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2008-09-03 Science & Technology

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Posted by 3dc 2008-09-03 09:40|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 it was shown that very specific conditions are needed
Are they speaking possibly of.... Intelligent Design?

Posted by Besoeker 2008-09-03 09:56|| 2008-09-03 09:56|| Front Page Top

#2 "Six by nine. Forty two."
"That's it. That's all there is."
"I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe"[5]

[5]Douglas Adams (1 January 1980). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-09-03 10:16|| 2008-09-03 10:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Statistically speaking, just about anything is possible, including our solar system actually hitting the exact set of conditions that led to the current situation. Perhaps God set it up that way, but there is no method that I am aware of to test your proposition, Besoeker. The difference between faith and science is that science by definition concerns itself only with testable propositions, whereas faith is concerned with is concerned with the untestable and the meaning of tested results.

In other words, Besoeker dear, did God set up the universe so that somewhere or other conditions could develop that would allow for self-aware beings? Or did it just happen? You are a smart man: how would you test that? Because I've been thinking about it off and on for a while, and promising God that the mouse in the test tube will die if He doesn't intervene is not a valid test.

3dc, You know I think the world of you, but special is not the same as unique. Special is merely unlikely... especially as ours is not the only galaxy, nor likely even the only universe, according to the mathematicians.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-09-03 10:24|| 2008-09-03 10:24|| Front Page Top

#4 So we're special. How nice.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-09-03 10:37|| 2008-09-03 10:37|| Front Page Top

#5 There are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy, and it is thought that there could be 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. So in all that, and probably more, when you talk about religion that comes from one tiny little speck of dust called earth, it doesn't really make a big impression on me. But who knows.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-03 11:14|| 2008-09-03 11:14|| Front Page Top

#6 Remember that we're also talking about a planetary time period of about 5 billion years. During most of that time, our solar system was different, and it is unlikely to stay the way it is, either.

And as far as life goes, it is really a flash in the pan. Any number of events could wipe all life out on Earth in a short period of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7IHNnyJ00

Asteroid hitting Earth video, with a twist at about 40 seconds into the video. Worth a look.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-09-03 12:10|| 2008-09-03 12:10|| Front Page Top

#7 I'd lik to warn everyone that there are lies, damn lies, and computer simulations.

The only solar systems we can "see" are those with large mass, closely-orbiting planets, so there's a lot of selection bias built into current observations. This is just one model (of many) that appears to validate the biased observation.

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-09-03 12:26|| 2008-09-03 12:26|| Front Page Top

#8 I like the very last line best.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-09-03 12:31|| 2008-09-03 12:31|| Front Page Top

#9 WE ARE SPECIAL AND UNIQUE!!!

Just like everyone else...

Posted by DarthVader 2008-09-03 13:17|| 2008-09-03 13:17|| Front Page Top

#10 So .... one important step in simulation is to conduct sensitivity analyses. By definition when we define a simulation model and run simulation excursions using different parameter values we've left out some aspects of reality and have estimated the values of certain parameters (or don't know the values at all). So we do second-level analysis of how much that uncertainty matters WRT the conclusions we drew. Sometimes our uncertainty doesn't really matter much - we could be off on some parameter or relationship by a factor of 2 or 3 or 10 and the results comes out pretty much the same. Other times it turns out that results are highly variable depending on the values given to one or more of the parameters.
If I'm understanding this short 3rd hand report correctly, these scientists simulated planetary formation under a variety of circumstances using the best current understanding (model) of the forces at work and discovered that, in fact, the outcome is highly sensitive to initial conditions in the gas cloud. That's pretty much all I could conclude one way or the other from the linked news account.

Posted by lotp 2008-09-03 15:02|| 2008-09-03 15:02|| Front Page Top

#11 E.g. HADRON MINI-COLLIDER > 'tis an example of the SUBJECTIVE/DIALECTIC DANGERS MAN CAN PUT HIMSELF IN WIDOUT NEED OF ASTEROIDS ANDOR GAMMA RAY BURSTS, ETC.

* "BIRTH PANGS" OF OWG-NWO > includ TIME-SPACE TRAVEL!?

IMO THE HADRON IS CAUSING MINI/MICRO-BLACK HOLES = WORM-HOLES TO APPEAR OVER GUAM-WESTPAC - based on my physical observations of atmospheric forces [Air, Wind, Light, Gravity-EM Bands] being dynamically "pushed-and-pulled" by same, IMO again it is also responsible for these new hurricanes in the Atlantic [TESLAN].

IFF MAN CAN EFFEC SAFELY EXPLORE DEVELOP AND CONTROL THESE HOLES, WIDOUT BLOWING/DESTROYING HIMSELF, TERRA FIRMA, + ..............@ TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM = UNIVERSE WID HIM, WE WILL HAD ADVANCED OUR KNOWLEDGE VV "ACCIDENTAL TOURIST" + PASSED AN IMPOR TEST OF "GLOBALISM" + SPACE EXPLORATION-COLONIZATION.

Again, this is just the BEGINNING - MORE TESTS TRIALS AND TRAGEDIES, ETC. TO COME.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-09-03 19:56|| 2008-09-03 19:56|| Front Page Top

#12 Is this a bug or a feature?

Posted by European Conservative 2008-09-03 20:12|| 2008-09-03 20:12|| Front Page Top

23:58 Bob
23:49 tipover
23:48 Abdominal Snowman
23:38 Lonzo
23:38 Jolutch Mussolini7800
23:37 Zhang Fei
23:31 Zhang Fei
23:28 lotp
23:28 Zhang Fei
23:22 Zhang Fei
23:20 Abdominal Snowman
23:19 rjschwarz
23:18 trailing wife
23:15 Pappy
23:14 Lonzo
23:13 badanov
23:12 trailing wife
23:11 trailing wife
23:10 Abdominal Snowman
23:07 rjschwarz
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23:02 trailing wife
23:01 rjschwarz
23:01 Anonymoose