William Cousert writes:
> If I understand it correctly, Frank Tipler's Omega Point will produce an
> infinite amount of computation in a finite amount of time by changing the
> way the universe collapses in the final moments before the big crunch.
>
> Could the same results be produced by making a black hole collapse in a
> similiar way?
I believe Tipler considered this question in his book, and the answer
was no. As I understand it, the trick is to make the universe collapse in
a special way, so that it becomes extremely elongated in one direction,
like a stretched football or a long balloon. As the collapse continues
it has to rebound and then become even more elongated in a different
direction. This must go on forever, with ever more extreme degrees of
elongation, in all the different directions.
Only with this special type of collapse is infinite computation possible.
It has to be the whole universe collapsing for this trick to work.
Of course recent astronomical observations suggest that the universe
won't collapse at all, challenging some aspects of Tipler's theory
(in particular the claim that collapse is inevitable).
Hal
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