Meh... It's British hot.  I've seen better.

"Our Milky Way really  is a good place for us to live"

Anthropic principle.

doglover: ThrobblefootSpectre: "Our Milky Way really  is a good place for us to live"

Anthropic principle.

Actually, it's more a tautology.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

naturedidit

Ridiculously gorgeous picture of a galaxy being zapped by a black hole's twin death rays. Bonus: it's real science ~ Subby

Anthropic principle.

Science does not deal with "gorgeous", get a brain.

Behold the miracle of Evolution, praise be to Nature.

Diogenes: doglover: ThrobblefootSpectre: "Our Milky Way really  is a good place for us to live"

Anthropic principle.

Actually, it's more a tautology.

It's like saying "Antarctica is a good place for penguins." They evolved there. It fits. They fit. It is good. The best? Who knows. But certainly good or they wouldn't have evolved.

That looks more like post hoc ergo propter hoc to me ;-)

Not quite.  post hoc ergo propter hoc  implies direct causality. The anthropic principle deals with a broader type of logic - for example - the fact that the victors of conflict tend to write the history books is a negative impact of the anthropic principle. The universe had to have originated with the possibility to support our type of life, otherwise we wouldn't be here to think about it. The cool part about our universe is that there is so much mass, space, and time - that ludicrously unlikely outcomes are almost assured to occur - as long as the potential existed at the beginning.

Ishkur: doglover: Actually, it's more a tautology.

No, a tautology would be more like: We live in a galaxy special enough to allow us to recognize that we live in a special galaxy.

The Anthropic Principle is, by definition, a tautology: A Universe compatible to life exists only because the life acknowledges that a Universe compatible to life exists.

That doesn't mean it's not true. Some things don't have an explanation -- they just are. It's something that makes theologians very uncomfortable.

/oh crap, IDW found the thread
//blah blah ignore shpiel, wason test, etc...

I agree with everything this person says.

THIS THIS THIS

madgonad: Diogenes: doglover: ThrobblefootSpectre: "Our Milky Way really  is a good place for us to live"

Anthropic principle.

Actually, it's more a tautology.

It's like saying "Antarctica is a good place for penguins." They evolved there. It fits. They fit. It is good. The best? Who knows. But certainly good or they wouldn't have evolved.

That looks more like post hoc ergo propter hoc to me ;-)

Not quite.  post hoc ergo propter hoc  implies direct causality. The anthropic principle deals with a broader type of logic - for example - the fact that the victors of conflict tend to write the history books is a negative impact of the anthropic principle. The universe had to have originated with the possibility to support our type of life, otherwise we wouldn't be here to think about it. The cool part about our universe is that there is so much mass, space, and time - that ludicrously unlikely outcomes are almost assured to occur - as long as the potential existed at the beginning.

It's fun to think about.  Imagine a universe that burst into existence, grew, aged, and dies, with no form of life ever coming into existence.  Just rocks and gases floating around until oblivion.  Nothing was ever heard, spoken, or seen, or measured.  Did the universe truly exist?  We can't know.  So therefore it exists hypothetically.  However, if we can say that hypothetically it did exist then it existed, then we can say that though we can't prove it existed we can prove that I thought it, and thus it existed as a conceptual universe internally. As, compared to a universe which lived and died without being heard, spoken, seen, or measured, mine was at least considered.  Then, have I willed into existence an entire universe simply by considering it?

ZAZ: I would like to blow up a galaxy some day.

Here's one for sale.

Sim Tree: "Our Milky Way is a pretty nice place to live. It has the same dangers as any large galaxy-black holes, supernovae, the odd gamma-ray burst or two"

This sounds like an excellent opening line to some sci-fi novel.

...and then those assholes from Andromeda did a fly-by billiard shot, potted a neutron star straight into a singularity. Knocked out three quarters of the bordellos in the western spiral arm. Bloody wankers.

These articles always speak as if these are images of what is happening right now. In this case, the images are of events 25 million years ago.

Mytch: It's fun to think about.  Imagine a universe that burst into existence, grew, aged, and dies, with no form of life ever coming into existence.  Just rocks and gases floating around until oblivion.  Nothing was ever heard, spoken, or seen, or measured.  Did the universe truly exist?  We can't know.  So therefore it exists hypothetically.  However, if we can say that hypothetically it did exist then it existed, then we can say that though we can't prove it existed we can prove that I thought it, and thus it existed as a conceptual universe internally. As, compared to a universe which lived and died without being heard, spoken, seen, or measured, mine was at least considered.  Then, have I willed into existence an entire universe simply by considering it?

Is it getting solipsistic in here, or is it just me?

PirateKing: Is it getting solipsistic in here, or is it just me?

rimshot.wav