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The Universe is a mess


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There was a recent thread where people were talking about the Universe being perfect. Or something like that.

Our closest neighbor is the Centauri system. Mess doesn't begin to describe it, it's chaos.  The multiple suns keep things roiled up. About 40 light years away is the closest system we might colonise. But it's on a planet close to a dwarf star. That means high levels of radiation.  It's desirable only in the sense it's close by galactic standards. Compared to the Earth saying it sucks doesn't begin to describe it.

Jupiter and Saturn are synced up. If they ever fall out of sync, Jupiter will go back to beating the crap out of us. Might even encourage one of the inner planets to park itself at a 7-11. Which would not be a good day.

A big supernova could kill a civilisation in it's neighborhood. Say, did you know there was a star that could supernova not that far away?

Of course, if all that's pedestrian, our galaxy is going to run into another galaxy. That could be a mess, if your in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

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Things are exactly as they are supposed to be:

“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”

Sorry, it’s what immediately came to mind.

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2 hours ago, Zealot said:

Things are exactly as they are supposed to be:

“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”

Sorry, it’s what immediately came to mind.

That’s awesome. Guessing from the rhetorical devices it’s from Job?

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2 hours ago, Zephyr said:

It refers to a chance supernova in a couple hundred thousand years, maybe.  I am good shape now but will likely be dead by then anyway....

Point is, the Universe is almost unimaginably hostile to life.

Aside from having more ways to kill you than you know how to die, the odds are about a zillion to one a system is capable of supporting life long enough to develop a civilisation to begin with.

Which makes our suicidal tendencies cosmically ironic. We have something valuable beyond our ability to understand it's value, much less calculate it. And what we do is wipe it off the face of the Earth, probably making ourselves extinct in the process.

Close enough to infinitely stupid as to make no never mind.

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I think about the distant future with some awe similar to the distant past. At some point in time, procreation began and eventually resulted in my own existence. And then in my children. And all of us. It happened hella long time ago. 

What will our planet look like thousands of years into the future when my dna has traveled via offspring across time and place? 

It’s humbling. My matter becoming motes in a sunbeam shining through some translucent opening. 

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9 minutes ago, roadsue said:

My matter becoming motes in a sunbeam shining through some translucent opening. 

Many years ago, a friend of mine was handling a vial of moon dust on loan from NASA.  He dropped it.  Luckily, he had another matching vial, so he swept it all up and put it in the new vial (don't tell your friends at NASA).  Originally, he felt bad that he included a bunch of earth dust, it was no longer pure moon dust.  Until, thinking about the laws of matter, that earth dust and moon dust all originated somewhere else in the universe anyway.  Could have been skin flakes from some prehistoric man, turned to energy, bounced around the universe, back to dust, some on the moon, some on his lab floor.....

Those motes in your sunbeam just could be a distant relative

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1 hour ago, 12string said:

Many years ago, a friend of mine was handling a vial of moon dust on loan from NASA.  He dropped it.  Luckily, he had another matching vial, so he swept it all up and put it in the new vial (don't tell your friends at NASA).  Originally, he felt bad that he included a bunch of earth dust, it was no longer pure moon dust.  Until, thinking about the laws of matter, that earth dust and moon dust all originated somewhere else in the universe anyway.  Could have been skin flakes from some prehistoric man, turned to energy, bounced around the universe, back to dust, some on the moon, some on his lab floor.....

Those motes in your sunbeam just could be a distant relative

That's ok given the age of the solar system.  Moon dust scratched from the surface of the moon probably didn't originate from there either.

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The moon is made from earth stuff, but it was a really long time before this age of humanity. So, probably no human cellular matter in moon dust. 

There may have been a previous age of sentient life caught up in the creation of the early universe. Neither confirmed nor denied...

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19 hours ago, late said:

There was a recent thread where people were talking about the Universe being perfect. Or something like that.

Our closest neighbor is the Centauri system. Mess doesn't begin to describe it, it's chaos.  The multiple suns keep things roiled up. About 40 light years away is the closest system we might colonise. But it's on a planet close to a dwarf star. That means high levels of radiation.  It's desirable only in the sense it's close by galactic standards. Compared to the Earth saying it sucks doesn't begin to describe it.

Jupiter and Saturn are synced up. If they ever fall out of sync, Jupiter will go back to beating the crap out of us. Might even encourage one of the inner planets to park itself at a 7-11. Which would not be a good day.

A big supernova could kill a civilisation in it's neighborhood. Say, did you know there was a star that could supernova not that far away?

Of course, if all that's pedestrian, our galaxy is going to run into another galaxy. That could be a mess, if your in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

How very, very, dare you. :angry:

You have already been told in P&R that the whole Universe is perfect and that this is indicative that it has been created by God. Now do not come into this unsullied place with your pessimistic and outlandish ideas so get thee hence back to P&R where this sort of things belongs......bloody trouble-maker.

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40 minutes ago, onbike1939 said:

How very, very, dare you. :angry:

You have already been told in P&R that the whole Universe is perfect and that this is indicative that it has been created by God. Now do not come into this unsullied place with your pessimistic and outlandish ideas so get thee hence back to P&R where this sort of things belongs......bloody trouble-maker.

May a Space rock land on your petunias.

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21 hours ago, onbike1939 said:

How very, very, dare you. :angry:

You have already been told in P&R that the whole Universe is perfect and that this is indicative that it has been created by God. Now do not come into this unsullied place with your pessimistic and outlandish ideas so get thee hence back to P&R where this sort of things belongs......bloody trouble-maker.

...word.

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