Cosmologic philosophy: dark matter is or isn't? (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, January 31, 2016, 13:21 (3001 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: A long essay on trying to find it. It solves many problems rather neatly per Occam's razor, but that does not mean it really exists:-https://aeon.co/essays/will-cosmologists-ever-illuminate-us-about-dark-matter?utm_sourc...-QUOTE: The world we see is an illusion, albeit a highly persistent one. We have gradually got used to the idea that nature's true reality is one of uncertain quantum fields; that what we see is not necessarily what is. Dark matter is a profound extension of this concept. It appears that the majority of matter in the universe has been hidden from us. That puts physicists and the general public alike in an uneasy place. Physicists worry that they can't point to an unequivocal confirmed prediction or a positive detection of the stuff itself. The wider audience finds it hard to accept something that is necessarily so shadowy and elusive.-David's comment: A quantum-based universe and dark matter. We don't really know a lot do we?-You are so right. It could all be very simple: an endless expanse of energy and matter mindlessly doing its own thing. Or dimensions and forms of being we cannot dream of, including your God. But I'll tell you one thing: the world I see is not an illusion for me. In fact, it is the only reality I know and the only one I can sincerely believe in. The quantum world and the world of dark matter (a totally unedifying concept, because all it means is “something we don't know”) - as fascinating and as real or unreal as they may be - are of no substance or significance to me compared to the death of my wife, the love I have for my children and friends, the sheer beauty and the sheer horror of the world we live in, here and now. I am one of the lucky ones, because I have food and shelter, and I can enjoy the good things of life. These may objectively be an illusion, as may the hunger, disease, bloodshed and other tragedies that take place every minute of every day all around us, but there seems to be a fair amount of evidence that what we see IS what it is. And the epistemological insight that reality is a subjective fabrication should not be taken to mean that the fabrication (which encompasses the whole range of human experience) does not correspond to a “true reality”.