Re:A Binary Star Is About to Go Supernova and Could Produce ...
by dotancohen on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @05:51AM
(#18501678)
You make terrific points. The problem arises, for both points, with believing that time is a background against which everything happens. For most practical purposes this is fine, and it is very difficult for humans to accept that time is not actually the background against which everything happens. I'll do my best to address your points, but as a layman I'm really not the best person to do that.
Regarding the CMB, I have no problem stating that the Big Bang is happening now in a distant part of the universe. That is an interpretation that is easy for humans to understand, and it's not really wrong since we are now receiving the photons. As a very poor Newtonian analogy one could imagine it to be similar to how a flame front in a combustion chamber propagates.
As for near-real-time two-way communication, I don't think that humans will ever be developed enough to accept the non-agreeing simultaneity. We will continue to say that Mark Watney said something 15 minutes ago when we hear his voice. For practical purposes, it is the best way to deal with the situation, even if it is technically wrong. There is precedent with knowingly using terms incorrectly, just off the top of my head we (metric-using people) typically answer with our mass, not our weight, when asked what we weigh. If I were to tell someone that I weigh 700 Newtons they would have no idea what I'm talking about.
Regarding the CMB, I have no problem stating that the Big Bang is happening now in a distant part of the universe. That is an interpretation that is easy for humans to understand, and it's not really wrong since we are now receiving the photons. As a very poor Newtonian analogy one could imagine it to be similar to how a flame front in a combustion chamber propagates.
As for near-real-time two-way communication, I don't think that humans will ever be developed enough to accept the non-agreeing simultaneity. We will continue to say that Mark Watney said something 15 minutes ago when we hear his voice. For practical purposes, it is the best way to deal with the situation, even if it is technically wrong. There is precedent with knowingly using terms incorrectly, just off the top of my head we (metric-using people) typically answer with our mass, not our weight, when asked what we weigh. If I were to tell someone that I weigh 700 Newtons they would have no idea what I'm talking about.