1.35 trillion years to accidentally solve a cube blindfolded?

[Lucas Garron]

Just pointing out, you wouldn't solve it after 1.35 trillion years, you would just happen to solve it once in that time span (following those calculations).

Neither statement is really correct. And they're really about equivalent. :rolleyes:

 

[WaffleCake]

Santa was thought up specifically as a lie

Proof please.

Ever read "The Night Before Christmas"? That's the origin of the modern Santa. That's a fiction story. Fiction = not true = lie. Santa Clause goes back way further than that, but all of his different forms were made up by someone or another as something to tell to children.

 

[tim]

Santa was thought up specifically as a lie

Proof please.

Ever read "The Night Before Christmas"? That's the origin of the modern Santa. That's a fiction story. Fiction = not true = lie. Santa Clause goes back way further than that, but all of his different forms were made up by someone or another as something to tell to children.

That the stories about Santa are fiction, doesn't mean that Santa itself is fiction.

 

[qqwref]

The notion that not only the biopolymers but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.

I agree with this.

But here's the thing: that's not what the actual scientific theories of evolution or abiogenesis say (not even close). The point is that life is self-replicating. The most basic possible self-replicating thing was created first, maybe by luck and maybe due to a few even simpler things which had already been constructed; and once that was in existence life began to expand and eventually begin to evolve to best fit its environment, which I'm guessing lead to the creation of an actual cell with a cell membrane and DNA and all.

Think of it like a very complex computer program. If you look at one of those you might think "oh, someone who was a complete genius must have designed this, look how many parts there are that fit together just right, I could never do that". But that's not how it was done. Computer programs aren't started out fully formed; you start with the most rudimentary possible program (that works) and then slowly add features and move things around until you have a huge program. It no more takes an omnipotent being to create a cell than it takes an omnipotent programmer to create a million-line program; it's just a lot of very small steps which are each easy but which end up constructing something amazing.


Also, early Earth was not as simple as "put random amino acids together and you have one chance to make this protein". In a soup of random chemicals there were probably billions of interactions per second and it took on the order of a billion years for a proper cell to be created... that's a LOT of attempts. It doesn't seem at all unlikely that something with self-replicating properties could be randomly created in a billion years.

 

[WaffleCake]

Santa was thought up specifically as a lie

Proof please.

Ever read "The Night Before Christmas"? That's the origin of the modern Santa. That's a fiction story. Fiction = not true = lie. Santa Clause goes back way further than that, but all of his different forms were made up by someone or another as something to tell to children.

That the stories about Santa are fiction, doesn't mean that Santa itself is fiction.

They're not stories, they're where he came from. It's like Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, witches, werewolves, etc... Stuff that is made up does not become real.

 

[Stefan]

Santa was thought up specifically as a lie

Proof please.

Ever read "The Night Before Christmas"? That's the origin of the modern Santa.

How do you know the author didn't describe real events?

 

[WaffleCake]

Santa was thought up specifically as a lie

Proof please.

Ever read "The Night Before Christmas"? That's the origin of the modern Santa.

How do you know the author didn't describe real events?

There is always some uncertainty in anything, so you have to accept simple things as fact or we could never get anything done.

 

[tim]

They're not stories, they're where he came from. It's like Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, witches, werewolves, etc... Stuff that is made up does not become real.

You missed my point. I didn't say made up stuff becomes real. Things people create in their minds might already be there and they're describing real facts without even knowing it.

 

[EmersonHerrmann]

Well what if you're a speedcuber and you can just constantly turn at say, 7+ tps, that would lower your time of solving it blindfolded significantly wouldn't it?

P.S. - first page has hardly anything to do with the topic...

 

[darkzelkova]

You could also solve a cube in 5 minutes by chance. That's why it is chance.

 

[JLarsen]

So the purpose of the actual topic here, as in the original quote, is to make a comprehensible analogy of how unlikely human life was to form, no? I'm asking because I see a lot of people saying otherwise.

 

[riffz]

No, the original poster had no intentions of sparking such a debate. He just posted it for the cubing statement.

 

[cookingfat]

No, the original poster had no intentions of sparking such a debate. He just posted it for the cubing statement.

yes that's right, I pointed it out earlier >

I think the point of the original post was probably more that it's saying it would take someone blindfolded over 1 trillion years to solve a rubik's cube, but we all know full well that a blindfolded person can solve the cube in a matter of minutes
At least that's how I took it.

yes that was the intention, I didn't want to spark a religious debate at all, so please don't.

I don't know if the guy meant 'solve the cube blindfolded without knowing how to do it', but even if he did, where does he get his figures from? I'm guessing he doesn't actually know anything about blindfold cubing at all and it's all just made up.

I just randomly came across it and thought it would be worth posting, as the guy has some ridiculous claims.

 

[Lord Voldemort]

wow, 1.35 trillion years.
Well, people, I'd love to join the debate (I actually would, no sarcasm here) but I'm off for my first serious attempt at BLD. Wish me luck

 

[qqwref]

Not sure if I should do this, but I'm just going to say that I do believe that there is a God. THE God, Lord Almighty. Anyone who doesn't believe me, read the book The reason for God by Timothy Keller. It's directed to 20-year old people, but heck. I'm sure you can handle it if you don't believe in the obvious.

Not sure if I should do this, but I'm just going to say that I do believe that there are aliens out there. THE Aliens, the little green men. Anyone who doesn't believe me, watch the documentary Did Aliens Build the Pyramids? by the Discovery Channel. It's directed to Americans, but heck. I'm sure you can handle it if you don't believe in the obvious.

PS: God does not exist any more than Santa does

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Are you trying to say that it's ridiculous to believe that aliens exist?
Because I do in fact believe that life could independently form in two places.

 

[qqwref]

Aliens might very well exist but almost certainly not in the way we typically think of them (i.e. humanoids with flashy advanced technology who abduct people). I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of life on other planets somewhere in the universe, but I'd be much, much more surprised if there was and it resembled humans at all.

My point was that there's no direct evidence for the existence of aliens. We can theorize all we want about whether they exist or not, but there's really no way to tell. The fact is that aliens do not affect our lives (unless they are inside the solar system they would have to life many thousands of light years away, so we couldn't communicate with them), and I think God's really the same way. For everything where you could say "God must have caused X", there are other explanations, and even if you think God exists and watches over us you have to admit he basically never intervenes in human affairs (see the fact that plenty of Christians get terminal illnesses and cancer and are NOT saved, while on the other hand powerful, evil, non-religious people are allowed to live to old age and perpetuate their atrocities for decades). The best we have on both counts is that some people say that certain things seem like they must be caused by God/aliens, but that's not proof in either case.

What this leads to is the fact that I have a problem with anyone who says belief in God is "obvious" or "logical" or anything like that. [Important side point: I don't actually care what you believe in, you're free to believe anything you want, just don't ask or expect me to agree with your belief if there is no evidence to support it.] If you look at it from a scientific standpoint the evidence (if you think there even is any) is not conclusive... and if you really think it is, I think you ought to believe in aliens and bigfoot and all of that as well, because the evidence is just as (un-)convincing there too. There is just ONE difference, and it's critical: many people are brought up from childhood believing in some kind of deity, so they don't really get the chance to decide whether to believe or not. Of course it's "obvious" for them, but you can raise children to believe pretty much anything (see: Santa Claus).

 

[WaffleCake]

Guys, drop the God argument. I already explained why it's stupid and pointless. As for aliens, well, I'm certain other life exists somewhere out there but I doubt that there is any form of sentient life anywhere near similar to humans capable of communication with us, let alone space travel. Even if there is, they would be so far away that reaching us would be ridiculous.

 

[luke1984]

There's always a chance that you could solve it in twenty moves. Or less for that matter...

Not sure if I should do this, but I'm just going to say that I do believe that there is a God. THE God, Lord Almighty. Anyone who doesn't believe me, read the book The reason for God by Timothy Keller. It's directed to 20-year old people, but heck. I'm sure you can handle it if you don't believe in the obvious.

You claim there's a god, prove it. The burdent of proof is on the person who makes the claim. And no, I'm not going to read some manipulative book. I've tried that a couple of times before. Every book or article I've read with arguments for the existence of god was completely based on bold assumptions and horrible misconceptions about evolution. There's no valid reason to believe there's any kind of god.

(It's a shame my first post isn't about cubing though...)

 

[Mr Cubism]

There's always a chance that you could solve it in twenty moves. Or less for that matter....

What is more difficult:
1. to calculate the odds for solving a 3x3 randomly in 20 moves?
2. solve it randomly in 20 moves?