X-Message-Number: 14432 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: Re: #14431 Information conservation, etc. Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2000 11:42:30 -0700 Please remember that the current popular "Big Bang" theory, from which the idea of "Black Holes" comes, could simply be wrong. The criticisms made of this theory in the book THE BIG BANG NEVER HAPPENED by Eric Lerner have yet to be countered. Mr Lerner still contends that all of the "evidence" for the Big Bang can be explained more simply using plasma physics while there remain some very hefty pieces of evidence which still contradict the Big Bang theory. Perhaps it will turn out that the Big Bang theory is correct after all. However the lack of cosmic uniformity and the simple fact that the universe is too large in the required time since the purported Big Bang does not make me feel comfortable with the efforts to "band aid" the theory with "Sudden Expansion" addendums. If, as Lerner suggests, the universe is actually eternal and infinite, then the conservation of information seems inevitable. Such a perspective would also then explain the reason for the various anomalies pointed out over and over by Rupert Sheldrake (A NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE). Which is true? I do not know. However, the Big Bang theory seems more and more to resemble the effort of Middle Ages religious apologists who, instead of challenging their dogma's fundamentals, simply kept adding patchs to the holes which kept appearing in the face of contradictory evidence form observations of the universe as it is. Today we are seem to be patching Black Holes. And they may turn out to be mere figments of the imagination. I only hope to at least live long enough to see an end to our current version of the Dark Ages. It still remains so very obvious to me that the presumption of short lives remaining the human norm causes most of the incredible stupidities of our so-called "modern" world. These issues were very well dealt with in Professor Ettinger's two excellent books THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY and MAN INTO SUPERMAN (online for reading at www.cryonics.org ). The evolutionary causes are well outlined in THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE by Harold Bloom. What will be required for true "increased intelligence" to happen in our species as a whole? Perhaps the beginning of wisdom is to not assume that we already are right about everything - to seek the proverbial "open mind". A longer life usually gives one many opportunities to determine how very often we can be wrong. Perspective seems critical here. George Smith Quivis est, contradictio! Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14432