Mike Smith Cosmos

What is the simulation hypothesis Mike

Yes I see what you mean , and they have found some bacteria in outer space. But breaking up the overall environment of space, the universe, and everything into manageable chunks , my desire is to think in terms of ' who ' is contained in which ' chunk' , and can we arrange those ' chunks ' into some form of Heirachy. For example I am thinking of the goldfish in my pond being ' there' in their world . And me being 'here ' in my world . See following two pictures taken 5 minutes ago . Them fish in their realm Me , human in my realm ( world ) Who is in the next realm ( universe beyond ) ? Of the growing Heirachy? Mike

Great stuff . More advanced than me in recognising ( what I call Heirachy ) . At the moment I am not trying be too spacific , lest I get it wrong . But I think, even going by my and your experience with your gold fish , we all ( gold fish and humans, seem to take their place and role in the Heirachy. It covers a whole range of behaviour , but the bottom line is we humans are up here on dry land . , and they are down there in the pond . Similarly for the goldfish , they are drifting about like lords of the pond , and what they eat if it's living ( or was alive before the gulped them down ) , down there in the slime or dodging about the surface , one layer of the Heirachy down . ( these crawly things ) The big question is " If we are down here on Earth dodging about doing our thing in our level of the Heirachy, what or who is One Notch up from us . There must be something higher up the line , because we are not responsible for happenings or ranking within the great big arena away from Earth. So we can not lay claim to higher up the Heirachy? . My first reaction and reply to " probably the government " was to say NO. But on reflection Government is maybe something we should pursue . After all if left to just run riot we have the sort of thing going on currently . Things being blown up , people dying in prison , high rise flats catching fire , as well as woodland and a whole plethora of chaos. So yes maybe we should look toward a benign world government as a next Heirachy notch UP . MIKE

.I think the hierarchy upwards deserves a serious consideration . However by way of a setting for the upward direction I have today had more experience with the platform I have chosen for this discussion , namely the living environment around me and my goldfish . Today we had a new welcome visitor . I was staring at one of my nearby goldfish he/she/it was lurking a couple of feet from where I was sitting , being aware the Uk hit a temperature not experienced for 40 years (since 1976 ) . None the less I was sitting there , and who should appear but a dragonfly , which settled on an aquatic green plant not 1 foot from my hand , I captured an image on my I phone of both dragonfly on the plant and goldfish under the weed top right . ( I phone image follows , also paining this afternoon in a session with friends , part finished ) We have here a mini environment , which I can use for discussing the Upward Heirachy) why this is relevant , is , There is nothing staged here ( other than me /observer ) . So from this we can build the possible upward Heirachy Mike

Yes it would be of value to us as the ' Human Species ' , . Although I might have an academic reason as to how goldfish perceive me as a human , I am more interested in what I can perceive , looking up the heirarcy .( from us as humans ) Mike

. We were arguing about Decartes and the nature of reality when I was at Brunel College , back in the 1960's. Obviously the nature of reality has a lot of " related to whom , does it apply " . Descarts logical reasoning was :- That the ONLY thing absolute that ' I Descartes know is ' that I exist ' , he took logical reasoned steps in thought , until he reached his finger ends ' , then I think it went a bit woolly , if I recall correctly . Other philosophers then continued the argument , in the great beyond . People like Bishop Berkley, and James Lock . I am ( by my life's experience ) inclined to agree. But I have strayed , by the ( indirect it is true ) experience of life into the outer regions beyond my fingertips . This by the experience of other humans , scientists , astronaughts , astronomers , thinkers , philosophical persons . To have a fuzzy picture extending to the moon , Mars , Jupiter , the asteroids , and beyond to andromeda Galaxy , as well as the deep ocean , rock strata , and beyond. By all these wonderful images and experiences , I am convinced we , including me on the inside region , inside my fingertips , combine to make up a part of fantastic reality. Beyond this expance and depth I ' suspect there is further reality beyond even this ( as indeed Descarte did in his limited access to reality ) . It is time we tried to NOW take a leap of beyond our ' boarders of reality ' as Other Philosophical thought has taken from time to time . We may need to explore the unseen , the invisible , the Unknown . Not to be limited by established Dogma . Mike

.I think ' respectful fear 'could certainly be one of the criteria , however I think there are other criteria like demonstrable intelligence for instance , care , bonding and respect for others like ' the young, the less fortunate , the leaders, their mates/ partners ' and no doubt others besides. I care for my goldfish , I also care for my partner/mate, I also fear many living things . Without putting numbers on it , I think it is possible to get a feel for this ' hierarchy ' business , sufficient to look downwards and upwards from the goldfish , and downward and upwards from humans . This should make an interesting excersise. I think we all feel ' care ' , animals , fish , humans alike ! Mike

What do you think the goldfish think of me ? Mike

Yes, very good ! But now I need to work out ? In the Heirarchi 's ? Gold Fish , what do they look down upon . ( they look up to me , but what downwards) Humans , what do we look up to ? ( the gold fish downward , but what upwards ) Mike Phew ! It's like an oven down here in southwest England. I think I might just get in the pool ( lock , stock , and barrel )

. Firstly I would like to demonstrate , that a layer of hierarch actually exists , based on " fear " and " lack of fear " . A few moments ago , ( you need to know ,we in England are in the middle of some form of abnormal ' Heat Wave ' ) I am breathless with the heat , I thought I must put my feet in water . Seeing the fish in the pond , I thought Ideal ( big expance of cold water ( ideal ) . One of the gold fish was right at the edge ,where I wanted to put my feet. Our relationship is there but a bit ' stand off ish ' at times I gently lowered my feet in , gasping for cold . The goldfish did not move , just a few inches away . Extraordinary .it stayed there for quite some time , then moved into the distance to the other fish . Our relationship exists ! ! We now need to look up and down the Hierarchy. Exciting Mike Maybe I need to put my head in the pond with my goggles and snorkel ?

Yes , but they are just human , like me . As I am a different species to the fish , a more advanced species , by some good measure. What is the next species ' up the way ' to us humans ? Mike

I find myself studying the goldfish in my pool , and seeing how I stack up in the hirarcy of living things . In my immediate hirarcy , I am clearly ' Up Here ' and they are quite content to be ' down there' I feed them , battle off the foes like frogs . Feed them , count them , clean their water, plant water plants, reeds . We have a good relation. What I wonder is what if I think about the other way ? What is next above me , looking down ? Mike

.I do not mean you are elevating yourself ( high up above others ) . I mean you are noticing a very important truth . Namely , as Descartes stated ,, the only thing you know with absolute certainty is working outwards from the central you , to the end of your fingers . .,beyond that is .. Out there .. You are all there is in absolute certainty . Everything else , you have to prove by assumptions . Mike

. Randolph I think your idea to bring YOURSELF high up , if not uppermost , into the idea of Reality , is a very , very good step . If ALL ELSE fails to come to the fore : You KNOW YOU ARE REAL Because you are thinking and conscious you are thinking , right at this moment you are thinking ! I think this was the philosophy of one of the great thinkers ( maybe. Lock, Berkley, or Decart ) +1 for your idea Mike

.The slight irony of all this bag business,is , That a year or so ago , I got so worked up about this problem , I thought I would start observing , people with bags . Postman , women , men , myself etc . What I noticed about postmen , and regular Bus drivers, is that they carried quite a lot , some of it reasonably heavy. They seemed to raise there shoulder quite high, compared with the unused shoulder, to stop the bag slipping off . Women too seemed to have problems with keeping the bag under control. The contents of Women's bags are a whole subject on its own . To combat this slipping off the shoulder, which I also find annoying , particularly if you bend down to do up your shoe laces , the whole thing comes swinging around and over your face . To combat this I looked into designing some form of shoulder hook which would prevent this happening. But somebody has already invented and marketing it. While doing research I asked a man I found walking over a canal bridge, spontaneously . What do you do to carry all you need while walking the canals ? To which he replied " I acquired this great body top" it had about 15 small pouches only across the front . One for this one for that , " he said as he demonstrated where his keys were, his wallet, his sandwich, his map. " Judging the trauma I go through just to find my keys from two outside pockets to two trouser pockets , how he managed 15 pouches ?? Trouble is if you don't do something , you have this single chasm of a bag that you forage through like a pig though undergrowth . Mike

Here is a real life experience with the " Bag Nightmare /frustration " . I just said to my wife , I was off to Exeter to see the W.H. Smith store , to see if they could locate a very recent copy of New Scientist . of the article on THE HIGGS BANG . Sounded interesting when I read the future coming article . However I think I have missed the issue of " the new scientist " that was to have it in. However my wife interjected , as I was putting on my black sholder bag , " what about the morning walk for the dog " Ah yes , well ok, I will take her down the park ( dog , not wife ) . 1 hour later I return in my little smart car , parked outside the house , reached to the passenger seat for my shoulder bag that I had thrown onto the seat . I had already removed my ignition key ( part of a bundle of keys ) . The bag would not come up . I looked down and the strap had become intertwined with the hand brake . I put my right hand down ( which had my cluster of keys in ) and as I fought to untangle the strap of my bag from the hand brake , the keys made that distinctive sound of falling metalwork as they decended into that dreaded cavern between the front seats , handbrake and central carpeted drive shaft . By this time I was trying to get the dog out of the car , avoid passing cars , kneel down to try and grope my way blind under the front seat. All because my sholder bag has a continuous sholder strap , now caught up , immovable in a mixture of keys , handbrake , metal seat runners , and the odd sweet paper, dog, keys, bag , ............I give up ..... All I wanted was to sit in the beautiful flower garden , beneath blue skys , and read about " The Higgs Bang " Mike

. Yes, the handle in the middle of the bag's top flap, does have a serious set of consequences as described by Dr Crettin above. Once the flap is open , the bag becomes grossly off centre, tips over to one side, some contents easily fall out , which makes it often more off centre, more contents fall out . Then the bag and its content occupy a disproportionate area of the floor space than was ever intended. Then one throws the bag down in despair , and one goes muttering off into the distance saying " why does not somebody invent a sensible bag ,that doesn't become annoying once you put it down ? Once you put it on , once you try and look in it when you are wearing it , and once you try and get it off " Ps The rucksack idea is ok ,if you are going hiking or can afford the time and agony of going through bodily contortions for 5 minutes , ( every time you put the bag on or off.) But if you just want to grab your bag , go to the car , throw it on the back seat without its contents going to the four winds , and from then on, you spend 10 minutes looking for your :- ' I phone' ,that has slipped out under the car seat that is unbelievably aukward to see underneath. By this time you have gone past the point of no return , and think about joining a monastery and giving up all worldly goods ! Mike Ps 10 minutes ago my wife said to me " look under that kitchen table " at my art bags and shoulder day bag . " You need to do something about that , that is quite rediculous " to which I replied " quite so " !

Sold to the man with the Jack Russel ............who supplies me with good companionship on a walk every day, peppered with a little ' grief' each time , like sight of a , Cat, Postman, wild rabbit , or other moving ' things' Well I will try and track one down . Thanks for the tips . Mike

That is a really good Bag . If I saw one of those in a shop for a reasonable price I would buy it. Will not fall over easily , plenty of different sections . Really good . I can move on to another complaint I have with current bag design. Because I usually have a few kg a of stuff to cart around , what with I pad , drawing and painting sketch pads, paints and a plethora of bits and pieces , the bag gets heavyish , so I want to take the load off my hands , so need some form of bodily fixing ( say a shoulder or back. The shoulder straps always slip off after a few paces. If I want to secure it by putting the strap over my head , this is ab awkward manuver . Worse, when I then want to reach into my bag or look at something , it becomes an impossible situation and contortions provoke, removing over the head and back again . A new design is long over dew for fixing a bag to the body . . I have just overcome the seeing inside the bag by buying a led light for 90 p. But this is very crude , and currently loose the miniature light in the bag and need another light to find that light . Again a new design is possible but required Mike.

. A device , as important to our daily life , as a carrying device , something to store reference material, and useful for all manner of necessary ' things for daily use' . This contraption is in need of a serious review. If only to solve the two problems mentioned in the opening post namely stay the right way up or orientated when put down , and for contents to be seen , when you look into the blackness in your bag. We do not see many animals , going about their daily life , with shoulder bags, hand bags , carrier bags etc . Although ' bum bags ' had or have a valuable use , there is room for improvement there too. Perhaps we could get some solutions by looking at the natural world from microbe to Galaxy , to see how the rest of the universe , other than Mankind , copes with the requirements , that make us surround ourselves with ' Bags ' that are not very practical ( fall over , and dark as night ,when you look for something inside the bag ) . Perhaps if we look at how birds , plants and animals cope with this problem. Then we could look at atoms , how do they keep everything together, on hand and useful . How does things like planets , stars keep things going . The animals have some useful examples. As does the atomic structure with electrical and magnetic forces. And of course when we look at planets we cannot ignor gravity. However perhaps we are going too large there. But certainly magnetism and electrical charge might have some merit. Mike

Here is a picture of 3 fairly expensive carrying bags . Put them down for a moment , THEY FALL OVER . And to improve things nicely , they are often BLACK inside , so you can't find anything , that is now jumbled up ! Remedy , they should ALL. Be redesigned , orientated through 90 degrees , and have an illuminated inside. Mike

. O.k. I can appreciate things could be totally random , if one says " anything goes " . But there can be a halfway compromise . Where one explores thoughts that are outside the realm of established science , yet with a large stretch of the imagination , one could ponder for a passing moment a possible concept that currently does not exist. Then expose the proposed concept to a few ( what if 's , or if that were to be the case ( where could that possibly lead ? ) . Or discuss it with a colleague who has a fairly open mind ? I am sure this has been at the root of many ideas ( thought absurd at the time , that we currently take for granted? ) E.g l wonder if quantum tunnelling could work over astronomical distances ( with zero passage of time ) , like between here and the central region of the andromeda Galaxy ? Mike

.. I think if one pulls up the late Permian map from the following index of the movement of the supercontinent so , you can see Arabia just on the warm great shallow sea edge ( Tethys Sea ) here is where the trillions of sea creatures were deposited on the bottom of the warm shallow sea . To become the great oil deposits of the region around Arabia . http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm Mike

. I take your point , and the references you gave about some famous people , and drugs . I am not advocating drugs as a way to progress philosophical thought . However it does touch , on a recent area of research . Namely , it has come to notice that . DAYDREAMING . which used to be thought of as a lack of discipline , by students and school children . .and more so teachers ( "Smith! , stop looking out the window . Concentrate on the lesson please ) . Now daydreaming has been proven to have some Jewel like content . To quote a recent New Scientist article CONCENTRATE ( NEW SCIENTIST 20 May 2017 ) Caroline Williams . " A wandering mind is not the enemy of concentration , if you know how to guide it . " Perhaps then is not surprising that some past accounts of famous scientists having gained an insight while under the influence of drugs. I am in no way advocating drug taking , but I can totally endorse getting into a " Day Dreaming " state to enhance creative thought processes . I use this process almost daily in my Retirement . I walk the dog , usually through woodland , along side rivers , in parks . Etc the random nature, and unexpected images are to me the most stimulating way of formulating painting images as well as setting me off on new ideas and new philosophical thought! Mike

I am trying to re find Arabia in the Tethys sea