Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Timeline of the far future

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 272 posts

Re: Timeline of the far future

#121

Post by speeq »

johnchristopher wrote: post #112
johnchristopher wrote: post #10

While 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…

Now, here's the interesting part. I was sure I first read that story when it was first submitted on HN. Sure enough here it is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6860839 , I even put out a comment in a discussion. The funny thing now is that someone mentioned the very wikipedia article `Timeline of the far future` in that short story submission. Ah, patterns.

I came across this article by looking up Neptune and going down a wikipedia rabbit hole after seeing another submission that's currently on the front page: `Supersharp Images from New VLT Adaptive Optics`

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17556955

Re: Timeline of the far future

#122

Post by ansible »

goodcanadian wrote: post #117
mrkstu wrote: post #115

This reminded me of a question I've had knocking around in my head since I've heard of hawking radiation- the prediction is that the black holes slowly evaporate into subatomic particles. However, it seems to me at some point a critical juncture would be passed and the black hole would cease being bound gravitationally and the matter would be released similarly to a supernova or just spontaneously form a neutron star…

Theoretically, a black hole can exist at any mass as long as it is dense enough. It is true that a black hole won't form without enough mass to cause it to collapse, but once formed, it can evaporate down to nothing without ever becoming gravitationally unbound.

It has been theorized that tiny black holes may have formed shortly after the Big Bang, and have since evaporated.

Re: Timeline of the far future

#123

Post by danieltillett »

maxerickson wrote: post #46
johnchristopher wrote: post #10

While 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…

Maybe Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. It's a good book to check off the list but it is stylistically tedious.

I always thought the style was part of the intention to express the enormous amount of time described. When you get to the end of the book you are left with the feeling like you have lived a billion years :)

Re: Timeline of the far future

#124

Post by dsr_ »

skizm wrote: post #114
21 wrote: post #8

> The length of the day used for astronomical timekeeping reaches about 86,401 SI seconds. Under the present-day timekeeping system, either a leap second would need to be added to the clock every single day, or else by then, in order to compensate, the length of the day would have had to have been officially lengthened by one SI second. Can you just imagine the amount of legacy code with DAY_SECONDS=86400 out there 5…

Could you just add a leap day every 86,400 days?

At the midpoint of that period your clock day would be 12 hours off from your rotational day.

Re: Timeline of the far future

#127

Post by tzahola »

johnchristopher wrote: post #23
tzahola wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could the Earth be totally smooth?

Dunno. Also, the author hints than the night is endless and cold and the child, which the author uses to convey that part of the story, is scolded by his parents and ordered to get back underground where it's warmer.

Hmm... maybe it only looks smooth from space, like Venus or Uranus? An impenetrable cloud layer (like in The Matrix) would explain the cold on the surface and the endless night.

Re: Timeline of the far future

#128

Post by mrkstu »

goodcanadian wrote: post #117
mrkstu wrote: post #115

This reminded me of a question I've had knocking around in my head since I've heard of hawking radiation- the prediction is that the black holes slowly evaporate into subatomic particles. However, it seems to me at some point a critical juncture would be passed and the black hole would cease being bound gravitationally and the matter would be released similarly to a supernova or just spontaneously form a neutron star…

Theoretically, a black hole can exist at any mass as long as it is dense enough. It is true that a black hole won't form without enough mass to cause it to collapse, but once formed, it can evaporate down to nothing without ever becoming gravitationally unbound.

Theoretically it could evaporate but is there any necessity of that? Is exploding a theoretical possibility or once a stellar mass black hole forms is it thereafter in such a small circumference that it is stuck in that form until it evaporates?

Re: Timeline of the far future

#129

Post by ansible »

christianbryant wrote: post #89

While I'm not totally on board with outlooks on a technological singularity a la Kurzweil and peers, what does it mean that there is no real representation of that idea here? For example, Kurzweil's "law of accelerating returns" where the speed of technological change increases exponentially has many flaws according to scientists I respect greatly, yet also has many hints at possible futures, ironically also accordin…

It is a controversial idea, and most people can only imagine a future for humanity where things look pretty much as they do now, but with slightly better technology (cf Star Trek, where meat bags are flying among the stars, mostly unchanged from present humanity).

I'm fairly certain we're looking at the end of human civilization one way or the other within the next 100 years max. The Global Pollution Epidemic, robot uprising, and nuclear war are the more likely bad scenarios for the end of civilization.

We might instead be able to develop technology which solves all present problems (like pollution and energy production) and then use it wisely to bring wealth and enlightenment to everyone.

I wouldn't care to estimate what outcome is more likely.

Re: Timeline of the far future

#130

Post by cpeterso »

21 wrote: post #8

> The length of the day used for astronomical timekeeping reaches about 86,401 SI seconds. Under the present-day timekeeping system, either a leap second would need to be added to the clock every single day, or else by then, in order to compensate, the length of the day would have had to have been officially lengthened by one SI second. Can you just imagine the amount of legacy code with DAY_SECONDS=86400 out there 5…

In Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky novels, the characters in the far future track time using megaseconds (~11.6 Earth days) to sidestep the problem of days with different lengths. They still count from the 1970-01-01 Unix epoch, but the characters mistakenly think that date is when humans landed on the moon.
Post reply on HN