pears

Our consciousness survives the death of our bodies every ten years or so does it not? Beyond that I would have thought consciousness without a physical body is pure philosophical speculation. Some people believe that consciousness (or rather conscious experience) is itself non-physical, even though it depends on physical processes for its existence. If that non-physical consciousness could be transferred to another medium at body death then it could theoreticallly survive its physical body. But in answer to your actual question: I don't know.

Oh ok - so when people talk about gravitons and gravity waves that's really highly theoretical and an area of research more than discovery?

Thanks AJB - very helpful and interesting I will go forth and digest, hopefully!

Is gravity still viewed as spacetime curve in modern physics? Has that idea disappeared with quantum field theory?

Thanks AJB - very interesting links - although now my head is spinning somewhat So I guess my list should be revised to spacetime fields matter/observables What are the fundamental fields? Apologies for my noobish questions. I think I have a lot of reading up to do

If you had to describe the universe in terms of its fundamental components what would you say they are? As someone with a love of science but no formal education beyond GCSE and pop science books, I would hazard: spacetime forces energy/matter Does that sound right? What would your list be?

Thank you swansont

Why does, for example, the strong nuclear force exist? Do we know? Can we know? Perhaps this is more of a philosophical question than a science one, but I'm not particularly expert in either area so need some help in my ponderings Does science only observe and describe what's there, or can it explain the existence of such fundamental 'things'?