Popular Science (Horizon)

[Nabobalis]

Anyone from the UK can see this. That is until the BBC launch an international version.

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2010-2011: What Happened Before the Big Bang?

I'm watching it now ( as I write this) and it causes me some discomfort.

First all the narrator talks about how the big bang was an explosion then states something a creationist would say, that everything just kind of popped into existence after the big bang.

That is all I've found so far. Kind of not paying too much attention

I have no issue with the topic at hand which is the replacement of the big bang with a new theory and trying to find out if there was something before the big bang. But! Talking to theriosts is never going to get you anywhere (says the man who wants to be one). There isn't any observational evidence to suggest anything at this point. Plus Horizon has done this topic before.

Is it just me being too critical?

 

[sandwiches]

Anyone from the UK can see this. That is until the BBC launch an international version.

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2010-2011: What Happened Before the Big Bang?

I'm watching it now ( as I write this) and it causes me some discomfort.

First all the narrator talks about how the big bang was an explosion then states something a creationist would say, that everything just kind of popped into existence after the big bang.

That is all I've found so far. Kind of not paying too much attention

I have no issue with the topic at hand which is the replacement of the big bang with a new theory and trying to find out if there was something before the big bang. But! Talking to theriosts is never going to get you anywhere (says the man who wants to be one). There isn't any observational evidence to suggest anything at this point. Plus Horizon has done this topic before.

Is it just me being too critical?

I think you're on target with how I feel. I don't see how anyone could possibly know what was before this universe began, at the moment. Then again, I haven't watched this and there could possibly be a lot more new evidence I am unaware of.

 

[pgp_protector]

Not available in your area
Goes looking for a proxy server.

 

[Nabobalis]

I think you're on target with how I feel. I don't see how anyone could possibly know what was before this universe began, at the moment. Then again, I haven't watched this and there could possibly be a lot more new evidence I am unaware of.

I'll see if they mention evidence but they are talking to people from the the perimeter institute and other people who seem to be just theorists.

I mean they have given descent information on the issues with the big bang. Plus they already given an potential alternative to the big bang, eternal inflation with no big bang from Andrei Linde.

But you get to see a theorist at the state, just state flat out that he doesn't believe in the big bang. So I'm waiting for that part because I assume he has an answer or a reason.

Math is all well and good but it doesn't prove anything in and of it self.

Not available in your area
Goes looking for a proxy server.

Yeah you have to be UK only unfortunately.

 

[TemperateSeaIsland]

I havent watched Horizon for a while because last few times I watched it, it was really going down hill. Basically involved making some sensationalist claims, followed by the same CGI clips being shown over and over with some talking heads followed by the show backing down from the sensationalist claims.

 

[Catherineanne]

Anyone from the UK can see this. That is until the BBC launch an international version.

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2010-2011: What Happened Before the Big Bang?

I'm watching it now ( as I write this) and it causes me some discomfort.

As I understand it (which is admittedly not far) science is happy to conclude that time itself began at the Big Bang.

Therefore, to ask what happened before time began has no meaning whatever. There can be no before without time.

 

[Naraoia]

Talking to theriosts is never going to get you anywhere (says the man who wants to be one).

Haha, a theoretical physicist friend used to warn me never to believe anything they say, because they are making it all up as they go along.

Those warnings were usually preceded by a vodka orange or two, though

 

[nojnoj]

I'll see if they mention evidence but they are talking to people from the the perimeter institute and other people who seem to be just theorists.

I mean they have given descent information on the issues with the big bang. Plus they already given an potential alternative to the big bang, eternal inflation with no big bang from Andrei Linde.

But you get to see a theorist at the state, just state flat out that he doesn't believe in the big bang. So I'm waiting for that part because I assume he has an answer or a reason.

Math is all well and good but it doesn't prove anything in and of it self.



Yeah you have to be UK only unfortunately.

One answer is virtual private networks - free or premium. I've seen some VPN review websites/forums where people use VPN specifically to see BBC iPlayer stuff. They can also help with ISPs who limit traffic for torrents and/or file hosting sites.

As for the recent episode of Horizon: seems to make more sense to me that our universe is part of a larger, ongoing process in a mind-bogglingly bigger, mind-bogglingly higher-dimensional "megaverse" than being a unique, once-in-existence event. Conventional big-bang theory seems a bit, well, parochial. Give me branes anyday

 

[Supreme]

I can never watch it these days- it's always on during karate. Last episode I saw was the biggest mathematical number discovered, which was interesting.

 

[Naraoia]

I can never watch it these days- it's always on during karate. Last episode I saw was the biggest mathematical number discovered, which was interesting.

How can there be a "biggest" number?

 

[AV1611VET]

Is it just me being too critical?

Nah -- just consistent with most others here.

Complaining that it was called an 'explosion', not an 'expansion'; then turning around and calling creatio ex nihilo, "poofing"; or God doing "magic".

The mirror hurts.

 

[TemperateSeaIsland]

I watched some of it (about half before bbci decided to stop streaming). It seems like theoretical physics/cosmology is almost going back to the day of natural philosophy, where scholars debate and reason about the nature of reality more than they actually test it and verify it experimentlly. It seems like the field has hit an experimental brick wall.

 

[sandwiches]

Nah -- just consistent with most others here.

Complaining that it was called an 'explosion', not an 'expansion'; then turning around and calling creatio ex nihilo, "poofing"; or God doing "magic".

The mirror hurts.

Watch out, AV. Don't explode your linguistic horizons, lest your brain expand.

 

[BrianOnEarth]

I havent watched Horizon for a while because last few times I watched it, it was really going down hill. Basically involved making some sensationalist claims, followed by the same CGI clips being shown over and over with some talking heads followed by the show backing down from the sensationalist claims.

Yep.
The BBC are becoming tabloid.

 

[BrianOnEarth]

Anyone from the UK can see this. That is until the BBC launch an international version.

I'm watching it now ( as I write this) and it causes me some discomfort.

First all the narrator talks about how the big bang was an explosion then states something a creationist would say, that everything just kind of popped into existence after the big bang.

That is all I've found so far. Kind of not paying too much attention

I have no issue with the topic at hand which is the replacement of the big bang with a new theory and trying to find out if there was something before the big bang. But! Talking to theriosts is never going to get you anywhere (says the man who wants to be one). There isn't any observational evidence to suggest anything at this point. Plus Horizon has done this topic before.

Is it just me being too critical?

No, I agree with you.
The programme had a truly disturbing, almost religious undertone to it.
I see a lot of creeping religion in the BBC stuff and of all the places I don't want to see any trace of it is Horizon. At the end of the programme the narrator described the theoretical physicists as high priests of science. I was so enraged by this that I nearly blew a gasket and wrote a letter of complaint to the Board of Governors. Then I remembered that they are part of the problem.

 

[Naraoia]

No, I agree with you.
The programme had a truly disturbing, almost religious undertone to it.
I see a lot of creeping religion in the BBC stuff and of all the places I don't want to see any trace of it is Horizon. At the end of the programme the narrator described the theoretical physicists as high priests of science.

Urgh. Aside from the astounding inanity of calling anyone a high priest of science, it's also pretty insulting to all scientists who are not theoretical physicists.

It's enough to have drunken physicists tell me that biology isn't really science. I'd rather not have the same attitude from the BBC, thanks.

I was so enraged by this that I nearly blew a gasket and wrote a letter of complaint to the Board of Governors. Then I remembered that they are part of the problem.

All the more reason to write that letter

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Anyone from the UK can see this. That is until the BBC launch an international version.

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2010-2011: What Happened Before the Big Bang?

I'm watching it now ( as I write this) and it causes me some discomfort.

First all the narrator talks about how the big bang was an explosion then states something a creationist would say, that everything just kind of popped into existence after the big bang.

That is all I've found so far. Kind of not paying too much attention

I have no issue with the topic at hand which is the replacement of the big bang with a new theory and trying to find out if there was something before the big bang. But! Talking to theriosts is never going to get you anywhere (says the man who wants to be one). There isn't any observational evidence to suggest anything at this point. Plus Horizon has done this topic before.

Is it just me being too critical?

No, I switched off too :/ Horizon isn't a scientific journal, I give it some leeway, and it usually does a good job - this episode just grated on my nerves. I suppose it's got to cater to the general public, not the lofty scientist, so a certain amount of... intuitive language is helpful.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

It's enough to have drunken physicists tell me that biology isn't really science. I'd rather not have the same attitude from the BBC, thanks.

Well... *cough* if you feel it's a real science, that's all that matters, right?

 

[Naraoia]

Well... *cough* if you feel it's a real science, that's all that matters, right?

Don't you cough at me, physicist.

 

[Ar Cosc]

How can there be a "biggest" number?

YouTube - Look Around You - Maths