Spreading the Wealth, PART IIShort Article Review, by Pat Darnell
Life is about Capturing Particles and tying them up for observation and consumption... Stetson Hat and Alligator shoes are material things that by any other name are still weave and skin... no? Similar to the examples in the article by Raphael Bouso, The Statistical Universe. "
Stuff of life is a product of disorder. "Amazingly, almost every one of the biggest entropy- producing processes turned out to be essential to the development of life: the formation of galaxies and the burning of stars; supernova explosions, which forged the elements we are made from; large molecules that scatter starlight."
PHOTO: Exercise Scientist Tom Pollard measured this author's girth and found his MooPig's substance is enough to make 10 Swedish Coeds.The author says entropy is responsible for advanced life forms; "Iron and carbon are made from the same elementary particles but assembled differently. As a result local properties like density and conductivity differ widely." Between galaxies it is quite a different story:
"Intergalactic space lacks both the particles to form us, and the energy to sustain us. It is self-evident that we live in one of the regions that are life friendly. In the multiverse, too, many regions have properties that are incompatible with the existence of observers: They might be entirely empty, or their physical laws preclude any complex structures. (HERE)"For us, Observers, to explore we need substance of life available for detection -- says the author: "Unlike the lifeless voids in the visible universe, distant multiverse regions without observers will not be observed by anyone, no matter how abundant they may be."
But if particles and forces are life; then life is a sum of those forces acting on particles we observe... no? No is correct. Bouso says: "...If we could open the knots and tie them differently, then supposedly 'fundamental' phenomena, like neutrons or the electric force, would disappear and be replaced by an utterly different set of particles and forces."We Observers then have a larger system to inspect, if we are to find life elsewhere. The author says the number of possible systems is similar to trying to count every particle of a gas filling a room, "to determine how the particles are distributed." Entropy models proposed are still crude and can not calculate the possibilities in this example. However, even gross observations using entropy detection has produced good results.
Some of our universe remains "unobservable." We just cannot tie up the materials or forces enough to detect them all, much like gravity is a force that is dimensionally cloaked, but easily detected. Someday soon it will be part of our every-night look up into the star filled sky to seek out unobservable galactic wealth.
No one ever said it is going to be easy.
2 comments:
So if a Republican changes the way she ties her shoes, then her fundamental values go away?
That explains a lot....
Precisely, Great Noodle. If she also happens to pass a little gas, in the process of bending to tie her shoes, the great spaghetti monsters will begin latching onto all the gas particles, creating all sorts of possible singularities.
It's a beautiful life.
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