Hi Alan,

Your Twitter link appears to be broken, but if I remove the cosmiclog from the end it works.

[ALAN ADDS: Dang, sorry about that ... I changed my mind on the Twitter account I decided to use for the conference, and apparently the blog tool didn't follow the switch. Well, at least we got that shaken out for the weekend.]

Ought to be interesting.  I'll be curious to see if that kind of answer can be made concise enough to fit in a twitter tweet.

I believe in artificial intelligent!

This meeting of minds will more than likely destroy the reality that we know and turn it into oatmeal.

What an incredible weekend that will be!  That much brain power in one room.  Will be following your reports on the cutting edge of cosmological origins.

Our universe is a speck in the big picture. The complete picture is unknowable. Life has a way to hang on. Evolution is driven by change.

I'm going to see Dawkins and Hawking speak :)

www.thenewatheist.com

How did the universe begin?
Unknown, but the evidence seems to imply that all matter started in a central location and began expanding to it's present form and locations, The Big Bang.


How did life arise?
Completely unknown. Our best guess is that somehow the early earth environment was conducive to the spontaneous generation of life. However, nothing even close to spontaneous generation has ever been observed. So far we have only observed that life comes from other life.

Some groups bypass this question by saying that a god created life. However, by what mechanics did the god create life? These questions are typically not explored by those that attribute creation to a god.

How did evolution make us the way we are today?
When an animal is able to survive and reproduce, they pass on their physical and mental characteristics to their posterity. Different environments encourage helpful traits and inhibit harmful traits.

The evidence for this method causing the development of all animals is fairly overwhelming. However, humans seem to have developed to an extremely high degree of mental sophistication in a short amount of time that is unprecedented.

Although we have sought, and expected to find, the answers within the classical four dimensions of time and space, if we regard evolution of both the physical universe as the substrate for life and the development of life itself, all the way up to humans, we now must take into regard potentially up to ten dimensions, most of which are hitherto unexplored.

we need to worry about where we are going.. we can worry about where we came from , later.
Let's fix today and tomorrow.

A particle is actually a vibration, a point in space that oscillates from the future to the past, then past to future, continuously. This fits in with the wave nature of a particle, but with nothing there but energy of the oscillation. The oscillation to the future is a little longer than the one to the past, resulting in a procession forward in time.  Heavy particles such as quarks have more complicated oscillations and with a more retarded forward in time procession than light particles such as electrons, the difference we interpret as charge.  All of the time oscillations produce warpage of space as in Einstien's Relativity.  Retardation of time equals what we call mass.  All is created out of nothing but an initial movement forward in time, which like a spring went back in time.  At the second oscillation, aparently there were then two oscillations, at a point in time called the present, multiplied by itself with each subsiquence oscillation to produce what we look back at as a big bang.  God simply is the entire oscillation system interconnected by traveling oscillations (such as light) and warpages of space, such as charge and gravity, (Or the entire universe) of which we are a part. So we are connected to the past and partially, the future, and of course, to each other. Quanta occur because a point oscillation, say orbiting electron, can break into two components as it drops orbit using wave theory, and one part splits out at light speed and we call it light.

why no theologians to answer the birth of the universe question?

Just read the Bible, trillon dollar atom smashers are proving a $40 Bible correct. You can believe now or later, (the bible says that too)

  IF THERE WERE NO GOD, THERE WOULD BE NO ATHEISTS.

  BECAUSE THERE IS A GOD, THERE ARE ATHEISTS.

my new physics theory reveals that all energy that we can measure consist of electron quantum mass transfers, where the constant electron mass is h grams. The only way physics can make any visual sense at the electron pulse level is for n to equal 1/h in the Planck realtion,E = nhf, so that frequiency does indeed always numerically equal the energy. The h-symmetry of h ergs being quantum (photon)energy, and h grams being quantum (electron) mass lets us crudely predict but blinds us to pulse level mechanical detail. Electricity is a lower frequency form of light.

Beginning of universe = collapse of dark matters' maximum entropy upon itself into singularity, causing matters' unavoidable expansion from singularity.
Meaning of life = to increase the rate at which maximum entropy of matter is achieved.
End of the universe = reverse
there, questions solved.

Rich H writes...
"Just read the Bible, trillon dollar atom smashers are proving a $40 Bible correct. You can believe now or later, (the bible says that too)"

Which trillion dollar atom smashers are you talking about? Any particle physicist would get a serious hadron over that big a commitment to science but, sadly, no science experiment anywhere near that big (by at least a factor of 10) exists. Of course trillon might be a different number than trillion. (My best passive aggressive comment of the day!)

On a similar note, how exactly are these "trillon dollar atom smashers" "proving a $40 bible correct?"  Frequently I read similar statements from other enthusiastic posters, but everyone who types them is strikingly short on specifics. Can anyone change that trend?

On another similar note, where exactly does the bible say "You can believe now or later". My father is a minister, so a fairly significant portion of my life was spent studying scripture, and I don't recall running across a passage with similar meaning, but I could be wrong. My memory is not perfect (unless I'm arguing with someone, in which case it magically becomes infallible).

(my second best passive aggressive activity today)
For reference:
1 (one) dollar buys a cheeseburger at (insert fast food place here)
10 (ten) dollars buys an appetizer at (insert casual dining place here)
100 (one hundred) dollars buys a night at the movies with drinks and snacks for family of four
1,000 (one thousand) dollars buys a pretty good TV
10,000 (ten thousand) dollars buys a half of a new car
100,000 (hundred thousand) dollars buys a third of a house
1,000,000 (one million) dollars buys everyone's supposed dream life
10,000,000 (ten million) dollars buys a smallish, profitable company
100,000,000 (hundred million) dollars buys one fourth (1/4) of a Mars Rover mission.
1,000,000,000 (one billion) dollars buys half (1/2) of a space shuttle mission
10,000,000,000 (ten billion) dollars buys one LHC (large hadron collider, BIGGEST science experiment EVER!)
100,000,000,000 (hundred billion) dollars buys one seventh (1/7) of the initially proposed financial system bailout package (six months ago)
1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) dollars buys a war or two in Iraq
1 with undetermined number of trailing zeros (1 *trillon*, see what I did there?, joke!) buys theoretical biblical confirmation.

How did the universe begin? Naturalistically, see Universe(s) Origin(s) Preface
http://tinyurl.com/universesoriginspreface  
 
How did life arise? Naturalistically, see How Did It All Begin?, by David W. Deamer
http://tinyurl.com/originoflife-001

How did evolution make us the way we are today?
Naturalistically, see the BBC website Human Beginnings
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/

I am a fascinated lay person with all of this.  I wish I could be at the symposium.  I am trying to navigate this page and get as much as I can through the web.  Also wish HBO or CSPAN picked it up.  If anyone knows if it did please state.

A better understanding of religion as to its motives,ethics and intent might be of interest to read a book i found titled Trial Of Beliefs available at eloquent books on the web, puts them all on trial before the court of humanity

An interesting symposium for us science fans.  We are so lucky to live in an age of breathtaking scientific discovery which has advanced our knowledge of where we came from and where we're going.

[...]

Alan please make sure to do a followup in another Cosmic Log for those of us "untwits" who don't do the twitter thing.

[ALAN ADDS: Absolutely ... I'll try to distill the most interesting revelations into an item for Monday. And there'll be another follow-up Tuesday.]

in my opinion, George W. Bush and some of the "religious right" are to blame for the nasty fued between science and religion. There may have been differences between the two groups when Bill Clinton was president, but it was never as bitter as it is today. Rational, reasonable people can believe in the laws of physics and science and also believe without a doubt that someone or something had to be responsible for it. i think when the scientific communtiy heres the word "God" they automatically make the incorrect assumption that the biblical God is being referenced. Very ironic for a group that claims that they fall back on logic and reason before having the correct answer

Arg, I'm an idiot!

I live in Phoenix and knew about this symposium since last month. I should have purchased myself a ticket. Being an ASU graduate, I might have even gotten a discount.

ORIGINS Symposium?
Perhaps the Distinguished Scientists attending the
symposium might shed some LIGHT on the recently
discussed Planetary Phenomenon regarding the
influence of Jupiter and Saturn on Earth's
historic warming with a
period approximately equal to 100,000 years.

 Ultimate (Final?) Answers
 
 Answers to "how" questions can always be followed by a "why" question which may lead to further questions and discoveries, ad infinitum. God provides a way to end this endless chain for those who define God properly to suit their particular purposes. Those who do not have such a proper definition may continue the game forever accepting that it has no ultimate end. For example, inflation theory is an answer to the "how" question of how the cosmic background is so uniform. Accepting the validity of inflation theory, one may ask "why" questions about it. "Why" questions may bring about "how" questions. For example. the workings of the relatvity of simultaneity may be seen as the "how" answer brought about by the "why" question of why the universe was initiated at a point. Whether or not our universe initiated at a point has "how" and "why" questions that remain unanswered and may never be answered because there is a flaw in the initiation at a point idea. The theory of everything (TOE) hasn't been found, thus far, will not be found at the "Origins" meeting, and may never be found by humans, but the "game" is GREAT fun and has helped humans in many ways, including giving us something interesting to do. Our universe seems to have the characteristic of always providing us with the opportunity for further "game" playing. Therefore, while searching for ultimate answers inspires us, ending the search is ultimately beyond us and our offspring. Herein is another possibility for which the God believers may say "Thank God.". Non-believers may say "Thank you chance.", but might, thereby, be making "chance" their God. Ah, yes, a rose by any other name smells as sweet.

Martin R. Fraser, Sacramento, California

Of course you just made that all up...right? Travelling far enough into the future, are you saying you can actually see the world catching up to you since you feel particles do some momentary travel into the future?

Anyway, I am glad there are no theological people invited to a strictly scientific symposium.  I don't think Richard Dawkins could stand it !

"Just read the Bible, trillon dollar atom smashers are proving a $40 Bible correct."

I'm sorry, I missed the chapter and verse that describes the neutrino, the Higgs Boson, etc...

"in my opinion, George W. Bush and some of the "religious right" are to blame for the nasty fued between science and religion."

Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galiei and others would be quite surprised to hear that...

"Answers to "how" questions can always be followed by a "why" question which may lead to further questions and discoveries, ad infinitum. God provides a way to end this endless chain for those who define God properly to suit their particular purposes."

Even accepting that, are you suggesting that one cannot ask how God did this?

And indeed, as a conscious entity, one would not only have to ask how, but *why.* A question we don't have to ask of the laws of physics. That then takes us into the psychology and motivations of an entity that's presumably omnipotent, but inaccessible for study...and no longer science.

Carlton (4/4, 1302) “The theory of everything (TOE) hasn't been found, thus far … and may never be found by humans, but the ‘game’ is GREAT fun … giving us something interesting to do. Our universe seems to have the characteristic of always providing us with the opportunity for further ‘game’ playing.”
Wisdom almost beyond measure.  Haven’t seen you here for a while.  Nice to see you back.

Jason, Carlsbad, CA (4/4, 1759)

“On another similar note, where exactly does the bible say ‘You can believe now or later.’”
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess (Philippians?).  It’s certainly not talking about now, but when faced with the reality of God at judgment, later.

“Frequently I read similar statements from other *enthusiastic* posters, …” emphasis added.  I think this may be your greatest PA statement for it’s subtlety.

Remembering that the Old Testament was written by and for people in the bronze age the creation account is quite insightful, being thousands of years ahead of it’s time, and current anthropology says that people were scattered into various bands and languages from the same area that the Bible says.  The Bible isn’t a science text and doesn’t rise to the same standard as even this blog, but neither would you look for great, stimulating, mystifying science from a grade school science book.  As far as particle accelerators in the Bible, though, I’m stumped.  For how an accelerator will prove the Bible, also stumped.

Mr Lawrence Krauss has asked the secular world certain questions, which can only be correctly answered by the world's leading expert on the book of Genesis.  If you ask anyone else, all you will obtain is foolishness.  You don't call an automobile mechanic to fix your home computer.

Herman Cummings
ephraim7@aol.com

Alan,
A little off subject but I can't see the pictures in the top 10 astronomy photos slideshow in the science and technology section.  I tried sending an e-mail to msnbc.com but nothing has happened to improve the problem.  I have no problems seeing any other pictures, cartoons or videos so am puzzled why I can't see the top 10 astronomy pictures.  Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29894334/displaymode/1107/s/2/

I sure would like to see the top 10 astronomy pictures and hope someone can fix them so I can see them.
Thanks

[ALAN ADDS: Wow, thanks for pointing that out. Looks like the link is bad somewhere, I'll have to track that down, but for now, you can get to the pix by clicking on the link below, then clicking on the button to launch the slideshow:]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29894334/

[P.S.: I don't currently see where that bad link shows up, so it may be that someone has fixed it already. But if you can find where the bad link is (with the "displaymode" thing in the URL), let me know and I will fix that.]

Consciousness is the referential continuum of structure in space/time about an either absolutely or relatively localized locus.

Sorry about this, but I am a solipsist. everyone, and everything are but figments of MY imagination. I think, therefore, everyone and and everything is.

That's a hell of a lot easier than either Science OR Religion, and just a reasonable.

To ask, How old is the universe?" is a meaningless question. You may as well ask, "How long is a piece of string?"

Life? The universe is itself alive. If we could shrink ourselves to a point smaller than a molecule of water and step inside that molecule, would we see anything wet?

Hey Alan,

I just wanted to thank you for turning me on to Twitter. I'd heard of it before, via mostly derisional statements, and didn't give it much consideration. I joined Twitter just to follow your updates and I find that I love it for what it is. I'd tried MySpace before and just didn't get the point, so I'm surprised by how much I love Twitter. I don't know what it is but...

Anyway, enough of the gushing advertisement (I swear, I'm not getting paid). I'm enjoying your coverage, and reading along with watching.

(Sorry for bringing the meaness earlier re. trillon. Sometimes I just get stuck on an idea and ... etc.)

@ Tim Rommes, Washington, UT
{uberquote]
“Frequently I read similar statements from other *enthusiastic* posters, …” emphasis added.  I think this may be your greatest PA statement for it’s subtlety.
{/uberquote}
That's me. I try to pass off the active aggressiveness as passive, then slip in the almost subtle word here and there which is actually passive (but still active). See, I did it again with "almost". Sorry, going through a big self-discovery thing here.

And re. knees and tongues... yep, I can hear the song in my head and still didn't make the connection. I was brought up Southern Baptist (liberal as it possibly could be) so the indoctrination stepped in and prevented me from seeing the obvious. That's my excuse.

If evolution takes millions of years then how do you explain the Cambrian Explosion where millions of new species emerged in a short span of time?

I would love to be at this gathering of great minds.  I can't wait to read what came out of this.  Good luck Alan!  

Thomas Ashby, Calgary

It is my Theory, I have been working on it for 25 years.  I stated it in as few words as possible, but in all of my science and physics reading, the de Broglie wavelength seems to make a lot of sense.  This and other theories imply a vibration, but of what?  I thought a vibration of time would work.  The forward and backward vibrations don't go far into the past or future, on the order of a plank dimension. The beauty, in my mind, is it allows for the entire universe to be created out of nothing but that original forward movement in time.  
 There may also be time dents in space, all moving forward in time but with no oscellation.  The dents with a slightly faster forward movement would represent dark energy, the dents with a slighly slowed forward movement would represent dark matter.
 I wonder too, if light marks a path through space as it speeds along, possibly with something like the above dents.

WHAT IS DOES NOT HAVE A BEGINNING.

Douglas Adams already answered those questions about Life, The Universe and Everything...

For the Symposium:
When mass converts to energy E=mc2, where does the gravity property of the mass go? With the radiated wave? Becomes part of the Cosmic Constant?

"And the number of two score and two shall be the fufillment of all...." (Funny Sounding Old Book)

It's always nice when it boils down simply isn't it?:)

Peter Smitt (4/5, 1910) Perhaps it wasn't an explosion at all.  When you consider all the plants and animals that have ever lived and how few fossils we find it is evident that a very tiny percentage make it into the fossil record.  This leads me to believe that the conditions that lead to ossification are quite rare.  Perhaps there was merely a change in global conditions that allowed more remains to make it.  Perhaps a great star named Slugwood, as Wormwood is yet to come, hit and made an abrupt chemical change.

Or maybe that "short span of time" was 50 million years.

Not sure about the first, certain about the second.  So far, you're about the only person I know of to infer that 50 million years is too short.  But if that's the stand you want to take then keep running your mouth, or your fingers.  I'm sure you're doing a lot of good.

If evolution is correct, wouldn't we have to throw out any arguments for what scientists are saying about the universe today as irrelavent? 500 years from now they will be!! Think about it, 500 years ago, the best scientists on the planet thought the earth was flat and the sun was the center of the universe. So logically speaking, 500 years from now this argument about the universe will be impractical. They will look back at us the same way we look back at them and say how primitve we were.

There was a big to do about PlanetX several years ago.  Why are they putting observatories in the Antarctic, why are planetary disasters occurring more frequency, weather, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions?  What are the governments hiding, the financial crisis could be just a cover up of biblical proportions should there be a planet on a collision course with earth.  Where is the news media?

Stephen Hawkings theory of the "big bang" does not allow for a creator.... a universe that is finite but boundless, has no beginning or end point, and no need for a creator. The pope wouldn't want to hear that.  It's great that some of the finest minds in history have no room for a creator...except NOMAD, it had a creator.

Martin Fraser...but is this theory of yours written down and of course, written down in the language of math and peer reviewed?  25 years is a long time.

R Farrar and Others,

 In mathematics, the list of integers,...,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2, 3,4,5, ,......  has neither beginning nor end, as indicated by the ....... It goes on forever in both directions. (It has no first or last integer; any one claimed to be the first always has infiniely many further to the left; any one claimed to be the last has infinitely many further to the right).

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