[ExI] Dark Matter

[Kelly Anderson]

On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 1:00 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

>  On 2013-11-11 05:41, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>
> On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 3:41 PM, BillK <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.
>

But it's not incomprehensible... Just slightly out of our daily experience
level.


> I suspect the reason is that in order to go between these places I have to
> take a vehicle rather than wander.
>

But if you have ever walked to somewhere you normally drive to, it gives
you a sense of how to scale.


> 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).
>

I can't say that I have ANY feeling for Great Britain, despite having flown
over it once or twice.


> 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
>

That video reminds me of my childhood trying to understand what the hell
Jaques Cousteu was saying about all those pretty fish.

-Kelly
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