The Earth Is Flat... Again
To me, it has always seemed painfully obvious that some larger cosmic force is acting out its will through us hapless humans. No, I'm not talking about God. And it's a hell of a lot less scrupulous than karma. What I'm talking about is simply the nature of the universe, and the fact that we are way deeper in that muthafucka than one might infer from the look of things.
With this in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to direct your attention to one of the latest developments in not-so-theoretical physics.
L.A. Times: "A New Slice On Physics"
"The universe we see, according to this scenario, is stuck on a thin membrane of space-time embedded in a much larger cosmos. And our membrane may be only one of many, all of which may warp, wiggle, connect and collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions. Physicists call this new frontier the "brane world."
"Essentially, a brane is a discontinuity in space-time, a boundary where things meet, like the surface of a pond where the water meets the sky."
What this "brane" theory suggests is not only that there is an interconnectedness of dimensions beyond our comprehension, but that these brane dimensions might extend infinitely and that activities within those dimensions would most certainly interact with our own sentient existence. It's like a page right out of Buckaroo Banzai... and it's all the rage with top physicists and "cosmologists" from MIT to Stanford.
But lest you get carried away and take this news for gospel... let's bring the debate back to earth for a second. First of all, a theory is just a theory. Even if the scientists are able to substantiate the brane theory with particle accelerators and fancy math equations, it will only prove one thing: that we live in the midst of infinite possibilities we will never be able to take advantage of. Dare I say, it seems the macrocosmic metaphor, for our microcosmic realities.
Ultimately, I think the lesson we can draw from this is that we need not travel to the edge of the galaxy or peer through the lenses of a scanning electron microscope, if we want to explore unknown frontiers. You will never find the true borders of the physical, scientific world. But the borders of culture and personality -- on the other hand -- are well defined. And it is these borders which provide us our real challenges -- and rewards -- not the impenetrable world of brane non-matter.
Posted by Eric on June 2, 2003 02:35 AM
It is not flat
If, as some physicists are talking about, space and time can be warped and that it exists something like 11 dimensions..isnt it plausible that timetravel would be possible? In that case, does not the past, present and future all occur at the same "time"? In that sense civilizations from the future, that have "cracked the code" of the cosmos and had found means of timetravelling, already have done so. Isnt it likely that they also have developed means of scanning our universe in hope to find something interesting. To put it differently, one might play with the thought that the universe/cosmos is infinite. From a philosophical point of view something that is forever has no more a beginning than it has an end. Therefore, i find it unlikely that no other beings, physically or with some other to us unknown method of communication has visited us. It might aswell be distant offspring to humans that in the future have made it possible to travel in time and take universal shortcuts. I'm no expert on these questions (guess no one is!) but the new discourse suggests that everything is possible. Am I totally wrong here?
Whether you are right or wrong in an empirical sense is impossible to know. But we can certainly assess your language and logic.
First of all, you should isolate your points as much as possible.
1. What is time?
2. Is time travel possible (i.e. in different directions, at different speeds).
3. Does infinity exist?
4. Does non-human life exist?
5. Have we been visited by non-human life?
6. Is everything possible?
My question to you is this. If you knew the answer to these questions, would you have more wisdom... or simply more knowledge?
If you were able to travel through time to distant planets and discuss infinite possibilities with non-human life forms... would you be a better person for it?
More important than knowing answers to these questions... is whether you should be asking these questions in the first place.
i need to prove the earth is flat 4 social class....can you help me???
First, nothing can be proven. Neither your existence, nor that of anything else, let alone its true nature.
Second, the best evidence of the earth's roundness are astronomical observations.
Most objects in "space" (e.g. moons, planets, stars, etc) are round. The earth is generally thought of as a planet. But this neither proves the eart is round, nor that it is a planet.
The earth casts a curved shadow on the moon. This may be the best empirical evidence that the earth is round. Objects cast shadows. If the earth is an object, it casts a shadow. The difficult part here is proving that the shadow on the moon is from the earth (or simply that it is a shadow).
Clocks represent the motion of the sun, relative to the earth. The hands of a clock move a-round the center of the clock. For me, this is proof enough, but it won't hold much weight with your teacher, as digital clocks also represent the motion of the sun around the earth.
A few other, more costly, ways of suggesting the earth's roundness are
(a) Go to the southern hemisphere and observing the flushing of toilets (they drain clockwise).
(b) Use a compass to sail around the world in one general direction.
(c) Go to the earth's poles and notice the compass stops working.
(d) Fly a plane around the world, from east to west, and observe a sun that nevers sets,
(e) Hijack the Space Shuttle and observe the earth from space.
(f) Genetically engineer a 30,000 foot tall person who could see that the eart is round.
Again, none of these things prove the earth is round. It can only be suggested.
You might consider asking your teacher to prove the earth exists, before you are asked to prove it is round. Proving the earth exists is actually harder than proving it is round.
The toilets on the southern hemisphere do not drain a different way then the ones on the southern hemisphere. Location on the earth's surface does not determine the direction of a vortex's spin. I have been to the southern hemisphere and I live in the northern hemisphere. If the toilets down there drain a different way it is because of design.
It is also possible to prove something. You can prove that you exist though maybe not in the form, place or time that you may think you are in. The statement, "I think therefore I am", is true. The fact that you are considering your own existence is proof enough. Something has to be doing the considering because it IS happening. Whether or not you exist in the form you have right now is irrelevent action proves that SOMETHING exists or nothing would happen.
