I found this video while surfing the internet tubes, it is a little long coming in at 15 minutes but I really feel like its worth it, I feel it hits on religion a little too hard but whatever it's old enough to take it. It just reminded me about how amazing this universe is with all its complexities and when I'm hunched over math equations and stuck in my own little world I forget that there is so much more out there. Sorry for the gushing.
Just lines like "It's like the universe screams in your face. Do you know what I am? How grand I am? How old I am? Can you even comprehend how grand I am? What are you compared to me? And when you know enough science you can just smile up at the universe and reply. Dude, I am you"
really get to me
DISCLAIMER FOR THE YOUNGERS THERE IS CURSING IN THIS VIDEO BUT NOT THAT MUCH!
9 comments:
Ha Ha. I'm sorry Sean but this struck me differently.It's unfortunate that he had the misfortune of making this video without ever having read In Progress.
I'm on the other side. I am always thinking about how amazingly complex the universe is, but feel insulted when any part of it is reduced to a pop music video.
I also don't understand why "billions and billions" of distance is supposed to be so awesome. Ever since I learned what infinity was as a little kid, the "billions and billions" of the universe never seemed so large in comparison. Vast distances, while impressive, seem like one of the least amazing things about the universe. There is so much more to be amazed with.
But, anyway, it does 'gushing' well, science and/or religion, not so well, but we have hacked over that enough.
I hope I don't sound boorish. I should explain better. You, Sean, would know better than I that without very sophisticated mathematics, it is practically impossible to understand the universe and how complicated it is. But this video does not use mathematics, but an appeal to a religious-like experience.
Real science and understanding is the hard math. When you are hunched over your math equations, you may be closer to understanding the universe than the person who made this video.
Jim's comment is sort of a corrolary to Richard Feynman's
"If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize."
Also, in the interest of predictability, I want to register my displeasure with the trashing of religion in the video. There is a breed of scientist who would no doubt take umbrage at criticism from the psuedo-scientist pressing, for example, creationism, but who, nevertheless, feel fully entitled to comment on religion about which they have no expertise whatsoever. As James Carse said in the Salon Interview when asked about Harris and Dawkins: "There are several problems with their approach. It has an inadequate understanding of the nature of religion. These chaps are very distinguished thinkers and scientists, very smart people, but they are not historians or scholars of religion. Therefore, it's too easy for them to pass off a quick notion of what religion is."
I like that, "in the interest of predictability."
To defend my choice of video/taste in media, in retrospect, I enjoyed this video for the same reason I enjoy listening to a passionate priest. The fervor and intensity the speaker uses to stress his point is very much the same that would caught my attention in church or school. I feel I have to parry a few points raised in our discussions.
I would disagree Jim though with your point on your "billions not being that spectacular of a number" idea, even though I understand the concept of infinity and its applications in many forms of mathematics it still is just a concept, I can't ever sit in a room with infinite people or play with infinite toys. The concept of infinite is often a tough pill to swallow for many and I do agree that it is extraordinarily big (which seems redundant to say) but I don't think it makes a billion any less of a huge number, to imagine a room with a billion things in it, my mind will still protests, as the video says, it is just such a giant number, I doubt I will ever meet a billion people, nor do I feel that over the course of my entire life will I ever touch a billion things nor will I ever even get close to typing or saying a billion words. By sheer size alone I can't easily, in any capacity, imagine the size of a billion but maybe that's just me.
I just felt, as I said when I posted this, that aside from the organized religion bashing (From about 5:30 on, it can be a bit demeaning) this video eloquently states some complex ideas about the universe. I was hooked by the anecdote in the beginning because it resonated with me. I don't know about you Jim or Myk but many nights in my childhood were spent laying down on the side of a hill with friends after a game of manhunt or tag during the summer, looking up at the stars, trying to mull over those mysteries of the universe that are later slightly demystified through science. In those first 30 seconds of the video I was brought back to that wide eyed boy of fourteen saying, probably in the most cliche way imaginable but never the less true, "we are so small in this universe." While it is an obvious idea even to a younger version of me it still humbles me every time I am reminded of it. That even though I've read about the universe, and talked about the universe in my conquest of knowledge it still doesn't make me feel that same feeling of such utter tininess that I feel when staring up at the stars and seeing into the black canvas stretching out as far as my mind can perceive it (too much?)
While I believe that some things are slightly exaggerated for the sake of story telling (read "I walked out of a supernova") I think the type of language the speaker uses and the ideas that are presented are enticing and interesting. "The body of a newborn baby is as old as the cosmos, the form is new and unique, but the materials are 13.7 billion years old." While we know this is true from conservation of matter I had never connected these ideas, call me a simpleton if you will but I was attracted to the language and presentation of this video. And I enjoyed this video's view on the importance of science to which I feel we can all agree on.
As a final thought the speaker in the video worships science, it seems, like those who worship God. Creator, rule maker, artist, is there a chance that we will see a religion based around science, and then a question off of this, what would be God?
And as a final statement about the video.
I enjoyed it, I learned a little from it, I felt it was a worthy submission, and I agree its too harsh on religion.
And I guess on top of all this I am a sucker for accents.
Nicely said, and I have done the same and had the same feeling many times. I take back any perceived scorn.
At to "God"—that would be Truth. Like some 'religious', some 'scientists' forget that science like religion is a form or inquiry, not a dogma.
And, in sympathy, I'll post a video myself.
Let me add (I'm really buying into 'you can never have too many posts'—said by a famous (but undiscovered) writer) that you are right about the billions also, along with the inspiring video of the stars and the music. Well, 'right' is the wrong word—more like, I get inspired by the same things presented, also.
But I often second guess myself. Why should billions of stars be any more inspiring than a single blade of grass or, as Camus said, "a single strand of a woman's hair"? Yes, I'm with you, but I also don't want to forget to be inspired by the single blade or strand.
…and that should be "As to "God" and "form of inquiry"
“You are a fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”
“Thank goodness!” said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.
Post a Comment