Do you ever wonder how far along we are in our understanding of science? (1 Viewer)

Pure Energy

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I gotta believe we're barely further along than the caveman was with their discovery of the wheel. Sure we've made some progress in the areas of medicine and engineering. But I'm not so sure we are as advanced as people commonly think.

For example, we haven't figured out how to transport matter from one place to another thousands of miles away. We haven't figured out this whole gravity thing. As Ben Franklin theorized, some day there will be anti-gravity devices to easily move people and items through space. One day we will develop cures for the common cold, AIDS, Coronary disease, blindness, deafness, etc.

One day we will travel faster than the speed of light. We will be able to cure medical ailments without using a knife or making a cut. Knowlege transfer and communication will happen through thoughts versus the written or spoken word. We will develop sophisticated devices to stop suspected criminals from long ranges that do not require a metal bullet.

And I'm sure there are thousands...scratch that...millions of new technologies that will be developed during the next few thousand years. Don't think of this as a glass half full post, but rather one that attempts to place our current development as a society along a science and technology continuum.
 
Me and the sig other were discussing this the other day. I wish I was going to be around to see some of that stuff you posted......

Of course, Armageddon may occur before any of that happens......no? I am not a religeous zealot by any stretch......but if you look at it from a religeous point of view......alot of that stuff may never happen.......maybe someone can help me and let me know if the end is near or not.....:p
 
While I am quite sure we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our understanding of how the universe works, it does appear that we're well past the place where great discoveries are commonly made in someone's basement.

As a society, we should understand that and be willing to fund the basic research that will make the next generation of discoveries possible. Supercolliders ain't cheap.
 
Is half of those things even possible? Blindness is forever. There aint on seeing again. Transporting is something that has to be impossible to do.Knowlege transfer without talking or writing. Unless there is a computer chip installed in us and we are given a USB port I dont see that happening. Now I know you said in the nest thousand or so years so maybe some of it is possible but some of it isnt and we will never know.
 
Is half of those things even possible? Blindness is forever. There aint on seeing again. Transporting is something that has to be impossible to do.Knowlege transfer without talking or writing. Unless there is a computer chip installed in us and we are given a USB port I dont see that happening. Now I know you said in the nest thousand or so years so maybe some of it is possible but some of it isnt and we will never know.
Wow...follow this link.

http://www.alternativescience.com/skeptics.htm
 
Sadly I don't think humanity, or at least civilized human beings, will be around long enough to figure all those things out.

Though the people at Steorn claim to have taken a giant step forward in reaching those far fetched goals with their perpetual motion device. If indeed it works, it would have to be humanity's greatest achievement. www.steorn.com
 
Sadly I don't think humanity, or at least civilized human beings, will be around long enough to figure all those things out.

Though the people at Steorn claim to have taken a giant step forward in reaching those far fetched goals with their perpetual motion device. If indeed it works, it would have to be humanity's greatest achievement. www.steorn.com
I hate to say it but I'm way skeptical on this.
Cold fusion anyone?
 
One day we will travel faster than the speed of light.

That is very funny. No, we not ravel faster then the speed of light, not in this universe anyway. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, nothing can go faster then the speed of light. Not even you were going the speed of light and you decided to shoot a rocket off the side of your ship. That rocket would not go any faster then you were. I know it breaks from our common sense logic about the way things work but it really is true, nothing in our universe that travel faster then the speed of light.

Pure Energy, you should read up on Einstein's theories they are really out there. The craziest thing is that the closer you are going towards the speed of light, time slows down, a clock with quite literally tick slower. They have taken a clock and put it in orbit to test the theory and when it came back, it was a fraction of a second slower then another clock set at the same time. This is known as time dilation.

Another thing to take into consideration, you now how in Star Wars, the spaceships would jump into and out of "hyperspace"? Well those G forces would probably turn your bones into liquid if we really could do that.

As for gravity, what have we not figured out about that? Sir Isaac Newton layed out the ground work and it works just fine on the macro level. What don't you understand about gravity?
 
As long as I live long enough to see bacon and lasagna flavored ice cream, I will die content.
 
Another thing to take into consideration, you now how in Star Wars, the spaceships would jump into and out of "hyperspace"? Well those G forces would probably turn your bones into liquid if we really could do that.



what if you could create an atmosphere inside of the vehicle you used that would absorb any of the impact of the potential Gs???

everything, theoretically, would remain calm inside of the said vehicle...
 
One day we will travel faster than the speed of light.

That is very funny. No, we not ravel faster then the speed of light, not in this universe anyway. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, nothing can go faster then the speed of light. Not even you were going the speed of light and you decided to shoot a rocket off the side of your ship. That rocket would not go any faster then you were. I know it breaks from our common sense logic about the way things work but it really is true, nothing in our universe that travel faster then the speed of light.

Pure Energy, you should read up on Einstein's theories they are really out there. The craziest thing is that the closer you are going towards the speed of light, time slows down, a clock with quite literally tick slower. They have taken a clock and put it in orbit to test the theory and when it came back, it was a fraction of a second slower then another clock set at the same time. This is known as time dilation.

Another thing to take into consideration, you now how in Star Wars, the spaceships would jump into and out of "hyperspace"? Well those G forces would probably turn your bones into liquid if we really could do that.

As for gravity, what have we not figured out about that? Sir Isaac Newton layed out the ground work and it works just fine on the macro level. What don't you understand about gravity?

Remember e=mc2 is only a theory. A theory is something that isn't proven as a fact; it's just our best guess why things happen and how things will happen in the future. A basic assumptions in Einstein's theory is the speed of light is an absolute constant (is it absolutely true; who knows? is it possible there's more to the explanation that may be missing, etc.). Same with the theory of gravity...we know the apples fall from the tree and explain it with the theory of gravity. We're pretty confident about it as an explanation, but don't know for a fact that the current theories and related equations are all there is to it.

Additionally, in your example of travel you're limiting yourself to our current understanding of time and space. Time is another arena we know nothing about. We see time as a linear concept; who knows...there may be other ways to conceptualize the concept of time.
 
Remember e=mc2 is only a theory. A theory is something that isn't proven as a fact; it's just our best guess why things happen and how things will happen in the future. A basic assumptions in Einstein's theory is the speed of light is an absolute constant (is it absolutely true; who knows? is it possible there's more to the explanation that may be missing, etc.). Same with the theory of gravity...we know the apples fall from the tree and explain it with the theory of gravity. We're pretty confident about it as an explanation, but don't know for a fact that the current theories and related equations are all there is to it.

Additionally, in your example of travel you're limiting yourself to our current understanding of time and space. Time is another arena we know nothing about. We see time as a linear concept; who knows...there may be other ways to conceptualize the concept of time.


No, it is not a theory it is a fact, ok. Until you come up with a better "theory" and prove it in a lab, the onus is on you. We can't travel faster then the speed of light. It is simply a matter of fact. Energy = matter times the speed of light squared is one of the most beautiful equations ever thought up. It basically means that energy is mass and vive versa. When you hold a rock in your hand, you are holding energy. When an atom splits, it releases a certain amount of energy that can be determined by using certain mathematical principals. The speed of light is a constant but some very smart people think it might be getting faster or slower depending how fast the universe is expanding.

As for your understanding of the universe, I can't help you with that. I will say this man has come leaps and bounds in just the past 30 years of understanding our universe. In fact, the term "universe" is out dated it is generally assumed we exist in a multiverse and there are as many "universes" as they are grains of sand on the earth, probably more. Each universe has different sets of physics that rule. If you want to go to another universe, build a space ship, head toward the supermassive blackhole that sits in middle of our galaxy and jump right in.

If you really want to start to freak out on this stuff you should read more about M theory, good luck understanding it though. I doubt there is 1000 people in the world that understands this stuff.
 
Another thing to take into consideration, you now how in Star Wars, the spaceships would jump into and out of "hyperspace"? Well those G forces would probably turn your bones into liquid if we really could do that.



what if you could create an atmosphere inside of the vehicle you used that would absorb any of the impact of the potential Gs???

everything, theoretically, would remain calm inside of the said vehicle...

Doubt it, just to get to the speed of light accelerating at or about 1 g per second would take a long time.
 
Additionally, in your example of travel you're limiting yourself to our current understanding of time and space.

Time and space are completely relative things and can be viewed differently depending on the observer. If I were going the speed of light and you saw me, my time would be different then yours. If I was going the speed of light for just 6 months my time and came back to earth, you would be dead, your kids would be dead, and their kids would be dead because of Einstein's theory of special relativity.
 
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