Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!flink From: flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: end of the universe Message-ID: <1341@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 20:04:45 EDT Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1341 Posted: Thu Aug 22 20:04:45 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 02:19:08 EDT References: <281@ecsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: flink@maryland.UUCP (Paul V. Torek) Distribution: net Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD Lines: 35 Summary: ... may never come, as far as we know. In article <281@ecsvax.UUCP> dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) writes: >This should appeal to fans of Olaf Stapledon. I note that in any of the >scenarios described (flat, open, or closed) the Universe ends with a >bang or a whimper, but it does end, and there is no serious prospect for >the survival of matter. This clearly has negative implications for the >longterm performance of most stocks. Another interesting twist, however, can be found in a 198(4?) *Science* article with a title including the word "Entropy" (so you can look it up in the Reader's Guide to Periodicals). It seems that in a "critical" (what D Gary Grady calls a "flat") universe, if black holes form not only on a galactic cluster level but on ever-larger scales, there could be no limit to the increase of entropy in the universe. That is, infinity / | dS/dt = infinity. / t = now Freeman Dyson says that the correctness of the above equation is the only precondition for the never-ending continuation of life in the universe; given a "sufficiently resourceful intelligence". Civilization woould live off the Hawking radiation emitted from black holes. Unfortunately, the author of the *Science* article points out, life forms based on our sort of matter could not pull this trick. However, radically different life forms might: the author suggests that life based on electron-positron plasma -- if such "life" might be possible -- could endure. The author wisely doesn't attempt to grapple with the obvious philosophical issues about the definition of life, etc., and neither, at this moment, will I. --Paul V Torek, umcp-cs!flink