Is immortality possible?

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LiveUninhibited

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Not in a supernatural sense, but rather is it possible/likely that people will ever be able to live "forever," or at least until they get killed by some freak accident? If not, why not? If so, what do we still need before we get there? Are we 50 years out, 100, 200, more?
 
Look up Brooke Greenberg. She's 16 years old but still looks and acts like an infant, and parts of her body are developing at different rates. She has survived a few bizarre medical emergencies, and some people say she may hold the key to eternal youth (maybe not immortality, but...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Greenberg

No idea on how long she'll live, but it doesn't seem like she's aging normally.
 
I know nothing of advanced genetics, but I always figured the factors leading toward natural death occur because eventually mitosis breaks down. After all, if everything were replicated identically, indefinitely, shouldn't we live forever?

:scared:
 
For another perspective, read 'The Singularity is Near' by Ray Kurzweil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_is_near

It argues that knowledge advances at an exponential pace and, because of such, machinery will attain human-like intelligence which will give us sufficient info to make life immortal. It's an interesting read--even if you don't buy the logic/consequences.
 
Interesting links.

For another perspective, read 'The Singularity is Near' by Ray Kurzweil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_is_near

It argues that knowledge advances at an exponential pace and, because of such, machinery will attain human-like intelligence which will give us sufficient info to make life immortal. It's an interesting read--even if you don't buy the logic/consequences.

I am inclined to believe that, at the most, essential immortality (just a phrase I made up to describe somebody whose body won't break down until hit by a truck) would require some kind of hybridization with machinery, likely artificial and novel computerized organs to supplement what the body already does and nanobots to repair things in cooperation with natural healing processes.
 
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According to Dr. Rowling, immortality is certainly possible, though it carries some complications such as selling one's soul and turning into a werewolf.

On a more serious note, (http://www.senescence.info/causes.html) ... I tend to think that most aging arises not from mitosis breaking down (because theoretically in a healthy cell in the absence of drugs that has just been replicated, the mitotic machinery should all be functional) but rather from mutations that crop up and end up getting replicated. Oxidative stress could also play a role. I think that it's pretty much up for grabs what causes mammalian aging right now...obviously people would like to know (because if we did we could likely be able to slow / stop it).
 
"On a long enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" - fight club

that sums up how i feel about it. sure people might be able to live for very very very long time but everything must degrade eventually. eventually you lose the fight in remaining in non-equilibrium; entropy will always increase. so statistically as time approaches infinity, the probability of death goes to 1.
the universe was created to be destroyed
 
"On a long enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" - fight club

that sums up how i feel about it. sure people might be able to live for very very very long time but everything must degrade eventually. eventually you lose the fight in remaining in non-equilibrium; entropy will always increase. so statistically as time approaches infinity, the probability of death goes to 1.
the universe was created to be destroyed

Couldn't have said it better myself.👍
 
Telomere length.

More like telomere length balance. It is telomere length vs cancer. For now, increasing telomere length is not a solution.

If humans live to 150+, our entire civilization will change. First, we will have to stop having babies. At least it will have to be cut by 50% or more. This means very slow turnover. Second, this can be either a disaster for human civilization or a real breakthrough:

Disaster: If you live longer, but yet your brain is already not working that well 50 or more years before you die, then the productivity of the society will plummet. All our resources will be spent to keep alive vegetables until there are no more resources left. We'll be back to the Dark Ages.

Breakthrough: one word - Experience; the brain is ameliorated and maintains its sharpness almost until death. Result - scientists are able to build on their experience and have more time to develop their theories. Einsteins will have time to live long enough to come up with Unified Field Theory and see the rise of VLHCs and Bachs will be able to live until they finish their Art of Fugue and Requiems (Mozart). The productivity of the world will increase because all humans will spend over 90% of their life working and paying taxes. Right now humans spend the first 22-35 years learning and the last 30 or so years dying. That leaves only 20-30 years in the middle of "productive" time, i.e., working and paying taxes.

Unknown: Younger generation is more prone to accept change and evolve. Just think computers and internet. Living longer, even with an intact brain, might still make most of the population over-conservative. And what about the effect on terrorism? Imagine Bin Laden living until he is 200 years old. He just might have enough time to carry out his vision and obtain that enriched uranium.

The definition of marriage will have to change to make it a normal occurrence to marry three or more times in a lifetime and almost never have any children. Maybe marriage will fade away as a result.

And of course, med school! Almost everyone can be a doctor after trying to get into medschool for 40 years or more.
 
In an evolutionary sense, Richard Dawkins brings up an interesting theory in the Selfish Gene regarding aging. Since natural selection only works to select individuals fit enough to live long enough to reproduce, whatever happens afterwards doesn't matter as much in an evolutionary sense. Thus, we're like ticking timebombs. Natural selection hasn't pruned out the "aging problems" that have already been mentioned because those problems haven't impeded our ancestors from reproducing (on a large scale).

Now this may explain why we age but doesn't really help us live longer. But interesting to think about.
 
Just eat broccoli. Thats what the I remember in Nebraska in 3rd grade. A kid told me broccoli was the cure for AIDS.




In an evolutionary sense, Richard Dawkins brings up an interesting theory in the Selfish Gene regarding aging. Since natural selection only works to select individuals fit enough to live long enough to reproduce, whatever happens afterwards doesn't matter as much in an evolutionary sense. Thus, we're like ticking timebombs. Natural selection hasn't pruned out the "aging problems" that have already been mentioned because those problems haven't impeded our ancestors from reproducing (on a large scale).

Now this may explain why we age but doesn't really help us live longer. But interesting to think about.

Yes, Richard Dawkins is awesome. He owned Bill O'Reilly.
 
There's a thing called entropy. And in the universe, it's always increasing. So no, immortality is not impossible. Eventually, some of the proteins in our body will end up degrading which will cause organs to degrade and cause us to die.
 
"On a long enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" - fight club

that sums up how i feel about it. sure people might be able to live for very very very long time but everything must degrade eventually. eventually you lose the fight in remaining in non-equilibrium; entropy will always increase. so statistically as time approaches infinity, the probability of death goes to 1.
the universe was created to be destroyed

I think this carries some assumptions that are actually unknown. It is true that individual humans in their current form cannot statistically survive forever. Even if the body could repair itself indefinitely with the help of technologies forseen and unforseen, eventually an accident would happen to the individual or the community/planet they inhabit. I have no idea whether this is possible or not, and I'm not sure how you would know that it is impossible, but perhaps consciousness can be stored in multiple locations, much like the hybrid human/robots in Battlestar Gallactica. (hey it's more plausible than the beaming up from Star Trek). So while the conscious version of you is living your life, multiple unconscious versions of you are continuously updated in various locations.

Your statement is rather like saying that data cannot be stored forever because hard drives fail. Well if you made enough copies, and replaced those that fail as they fail, the odds of all of them failing at once approaches zero. Certainty in immortality may be unachieveable, but possibility of immortality likely is if you have backups even for the most remote of possibilities. If knowledge of the ways of the universe substantially increased, you could eventually account for all possibilities.

Dr. Yoda said:
I hope not, eventually it'd get boring.

I guess valuing the remote possibility of immortality comes partly from my assumptions about the lack of existence of the supernatural, and the notion of non-existence is substantially more terrible than a boring/poor one. Not that I can imagine a boring existence given sufficient technology to reverse or accomodate for disabilities.
 
There's a thing called entropy. And in the universe, it's always increasing. So no, immortality is not impossible. Eventually, some of the proteins in our body will end up degrading which will cause organs to degrade and cause us to die.

Entropy increasing cannot possibly be applicable in all situations, or else the universe could not exist.
 
How about this one:

Instead of living forever in the same body, what if we figured out a way to download all the information stored in our brains? Then, once our bodies were getting a little run-down, we could copy and paste our brains into a new, cloned body, exactly like the one we have now, just younger. You could back up your brain every few months in case of accidents or otherwise untimely deaths. In this way, your brain lives on and you don't have to worry about the body degenerating.
 
How about this one:

Instead of living forever in the same body, what if we figured out a way to download all the information stored in our brains? Then, once our bodies were getting a little run-down, we could copy and paste our brains into a new, cloned body, exactly like the one we have now, just younger. You could back up your brain every few months in case of accidents or otherwise untimely deaths. In this way, your brain lives on and you don't have to worry about the body degenerating.
what version of Windows is your brain running?

I think you may be low on RAM.
 
Yes, Richard Dawkins is awesome. He owned Bill O'Reilly.

C'mon, a nationally renowned scientist versus Bill O'Reily? That's not a match up! You should read the transcript from the International Debate on Religion and Science when Richard Dawkins got owned by Cheif of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Benjamin Carson. Check it out and let me know what you think.
 
I think this carries some assumptions that are actually unknown. It is true that individual humans in their current form cannot statistically survive forever. Even if the body could repair itself indefinitely with the help of technologies forseen and unforseen, eventually an accident would happen to the individual or the community/planet they inhabit. I have no idea whether this is possible or not, and I'm not sure how you would know that it is impossible, but perhaps consciousness can be stored in multiple locations, much like the hybrid human/robots in Battlestar Gallactica. (hey it's more plausible than the beaming up from Star Trek). So while the conscious version of you is living your life, multiple unconscious versions of you are continuously updated in various locations.

Your statement is rather like saying that data cannot be stored forever because hard drives fail. Well if you made enough copies, and replaced those that fail as they fail, the odds of all of them failing at once approaches zero. Certainty in immortality may be unachieveable, but possibility of immortality likely is if you have backups even for the most remote of possibilities. If knowledge of the ways of the universe substantially increased, you could eventually account for all possibilities.
that was actually going to be what my next reply was going to be about.. along the lines of "on the other hand, immortality of our memories..." yeah, could be possible (but i do have doubts about it). my above statement was only in regard to the immortality of our life/cells.
i was also simply sharing what i believe, mixed in with my understanding of thermodynamics.

even still, data can only be stored forever assuming the universe will exist forever. but if the universe were to collapse in on itself, be destroyed little by little, or just eventually stop existing, the data will be gone along with it. its more reasonable to believe that the universe will eventually dissipate somehow than go on forever...

3rd law of thermo, there is no escape.


Also, while it is true that entropy can decrease locally (thus, life), the entropy of the entire UNIVERSE is ALWAYS increasing, because life is not 100% efficient of course. just like there cannot be a perpetual motion machine.
To live forever would require an infinite amount of energy. it may be obtainable (who knows) but certainly very very difficult. you'd probably be like some parasite having to move from one planet/body to another when all the energy is used up for your existence. lol eventually you'll just be like galactus and eating planets for all their energy to live... or something.

only a being that lives apart from the laws of physics/universe and is not bound by entropy or the third law can be eternal and truly immortal. e.g. God (at least my concept of Him.. not sure what other religions think.)
 
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If the universe is closed and the Big Crunch imminent, then entropy will be decreasing and time running backwards.

The god concept does not work. If one questions: who created the universe? It must be god! Then one can also question: who created god? And if god created itself, then universe also created itself. That's actually a real theory put forward by Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton. Let's not forget that matter and energy are interchangeable. If you accept that god is some sort of source of huge energy, then god is nothing but matter. And matter is universe. Therefore god=universe. A physicist calls it as such, a person looking for comfort assigns "intelligence" to matter-energy and calls it god. Familiar? We used to worship the sun, statues, and many other inanimate objects. The concept of God is the last vestige of human evolutionary advancement. In 100 years or so we will look back and marvel at our atavistic simplicity.
 
Even if there was a process that could make you immortal, that doesn't mean you won't die. People seem to forget about that ol' getting killed thing. You know, driving at a high speed and killing yourself, driving through an intersection at 35 mph and having some drunkin idiot t-bone you and crush your face in, or being eaten by a great white shark while enoying your island get away vaction at 195 years old. 😉
 
How about this one:

Instead of living forever in the same body, what if we figured out a way to download all the information stored in our brains? Then, once our bodies were getting a little run-down, we could copy and paste our brains into a new, cloned body, exactly like the one we have now, just younger. You could back up your brain every few months in case of accidents or otherwise untimely deaths. In this way, your brain lives on and you don't have to worry about the body degenerating.
Ghost in a shell is just an anime. It's not based on a true story. Those crazy Japanese!
 
Even if there was a process that could make you immortal, that doesn't mean you won't die. People seem to forget about that ol' getting killed thing. You know, driving at a high speed and killing yourself, driving through an intersection at 35 mph and having some drunkin idiot t-bone you and crush your face in, or being eaten by a great white shark while enoying your island get away vaction at 195 years old. 😉
Did you read the thread? That caveat was already supplied at the top of the thread.
 
Did you read the thread? That caveat was already supplied at the top of the thread.
Do you know where you're at. You're at a message board. This is a place where people can add their input. Yes, I did read the thread. I added my input, even if what I stated was already stated. Does it look like I care if ultra anal people like you are bothered by that? 🙄
 
If the universe is closed and the Big Crunch imminent, then entropy will be decreasing and time running backwards.

Explain why time is going backwards?

There's a thing called entropy. And in the universe, it's always increasing. So no, immortality is not impossible. Eventually, some of the proteins in our body will end up degrading which will cause organs to degrade and cause us to die.

Second law of thermo doesn't apply to small systems. As long as there are stars, there is energy to fight entropy on a small scale.
 
Explain why time is going backwards?



Second law of thermo doesn't apply to small systems. As long as there are stars, there is energy to fight entropy on a small scale.

ChemEng has pointed out some interesting non sequiturs. [facetious]Has anyone tried drinking Telomeraseade? I bet that would work.[/facetious]
 
Well if the breaking down of mitosis, really was the problem, assuming that we fixed the issues with telomerase, probability would suggest, that the chance of a lethal mutation would increase with each replication, so eventually, we would mutate ourselves to death?
 
Well if the breaking down of mitosis, really was the problem, assuming that we fixed the issues with telomerase, probability would suggest, that the chance of a lethal mutation would increase with each replication, so eventually, we would mutate ourselves to death?

No. [sarcasm] DNA polymerase is very accurate. Only 1 in 10^9-10^10 bases are mispaired. [/sarcasm] I assume by mutate, you mean cancer?
 
If the universe is closed and the Big Crunch imminent, then entropy will be decreasing and time running backwards.

The god concept does not work. If one questions: who created the universe? It must be god! Then one can also question: who created god? And if god created itself, then universe also created itself. That's actually a real theory put forward by Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton. Let's not forget that matter and energy are interchangeable. If you accept that god is some sort of source of huge energy, then god is nothing but matter. And matter is universe. Therefore god=universe. A physicist calls it as such, a person looking for comfort assigns "intelligence" to matter-energy and calls it god. Familiar? We used to worship the sun, statues, and many other inanimate objects. The concept of God is the last vestige of human evolutionary advancement. In 100 years or so we will look back and marvel at our atavistic simplicity.

What the heck is this even in response to?
 
More like telomere length balance. It is telomere length vs cancer. For now, increasing telomere length is not a solution.

If humans live to 150+, our entire civilization will change. First, we will have to stop having babies. At least it will have to be cut by 50% or more. This means very slow turnover. Second, this can be either a disaster for human civilization or a real breakthrough:

Disaster: If you live longer, but yet your brain is already not working that well 50 or more years before you die, then the productivity of the society will plummet. All our resources will be spent to keep alive vegetables until there are no more resources left. We'll be back to the Dark Ages.

Breakthrough: one word - Experience; the brain is ameliorated and maintains its sharpness almost until death. Result - scientists are able to build on their experience and have more time to develop their theories. Einsteins will have time to live long enough to come up with Unified Field Theory and see the rise of VLHCs and Bachs will be able to live until they finish their Art of Fugue and Requiems (Mozart). The productivity of the world will increase because all humans will spend over 90% of their life working and paying taxes. Right now humans spend the first 22-35 years learning and the last 30 or so years dying. That leaves only 20-30 years in the middle of "productive" time, i.e., working and paying taxes.

Unknown: Younger generation is more prone to accept change and evolve. Just think computers and internet. Living longer, even with an intact brain, might still make most of the population over-conservative. And what about the effect on terrorism? Imagine Bin Laden living until he is 200 years old. He just might have enough time to carry out his vision and obtain that enriched uranium.

The definition of marriage will have to change to make it a normal occurrence to marry three or more times in a lifetime and almost never have any children. Maybe marriage will fade away as a result.

And of course, med school! Almost everyone can be a doctor after trying to get into medschool for 40 years or more.
I like your analysis.
 
i believe part of aging has to do with the telomere shrinking throughout cell division and replication, but i read about this new drug called TA-65 (i think) that extends the life of the telomeres, but would also extend the life of cancerous cells so there would be a trade-off.

BUT its like $14,000 😱 for a year supply, i read about in sci am
 
C'mon, a nationally renowned scientist versus Bill O'Reily? That's not a match up! You should read the transcript from the International Debate on Religion and Science when Richard Dawkins got owned by Cheif of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Benjamin Carson. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I swear someone brings this dude up every time the religion and medicine debates start.
 
If the universe is closed and the Big Crunch imminent, then entropy will be decreasing and time running backwards.

The god concept does not work. If one questions: who created the universe? It must be god! Then one can also question: who created god? And if god created itself, then universe also created itself. That's actually a real theory put forward by Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton. Let's not forget that matter and energy are interchangeable. If you accept that god is some sort of source of huge energy, then god is nothing but matter. And matter is universe. Therefore god=universe. A physicist calls it as such, a person looking for comfort assigns "intelligence" to matter-energy and calls it god. Familiar? We used to worship the sun, statues, and many other inanimate objects. The concept of God is the last vestige of human evolutionary advancement. In 100 years or so we will look back and marvel at our atavistic simplicity.

Nothing personal, but I think your logic is a bit faulty and simplistic. But I don't really want to derail the thread, soo...


I really don't think entropically we can ever attain true "immortality". But I'm no physicist either. Regardless, I certainly hope we can never attain it.
 
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Perhaps one day we will be able to abandon the very part of us that dies, our bodies. With how rapidly technology is evolving, I wonder if it would be possible to transfer one's conscious mind onto a microchip, immune of all sickness. Would that be immortality?
 
Perhaps one day we will be able to abandon the very part of us that dies, our bodies. With how rapidly technology is evolving, I wonder if it would be possible to transfer one's conscious mind onto a microchip, immune of all sickness. Would that be immortality?

Where do you guys come up with this stuff?
 
I swear someone brings this dude up every time the religion and medicine debates start.
you should check out this biologist from Brown, Kenneth Miller, its interesting how he handles the evolution and religion debate
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_O68HUcHos[/YOUTUBE]
 
Telomere extension is magic at this point. You can't tell me you can extend every telomere in the body using some magic drug. Also, heart failure. We need new hearts eventually or it'll work itself to death 😱
 
that was actually going to be what my next reply was going to be about.. along the lines of "on the other hand, immortality of our memories..." yeah, could be possible (but i do have doubts about it). my above statement was only in regard to the immortality of our life/cells.

Agreed for the most part, but what makes us who we are is whatever it is that allows us to have consciousness and thought. This is the brain, but there's no reason I can think of that sufficient technology couldn't (eventually) replicate that, and the consciousness be transmitted via artificial add-ons. It is the consciousness itself that is the irreplaceable individual, not their cells except to the extent that neural connections are the physical manifestation of this. Provided there is no supernatural element to what makes us who we are, i.e. a soul or something, I think the above holds true.

i was also simply sharing what i believe, mixed in with my understanding of thermodynamics.

even still, data can only be stored forever assuming the universe will exist forever. but if the universe were to collapse in on itself, be destroyed little by little, or just eventually stop existing, the data will be gone along with it. its more reasonable to believe that the universe will eventually dissipate somehow than go on forever...

3rd law of thermo, there is no escape.


Also, while it is true that entropy can decrease locally (thus, life), the entropy of the entire UNIVERSE is ALWAYS increasing, because life is not 100% efficient of course. just like there cannot be a perpetual motion machine.
To live forever would require an infinite amount of energy. it may be obtainable (who knows) but certainly very very difficult. you'd probably be like some parasite having to move from one planet/body to another when all the energy is used up for your existence. lol eventually you'll just be like galactus and eating planets for all their energy to live... or something.

only a being that lives apart from the laws of physics/universe and is not bound by entropy or the third law can be eternal and truly immortal. e.g. God (at least my concept of Him.. not sure what other religions think.)

It is true that true immortality, or even the remote possibility of it, could be facilitated by infinite energy. While the concept of infinite energy sounds impossible, it is certainly no less plausible than the supernatural (many religious people would contend that infinite energy is one of god's attributes), and given our limited knowledge at this point it is impossible to know whether infinite energy in a natural sense can exist.

One of the laws of thermodynamics states that energy-matter can neither be created nor destroyed. If the universe had a beginning, this cannot be the case. However, the alternative, an eternal universe, violates increasing entropy. Neither scenario makes much sense given what we know so far. For that reason, it seems the laws of thermodynamics are not perfectly applicable in all situations. Of course they are useful and applicable under conditions we've encountered so far. But that may be analogous to Newtonian physics before Quantum.

One reason it seems reasonable that infinite energy would be required is that, at the very least, electromagnetic radiation travelling away from the reachable universe will very slowly leech the energy that is available. One way around that would be to construct something else currently thought to be impossible, i.e. a perfect barrier to energy. An imperfect barrier would merely slow the loss of energy from that which is enclosed. But a perfect barrier would allow finite energy to be infinitely recycled within that system, while entropy indefinitely increases outside of that barrier. I suspect a perfect barrier is possible, as electromagnetic radiation can be bent.
 
this thread's a trip and i'm loving it. my brother and I use to joke around as kids saying we would invent a pill that would make us live forever. maybe we should patent it lol 😉
 
I just want to point out that there are MANY things that break-down with age - not just telomeres and the process of mitosis.

One of the big ones is the body's ability to prevent oxidative damage. Free radical control declines with age, and that causes huge problems for nearly every organ system. Interestingly, free-radical therapies and altered mouse models actually result in poorer survival than baseline.

Chasing immortality is like trying to find the end of a rainbow. It looks like it should be there somewhere...until you really understand the mechanics behind it.
 
Agreed for the most part, but what makes us who we are is whatever it is that allows us to have consciousness and thought. This is the brain, but there's no reason I can think of that sufficient technology couldn't (eventually) replicate that, and the consciousness be transmitted via artificial add-ons. It is the consciousness itself that is the irreplaceable individual, not their cells except to the extent that neural connections are the physical manifestation of this. Provided there is no supernatural element to what makes us who we are, i.e. a soul or something, I think the above holds true.

well all i know is that we are far from truly mapping out someone's thoughts and consciousness. personally i believe in a soul. don't know the nature of it and whether or not it can mathematically be mapped out. to me that depends on whether or not God can be mathematically figured out- maybe someday those things will be figured out, if the missing pieces of the GUT are discovered. doubtful to me.

It is true that true immortality, or even the remote possibility of it, could be facilitated by infinite energy. While the concept of infinite energy sounds impossible, it is certainly no less plausible than the supernatural (many religious people would contend that infinite energy is one of god's attributes), and given our limited knowledge at this point it is impossible to know whether infinite energy in a natural sense can exist.
my point is that TRUE immortality REQUIRES infinite energy, not simply "be facilitated" by it, ( i did not say one way or the other whether i think it exists. we of course need to perfectly understand dark energy and dark matter before we can begin to remotely hypothesize if there is an infinite amount of energy). the only way around requiring infinite energy (to continue decreasing your local entropy) is if you exist outside of the laws of physics. that was my *point* in mentioning God as I see his existence.

One of the laws of thermodynamics states that energy-matter can neither be created nor destroyed. If the universe had a beginning, this cannot be the case. However, the alternative, an eternal universe, violates increasing entropy. Neither scenario makes much sense given what we know so far. For that reason, it seems the laws of thermodynamics are not perfectly applicable in all situations. Of course they are useful and applicable under conditions we've encountered so far. But that may be analogous to Newtonian physics before Quantum.
the universe arose from nothing. the big bang (most accepted and accurate theory, proven by loads of scientific evidence) occurred from a singularity, an infinitesimal point (nothingness). when this 'singularity' expanded, equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were formed, in an instant (unfathomably small amount of time). anti-matter + matter = 0 (nothing). in the first second of the universe's existence, most matter and anti-matter was annihilated. only a small amount of matter was left un-annihilated, but still is balanced by is counterpart antimatter. some kind of symmetry breaking occured. one theory i know of about how some matter was allowed to exist and not all annihilated by its anti-matter is because (somehow) that antimatter got trapped by the surface of black holes.

THUS, the universe had a beginning, and the first law of thermodynamics still holds. pretty cool. for every matter, there is anti-matter. thus matter/energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
sorry if my explanation sucked, it's been a couple years since i took a cosmology class.

basically your thinking is highly flawed. the laws of thermodynamics are laws because they are applicable in all situations. they are more difficult to understand at the quantum level but do not break down.

One reason it seems reasonable that infinite energy would be required is that, at the very least, electromagnetic radiation travelling away from the reachable universe
i don't understand? are you trying to say that EM radiation can escape the universe? that assumes the universe is an open system. that violates the laws of thermodynamics. the universe is a closed system. it transfers neither energy nor matter to any outside system (if such a system exists, that is.)

thus, there is no reason to look for a "perfect barrier". 😕

its an endless cycle. entropy causes energy to be lost as heat. to reconvert that heat to useful energy for work, you require some OTHER source of energy put into the system to make the conversion. ultimately you always end up increasing entropy of the entire system as a whole. all you are doing is getting into the perpetual motion machine argument.




Excelsius said:
If the universe is closed and the Big Crunch imminent, then entropy will be decreasing and time running backwards.

The god concept does not work. If one questions: who created the universe? It must be god! Then one can also question: who created god? And if god created itself, then universe also created itself. That's actually a real theory put forward by Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton. Let's not forget that matter and energy are interchangeable. If you accept that god is some sort of source of huge energy, then god is nothing but matter. And matter is universe. Therefore god=universe. A physicist calls it as such, a person looking for comfort assigns "intelligence" to matter-energy and calls it god. Familiar? We used to worship the sun, statues, and many other inanimate objects. The concept of God is the last vestige of human evolutionary advancement. In 100 years or so we will look back and marvel at our atavistic simplicity.
if this was a response to me, you are assuming a lot about my concept of God. also, you seem to be very arrogant that your belief is right. Einstein, as well as a staggering number of physicists today, believe in God. nearly all believe in some sort of higher, unifying force (whatever you wish to call it-- i dont care.) extensively study cosmology and see how much we cannot explain (especially by chance) and truly do not know. then come back and talk, buddy 👍 also, you completely ignored my comment that i see God as something outside the laws of physics. thus God =/= matter-energy, to me. to me, Him representing eternity has no linkage to some kind of eternity of the universe- it had a beginning. that is overwhelmingly proven. it seems to me that atheists are the ones that try to assign 'intelligence' to inanimate objects as if they have a mind of their own to effortlessly by chance assemble into functioning, thinking machines. so tell me who is comforting themselves? and in your magical world 100 years from now, who has any right to define some type of universal morality?

just something to think about. not trying to start an argument. however, it would be nice if some atheists would stop complaining about religious people "pushing their beliefs on others" and yet doing the same thing with such a condescending, matter-of-fact tone.
 
Surprised this hasn't' been brought up yet.

One theory as to why we actually age is that the slow down of mitosis works to reduce the incidence of cancer.
 
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