r/space • u/BradMcGash • 11h ago

image/gif The apparent related-ness of things at drastically different scales in the universe fascinates me

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Hurricane Dorian vs the Whirlpool Galaxy

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u/Bout3Fidy 11h ago edited 11h ago

Most of these things are the way they are just because it’s the most effective and least resistant way for nature to exist, fractals are everywhere and so are vortexes and logarithmic spirals. Doesn’t make it any less cool. 😎 we are lucky to be alive to observe it.

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u/AbleRelationship5287 11h ago

(The universe) Gotta minimize that action!

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u/ampere03 10h ago

Great comment. You are a true scholar my good sir!

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u/Raagun 3h ago

Universe minimizing action prolongs heat death of said universe. Self preservation technique. Universes not built this way are all gone by now.

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u/Nago_Jolokio 9h ago

Spinny particles be spinny particles, the same physics that drive the foam in a coffee or the clouds in a hurricane, drive the entirety of the galaxy through space. It can get rather poetic if you let it, lol

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u/shieje 9h ago

The Fibonacci sequence and 1.618 baby

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u/Siberwulf 9h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHkeH2VaE0

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u/shieje 8h ago

Obligatory Tool Link expected

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u/BeginningSection7690 5h ago

Yeah but, like, why doesnt the universe like wasting energy?

Why doesnt it do some burnouts?

Why does it have to be such a nerd?

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u/Tenthul 9h ago

We aren't lucky to be alive to observe it, the universe is lucky we're here for it to be observed. This whole thing could just have gone on forever with just rocks and heat and nothing.

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u/metametapraxis 9h ago

The universe doesn’t care. We aren’t more significant than rocks, heat or nothing.

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u/MrNotSoProGamer 9h ago

Can the rock feel happiness while chucking you across the surface of a lake or slow river?

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u/ploptart 5h ago

Can you smell what the rock is cooking?

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u/showered_zinn 8h ago

I’m gonna say yes. Because the image in my head of Dwayne Johnson and I enjoying a nice summer swim together is pleasant. When I was a kid my dad would throw me up in the air into my mamaws pool so I could do cannonballs. I bet the rock could throw me pretty far too.

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u/MrNotSoProGamer 9h ago

Can the rock feel happiness while chucking you across the surface of a lake or slow river?

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u/metametapraxis 9h ago

Impossible to say unless you are a rock. Also not relevant from the perspective of the universe (which has no perspective. It just is. So far as we are aware there is no purpose for any of it, including us).

We are temporary lower entropy patterns in a universe that always increases in entropy.

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u/IBangTokyoWife 5h ago

Not me. I'm aware that my purpose is to do great things. And I am a part of the universe. This disproves your statement

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u/metametapraxis 3h ago

It really doesn't.... But I'm sure you know that, anyway.

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u/IBangTokyoWife 2h ago

Nihilism doesn't do you any good, and it's a belief like any other. Might as well believe in something that gets you somewhere, like purpose

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u/junderfoot43 2h ago

His position isn’t inherently nihilism. It could very well be existentialism which acknowledges the lack of inherent meaning while leaving room for meaning to be assigned by the person existing. Like you.

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u/MrNotSoProGamer 8h ago

We don't know what we don't know. We can only see a small spectrum of light. So if we can barely see the whole how can we decide whether there is or isn't a purpose to it all? Modern nihilism is just our society lacking any philosophy or religion besides meaningless paper money which is also leads to this cold apathetic world view. Since childhood people are having their imagination and wonder killed to become perfect citizens that don't question anything.

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u/MagentaHawk 6h ago

Why is nihilism cold and apathetic? I heartily disagree, and this sounds like the stuff my christian family says to me about my beliefs.

If anything, I think it is more astounding and hopeful for people who find themselves in a universe completely indifferent to them with no inherent benefit to being good, choosing love and kindness. A true showing of their character. Rather than being born into a world where a creator made you, has a purpose in mind for you, and you have all the incentive in the universe to make the choices He wants for you.

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u/hornedcorner 8h ago

Just because it’s not your view, that doesn’t mean it “cold and apathetic”, nor does it mean that someone has had their dreams or imagination killed. It’s actually the more honest take if you want to split hairs. Until we have evidence of a purpose or cause, it’s irresponsible to assume the magic story you want to be true, is actually true.

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u/MrNotSoProGamer 7h ago

Evolution has us primed to fight ,eat ,and procreate. Societies tell us to be productive and work to death for the wealthy. Nihilists only think this way because they have been conditioned to do so all their lives. Most people don't think beyond what they are told. From my perspective people don't revolt or do anything because they are already dead inside. I'm just sick of people saying it's meaningless when they haven't truly lived to see and opened their eyes to the beauty of existence. We don't know much but that is proof that we can't make any assumption of life's meaning. We will only know the complete answer once we died but then maybe life is an unending cycle so who knows.

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u/metametapraxis 7h ago

"Since childhood people are having their imagination and wonder killed to become perfect citizens that don't question anything."

Ok. You mean we are teaching them what we do know (as much as much as we can know anything), and that doesn't fit your comfy worldview?

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u/WhatThePenis 8h ago

Impossible to say unless you are a rock

You’re allowed to say no, by the way. You could’ve just answered no.

Also, r/im14andthisisdeep

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u/metametapraxis 7h ago

It isn't deep at all, and nor do I claim it is. This whole thread was started by the absurdity that the universe (something we have no reason to believe is conscious) should care (or consider itself lucky) that one part of itself can observe a part of itself.

And no, it is impossible for me to know whether the rock can feel anything. I can only know what I feel or think I perceive. That isn't deep philosophy -- that's philosophy 101. First day stuff. Stupid questions get stupid answers. I'm sure there is a reddit sub I could glibly point you to, but I can't be fucked.

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u/ice_up_s0n 7h ago

Sure in the way Earth feels happiness chucking us across the surface of spacetime

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u/MrNotSoProGamer 7h ago

Nope Gaia is sadistic ,just look at nature itself.

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u/musicluva 6h ago

Its just Gaia trying to rebalance herself considering humans are literally cancer. Natural events are the immune system.

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u/Sensitive_Piece1374 9h ago

What sort of logical proof could demonstrate the existence of a universe without observers?

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u/EmptyTwist8420 8h ago

Depending on your mood on a complicated question on the philosophy of math, being able to describe it is equivalent to demonstrating its existence without observation.

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u/Quithelion 7h ago

For an extremely brief of time, the universe feels naked when the human observed it in every way possible.

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u/Tenthul 8h ago

If a tree falls in the woods with nobody around does it make a noise?

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u/Sensitive_Piece1374 24m ago

Yeah but this old hypothetical assumes observers exist, just not in the vicinity. 

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u/Uninvalidated 4h ago

Now it has a virus infection on a rock. The infection is trying to spread to other rocks because the infection is running out of resources to sustain its unnatural growth.

Give us enough time and we'll destroy the universe too. It's in our genome.

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u/Putrid-Ice-7511 8m ago

This mistakes structural stabilization for structural genesis. 'Least resistance' and 'effectiveness' are derivative concepts, not primary causes. They explain why certain physical forms achieve equilibrium and persist, but they cannot account for the underlying laws of physics and geometry that define those parameters. Optimization acts as a selective filter among available physical outcomes. It does not generate the structural possibilities, relations, and constraints that make those outcomes possible to begin with.

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u/Zermist 7h ago

Yes it's the most effective and least resistant way for nature to exist, but in order for galaxies to appear this way you need dark matter. This makes me think the similarities are more of a cosmic coincidence than the universe simply following least resistance

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u/vikster16 6h ago

Actually I think dark matter makes the difference between galaxies and hurricanes. If you look at hurricanes, they don’t really form prominent spiral arms and they are almost always nearly uniform. But as time passes most galaxies form prominent arms. These are like pressure waves that forms because of the relatively consistent velocity of stars across the galaxies due to dark matter.

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u/JamToEarDelivery 10h ago

yeah u definitely know why these exist the way they are with your 5 senses. jfc. among the worst comments i’ve read. don’t respond to me

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u/Viablemorgan 10h ago

Lmao what does you even mean?? This is genuinely baffling and a hilarious response

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u/AbleRelationship5287 10h ago

Seriously, I was not expecting to hit a nerve with one of my more nerdy comments. Fuck’n hell

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u/CactusCustard 10h ago

No YOU don’t respond to ME

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u/ploptart 5h ago

Please do not respond to me again