The Far-future Universe: Eschatology from a Cosmic Perspective

الغلاف الأمامي
George Francis Rayner Ellis
Templeton Foundation Press, 2002 - 384 من الصفحات
Will our universe continue to expand 100 billion years from now? Does human life and all intelligence inevitably come to an end as the universe evolves? Could our present space be converted catastrophically in to a new kind of space governed by different physical laws? Can we construct a theology of the future universe? Would the continuation of the universe for eternity be a good thing? The Far-Future Universe presents eighteen provocative essays offering speculations on various scenarios for the future, from the perspectives of cosmology, physics, biology, humanity and theology. Other contributors consider global time, artificial intelligence, religious ideas about the end of the world, and the nature of existence. Stimulating, challenging and exciting, these visions of the far future are a starting point for further reflection and speculation.

من داخل الكتاب

المحتوى

Introduction
3
A Theological Perspective
12
The Far Far Future
23
Who Needs It?
41
Time of the Universe
53
Living in a Multiverse
65
Exotic Genetic Materials and the Extent of Life
89
Is Life Digital or Analogue?
140
Artificial Intelligence and the Far Future
207
Cosmic Eschatology versus Human Eschatology
225
Cosmology and Religious Ideas about the
235
Eschatological Perspectives
249
A Preliminary
266
Natures of Existence Temporal and Eternal
316
Contributors
371
Index
377

Does It Matter?
177
Games That End in a Bang or a Whimper
196

عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة

نبذة عن المؤلف (2002)

George F. R. Ellis is as widely respected for his anti-apartheid Quaker activism as for his contributions to cosmology. For the past decade, he has been a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town while lecturing throughout the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. The many prizes he has been awarded include the Star of South Africa Medal, which was presented to him in 1999 by President Nelson Mandela. Co-author with Stephen W. Hawking of The Large Scale Structure of Space Time (1973), he has also written more than 200 scientific papers and eight major books.

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