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 trendal
J♠
 
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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 Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence 
#4460571 - 07/27/05 03:13 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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What follows is my personal take on Existence. What you will read stems from my own personal experiences and what I have learned through reading the experiences of others. This includes many experiences from those involved in Science, and as such will heavily lean towards the currently-accepted scientific viewpoint of Existence.
This is strictly a theory of physical existence contained within this Universe. As such, I will not attempt to explain what existed "before" this Universe, "outside" this Universe, nor what actually caused this Universe to come into existence. My story will start with Time Zero - the first moment after Creation occurred. I will not attempt to explain such concepts as the "soul", as my argument asserts that Human consciousness is purely a product of physical processes (ie: brain produces consciousness). If there is an aspect to Humans which is not produced via physical processes...it must lie beyond the confines of this Universe, and hence will not be touched upon in this story.
In my first post, I will attempt to give a basic timeline of the major events which have occurred over the past ~15 billion years. I will attempt to provide a basic outline of the theory and concepts involved with each event (as I will describe it).
In later posts I may try to expand on some of the particular events, though I will certainly expand upon anything that someone requests! If you want to hear more, just ask 
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Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence
Timeline
The timeline begins approximately 15 billion years ago (give or take a couple billion...) with the moment after Creation. All dates are approximate, unless otherwise noted.
Time 0 - The Universe, including all matter and energy contained within, came into existence spontaneously at this moment. At the first moment after the Creation event, the Universe consisted of an incredibly small spherical space. This space contained all of the energy/matter that exists today, and was thus incredibly hot. The fabric of the Universe was in a state of rapid expansion.
T+ 0.0001 seconds - The Universe has now expanded, and thus cooled, enough for the raw energy it contained to begin "condensing" into the matter we are familiar with - protons and neutrons.
T+ 100 seconds - The Universe has cooled enough for atomic nuclei to form. Only three species of atoms were formed at this point: hydrogen, helium, and lithium (with a small amount of their isotopes). The Universe was still far too hot for these nuclei to capture any electrons, and so consisted of a very hot and dense plasma.
T+ 10,000 years - Though still too hot for neutral atoms to form, the Universe had now cooled enough to allow photons to move freely throughout space. Until this point, any photon emitted would quickly be caught by another electron and re-emitted. This mean that "space" itself was opaque to light! After 10,000 years the temperature was cool enough such that electrons did not interfere as much with the photon radiation. Space became the colour it is now - transparent.
T+ 500,000 years - The Universe has cooled enough such that electrons can be "captured" by atomic nuclei, forming neutral atoms of hydrogen, helium, and lithium. The Universe now consists of a nearly-uniform cloud of hydrogen, helium, and lithium gas.
T+ 1 billion years - During the previous half-billion years, the gas cloud that made up the Universe had begun to contract towards small points of higher density. These "nodes" would grow in size slowly at first, but as more gas compressed in their centers they had more gravitational force to collect even more gas. At around 1 billion years ATB the first stars formed. These stars were super-massive and this caused them to have relatively short lifetimes (for stars) as they burned their fuel at incredible rates. In the center of these stars, the hydrogen/helium/lithium gases were being fused together to form new species of atoms - nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and most of the other common elements. These stars ended their life quickly, after only a few million years, and did so with incredibly violent supernova explosions. These super-massive stars began to form the first galaxies.
T+ 10 billion years - The process of "nucleosynthesis" has been going on for nine billion years in the centers of stars. This has produced a large assortment of atoms, which existed in large nebula clouds. In the outer rim of an average spiral galaxy, one such cloud was condensing. At the center a large ball of gas formed - a protostar. Because this cloud was rich in metals and non-gas elements, small planetoids also began to condense in orbit around the protostar. The third planet out in this particular system happened to be in the "green zone" for this particular star - the orbital zone in which water can exist as a liquid. We call this planet Earth.
T+ 11 billion years - The Earth has cooled considerably in it's short lifespan, so that the outer layer has turned into a crust floating on the liquid, still very hot, interior. A vast quantity of water was raining down on the young planet, brought in from the numerous icy comets in the solar system. Somewhere on the planet, compounds dissolved in the water combined into a new compound with special properties. If this compound came into contact with other pieces of itself, it could "assemble" those pieces into an exact copy of itself. Life as we know it had begun.
T+ 14.5 billion years - Life has spread into every nook and cranny of the Earth. Wherever Life can exist, it does exist. Until this point, all Life on Earth has existed as extremely simple bacteria. At this point, just 500 million years ago, Life suddenly exploded into a vast array of new species - including complex organisms consisting of groups of cells.
T+ 15 billion years - The Evolution of Life has progressed, in fits and starts, towards ever increasing complexity. Different species had arisen and fallen as the dominant life-form during the last 500 million years. Just a few million years ago, a few members of an ape-like species experienced a rapid increase in intelligence. They used their intelligence to their benefit, and this use of intelligence promoted further increase in intelligence. They began to fashion and use small hand-tools, which promoted even more increase in intelligence.
Present - I sit here, an intelligent ape, able to contemplate the previous 15 billion years of history...and most importantly able to ask why?
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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 MJF
Human Being
Registered: 06/27/05
Posts: 1,826
Loc: Between 15 and 45 degrees long...
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4460602 - 07/27/05 03:24 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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How many are "a few members of an ape-like species"?
And did this happen (certain ape-like species becoming more intelligent) simultaneously in many places or in just one spot?
Edited by MJF (07/27/05 03:25 PM)
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: MJF]
#4460621 - 07/27/05 03:30 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Hey, I'm just leaving work right now, but will be home in about an hour. I'll give you a response then!
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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MOTH
Wild Woman
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 23,431
Loc: In the jungle
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4460626 - 07/27/05 03:33 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
trendal said:
Present - I sit here, an intelligent ape, able to contemplate the previous 15 billion years of history...and most importantly able to ask why?
Do you also have a theory for "why?" 
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spud
I'm so fly.
Registered: 10/07/02
Posts: 44,410
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: MOTH]
#4460645 - 07/27/05 03:41 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
EllemyshShade said:
Quote:
trendal said:
Present - I sit here, an intelligent ape, able to contemplate the previous 15 billion years of history...and most importantly able to ask why?
Do you also have a theory for "why?"
Murphy's law 
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MOTH
Wild Woman
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 23,431
Loc: In the jungle
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: spud]
#4460660 - 07/27/05 03:47 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
spud said:
Quote:
EllemyshShade said:
Quote:
trendal said:
Present - I sit here, an intelligent ape, able to contemplate the previous 15 billion years of history...and most importantly able to ask why?
Do you also have a theory for "why?"
Murphy's law
Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will"
hehe 
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada 
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: MJF]
#4460814 - 07/27/05 04:35 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
MJF said:
How many are "a few members of an ape-like species"?
And did this happen (certain ape-like species becoming more intelligent) simultaneously in many places or in just one spot?
In theory, there would only have to be a single member of the species which is born with an intelligence-increasing mutation. This individual would have a better chance of survival than the other, less intelligent, members of the species...so it would almost certainly end up mating. Its offspring would inherit the intelligence mutation, creating more individuals of higher-intelligence.
Fast forward a few million years and the population of higher-intelligence apes has grown considerably. It has also separated from the original species to form a new species.
This probably happened more than once, in more than one species, but it is almost certain that only one new species grew into present-day humans. There is quite a bit of evidence that there were other human-like species on the planet at the same time that Homo Sapiens was, like the Neanderthal Man. For whatever reason, those species did not survive...leaving Homo Sapiens as the only highly-intelligent apes.
This process of increasing intelligence seems to be common to all evolutionary lines...which is why species like dolphins are also quite intelligent in their own right.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4460862 - 07/27/05 04:50 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Ok, now that I have a basic timeline down, I'll try to expand upon a few of the important events in the history of the Universe. These are all key events, which have paved the way for human-style intelligence/consciousness to exist.
Nucleosynthesis
When the Universe was first formed, there was essentially only "pure energy" in existence. The magnitude of this energy was truly mind-boggling - as it contained all the energy that currently exists along with all the matter which currently exists.
The first important event was the "condensing" of matter out of the energy soup, though I will not delve very deep into this. The key concept here is that all the matter which condesnsed out of the energy existed as just a handful of atom species (hydrogen, deuterium, helium, lithium). Obviously these four atoms alone could not account for the complexity we see in modern life.
The first stars changed everything. A process was begun by which new and heavier atoms could be formed out of the existing atoms. This process is called "nucleosynthesis" and is responsible for nearly everything you see around you. In the center of stars hydrogen is fused into helium, helium is fused into carbon, ect. This is vitally important, so I'll say it in bold:
No atoms heavier than lithium would exist, right now or ever, if it were not for the process of stellar nucleosynthesis.
This process continues uninterrupted throughout the lifetime of every star. It is responsible for producing all the elements between lithium and iron...but can go no further than iron in a star. This is one of the reasons why iron is such an abundant metal (THE most abundant metal) - nucleosynthesis in a star cannot transmute iron into any other element so iron builds up in a star core throughout its life.
Once enough iron has collected, nuclear fusion in the core ceases and results in the core collapsing onto itself. If the star is sufficiently massive (just a little larger than our own star) this collapse will "rebound" and cause a supernova explosion. During this brief (but astoundingly INTENSE) explosion, much of the iron in the core is fused into heavier elements. All of the natural elements heavier than iron are produced during these supernova explosions.
If nucleosynthesis did not occur at all, it is highly probable that no such thing as Life could ever exist in this Universe. There simply would not have been the complexity needed for a system as complex as Life.
For that reason, nucleosynthesis stands as the first (possibly the most important) key event in my story.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4461009 - 07/27/05 05:32 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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For the next key element to the story, I'll jump back to the first moments of the Universe.
I forgot to mention elsewhere, but if you see me use the acronym "ATB" anywhere, it stands for "After The Bang" and represents the time since Time Zero, the Creation event.
Inflation
When the Universe was still very young (10^-35 seconds, or 0.00000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds) it entered what is now called the "inflationary epoch". At 10^-35 seconds one of several phase-transitions occurred in the Forces of Nature.
After the moment of creation, there was only one, single force in existence which governed all the interactions of particles. It "contained" within it the four known forces we see today: gravity, electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear.
At 10^-35 seconds ATB the strong nuclear force broke away from the electroweak force (the combined EM and weak nuclear forces). This caused an energy field to develop and fill the entire universe. This energy field resulted in a reversal of the gravitational force - making it repulsive instead of attractive. The Universe instantly "inflated" extremely quickly and for a very brief period of time. The inflationary epoch only lasted for 10^-32 seconds...but during this brief moment of time the Universe increased in size by a factor of 10^50!
That's 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times the size it was at the beginning of the Inflationary Epoch!!! 
Inflation enters my story because it resulted in tiny density-variations between different parts of the universe. It is these density variations which allowed gravity to condense the primordial hydrogen clouds into stars.
When matter condensed out of the energy cloud, it did so at all points in space at the same time. The same density should have condensed out at every point in space...however this would have produced a cloud of perfectly even density. There would be no points of higher density for gravity to work with...thus no stars would have formed.
Inflation solves this problem because of the astoundingly rabid increase in size it provided.
Now according to quantum mechanics we know that no energy field is ever "zero", nor will any energy field ever have a specific value throughout all points in the field. The Uncertainty Principle dictates that we will find minute distortions at every point in the field. Instead of saying "point A is at 3065 units" for example, Uncertainty tells us that "point A is about 3065 units". The actual value at "point A" fluctuates around the value we determine.
So at the beginning of Inflation, the energy field in the Universe was almost perfectly even at every point in space. However on a quantum scale (hell...EVERYTHING was on a quantum scale back then!) the energy field had TINY little "bumps" in it. When Inflation started, these points where stretched out so that instead of being TINY areas of difference...they were LARGE areas of difference (though not MUCH difference).
We owe everything to this process, and, in effect, we are simply stretched-out quantum jitters
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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question_for_joo
i'm left. youall can bite me
Registered: 04/30/03
Posts: 1,591
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4461157 - 07/27/05 06:19 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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That's all well and good but where's the spirituality and or philosophy contribution?
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youi was a pig informatnt so you can go fuckyoruselfs
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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How much of it have you read?
I figured the meaning was clear 
This is my philosophy. This is my answer to "why?"
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: MOTH]
#4461264 - 07/27/05 06:55 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
EllemyshShade said:
Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will"
hehe
Maybe change it to "if anything can happen, it will"
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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psychomime
o_O
Registered: 05/16/05
Posts: 520
Last seen: 2 months, 3 days
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4461297 - 07/27/05 07:06 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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very nice trendal, good grasp of the science. Question_for_joo, what invalidates science from being considered spiritual or philosophical? spirituality and philosophy are ways to explain why the world is as we see it and science fits this definition.
and before anyone says it, i am not advocating science as a religion, I am only pointing out it's similarity in respect to making sense of the world.
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: trendal]
#4461361 - 07/27/05 07:21 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
I sit here, an intelligent ape, able to contemplate the previous 15 billion years of history
Contemplate it, but not comprehend it.
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So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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psychomime
o_O
Registered: 05/16/05
Posts: 520
Last seen: 2 months, 3 days
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: Ravus]
#4461392 - 07/27/05 07:27 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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BURN!!!! hehe all one can do is try Ravus 
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Quote:
question_for_joo said:
That's all well and good but where's the spirituality and or philosophy contribution?
Beyond your grasp
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Ped
Interested In Your Brain
Registered: 08/30/99
Posts: 5,494
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: psychomime]
#4461464 - 07/27/05 07:44 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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>> Time 0 - The Universe, including all matter and energy contained within, came into existence spontaneously at this moment.
Lets see.. occured spontaneously? Check. Unsummoned by a previous cause? Check. Occurs entirely of its own accord? Check. Yep, sounds like a miracle to me. How remarkably unscientific!
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 Dark Triangles - New Psychedelic Techno Single - Listen on Soundcloud
Gyroscope full album available SoundCloud or MySpace
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psychomime
o_O
Registered: 05/16/05
Posts: 520
Last seen: 2 months, 3 days
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: Ped]
#4461489 - 07/27/05 07:51 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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good point Ped, perhaps God dunnit?
Quote:
Unsummoned by a previous cause?
previous cause? well, there has to be a first event for cause and effect.
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: Ped]
#4461506 - 07/27/05 07:58 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ped said:
>> Time 0 - The Universe, including all matter and energy contained within, came into existence spontaneously at this moment.
Lets see.. occured spontaneously? Check. Unsummoned by a previous cause? Check. Occurs entirely of its own accord? Check. Yep, sounds like a miracle to me. How remarkably unscientific!
According to current theory, the Big Bang came into existence by two 11th-dimensional membranes colliding into one another.
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Ped
Interested In Your Brain
Registered: 08/30/99
Posts: 5,494
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: Trendal's Unified Theory of Existence [Re: psychomime]
#4461526 - 07/27/05 08:04 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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>> well, there has to be a first event for cause and effect
On the contrary, there cannot be a first event for cause and effect. If all effects are dependent upon prior causes, and all causes are in themselves effects of previous causes, there can be no beginning to causality because every event depends upon previous events for their occurrence. That the universe should be a causal continuum which is causeless in itself is absurd. There may have been a big bang of some kind, but this was certainly not the "beginning" of existence. Perhaps it was the beginning of the material universe, of which science is primarily concerned, but we must not leave behind the most basic of notions seeing existence being of much more depth than mere matter and energy.
>> According to current theory, the Big Bang came into existence by two 11th-dimensional membranes colliding into one another.
Not that I challenge this idea, but isn't this hotly contested right now? Certainly it cannot be spoken of as "current theory."
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Dark Triangles - New Psychedelic Techno Single - Listen on Soundcloud
Gyroscope full album available SoundCloud or MySpace
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