what was before the big bang

[timfogarty]

I think it is just a never ending cycle of big bangs and big collapses.

no big collapse is needed.  energy spreads out until it is evenly distributed, ie it is zero, then another big bang occurs somewhere in that null.

what is more interesting is that reality does not seem to be analog, but digital.   We've known for a while that the smallest distance is the Plank length.  Measure any length and it will be some whole number of Plank Lengths.  Nothing can be ..and a half Plank Length.  Now it seems that the same holds true for time and gravity.   Time jumps from one Plank Time to the next.  Kind of like if it was a virtual reality running on some massive computer.

[Brutal_1]

no big collapse is needed.  energy spreads out until it is evenly distributed, ie it is zero, then another big bang occurs somewhere in that null.

what is more interesting is that reality does not seem to be analog, but digital.   We've known for a while that the smallest distance is the Plank length.  Measure any length and it will be some whole number of Plank Lengths.  Nothing can be ..and a half Plank Length.  Now it seems that the same holds true for time and gravity.   Time jumps from one Plank Time to the next.  Kind of like if it was a virtual reality running on some massive computer.

Do you believe time travel is possible?

[Tapeworm]

Hasn't time been proven to not really be a dimension but something we humans created out of thin air?

These "tree falls in the forest" type approaches don't cut much mustard for me.  Lots of stuff happened before humans, or any being with the ability to observe, were around. 

If your answer is, "Oh yeah?  Prove it!" then you would be failing to acknowledge the limitations of observational science, but any physicist, chemist, geologist, etc, would admit that all observational science is perched upon the shoulders of metaphysics (I mean philosophical metaphysics, not spoon-bending tarot card "metaphysics" lol) and not strictly upon observable phenomena.  It's more than mere coincidence that the highest educational degree one can achieve in the sciences is a PhD, which is an abbreviation of the Latin for Doctor of Philosophy.

I don't think of time as a "thing" or as something which "exists" in any physical sense (like space itself cannot be observed, but is implied by the existence of an object within it).  That's all a dimension really is.  It's not something which "exists" in a traditional sense.  Rather, it is the background against which other things (objects) exist, and without which those objects could not exist.  Time is implied by the existence of phenomena, the continuation of their existence from one moment to the next, and even the coming into being of a first phenomenon (and it therefore precedes that phenomenon). 

Fwiw, if you insist on numbering your dimensions, lol, then time would be the first dimension imo, since space continues to exist from moment to moment while time, being a non-physical entity, does not imply the existence of space.

To say that "time began" is a contradiction (as is saying "time ceases to exist"), since a "beginning" implies a time before the occurrence.  The same can be said of space (ie, where did space begin?).  These neumanal (as opposed to phenomena) entities are therefore infinite by definition.  Whether you consider a blank canvas to be a painting, or if it's only a painting as soon as something appears on that canvas, is up to you.

[marcus]

The one thread relevant to Johnny Falcon and he isn't here.

[TechnoViking]

These "tree falls in the forest" type approaches don't cut much mustard for me.  Lots of stuff happened before humans, or any being with the ability to observe, were around. 

If your answer is, "Oh yeah?  Prove it!" then you would be failing to acknowledge the limitations of observational science, but any physicist, chemist, geologist, etc, would admit that all observational science is perched upon the shoulders of metaphysics (I mean philosophical metaphysics, not spoon-bending tarot card "metaphysics" lol) and not strictly upon observable phenomena.  It's more than mere coincidence that the highest educational degree one can achieve in the sciences is a PhD, which is an abbreviation of the Latin for Doctor of Philosophy.

I don't think of time as a "thing" or as something which "exists" in any physical sense (like space itself cannot be observed, but is implied by the existence of an object within it).  That's all a dimension really is.  It's not something which "exists" in a traditional sense.  Rather, it is the background against which other things (objects) exist, and without which those objects could not exist.  Time is implied by the existence of phenomena, the continuation of their existence from one moment to the next, and even the coming into being of a first phenomenon (and it therefore precedes that phenomenon).

Most of that went right over my head(if you don't know, i eat out of trash cans and dance on the streets) With that said, if our eyes are only a hologram device, are we really seeing time,space etc...

In simplier terms, Alex23 is a fatneck muscle bear to 99.9% of all human beings...But to the .01% of those like Sweetmuscles(squadfather), he is a god...which hologram is the real reality? Is it the guy who got pwned by DA and is living in a single wide mobile that would make Bubbles and Ricky envy over or is it the other 99.9% of all other human life form?

[Danimal77]

GOD

You like the NRA and the abolishment of abortion clinics and an end to stem cell research and all gay people staying in the closet and 1000's more Americans getting killed for the sake of DEMOCRACY and AMERICA #1, don't you? BIBLE BELT FUNDAMENTALISTIC EVANGELIST that you are 

[Danimal77]

I think it is just a never ending cycle of big bangs and big collapses.

So, space is collapsing and then for a small amount of time everything ceases to exist.
There is no time, no space, no matter just energy... And then another big bang and with
it there is new time, space etc...

Good contribution newbie.

[Danimal77]

matter cannot be erradicated from this universe, it will always remain.

Thus, I have ended all debate about the creation of our universe and the man-made entity known as time.

Since when did your English drastically improve?

[Tapeworm]

Most of that went right over my head(if you don't know, i eat out of trash cans and dance on the streets) With that said, if our eyes are only a hologram device, are we really seeing time,space etc...

Put it ths way: Time and space aren't objects which can be observed, but we know they exist because we can observe objects within them.  The things we're observing couldn't exist without time and space to contain them.  

For example, the existence of an apple implies the space within which the apple exists.  Remove the space, and there is nowhere for the apple to exist.

[Tapeworm]

In simplier terms, Alex23 is a fatneck muscle bear to 99.9% of all human beings...But to the .01% of those like Sweetmuscles(squadfather), he is a god...which hologram is the real reality? Is it the guy who got pwned by DA and is living in a single wide mobile that would make Bubbles and Ricky envy over or is it the other 99.9% of all other human life form?

As to your question about the subjectivism of reality, while you might be able to question whether or not the apple is a hallucination, you cannot question if the entire universe, including time and space, is a hallucination since you would still have to exist within it in order to be the "hallucinator."  Your existence, just like the apple, indicates that time and space exist.  Even if everything you observe is a hallucination, the existence of time and space is a metaphysical certainty.

[djohnsen]

Reality check:
Take a serious amount of explosives into the forrest, gather all the materials you need to build a house(furniture, electrical devices etc etc) in a big pile around the explosives. Fire away!
Does anyone think that the materials and the explosives is enough to build a functional house with everything in it?

Hopes this helps ;-)

[Tapeworm]

Reality check:
Take a serious amount of explosives into the forrest, gather all the materials you need to build a house(furniture, electrical devices etc etc) in a big pile around the explosives. Fire away!
Does anyone think that the materials and the explosives is enough to build a functional house with everything in it?

Hopes this helps ;-)

1. Explosives are not a building material.

2. A thousand Christians at a thousand typewriters would eventually produce something worthwhile.  Eventually.

[Deicide]

Jebus...

[kyomu]

The universe version before us got shrinked and shrinked and compressed finaly.
And boom! Extend again. Then new version here.

[MAXX]

if the brightest people in the world havn't figured it out i doubt a getbigger will 


over 2000 of the best scientists in europe, spending 16 billion dollar on it so far, are going to figure it out,,, with the particle accelerator...

[MAXX]

[webcake]

A series of smaller bangs...

[affy]

no space and time

no body knows what was before the big bang...we just know there was a big bang

[Kwon]

Before the Big Bang...there was the Big Ska-Doosh.

[boonstack]

No, I think it's still considered the 4th dimension or something like that.

Tapeworm has a good point, but the problem comes with the definition of "time."  Some say without perception, time doesn't exist, hence, before the birth of our universe, time DID NOT exist.  In other words, our existence, and perception of time, is merely a disruption in eternity.  At USC one of my calculus professors told us about some huge mathematical conference that he was going to where the main topic would be weather or not to take "infinity" out of the textbooks...as no one really knows or understands what happens at infinity.  But then you can get into a whole metaphysical debate, you know, how can you believe in "infinity" and not believe in God etc. etc. etc. 

But that's a whole can of worms I don't have the energy to debate...I'll stick to the "gayer than" thread thank you very much 

I think that without, YOU, or ME, here on earth to actually PERCIEVE everything going on, nothing would matter anyone because no one would exist to question it. With that said, perhaps us little earthlings arent such a 'small deal' in the whole concept of the universe....

[CalvinH]

Alot of foreplay?

[Brutal_1]

I think that without, YOU, or ME, here on earth to actually PERCIEVE everything going on, nothing would matter anyone because no one would exist to question it. With that said, perhaps us little earthlings arent such a 'small deal' in the whole concept of the universe....

Good point.  Does anyone remember the name of the physicist who killed himself after he proved that matter reacts differently when it's being perceived??? LOLOL true story!  I think Howie might know who he is.  S. Hawking talked about that when he spoke at Bovard (USC)

This stuff can really drive you crazy if you dig too deep 

[Tapeworm]

Good point.  Does anyone remember the name of the physicist who killed himself after he proved that matter reacts differently when it's being perceived??? LOLOL true story!  I think Howie might know who he is.  S. Hawking talked about that when he spoke at Bovard (USC)

This stuff can really drive you crazy if you dig too deep 

Maybe someone should have told him, "Calm down Gloria, it's just particle/wave duality."

[Brutal_1]

Maybe someone should have told him, "Calm down Gloria, it's just particle/wave duality."

[m8]

GOD

ha ha ha