Comments on: Brilliant!

By: Cosmic Variance: Speculating on the beginning of the universe « Identity Unknown

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:44:31 +0000

[...] I’m on record as predicting that we’ll understand what happened at the Big Bang within fifty years. Not just the “Big Bang model” â€” the paradigm of a nearly-homogeneous universe expanding from an early hot, dense, state, which has been established beyond reasonable doubt â€” but the Bang itself, that moment at the very beginning. So now is as good a time as any to contemplate what we already think we do and do not understand. (Also, I’ll be talking about it Saturday night on Coast to Coast AM, so it’s good practice.) [...]

By: How Did the Universe Start? | Cosmic Variance

How Did the Universe Start? | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:54:26 +0000

[...] I’m on record as predicting that we’ll understand what happened at the Big Bang within fifty years. Not just the “Big Bang model” — the paradigm of a nearly-homogeneous universe expanding from an early hot, dense, state, which has been established beyond reasonable doubt — but the Bang itself, that moment at the very beginning. So now is as good a time as any to contemplate what we already think we do and do not understand. [...]

By: Lattice Forecast for 2056 « Life on the Lattice

Lattice Forecast for 2056 « Life on the Lattice — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:58:09 +0000

[...] Via Cosmic Variance and BioCurious: New Scientist has some well-known scientist forecast where science will be in 50 years. [...]

By: Kuas

Kuas — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:01:03 +0000

Kurzweil is not naive: he just puts forth naive arguments because they sell. He’s smart enough to put his predictions safely into the future.

Now he says the singularity is 2045, seems like people yousta be predicting around 2010. Wonder if we’re ever going to catch it.

By: hack

hack — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 02:41:49 +0000

String theory will be fertile? Horse manure is fertile.

By: Bugs 'n' Gas Gal

Bugs 'n' Gas Gal — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:45:00 +0000

Genetically modified children will be born with repairs to inherited diseases and possibly with enhancements that promote selected tendencies such as those favoring greater skill in sports, art, languages, analytical thinking, etc.

By: chemicalscum

chemicalscum — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 01:16:10 +0000

It is interesting to note the number of “the most brilliant and charismatic and modest scientists” included who can essentially be described as “many worlders”: Weinberg, Tegmark, Deutsch, Rees and Wilcek.

On this I love Tegmark’s new many different TOE T-shirts theory.

By: åšå®¢æŽæ·¼ » ä¸€æ˜¥å¹½æ¢¦æœ‰æ— é—´

åšå®¢æŽæ·¼ » ä¸€æ˜¥å¹½æ¢¦æœ‰æ— é—´ — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:34:12 +0000

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By: Fermi-Walker Public Transport

Fermi-Walker Public Transport — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:50:30 +0000

Predictions for 2056 ? there will still be people saying the practical fusion reactors are only fifty years away.
It comes across as an unfunny version of Chevy Chase solemly reminding TV viewers that “Francisco Franco is still dead”.

By: Paul Valletta

Paul Valletta — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:56:28 +0000

Having read R Penrose’s:What is reality? first, I started reading through the other “Big Questions”, having not completed all the authors writings, I was amazed by Nick Bostrom’s : Do we live in a computer simulation ?

Things start to get complex and confusing having reached the hope’s of Alexander Vilkin, “My hope is that Cosmic strings will be discovered. Strings are relics of the hot,high-energy epoch in the early Universe. They are thin tubes of energy sweeping through space at close to the speed of light. Strings are extremely heavy;1 metre of string can weigh as much as a thousand trillion tonnes. Cosmic strings may or may not exist. They are predicted in many particle physics models.”

If a model “predicts” something, then surely they/it exists?

This paragraph by AV caused me some discomfort: Why is it that some models predict things that cannot be confirmed or unconfirmed?..is Prediction a guarantee, or merely a PROBABILITY, ie neither true or false?