Anyone know of documentaries about the history of the bible

[nathannn]

I found this video yesterday Its about a Scottish boy who was claiming he had a past life since he was two years old https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSrzpLoODo

[andydes]

It's bullshit

Unfortunately for those of us who prefer things nice and logical, this isn't a hippy fringe science view, but a fairly standard interpretation. There are variations on the idea, including alternative realities, of course, but they are just as crazy.

The universe exists whether we observe it or not. You're telling me that mainstream science says otherwise? It's like saying there was nothing before the big bang. Equally stupid.

Who is we? Suppose humans didn't make it but Neanderthals did. Would the universe they live in not exist?

It's an extension of the Copenhagen interpretation which comes from Heisenberg's uncertainty principal. All matter and energy is in a wave/particle duality and can only be described as probabilities.

On an atomic scale, particles are literally everywhere at once (with some places obviously much more likely than others) and only when you take a measurement, the wave function collapses, and the particle pops into existence in a certain place.

Sometimes, Heisenberg's principal is said to mean there is no way we can know where a particle is as the act of observing will change the result, but apparently it's more fundamental than that.

This has been shown experimentally, most famously with the double slit experiment. It also explains radioactive decay, the amount of energy given off by the sun, and other such things. It's been shown mathematically as well.

It's not entirely clear what constitutes an observer, but I don't think being human has any special relevance. Having a consciousness may do though.

Check out this book. It's a layman's guide to quantum physics, and have stiff drink ready as your understanding of the universe comes crashing down. Shit, you don't drink. Better have one ready anyway.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Schrodin ... 0552125555

PS. I thought you knew everything.

PPS. I've got bagsies on both the "Copenhagen Interpretation" and "Collapse of the Wave Function" as immensely geeky track titles, so don't even think about it, motherfuckers.

[andydes]

the only reason you exist to me is because I'm here looking at you

otherwise you are a total figment of my imagination

or an internet browser

This is also not as much of a joke as it sounds.

I like the version of the Schrodringer's Cat thought experiment where you put a man in the box with the cat. He's referred to as Wigner's Friend. Poor Wigner. I'm sure he was a great scientist, but he'll forever be remembered as the man who suggested gassing a man as well as a cat.

[andydes]

Yes I do. I understand the ideas here, but I don't believe that you can apply the probabilities associated with a photon to the very existence of the universe.

If it applies to every little bit of the universe, it must apply to the whole universe. Although the bigger something is, the better the chances of it still being where you left it next time you look.

It all sounds a bit too much like metaphysical bollocks to me, but Einstein didn't like it either. He spent his final years trying to disprove it all, but couldn't.

[Forge.]

It all sounds a bit too much like metaphysical bollocks to me, but Einstein didn't like it either. He spent his final years trying to disprove it all, but couldn't.

which is actually why I like it

I found this very interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EPlyiW-xGI

The Primer fields

In this video series the currently accepted theories of physics and astrophysics are shaken to the core by a radical new theory of the fundamental forces in all matter.

You will be amazed as a magnetic model of the dome at CERN is used to create a 100 mm diameter plasma Sun with a 300 mm diameter equatorial disc of plasma around it!

All the plasma videos are actual footage with no enhancement or manipulation other than speed. In other words, this is real thing. Hard to believe, but it is all true.

Actually that blurb does sound a bit like it's for the amazing bearded woman, and I'm not sure about all the CERN dome analogies and those bits, and it's probably about 3 times longer than it needs to be, but beyond that he gives some very interesting demonstrations of magnetic fields and I found it quite entertaining viewing actually... might go down better with a bifter or two, there's a lot of graphics and actually there was even some quite good electronic music in parts

[Steve Ballmer]

[andydes]

Induction coupled plasma? Pft, I do that on the 9-5

But mine's only about 16mm across.

True.

[machinesfuckingoff]

with regards to the bible aleister crowley had it right. page and macca know this.

[Steve Ballmer]

Your opinion matters to science.

[Steve Ballmer]

I wonder if there would be a scientific way of testing this theory.

[Forge.]

Exactly. If I didn't have an opinion about it, science wouldn't exist.

does this mean if I don't have an opinion about you, you won't exist?

[Forge.]

Induction coupled plasma? Pft, I do that on the 9-5

But mine's only about 16mm across.

True.

can you give us a translation?

[Steve Ballmer]

I don't.

[Forge.]

I don't.

[Forge.]

So Ballmer's 15 billion worth of opinion just ate away a lot of opinion points