
Would we (Earth) show up in our universe's stats pages? - epi0Bauqu
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/01/would-we-earth-show-up-in-our-universes-stats-pages.html
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nopassrecover
I'd say emergent, especially intelligent life would make the stats pages.
Given the age of the universe and how long it has taken for Earth to evolve an
intelligent lifeform I'd say it's even possible we are one of the first, if
not THE first, intelligent lifeform (where intelligence is measured by
awareness of the universe/capability of affecting it etc.).

In terms of the actual article, while black holes might account for most of
the bits of information in the universe (I don't really understand the logic
behind this) I would assume that most of that is just "noise" and would be
filtered out leaving the bits of information put out by humanity as a
statistically interesting anomaly.

~~~
trezor
_In terms of the actual article, while black holes might account for most of
the bits of information in the universe (I don't really understand the logic
behind this)_

If the universe were a computer simulation, every single atom (or higher-
energy particle for that matter) would have to be included for the simulation
to be able to run accurately, probably represented as objects of some kind
with associated state. (lets just ignore possible optimizations, shall we? :P
)

Every single one of these would consume resources, or bits if you like.

Where would you expect to find the biggest amounts and concentrations of
objects and bits? On a planet which has so low gravitational mass that it can
only wield its will upon a small moon or a black hole so massive that not even
light can escape it?

Where would you expect to find the biggest amount changes and activity? At a
small planet where normal laws of physics and energy reign supreme, or in a
black hole where the energies are so immense that even space-time ceases to
exist?

I'm putting my money on the black hole.

~~~
nopassrecover
Makes sense though dark matter (if it exists) would then make black holes a
lot less significant in this measure right?

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derefr
Perhaps most things about Earth wouldn't be MOTD-worthy, but our creation of
EM energies of various frequencies modulated to contain highly-compressed
information probably would, as would the particles generated by the LHC that
probably don't happen much without intelligent design (in the form of us.)

An interesting thought occurs to me, though: wouldn't a black hole be the
perfect way for a non-omniscient being to sample the universe? Because any
information you encounter will become quantum-entangled to you in some way or
another, you'll want to make sure that you aren't mucking up the samples taken
with your presence—and what better way is there to ensure that than to have
information probes that look and act like natural phenomena, and "disconnect"
the source of any data they gather from the rest of the universe before
working on it? It makes UFO abductions seem mightily small-scale.

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theblackbox
I remember reading about a theory expounded upon in the last chapter of
Stardust (by John Gribbin), where he claims it's possible (although he urges
you to think of it as a thought experiment) that Universes are born from black
holes and that if that were so, there would be a sort of evolutionary pressure
that would lead to Universes becoming better at creating black holes. This, in
essence, explains away the curiously specific and precise numbers that are the
foundations of our universe. They have evolved to support matter and energy in
the form we are accustomed to seeing it, because that is the most conducive to
the birth of black holes and baby universes.....

/me takes it all with a pinch and a half of salt

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theblackbox
I remember reading about a theory expounded upon in the last chapter of
Stardust (by John Gribbin), where he claims it's possible (although he urges
you to think of it as a thought experiment) that Universes are born from black
holes and that if that were so, there would be a sort of evolutionary pressure
that would lead to Universes becoming better at creating black holes. This, in
essence, explains away the curiously specific and precise numbers that are the
foundations of our universe. They have evolved to support matter and energy in
the form we are accustomed to seeing it, because that is the most conducive to
the birth of black holes and baby universes.....

/me takes it all with a pinch and a half of salt

------
GavinB
It depends entire on what the universe programmers are interested in. If they
programmed the universe to study black holes and high energy physics, then we
are most certainly unnoticeable noise.

On the other hand, if they were interested in studying intelligent life, we're
probably in a nicely organized database along with millions (perhaps billions)
of similar forms of life.

