Interesting stat re: Hughton

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Jonzey"][quote user="lake district canary"]Bw''s Cat" We are the way for the universe to know itself"I''ve often wondered about that phrase.   It seems to assume that we are the only lifeforms that knows  -  and what is painfully obvious is that  the more we find out, the less we know.     I prefer to think that the universe knows itself quite well, without our help. We are part of the universe of course and are part of the whole, but to assume we are the way for the universe to know itself is a bit arrogant, I think.   We know so little of why we are actually here and how it all works, all we can really do is wonder at it.  The more scientists look the more questions there are that don''t have answers.  Is that knowing, or is that not knowing?  [:S][/quote]Some theoretical physicists speculate the universe only exists as a by product of consciousness. Others speculate consiousness is merely a by product of the universe. It''s the argument of the anthropic principle. I believe what Prof Brian Cox is trying to say is that all conscious life, including us and elsewhere in the universe, will always evolve, or has always existed, in order for the universe to exist. We (including all conscious alien life) are the mind of the universe, and the reason for it''s being. [/quote]

 

A new quote to me from someone I hadn''t heard of. But then I know zilch about physics. It sounds to a rationalist non-physicist like an empty piece of phrase-making. An attempt to invest the universe with a kind of (non-religious) spiritual meaning and/or rationale. God is dead but there has to be more to the universe than mere happenstance, so let''s imagine a link to human consciousness.

[lake district canary 4,531]

[quote user="Jonzey"]Deep. It really is out of season if we''re discussing philosophy and theoretical physics!I like it. It''s much better than taking Twitter transfer rumours seriously, and slagging off each others spelling errors. [/quote]

You could relate it to football and this board though - scientists now say that atoms are made up mainly of empty space - and that could apply to some posters on here [:)](no names mentioned, or offence to anyone in particular)  [:S]

[Bws Cat 0]

Better yet, only 2% of the universe is made of atoms.

[Lets be aving you! 0]

Archaeologically, we are all ultimately Africans because that is where the human race started.

 

Closer to home, we in Britain tend to be a bit German (from the Angles and Saxons), a bit Danish/Norwgian (from the Vikings), a bit French (from the Normans), a bit Norwegian (from the Normans'' ancestors, who were the Northmen, from which the term "Normans" derives), etc. etc.

 

So anyone claiming to have 100% English blood coursing through their veins (including the far Right) is not quite telling the truth.

 

On the specific point of Hughton, my wife, like Hughton, has an Irish mother, but has spent all her life in England. She would describe herself as English, but, if pressed, would concede that she is "technically" half-Irish.