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Escape from the Universe
rleyton writes "Prospect Magazine is carrying an excellent article "Escape from the Universe": The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here's how to do it."
Couldn't we wait a few billions of years before we start consider this question seriously?
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
There is only one universe, and it is eternal.
If time started, the how did it start? Something must have taken out the first domino brick.
The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe?
No. Anything that is reacheable from our universe is, by definition, part of the universe. The concept of "escape" has no meaning in this context.
... people are starving. Great people spend time thinking of current problems.
What's the point in theorizing about escaping the Universe when it expires, when we haven't even set up a permanent base outside Earth orbit??? Might be fun to think about but that's about it.
There will be cataclysms on Earth, and in our solar system long before, which we need to avoid. Hell we don't even have a decent early warning system for large meteors, let alone a workable action plan against being wiped out by one.
This isn't like trying to fly before you can walk. This is more like sperm in a testicle trying to plan for when it becomes an Olympic athelete!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
If there are an infintie number of parallel universes, why aren't there an infinite number of wormholes opening all over the place in our universe?
Wow. A creationist using a computer. With their complete lack of logic, I didn't think it possible.
Jesus (Belief) - Existed 2 thousand years ago.
Universe (Fact) - Existed for 13.7 Billion Years.
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"is consistant with the laws of physics and biology."
What pray tell are the "laws of biology" and how do they have ANYTHING to do with wormholes?
Imagine a circle infinitely large.
Now cut it in half, cut one of its halfs in half, and cut one of those quarters in half.
How big are the smallest two sections you have? Infinitly big. Or, to be precise, 1/8 infinity.
Similar math is what keeps wormholes from happening all over the place. With infinite space then, yes, we would have an infinite number of wormholes. But their ratio wouldn't necessarily change from the effect if we had, oh, a finite space.
I haven't read the article, but (assuming infinite expansion) presumably the issue with the universe ending is with everything approaching entropy. In other words, we lose accessible energy. If we can escape to another universe, who's to say we can't steal some other universe's energy to keep our own universe kicking. It's Mega Maid!!! She's gone from suck to blow! (or vice versa in this case).
I'm afraid I've grown rather attached to this universe.
Theory - The universe has existed for 13.7 billion years. It's a guess.
Fact - The existence of Jesus Christ is generally accepted by all scholars.
Please note, I'm an athiest but let's not go around making wild claims unless we want to turn science into a faith-based belief system.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
Yes, I'll conceded that the age of the Universe is estimated by the use of methods which we believe are accurate.
I'll also give you that some dude, named 'Jesus' probably did exist circa 0AD, and was a really nice guy, and did some cool stuff that somehow got mangled in the storytelling, however he probably wasn't a supernatural being somehow linked to the fundamental nature of the universe.
However, and this is the main thrust of my point, it is FAR AND AWAY more likely that the universe is 13.7 Billion years old and was not made in 7 days with humans at the beginning in the garden of eden, given that we have numerous self validating, and testable theorys about the universe, evolution, genetics, astrophysics, geophysics and planetary science, and ONE piece of self contradictory evidence about the existence of a supernatural 'Jesus' and his farther 'god' to whom we owe our existance.
I should also point out that I am an agnostic, as I cannot prove or disprove the existence of God, therefore I cannot logically be Athiest. (And according to Christian beliefs, given 'god' is forgiving, I'm cool if he does exist - I die and go to heaven, though having given it more than five seconds of intelligent thought, I'm not holding my breath.)
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The idea behind paralell universes are that they are smilar to our own, but slightly diffrent, say, way back when Pangea was the place to be a meteor landed and cracked the mega continent, and in certain paralell universe the metor hit, but didn't crack the continent due to some serious english being placed on the rock when it fell (or whatever bullshit thing you can think of.) Fastforward 100million years and the dinosar killing rock hits ocean instead of land, so the big die-off isn't so big. Fastforward another 200 million, and dinosaurs still rule the earth and men still look like squirles. Small changes far back can mean a big thing today. Think using 2 bytes to store the value of a year vs 4. That's a y2k problem, or no y2k problem. It all would depend on when the parallel universes diverged, and the degree of divengence. A big diffrence only a few years old and you might not notice a diffrence in the overall universe, but a small diffrence that occured way back in the begining (like..oh..say... durring the big bang there was a discarded mayonase sanwich laying about.)
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
i am down with all of that, like stepping on a butterfly while on a time travel dinosaur hunting trip...
anyway, wouldnt all the parallel universes be the same age and thus have reached the same amount of entropy?
always mosh clockwise
You probably would have increasing unemployment and no World Trade Center in a universe with a lying Texan president with strong ties to Saudi terrorists.
Yeah, and the Russians and Chinese would be rearming with very real stratigic WMDs.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
How many people before einstein do you think were forgotten? And how long do you think we will remember?
When the library of alexandria was burned down, who knows all the information that was lost?
What happens when the sun expands and earth can no longer hold life? Who is going to still be around remembering these things?
I would say: Einstein ideas lived much longer than he did (as is the case with many famous people of the past 5 millenia). I would not say they are immortal.
Burning heretics is a tradition of all human belief systems.
This includes current science where people whose views run counter to the current fad theories have their funding cut and all research they ever do considered suspect. I'll admit that this is somewhat less severe than the whole burning thing, but the feeling is there. The only reason burning isn't still used is because there is less cleanup involved in shunning.
Actually, many non-western scholars suspect that no such person ever actually lived. He may be only a fictional character. Jesus is a matter of faith, not a matter of fact. Let's not spend any more time debating what we can't prove or disprove. Come to think of it, the question of wheter there are other universes is one of those. Maybe someone should Godwin this thread, so it will end.
That's Bigboo TAY! TAY!