Nice piece , I also write about Astrophysics, go check it out if you want , looking forward to deep diving into more theoretical astrophysics such as the multiverse theory the before the big bang theory everything
You are very welcome! Explaining and exploring and expanding on cosmological natural selection has made for BY FAR the most exciting era in my writing life, and I love it when other people find these ideas as thrilling as I do.
This is a fantastic intro to a wonderful collection of ideas! I first listened to the audio version (it's long!) and am now rereading carefully and following links.
I'm neither a cosmologist, nor astrophysicist, nor journalist (nor billionaire!), but belong to a tradition that likes to dream the world through theorems when we close our eyes. I was struck by the image of the boundaries between filaments and voids and reminded of a structure that mathematicians call "foams." Personally I'm not up to speed on all of the Riemannian geometry (grad school was a long time ago), and getting pure math and observation to sit down together and talk may not always be fruitful. However there may be something interesting about how the equations governing electrodynamics behave in the region of the "boundary manifolds" that no one has looked at yet.
I'll likely be back in the comments section as I read further and have more questions. Great writeup! (PS I also listened to "I wrote a story for a friend" this morning and was moved to tears while walking through snow.)
Thank you Julian for an article written at a level I can at least pretend to understand! I'm not exceptionally intelligent, but I'm highly curious. I don't have the mental capacity for high-grade work like this, but like most humans like to think that I'm smarter than I really am. And want other humans to think that I'm smarter than I really am.
I first became interested in cosmology after reading "The Whole Shebang: A State Of The Universe Report" by Timothy Ferris, the science communicator not the Four Minute Week guru. I see many echoes of his easy-to-read style in your writing. Perhaps all you need is not a pop-science journalist but a good editor.
You heard it here first folks - this time we are definitely doomed, like for sure, there's no chance that Matthew T Hoare and one aging physicist are wrong, like all those other people that said the same thing throughout history (e.g. the Population Bomb). Don't even waste your time dreaming big or trying making things better, might as well start sharpening your spears and practicing your fire-starting skills now!
btw we aren't the author of the article (not sure how that wasn't obvious), but since we are doing this moronic thing where we quote a book to support an insane and demonstrably false view of the world, here is another PHYSICIST critiquing your precious little textbook.
- The book's historical energy data is "triply misleading"—it ignores that U.S. energy use has been flat since 2000, uses U.S. data as a proxy for global trends when they differ significantly, and the exponential fit obscures geographic expansion versus industrial growth Weber State University
- Murphy "overestimates the magnitude of the expected worldwide surge" in population, using his own model rather than professional demographers' predictions Weber State University
- The demographic transition analysis uses "the empirically false assumption that an average country would end the transition at the same per-capita energy consumption level as the U.S." Weber State University
- The quoted lithium battery prices were "roughly twice what they actually cost in 2020," weakening arguments against electric vehicles Weber State University
- Notable omissions include air pollution, carbon capture, long-distance electricity transmission, energy storage technologies, and how combined alternative technologies might work together Weber State University
Schroeder's verdict: "We do tremendous harm if we mislead students into believing that physical constraints will require large parts of the world to return to a pre-industrial state of deep poverty and high child mortality."
Who said anything about unlimited growth on this planet? Your initial comment was about the possibility of harvesting energy black holes.
Thanks for the citations - I guess if the UK government, that bastion of truth and sensibility, and a handful of scientists support your claims that means it's the absolute and final truth.
I am well aware that there are problems, and that modernity in many ways ain't all it's cracked up to be. And I would be truly worried if everyone on the planet had your defeatist attitude, but thankfully people like you just kind of pass through the world with no effect on anything and don't really matter in the end.
You are confusing predictions (extrapolations from current knowledge) and prophecies (claims about the future of knowledge/technology, which is fundamentally unpredictable). “Earth’s temperature is projected to increase by X degrees by 2060” is a prediction; “the earth’s temperature will increase by X degrees by 2060 and it will be catastrophic for humanity” is a prophecy because it presupposes that we won’t find a way to prevent the projected temperature increase or mitigate its negative consequences.
Even the idea that our resources/growth is limited presupposes that we will not find ways to use resources more efficiently or differently, to import/create new resources, etc. There have been countless examples of some resource "crisis" rendered irrelevant by an unforeseen technological development.
If you want to be pessimistic fine you can say so, but do not come on here make prophecies and propounding ideological drivel. This is a science blog, and I expect comments to have some grounding in reality.
I know that life wasn't what you expected, and I'm truly sorry about that. I'm guessing you aren't a religious person either, but you might think more clearly about the world if you try to cultivate some of the classical religious virtues - faith, hope, charity, etc.
Off topic, I'm one of your free subscribers and want to thank you for putting the fold in your posts quite far down, so that I can get more real information than just the headline.
My thanks to anyone who read this far! And big thanks to everyone at Seeds of Science, for engaging with these ideas.
The theory has been developing at quite a pace since I wrote this, so I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have.
Since you posted this two hours ago? Dang.
But seriously, if you want to just get the idea out there, hit up some science fiction authors. We work cheap, and we like weird things.
Quite the antidote to my sometimes doomscrolling. Thank you.
Nice piece , I also write about Astrophysics, go check it out if you want , looking forward to deep diving into more theoretical astrophysics such as the multiverse theory the before the big bang theory everything
Let's connect
Thanks for this astonishing new perspective.
You are very welcome! Explaining and exploring and expanding on cosmological natural selection has made for BY FAR the most exciting era in my writing life, and I love it when other people find these ideas as thrilling as I do.
Excited to see this featured!!
This is a fantastic intro to a wonderful collection of ideas! I first listened to the audio version (it's long!) and am now rereading carefully and following links.
I'm neither a cosmologist, nor astrophysicist, nor journalist (nor billionaire!), but belong to a tradition that likes to dream the world through theorems when we close our eyes. I was struck by the image of the boundaries between filaments and voids and reminded of a structure that mathematicians call "foams." Personally I'm not up to speed on all of the Riemannian geometry (grad school was a long time ago), and getting pure math and observation to sit down together and talk may not always be fruitful. However there may be something interesting about how the equations governing electrodynamics behave in the region of the "boundary manifolds" that no one has looked at yet.
I'll likely be back in the comments section as I read further and have more questions. Great writeup! (PS I also listened to "I wrote a story for a friend" this morning and was moved to tears while walking through snow.)
Thank you Julian for an article written at a level I can at least pretend to understand! I'm not exceptionally intelligent, but I'm highly curious. I don't have the mental capacity for high-grade work like this, but like most humans like to think that I'm smarter than I really am. And want other humans to think that I'm smarter than I really am.
I first became interested in cosmology after reading "The Whole Shebang: A State Of The Universe Report" by Timothy Ferris, the science communicator not the Four Minute Week guru. I see many echoes of his easy-to-read style in your writing. Perhaps all you need is not a pop-science journalist but a good editor.
what a sad little man you must be
You heard it here first folks - this time we are definitely doomed, like for sure, there's no chance that Matthew T Hoare and one aging physicist are wrong, like all those other people that said the same thing throughout history (e.g. the Population Bomb). Don't even waste your time dreaming big or trying making things better, might as well start sharpening your spears and practicing your fire-starting skills now!
btw we aren't the author of the article (not sure how that wasn't obvious), but since we are doing this moronic thing where we quote a book to support an insane and demonstrably false view of the world, here is another PHYSICIST critiquing your precious little textbook.
https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/MurphyReview.pdf
- The book's historical energy data is "triply misleading"—it ignores that U.S. energy use has been flat since 2000, uses U.S. data as a proxy for global trends when they differ significantly, and the exponential fit obscures geographic expansion versus industrial growth Weber State University
- Murphy "overestimates the magnitude of the expected worldwide surge" in population, using his own model rather than professional demographers' predictions Weber State University
- The demographic transition analysis uses "the empirically false assumption that an average country would end the transition at the same per-capita energy consumption level as the U.S." Weber State University
- The quoted lithium battery prices were "roughly twice what they actually cost in 2020," weakening arguments against electric vehicles Weber State University
- Notable omissions include air pollution, carbon capture, long-distance electricity transmission, energy storage technologies, and how combined alternative technologies might work together Weber State University
Schroeder's verdict: "We do tremendous harm if we mislead students into believing that physical constraints will require large parts of the world to return to a pre-industrial state of deep poverty and high child mortality."
Who said anything about unlimited growth on this planet? Your initial comment was about the possibility of harvesting energy black holes.
Thanks for the citations - I guess if the UK government, that bastion of truth and sensibility, and a handful of scientists support your claims that means it's the absolute and final truth.
I am well aware that there are problems, and that modernity in many ways ain't all it's cracked up to be. And I would be truly worried if everyone on the planet had your defeatist attitude, but thankfully people like you just kind of pass through the world with no effect on anything and don't really matter in the end.
You are confusing predictions (extrapolations from current knowledge) and prophecies (claims about the future of knowledge/technology, which is fundamentally unpredictable). “Earth’s temperature is projected to increase by X degrees by 2060” is a prediction; “the earth’s temperature will increase by X degrees by 2060 and it will be catastrophic for humanity” is a prophecy because it presupposes that we won’t find a way to prevent the projected temperature increase or mitigate its negative consequences.
Even the idea that our resources/growth is limited presupposes that we will not find ways to use resources more efficiently or differently, to import/create new resources, etc. There have been countless examples of some resource "crisis" rendered irrelevant by an unforeseen technological development.
If you want to be pessimistic fine you can say so, but do not come on here make prophecies and propounding ideological drivel. This is a science blog, and I expect comments to have some grounding in reality.
I know that life wasn't what you expected, and I'm truly sorry about that. I'm guessing you aren't a religious person either, but you might think more clearly about the world if you try to cultivate some of the classical religious virtues - faith, hope, charity, etc.
Off topic, I'm one of your free subscribers and want to thank you for putting the fold in your posts quite far down, so that I can get more real information than just the headline.