Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second. That's an incomprehensibly fast speed — faster than any other object in the universe.
But the video above shows how huge just our corner of the galaxy is, even for a photon of light traveling at that remarkable speed. The film, by artistAlphonse Swinehart, gives you the view you'd see if you were a particle of light traveling from the sun across the solar system — even though it's 45 minutes long, you still don't even reach Saturn.
Not quite, but I am aware of some research on psychopaths; moral psychologists and philosophers tend to be interested in them because superficially at least, they seem to be 100% as rational as you or I but are unable to make the kinds of moral judgments we make. This suggests that moral judgment is not a matter of reasoning. There are also other questions, like whether or not psychopathy is the kind of condition that should excuse wrongdoing. Here's a pretty accessible interview with philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong on the subject.
Arguably, behaving without moral compulsion in a society where most people operate with moral compulsions is a huge advantage and is very easily rational.
The problem lies in the fact that 1) the natural reaction to any animal that violates the code of group etiquette is scorn, so you can't get caught being psychopathic, 2) even if most of society still adheres by the rules, an indiviudal that is abused by the deviant moral behavior will be guarded in the future, so the acts of non-moral behavior must be either judiciously spread out or most be cleverly executed to avoid being tied to the act (partially going back to point 1) and, finally, 3) if too many psychopaths "cheat" and avoid the obligations to moral behavior, the scales tip and all of civilization and society can collapse in an instant. Which is, obviously, not great.
I would like to say that the matter of antimatter reactors in general is pretty sketchy. If anything wouldn't it be an antimatter battery? Creating antimatter takes a lot more energy than what you'd get back out of it in a reactor, unless they've found some source from which to harvest it.
I also wonder if deactivating an antimatter bomb shouldn't be kind of a bad idea. Both it and the reactor would presumably need a constant uninterrupted supply of energy to prevent themselves from spontaneously and catastrophically exploding.
I would like to say that the matter of antimatter reactors in general is pretty sketchy. If anything wouldn't it be an antimatter battery? Creating antimatter takes a lot more energy than what you'd get back out of it in a reactor, unless they've found some source from which to harvest it.
I also wonder if deactivating an antimatter bomb shouldn't be kind of a bad idea. Both it and the reactor would presumably need a constant uninterrupted supply of energy to prevent themselves from spontaneously and catastrophically exploding.
Arguably, behaving without moral compulsion in a society where most people operate with moral compulsions is a huge advantage and is very easily rational.
The problem lies in the fact that 1) the natural reaction to any animal that violates the code of group etiquette is scorn, so you can't get caught being psychopathic, 2) even if most of society still adheres by the rules, an indiviudal that is abused by the deviant moral behavior will be guarded in the future, so the acts of non-moral behavior must be either judiciously spread out or most be cleverly executed to avoid being tied to the act (partially going back to point 1) and, finally, 3) if too many psychopaths "cheat" and avoid the obligations to moral behavior, the scales tip and all of civilization and society can collapse in an instant. Which is, obviously, not great.
1.) Morality is not necessarily group etiquette, and the presence of morality warrants scorn just as often as its absence in the eyes of the local collective consciousness
2.) There is such a thing as being a victim of your own naviete, and avoiding responsibility for one's actions is the common go-to route, not accepting responsibility, and
I like the scope he drives for. And I agree with one thing: The speed of light is not an obstacle for the spread of Earthly life. Humanity and life - as we know it - is not doomed to be 'marooned' on Earth until the Sun goes out.
But he's making one big mistake. The dominant and all-important life-form of Earth is not going to be humans. He goes on dreaming about seed-ships with frozen embryos, like it's we who're calling the shots. It's not going to be like that at all. It might happen once or twice in a transitory stage, but humanity is not the end of the story of life. The biggest step that humanity took was not even spaceflight, ...but building the machine!
The machines will spread "our" civilization across the stars. Humans, and other Eartly life forms, bacteria etc, will piggy-ride along, as pets, parasites, symbiotic passengers or various forms of projects the machines will entertain themselves with, but the life that will conquer the stars and space will be sentient machines.
I like the scope he drives for. And I agree with one thing: The speed of light is not an obstacle for the spread of Earthly life. Humanity and life - as we know it - is not doomed to be 'marooned' on Earth until the Sun goes out.
But he's making one big mistake. The dominant and all-important life-form of Earth is not going to be humans. He goes on dreaming about seed-ships with frozen embryos, like it's we who're calling the shots. It's not going to be like that at all. It might happen once or twice in a transitory stage, but humanity is not the end of the story of life. The biggest step that humanity took was not even spaceflight, ...but building the machine!
The machines will spread "our" civilization across the stars. Humans, and other Eartly life forms, bacteria etc, will piggy-ride along, as pets, parasites, symbiotic passengers or various forms of projects the machines will entertain themselves with, but the life that will conquer the stars and space will be sentient machines.
That's actually kind of scary .... But we humans love creating things that get out of control..
However sentient machines I think are a long, long, long way off if at all...
If you can somehow create sentience you can create a soul. And then we will be like gods
Came across an interesting documentary about the hypothetical end of the universe recently. You all should check it out if you've got 45 minutes of free time (and I know you do).
I'm placing my bets on the Big Freeze. I dunno how, but I'll find some way to hold everyone to their bets billions of years from now and collect before all the lights go out.
I found the work on Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) to be really fascinating. Essentially, when cooled down to near absolute zero, macroscopic quantum phenomena become apparent. In other words things get really awesome when they're cool.
Aside from generating superfluidity and superconductivity, scientists have been able to actually slow down light. An excerpt from the linked article:
"The most intriguing property of BECs is that they can slow down light. In 1998 Lene Hau of Harvard University and her colleagues slowed light traveling through a BEC from its speed in vacuum of 3 × 108metres per second to a mere 17 metres per second, or about 38 miles per hour. Since then, Hau and others have completely halted and stored a light pulse within a BEC, later releasing the light unchanged or sending it to a second BEC."
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