You are allowed to know the true story behind any event/phenomenon in history...

[Pandabearparade]

Am I the only one who gets to know, or do I get proof that I can show off?

Either way, I'd want to know more about either Jesus or Mohammad. Likely Jesus, if I have to pick just one.

 

[Arakasi]

-Reads Wikipedia-
Well, now I don't need that special power!

But seriously, the start of the universe.
You gotta be specific or you could get stuck with any old big bang, and might I add that it's an unproven theory that the Big Bang was the direct start of the universe.

Did you really just say "It's just a theory"? Not a good idea on these forums.

I would like to know how and why anything exists at all.

Clearly you needed the "unproven" part of my post written in giant gold flashing letters.
For all we know the universe is cyclic, and that the big bang was just essencially a reset.
Which is why I specified the beginning of the universe.

 

[isometry]

If "who killed JFK" is the most puzzling thing you can think of in the entire history of the universe, I feel sorry for you, and I recommend looking into science.

To be fair, its a question on a gaming forum. I really dont think people put much effort into thinking decent answers up.

That's why I recommended looking into science. If you have any knowledge of cosmology, relativity or quantum physics, you should be able to think of all these wonderful, puzzling, amazing, existential - and not least: significant - mysteries with little effort.
Things like "What is time?"
Or "How do quantum entangled particles interact?"

And also, a lot of the really interesting science based ones like what you mentioned, the bloop etc, could all just be totally trivial things in the end anyway. After all, we dont know until we know.

Personally..Moon landing, to shut conspiracy theorists up. Or maybe 9/11 slash iraw war conspiracy theories.

The bloop was one of the things I mentioned as probably being completely trivial.
Electron self-interference on the other hand... Or quantum entanglement for that matter...
Did you watch the video?

There's nothing trivial about getting to understand one of the basic mechanisms by which the universe functions.
Particularly when it's something that's been puzzling physicists for very well near a century. Namely how something can act both as a particle and a wave at the same time. And how the mere act of observing it makes it act like a particle, as if it's sentient.
It is practically the definition of non-trivial and extraordinary. It goes against all logic.

Even if the answer was something completely mundane (Which it can't be by definition, since the mechanism by which it happens is unique and unknown), it would have more of an impact on humanity than the collected effort of every single historical curiosity one can think of.

As for you personal wishes: If facts could shut conspiracy theorists up, the mythbusters moon landing special should've been enough to get rid of those morons.
It's a wasted effort.

Unfortunately the way most journalists and popular books talk about quantum mechanics is about 80 years out of date. There is no connection between sentience and observation in quantum mechanics, that is a lie they use to make the article into what they think laymen will find more interesting.

"It's a particle and wave!" is bad language. It would be like flipping a coin, and while it's spinning in the air saying "it's heads and it's tails!". No, the correct thing to say would be "it's a coin, and it's spinning." It can't be analyzed in terms of heads or tails while it's in the air.

The misinformation campaign to make QM seem more interesting to laymen goes back to the beginning. Shroedinger's point with the thought experiment about the cat was to show how absurd it would be to consider the cat to be alive and dead at the same time, he was making the point that the quantum analysis was defficient in explaining the real world. Idiot journalists flipped that around and said "this is how QM says the world really is! Spooky! Weird!". Generations of physicists after Shroedinger developed methods (statistical quantum field theory) to handle this type of situation and get the correct answer: the cat in the box is either alive, or dead, never "both at the same time", whatever that would mean, and opening the box has nothing to do with it.

Sorry to go on a rant. I agree with you that there are some great mysteries in physics and cosmology. But these old-as-dirt quantum red herrings are not real mysteries for modern physics, it's just the pop books and articles that won't admit how much progress we made in answering these questions since the 1930s.

 

[Jonluw]

If "who killed JFK" is the most puzzling thing you can think of in the entire history of the universe, I feel sorry for you, and I recommend looking into science.

To be fair, its a question on a gaming forum. I really dont think people put much effort into thinking decent answers up.

That's why I recommended looking into science. If you have any knowledge of cosmology, relativity or quantum physics, you should be able to think of all these wonderful, puzzling, amazing, existential - and not least: significant - mysteries with little effort.
Things like "What is time?"
Or "How do quantum entangled particles interact?"

And also, a lot of the really interesting science based ones like what you mentioned, the bloop etc, could all just be totally trivial things in the end anyway. After all, we dont know until we know.

Personally..Moon landing, to shut conspiracy theorists up. Or maybe 9/11 slash iraw war conspiracy theories.

The bloop was one of the things I mentioned as probably being completely trivial.
Electron self-interference on the other hand... Or quantum entanglement for that matter...
Did you watch the video?

There's nothing trivial about getting to understand one of the basic mechanisms by which the universe functions.
Particularly when it's something that's been puzzling physicists for very well near a century. Namely how something can act both as a particle and a wave at the same time. And how the mere act of observing it makes it act like a particle, as if it's sentient.
It is practically the definition of non-trivial and extraordinary. It goes against all logic.

Even if the answer was something completely mundane (Which it can't be by definition, since the mechanism by which it happens is unique and unknown), it would have more of an impact on humanity than the collected effort of every single historical curiosity one can think of.

As for you personal wishes: If facts could shut conspiracy theorists up, the mythbusters moon landing special should've been enough to get rid of those morons.
It's a wasted effort.

Unfortunately the way most journalists and popular books talk about quantum mechanics is about 80 years out of date. There is no connection between sentience and observation in quantum mechanics, that is a lie they use to make the article into what they think laymen will find more interesting.

"It's a particle and wave!" is bad language. It would be like flipping a coin, and while it's spinning in the air saying "it's heads and it's tails!". No, the correct thing to say would be "it's a coin, and it's spinning." It can't be analyzed in terms of heads or tails while it's in the air.

The misinformation campaign to make QM seem more interesting to laymen goes back to the beginning. Shroedinger's point with the thought experiment about the cat was to show how absurd it would be to consider the cat to be alive and dead at the same time, he was making the point that the quantum analysis was defficient in explaining the real world. Idiot journalists flipped that around and said "this is how QM says the world really is! Spooky! Weird!". Generations of physicists after Shroedinger developed methods (statistical quantum field theory) to handle this type of situation and get the correct answer: the cat in the box is either alive, or dead, never "both at the same time", whatever that would mean, and opening the box has nothing to do with it.

Sorry to go on a rant. I agree with you that there are some great mysteries in physics and cosmology. But these old-as-dirt quantum red herrings are not real mysteries for modern physics, it's just the pop books and articles that won't admit how much progress we made in answering these questions since the 1930s.

I'm aware of the story behind schroedinger's cat.
I'm also aware that the particles aren't sentient.
What I was saying was that I'd want to know how/why particles act like waves when they aren't being observed. Yeah, I'm aware that observing "collapses the wavefunction", but why the hell does it work like that?
It's like when a particle isn't being observed it moves according to probability, but the moment you observe it it moves according to predictions.

While we certainly can explain how an electron is going to move with probability, I've yet to hear an explanation of why electrons act like this.

 

[Tiger Sora]

For him to tell me where the gold is!!!


Seriously though. I wana know if Christianity, Judaism, Islam is real or man made. You know Moses and the Jews through the desert, than he gets the 10 commandments. Bla bla Jesus. All that stuff.

The answer would sure turn a few billion people upside down.

 

[Nouw]

Area 51. But Megadeth already told us what happened, especially at Hangar 18.

 

[ACman]

Actually, it's a misconception that the ''Big Bang'' was some sort of HUGE AND AWESOME AND BRIGHT AND LOUD EXPLOSION OF EPIC. It would be more like lots of gas, probably hydrogen alone (which you can't see, because there would be no light) expanding outwards.

"rapid gas expansion" is the definition of any explosion, you know. So yes the Big Bang was very much an explosion. Huge, and awesome, and bright, and loud, because the collision of electrons in hydrogen gas produces photons (and that is how the sun works). Okay, maybe not loud. Not much to look at either maybe, seeing as by the speed it expanded at your sight range would be completely white in half a second, but still.

And yes that would be my chosen event. Not the big bang, but how the universe started and a little bit before it did.

There was no time before the Big Bang it being the beginning of time as well as space.


Recognise that time is just the increase of entropy, and that the singularity at the beginning of the universe is the point of minimum entropy.

Also there is no point to observe from as you would be contained within the event your are trying to observe... Unless you transcend to some higher level geometry. (See flat-land visits the 3rd Dimension.)

I want to know exactly what happened when ABIOGENESIS occurred on earth...

Then I'd go posting it all over some creationist blogs and forums.

 

[Henriot]

While the understanding behind the quantum mechanics that have been brought up (guys, it's ok, I got this one... It'll act like a particle when observed because it's embarassed about being seen naked (waveform)) would be a great boon to science and greater human understanding, it's not the most forefront in my mind.

Having been playing alot of X-Com recently, I want to know about any of these supposed "abductions" throughout the years, alien visitation and ultimately; are we the only sentient, intelligent race at this point of time in the universe, and can we meet for coffee sometime soon?

 

[Lupin the Vapour]

I'm very much curious about "The bloop". You know, the ultra low frequency sound that could be heard at a 5000km radius? The one that scientists agreed on could only originate from a living creature? I want to see that fucking creature.

^ This. I want to know this. Also, I want one of whatever it is.

 

[PurePareidolia]

Any moment in history? Does that mean it has to be the past? Or history in a general sense, because I'd go with the first time life on Earth interacts with aliens.

If not, then the origin of whatever life form we will interact with. That would probably provide even more answers than the former.

 

[Guffe]

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

HAHA, I know the answer to your unknowable question, what now dirtbags?

The answer is the egg, here's why:
The chicken is born out of an egg right?
So that means that there can't have been a chicken laying the first egg because that would be freaky.
BUT
If another sort of hen-bird were to lay an egg and the new bird got an "illness" and was born as a chicken. Then it continued to mate with it's original kind but it's mutation was stronger than the genes of the ordinary bird and then slowly the old hen-kind died out and = chickens.
(This is very clumsilly written since English isn't my mother toungue.)

On Topic:

I think I would go for...
Bermuda Triangle, no wait that one is solved already...
Something about Dinosaurs I think.
Or the Universe would be nice to get to know a little better.
Meaning of life perhaps?

 

[guidance]

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

HAHA, I know the answer to your unknowable question, what now dirtbags?

Actually, we already know the answer to that - it's the egg.

Why? Because reptiles actually pre-date birds by several million years.
And reptiles lay eggs . . .

Wait, when people asked, what came first the chicken or the egg? They were asking about any egg? I thought they meant specifically chicken eggs. I thought it was one of those mind bending questions.

On topic I would like to know how to make free energy, or at least find out if it's possible at all.

 

[KrazyShrink]

I'm generally a very logic/reason/science based guy, but I find it extremely hard to deny the existence of some kind of soul or spirit. So I'd ask that, if all the emotions and passions that make up people really just boil down to synapses in the brain, or if there's something more.

 

[McMullen]

-Reads Wikipedia-
Well, now I don't need that special power!

But seriously, the start of the universe.
You gotta be specific or you could get stuck with any old big bang, and might I add that it's an unproven theory that the Big Bang was the direct start of the universe.

Did you really just say "It's just a theory"? Not a good idea on these forums.

I would like to know how and why anything exists at all.

Clearly you needed the "unproven" part of my post written in giant gold flashing letters.
For all we know the universe is cyclic, and that the big bang was just essencially a reset.
Which is why I specified the beginning of the universe.

You may want to read up on what the Big Bang theory is and is not before bringing out the condescension. I don't think it means what you think it means.

 

[Aprilgold]

How to keep a human alive infinetly and all the knowledge behind it.... I miss read the question I bet.

I've always wondered how

The great dancing plague of 1518. I want to know what made hundreds of people just dance themselves to death.

Yeah if I had to choose something else, this.

 

[ACman]

There was no time before the Big Bang it being the beginning of time as well as space.


Recognise that time is just the increase of entropy, and that the singularity at the beginning of the universe is the point of minimum entropy.

Also there is no point to observe from as you would be contained within the event your are trying to observe... Unless you transcend to some higher level geometry. (See flat-land visits the 3rd Dimension.)

That's true, but I specifically said "not the big bang" just in case the universe started some other way. What I meant was to observe what the universe was before it became the universe.

But there was no "before" before the beginning of the universe. By that virtue alone it is unobservable.

 

[Arakasi]

-Reads Wikipedia-
Well, now I don't need that special power!

But seriously, the start of the universe.
You gotta be specific or you could get stuck with any old big bang, and might I add that it's an unproven theory that the Big Bang was the direct start of the universe.

Did you really just say "It's just a theory"? Not a good idea on these forums.

I would like to know how and why anything exists at all.

Clearly you needed the "unproven" part of my post written in giant gold flashing letters.
For all we know the universe is cyclic, and that the big bang was just essencially a reset.
Which is why I specified the beginning of the universe.

You may want to read up on what the Big Bang theory is and is not before bringing out the condescension. I don't think it means what you think it means.

I have read up on it and nothing in it contradicts what I have said.
It means exactly what I think it means.