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1

I vaguely remember some environmentalists in AZ (a fairly small group) throwing a fit when that telescope was being planned/built. It was built on the habitat of some species of owl or squirrel, I don't remember which.

Posted by Mike of Renton | March 7, 2008 4:26 PM
2

well, that was mighty hindu of you.

Posted by adrian! | March 7, 2008 4:27 PM
3

Is there a reason for the reason of reason? Reason.

Posted by Mr. Poe | March 7, 2008 4:27 PM
4

ah, poe, but consciousness is not the same as reason. om namah shivaya.

Posted by adrian! | March 7, 2008 4:32 PM
5

All was.

Posted by Josh Feit | March 7, 2008 4:33 PM
6

not all of us do what we were made for.

for instance, I was made to love magic
All its wonder to know.

Posted by max solomon | March 7, 2008 4:34 PM
7

Bah. If that were so, we wouldn't be limited to the crappy section of spectrum that we are. We'd have everything from radio to gamma waves. We'd stare at radio towers, marveling at the beauty of them as they broadcast our culture, and stare into the microwave as we saw the radiation cooking our food. When gamma waves emanated from supernovas, we'd see all the evidence of their death throes (though only through satellites, since gamma rays don't penetrate our atmosphere).

False color reproductions just aren't as good. I want direct and true perception of reality, dammit!

Posted by Gitai | March 7, 2008 4:34 PM
8

I actually understood that post, Charles... And I agree with it... Expanding consciousness, indeed....

Posted by merry | March 7, 2008 4:35 PM
9

Our ultimate purpose?...false question. It assumes we have a purpose.

Posted by stats | March 7, 2008 4:43 PM
10

If I were Mr. Poe I would say something about having a hard-on right now.

Posted by Julie | March 7, 2008 4:50 PM
11

Poor little universe, to be devoid of thinking and recording itself for so long. At least some 102 million year old bits can now be at peace.

Posted by umvue | March 7, 2008 4:57 PM
12

"A physicist is the universe's way of trying to understand itself." Not sure of the author.

@9 If you believe you have no purpose then why do you continue your existence?

Posted by booji boy | March 7, 2008 5:09 PM
13

Sounds like you're describing pantheism or possibly panentheism.

Posted by flamingbanjo | March 7, 2008 5:24 PM
14

that was beutiful
we...along with other sentiant beings are neurons in a much larger cosmic monster

Posted by linus | March 7, 2008 5:26 PM
15

oh please, this is an old science fiction construct, which in turn is borrowed from other various religions.

Posted by LMSW | March 7, 2008 6:00 PM
16

Ohhh watch out staring into that abyss. Learn the lessons of Event Horizon, 2001, Sunshine, Solaris. The universe is gonna f u up!

Posted by Brickey | March 7, 2008 6:16 PM
17

That is not a real image. Its an artist's conception.

Posted by Travis | March 7, 2008 6:17 PM
18

At best such efforts will enable us to perceive the maybe 5% of matter in the universe that isn't dark matter. The more physics one learns the more one becomes just a bit worried that we might be hoos o some unbelievable large collection of dark matter Horton's.

Posted by kinaidos | March 7, 2008 6:39 PM
19

Why Charles, that's almost Markovian.

Posted by Nathan Brazil | March 7, 2008 6:53 PM
20

Hey...I agree with Charles, at least 90% of it, anyway. Any suggestion that we were made for a specific purpose runs a bit foul for me, but, that we are expressions of the Universe itself and not apart from it I completely agree with.

:-)

Posted by Timothy | March 7, 2008 7:18 PM
21

As I'm pondering the life of a astrophysicist this I found this pretty profound. I am also profoundly stoned so...

Posted by MarsGirl23 | March 7, 2008 7:18 PM
22

This is the implication of physics. Physics says that you can start with a singularity of near infinite mass and simply wait. It will rapidly expand, and quantum fluctuations in its fabric later become clumps of gas, then stars, galaxies and planets, then amino acids, then organisms, then intelligent minds. 14 billion years later it will become self aware and find how it was born. This was a favorite topic of Sagan.

Posted by markinthepark | March 7, 2008 7:39 PM
23

@7 - Very interesting point, except half of these deep-space images are actually taken outside the visible light spectrum, with the displayed colors adjusted to make it look spectacular to our pitiful eyes. X-rays, Gamma rays, microwaves, infrared ... we can image all of them now!

Posted by Mahtli69 | March 7, 2008 10:05 PM
24

@23 Like I said, false color images just aren't as good.

Posted by Gitai | March 7, 2008 11:00 PM
25

The point here is not how artistically Disney-ish the astronomers can make these images.

What is mind-shattering to me is the symmetry, and the even-spacing of the spiral arms. This is Long Range Order... spatial coherence over 10s or 100s of millions of miles.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber | March 7, 2008 11:08 PM
26

I can't find the exact line (a rare google gap), but Gary Snyder wrote that "man is nature looking at itself."

Posted by Gurldoggie | March 7, 2008 11:23 PM
27

"Because I choose to"

-Neo

Posted by Cale | March 7, 2008 11:45 PM
28

So you like to smoke a lot of pot hu?

Posted by Jonathan | March 8, 2008 12:21 AM
29

hey booji @12
the answer is why not, you going to die anyway. what's the rush. check out the scenery. enjoy yourself, have a few laughs. not really a Purpose but a good way to pass the time. maybe even find something meaningful to yourself, which is another way of saying enjoying yourself.

Posted by each ? begs another ? | March 8, 2008 5:07 AM
30

I don't know about "purpose" but we are the universe observing itself in a rational spectrum; our brains. Brains made of star stuff. The comparison of the minute, us, observing the most vast, the universe, can really strain the mind. Imagine, for example, that their are an endless number of paralell universes. Something that dwarves even the universe we know. Or that it was the collision of two paralell universes that gave us the big bang.

Posted by Vince | March 8, 2008 7:40 AM
31

Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side, yo.

Posted by john` | March 8, 2008 9:17 AM
32

Pass the LSD!

Posted by Brian | March 8, 2008 1:33 PM

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