Posted on 11/25/2007 6:19:48 AM PST by redrunner
Mankind 'shortening the universe's life'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 21/11/2007
Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.
The startling claim is made by a pair of American cosmologists investigating the consequences for the cosmos of quantum theory, the most successful theory we have. Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang. But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.
They often illustrate their concerns about what the theory means with mind-boggling experiments, notably Schrodinger's cat in which, thanks to a fancy experimental set up, the moggy is both alive and dead until someone decides to look, when it either carries on living, or dies. That is, by one interpretation (by another, the universe splits into two, one with a live cat and one with a dead one.)
New Scientist reports a worrying new variant as the cosmologists claim that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
I prolly won't be able to get to sleep tonight...
I blame Bush.
Hopefully the fact that I observed this thread will shorten its length. :)
This is what you get when arrogance and stupidity collide.
Don’t worry, I’ll just buy some “Dark Matter Credits” for all of us.
Al Gore to the rescue with his Global War on Climate Terror.(GWOCT)
So maybe a tree falling in the woods doesn’t make a sound if nobody’s there to hear it?
Did Chuck Norris look at the Universe? He’s the only one with that kind of power.
This is what happens when you put a bong in the scientific lab and the observatory: the world receives some very clear, well thought out, scientific, silly ass, nonsense.
Looking past the moral consequences of the rabid porn watching culture, I wonder in this example what would be changed the porn star, or the website featuring the porn? lol
Someone is actually paying these Bastards!
The article says “cosmologists” I’m not so sure this didn’t come from some “cosmetologists”. (sorry all you cosmetologists out there).
It is too bad the author didn’t do a little research on the topic. As you see, Heisenberg theory was proposed in 1927. It has been with us for over 80 years.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle:
Based on the concept of photon - particle collisions, Werner Heisenberg proposed a theory in 1927 known as the uncertainty principle. It argued that since we have to use light to identify the location or motion of an electron, the photon of light will influence the electron’s motion and position. The uncertainty principle says the more certain we are about a particle’s position, the less certain we are about its momentum, and vice versa. Mathematically, the uncertainty principle looks like:
where = the uncertainty in position
= the uncertainty in momentum
h= Planck’s constant
What is the average life expectancy of a universe?
Have they done any studies?
I want to see the data...(8^D)
If merely observing the universe shortens its life span, then 5-10 billion humans REALLY REALLY focusing (like the Force) ought to make the universe immortal. Or at least last until we’re extinct.
Mankind, the most powerful force in the universe!
I was looking out for the lightening bolts, striking near me or on me, as I typed that sentence.
Whew, they missed! ....(looking for more to come)
<|:o(
Yes, the theory of observation changing what is being observed has been around a long time. Most people have never heard of it or even thought about it.
It's pretty interesting to think about, as long as you don't get carried away and get paranoid like some reading this article might.
I think some people tie this phenomenon to the warnings in the Bible about knowledge and sin. Personally, I say if God gave us a brain, it is OK to think about these things.
You’re just a trouble maker. You are the type of person who would want to ask Hillary Clinton a follow up question.
It's okay. I have some dark energy offset credits for sale
Bill Clinton tried his best to distract us from looking at this with his Oval Office escapades. He had Monica Lewinsky under his desk to try to save the universe, not to satisfy his carnal lust.
Al Gore on the other hand just ran to the restroom from "too much iced tea" to keep from looking at the sky.
If we observe Hillary, will it shorten her political career?
The article would have made more sense if it had! The well-established "uncertainty principle" in quantum physics holds that if we observe certain characteristics of subatomic particles, we can't avoid disturbing the scene so that other characteristics of the same particle cannot be measured at the same time. This is easy to understand because the experimenter, in making the obsxervation, is interfering directly with the particles being tested.
The idea that this effect could operate at a distance, however, is totally taurine. Events occurring at a distance are not affected by whether or not we exist, let alone whether we study them.
The nuns told us this would happen if we touched ourselves.
(and probably get tazed and removed...)
“It’s okay. I have some dark energy offset credits for sale”
Great! How much are you selling them for?
(Just look at all the people with glasses!)
The professors will, more than likely, be saddened by this offshoot study of Hillary. Since Hillary likely helped to commission a favorable result from the study, through Chinese payola.
“God does not play dice with the Universe”
This is where the rubber meets the road.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/27652/the_cat_came_back/
It's copy and paste.
“God does not play dice with the Universe”
Einstein was wrong. God does nothing but dice with the Universe.
Never Attribute to Malice that which can be ADEQUATELY explained by STUPIDITY
Surely other space life would have found dark energy before we did and have shortened the life of the universe long before humans ever came along.
“There goes the neighborhood.”
I think that's a typo, there. Supposed to say "a pair of American cosmetologists" Anyway, the stupidity of the claim suggests some kind of error.
Never Attribute to Malice that which can be ADEQUATELY explained by STUPIDITY
Interesting conjecture.
My father and mother always maintained the Left, that is primarily Democrats (but I would add today many Republicans too), are simply stupid. And in past years, like the fifties, it was common wisdom, and commonly accepted, that Communism was the destiny of ignorant societies.
I argue otherwise, that it can be, and often is, like in the US today, much more sinister. That is to say Leftism, is plotted, planned, and organized, far beyond mere stupidity. Joseph Stalin to George Soros, Sumner Redstone, the Council on Foreign Relations, etc. are NOT simply stupid.
However there is a point where stupidity simply transcends into bigotry, the point where one, or a group, think they know more than others, (and they think that because they are indeed ignorant), and consequently seek to impose their agenda on others. This is clearly the case in the US today among many of the wealthy, and why Democrats have become the party of the wealthy.
Hence Malicious or Stupid is hard to discern, but in either case it sure ain't Freedom, which is the belief in others to exercise their own personal intelligence and responsibility.
Christianity, and possibly Buddhism, incidentally.
Two more suffering LSD flash backs.
~~ AGW™ ping~~
Isn’t Planck’s constant a variable?
What is that?
A crack in the crock?
This has got to be the most ridiculous article I’ve ever seen posted on FR.
This is the nth bifurcation of this thread.
Planck was going to publish his variable but uncertainty led him to file that and publish the constant instead.
OK. So we looked at the universe and made it shorter.
Since it is the UNIVERSE, and it is INFINITE in SCOPE and TIME, just how long is PART of INFINITY?
“This is the nth bifurcation of this thread.”
Yes. But there is no time to waste.
The universe could end at any moment.
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