Cosmology

[jungle11]

Hey I've been reading a bit on this field (from a layman's perspective of course) and Im beginning to see quite a few processes and such dont add up in our universe.
Do you think we'll ever be able to figure it all out?
Or might the big picture be too complex for us to understand.

Just an out there question fellas - many of you are alot more well-versed in this subject than I am.
Thought it would be interesting to hear people's views on this.
Especially as most of us here have proberly wondered about these things quite alot.

cheers

[Sionnagh]

There are a few things - using dark energy to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe when we really have no idea what this dark energy really might be, or dark matter to explain the missing mass that our current understanding insists should be there but that we can't find. But then Newtonian physics was everything until relativity came along and maybe it will be proven that relativity isn't quite right.

First person to scientifically prove general relativity is wrong will probably get a Nobel prize for it. :D

;-)
Mick

[Paddy]

The more science looks, the more questions (and increasingly remarkable questions) it finds. In any field. So, it will never be figured out, but we will keep learning and un-learning, I reckon.

[leon]

It is all theory, and as hard as we may try to figure it out it still remains theory.
I too, sit under the stars and wonder about how it all came about, but my friend we will never know, and when we die we still will never know. :sadeyes:

Gee's that is a morbid bit of text, but true, :whistle:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

I find it interesting that many people assume there are no limits to our understanding. In fact, our brains may just not be up to the task of understanding the universe. Just as you could never teach a chimpanzee the rudiments of calculus because its brain is not up to it, maybe we have our limitations as well. Possibly there are some super-intelligent (to us) beings out there whose brains and understanding are as far beyond us as we are beyond chimps.
Geoff

[Omaroo]

Evolution will play a part here - and either prove or disprove another theory that some choose to disbelieve.

[jungle11]

I think sooner or later we'll hit the wall - perhaps the ultimate answers to our questions lie in other universes altogether. Or if it ended up being infinite (which makes sense to me, cause I just cant make sense of something from nothing) then by definition it couldn't ever be fully understood.

But then if you told somone a few hundred years ago about the insights we have uncovered today - they'd laugh - or more likey burn you at the stake:P

[joe_smith]

I don't think the future of human development will be in the hands of evolution. Our future will come from the vast advances in genetic engineering. We will take control of how we will evolve.


I think you can only answer that one when you actually die ;)

A thing I often think about, is life just a random freak by-product of the universe or is the universe there for life.

[Omaroo]

Same - but accelerated rather than natural selection. "Evolution" is not a thing, it's a process. I can't see those in charge giving a hand to the weak or stupid somehow - which is evolution defined.