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GreatGearAmidAPizza t1_j14tp5n wrote

Intelligence may require a level of complexity that can't fit into such a small space, but this may in part have to do with what we mean by sentience.

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Raagggeeee t1_j14w10s wrote

Hey man, for all we know....we're microscopic sitting on a cell or an atom

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Juzzdide t1_j14wuh4 wrote

I’m so stoned this actually makes sense

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Ramental t1_j15085y wrote

Not really. Atoms are working due to the balance of weak (radioactive decay) and strong interactions (why the are actually able to exist). Especially the former is only applied to extremely small distances, but the second is also appearing on fm distances.

No amount of scaling up would replicate weak and strong interactions that are affecting atoms. Thus, we can't be atoms just as there can't be life inside an atom. Purely because with smaller scale changes the balance of forces and the things get extremely volatile.

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OMGLOL1986 t1_j152ga9 wrote

We can just have different interactions at scale. boom physics solved.

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Jfurmanek t1_j15nifs wrote

This is why quantum physics is its own field. Interactions ARE different at scale.

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KittieSlave t1_j152eo4 wrote

Compared to the universe we technically are microscopic. Our bodies are a living, thriving mass of bacteria, and cells that are all living. So a universe of microscopic beings make us up. To the vast expanse of the universe, and space...our earth is just a cell. For all we know everything we know, and experience could just be inside another, much larger being.

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loopsbruder t1_j153bxb wrote

I really hope that being doesn't hear about COVID and start slathering themselves in hand sanitizer.

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KittieSlave t1_j1547ip wrote

Well there is the milky way....or maybe thats something else...

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Mary_Pick_A_Ford t1_j14wpyk wrote

I would be scared shitless if some giant being just suddenly stepped on Earth or had some giant scraper and sent us to be viewers under a microscope out of nowhere one day. You just unleashed a new fear of mine, the fact that we could be microscopic to something bigger than us

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COMINGINH0TTT t1_j14ymd1 wrote

Well rest assured cuz if we are microscopic to something, that something stepping on us wont do jack shit. If you spit on the ground and stomp on it, do you think the bacteria are getting crushed to death by your shoes?

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Latyon t1_j14zkrk wrote

No, but if I spit on an egg and then stomp on it...

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Frisky_Mongoose t1_j152pfu wrote

Well, allow me to introduce you to the Lovecraftian horror genre!

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WordSpiritual1928 t1_j153nno wrote

Yea this is a theory I’ve thought about as well. Maybe we’re just a tiny piece of something so much bigger we aren’t able to put the picture together. Interesting!

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whatisthishappiness t1_j153fdt wrote

The day I look through a microscope and see a little atom in its kitchen slicing onions and peppers for a hamburger steak they’re about to cook up, I’ll jump on that bandwagon

This is definitely a simulation though, and none of you are real.

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killstorm114573 t1_j14wez4 wrote

I don't know what's beyond the universe but if there's something or any life that can observe the universe as a whole, meaning look down on galaxies. Then I could argue that humans and earth would not appear intelligent from their perspective. We would seem to be no more important or intelligent than germs or bacteria and we definitely would seem to be a whole lot smaller if we're comparing size then bacteria would be compared to us.

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AuralSculpture t1_j14x2mc wrote

Anything observing us would be watching us billions of years in the past. Same as we are looking at space that is basically dead or long since changed because of the amount of time it takes light to travel. We are looking at phenomena that happens millions of years ago. So if anything is looking at us NOW, they are probably seeing something out of the Cambrian era. They aren’t seeing “us”. They are seeing a bunch of primitive life forms between huge insects and early dinosaurs.

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Westacious t1_j1512u1 wrote

I don't have anywhere near the understanding to accurately state what I'm about to type, but if an outside observer could actually view our universe they wouldn't necessarily need to observe using our laws and physics from the outside in right? If the beings were unfathomably enormous compared to our entire universe or are using some sort of device to observe the entire universe isn't it possible they could view the entirety of it at the same time? Like instead of looking down a tube from one side to the other it was flat or something

edit: grammar/clarity

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I_am_BrokenCog t1_j151w9p wrote

correct.

/u/AuralSculpture mistakenly presumed that his/our frame of reference (within our universe) is bound to the same rules as a different frame of reference outside the universe.

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bgplsa t1_j1544ea wrote

Stephen Hawking explains trying to describe what’s “outside” the universe or “before” the beginning of time as similar to trying to define what’s north of the North Pole. There’s just no reasonable way for our brains to express the idea of something that exists completely independent of any experience we could possibly imagine. So certainly it’s possible an infinite number of angels can dance on the head of a 5-dimensional pin but how would you count them 😉

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killstorm114573 t1_j1554rj wrote

The comment wasn't so much about seeing us directly it was more about perspective.

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