Universally Typical Place
[part 2 of 4]
© David Moorhead — January 2007
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In his entertaining talk presented at TED dot com, legendary physicist David
Deutsch weaves a compelling and complex stance for the study of quantum theory
as zenith for survival of the human species. My delight and much fascination
inspired this essay [part 2 of 4], highlighting a few of his revelations in
a 20-minute talk videoed in Oxford, UK, July 2005. Refer TEDTalks at ted dot
com.
Is Earth a typical place in our Universe? Well, let’s look around. Do
you see the walls of your room, your lamps and computer; do you see yourself,
as Hawking would say the chemical scum reading this ezine? Your physical habitat
isn’t typical in this universe, because the nearest possible typical place
is no where near us or stars or galaxies.
Still inside our universe, we would have to travel one hundred thousand light
years from Earth to look back to see our galaxy with its spiral arms and our
planet and sun.
After traveling all that distance, we’d still not be any where near a
universally typical place until we travel one thousand times again as far, then
we’d be in deep space. Once there, we’d discover what is typical:
There is utter complete darkness; it’s very cold, less than three degrees
above absolute zero; and, it’s empty—the vacuum out there is a million
times less dense than the highest vacuum our technology can currently create.
Our planet and solar system are not a universally typical place, because our
universe is seemingly an infinite spatial environment entirely alien to that
which Earthlings have become suitable.
Or, perhaps, deep space is suitable for humans. How can scientists know so
much about an environment that’s so far away? Go to Open
Ended Stream of Knowledge [part 3].
Our constant curiosity
is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead |