Could humanity ever reverse entropy?

Can humanity reverse entropy?

  • Total voters
    55
Plies

Plies

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
"Will humankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?" or in essence, can we stop, or even reverse entropy?

This is part a serious question, part a reference to a certain scifi story. (space cookies for those who gets it)

When we talk about the Khardashev scale, we're not even Type I yet, but who knows what'll happen once we reach a Type VI level of technological advancement.

Do you think it is possible? To reverse the direction of entropy and stop it from reaching maximum? Is it possible to prevent the heat death of the universe?
 
Last edited:
That's a grand question, which my only response would be = why bother?

Our best hope of surviving beyond the Solar System or the Universe would be for us to genetically change to handle new environments.

We would no longer be human.
 
The Lunch Legend said:
We're only a decade away from colonizing Mars.
Click to expand...

tenor.gif


Not gonna happen. I would love to be wrong on this one (and our civilization reaching higher levels as well).
 
The Lunch Legend said:
Is it possible to prevent the heat death of the universe?
Click to expand...
Only if we invent a way to punch entropy in the face, enslave dark energy and survive trillions of years on memes and spite

Are you trying to stop the heat death of the universe or just avoid doing your laundry? :poop:

Regarding memes

CR2svzf.gif
 
Last edited:
I said 'no', but it's impossible to say what sort of technology we'll have in say 1000, 5000 or 10,000 years (that is if we even make it that far)
 
There is a sci-fi book that deals with this, called Manifold:Time by Stephen Baxter.

IIRC super advanced races eons from now string together stars with all the available hydrogen and use black holes to scavenge light in order to use up every last photon before everything collapses into the heat death.
 
The Lunch Legend said:
We're only a decade away from colonizing Mars.
Click to expand...
Heh, maybe a decade away from sending a human on what will probably be a suicide trip. Actually COLONIZING Mars, in a way that isn't 100% dependent on Earth and has any kind of sustainability, it likely a century away at least.

Quite frankly I think we will see enclosed self-sufficient habitats here on a blasted Earth well before you see them on another planet.
 
Do you mean reverse as in going from a disordered state (high entropy) to an ordered state (low entropy)? If so, there's nothing in the laws of physics that say that can't happen, it's just very unlikely. Therefore entropy always increases because it's more likely that it will. By saying this, the 2nd law of thermodynamics is able to explain why time only runs in one direction.
 
Humans as we are now? Impossible, we are simply too short-lived, stupid, and have evolutionary urges that would conflict with something like that being possible. Some transhuman/posthuman intelligence in the extreme far future? Maybe, if something like it is even possible or needed.

Funnily enough, I recently finished reading the Count to the Eschaton Sequence series of books that goes over this very scenario.

The Lunch Legend said:
We're only a decade away from colonizing Mars.
Click to expand...
We are not. We can get to Mars, and we can probably build some habitats there, but long term healthy stay seems unlikely until we address the concerns regarding radiation and gravity. Rotating habitats or centrifuges are one possibility, but engineering that on Mars with our current resource and technological level seems rather unlikely.
 
Last edited:
Scientists have already created conditions where heat transfers from a colder object to a hotter one and quantum computers can reverse it for error correction. Apparently.
 
I think it would be possible, but even if it isn't I believe humanity should still aim for the stars, and beyond.

For that to happen, thousands, maybe even millions of dreamers, bold, brave, smart, stupid, strong, weak, people of all kinds, generations of them would be necessary to accomplish such a feat.

On the other hand, I can see the future where humanity simply accepts the end.
 
Zathalus said:
Humans as we are now? Impossible, we are simply too short-lived, stupid, and have evolutionary urges that would conflict with something like that being possible. Some transhuman/posthuman intelligence in the extreme far future? Maybe, if something like it is even possible or needed.

Funnily enough, I recently finished reading the Count to the Eschaton Sequence series of books that goes over this very scenario.


We are not. We can get to Mars, and we can probably build some habitats there, but long term healthy stay seems unlikely until we address the concerns regarding radiation and gravity. Rotating habitats or centrifuges are one possibility, but engineering that on Mars with our current resource and technological level seems rather unlikely.
Click to expand...
Mars has gravity tho?
 
Rentahamster said:
Click to expand...
What a great story!

tyty
The Lunch Legend said:
"Will humankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?" or in essence, can we stop, or even reverse entropy?

This is part a serious question, part a reference to a certain scifi story. (space cookies for those who gets it)

When we talk about the Khardashev scale, we're not even Type I yet, but who knows what'll happen once we reach a Type VI level of technological advancement.

Do you think it is possible? To reverse the direction of entropy and stop it from reaching maximum? Is it possible to prevent the heat death of the universe?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the op...that read was a fun time.
 
Reversing entropy wouldn't really be possible unless humanity could also somehow reverse time to undo the changes. At best we could alter the course of entropy and get some things to be as close as possible to the way they used to be, but they would remain forever changed in some way.
 
Last edited:
I hate saying something like this is impossible as I like to think nothing is but it would certainly be among the most difficult. It would require mastery of time and matter manipulation on a universal scale which would impact causality and not just in that instant but all of time (or maybe an ever increasing part of time?).

The fact that it has impacted us yet, leads me to believe that we won't/havent.

I'd also state that if you are at the point where this is possible, you would likely have found a way to simply create a new reality and don't require this at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Groundbreaking Findings on the Giza Pyramid Complex Could Re-Write Human History
2 3 4 5 6
267
15K
Trogdor1123 replied
Nine years ago today, the course of humanity was forever altered
31
256
Makki replied
Aging in reverse
26
3K
Hazzard4life replied
Humanity has peaked and I have proof
2
63
3K
Days like these... replied
What's the funniest scene ever?
2 3
101
506
Dr.Morris79 replied
Top Bottom