Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is __severely__ underestimating the true probability - it considers only random thermal fluctuations. But the universe is really powered by processes that dissipate energy across a gradient to fuel a structured, very low entropy state. The math is the same as calculating the probability that the glass you just broke will spontaneously jump back onto the table and reassemble itself. Which is a standard introducto…
> You should be far more interested in what's happening when you boil a pot of water and convection rolls spontaneously form. Serious question: why?
Timeline of the far future
91–100 of 272 posts
Re: Timeline of the far future
#92Reading that timeline was quite a trip. Humanity is really just a tiny blip in the grand scale of time.
They don't talk much about AI and other synthetic replacements for humanity. Maybe it's just too difficult to extrapolate.
One can guess, though, that long before another 10,000 years have passed, we will have developed artificial beings that are billions of times smarter than we are.
By then, we probably will have augmented our minds and bodies to the point where we are vastly more intelligent and powerful as well, so perhaps we will survive in some form or other.
Re: Timeline of the far future
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you keep shaking the box for a few years or so That was the part I was unsure about: Does the universe keep on shaking? The answer seems to be: Due to quantum uncertainty - yes. Why? No one really knows because we don't have a god-damn clue about why the universe works the way it works (although we have a good understanding how the universe works in many points, but not a coherent theory or framework that gives a c…
Why wouldn't it keep on shaking? Energy doesn't go away. Things don't necessarily stop moving. Again - the universe doesn't cool down to absolute zero. It's called "heat death" for a different reason. You don't need anything quantum for this. Simple Newtonian mechanics seem enough.
I thought that an equilibrium in which the energy is distributed evenly is a state which the universe can reach. In that state, there wouldn't be something that shakes after a long while.
But yeah, maybe energy conservation principles alone can explain that it keeps shaking. But it still feels so unintuitive that it doesn't slow down or cool down.
I still have those other models in mind that the universe expands and then collapses or it keeps on expanding (which seems to be the case) or simply stop to expand but also doesn't collapse (and proceed to have maximum entropy level). Those were the three models I got taught. It seems that the universe is flat and will expand endlessly, so the model I thought is right (the universe just stops to expand) isn't true and my related assumptions (that maximum entropy levels get reached and absolute zero) are also not true (for some different reasons like quantum certainty and - it seems - even simple Newtonian mechanics).
related SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-06-02
Re: Timeline of the far future
#94Reading that timeline was quite a trip. Humanity is really just a tiny blip in the grand scale of time. They don't talk much about AI and other synthetic replacements for humanity. Maybe it's just too difficult to extrapolate. One can guess, though, that long before another 10,000 years have passed, we will have developed artificial beings that are billions of times smarter than we are. By then, we probably will have…
Or we will have unleashed highly lethal, self-replicating nanobots in the prosecution of a devastating global war, and the human race will be crawling along with a population at extinction levels. (Or maybe just a good old fashioned series of nuclear exchanges?)
The future can be more brilliant than we could imagine, or darker than our worst fears can conjure. Likely, it will be somewhere in the middle.
Re: Timeline of the far future
#95While the topic is on. I am trying to find a short story I read some years ago (4-5) about the evolution of life on our planet in the far future. Warning, massive spoilers: There are like 5 or 6 mass extinction events followed by a new civilization each time built by a different specie. At some points a raven civilization goes on the moon (they always had an innate tendency to go higher) and find an old rover, then i…
John Michael Greer - The Next Ten Billion Years
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-b...
Re: Timeline of the far future
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will be easier to boost the Earth’s spin back to a 86,400-second day than to fix all the code.
I would just change the duration of a second. It would be probably easier to change a few physics constants here and there than to fix all the broken code.
If only you were manipulating second only. You would also be manipulating metre, candela, and ampere, assuming old definition of SI, or metre, kilogram and kelvin assuming new definition of SI.
Re: Timeline of the far future
#97While the topic is on. I am trying to find a short story I read some years ago (4-5) about the evolution of life on our planet in the far future. Warning, massive spoilers: There are like 5 or 6 mass extinction events followed by a new civilization each time built by a different specie. At some points a raven civilization goes on the moon (they always had an innate tendency to go higher) and find an old rover, then i…
John Michael Greer - The Next Ten Billion Years https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-b...
Thank you, that's the one :).
Re: Timeline of the far future
#98Can someone explain:
> 800 million Carbon dioxide levels fall to the point at which C4 photosynthesis is no longer possible.[57] Without plant life to recycle oxygen in the atmosphere, free oxygen and the ozone layer will disappear from the atmosphere. All multicellular life will die out.[58]
Re: Timeline of the far future
#99My all-time favorite wikipedia article, great to see it getting some attention. I find that along with providing great fodder for small-talk (among certain types), it causes me to experience a psychological effect analogous to the so-called "overview effect" experienced by astronauts. Attempting to conceive of one's place in cosmological time is great exercise.
I am glad to read I wasn't the only one feeling a deep feeling. The facts about past and present gives one an overview effect already, but man the future... makes you feel really insignificant. I am mostly shocked by how all the predictions about Antares etc. show their death pretty soon. We look at these major big stars with awe and inspiration putting great significance to them, yet in the long scale...; their death is closer to us than that of T-rex... much closer.
Re: Timeline of the far future
#100If this is interesting to you, I highly recommend "Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur" available on Youtube and in other formats.
they have a very active facebook group as well!