the "impossibilities" of science.

[fulano]

I'm gonna start by admitting that while I'm pretty sure Werepossum, Rabid Toilet, and I don't quite recall who else (apologies 'bout that) are pretty much mistaken on a good number of things, my constant jumping around isn't really helping as much as I intend to. I notice they use terms like dark matter, observable universe, string theory, and stuff faster than "C" in EXTREMELY liberal ways (even more liberal than actual physicists do), so I apparently do get testy (yes, I do re-read my past posts to draw conclusions) and in turn bloat and ALSO drag my own topic off-topic; writing long diatribes trying to argument, and exemplify based in things that to me are are like, well, perfectly natural, but in second thought, they are not so much, and in reality, they took me quite a while to wrap my head around.

So, here's a few basic examples of those concepts that I see reflected here that I had problems with:

*What?! There's stuff that just CAN'T be done because that's how the universe is made? That sounds like a joke!

*Nothing with mass can exceed "C"? Are you nuts?! That's illogical, what if there's stuff we can't see? There must be something somewhere that we just haven't measured. Why can't I just keep going faster and faster 'till I beat that limit?

*Dark matter? That sure sounds exotic! Nobody seems to know what it really is so it may well be anything!

*etc.

I do acknowledge those things draw a strong reaction from me, and I also acknowledge that my responses may seem bloated and long winded, but really, there ARE answers to those questions, and they are apparently much better worded than mine. Also, sciences are not discarded, not even in string theory-which can reproduce the results of most physics but is just not testable right now because we lack the means. String theory is perfectly compatible with every science we
have. If we took string theory as true, it wouldn't rewrite and remove our current sciences at all.


Scientists don't work under the assumption that their current framework may be wrong and will be discarded when something better comes along. That's a gross, gross understatement
of what they do.

To be honest, I'm talking to you Werepossum, I read your posts, and there are good questions in there, and some valid points that I could certainly address much, much better than I'm doing now, but you are also way, way off base with the aether, dark matter, and string theory stuff and how it comes to be, etc. And yes, we understand a great deal about gravity, just not
at extremely small scales yet, but if we do, it won't be something that will break all theories.


I'm really trying to word this in a way that does not come off as patronizing so I hope you don't take offense in this. Also, understand that I'm what you'd call a grad student. I'm not infallible at all. And I'm far from an expert in those fields, but I've been around people older than me, more versed than me, and then, there are always books I can check and reason if they say something I don't quite get or sounds fishy.

So, to close this mini-rant-apology, I do not know everything there is to know about everything; but I am well informed
in at least some things, and have attended lectures, spoken to people, gone to congresses(which seemed more like binges, really),etc.

If you don't dig what I say that's fine. Maybe I'm dumb and have to work in my wording, but there's always physics books and math books
that you can go to.

So, that's the last I'll say in this "physics RULZ FTW!!" and let the topic, hopefuly, get back on track.

AGAIN, sorry if anyone got offended.

 

[puffbro1]

I would say that science could accomplish just about anything, given the time. Of course that's based on the proviso we don't destroy ourselves while exploring science.

[/quote=aussiesniper]No living organism can live for an eternity, there are simply too many ways to die and (in humans) too many problems that occour with age.

To understand the human mind at a complete level, you would need several hundred years of continual research by a team of neuroscientists, psychologists and sociologists who all have Ph.D-level education. no-one would be willing to fund this, nor would that many people all be able to work as a team for an extended period of time.

The cold virus will mutate to be resistant to whatever drugs you use to kill it after a fairly short timespan.

programming a human mind would be far too complex for anyone to do, and far too stressful on a computer for it to be run.

an artificaial central nervous system would not be possible because of the incredible complexity of all of the fine workings of our nerves, and, again, no-one would fund this.

To teleport would require you to move faster than the speed of light.[/quote]

True, all those things are impossible now, but a lot of this conversation is based on the fact we don't know where science will go in the future. For example, "to teleport would require you to move faster than the speed of light", if in the future scientists discovered how to move faster than the speed of light, that would no longer be an issue, moving them one step closer to teleportation. It's all well and good to say something can't be done because it's impossible, but we don't know what will be impossible in the future.

I'm going to make a rough prediction and say science will never quite vanquish the demon of human stupidity. Although with a selective breeding programme, it could happen.

Nope, cause then the less intelligent of who where left would be the stupid ones. It would continue until we were extinct, or there would still be people considered stupid.

 

[JD4566]

Science will never be able to prove the existence, or nonexistence of God.
Unless we find the Babelfish somewhere...then God doesn't exist.

 

[fulano]

Hi, I did a weird fouble post and reported it. Hopefuly the mods will take notice.

I'd like to know more about that Babelfish, sounds intriguing...

 

[numbertwenty8]

Technological singularities would theoretically occur when intelligence is augmented. This could be in the form of an AI creating better AI, mind enhancing drugs or otherwise currently unimaginable methods. A lot of suggestions in this thread are currently just very loosely defined concepts, such as a particle finding machine.

Once AI can create more intelligent AI, more and more intelligent computers will be able create technology undefinable by today's standards.

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

I think that science cannot perform the following:

• 
  [li]let humans live forever[/li]
  Actually, they've found a chemical that builds up as one gets older, and if they figure out how to remove that chemical from human processes, it would prevent aging.
  ORR we could dump a brain in a robot. that works too.
  
  [li]gain a full knowledge of how the human mind works[/li]
  
  Working on that too. Brain mapping using a large magnetic sectoral imaging thing it can map the path of neurons and stuff.
  
  [li]get a cure for the cold virus (it mutates so often that each time you get a cold, it's most likely a diferent strain)[/li]
  
  YEAAAAH that ones true.
  [li]build a computer that can perfectly simulate the human mind[/li]
  One is being built. A whole bunch of super computers in a grid the size of a football field.
  [li]build an artificial central nervous system[/li]
  
  They've made systems that send impulses to nerves already on a human, used for prosthetic limbs.
  
  [li]teleportation in general[/li]
  
  I don't know about that one. >_<

Anything is possible, somethings are just extremely difficult.

 

[Seyon]

I think that science cannot perform the following:

• 
  [li]let humans live forever[/li]
  [li]gain a full knowledge of how the human mind works[/li]
  [li]get a cure for the cold virus (it mutates so often that each time you get a cold, it's most likely a diferent strain)[/li]
  [li]build a computer that can perfectly simulate the human mind[/li]
  [li]build an artificial central nervous system[/li]
  [li]teleportation in general[/li]

Why?

No living organism can live for an eternity, there are simply too many ways to die and (in humans) too many problems that occour with age.

To understand the human mind at a complete level, you would need several hundred years of continual research by a team of neuroscientists, psychologists and sociologists who all have Ph.D-level education. no-one would be willing to fund this, nor would that many people all be able to work as a team for an extended period of time.

The cold virus will mutate to be resistant to whatever drugs you use to kill it after a fairly short timespan.

programming a human mind would be far too complex for anyone to do, and far too stressful on a computer for it to be run.

an artificaial central nervous system would not be possible because of the incredible complexity of all of the fine workings of our nerves, and, again, no-one would fund this.

To teleport would require you to move faster than the speed of light.

Age only occurs because of out-of-control cells in our body that cause damage as time goes on. If you wanted to defy age you would need to put these into check.

The Human Mind is very complicated but it is also very simple. The sociological problems that come with it are the only difficulty.

The Cold Virus is tricky because of how it mutates and adapts, however it could be possible to develop a anti-body that adapts as fast as the cold virus and is able to keep up with it.

Most computers can process faster than a human mind now, however on a sub-conscious level this is not true.

I wouldn't say this is impossible... just extremely improbable, seeing as how if you lost your brain you would die... However it is possible to coerce stem cells into a nervous system, very low usefulness though.

Teleportation isn't always considered movement as much as reconstruction. To disassemble your body in one spot and reconstruct it in another. Less practical with living organisms than objects. However the theory remains that with a complete DNA information you could theoretically construct a body, yet I doubt it would work.

 

[Deathstop]

A device that can retain stupidity from genes.

Darwin theorized such a device. However, our societal and cultural values seem to contradict natural selection because smart, intelligent, and/or successful individuals tend to have less children than stupid, really stupid, and/or poor people. Eventually, this could cause the extinction of everything smarter than high class sack of doorknobs. Therefore allowing the low class sacks of doorknobs to rise and claim their rightful positions as rulers of the world. They will be defeated by their subjects' massive stupidity.

Teleportation isn't always considered movement as much as reconstruction. To disassemble your body in one spot and reconstruct it in another. Less practical with living organisms than objects. However the theory remains that with a complete DNA information you could theoretically construct a body, yet I doubt it would work.

DNA reconstructing wouldn't allow teleportation, only reincarnation. The brain is basically a large biosack of RAM, taking away the power source (oxygen) would be like resetting your comp. Your memories, abilities, and personality would be wiped in seconds. Important to note: the reincarnation wouldn't rebirth you as the same person you went out as. The classical argument of nature vs. nurture will mean you will be nothing closer than an identical twin of yourself. Possibly a little genetically impaired by mistakes in the system. (If you can imagine reassembling 70 billion [rough estimate] pairs in the same order you broke them down in, then you might have an argument against that last point.


Also, age related deaths are caused by the natural deterioration of the Telomeres within DNA Chromosomes. When the Telomeres are destroyed, the cell is no longer able to divide, and it dies with no offspring. Aging happens when body cells lose their ability to divide. If enough cells lose their ability to reproduce, then your body will no longer be able to replenish the cells necessary to sustain life. Therefore, you die. It is not even remotely impossible to reconstruct a cell's Telomere to allow it to reproduce indefinitely. The problem would be doing it in every cell of a human's body while they are still alive. A little more difficult, but still within the realm of possibility.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Well science is coming along, They have mapped all genes, Yeah thats right The human Genome project was a success. For 1000$ USD they will map all your genes and tell you if your going to get such and such disease.

Human mind will always surpass computers. Someone has to program said computers. But also because we can take in so many variables it would most likely become unfeasiable to process all of them.

Also we can play games with our minds people, http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/oczs-neural-impulse-actuator-lets-you-play-games-with-your-mind-245842.php