There will come a time, it seems, when he expansion of the cosmos will put all the stars, galaxies, alien battlecruisers etc out of sight. Future humans, says a theoretical physicist (Is it my imagination or are they suddenly on the increase?), 'will be stuck in an endless black void.' No change there then. They will feel 'very special'. Again no change. 'Our tiny cluster of galaxies will be the observable universe to them.' They will also look back on our cosmologists as superstitious fools who saw vast non-existent starfields, black holes and all sorts of other implausible exotica. Contemporary vanity is concealed in this story. The physicist wonders if these future scientist will discover relativity and, indeed, the expanding universe. It does not occur to him that perhaps we are in the same position. We may be deluded by the cosmos we see. Perhaps once it was entirely different and displayed no evidence of relativity, quantum theory, expansion or any of the other phenomena of which we are so proud. Perhaps once it made sense.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Gee, that's a long ways down the road. By that stage, humanity itself may be forgotten. If not, it is likely that the fossil record will be questioned, as it will seem implausible to future beings that they could have evolved from such a simple-minded, overweight and annoying organism.
ReplyDeleteWith too much ice in their drinks.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I notice with specialists is they rarely notice anything going on outside of their field. It's a good thing we're not ruled by scientists.
ReplyDeleteMy inexpert opinion is that the sun will have already enlarged and swallowed up the earth by the time that happens. As Balfour said, in the end, nothing really matters.
ReplyDeleteIR
ReplyDeleteAs Balfour said, in the end, nothing really matters.
Thanks. In this frantic and blinkered world of ours, it is reassuring to know there are calm, reflective types that take a long term view. :-)
As usual/strangely enough, Bryan, you could be right. A universe which is quantum and relativistic has a mathematical structure which is 'stable', in the sense that the structure remains unchanged under small perturbations to the relevant parameters. If you start off with a classical (i.e., non-quantum) and non-relativistic universe, a process of random drift will result in a quantum relativistic universe!
ReplyDeleteNothing strange about it, Gordon, the cosmos and I have an understanding; indeed, we get on like a house on fire.
ReplyDeleteInternet Ronin is correct, the Earth will be long-gone by the time this is even remotely a problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd if our so-distant descendants haven't managed to come up with faster-than-light travel by then, what good are they ?