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