Depends on your choice of coordinates. In a polar NED coordinate scheme you have moved one meter down. In a cylindrical coordinate system you have moves one meter south.
No, but mainly because of physical limitations in the compass. They don’t work at all well above about 75 degrees. But if you were at the North magnetic pole and were to suspend iron filings in a heavy oil the filings would roughly align vertically, if there were no other strong magnetic sources nearby.
You can ask, but if we accept the framework of the big bang is correct, don’t expect an evidence-based answer. That assertion depends on the correctness of the big-bang (or a similar creation event), and I concede that’s a flaw in the argument. Regardless, if any evidence of universe preceding our universe survives the origin event, I’d argue it’s not really an “origin event”.
So yeah, I’ve been careful.
I agree with your points about distinguishing questions from meta-questions, and about not expecting an answer in our lifetimes, but respectfully, I’m not sure you have been careful in regards to placing a stop sign at this specific question. As I’m sure you know, the big bang framework is not a theory in the physics sense, and there have been many models of how it might have worked in practice, each with different implications. We already have observational data that doesn’t quite fit many of the implications many big bang models and inflation models would imply - flatness, baryon asymmetry, the cosmological constant problem, low entropy initial state, and various questions about quantum gravity (the latter two being potentially closely related to what the universe’s apparent arrow of time even is, and whether fundamental physics is timeless). It is not at all clear that further investigation of these more concrete problems might not push the veil back a few steps further, and even if there is an infinite regress of questions, it isn’t clear we’ll ever be able to determine that a given one is unanswerable.
Personally I’m inclined to think in terms of Tegmark’s level 4 multiverse - that “existence” is not some additional property somehow tacked on, it’s just what a coherent mathematical structure feels like from the inside. That would fundamentally dissolve the question of why anything exists or why this specific universe exists. It would reduce the problem to “Everything exists, and the rest is the question of what types of beings have higher measure in what type of mathematical structures.” Physics questions become the indexical uncertainty of not knowing which structure we are part of.
This is exactly why in abrupt environmental changes, the specialists who are optimized to whatever their particular niche is tend to be the ones who go extinct, while the generalists, who are good enough, but not great, at a number of different strategies persist. Optimization is a great recipe for disaster when (not if) the conditions change.
Continuing on the theme. That evolution is not an optimization process is another reason that the directed logic of looking at human traits and waxing philosophical about their origins is bogus. Invariably its premised on the assumption that a trait must have been beneficial or it wouldn’t be there, which is a basic misunderstanding of how natural selection works.
From an Agile presentation, but it kinda makes the point if you ignore that making a car was the goal
Can we add a picture of someone arguing over what advantage the vestige of a Gleaming the Cube sticker found on the car must have contributed during the bicycle era?
Larger sheets of paper folded, so the edges had to be cut with a knife. Not stuck together.
Sure, please refer to the appendix…
I collect old books and magazines, and several have arrived in an uncut state. What’s the safest way to slice these open?
First, if you DO cut them, they lose value as a First Edition (or whatever they are). So, be sure you want to do that!
But if you want to read them, and they’re brittle – based on your photo – I recommend lightly wetting the very edge with a damp cloth to break down the paper a bit and then use a sharp knife for a clean cut.
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