From: cryofan@mylinuxisp.com
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 12:13:25 MDT
Sabine Atkins <sabine@posthuman.com> said:
> Life can go on forever
>
> An accelerating universe does not have to fry life.
> 27 May 2002
>
> PHILIP BALL
>
> Life can carry on indefinitely. Physicists in the United States have come
> to the comforting conclusion that just because the universe is accelerating
> as it expands, this does not necessarily sound the death knell for life in
> the far future[1], as some have claimed[2].
>
> There's a limit to how cool an accelerating universe can get.
>
> In the right kind of accelerating universe "life can go on indefinitely",
> say Katherine Freese of the University of Michigan and William Kinney of
> Columbia University in New York. We don't know whether ours is the right
> kind, so the doomsday scenario is still possible, but at least there's hope.
>
Great news! I am reminded of how I often I have posted on life extension
forums (including this one) saying that we should not assume that eternal
life is hopeless. Every time I do so however, everyone who has ever stood
downwind of a physics lecture replies that entropy always wins, and that
eternal life is thus impossible.
The facts are that we really don't understand enough about the universe yet
to be able to determine whether eternal life is possible. So the logical
thing to do is just to assume that it is possible.
Oh, and for the two researchers here to go against the reigning CW...they
must have huge balls of brass....either that or be life extensionists
themselves....
--
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