Re: The Universe to end in 22 billion years?

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 13:54:10 MST

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    On Thu, Mar 06, 2003 at 10:26:11AM -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
    >
    > It's possible that this "ripping" force could be a source of energy as we
    > approach the final days, giving us the ability to do more computations
    > than would otherwise be possible. However I don't think we can get an
    > infinite number of computations as in Frank Tipler's Omega Point theory
    > which relied on a Big Crunch. The problem is that we are constantly
    > losing matter as it is ripped away by this infinitely powerful force.
    > So even though we may gain energy, we lose matter and so will be able to
    > do less and less with what we have. Eventually all structure is lost.

    The biggest problem isn't the forces but the horizons. The
    horizons close in fast, and they prevent different parts of the
    universe from communicating. Without the horizons I think we
    could do some neat things like extracting lots of energy from
    cosmic strings or separated quark pairs to get energy, and energy
    can always be converted into matter.

    This is the cosmology Edgar Allan Poe would have invented - you
    get both crushed and ripped apart in darkness...

    However, if we have phantom energy, then the dominant energy
    condition goes. That means we might use it for spacetime
    engineering (building bunkers?), and the article mentions the
    possibility of superluminal sound waves in the energy. Maybe
    there is a tradeoff: universes where FTL, time travel and other
    weirdness are possible must end in a maximum entropy state.

    -- 
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
    asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
    GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
    


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