I’m having an existential crisis - any scientists around

[xeran]

I read something I’m DDs science book which said that 99.99% of all atoms are made up of dead space. If that is true and we and everything around us is made up of atoms...how is everything solid? It said if we collapsed all the atoms inside ourselves we could fit in a particle of dust 👀

This can’t be true?

I don’t think free will is an issue, we are not apart from the system, we are the system, if our choice is describable by an equation it doesn’t mean we didn’t make it.

I rather suspect that trying to define free will is rather like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, if you try and describe it to predict people's behaviour then it ceases to be free will and you need to alter the equation, and so on ad infinitum.

Love this thread

Yes the "solid" matter you could fit into a tiny space. But it doesn't work like that because matter is like the flip side of energy. Each atom is kept in its mostly "empty" state by forces and energy inside it - then it links to other atoms and they are all maintaining that state. The meccano analogy is good but also imagine each section of the meccano is spinning and that stops other sections from pushing into it.

"Solidity" is a function of how the meccano holds together, not of how much space is in it. If you imagine a piece of polystyrene packing, that's definitely solid, but you know it's also full of spaces.

Having said that, matter is weird and no one really understands it when you get down to the real nitty gritty. Alarmingly the same goes for time, gravity, consciousness and most of the other "basic" things our existence rests on. Aaaaarrrgggghh!

I have developed a way to calm myself down out of an existential crisis by reminding myself it actually doesn't matter, and not understanding is an OK state to be in. Also a cup of tea always helps (seriously) because it takes you out of it into an everyday experience.

This did my head in when I was 15yo & starting chemistry..
I reckon that electrons are everywhere at once which gives us the illusion of solidness. Good enough for me.

If the Universe is expanding, are we expanding with it?

I have developed a way to calm myself down out of an existential crisis by reminding myself it actually doesn't matter, and not understanding is an OK state to be in. Also a cup of tea always helps (seriously) because it takes you out of it into an everyday experience.

Thank God, I was about to have a massive wobble!

I must say, I was looking up at Mars (which has been a joy this summer) a few weeks ago and I thought "does the universe worry about Brexit? I'm guessing not. So I won't either."

I'm certainly expanding according to my scales....

Obesity crisis is no longer a crisis, it’s just part of the universe expanding. I like it

500 years from now no one will remember that you existed or anything that you did (probably, there'll be a handful of exceptions). Whilst your life may be captured in some digital archive, no one will be looking.

This is either a depressing 'why bother' revelation, or a reason to just do your life the best you can without worrying about the consequences. You can take it either way.

Brexit doesn't matter. Life will go on. Everything changes. Trump presidency doesn't matter. Life will go on (well, unless he changes that bit).

Universe expanding.

If the universe expands at a linear rate, and everything in it at the same rate...if I held up a ball and let go, the ball and everything around it would grow at that rate. I'd observe no change in size, because there'd be no constant to compare it against; but the ball would reach the ground. This'd look remarkably like gravity......

I once listened to a talk in a night club! where the scientist was part of a 300 strong global collaboration that changed scientific knowledge from 'neutrinos have no mass' to 'neutrinos have a tiny amount of mass'.

from 'neutrinos have no mass' to 'neutrinos have a tiny amount of mass'

... actually is quite important when you are looking for missing matter in the universe.

500 years from now no one will remember that you existed or anything that you did (probably, there'll be a handful of exceptions). Whilst your life may be captured in some digital archive, no one will be looking.

This is either a depressing 'why bother' revelation, or a reason to just do your life the best you can without worrying about the consequences. You can take it either way.

On the other hand every single tiny decision you make including things you hardly notice like which specific nanosecond to begin a breath in, filters out as infinite infinitesimal effects on the universe so that your existence is as profoundly altering of reality as that of anyone in innumerable unknowable ways.