Mind-Blowing Quotations

We invented maths and keep inventing new bits of it.

but as Bob says it is beyond reasonable doubt that there are quadrillions of other inhabited planets in (and beyond) the observable light cone of this part of the cosmos - and many of these planets will contain 'intelligent' beings that have also or will also invent/discover maths.

the ways in which various mathematical strcutures align with/describe empirical features/realtionships of the world (like say the inverse square feature of 'gravitational' attraction) do not mean that the world is 'made of maths' - just that maths is one very useful way to describe parts or the world

Bob the Builder posted:

To think that we are the only living planet with intelligent life forms spinning around in the vast cosmos is about as ridiculous as it gets. 

Wether we will ever cross paths with or even find evidence of other living planets past or present before this little planet of ours ceases to be able to support life is very, very doubtful. We are a dot and a blip like the blink of an eye and will be gone probably long before we are even noticed. 

I think we are agreed ? And also with jimdog ?

Yes, Bob's words are really spot on

In a past life on a distant place a long time ago, mathematics was frowned upon as it led to more boundaries than was needed to understand everything.

Fermi's Paradox ! (Not Fermat's last theorem!)

     ♦  If life is not so special, where is everybody else (in the universe) ?

     ♦  If it is, then how come the universe is so finely tuned as to allow life to emerge only on Earth ?

Humm - probably life is just too far away to communicate with us. - just our galaxy is unimaginably vast and signals can only travel at the speed of light.

Well, if the universe wasn't finely tuned so as to contain solid matter, planets atoms etc, then we wouldn't be here. so in all the other not-finely-tuned universes there are no people - so no one wondering it's not finely tuned. Most universes that are not finely tuned are probably just duds that fall apart or explode or implode...

But there are probably millions of planets in this universe where Buddha-like civilizations exist where people have tensions but do continue to live well and in tune with their planet for millions or even billions of years. But they would not be organized economicaly around constant growth of a physical production system.

My “gut feel” on this issue is option 1,  ie there was/is/will be, life elsewhere in the universe. But time/distance/technology might well preclude the possibility of contact.

Oh no....are you saying their could be better Hifi out there.....will upgrading bug never die down????

JimDog posted:

Humm - probably life is just too far away to communicate with us. - just our galaxy is unimaginably vast and signals can only travel at the speed of light.

...

Quantum entanglement seems to communicate faster than the speed of light, but it also seems that it can't be used to convey information.

"Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view"

Yoda