Posted on 09/14/2009 4:04:35 AM PDT by decimon
Remember a little thing called the space-time continuum? Well what if the time part of the equation was literally running out? New evidence is suggesting that time is slowly disappearing from our universe, and will one day vanish completely. This radical new theory may explain a cosmological mystery that has baffled scientists for years.
Scientists previously have measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. They assumed that these supernovae are spreading apart faster as the universe ages. Physicists also assumed that a kind of anti-gravitational force must be driving the galaxies apart, and started to call this unidentified force "dark energy".
However, to this day no one actually knows what dark energy is, or where it comes from. Professor Jose Senovilla, and his colleagues at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, have proposed a mind-bending alternative. They propose that there is no such thing as dark energy at all, and were looking at things backwards. Senovilla proposes that we have been fooled into thinking the expansion of the universe is accelerating, when in reality, time itself is slowing down. At an everyday level, the change would not be perceptible. However, it would be obvious from cosmic scale measurements tracking the course of the universe over billions of years. The change would be infinitesimally slow from a human perspective, but in terms of the vast perspective of cosmology, the study of ancient light from suns that shone billions of years ago, it could easily be measured
The team's proposal, which will be published in the journal Physical Review D, dismisses dark energy as fiction. Instead, Prof Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock with a run-down battery.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailygalaxy.com ...
Says Time is DisappearingAh ha! I thought I'd merely *misplaced* my Franklin planner...
<img SRC="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/133702/rollover_mom.jpg>
Gives you:
I’m OK. In the future I will remember that everything happens all at once.
That is why we have d’eja vu.
Yay! Awww, shucks. You’re welcome.
This theory reminds me of a story from the early days of personal computers. A scam company sold an expensive PC expansion card that dramatically boosted a computer’s performance. All benchmarks improved and customers were happy. The only thing was it did not really boost performance, it only slowed the system’s timer chip down. More operations completed for the same measured time creating the illusion of a faster expanded computer.
So at 75 I didn't know this for a fact already?!
Sheesh....Freedom & Liberty are disappearing too! Let's hurry up and get the revolution started....
The goal of the "new" theory has to be our goal.
Finally a cosmology that can explain why time flies.
(No time left for you) On my way to better things
(No time left for you) I found myself some wings
(No time left for you) Distant roads are callin’ me
(No time left for you) Da-un-da-un-da-un-da-un-da
In billions of years, time would cease to be time altogether.But as time slows down, we'll never actually reach the point where it stops. Our approach towards the Stoppage of Time will make an asymptotic curve.
Not only why but how.
The First Postulate:
Time flies like an arrow.
... leading to the Second Postulate:
Fruit flies like a banana.
>>Time is a human perception.
Time is a derivative function based upon the observable rate of state change.
While humans do perceive that state change from within the context of their own temporal experience, the state change progresses regardless of whether or not it is observed by a human.
>>But as time slows down, we’ll never
>>actually reach the point where it stops
Presuming progression of the universe towards complete entropy; when the universe is reduced to a state of complete entropy, state change will no longer take place.
Without state change, time will no longer exist.
Are you sure?
Per Special Relativity, the progression of time is consistent only within the context of the observed inertial frame.
Of course, it may all be a bunch of Bulova.
Human constructs are not prerequisite for the existence of physical reality.
The progression of state change existed long before humans articulated their abstract constructs of “time”; and I expect it will continue long after we, and our observations, vanish with the wind.
Yet another scientific theory floats off into the aether.
if the universe is closed, time will not cease, but it will eventually reverse itself as the second law of thermodynamics is violated. If it is open, time will never stop but will slow down to a state of “nearly stopped but never quite being stopped”. That’s my hypothesis at least. I could be wrong and probably am.
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