BBC Documentary Dangerous Knowledge

[CraigS]

We've been slugging it out over in the Science Forum for the past couple of days, trying to wrestle with the basic concepts of Cosmology.

We've been trying to grapple with the mind-boggling concepts of 'Infinity' and 'Nothingness', as far as the Universe is concerned. It eventually leads into the Cosmological principle and the Standard Cosmological Model.

Bert (Avandonk) has just posted a terrific BBC Documentary link from YouTube which I would totally recommend. (I've only watched Part 1 so far).
BBC Dangerous Knowledge Parts 1 -10.

Precis of this first episode follows:

In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us.

The film begins with Georg Cantor, the great mathematician whose work proved to be the foundation for much of the 20th-century mathematics.

There's a sad side to it all as well, as their deep thinking tragically led to their deaths.

Just thought I'd give the Books & Media folk a 'heads-up' on this as the principles these guys were pursuing, were truly ahead of their time and now form the basis of modern cosmology.

For a little more background IIS discussion, our Science Forum link is here.

Cheers

[Suzy]

Thanks Craig, I will take a look at the video.

[Max Vondel (Peter)]

Lysergic Acid Derivatives help to solve infinities and divide them by zero field tensors. It's all good, you just need to keep looking, that should be the astronomers creed!

[CraigS]

The appropriate follow-up YouTube video on all of this is about Chaos Theory and Complexity in Nature.

This superb quality six part BBC Documentary is called:

"The Secret Life of Chaos Part (1 - 6)"

It deals with the one simple question: "How did we get here ?"

It follows on from the profound works of mathematician Alan Turing (mentioned in post #1).

Between the six part documentary in Post #1 and the one mentioned above, one cannot help but be stunned at the breadth and depth of scientific theoretical understanding human beings have achieved in these deep questions.

I highly recommend spending the time to look over these documentaries as they are fairly easy going, presented from a historical perspective, and visually enrolling.

Cheers

[astroron (Ron)]

Hi Craig, I would love to watch them but don't have the internet speed to, they sound as if they are very good

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by astroron

Hi Craig, I would love to watch them but don't have the internet speed to, they sound as if they are very good

G'Day Ron (& Suzy);

I've tried to summarise the contents in the Science forum thread 'Finite versus infinite universe'.

I wish I could do more because the documentaries are very well presented (and removes the viewer from the 'dryness' of mathematics). Maybe Ron should enlist as an NBN trial customer ..?..


At the end of the day, I guess the content of what the original guys were on about is the main point. A quick look-up in Wikipedia on Cantor, Godel and Turing gives a rough idea of the points made in the YouTubes. Same goes for Chaos and Complexity Theories. There are good books on both of these topics - James Gleick's 'Chaos' (paperback) comes to mind.

The connections made by the modern day physicists and mathematicians, presenting the historical theory however, is what leads the viewer to some pretty ground-shaking perspectives. I would have never thought of reading up on all of these guys simultaneously and if I had, (I probably would've gotten lost/clicked off in all the maths bits), but having watched the documentaries, I now see what they're on about .. and its amazing ! (The scary bit is that I think I now get where Bert has been coming from in all our wrangles on 'other' topics).

I wish I could do more to help out those folk who are interested .. the Science forum link may help fill in a few of the gaps .. feel free to get involved in the conversation .. I'm only a novice in these areas … so join in and have some fun (its Sunday, cloudy & raining outside anyway .. nothing to view in the sky … again … and the newspapers are full of nonsense reading ..)

Cheers & Rgds.