What is one universal truth?
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Esedess (
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September 25th, 2018
One thing that is true for everything all the time.
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53 Answers
That we will Live and die.
Change. It’s the only constant.
@Inspired_2write Of the infinite beings that could exist, most are never conceived at all. Some die before the first synapse fires or the first heartbeat. Rocks don’t live. A crater in the moon is not alive, and thus cannot die. Try again.
The one universal truth is that there is no other universal truth.
I’m sure you’re not thinking of she sun rises and sets everyday kind of thing.
That a single man of great fortune is in want of a wife.
@Jeruba I think you’re close, but… Let’s say I go outside and grind a bug into the asphalt. It’s dead now. That will never change. I was not alive to watch the first space launch in person. That will never change. If I crashed my car yesterday, or burned the turkey last Thanksgiving, or pooped my pants when I was 2, those things will always be. All things that have happened are immutable now.
True for every thing, you said. Processes aren’t things. Facts aren’t things. Are you changing the original question now?
The dead bug is in flux still, rapidly becoming something other than bug. The body you have at present existed in some other form at the time of the first space launch. Your car is in a deteriorating state that you cannot stop. The remains of the turkey are becoming or have become some other substance. Your soiled pants will always be in the universe somewhere, in some form, but I hope you have lost track of them by now.
@flo Not everywhere. There’s probably planets out there without a star to rise. There’s probably planets out there which are tidally locked and never spin to allow a sunrise or sunset. There are even days here on Earth, in Alaska, where the sun never sets. Beyond that, our own sun will eventually die, at which point “the sun rises and sets everyday” will be false. Not a universal truth; just a persistent occurrence right here and now.
What goes up must come down (on earth).
@janbb
Eh.. No, I’m not changing the question. =p
I’ll think about it more. You may be right, although my ex-wife could give the theory a good run.
Should we consider that not everything is changing all the time though? A rock in the depths of space for example. Doubtless it will eventually undergo change, but right now it is spinning (or not) in place, at a constant velocity, at a constant temperature. Regarding anything, if you limit observation to a sufficiently insignificant interval, it is possible for no change to have occurred between one moment and the next.
There will always be coins in a fountain, no matter what type of sign says “please don’t throw coins in the water feature.”
@Essedess I think you meant that for Jeruba not me.
Studio interference ruins films.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Everything is in motion all the time
Motion, flux: change. The rocks in space are moving; that is change. Things collide, encounter friction, undergo thermal change, meet radio waves, respond to gravitational pull. I’m no Stephen Hawking, but I don’t think you can name an interval small enough to encompass zero change. The particles that compose matter are in constant motion: change.
As for me, I’ve morphed into @janbb.
I didn’t know this was a guessing game, though. That does change the question. And doesn’t that illustrate the point?
No matter where you go, there you are.
The 2 things that come to my mind are death & taxes!!!
That nothing is permanent.
The future begins tomorrow.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life!!!
You can’t beat the Laws of Physics.
A slice of peanut butter toast, if dropped, will always fall face down.
@LuckyGuy, but—if I recall the Hawking-Mlodinow book correctly, the basic laws of physics aren’t constant throughout the universe. Not that I can explain it, but there was certainly stuff about a particle being >here!< and >there!< at the same time.
I think there is a lack of clarity in the question as to whether the OP means human truths or physical world truths. And yes – if physical for the Earth only or the universe? Some clarification might help.
Also, the OP seems to have an answer in mind and be waiting for us to discover it. That’s what I infer from telling @Inspired_2write to try again, and me that I’m “close.”
I was misled by the wording it says “What is one universal (= universe) truth?” as if one among several possible truths, rather than “What is the universal truth?” I don’t happen to think there’s any such thing as the latter.
That existence exists.
And as a corollary truth, Fluther is suffering from all the organic problems that come from inbreeding.
Which means you fit right in.
Fudds First Law: If you push something hard enough, it will fall down.
To set the record straight, I didn’t have an answer in mind when I asked the question. Telling @Inspired_2write to try again was because I ran the answer through scenarios and found it false in many instances. @Jeruba, I said I thought you were close because I did the same and couldn’t entirely disprove it anywhere, but wanted more time to think and hopefully discuss. Please don’t take my attempts to disprove it as an attack on you. I was just investigating the statement and trying to poke holes in it if I could to see see how it held up. Also, sorry for mixing you up with @janbb. I typed ”@j” and just hit tab. Hadn’t realized there was already more than one “j” name in the thread at that point.
As for the question itself, it’s not a guessing game. There are correct answer(s), I assume. I’m just looking for at least one thing, hopefully more, that I can put my finger on and say, “This is true for every piece of existence, individually and as a whole—living, dead, and inanimate.” A least common denominator, so to speak.
So far “change” stands up the best to scrutiny.
I was also considering “experience.”
It seems to be a universal truth of life at least.
But then you have to run around some abstract thoughts about inanimate objects. I suppose you could consider, even devoid of consciousness and sensory mechanisms, a plain ‘ol dumb rock to experience… It would only be an experience of pure data transfer—if this:then that. If I get hit like this, I break just like that. etc… But I’m still mulling that one over too if I’m being honest.
Hope this clears things up a tad.
Thinking of the riddle “What’s bigger than the universe, dead people eat it, but if live people eat it they die?” The answer to those seem to be universally true.
@omfgTALIjustIMDu, I learned that one this way: “Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die.” So far, I’d say nothing has disproved that.
@gorillapaws, but it doesn’t work the other way: rocks don’t fail to exist just because they don’t cogitate—right? Unless, of course, nothing exists but what’s in your (my) mind.
@josie, so—are you saying the regulars should drop out?
@Esedess OMG of course! Thanks for that post.
That we have staff for that.
@Esedess
That “WE”...meaning humans..live and die!
I never mentioned rocks etc
Even if life lasted but a moment..it lived for that moment and died.
End of discussion.
You are splitting hairs over a subjective view from all of us here.
What about
Life goes on
within you
and without you.
@rojo That is an assumption, not a truth.
You might be right but I think life is still going on after my friend died a few years back and again after my dad died so I am going to say that it is probably going to continue after I die too.
@Inspired_2write I’m really not… I asked for a universal truth. “One thing that is true for everything all the time.” Not one thing that is true for just humans.
Matter cannot be created or destroyed.
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