Slashdot Mirror
The Death of A Universe
ninthwave writes "The Guardian is running an article on research into the visible effects of entropy in the Universe. Alan Heavens of The University of Edinburgh did the research also posted at The Royal Astronomical Society with this article" I dunno - expansion, heat death - it all reminds me of a teacher who said "I'm not a premillenialist, postmillenialist - I'm a pan-millenialist, as in it's all going to pan out in the end." Update: 08/18 16:36 GMT by S : Headline fixed.
And some slashdot them headline am grammar did die hot death ugh.
RST
The Death Of A User Of Correct Grammar
So, if I'm alive in 5 billion years, I'll die in a fiery red version of our sun.
I was under the impression that "A Universe" would be more correct than "An Universe". "An" is meant to precede words beginning with a vowel sound, not a vowel letter.
OLPC Australia
You use "an" before a vowel SOUND in English. So You would say "Death of a Universe" because even though "Universe" starts with a vowel, it is pronounced "you-nih-verse". If it were pronounced "Ooh-nih-verse", the headline would be correct.
Back to your regularly scheduled Slashdot, sans editing...
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Doesn't this guy also go on to invent transparent aluminum then come back to the present and give away the formula to a fabricator in San Francisco?
"Computer! Oh computer?"
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Oh, and Karl Rove has declared that entropy was created during the Clinton administration and a partisan Congress has prevented W from eliminating it.
Does that mean we'll never get to see Duke Nukem Forver?
Alan Perlis once said: "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing"
...when the universe fails to modernize the electrical grid.
This headline is the epitome of snobbery.
Yes, it is theoretically correct grammar but:
1. Nobody uses it this way.
2. Nobody actually says it this way.
3. Nobody gets penalized in any venue for using "a universe."
Laws are for people with no friends.
Just the other day I was told I couldn't put "minimize entropy" as my job description where I work. Now look what's happening. I'm going to take this article to my boss and say "I told you so!"
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
So our solar system is one of the last guests coming to the party, and by the time we enjoy ourselves, everyone else is leaving again. Gee, we must have missed a shitload of fun. Whatever that may look like.
The reality is that we know so little about the universe that we can't even account for 90% of the gravity in our own galaxy. We call it dark matter because we can't see it anywhere but we need it to balance the visible mass against the visible size and rotation of the Milky Way.
We have only just begun to think about the shape of the universe. As in... What is at the edge, and what is beyond that? Or does it curl around in a sort of 11 dimentional sphery type thing. Figuring out the total heat or mass in the universe is still way beyond us.
We don't yet have a theory of gravity that works for the galaxy, or fits with electromagnetic and nuclear forces.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird -- Proverbs 1:17
Try to make the link that people are actually going to want to click larger the pointless, gratuitous "top of site" link that nobody wants to click on
The Guardian is running an article
"The Guardian is running an" links to the frontpage of the site.
"article" links to the article.
And there's no space between them, to show you it's two different links before you click.
(Like Myron Krueger said "If people were going to use computers all day, everyday, the design of such machines was not solely a technical problem-- it was also an aesthetic one. A lousy interface would mean a lousy life." Same goes for linking, darn it.)
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I read somewhere recently (forgive me, I remember not where) of a new-ish theory that if the rate of expansion continues to increase that the universe will be ripped apart. that is to say, the rate of expansion would be so great that not only gravity would fail, but even strong and weak forces. All matter would be torn to shreds as it accelerated ever faster and faster.
IANAP, so anyone who is one, or studying to become one care to comment?
my pet machine
but ultimately redundant. The laws of thermodynamics preclude this kind of an ending to our local reality. Unless someone figures out how to manipulate vacuum energy fluctuations (or the strings directly), and reverses entropy.
Although that may have disatrous consequences. We might end up with another superinflationary universe within our own. Good luck dodging a few million light-years out of the way of that one!
I for one welcome our old entropy overlord!
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
By the time any of the effects of this are seen, the human race will have wiped itself out anyway. I wouldn't give us more than another few thousand years, much less billions.
In the future, all spacecraft will be made of cheese.
The universe has been around for billions of years and extends across unimaginably vast distances and yet pathetic little man with a lifespan like an eyeblink thinks he can offer insight as to its nature or its ability (or lack thereof) to sustain itself? Ha! The arrogance! Not even beginning to scratch the surface! How long has it been since man has so much as discovered the existance of galaxies? Less than 100 years? Soooo Johnny-come lately, do tell about the "nature of the universe"! Humans should learn to shut up and simply observe and not make grandiose statements about how things are as they are in no position to do so.
You're using her as bait, Master!
when it's ready. And when you're ready to receive it. And most importantly, when you're worthy. Now go chastise yourself and prepare for the coming of DNF. GO!
You down with Entropy? Yeah, you know me! (mp3 link)
botherd by a mistake in a-n invention not a discovery.
...
s e-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use- use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-us e-use-use- ...
just reading this gives me this feeling of the internet 5 years ago. really nothing happend.
i think it's another dead-end
it's really use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-use-u
as in:
I'm here defending deese two youts...
SCO to Hell
The fact is, we are rather unsure of what will happen as the universe ends.
When I was an undergraduate, my astrophysics and cosmology courses went into a number of models. The problem isn't that any of these models are inherently wrong. The real problem is that we don't have the observational evidence to choose and properly parameterize any particular model. Hasn't anyone else noticed the constant influx of observations that favor one model or another? I don't think these observations are necessarily wrong either, they are just pushing our techniques to their limits.
Not long ago, a new and very interesting model was published. It fits well with observations. Anyone with a passing interest in cosmology and/or string theory should read that paper, it's very short and easily digestable. This idea is, of course, very interesting. Is it actually the way the universe works? Hmmm, I don't know. We just don't have the observational capability to say with a high degree of certainty how the universe will evolve on a long timescale.
Sure, I like hearing about the latest measurements and calculations. But, I take it all with a megaparsec-scale cloud of sodium. It's interesting, but not too meaningful, most of the time.
This debate is definitely going to go on for some years to come. In fact, it may well not have a good answer for 5-15 gigayears.
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
Interrestingly enough, Isaac Asimov already told us just that.
-- search the web
We do?
teacher who said "I'm not a premillenialist, postmillenialist - I'm a pan-millenialist, as in it's all going to pan out in the end."
Dr. John Trafton
Perhaps they will find a way to teleport into the new universe they create, each life form becoming truly a God.
Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.
Holy crapweezles - I followed the link, and all of the sudden Spybot was flipping out and I was being asked to install not one but two pieces of spyware. WTF? Then there was the offscreen browser window. Nice touch.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Announcer: "Today, in our studios, we have an Elk, I mean, an expert..."
Anne Elk: "Not Anne Expert, Anne Elk!"
Announcer: "Yes. Sorry. Today we have a-n expert, not a-n-n-e Expert on... the Universe..."
Anne Elk: "That's right Chris, I am."
Announcer: "An Expert?"
Anne Elk: "No... Anne Elk"
Tim
The conclusions drawn by this article would appear to be fairly trivial at first. Basically energy can neither be created or destroyed and as the universe is expanding the overall energy density of the universe is faling. Less energy density means less luminosity.
I think, however that the scientists haven't accounted for the effects of hawking radiation, which is basically the energy given out when a piece of matter falls into a black hole. Hawking radiation is obtained from matter that is otherwise lost frrm the universe and as such does not obey the classical laws of thermodynamics. Because of this the amount of energy in the universe is actually increasing although the rate at which it is doing so is extremely slow. As mentioned by the article however the number of black holes is increasing (all matter is drawn together by gravity so in a long enough timescale it will eventually coalesce to form a black hole) and so the hawking radiation will increase. It is therefore likely that in a billion years from now, the sky will actually be brighter than it is now, not from stars (which as the article points out will have disappeared) but from a brilliant glow of hawking radiation.
All that glitters has a high refractive index.
One of the guys who did the work:
Professor Alan Heavens
-kgj
...but can anybody tell my how this has -any- bearing, or impact. what so ever on our everyday lives?
maybe people should spend less time working on this and develop something useful. like, say, clean and affordable energy.
Machine9dotNet
Did anyone else notice the name of the compression system mentioned in one article? MOPED?
Mozilla brought you Firebird.
Apple brought you Jaguar (Puma/Ocelot/Tabby).
Now, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey brings you: MOPED!
And people wonder why science has image problems...
Dealing with this topic - "The Last Question" by Issac Asimov. Awesome ending.
it all reminds me of a teacher who said "I'm not a premillenialist, postmillenialist - I'm a pan-millenialist, as in it's all going to pan out in the end."
This guy must have been fun at parties.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
... i thought the blackout was confined to new york, detroit and cleveland?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Astronomers are never in doubt but often wrong. All the speculations about what will happen to the Universe is just nonsense. You can show all the redshift and blueshift you want, but it does NOT proof anything on a cosmological scale.
Now every /. page that loads tries to install MediaPlex. That's pretty annoying.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
The sun will swell to become a red giant until it engulfs Earth.
Actually, it's been recently shown (1, 2) that Earth could survive Sol's expansion, though it would be really frickin' hot!
-l
Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
"We live in an accelerating universe now and so, as time goes on, the density of galaxies is going to thin out"
In my understanding the lights would be observed to go out for two reasons:
First, young stars form at vertices of intersecting matter bubbles and sheaths, where the concentration is highest. If a vertex reaches a high enough density it coalesces, gets critically hot so fusion can start. Problem is the average density of vertices is dropping, so less will go critical.
Second, cosmic expansion will make it increasingly less likely that the average new stars' light will be able to ever reach an observer.
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
Entropy increases with time.
Exercises:
Q1. Which famous physical law is this?
Q2. Why bother writing an article in The Guardian about this?
Q3. ???
Q4. Wheres the profit?
>>Galaxies shine with the combined light of all the stars in them. Most of the light from young stars is blue, coming from very hot massive stars. These blue stars live fast and die young, ending their lives in supernova explosions
So I guess that Jimmy Dean, John Belushi, Keith Moon and Bon Scott were blue stars eh?
wbs.
Huh?
Pre and postmillennialist are both double "n"!
Sounds like God forgot to pay his electric bill. :P
+5, Female
If we pronounced it correctly, we would speak Latin. If we spoke Latin, we would not use articles.
I found the gateway!
Well, if we haven't already wiped ourseleves out by then, I imagine we'll have long since perfected inter-dimensional travel ..
Personally, though, I just found it amusing that one of the astronomers had the last name of "Heavens"
I think I'm breathing again...
Thank you, couldn't have put it better myself.
I dunno - expansion, heat death - it all reminds me of a teacher who said "I'm not a premillenialist, postmillenialist - I'm a pan-millenialist, as in it's all going to pan out in the end."
Hemos, this does prove that you have been to a school and even listened to what the teacher was saying!!
Our universe is dying?! Quick, someone summon the Justice League!
hmm...You have some great points, the math doesn't work out right. But, could you tell me where unified string theory plays into this?
eh, this sucks, I am going back to bed....
The Universe is dying.
You are not the customer.
That was the world's most obvious troll, and yet you still got nailed by it, in spades.
Nice move, idiot.
I'm sure this document is very enlightening to those with the property background knowledge, but any paper with the phrase "according to conventional four-dimenional quantum field theory" (page 3) is a bit beyond my comprehension, and I'm not sure if it can be called easily digestable...
It should be *A* Universe
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
- Enough of your borax, poindexter! We need action --
Homer:[fires his gun six times through the wall]
Take that, you lousy dimension!
[the bullets fly toward Homer, but spiral around the widening hole and get sucked into it]
- Oh, there's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I'd
read that book by that wheelchair guy.
Treehouse of Horror VII think we are forgetting the final episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. If we use this theory, then past present and future will combine in the end...no wait.. the future comes first and the past and present are both actuly the future right? I dont remeber but it was a damn good show.
Hemos,
You have embarrassed we for the last time. Get an box and clean out you locker.
Loves,
Taco
So long, michael. Don't let the door hit you...
My theory, about the universe, which is mine, which is to say...
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
While not a cosmologist, I am well aware that by some definitions a universe is that which outside of which nothing else can exist (or at least be known -- let's not get into epistemology), and I accept the word multiverse. But I am an English major and I have to quibble. I think the words 'universes' and 'multiverse' are both acceptable as plurals, depending on one's meaning and ideology.
An analogous situation would be a monotheist refusing to accept the word 'gods' as plural of 'god' because of her ideology. She is quite welcome call my gods daemons, but not to constrain my terminology.
But, then, what the hell do I know? I use 'octopodes' when speaking of more than one octopus.
Multi-verse doesn't exist, it only exists many worlds of the universe.
Death of the Universe
-> death of all space in all time
-> death for always
-> death of worlds
-> death of many I
-> death of the our unique soul of the reincarnations of the alive beings
-> AmEn.
open4free
Alan Heavens of The University of Edinburgh did the research
...Oh shut up, you know you saw that episode.
That's like an Ice-cream man named Cone!
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
It was a good paper, at the time. Since it's publication; however, we have some fairly good evidence that the universe isn't going to slow down and compact in a "crunch" The evidence shows that the universe is actually accelerating outward. Additional evidence, seems to indicate that there isn't enough mass to reverse the acceleration. Current accepted theory is that the universe will continue to expand and thermodynamically "die"
phew!
Update states that headline is fixed and yet "The Death of A Universe"
And if you think that's normal, look at the headline aboVE titled "Ask a Music Producer..."
Frankly, I'm tired of seeing these editors jumble up the English language so badly, and furthermo-
Hold on, someone's at the door...
END LINE
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
> There's a lot of waggly hand estimation and twocking great big error bars involved, but current estimates are pretty good.
.sig from CaptainSuperBoy, you have to come along and say this. Can I use this?
Just when I get a good
Virg
Well, since the speed of light as been 100% proven to be variable (not C), everything changes. If light gets slower as the universe get older (or larger depending on your perspective.) What happens when light reaches 0 (Zero)? Well, reverse E=MC2 to M=E/C2 == ERROR! Divie-by-zero; please reboot.
Jamey Kirby
I believe that the projected time when Andromeda galaxy collides with our Milky Way (they ARE headed for collision) is around 100 million years hence (correction anyone?). This collision will induce a profusion of star formations and may end up ejecting our star/solar system out of the galaxy entirely. Or, we may end up in the Andromeda galaxy as it moves on its merry way, or...
In any case, the lights are scheduled to burst anew in a plethora of star formation in the nearish future. Of course, several BILLION years later, the trend remains as mentioned.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
Not that it's a grave omission or something but I'm low on karma and desperate to feed slashdot'ers some (mis)information, so I will point out that, over a sufficiently long period of time, black holes will also disappear.
See, quantum theories predict (and some effects of this have been observed, I think) that particles are randomply popping into the universe all the time and everywhere. They appear in matter-antimatter pairs (so an electron and positron will appear together), are called vitual particles and, before anyone even knows they were there, they annihilate each other. The net effect is zero and mass-energy of the universe is preserved.
However, when this happens near the event horizon of a black hole, one of the particles could cross the event horizon and fall into the black hole, thus preventing the pair of virtual particles from annihilating each other. In this manner, real matter and anti-matter is created out of the potential gravitational energy of the black hole. When these real particles meet and annihilate each other, they create real photons that escape out into space and the black hole is seen to be radiating. Theory says that this would cause the black hole to lose mass (shrink), and the phenomenon is called Hawking radioation, after Stephen Hawking who predicted it.
As far as I know, this effect (shrinking of black holes) is yet to be experimentally or observationally confirmed, but it's still pretty neat.
Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
So youre replying to the reply of a troll as an AC, you are not to capacity on grey matter yourself..
idiot
Blah waffle drone. Hit a nerve there, did I? At least you didn't TRY to fight the obvious facts; your post is somewhat an acceptance that the USA has major problems.
You know, try going and living in a quiet little European village at some point. I guarantee you'll never want to return to America.
My One Line Blog has been running that story for days now. :^P
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
twocking great big error bars
Twocking. That's a fantastic new word, and well in keeping with slashdot graamar and speling guidleines.
Mind if I use it?
Warning: May contain nuts
The parent ommitted:
"God Bless America, where the education system doesn't work well enough to teach people to use full stops, or correct grammar and spelling"
European, not "Europian" or "enropian" (caps? France is a proper noun, so is Atlantic).
Voltaire not "Voltair" (which I believe is a brand of air-conditioner). But you would know that if you had read his work, rather than just parrotted a quote, and you would understand the context. BTW, quotes are usually presented in inverted commas to denote a source beyond the immediate writer.
You're, not "your" when used in place of "you are" (its called a contraction; "its" is the exception to the rule, "it's" is the possessive, as in "Its correct grammar helps people understand what you're saying, and I am among it's supporters").
Finally, consider the use of paragraphs to make reading easier, and to denote the commencement of a new topic. Occasionally pressing the return key (or period, or shift either) does not exacerbate RSI more than any other typing, and its better to take 5 extra seconds witing a post than come off looking like an ill-educated ignoramus. NEWS FLASH!! Punctuation has killed precisely nobody as yet!
Now to what you wrote:
"Worst Crime Rate: Well we could make drugs and prostitution legal, as many Europian nations do"
"Many" meaning the Netherlands? Or do you include Alaska (drugs) as part of Europe? And prostitution is not legal in most European countries, although the laws are usually enforced with discretion (ie when there's an actual problem, rather than undercover cops running stings to pick up "Johns").
"Consumer: Yes but despite recent declines in industry we are still the worlds largest producer so it kind works out."
No, it doesn't, because the consumption of resources is largely for domestic use (that is, not exported), and because US foreign policy has a history of destabilizing politics in other countries for a short term economic gain (Latin America, Middle East; why do you think these guys choose you to hate?). The US is also the largest producer of greenhouse gasses per capita, and refuses to enter international treaties to reduce tha problem; another way your consumption and arrogance fucks things up for everyone else.
"PovertyGap: Yes as we adopt more and more 'liberal' policies like the ones across the pond our poverty increases."
Could you actually name some "liberal" (WTF does that mean anyway?) policies devised in Europe adopted by the US? I can name at least a dozen that have gone the other way (ie DMCA, anti-hemp laws [by which I mean useful rather than drug strains of cannabis], PATRIOT style legislation, the list goes on), none of which are liberal. However you are partially right: the economic policies that lead to greater disparity were championed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan (sp? who here is old enough to remember Ronnie talking about the "trickle down effect"? Who here has seen it actually happen?). It amazes me that a citizens of a country that considers "liberty" to be their greatest asset can regard the word "liberal" as an insult. Still, its less mirthsome than the old insult "communist".
"Obesity: Ill take the trade for regular bathing"
Fine. Just don't complain about health spending blowing out because of an epidemic of cardio-vascular disfunction. Oh, wait, public health spending is too "liberal" anyway, isn't it? I hope you've paid your insurance. Personally, I would rather be fit and have a functioning immune system than be a psychosomatic lard-ass.
"Sitcoms: Get a freaking life"
And what should all the people who idolize the stars of "Friends" do? Who is in greater need of, as you say, a "life"?
"Corporations: Like the 7Billion the broke ass french government gave to a manufacturer despite EU policy?"
At least the EU has a policy against this kind of thing. The US does it openly and blatantly.
"Attack: Yea too bad we wasted money defending thankless europi
"Sensors detect another quarter in your pocket. Play again?"
if (C == 0.000..rounded) =>
E = M * 0.000..^2 =>
E = M * 0.000.. =>
E = 0.000.. [M could be any mass]
Conclusion:
C = 0.000.. ; E = 0.000.. ; M = any mass
THE BLACK HOLE eats any mass with zero energy inside of an environment of the physical law of light C = 0.000.. m/s.
open4free
Don't judge a person before you know them, AC.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
You forgot to include that Britain actually paid the US during WWII, it was hardly off their own backs.
Yes every nation has problems, if you go live in a little town in the USA youll have a similar experience to Europe whats your point?
It's simple. In fact, I came up with it years ago.
10 Big Bang
20 Universe Expands
30 Growth Slows
40 Universe Contracts
50 Big Crunch
60 GOTO 10
Of course, that is not a valid explanation because it fails to state all that scientific jargon. My explanation was more of faith than scientific theory. In other words: "it makes sense to me this way."
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
is there an english translation of this thing somewhere? that does have some detail, but which gets around the forumlaic equations?
(and doesn't entail reading a book)
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."- Friedrich Nietzsche
...who won the Nobel prize in 1974 for his work in discovering quasars at Cambridge University...
You'd think someone would have noticed before then. They were behind the couch the whole time.
Ba-BOOM! Thanks, I'm here all evening.
I clicked on the Guardian article link and proceeded to pick up some nasty trojan software (2nd Thought, Gator, Virtual Bouncer, and more) that IE (6.0, latest patches) allowed to be installed without a prompt. I would highly recommend avoiding this site, lest you find yourself in registry hell.
The profit comes from economizing on apostrophes.
The larger the black hole the lower the Hawking temp. For a black hole the size of the one at our galactic center it is a staggeringly slow process due to the low Hawking temp. They'll all go eventually, but it'll take a VERY long time.
Plus there is the unproven possibility of proton decay further turning the universe into a photon haze.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"Death of A Universe"? The author must have been Arthur Miller.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Then afterwards it would get really fickin' cold!
You didn't take into consideration the possibility of Vogons showing up either.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Obviously the divine creator works for Enron.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
If anybody is interested in a book on the "best guesses" of the future of the universe, I found the following a fascinating read:
;-) )
The Five Ages of the Universe
The Free Press (1999)
Adams, F; Laughlin, G
ISBN: 0-684-85422-8
(I am not the author, and I don't work for their publishers!
Maybe you can't stop the expansion of the universe but how about (pure daydreaming here) if it were somehow possible to exist within the event horizon of a quiet blackhole (no accretion disk) and use time dilation to expand your existence almost indefinitely?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"God Bless America, and thank God I don't have to live there."
And we thank God you don't live here!
ASSHOLE!
I'm calling someone an idiot who basically thinks he has superior intelligence because he was born in a certain place.
... when we are reminded of the end that awaits what we are living in ?
Think I am a weirdo, but I don't mind dying much, because I've gotten used to the idea. I don't mind seeing Man and Earth disappear in a bang, because I'm sure we're not isolated cases.
But the idea of the Universe stupidly fading out and getting dark bothers me up to no end. The Universe is so beautiful in its diversity, complexity and immensity that I cannot, and maybe never will, stand the single idea that it could become a large dead chunk of emptiness.
Of course these are just theories, and as some say, it's the truth until someone finds a better suiting idea. Whatever happens, I will not accept the idea that our Universe is a one-shot thingy, with a beginning, an end and a nice short period of a few billion years suitable for life as we know it. Even less the idea that we're seeing the beginning of the end, so to speak.
I want to believe it's eternal. I want to believe the end of the Universe, if there is any end or beginning for that matter, is a so-called big crunch leading into the creation of a new Universe. I want to believe there are some other Universes elsewhere, far from anything we'll ever reach.
Maybe now I can understand the pain that some Christians must stand while science denies a lot of things they thought were true. Like how we were created in the first place...
- Hadriven
For a good foray into the future history of an open universe, see Freeman Dyson's classic, "Time Without End: Physics and Biology In an Open Universe".
It's worth pointing out that up until just recently, pretty much everyone was sure that the universe would be closed (although it appears pretty flat). The recent supernova measurements indicate a universe that's expanding faster and faster, so we now have very strong reason to believe the universe is in fact open, but when people like Dyson were speculating about the possible future of an open universe, it was considered highly speculative and rather academic (since everyone was sure that we didn't live in one).
Given Moore's Law, I would have thought that it wouldn't take nearly that long to print out The Nine Billion Names of God (Arthur C. Clark).
I could make a snide comment about M$ windows 2e9, but I'll refrain.
"A senior French health official resigned Monday after the health minister acknowledged that as many as 5,000 people might have died in a blistering heat wave."
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!! Good start!
I have started a computer project to produce the 9 billion possible names of God in the Hebrew language. Any ./ dotters with code experience can help. The project might be very short lived if I can get my code to run on a good Opteron linux cluster!
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
As Louis XIV or XVI said: "Apres moi? Le deluge!"
:-)
Meaning that he didn't give a crap what happened "later."
The heat death of the universe is a LOT later. Maybe Windows won't crash by then (but it may still suck.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Interesting; mass with no energy. I will have to think about that one. I thought mass was energy and vica versa.
Jamey Kirby
Empirical observations and theory are what this proposition is based on, oberservations limited by the tools, and theory limited by our ability to interpret our own findings. We evolved to perceive threats to our survival, like tigers, and SCO. We are not evolved to sense or understand quantum or extra-dimensional phenomena. We are like blind people in a room filled with gadgets. As we stumble across each one we tend to think that must be the nature of the universe. The key is not to understand the object, it is to understand the room, the objects and ourselves in relationship to those objects. And suppose they are right about heat death, what are they saying really? That energy will be uniform everywhere? That matter will all be perfectly spherical lumps of iron? Is that the end? The end of humanity yes, but not the END end. We don't know what was here 'before' the Big Bang, we don't know what caused it and now we presume we have definitive 'knowledge' about the end. I guess we don't need God anymore, these people have it all figured out! Or do they!
the cosmos is simply fading away
So the grammar problems are not restriced exclusively to slashdot.
"It's not suddenly going to get very dark, but it's been getting dimmer over the last few thousand million years and that will continue."
Yeah, I've noticed this.
Really, the guy's name is Alan Heavens? Is this for real? Seriously, I hate to get religous and epistemological but it does kind of make me wonder about how everything got started (I am not a creationist). We figure the universe is 14 billion years old, but that's only what we can measure, right? Isn't it entirely possible that when everything becomes completely entropic and the universe is simply a void of equally distributed matter the same circumstances that initially created our universe would act again?
I think that when they predict "dead stars and black holes" it's neglecting the (admittedly special) circumstances that created everything. We may not be the first universe, and we may not be the last.
As for me, I think I need to drop some acid right now.
It's one thing to make an observation about the universe and try to conclude what it may or may not mean... it's something else entirely to presume the universe is necessarily heading towards its demise, knowing so little about it as we do. It doesn't make you a whole lot better than the people who write tabloid newspapers. One grain of truth spawns a cacophony of sensationalized bullshit. It's interesting to think that science can barely understand the processes behind the ice age and global warming, yet there are those pompous enough to try and predict the end of the universe itself.
(bool) != (float)
The black hole is doing very very very very slow slow slow because the velocity of light is C=0.000.. m/s and is eating cold mass with a velocity of 0.000.. m^3/s and is not eating hot mass (because has a lot of energy). Nice brilliant figure of black hole.
Einstein said: "my law is universal" :)
open4free
There is a really good resturaunt out there and there is even animals that prepare themselves for consumption after letting you examine the fair first, at the end of the Universe.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
So 2500 Americans dying in some office buildings is a tragedy, but 5000 French people dying in a heatwave is good?
Hypocritical assholes. Wheres a plane full of terrorists when you need it?
The panmillenialist joke is still pretty funny, though.
philcrissman.com.
PhysicsExpert is the most evil and insidious kind of troll there is. He pretends to be a physicist and uses that false credibility to spread misinformation that at first glance seems reasonably but upon closer examination falls apart. Who knows how many people have been taken in by his lies and will spread the false ideas like some kind of virus?
On a site dedicated to "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters," his brand of trolling does more damage than any number of flamers or blatant trolls could do.
Studies (take a look at the publications of Stephen Baxter) of the long-term future of the universe indicate that the period of star formation will be a short and totally insignificant part of the long period that the cosmos will remain habitable for life. During the eons ahead it will be black holes that provide the energy for life and civilisations.
Erm no, you won't have the same problems. Believe me. You won't have the excessive crime rates, the awful corporate domination, the laughably inept "democractic" system.
Go and see some of the world, and then see how your views on America change.
This was a killer response. People, keep posting the "God Bless America" and this on the end; there's always plenty of response and it's time the USA really saw how the world sees it.
Perhaps intelligent life has come about because only it can recognize and deal with the eventual "heat death" of the Universe. I wouldn't put it past us humans to come up with some way of reversing entropy.
I put my faith in God anyways. But just for people who are wondering..... the universe will be destroyed by heat (fire) and then IT WILL BE GONE! :-)
The Bible says so!
Someone might have to help me out on when it happened, but the official line is that we now use a thousand million when we talk of billions here in the UK.
I'm not taking sides. I am just pointing out that you are implying that he has inferior intelligence because of his opinion. Just another case of the pot calling the kettle black. You are both prejudice, just on different levels. Don't take offence though, in my opinion everyone is prejudice to some extent.
Kudos to him for attaching a name to his opinions.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
Thermodynamics simultaneously makes life possible and pointless. Reading about this shit always causes me to become very dpressed. Now, maybe you will be too. Damn, thats pretty good.