[ExI] Dark Matter

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2013-11-11 05:41, Kelly Anderson wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 3:41 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com 
> <mailto:pharos at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I find the scale of these structures a bit mind boggling.
>     So I think I'll sit quiet for a while until the boggle factor
>     returns to normal.
>
>
> It might boggle your mind a little less to understand that these large 
> scale structures likely formed VERY early in the life of the universe 
> and have simply been expanding to their ungodly current size over the 
> last 13.7 billion years. Yes, the scales of anything beyond our little 
> planet strain our African-made and optimized primate brains.

In fact, we cannot even handle planetary scales. I cannot intuitively 
think about the distance from Oxford to Stockholm or even London. I can 
compare it to known distances, I can play around with imagined maps, I 
can remember what the trip is like, but I don't *feel* it like I feel 
the distances within the towns where I have walked. I suspect the reason 
is that in order to go between these places I have to take a vehicle 
rather than wander. In between these target places there is an awful lot 
of places that would feel big to me if I were in them, but since I have 
never been to Ipswich I do not have any feel for it. It is just a point 
on my mental map (with a sticky note saying it was used in a Monty 
Python joke).


The large scale structure is pretty awesome. This video looks at the 
local motions of galactic clusters (starts slow, gets awesome): 
http://vimeo.com/66641648


-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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