Jed sez: > I know little about cosmology, but is it not the case that: > > If dark matter exists the universe is more likely to end in a cosmic crunch, > relatively soon. > > If it does not exist the universe will end with heat death much farther into > the future. > > Just curious about this . . . > > Freeman Dyson wrote an essay saying that with a large enough reserve of > energy civilization might last "indefinitely" or perhaps he said > "infinitely" long in a heat-death scenario. I do not understand what he had > in mind. You have to run out eventually.
Regarding some of these newly discovered forces like Dark Matter & Energy. I think it gets even messier than that. First there are the four "known" forces we all love, listed here in order of diminishing strength: 1. Strong (nuclear forces) 2. Weak (beta-decay) 3. Electromagnetic forces 4. Gravity But in recent times we must now tack on two additional hypothetical forces that are presumably based on recent measurements painstakingly correlated from powerful telescopes like the Hubble. These two new forces are listed below in order of diminishing strength. 5. Dark Matter: a hypothetical "force", that is attractive by nature in the gravitational sense. This "force" is supposed to help explain why galaxies spin faster than they should - presumably because there is a lot of unseen, undetectable "dark matter" milling about producing a lot more gravity than what is seen. - THE BIG CRUNCH. This is where some might wish to evoke a marvelous whimsical essay written by Carl Sagan. The essay is titled "The Dragon in my Garage". Jed, since you are an atheist at heart, I think you might enjoy the following essay. It is from another kindred soul. See: http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Dragon.htm And finally... 6 Dark Energy. We are told there also exists another hypothetical "force" called Dark Energy, which seems to be repulsive in the gravitational sense. "Dark Energy" is supposed to explain why most galaxies are not only flying apart from each other, but that the measured acceleration is increasing. - The BIG CHILL The really weird thing about forces 5 & 6 is the fact that both forces seems to depend (or manifest) depending on the distance between the physical material itself. In other words corresponding matter within a galaxy is close enough in distance to each other such that the "dark matter" attractive force is in full effect. However, corresponding matter as measured between the vast distances between galaxies seems to be far enough apart that the repulsive "Dark Energy" force now comes into effect. Do you understand now, Jed? If so, maybe you can x'plain it to me cuz I still don't get it. I lost track of that dragon long ago. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
