Author Topic: What if...  (Read 42618 times)

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Offline KingKuros

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RE: What if...
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2006, 08:34:56 pm »
With this color inversion thing, here's something that may interest you.  The image below shows you 4 circles of different colors and 2 black spots.  Stare at the left dot with the circles for a while.  Then look at the right dot.  You should see an afterimage of the circles at the left in their inverted colors.





« Last Edit: September 09, 2009, 10:47:33 pm by KingKuros »

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: What if...
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2006, 10:27:31 pm »
About that 4th spatial dimension, after reading a bunch of sites on the subject I tried to imagine a Marvel-type of mutant whose ability was being able to move through a 4th spatial dimension. In effect, there would be no point in our 3D space where he couldn't freely travel, whether it was enclosed or not. The closest equivalent would have been Grimskull from the old Skeleton Warriors who could travel through "the shadows".



I also tried to imagine how that would look from that mutant's point of view but I just don't have a good enough grasp of mathematics for that. Still, interesting stuff.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



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Offline bustin98

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RE: What if...
« Reply #17 on: May 18, 2006, 12:48:12 am »
There are a number of comic book characters that travel instantly. Whether its through a '4th' dimension could be questionable, but seeing how distance is unaffected by time, I would say the question is mute.



DC has a character named Warp.

Marvel has Nightcrawler (though he can only go where he has seen)

DC has a character who rides time (but I forget the name). They had a whole summer crossover event called Zero Hour to introdoce the character.



I've been thinking more on the 4th dimension stuff, and I remembered a Star Trek: TNG episode where thought is linked to space, and inherently time. The Traveler I think. He just touched the ship's controls and thought about moving through space and it happened.



So from there, I began thinking about how thoughts originating from our dimension and their possible effect on space might be construed by a being living above our dimension.



Perhaps every thought is layed out, from the beginning of time to the end. We see this as impossible because the only way we can imagine working would be far too cumbersome to be efficient, and the number of thoughts would number near infinite.



When you live outside of time, what is infinite?



As I type I feel perhaps I'm coming dangerously close to describing God, and I don't want to see this thread degrade to a debate on theology. But I'm happy to see it hasn't been brought up til now ... :)



Its late and I'm losing coherent thought rapidly. I'll just wait and see what else is commented on.



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Offline JonLeung

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RE: What if...
« Reply #18 on: May 18, 2006, 07:52:16 am »
bustin98's thought about how thoughts are laid out reminds me of a theory I often think about, that of fate.



Since everything is merely a continuation or reaction to the state of things a moment before, things can't happen any other way.  Another universe that has the exact same starting conditions (placement of energy, matter, direction of inertia, quantum particles, mood of God, etc.) can only have the exact same history.  And this also means there can only be a specific present and future for any one universe.



You can't do something without a reason.  Nothing happens out of the blue.  Even if you do something now, relatively unusual and unsuspected, you'd probably be doing it out of spite of this theory, which itself is a reason, and it'd be confined to your mood, the electrons and chemical makeup of your brain this very instant.  You can't think a thought or do an action that has no origin.



Being a Christian, it's hard to say that God isn't immune, but in a singular universe, it sure looks like He can't escape either.  He's reacting to us as much as we react (or choose not to) react to Him, so the only escape from this theory for anybody is a multiverse of probabilities, but limiting the scope to a single universe with the quantum particles and God and all other things that could possibly affect it in a closed system, there's no way to escape a particular fate.



Of course, by limiting everything to a single frame of probability, I suppose the fallacy of this theory is the limited perspective - but that's what we all have.  Or if we see the entire multiverse as a whole as a closed system, even that can't escape all the possibile destinies, as each universe is confined to its own.



In short, our future is inevitable (whether it co-exists with the present or not), and free will is an illusion.

Offline Revned

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RE: What if...
« Reply #19 on: May 18, 2006, 02:33:03 pm »
I've also thought about the inevitability of our universe. I thought about multiple "copies" and whether or not they'd turn out the same. Unless you bring in a higher power, events were set in stone from the moment of the Big Bang. This led me to another theory.



Given an infinitely powerful computer and a perfect comprehension of physics, could you not simulate the motions of every single particle in the universe? You could "fast forward" and take a peek at the future, or maybe even simulate backwards and see the past. I realize that the computer would have to use more matter than there is in our universe, but perhaps this machine could be in a separate universe so as not to interfere. This idea occurred to me when debating whether or not anything can truly be lost (old books, buildings, etc.) from our world forever.

Offline bustin98

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RE: What if...
« Reply #20 on: May 18, 2006, 07:40:44 pm »
Chaos theory predicts that you cannot predict the future, even if you know all the rules.



Many subatomic particles behave randomly, and as such they are the butterfly's wings that cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.



I've wondered about the 'multi-verse' and if there's a copy for every decision to be made. But that seems a bit self-centered. When I was younger I had thoughts about the possibility that realty is just a figment of my imagination, that everything that happens as my subconscience mind creates.



I've got another thread of thought to throw out here later on.

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Offline JonLeung

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RE: What if...
« Reply #21 on: May 24, 2006, 12:17:12 pm »
bustin98 Said:
Chaos theory predicts that you cannot predict the future, even if you know all the rules.



Many subatomic particles behave randomly, and as such they are the butterfly's wings that cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.



I've wondered about the 'multi-verse' and if there's a copy for every decision to be made. But that seems a bit self-centered. When I was younger I had thoughts about the possibility that realty is just a figment of my imagination, that everything that happens as my subconscience mind creates.



I've got another thread of thought to throw out here later on.

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Now I don't think that's how the multiverse would work, but this is just my take on it.



The multiverse is comprised of a universe and all its possibilities.  What we perceive is just a particular thread of possibilities, in a sea of all other possible outcomes of universes.



It's about possibilties, which I don't think is the same as conscious decisions.  While in other universes something may compell you (in universes where you do exist, that is) to make a different decision, it's because of what happens in that universe that influences your decision, not the other way around like you were implying, where a single choice suddenly spawns a whole 'nother universe.



Sure, there are universes with other conscious decisions made.  Don't forget unconscious decisions, or things like quantum particles (supposedly placed differently in different universes) slicing through strands of DNA affecting the biology of a single organism or an entire race.  Or smacking into certain particles at certain times causing chemical reactions, possibly major, like causing an explosion somewhere in certain universes but not in others.



While I do personally think that "thought" and self-awareness are related to consciousness and life itself, and not just a property of matter (how does matter become self-conscious?  I can't imagine how), I do believe it is still too limited to our physical surroundings and therefore not capable of spawning universes.  However, if you consider dreams, or that our existence is entirely dependent on our own perception of things, thought is capable of altering subjective reality, but not objective reality.

Offline Revned

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RE: What if...
« Reply #22 on: June 07, 2006, 08:21:23 pm »
I just found a visualization of a tesseract that really helps me understand it. The problem with the typical animations you see is that they show a 4-dimensional object in 2 dimensions. This one, however, presents a stereo view of it. That means you actually do see it in 3 dimensions. Try it out: http://dogfeathers.com/java/hyprcube.html.



If you don't have 3D glasses, click "Stereo" twice. Now cross your eyes until the images meet, then refocus. Speaking of which, I made several stereoscopic images years ago. Those were really cool.

Offline bustin98

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RE: What if...
« Reply #23 on: June 07, 2006, 08:40:57 pm »
Thats cool.



Funny that you bring up a tesseract, as the first place I heard the term was in 'A Wrinkle In Time', a book of 4 in a collection I just got. Coincidence?

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Offline Revned

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RE: What if...
« Reply #24 on: June 07, 2006, 10:09:38 pm »
I read that and A Wind in the Door in 3rd grade. I sure did like them.