Comment on well?
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Don’t get me wrong, understanding the nature of the universe is valuable and noteworthy. But how would that information meaningfully impact anyone’s life or change their behavior or worldview beyond a general awe at the unfathomable mysteries we already have towards space as we’ve understood it for centuries? Am I meant to stare up at the sky from 8:15 to 8:30 every other night with my mouth agap while I try to wrap my mind around the spacetime bubble we all exist on the surface of? Or can I just eat dinner?
The reason research like this exists is because we don’t know what we don’t know. Results like these are meant to stoke curiousity so that more research can be done.
So on and so forth until one day you have horseshoe crabs saving millions of lives. But they didn’t know that would be the case when they started researching them crabs, function comes after exploration.
For sure, not undervaluing scientific research and exploration by any means. But the post seemed to be a call to action or an expectation of a greater reaction to potential findings from the general public. But A) it’s honestly the first I’ve heard about any such news. And B) I don’t think the vast majority of people would have any idea how to even process that information, let alone get excited about it or understand it’s full implications, or to have any sort of reaction to it at all.
I mean on top of answering fundamental questions about the nature if reality, proving that the universe is a black hole would necessarily invalidate almost every religion. That fact alone would upend society, and probably in a bad way.
Also, if the universe is a black hole that means the universe is capable of reproduction. If the universe reproduces, there is likely no limit to the number of times it can do so. If an infinite number of universes spawn an infinite number of children, it basically establishes reincarnation as a fact of life.
And that’s ignoring all the philosophical implications such a discovery would immediately raise.
Maybe it wouldn’t change anything. Maybe it would change everything.
No way, at all, what so ever.
Most religious people will readily admit it’s based on faith, not fact. Furthermore, it’d likely make them believe it more. God has always been described as beyond the universe, bigger than, all encompassing, etc. If the holographic principle proves true, it’d actually provide a mathematical path for such statements to be literally true.
Why would the universe being a black hole invalidate religion, any more than, for example, the universe being really big already does? Don’t most religions focus more on some entity or entities they think made or govern the universe more than what physical processes are “used” to do that, or what the ultimate shape of the universe is? Even when a contradiction is found, it’s easy enough for a religion to just say “well, that was metaphorical”, or “just the limited understanding given by (insert deity here) to our ancestors” or something along those lines to make it fit.
Am I meant to stare up at the sky from 8:15 to 8:30 every other night with my mouth agap while I try to wrap my mind around the spacetime bubble we all exist on the surface of?
At scale that sounds better for society than going to church. We need a little more memento mori (memento minima?) in modern life.
SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
Astronomy is critical towards understanding the foundational principles of reality. Observing the universe around us is the guide for where physics should follow
And I think most people would agree that understanding how our world works, the physics of it all, is very very useful in unforeseen ways. Cannot hope to make a circuit if you don’t know how electricity works, right?
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Again, I’m not poopooing scientific endeavor. I love science. But this person seemed to be mystified that we weren’t all majorly reacting to this news as if this possible fact, in itself, was life changing. For most people, it changes nothing about their day to day lives.