Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.
I subscribe to the Schwartz Report which is produced daily by Stephen A. Schwartz and he never fails to post articles that are of interest. In the November 26, 2007 report, he includes an article from the telegraph.co.uk called, Mankind ‘shortening the universe’s life.’
In the article they talk about how cosmologists are applying quantum physics – the theory of what happens at the subatomic level – to the universe in an attempt to better under it. Quantum theory suggests that we, simply by observing an event, can affect the outcome of that event; in this case the universe, which has brought up a troubling thought for researchers.
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.
The damaging allegations are made by Profs Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation [of dark matter] in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end. “Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe,” Prof Krauss tells New Scientist.
Although I’m convinced that our choices, thoughts and actions have an effect on everything and everyone around us – and on the universe – I am not convinced that the life span of physical-matter reality is determined by time, but by a destination or goal. In other words, when we (we being the entirety of existence) have gleaned as much as we can from this experiment, it will end and another different experiment will begin. Time has nothing to do with it.
For many this is the stuff headaches are made of. Take heart though, I have it on good authority that regardless of whether they are right or not, we all survive no worse for the wear. As Seth told one of Jane Robert’s ESP classes, “you are as dead now as you will ever be.”
This article is a great example of a diseased metaphysics asking diseased questions. (For a great discussion of that, see E. F. Schumacher’s A Guide for the Perplexed, probably out of print but available used.) Medievals used to ask how many angels could dance on the point of a needle; modern physicists ask if observing dark matter might shorten the life of the universe. Same process, same nonsensical results no matter how the question is answered. Those physicists are assuming the primacy of matter rather than the primacy of a non-material reality; they are assuming that it makes sense to judge reality as it looks from within time and space rather than envisioning how it looks from outside time and space; they probably think that contact with unembodied intelligence is impossible and is a superstition of the feeble-minded; they recognize nothing that cannot be measured unless it is one of their epicycle like the square root of minus one. So some such diseased question as that posed in the article is only to be expected.
Not that i mean to be judgmental, you understand. 🙂
Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Frank? 😉 (for those who do not know, Frank and I have been friends for a long time)
Perhaps we need to get all the scientists in a circle and have them “observe” each other. We can all take a few minutes to ponder what will happen.
After recovereing from Frank’s {diseased} response [side splitting–totally agree! 8) ] I can now take a breath and thank you for posting this, Richard. Those of us among the spiritually minded often wonder how scientists get away with believing that the universe consists *only* of that which can be observed with humanoid eyeballs! And even some scientists say that human observation is not a particularly reliable source of information.
I appreciate what you say about our current focus in reality as being an experiment by the totality of existence. I often look at “life experience” as a vast playing field. Today I may want to play accountant, or physicist, or blogger…and when I am no longer learning from or having fun with my role, I’ll come on in, hit the showers, and put on a different uniform.