Has anyone speculated on the speed at which the universe is expanding ?
Seems of late they (scientific community) have decided that it is not slowing down.
So is it steady state or increasing ?
And, if the speed is changing,  has it always been at the same rate ?
I don't think we have a clue.
Looking at an image across billions of light years and thinking we have figured out how to measure something out there that is no longer where we thought is was ?  Seems like trying to shoot ducks with a blind fold on and wearing one of those silencing headsets.  

Light year...  traveling at 186,000 miles/second.
So one year gives us 5,865,696,000,000 miles traveled in one year.
And the current known universe is 92 billion light years.
So almost 5.8x10 to the 12th X 92x10 to the 9th = 5.4x10 to the 21st.  Rounded off of course.
So we are looking at 54 followed by 20 zero's miles.
Can anyone count that high ?

And yet, everytime we build another Super Scope we just see more and more and more and more.  And that is in every direction we look.

If you go from a diameter of 46 billion light years to the current 92 billions light years, how much in total volume does the known universe grow ?  
Volume of sphere:  


If my algebra is correct that comes to 5.1x10 to the 25th cubic miles for a 46 billion light year universe, compared to 4.1x10 to the 26th for a 92 billion light year universe.  Is that about 10 times larger when doubling the diameter ?
Kind of makes your brain tired.

It is big, and if we do get another look farther out there we will see still more.
Which brings us back to the question...where did all of this stuff come from ?  All sorts of elements, made of tinier elements, made of tinier elements.  It gets down to the level of just energy; energy at various levels yields different things.  And speaking of energy, where did that come from ? And what keeps it going ?  Whether for 7-10,000 years or billions of years ?  
Where is it from and what keeps it going ?

Re: New Telescopes mean seeing new stuff
Reply #24 - Today at 11:50:21 Alert Board Moderator about this Post! Quote  raydawg wrote on Today at 09:30:53:
Question:

What element controls man’s destiny?

The phrasing of that question assumes its own answer. The term 'destiny' implies there is some sort of control. Maybe there isn't.

Then why search?

Merely a sport, a challenge, like fishing, or bar cruising?  

If not destiny, then no motivation?

I believe our biggest quest is to overcome time.
It seems the one constant that limits, and constrains, man to his reality, which, is always changing based upon needs and perceptions.

raydawg wrote on 02/26/18 at 16:23:16:



Well, I do like sport, and I don't mind a pub-crawl, but as for fishing, I'll leave that to others  

I agree with you about time. However I equate time with death ... the Grim Reaper (Father Time). The fear is not of dying, but to have not lived before dying.

That, to me, involves not overcoming time but, more like, recognising it, accepting it, and appreciating it. Shakespeare put it well ... what is life? a tale told by an idiot, a fool strutting on the stage, full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing ... the brief candle flame blows out. Nietzsche put it another way "One day the last human on Earth will die, and nothing will have happened".

What does that leave us with as we stumble around this tiny speck of a globe in a seemingly infinite emptiness? To me, it is the quest for dignity within an impossible situation, that and to nurture the friendship and love of friends and family, because all we have is each other.

I tried for many years to grapple with the question "What is the meaning of life?" Then, one day I asked myself, is that even a sensible question? What if life is its own meaning? What if what I feel, and think, and experience are enough?

Funnily enough, as a result, I find myself constructing my own sense of destiny, based on what is important to me. And I am happy for each of my fellow humans to do the same. Through the negotiation that ensues, and the surprises along the way, I find that life is indeed worth living for its own sake.

To put it another way ... I wouldn't be dead for quids  

Quote:


I think that there is a meaning for our life here.
Have you wondered where your soul/spirit come from ?
Why do "I" exist ?  
My self awareness ?

Why am I not like a weed, just being there for a moment; or a worm, just going about eating dirt and leaving a trail of fertilize ?
Why do I know I exist and am cable of asking questions about things unknown ?
That absolutely unique quality was placed within us.

This is a school and a testing ground. No pain ,no gain, isn't just true in the gym.

If you believe ,
ALL things work for the benefit of the believer
Then even the hard moments in life are meant to give us something. Some understanding, and open our eyes and those painful times Are the refining fires.

He disciplines those he loves.
What does that discipline look like?
Is that where we see what is called Karma? Does everyone get that visited on them? Shouldn't Soros have simply burst into flames years ago if karma was equally applied?
Trying to get that
Grand Unified Theory figured out is hard.
Maybe that's why nobody has.

LANCER wrote on 02/27/18 at 06:45:53:



Yes Lancer, I have thought a lot about all of those things.

Where did my soul or spirit come from?

That question depends on the assumption that there is such a thing as a soul (I assume you mean in the Christian sense - a spirit created by God which inhabits the body).

I am certainly aware of a sense of self awareness that seems to transcend the limits of my physicality. That seems enough to me. I don't see a need to complicate it more than that by adding the layer of another type of existence beyond the one I know I am experiencing.

Why do "I" exist?

That seems to me to be a superfluous question. I prefer "What should I do with my time?"

My self awareness?

That, I think, is a really interesting question, if you mean "what is the nature of my self awareness?". I don't claim to have an answer for that. That used to bother me - not so much anymore.

Why am I not like a weed, just being there for a moment; or a worm, just going about eating dirt and leaving a trail of fertilize?

Well, we ARE here for just a moment, by any cosmological scale. We don't eat dirt, but we are still part of the food chain, by which we destroy other living things to survive (and avoid being eaten by other living things) - ultimately we become food for the worms. And, I personally don't leave a "trail of fertilizer", but I certainly make my contribution to the fertilization of the planet!

Why do I know I exist and am cable of asking questions about things unknown ?

I'm not really concerned with the 'why' of my existence - as in 'where did I come from?', or my ability to ask questions about it. That question just creates an infinite regress, because no matter where you end up, you can always ask, "well, why does THAT exist?".


That absolutely unique quality was placed within us.

That is an interesting claim. I'm interested in why you think that  

I was just giggling to myself... 41