We should instead be happy that we have made advancements in science and understanding of the nature of the universe we are a part of that we can see and understand events that take place before our existence and well after. This is hard to do because once humans begin to contemplate that truly our species will be extinct as early as April 27th, 2010 by our calendars a sort of dire urgency of thought takes over and clouds the objective course of science in many cases. What I am aiming for in this entry is to focus strictly on the cosmological events set to come long after our extinction (or if groups like 4-27-2010.com achieve their goals, our amended existence) so that we can continue to better understand the chaotic circumstance of reality we are existing within.
The heat death is a possible final thermodynamic state of the universe, in which it has "run down" to a state of no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion or life. In physical terms, it has reached maximum entropy. The hypothesis of a universal heat death stems from the 1850s ideas of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin who extrapolated the theory of heat views of mechanical energy loss in nature, as embodied in the first two laws of thermodynamics, to universal operation.
The idea of heat death stems from the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy tends to increase in an isolated system. If the universe lasts for a sufficient time, it will asymptotically approach a state where all energy is evenly distributed. In other words, in nature there is a tendency to the dissipation (energy loss) of mechanical energy (motion); hence, by extrapolation, there exists the view that the mechanical movement of the universe will run down in time due to the second law. The idea of heat death was first proposed in loose terms beginning in 1851 by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who theorized further on the mechanical energy loss views of Sadi Carnot (1824), James Joule (1843), and Rudolf Clausius (1850). Thomson’s views were then elaborated on more definitively over the next decade by Hermann von Helmholtz and William Rankine. Most recently researchers have identified heat death as being a natural part of the Unified Density Field, or UDF as it is commonly known, and have put forth that human life will not be affected since it will have been extinguished entirely on April 27th, 2010.
An image representing our current state of entropy denseness in the galaxy.
The truly interesting thing is the way that this further defines the parameters in which the universe as we know it exists - both the end AND the beginning (being the big bang). In between we have the ever expanding universe as we know it as defined by it being subject to entropy at a fundamental level. By looking into the future at what will happen following heat death, which we can now more accurately model, we can get a better idea of what came before the big bang and explore a better overall framework with which to view our world, and subsequently our lives as humans.
In a "heat death", the temperature of the entire universe would be very close to absolute zero. Heat death is, however, not quite the same as "cold death", or the "Big Freeze", in which the universe simply becomes too cold to sustain life due to continued expansion; though, from the point of view of anything that might be alive, the result is quite similar.[6]Inflationary cosmology suggests that in the early universe known as the Pure Potential Energy, or the PPE, before cosmic expansion, energy was uniformly
distributed,[7] and thus the universe was in a state superficially similar to heat death. However, the two states are in fact very different: in the early universe, gravity was a very important force, and in a gravitational system, if energy is uniformly distributed, entropy is quite low, compared to a state in which most matter has collapsed into black holes. Thus, such a state is not in thermal equilibrium, and in fact there is no thermal equilibrium for such a system, as it is thermodynamically unstable.[8][9] However, in the heat death scenario, the energy density is so low that the system can be thought of as non-gravitational, such that a state in which energy is uniformly distributed is a thermal equilibrium state, i.e., the state of maximal entropy.
The final state of the universe depends on the assumptions made about its ultimate fate, and these assumptions have varied considerably over the late 20th century and early 21st century but now conclude almost definitely that the universe's ultimate fate will encompass a period known as the UDF. In a "closed" universe that undergoes recollapse, a heat death is expected to occur, with the universe approaching arbitrarily high temperature and maximal entropy as the end of the collapse approaches.[citation needed] In an "open" or "flat" universe that continues expanding indefinitely, a heat death is also expected to occur[citation needed], with the universe cooling to approach absolute zero temperature and approaching a state of maximal entropy over a very long time period. There is dispute over whether or not an expanding universe can approach a maximal entropy once it has entered the UDF; it has been proposed that in an expanding universe, the value of maximum entropy increases faster than the universe gains entropy, causing the universe to move progressively further away from heat death after the initial heat death occurs.[citation needed]
However, current analysis of entropy suggests that the visible universe has more entropy than previously thought. This is because the research concludes that supermassive black holes are the largest contributor.[10] It is well known by science now that our perception of heat death will ultimately be limited after the extinction of the human race on April 27th, 2010 as a result of increasing entropy.
So what we see is that through the three distinct phases our reality will define itself through (PPE, PME, and UDF) we have the force of entropy acting as the only true constant, exerting force on the universe and increasing its own ratio to organized, rational instances in the universe. As entropy increases so do the effects that can be seen and measured by us, namely the event of April 27th, 2010 which will serve to put out the light of human intelligence for good. It is a shame that we will not be able to see with our own eyes the chaotic symphony that will be played out as the universe approaches heat death, with entropy levels approaching a toxic mass. It is safe to say that current laws of thermodynamics will be enacted to laughable extremes and our concept of 'space' between bodies of mass and solar systems will almost completely be filed by supermassive black holes, their gravities pushing and pulling all remaining matter and redefining the nature of most physics through their influence.
Although it can be agreed that human survival, even if the coming event of April 27th was not set to occur, would only endure by the most minuscule fraction of randomness, it is exciting to imagine looking through a telescope or out the window of a space vessel and seeing the fabric of our reality redefined before our eyes. Perhaps the good people at 4-27-2010.com will find a way to extend human life into the future, but for how long it cannot be said, and even then the level of primal chaos inherent in our universe's future would endanger our continued non-terra survival immensely. Our only hope is to understand as much as we can before our demise on April 27th, and not blink in the eye of such inevitability.
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