NASA Scientist - Universe seems hardwired to produce life

[Snarkhund]

Yes it all happened by accident. Just the same as if a tornado hit a junk pile and out came a nice shiny new Boeing 747.

Actually this is an excellent analogy.

Self-organizing systems reduce entropy in complete violation of the laws of thermodynamics.

There is a good analogy in quantum mechanics. If you drop an object onto a table enough times quantum mechanics states clearly that one of those drops will result in the object dropping straight through the table.

Life appears to me to be the one that dropped through the table.

After billions of years and trillions upon trillions of random interactions between pre-organic compounds something snapped together into a... metabolism that converted carbohydrates or sunlight or powerfully corrosive compounds emitted by oceanic thermal vents into substances that support a sustained reaction which is what life is.

Given stable conditions for a few more billion years and trillions of generations somehow that metabolism evolved into sentient hominoid creatures and all the other creatures we coexist with or discover by archeological means. Unbelievable but mostly a testament to the power of large numbers.

 

[jem]

although it seems to many of the top people in the field there was enough time for such luck to happen. Hence the OP quote...

Scott Sandford of NASA Ames Research Center added: “It’s another example of how the universe seems to be hardwired to produce a lot of the kinds of compounds you would like to be around if you want to get life going.

“If you think of all these little molecules we’re making as Lego blocks, and life as a kind of very complex, organised Lego castle, the fact that Lego blocks are falling out of the sky can’t be a bad thing.”

Actually this is an excellent analogy.

Self-organizing systems reduce entropy in complete violation of the laws of thermodynamics.

There is a good analogy in quantum mechanics. If you drop an object onto a table enough times quantum mechanics states clearly that one of those drops will result in the object dropping straight through the table.

Life appears to me to be the one that dropped through the table.

After billions of years and trillions upon trillions of random interactions between pre-organic compounds something snapped together into a... metabolism that converted carbohydrates or sunlight or powerfully corrosive compounds emitted by oceanic thermal vents into substances that support a sustained reaction which is what life is.

Given stable conditions for a few more billion years and trillions of generations somehow that metabolism evolved into sentient hominoid creatures and all the other creatures we coexist with or discover by archeological means. Unbelievable but mostly a testament to the power of large numbers.

 

[CaptainObvious]

Actually this is an excellent analogy.

Self-organizing systems reduce entropy in complete violation of the laws of thermodynamics.

There is a good analogy in quantum mechanics. If you drop an object onto a table enough times quantum mechanics states clearly that one of those drops will result in the object dropping straight through the table.

Life appears to me to be the one that dropped through the table.

After billions of years and trillions upon trillions of random interactions between pre-organic compounds something snapped together into a... metabolism that converted carbohydrates or sunlight or powerfully corrosive compounds emitted by oceanic thermal vents into substances that support a sustained reaction which is what life is.

Given stable conditions for a few more billion years and trillions of generations somehow that metabolism evolved into sentient hominoid creatures and all the other creatures we coexist with or discover by archeological means. Unbelievable but mostly a testament to the power of large numbers.

I like it, except for one little thing. It doesn't address the something from nothing question. Where o where did the pre-organic compound come from? Forget the why of it all. How did something, anything at all, simply appear from nothing?
Once you have that answered, then yes, I can see random chance, time, and large numbers being as plausible as anything else we humans can conjure up. Until then, it's all just one more theory.

 

[stu]

How did something, anything at all, simply appear from nothing?

Virtual particles.

"While the Big Bang theory explains how the universe has expanded and cooled since it began, it is quite silent on what “pulled the trigger,” so to speak. We simply don’t know what started the process. How there could be nothing at one moment and an entire baby universe the next?

It turns out that getting something from nothing is just business as usual for virtual particles." Dr. Don Lincoln, senior physicist, Fermilab

 

[CaptainObvious]

Virtual particles.

"While the Big Bang theory explains how the universe has expanded and cooled since it began, it is quite silent on what “pulled the trigger,” so to speak. We simply don’t know what started the process. How there could be nothing at one moment and an entire baby universe the next?

It turns out that getting something from nothing is just business as usual for virtual particles." Dr. Don Lincoln, senior physicist, Fermilab

Not so fast. The ever pesky to measure virtual particle just might be there. It better be there, because without it all of quantum mechanics collapses. Using an elaborate cornucopia of mathematical assumptions that would make a sorcerer blush, they can be found. These virtual particles are created and destroyed before they can be measured, but the math all works out if, if they actually exist. If not, well, not so much.
Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that they do in fact exist. You're still left with a chicken and egg dilemma. Can a virtual particle exist without first spinning off an actual particle? Maybe, but as yet unprovable using anything that can even be considered concrete mathematics.
Smart people are looking real hard and I applauded their efforts. It's truly remarkable and perhaps some day their theories will unfold as fact, but as of today one needs, shall we say, more than a little "faith" to believe them. But hey, you gotta' have faith in something for any of this to make even an iota of sense.

 

[Ricter]

If you accept that Time is a construct, as suggested by various experiments with light, then it follows that the question, "what came first?" could be nonsense.

 

[piezoe]

Cambell quoted this to end the video I just saw.

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve. Max Planck
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/maxplanck211832.html

I looks to me like Campbell is saying reality is probabilities until we interact with it... in short it is virtual.

Which is similar to what I wrote earlier... recent work by some top physicists suggest that our universe can best be explained by saying we are living in a holographic projection. We are bathed in light. There are even some scientists who say that everything we live in is digital.

I suspect we are living in a projection of Light.

But what if Tom Campbell is a believable lunatic?

 

[CaptainObvious]

If you accept that Time is a construct, as suggested by various experiments with light, then it follows that the question, "what came first?" could be nonsense.

A good argument if you just want to run yourself around in circles. Problem with the whole construct theory is that you just can't pick and choose what we've imagined for our own convenience. If time is a construct, then so is everything else, including what we've just written and read.

 

[Ricter]

A good argument if you just want to run yourself around in circles. Problem with the whole construct theory is that you just can't pick and choose what we've imagined for our own convenience. If time is a construct, then so is everything else, including what we've just written and read.

"The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao."
- Lao Tzu

"Something unknown is doing we don't know what."
- Arthur Eddington

 

[CaptainObvious]

"The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao."
- Lao Tzu

"Something unknown is doing we don't know what."
- Arthur Eddington

Like I said, runs around in circles while answering nothing. Kind of like the eternal Tao of ET.