I've read that dark matter apparently disappears when observed. But you said that the Universe is trying to prevent us from unraveling it's secrets, but I mean something different. My theory is that the Universe itself is making up laws as it goes, and for every thing we explain, something else will be created to fill up it's space. This all ties back to the Observer Effect, meaning that any observation we explain will leave a spot to be filled in with another observation that we have to explain, until there is nothing left and the universe has no choice but to make us cease to exist.

Yeah, the Observer Effect is associated with the Double Slit Experiment. Schroedinger's cat, on the other hand, is really more of a metaphorical tool. We haven't run an actual experiment which verifies that while it's in the box the cat is in a simultaneous state of being dead and alive.

I would still disagree with that idea, though perhaps its closer to my own. My contention would be that the universe exists as we perceive it because we perceive it. Quantum science then is just barely beginning to understand the actual mechanisms by which the universe forms in response to conscious observation. I would never say that the universe has an active interest in trying to prevent itself from being explained though, but instead that its basic mechanics are just way more complex than previously realized, and so coming from our position of ignorance it might feel that way.

Do you have any theories on why these things change due to conscious observation?

I was watching Through the Wormhole and this one group was doing a study where they present people two curtains on a computer screen, one of which was hiding an image, and people had to try and guess which curtain had the image. Naturally, the accuracy was 50% since it was just random chance that they would pick the correct curtain.

But then they tried different types of images and found that images of sexual nature increased the accuracy to 55%. It's only a 5% difference but still has huge implications. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Observer Effect, meaning that any observation we explain will leave a spot to be filled in with another observation that we have to explain, until there is nothing left and the universe has no choice but to make us cease to exist.

oddly there is actually a theory that states that if the universe was ever fully explained it would be instantly destroyed and replaced with something much more weird, but then there is a part of quantum physics which states that the whilst the present does not affect the future it does effect the past, in other words the first time an event is observed it is entirely reasonable that it's at that point the universe decides just how it happens and not before.

Now is that theory actually been stated by someone or is it something that Douglas Adams came up with just for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

 

[Keepeas]

Of course it doesn't want to be explained...
That is why we must!