What is the Universe expanding into..

Do you think there was anything before the big bang?

  • I don't think there was anything before the Big Bang

    Votes: 56 12.5%

  • I think something existed before the Big Bang

    Votes: 200 44.7%

  • I don't think the big bang happened

    Votes: 54 12.1%

  • I think the universe is part of a mutiverse

    Votes: 201 45.0%
  • Total voters
    447
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#2,561
MITsound said:
Someday, whether it's SARS, Avian flu, or Coronavirus, some bug will cut down on light users.
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There's always something positive that can be said.
"Always look on the briiiiight side of life" Now you got me whistling on that for another few days...


Galu said:
I'm a big fan of Asimov and have his entire Foundation series, which runs to a total of seven novels.

It's amazing how much cigarette smoking went on in the far, far future of the original trilogy - the description of the ritual served to up the word count I guess!
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Big fan of Isaac Asimov, I quite like how he had a very broad and general intentional focus away from the detailed works of technology itself. And more on just "the future", when we are "there" I guess the main mass of people do not think so much about the inner workings of things.

And now that people aren't smoking anymore, when are we going to really stop and think? We've completely stopped doing that.
 
#2,562
I read about Asimov going to apply to get into Columbia University to study physics at the age of 15 (yes, he was exceedingly bright) but was apparently turned down. He said of himself ‘I was a totally unimpressive 15 yr old . . . ‘.

A humble guy who just took it on the chin and went on to write some of the best SF on ten planet.
 
#2,564
Asimov, of course, diverted to chemistry and went on to become professor of biochemistry at Boston University.

As well as science fiction he wrote many very readable books on science, including three volumes on 'Understanding Physics'.
 

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#2,571
Galu said:
Asimov, of course, diverted to chemistry and went on to become professor of biochemistry at Boston University.

As well as science fiction he wrote many very readable books on science, including three volumes on 'Understanding Physics'.
Click to expand...
He wrote two or three (not sure ho many) biographies of himself (he would joke that it's his favorite topic to write about), the one I recall reading was the big two-volume set. He wrote about continuing to have a "real job" as a chemistry prof through so many years of his writing. In 1963 he had a yearly writing income of $75,000 (not a bad income in 2020 for a writer), so he finally decided to quit his "day job" and write full time.
 
#2,574
Discopete said:
Very interesting. I never thought that there could be acceleration without a constant increase in speed. However if our friend in the diagram was in outer space and released the string, would the stone continue to accelerate?
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A good question. So good, I presume you know the answer.
At the instant, you release the string, the stone continues on a straight line at a constant velocity.
 
#2,575
Been researching! 😉

In 1964, Isaac Asimov wrote an essay predicting what the world would be like 50 years later in 2014. So, how accurate were his predictions?

  1. "Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone."
  2. It will be possible "for you to direct-dial any spot on earth, including the weather stations in Antarctica".
  3. "Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence."
  4. "As for television, wall screens will have replaced the ordinary set, but transparent cubes will be making their appearance in which three-dimensional viewing will be possible."
  5. "Kitchen units will be devised that will prepare 'automeals', heating water and converting it to coffee."
  6. "An experimental fusion-power plant or two will already exist."
  7. "Much effort will be put into the designing of vehicles with 'robot-brains."
  8. "Not all the world's population will enjoy the gadgetry world of the future to the full. A larger portion than today will be deprived and although they may be better off, materially, than today, they will be further behind."
 
#2,579
Theoretical physicist and writer Freeman Dyson, who "dreamt among the stars", died at the age of 96 just a few days ago on 28th Feb 2020.

Known as a "free thinker", in 1958 he worked with a team of 40 scientists on project Orion. The objective was to design a spaceship that would be propelled into deep space by a series of controlled nuclear explosions. By such means it was hoped to reach Mars by 1965, but 1963's Test Ban Treaty halted further experimentation. YouTube
 
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