this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Astronomy
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The whole "dark matter" thing has never sat right with me. It always seemed like a desperate attempt to explain what we see. I'm not saying I know enough to have an informed opinion, but it has always seemed wrong. It is matter we can't detect in any way except for gravity? Nah. The forces of nature changing due to expansion? Fits better somehow. Anyway, what do I know? I entertained the idea that it was time that was changing due to the expansion, but I couldn't get it to fit. This seems more plausible.
When we discover someone we don't understand we often make a simplistic metaphor to fit the data until we have better understanding. Like the Bohr model of the atom, or Newton's theory of gravity. Dark matter plugs the hole right now and does it with a minimum of contrivance (Occam and whatnot)
Or the aether or the flat earth model. I know all this, but I still believe it is a bad and lazy model that stopped a lot of people from trying to find something else that could explain what we're seeing, or not seeing actually. There is too much gravity, yes. What could produce that effect? Shit we aren't seeing, dark matter, sure. But what if there's no 'extra' matter? What other thing could produce the appearance of too much matter? Is time changing in some way we don't know? Is light slowing down/going faster due to the expansion? Is there something else that we thinks is constant that is actually changing over time? Should I really smoke this much? I don't know any of this obviously but I have a distinct feeling we are missing something with 'dark matter' as a model. I get why we use it, but I don't like it. When we create a model, we fix it in our minds and it is very hard to break free from that mindset. Look what it took before we accepted that time is relative. What else is relative? What, besides mass, aren't we seeing?
Of course I'm not the first to think about it and of course I'm not as smart as many, or most of those guys. But if you put up a grand model that's largely unsubstantiated too early and everyone and their dog runs with it, you create a bias to try and prove it and more resources will be added to that than to find alternative explanations that night also fit the data. That is basically my gripe with dark matter as a name for the discrepancy between observable matter and "invisible" matter. It is too ad hoc, mostly added to try and save as much as possible of present understanding of how shit works. Must've stepped on a toe there, chief.
I really shouldn't feed the trolls, but I have to ask - is she hot or is she a used up tramp like your mum?