Re: Tipler's Conjectures

From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed May 02 2001 - 00:31:28 MDT


At 10:03 PM 5/1/01 -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:

>I'm sure that you aren't serious about something
>having to be wrong because Tipler said it.

True. Just in this rather important and consequential aspect. (Oh, and his
prediction for the Higgs seems to be badly off.)

>Secondly, perhaps you can inform me where Tipler's conjectures
>about the collapse of space at the end of time have been debunked.

It went away when the universe turned out to be open and *accelerating*, of
all things. Granted, that interpretation too might be overturned, but it's
the current standard view, using new evidence, as the closed model was
arguably dominant when Dr Tipler developed his notions--although my friend
Paul Davies argued contra as long ago as the late '70s in his book THE
RUNAWAY UNIVERSE.

See, eg, http://www.msnbc.com/news/272842.asp?cp1=1#BODY

and other news reports in recent years:

cite:

<        Just taking it at face value,
             the suggestion is that it looks as if
             the universe will expand forever
             and the mass density will get
             lower and lower, so eventually it
             will reach to nearly zero

Damien Broderick



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