Re: Dark Energy Project First Light

["Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>]

The only problem I have will all of the Dark Matter and
Dark Energy stuff is that as far as I can tell it rests
on the fact that there is an implicit assumption that
"The UNIVERSE is DEAD".

I've taken Physics from several Nobel prize winners and
never *once* did it come up in class that the Universe
just might be alive.  Well DUH, we are here after all
aren't we.  And as Dyson *who* was and still is a rather
famous physicist pointed out 45 years ago in Science
if we keep going way we are going we are going to hit
the limits of our solar power output in ~800 years.

That implies that civilizations can grow *very* fast.
(i.e. less than ~7000 years from beating "civilized"
implements out of the ground to reaching the edge
of development that your solar system allows.)

Now as I recall, this whole Dark Energy/Dark Matter
debate *started* when there were minute fluctuations
detected in the CMBR.  Well couldn't this be due to
"globular clusters" of advanced technological
civilizations at various locations near us in
the universe?  Minsky pointed out to Dyson nearly
30 years ago that any thermodynamically advanced
civilization is going to radiate waste heat only
slightly above the temperature of the CMBR.
(For those of you who don't know Minsky is one
of the primary fathers of AI.)

Until I see some concrete evidence that the
Dark Energy/Dark Matter can have no possible
"artificial" source I'm going to remain in
the "you haven't thought the Universe through
well enough yet" camp.

Oh yes, and just for the record, Charlie Lineweaver's
group has published a number of papers documenting
on the probability that at least 70% of the "Earths"
in the galaxy are likely to be older than ours --
some by billions of years.  So you might want to stir the
implications of that around in your mind a little bit...

:-)

Robert

(And just for the record -- this comment isn't intended
to rain on anyone's parade.  I understand we are all
doing our part.  I just sometimes wish some could be
a little bit more open minded.)