On 19 March 2014 14:27, Hal Ruhl <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Liz: >
Hi Hal > > The physics that I learned holds that the energy in a universe is > constant. Therefore entropy in such a universe can not exceed 100% of this > energy being unable to do work. That seems a max limit to me. > The increase in the entropy ceiling is caused by expansion of the universe. This effectively increases the potential energy of its constituents. This would still reach some maximum in a universe without dark energy, however, note that the vacuum energy thought to be accelerating the expansion of the universe is constant per unit volume, and so the amount of it increases indefinitely in an expanding universe. Although it may not be harnessable by life or other "entropic" systems. > > Is there a way in which new energy flows into a universe? It seems to me > that this question has no current resolution. > See above. > > However in a practical sense we need to consider the realistic maximum > energy ultimally available to a particular life system under the rules of > its universe. > Yes, that is so. In particular event horizons can form and limit the energy available (e.g. in an accelerating universe, everything not gravitationally bound will eventually vanish from sight forever). Also it's possible matter decays, and if it doesn't, it will still approach absolute zero - or fall into black holes, which also decay (according to our current understanding). > > Are there universes that have no such maximum? > Not known. > > Perhaps but ours does not seem to be one of them. Speed of light and all > of that. > Probably (unless the laws of physics turn out to be a lot different to what we think in the ultimate TOE, or there are ways into other universes). > > How do we deal with that? > We have about 100 trillion years until the last star burns out, then something like a googol years until the last black hole evaporates. It's possible we'll think of something, if there is anything... > > How do we deal with the practical observation that the local life system > is apparently almost completely unaware? And does it matter if it was > mostly aware? > It isn't going to matter for quite a while. Even the half billion years until the Sun pushes the solar system habitable zone out past Earth is a reasonable time (we may have discovered how to move the Earth by then, assuming we don't screw up our one shot at becoming a Type I civilisation). > > How do these questions affect the Everything concept? > > Indeed. All in maya. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
