Cosmos 2014

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They're genuine theories. I can't help but think he's simply being non-conformist though. To go against the trend on so many theories just smacks of attention seeking.

Ill make sure to conform more often in case you think i am attention seeking.

What can i say? all of science is wrong and my theory of the universe is correct. (said in jest) Yea its a tough sell. Especially when i don't have the capability to write a mathematical paper explaining it all.
 
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Soldato
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Really enjoyed! Only things that annoyed me were:-
1) I'm watching to learn about and enjoy the cosmos, not see a CGI spaceship. How many unnecessary close ups do we need of this CGI ship?
2) The cartoon history of Giordano Bruno was a little "goodies vs baddies" for me, with evil cartoon religious inquisitors etc.

But otherwise enjoyed it, and hope the remaining episodes stay to fact & information rather than the unnecessary CGI fantasy stuff...
 
Man of Honour
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Really enjoyed! Only things that annoyed me were:-
1) I'm watching to learn about and enjoy the cosmos, not see a CGI spaceship. How many unnecessary close ups do we need of this CGI ship?
2) The cartoon history of Giordano Bruno was a little "goodies vs baddies" for me, with evil cartoon religious inquisitors etc.

But otherwise enjoyed it, and hope the remaining episodes stay to fact & information rather than the unnecessary CGI fantasy stuff...

1: Unnecessary CGI? It's very necessary. As was Sagan's Cosmos back in the day, Spacetime Odyssey is aimed at the masses of our generation and the only way to keep it appealing is to use visual aids, pleasing ones at that too.

The Spaceship of the imagination is important because it gives a baseline for the average viewer to work with. There will be no doubt in their mind that it's a ship of fiction to journey through the cosmos with and explore what is non fiction.

2: As opposed to? The inquisition and the general religion vs Science (the few that practiced it anyway) was exactly that, good vs evil. Bruno got lucky and Neil even says he guessed his theories without any evidence but he was still right. It was only later that it was found he was right all along.

Rather than use live action scripting the animated segments were really done well.

I love space and watched this. I am no expert but found it only covered the basics. All of which I know. Perhaps future episodes will be more interesting.

It's aimed at a bigger audience rather than you or I who already have a strong interest and ground knowledge of Space. It's designed to get people interested in science. Equally though it's still just as good for the rest of us seeing things visualised and narrated by Sagan's student.

The USA numbers were really high, 17 million viewers and that was live viewers, not those that DVR shows.
 
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Soldato
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I love space and watched this. I am no expert but found it only covered the basics. All of which I know. Perhaps future episodes will be more interesting.

Yeah, I stopped watching. It's a good show, well produced etc but it's not really aimed at me. I would have loved it as a twelve year old though!
 
Soldato
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Yeah, I stopped watching. It's a good show, well produced etc but it's not really aimed at me. I would have loved it as a twelve year old though!

I suspect it will offer high and low level stuff, just like the original did. I wouldnt write it off yet :)
 
Soldato
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Ill make sure to conform more often in case you think i am attention seeking.

What can i say? all of science is wrong and my theory of the universe is correct. (said in jest) Yea its a tough sell. Especially when i don't have the capability to write a mathematical paper explaining it all.

That is not how science works. You think some commonly held scientific theories are wrong, fine. The nice thing about science is it will change in response to new facts. But you have to do the leg-work, you can't just wave your hands and say it's wrong on a hunch. Well, you can, but it makes you a crackpot. You have to make observations, collect evidence, and show how the observations (both your own observations and those collected by others) fit your proposed model better than the widely accepted model. Your model then needs to make a prediction along the lines of "If my theory is correct, then we would expect to observe X".

In your example of pangaea, your model is that the Earth is constantly expanding, and that this is why continents drift apart. Your prediction therefore is that you would expect to be able to measure the Earth's radius changing over time. But we already have technology to very accurately measure the size of the Earth, and this has not been observed. You would also expect the occurrence of continents colliding (as opposed to drifting apart) to be either very rare or non-existent. But we know that continents are colliding, for example, the Indian tectonic plate is moving into the Asian tectonic plate at a rate that can be accurately measured, and this collision has resulted in the formation of the Himalayas.

Your model would also have to propose how the Earth is expanding. Where is all the extra material coming from?
 
Man of Honour
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As suspected, each episode is focusing on more intricate things having started off with the basic introduction to the concepts and history of what we know today. The latest delves into black holes and a touch on multiverses and FTL.

Love the way everything is presented and Tyson's way with words.

"Come with me..." :D
 
Soldato
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That is not how science works. You think some commonly held scientific theories are wrong, fine. The nice thing about science is it will change in response to new facts. But you have to do the leg-work, you can't just wave your hands and say it's wrong on a hunch. Well, you can, but it makes you a crackpot. You have to make observations, collect evidence, and show how the observations (both your own observations and those collected by others) fit your proposed model better than the widely accepted model. Your model then needs to make a prediction along the lines of "If my theory is correct, then we would expect to observe X".

In your example of pangaea, your model is that the Earth is constantly expanding, and that this is why continents drift apart. Your prediction therefore is that you would expect to be able to measure the Earth's radius changing over time. But we already have technology to very accurately measure the size of the Earth, and this has not been observed. You would also expect the occurrence of continents colliding (as opposed to drifting apart) to be either very rare or non-existent. But we know that continents are colliding, for example, the Indian tectonic plate is moving into the Asian tectonic plate at a rate that can be accurately measured, and this collision has resulted in the formation of the Himalayas.

Your model would also have to propose how the Earth is expanding. Where is all the extra material coming from?

Exactly this!


I like the way Neil describes things in this series.

When he talks about the age of the universe he inserts words such as " for now " or when he talks about how far we can see again he uses words like " for now".

He is basically putting across the idea that these current theories on the age and or size of the universe can change s our understanding changes/improves and that things are not completely set in stone.

Its a small touch but its great!
 
Soldato
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As suspected, each episode is focusing on more intricate things having started off with the basic introduction to the concepts and history of what we know today. The latest delves into black holes and a touch on multiverses and FTL.

Love the way everything is presented and Tyson's way with words.

"Come with me..." :D


I know its amazing right?!! :D
 
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