Tau Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 What aspects of the natural world are there that we cannot explain scientifically? What dont humans know?
fafalone Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 Alot. Like why the universe came into existence. Welcome to the boards Tau, you finally joined =)
Radical Edward Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 or even if there is an answer to 'why the universe came into existance'
greg1917 Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 Humans cannot yet fully explain how life emerged on this planet. Evolution is still a theory because of several missing stages in the evolutionary process. One thing that chemists find interesting about the emergence of life is the chirality problem. In biology, almost all amino acids used in human DNA are in the L-form. the reason for this is because chiral compounds can form two chemically identicle compounds which are either left or right handed. If a single r amino acid is used in a dna chain, the chain cannot be built farther because the molecule will jut out at the wrong angle. the same goes for proteins, which almost always occur in the r-form in the human body. All living things have evolved ways of differentiating between enantiomers (optical isomers), as it is impossible for them to be separated in nature. the chances of 100 amino acids all being n the l-form is close to 10e-30, and thats for a non-functioning simplisitc dna chain. You can imagine the chances of a high number of complex, different amino acids all being in the right form are impossibly minute. So the question is, how did life start when its near impossible to have a solution of an optically pure chiral compound? they just dont separate. A racemic mixture is very difficult to separate with an intelligent observer, in nature its inconceivable for it to happen on its own. Evolution hasnt answered this problem yet.
greg1917 Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 Also on a lighter note, why does toast fall butter side down? Is it just fate wanting you to ruin your carpet or is there an aerodynamic reason, or is it the weight distribution?
NSX Posted February 26, 2003 Posted February 26, 2003 Originally posted by greg1917 Also on a lighter note, why does toast fall butter side down? Is it just fate wanting you to ruin your carpet or is there an aerodynamic reason, or is it the weight distribution? umm...erm..something along those lines...lol Originally posted by Tau What aspects of the natural world are there that we cannot explain scientifically? What dont humans know? This is very sujective; who even knows if our scientific models will hold true 200 years from now? We can't even tell if reality is as it seems right now; instead of asking how much we don't know, I feel a more progressive question would be how much we do know.
RED FIRE COW Posted February 27, 2003 Posted February 27, 2003 Also we cannot explain the conciousness in the human mind.
NSX Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Originally posted by RED FIRE COW Also we cannot explain the conciousness in the human mind. Actually...What do we know?
Dudde Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 we DO know that telling a girl she's fat or old, even on a joking level, can leave your conscious bruised for weeks^_^ as for the buttered toast, that's fate;)
Skye Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Well we don't know much because there's no end of post grads writing their thesis on something never known before.
greg1917 Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Knowledge itself is subjective I suppose, is there a defienite point when 'everything' is known? When every single possible uncertainty is accounted for and every single event is able to be predicted accurately?
fafalone Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 By the time we fully explain this dimension, we'll find new ones we can't explain, and that process will continue.
Sayonara Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Despite extensive research we still don't know where all the socks and biros go to die.
greg1917 Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Do you think there would come a point where the complexity of knowledge was unable to be furthered due to the inability of humans and computers to comprehend it? Id believe so, otherwise people would become some sort of diety like entity. Emotion would be blurred and sidetracked in the pursuit of pure knowledge.
fafalone Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Yeah especially given that intelligence is an evolutionary disadvantage in this society :/
liljohnak Posted March 6, 2003 Posted March 6, 2003 how do we explain why the force of gravity works.
NSX Posted March 7, 2003 Posted March 7, 2003 Originally posted by liljohnak how do we explain why the force of gravity works. Well, from what I understand, matter & energy warp space; this warping is almost like a push or pull. Gravity is exerted by objects with mass, so we are pulled towards this mass. As Newton's law of Universal Gravitation states, the force of gravity is proportional to the two masses [ie., the Earth and you] and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them [so force decreases fourfold as distance is widened 2 times]
JaKiri Posted March 8, 2003 Posted March 8, 2003 Originally posted by Tau What aspects of the natural world are there that we cannot explain scientifically? What dont humans know? We can't explain anything scientifically. We can merely model and make empirical predictions in a metaphysical framework.
Radical Edward Posted March 8, 2003 Posted March 8, 2003 Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri We can't explain anything scientifically. We can merely model and make empirical predictions in a metaphysical framework. 'dull' but of course, entirely true. on the topic of how good our model is. I think its pretty poor at the moment. a rough sketch of how things work.
JaKiri Posted March 8, 2003 Posted March 8, 2003 I'm instigating the 'campaign to change my rank to Empiricism Man or somesuch'!
Sayonara Posted March 8, 2003 Posted March 8, 2003 Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri I'm instigating the 'campaign to change my rank to Empiricism Man or somesuch'! You're a mod. You can change it.
Dave Posted March 9, 2003 Posted March 9, 2003 Originally posted by greg1917 Do you think there would come a point where the complexity of knowledge was unable to be furthered due to the inability of humans and computers to comprehend it? Id believe so, otherwise people would become some sort of diety like entity. Emotion would be blurred and sidetracked in the pursuit of pure knowledge. i worry that human knowledge will come to such a point that we can't actually teach all (or even a specialized branch (maths, physics etc)) of it.
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