Universe 'likely to grow forever'

[gingerjedi]

BBC News - Fate of Universe revealed by galactic lens

Professor Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, a leading cosmologist and co-author of this study, said that the findings finally proved "exactly what the fate of the Universe will be".

Hmmm I think we'd need to understand the TOE before making such bold statements. We're just a bunch of monkeys on a rock, I don't believe we have the capacity to comprehend the real answers.

[Cliphead]

BBC News - Fate of Universe revealed by galactic lens



Hmmm I think we'd need to understand the TOE before making such bold statements. We're just a bunch of monkeys on a rock, I don't believe we have the capacity to comprehend the real answers.

Or not...

Is Time Literally Slowing Down and Disappearing From the Universe?

[HairyArsedBloke]

We're just a bunch of monkeys on a rock, I don't believe we have the capacity to comprehend the real answers.

I don't believe that at all. Some might not. OK, most might not. Especially some of the frequent posters on this board and ALL of our political 'leaders', but it is not beyond the ability of the species and hasn't been for thousands of years.

It has only been that the intellectual and physical tools haven't been there and neither has the data or the time.

The humans will figure it out shortly. Not sure they will like the answers though.

[TimberWolf]

The universe will end for all of us posting here long before then. Damn shame, as I wanted to know how it turns out.

[Zippy]

Somebody roll another one please. This is just getting interesting.

[TimberWolf]

Dyson's eternal intelligence

Dyson's eternal intelligence (or the Dyson Scenario) is a concept that states an intelligent being would be able to think an infinite number of thoughts in an open universe [using finite resources].

The intelligent beings would begin by storing a finite amount of energy. They then use half (or any fraction) of this energy to power their thought. When the energy gradient created by unleashing this fraction of the stored fuel was exhausted, the beings would enter a state of zero-energy-consumption until the universe cooled. Once the universe had cooled sufficiently, half of the remaining half (one quarter of the original energy) of the intelligent beings' fuel reserves would once again be released, powering a brief period of thought once more. This would continue, with smaller and smaller amounts of energy being released. As the universe cooled, the thoughts would be slower and slower, but there would still be an infinite number of them.
Dyson's eternal intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unless someone leaves the cooker on.

[TimberWolf]

The End of the Universe
John Baez

Interesting sequence of events. The end is good. Or should I say the beginning:

In short: maybe the universe has already ended!

[NickFitz]

Dyson's eternal intelligence

Dyson's eternal intelligence (or the Dyson Scenario) is a concept that states an intelligent being would be able to think an infinite number of thoughts in an open universe [using finite resources].

The intelligent beings would begin by storing a finite amount of energy. They then use half (or any fraction) of this energy to power their thought. When the energy gradient created by unleashing this fraction of the stored fuel was exhausted, the beings would enter a state of zero-energy-consumption until the universe cooled. Once the universe had cooled sufficiently, half of the remaining half (one quarter of the original energy) of the intelligent beings' fuel reserves would once again be released, powering a brief period of thought once more. This would continue, with smaller and smaller amounts of energy being released. As the universe cooled, the thoughts would be slower and slower, but there would still be an infinite number of them.

Isn't that just a fancy-dress version of one of Zeno's paradoxes?

It may not be, for Dyson (assuming we're talking Freeman Dyson rather than James) is much cleverer than me, but it still sounds suspiciously akin to the dichotomy paradox.

The underlying assumption is that the stored energy is infinitely divisible. If, however, the principle that energy comes in the form of quanta holds, then at some point one would finish up with one quantum left, and once that was expended it would be Game Over.

Maybe quantum theory doesn't hold, however, in which case it makes sense.


Mildly : sometime at school in the mid to late Seventies, one of the teachers posted a clipping from New Scientist on a notice board in the labs which asserted that somebody had isolated a quark in a stable-ish form. If I remember correctly, they had managed to create a charge of one-third of an electron volt on a tiny sphere of something (possibly supercooled tritium, but this was thirty years ago and my memory is hazy). I thought that was pretty damn amazing at the time; as for the stuff that's come out of the sub-atomic particle world since then... well, the only bit I really understand is the World Wide Web, but that alone is proof that apparently recondite scientific research can lead to tremendous benefits in the real world

[OwlHoot]

Mildly : sometime at school in the mid to late Seventies, one of the teachers posted a clipping from New Scientist on a notice board in the labs which asserted that somebody had isolated a quark in a stable-ish form. If I remember correctly, they had managed to create a charge of one-third of an electron volt on a tiny sphere of something (possibly supercooled tritium, but this was thirty years ago and my memory is hazy). I thought that was pretty damn amazing at the time; as for the stuff that's come out of the sub-atomic particle world since then... well, the only bit I really understand is the World Wide Web, but that alone is proof that apparently recondite scientific research can lead to tremendous benefits in the real world

It might have been an early manifestation of the Quantum Hall Effect , although that article says this wasn't discovered until the early '80s.

It's been known since the 60s that quarks can't be isolated - If you start pulling a pair apart, new quarks pop up between them. See Color Confinement.

[EternalOptimist]

If the universe expands continuously, it must stretch the stuff thats already there. not the lumpy bits, but the 'glue' bits inbetween.

I have noticed that at night, when the northern hemisphere is facing away from the centre of the universe, my willy gets smaller, due to galactic gravity. In the morning, it gets stretched out again by the pull of the universe.