NOW

 CONSIDER:

An “event” (one galaxy crashing into another) is described as 680 MILLION light-years away—THEORETICALLY, it "happened” 680 million years ago, back way before the dinosaurs roamed Earth, so the light from that explosive event is arriving at the Hubble Telescope only now.  

A “light-year” is the distance a beam of light will “travel” in one year, which is about 5.8 TRILLION miles!  A “trillion” is 12 zeroes—a million MILLION!  That is about 5,800,000,000,000 miles x 680,000,000 away!

Therefore, it is about 3,944,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away—about 3.944 sextillion miles!  (I hope I got my zeroes right!)  That is a number I really can’t wrap my brain around!

But also, consider this: “now” (time) is ALWAYS defined by the speed of light, since nothing can be faster (according to Einstein’s "Theory of Special Relativity"), so I might assert that “now” is, arguably, whenever it is seen or detected, WHEREVER, not when it may have originally occurred!  Seen or detected by whomever or whatever!  I will contend that “time” itself is, therefore, "telescoped” by the speed of light.  

Does a tree falling in a forest where there’s nothing (no human or animal) to hear it make a sound?  Does “light” become "real” unless/until there is something to detect it?

Who in the Hell knows?

Now, time for some true confession!

I pulled that “theory” about the speed of light being “now” COMPLETELY out of my ass!  (I gotta say it feels much better now!)  Personally, I have NO WAY to do the mathematics necessary to even APPROACH “proof” of that assertion, nor have I read it asserted anywhere else.  I might even make a joke about no one being able to prove me WRONG, which is, of course, logically IMPOSSIBLE!  No one can “prove” a negative!  That is why the burden of “proof” is almost ALWAYS on the one asserting the affirmative of something!  Moi!

I’ve almost finished reading a really good book about the history of physics by Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi, called The God Particle—If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?

At the time he wrote the book, Lederman was directing the construction of a huge Super-Collider project in Waxahachie, Texas with a subterranean tunnel for the collider about 23 miles in circumference!  It would have been the largest, most powerful particle accelerator ever built, but it got axed by Congress.  More about that later.

In his book, there is a really great summary about those (of us) who “theorize” about quantum particle physics and usually wind up "blowing smoke.”  About halfway through the book there is “Interlude B,” too long to quote here.  But Lederman is appropriately critical of people like me who think of something off the wall then want to “shock” the stodgy Establishment types with our brilliance!  Because so many really bizarre and interesting developments have occurred at the quantum level (Lederman describes it as “spooky”), we armchair physicists have decided to go to the head of the class with our fabulous “theories” intended to push aside that stodgy Establishment and be appreciated for our obvious brilliance!

But there is no room for us “gunslingers” who don’t "have the goods,” as Lederman says.  Physics has built on the works of others for centuries.  Lederman and Teresi trace the development from Archimedes, the Greek philosopher, to Galileo, to Isaac Newton, to James Clerk Maxwell, to Albert Einstein, to all of the quantum physicists who have pushed knowledge of atomic structure further and further along.  None of them has been “canceled”; all have been enhanced, and all have served to enable the enhancements.

I think this book, published back in 1993, is one of the easiest and best I have ever read about physics, and I urge everyone to read it.

BTW: the “God Particle” was a term coined (almost as a joke) by Lederman with reference to the elusive Higgs boson, which is a quantum (sub-atomic) particle believed to be associated with how Mass generates Gravity, and many, many other functions.  In seeking to mathematically “unify” the four fundamental forces, Gravity is the only one that has not been corralled, the others being Electromagnetism, the “Strong" Nuclear Force (that keeps protons and neutrons clinging together inside atomic nuclei) and, finally, the “Weak” Nuclear Force that induces radioactive decay.  The extremely brief presence of the Higgs boson was likely confirmed in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, in Switzerland.  Peter Higgs, the eponym for the particle, shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics for his work thereon, going back to 1964.

If you would like to feel what it’s like when your head explodes, read the entry in Wikipedia about the Higgs boson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

I think that “Interlude B” is relevant to all the recent whooping and hollering about COVID masks, vaccines and other COVID “cures.”  MOST of the people (like Donald Trump and his ilk) doing the whining HAVE NO CLUE about the way viruses work and how they spread.  They are determined to push aside the “obviously corrupt” Establishment types who OBVIOUSLY don’t want Ordinary People to learn how corrupt and bought off are the government agencies and personnel, pushing their favored “remedies” that serve only their venal purposes or enhance their bureaucratic power.  Most people have no understanding of just how rigorous the testing protocols are and the excruciating scientific detail that must be employed and mastered.  And, the development of the rigorous treatment protocols are ongoing and WORLD-WIDE.  Contrary to those who see the controlling hand of a few select US bureaucrats over all, there are thousands of scientists independently working on these issues.  To be sure, mistakes and errors ARE being made, but the “system” usually works in amazing ways to catch and/or correct those mistakes.

And considering how those casting doubt on the “system” frequently sport Ph.D.’s and occasionally even a Nobel, Lederman (also a Nobel physics laureate) and Teresi point out in “Interlude B” that "a Ph.D. is even less a guarantee of ‘truth’ than a Nobel Prize”!

As I indicated above, back in 1993 the House of Representatives killed Lederman's Super-Collider project in Texas due to construction-cost overruns and some seriously questionable expenses.  The GAO had predicted a final cost of at least $8.4 Billion; maybe as high as $12 Billion, way over budget.  The end of the Cold War also contributed to its demise.  It would have been 3 times more powerful than the Hadron Collider at CERN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider

As my late friend Ernie Crane used to say, “Happy Motoring!"

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4/2/22