Life and Death of a Planetary System • Hacker News Board

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#11

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 1:38 PM UTC

apatters wrote: post #7

winchling wrote: post #2

Q. Will Earth always be able to support life? A. Probably not [...] Over the next couple of billion years, the increasing amounts of energy Earth will receive from the aging, expanding Sun will warm its atmosphere. Two billion years' work is a hefty amount in terms of scientific and technological development, assuming people survive. So, as David Deutsch would point out, what actually happens will depend on what sola…

This assumes that our level of technology will increase over such long time scales. It might be cyclical, resetting to zero periodically.

[deleted]

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#12

Post by winchling » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

zrav wrote: post #10

winchling wrote: post #2

Q. Will Earth always be able to support life? A. Probably not [...] Over the next couple of billion years, the increasing amounts of energy Earth will receive from the aging, expanding Sun will warm its atmosphere. Two billion years' work is a hefty amount in terms of scientific and technological development, assuming people survive. So, as David Deutsch would point out, what actually happens will depend on what sola…

We likely have much less than 2 billion years before the earth becomes uninhabitable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

The future is open. It is not predetermined and thus cannot be predicted – except by accident. The possibilities that lie in the future are infinite. When I say ‘It is our duty to remain optimists’, this includes not only the openness of the future but also that which all of us contribute to it by everything we do: we are all responsible for what the future holds in store. Thus it is our duty, not to prophesy evil, but, rather, to fight for a better world.

-- Karl Popper

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#13

Post by grega_g » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 1:41 PM UTC

aaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #9

amriksohata wrote: post #6

According to Hindu cosmology, there is no absolute start to time, as it is considered infinite and cyclic. There are multiple universes, each takes birth from chaos, grows, decays and dies into chaos, to be reborn again. Further, there are different and parallel realities.

According to the Lord of The Rings, the world was sung into existence by Eru Ilúvatar and his Valaar. Elves, orcs, trolls, goblins and other creatures also came into existence.

my money is on Lotr, not Hindu

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#14

Post by ImprovedSilence » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 1:48 PM UTC

grega_g wrote: post #13

aaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the Lord of The Rings, the world was sung into existence by Eru Ilúvatar and his Valaar. Elves, orcs, trolls, goblins and other creatures also came into existence.

my money is on Lotr, not Hindu

As much fun as it is to hate on religious beliefs, the Hindu version actually sounds close to scientific theories, no?

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#15

Post by hannasanarion » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #14

grega_g wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my money is on Lotr, not Hindu

As much fun as it is to hate on religious beliefs, the Hindu version actually sounds close to scientific theories, no?

No, not really. Entropy only goes in one direction. The universe began in a state of complexity and diversity, and it's history since then has been the story of flattening, cooling, mixing, evening out into boring eternal sameness.

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#16

Post by krapp » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 2:09 PM UTC

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #14

grega_g wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my money is on Lotr, not Hindu

As much fun as it is to hate on religious beliefs, the Hindu version actually sounds close to scientific theories, no?

Does that mean ancient Hindus had some actual, credible insight into quantum mechanics, relativity and parallel universes? No... the myth of a cyclical universe is a metaphor drawn from the observations of cycles of death and rebirth found in nature, particularly in the seasons, and plenty of religions draw from it.

It's easy to take these mythological concepts and restate them in a way that seems to imply hidden scientific knowledge or awareness - Christians have done that with the Bible often enough:I know some who quite literally believe the locusts mentioned in the book of Revelations are Apache helicopters, for instance.

But any resemblance between the flights of fantasy in religion and scientific truth are at best coincidental when the science was arrived at through experimentation which depended on generations of knowledge about the physical world the ancients didn't have. Simply sounding kind of correct in hindsight doesn't count for anything.

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#17

Post by baxtr » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

zrav wrote: post #10

winchling wrote: post #2

Q. Will Earth always be able to support life? A. Probably not [...] Over the next couple of billion years, the increasing amounts of energy Earth will receive from the aging, expanding Sun will warm its atmosphere. Two billion years' work is a hefty amount in terms of scientific and technological development, assuming people survive. So, as David Deutsch would point out, what actually happens will depend on what sola…

We likely have much less than 2 billion years before the earth becomes uninhabitable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

Thanks for sharing the link! What a great source for procrastination :)

Loves this one for example:

15,000 yrs from now: According to the Sahara pump theory, the precession of Earth's poles will move the North African Monsoon far enough north to convert the Sahara back into a tropical climate, as it was 5,000–10,000 years ago.

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#18

Post by amelius » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

winchling wrote: post #2

Q. Will Earth always be able to support life? A. Probably not [...] Over the next couple of billion years, the increasing amounts of energy Earth will receive from the aging, expanding Sun will warm its atmosphere. Two billion years' work is a hefty amount in terms of scientific and technological development, assuming people survive. So, as David Deutsch would point out, what actually happens will depend on what sola…

They will probably be hired by a company that makes people click ads.

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#19

Post by momentmaker » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

Thanks for sharing this. Nice learning more about our Universe on Christmas day :)

Re: Life and Death of a Planetary System

#20

Post by dang » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 6:44 PM UTC

aaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #9

amriksohata wrote: post #6

According to Hindu cosmology, there is no absolute start to time, as it is considered infinite and cyclic. There are multiple universes, each takes birth from chaos, grows, decays and dies into chaos, to be reborn again. Further, there are different and parallel realities.

According to the Lord of The Rings, the world was sung into existence by Eru Ilúvatar and his Valaar. Elves, orcs, trolls, goblins and other creatures also came into existence.

Please do not take HN threads further into religious flamewar.