• Question: Do you think it would ever be possible to have complete understanding of the universe?

    Asked by 07porterj to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Great question.

      No I don’t. There are so many things we don’t know or understand and for every answer we find we end up with more questions, so I don’t think we will ever have a complete understanding of the universe. But, we should not stop trying.

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Wow! that would be a tall order!
      There is so much information available now that it is very difficult to have a complete understanding even on a fairly narrow topic like the best way of reducing energy consumption in a building.
      The closest we could hope for would be a whole lot of people who understand their own little area properly, and between them they understood everything – however, I don’t think we’re even likely to see that happen!

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      The universe is a very big place, so I don’t think that it will every be possible to know it completely. However, the laws of physics are surprisingly constant (at least, close to our galaxy …), so I think that we’ll end up with a fair idea of how the Universe works. Still plenty of things to work out, though – dark matter, dark energy – missing mass – plenty of mysteries out there.

      By the way, for exploring a whole range of science questions, I like the magazine “New Scientist”.

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I suppose given enough time it’s theoretically possible – but we’ve got a long way to go yet

    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Good question porter, but I don’t think we will.

      The universe is such a large place that the human mind cannot comprehend just how big it is. I think that although we may eventually gain vast understanding of how the universe works such as interaction between molecules and forces (and this is a long way off), I think the universe is simply too big for us to ever really fully understand…

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