In real life is there something that is literally just f**king magic?

@UndeadPrivateer So basically fucking magic?

As literally nothing happens in a vacuum...(No, not Dyson)

@Fangirlsarah1996 Basically. The Casimir Effect is an example of what appears to be genuine zero point energy. Basically energy with no physical source, really more than a little more complicated than that but that's an easy way to convey it to a layman.

And the vacuum thing is even more mind-bending in that vacuum should just be empty, but there's still a bunch of energy all bubbling around in it and doing a bunch of shit regardless.

@UndeadPrivateer So energy that is created from literally nothing...in short the beginnings of figuring out limitless power?

Well there was "apparently" nothing before everything...then there was everything...so something must come from nothing and that must just be the post-ejaculate of the universe...or something.

@Fangirlsarah1996 You'd need to figure out some way to harness the Casimir Effect, which at the very least isn't very obvious. There's no obvious way to do that as of yet, maintaining the vacuum requires more energy input than you would ever get out of the effect itself.

Eh, that's up for debate. Theories on the Big Bang vary quite widely in their interpretation of what came before expansion and it's kind of impossible to tell. But there is an interesting side note to be made in that there are some rather shocking mathematical similarities between vacuum energy fluctuations and the energy patterns observed in the CMB, the Cosmic Microwave Background. A flash of energy from the early universe assumed to have been created during recombination, which would be the creation of the first atomic structures.

@UndeadPrivateer Still though, it's a start...not a good one but hey, Isaac Newton got hit on the head by an apple because God got pissed off at him for not realising something that was painfully obvious.

That's why I said "Apparently" because "apparently" the Earth is flat, and "apparently" coffee tastes good...

@Fangirlsarah1996 It's certainly something. I'm sure there's applications for it, we just haven't thought of any good ones yet.

But the Earth is visibly spherical, and coffee is delicious! Though really, I personally think it actually has more to do with Quantum Field Theory getting increasingly strong supporting evidence suggesting that it's true and that discrete information doesn't actually exist. But that's a whole other matter.

@UndeadPrivateer Just think about the future, when we have so many excess resources that we can waste them on rubbish research like that and "maybe" get results "maybe" we'll invent a new kind of toaster, who knows?

That's just the media polluting your brain with mind control coffee.

Then again I'm not sure why finding out how the universe began is so important, it's been here FAR longer than us, probably so long that we were still a twinkle in the Milknebulas eye and the universe just didn't care.

(I know that makes sense but I felt like using that "Milknebula" pun but couldn't fit it anywhere)

@Fangirlsarah1996 Learning the origins of the universe is important because it teaches us fundamental principles of physics which then leads to other discoveries. One can use such logic to literally discredit every piece of work ever made by humanity, because in the grand scheme of things we're basically nothing and have no influence over much of anything on our greasy wet little rock drifting through space, but that doesn't help anyone. If you want to improve humanity's technological development, fundamental physics is definitely a solid place to start.