Paul Davies - Why the Cosmos?

The search for meaning and purpose is humanity's never-ending quest. Some say that 'how' questions belong to the realm of science, but 'why' questions do not.

[desperateastro]

Paul Davies is the ultimate Wild Man of Science. He takes what is observed and all of the existing confirmed scientific theories, and then he logically extrapolates them into the unknown. The conclusions of this extraordinary thinker may (or may not!) turn out to be wrong; but a brave person must venture in thought from the known into the unknown!

[papa]

Brilliant, and spot on. As we dig deeper into this very line of reasoning we will inevitably come away with a deeper and deeper understanding of how mentation works and will as a consequence be able to go further. I totally agree with professor Davies about being optimistic about all this.

[weshard]

He hit the nail on the head, at the end. Are we able to comprehend realty, with our evolved brains, that aren’t built to do so?

[billstokes]

Great episode from a great series. But in this one (as in some others) the sound volume is too LOW.

[hmdshokri]

good summarizing of all ultimate questions!

[charlesbrightman]

1. If there is no existence at all, then there would be literally nothingness. So, existence is needed.
2. What good is existence without a consciousness to experience it with? So, consciousness is needed.
3. If consciousness is not truly eternally consciously existent, then it would cease to exist one day of which then did it matter that it even ever existed at all in the first place? Who eternally too? So, eternal conscious existence is needed.
4. What good even is an actual eternal conscious existence without choices? Not even a choice in what to think about? So, choices are needed.

This set-up allows certain states of existence to occur. By closing off certain areas from the main, other states of existence could "be".

1. Exist, conscious, eternal, choices. (Basically the "God" level, what could be considered the "main");

By closing off areas of "God":

2. Exist, conscious, eternal, no choices. (Possibly "God's" delegates);
3. Exist, conscious, not eternal, choices. (Where humans appear to be at as well as other conscious species in existence, unless we truly do have an actual eternal conscious existence somehow, someway, somewhere, in the "main", level one, state of existence);
4. Exist, conscious, not eternal, no choices. (Seems like this would really suck, consciously exist with no choices. But hey, it's not for eternity.);
5. Exist, not conscious, eternal, no choices (by default). (Possibly where things like pure energy are at);
6. Exist, not conscious, not eternal, no choices. (Possibly things like vegetation).

There may be more, this is just some of the ones I could readily see.

[iainmacbeth]

The superbrain ( Deep Thought ) that Paul speculates about has already done it's calculations. The ultimate answer as everyone knows is 42 !

[TheBruces]

The argument always comes back to the concept of a "Source" or a first cause. You can call it God or anything else. The true nature of reality is what it is and it doesn't matter how much we speculate, that won't change.

[TheGreatAlan]

This notion of without consciousness the universe doesn't exist is just fucking stupid. It's known the universe was here LONG before conscious beings turned up on Earth. We know this objectively.

Stop with that idiotic idea

[BradHolkesvig]

These liars will tell you anything to keep their positions in life. All they have to do is listen to My Voice and obey all My commandments and they will learn how they were created along with all their experiences from their viewpoint.