Re: entropy and heat-death

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sat Dec 08 2001 - 09:07:47 MST


tonyg@kcbbs.gen.nz wrote:
>
> Sorry if this is a FAQ but: what about Freeman Dyson's "Time without
> end" (see http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/dyson.txt)? Have
> there been new developments in this area that I'm not aware of?

If I recall correctly, the Dyson argument for survivability in an open
universe won't work if the expansion of the universe is indeed
accelerating. On the plus side, that bizarre discovery is an argument
against the proposition that our current physics is advanced enough to
predict the fate of the universe.

Of course, the negative aspect of the discovery of the accelerating
expansion (universe currently expected to freeze over) is probably greater
than the positive aspect (physics still in flux).

-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence



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