Friday, October 12, 2012

The Life of the Cosmos


Interactive Generative Art, try it yourself at

Cosmological Evolution is one in which the universe reproduces itself (in a cycle of expand-heat / death-contract) until it makes one that can sustain a black hole. It does this by way of a biological natural selection where DNA is analogous to the proton mass and electron mass parameters of the universe. Once a universe has been created that can sustain a black hole, and that black hole collapses, a new universe can come out of that collapse, with slightly modulated parameters, with the direction pointing towards an ideal universe that produces many black holes (which allows more chances for more universes, for more black holes…).

Lee Smolin, The Life of the Cosmos, 1997, Oxford.

Post Script:

Did the universe evolve to make black holes?
May 06, 2013
The Oxford team of evolutionary theorist Andy Gardner and theoretical physicist Joseph Conlon found that a basic equation from evolutionary genetics – called Price's theorem – can capture the process of cosmological natural selection and explain how the universe seems designed for the purpose of making black holes rather like a fish can seem 'designed' to swim underwater or a bird can appear 'designed' to fly.
A report of the research is published in the journal Complexity online.
via
Cosmological Natural Selection and the Purpose of the Universe
ANDY GARDNER AND JOSEPH P. CONLON
Department of Zoology, Balliol College, Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical
Physics, University of Oxford
March 2013

No comments:

Post a Comment