Shillingford's Think Tank by Dave Shillingford https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford A safe place to brainstorm en-us 2019-01-14 16:20:56 UTC 2025-12-06 16:39:01 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Rocket.png The Big Bang - my first post dashillingford722 https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/320377674 In the area of science boundaries are always being pushed to the limits. We as scientists are asked to look beyond what is in front of us but rather look beyond that to where we go next. In science we still have many questions that have yet to be answered not because there is not an answer but rather we have not solved the problem yet. In this class I ask you as a scientist to start to critically think about these problems and try to come to a solution on your own. I want this blog to be an area to ask scientific questions that you are unsure about and to help answer questions that you may know the answer to. I will start you off with couple that have been rattling around in my brain for some time.

  1. What is consciousness? How do we know we are truly alive and not in constant dream?
  2. In science where everything is calculated is anything truly random in our world? Or could you calculate it back to some previous events no matter how small the detail?  

I look forward  to hear your answers and seeing what questions you have about science!!!

]]> 2019-01-14 16:28:14 UTC https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/320377674 mmonette992 https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/331327602 I think in the world even if everything is random there will always be some aspect of randomness. Randomness is a necessary part of the world an example of this is entropy. entropy is one of the building blocks of thermodynamics and is at its simplest the chaos, lack of order or randomness in a system. therefore I believe that anything random can at some level be calculated based on odds of things happening]]> 2019-02-14 15:10:07 UTC https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/331327602 Consciousness is nothing but a coincidence of chemical and biological phenomena that we, in our subjective experience, tend to give metaphysical, spiritual, or extra-animal value. Hemispatial neglect shows us that there is a difference between the brain’s processing of information and our experience of that processing. Consciousness is the experience; it is the desktop display to the vast amount of calculations going on in the processor. Consciousness is seeing a white light instead of seeing all the colours of the spectrum within it. Our brains construct convenient and efficient ways of having us experience the world; we could not handle it any other way Giving consciousness a metaphysical attribution may be an extension of this idea. We are self-conscious, but that perception of our own consciousness is not complete, just convenient. Part of this convenience makes consciousness seem apart from physical reality. It is hard to imagine to have the conscious cognitive abilities of a less intelligent species, say an insect, but all we have to imagine is the cognitive potential of a much more intelligent species. Now we are the insect. bjfilsinger748 https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/331331267 2019-02-14 15:15:44 UTC https://padlet.com/dashillingford722/shillingford/wish/331331267