8 replies to this topic

[Luna]

Everyone seems to love bringing end of the world scenarios in physics, especially cosmology.

Here is one cosmic end of the world sooner than one may expect, 3.7-5 billion years, oh and the claim is: time might end.

I still think time does not even exist O_o

http://www.physorg.c...s205133042.html

http://www.mnn.com/e...5-billion-years

[Vons]

Everyone seems to love bringing end of the world scenarios in physics, especially cosmology.

Here is one cosmic end of the world sooner than one may expect, 3.7-5 billion years, oh and the claim is: time might end.

I still think time does not even exist O_o

http://www.physorg.c...s205133042.html

http://www.mnn.com/e...5-billion-years

Pack your bags and fetch your bucket lists boys and girls, we only have 4 billion years left.

I do also think that the passing of time is an illusion, but I wont digress into my theory. I think these physicists should be solving more prudent problems...

[ChromodynamicGirl]

I do also think that the passing of time is an illusion

I've heard this sort of thing before, and it's nonsense. There is obviously the succession experience. This experience is what time is. Whatever else you are defining time as is simply wrong.

Whatever happens to the Universe in the long run, the human race and its progeny are all ultimately doomed. Not something that concerns me. Anything that happens after I am dead is irrelevant.

[John2009]

Space is what separates matter, but time is what separates events. Time is that which separates events based on our own methods of measuring time. When we measure or observe time, we are just comparing one event to another. The earth orbits the sun and we call this a year, a clock-hand makes one revolution and we call this a minute or an hour, the earth makes one revolution on it's axis and we call this a day. We can note the rate at which a Cesium atom cycles or absorbs and releases energy and call this an atomic clock.

In any case, the method of measuring time (i.e., a clock) is just a physical event that we observe and then compare with another event i.e., an event in your life, when you need to be at work, how fast you want you car to go, etc., in order to use & observe *what we call* time. In reality, all we are really doing is comparing one event to another. If all motion were to stop in the universe and there were no more events taking place, time pretty much seems to disappear which makes you wonder if it ever really existed as anything other than a concept or mental tool that we use.

I know of the experiments where they put a clock on a plane and due to the high speed, the clock on the plane seemed to slow down a little compared to a stationary clock not on the plane. However, all this means is that one physical device slowed down compared to another physical device. A clock is not time and just because a physical device on a plane slowed down does not prove to me that time slowed down.

Many say you must have time to define speed, but perhaps we should forget time and say things are traveling *with a certain amount of energy* instead of saying they are traveling at a certain speed.

Things are moving and/or happening in our universe and when we compare things that are moving or happening we call this time. However, this does not mean time is moving or that time is an actual *thing*, or a dimension, or something that can be traveled through or *end*. Time exists as a concept and a mental tool that we use, but I'm not convinced it exists as anything more than that. This *thing* that separates events would seem to only exist in our minds. Einstein once noted that the distinction between past, present, and future, is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

[mike250]

They are literally trying to dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into...by setting off dynamite at the bottoem of the pit.

[Elus]

Everyone seems to love bringing end of the world scenarios in physics, especially cosmology.

Here is one cosmic end of the world sooner than one may expect, 3.7-5 billion years, oh and the claim is: time might end.

I still think time does not even exist O_o

http://www.physorg.c...s205133042.html

http://www.mnn.com/e...5-billion-years

I wouldn't concern myself with this at present. Let's take the fight one step a time. It will be many years before we can understand the finite or infinite nature of the universe. In order to get to that point, and evaluate whether there is truly a cause for worry, we need to cure aging first. No use worrying about something 5 billion years from now if you can't even get to that point.

I don't even know what I am. I won't pretend to know what the universe is.

As I said, one step at a time.

[NewMan]

It's impossible to predict exactly what that will be but everyone can generally come up with their own ideas. Technological changes will continue at an ever increasing speed. Oh, I wish it could stop the universe from collapsing one day.

[A941]

It's impossible to predict exactly what that will be but everyone can generally come up with their own ideas. Technological changes will continue at an ever increasing speed. Oh, I wish it could stop the universe from collapsing one day.

Who knows, maybe mankind could build another universe to move too, nothing fancy with much quasars, just the ability to support life, warm water and cabel-tv.

[NewMan]

Who knows, maybe mankind could build another universe to move too, nothing fancy with much quasars, just the ability to support life, warm water and cabel-tv.

The idea of multiverse remains unclear, the Black-hole cosmology… and the rest of them. I hope the collapse of one universe would not transit to another or everything at once. May be scientists will discover that particles exist in an infinite number of places but in multiverse is what I’m not sure about.