Posted on 06/18/2012 3:20:16 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
People often say that time speeds up as we age, but if the latest scientific theory is true the opposite could well be the case.
The radical theory by academics suggests that time itself could be slowing down - and may eventually grind to a halt altogether.
The latest mind-bending findings - put forward by researchers working at two Spanish universities - proposes that we have all been fooled into thinking the universe is expanding.
In fact, they say, time itself is slowing down until eventually, in billions of years time, it will cease altogether.
Although the findings might sound worrying, however, it's probably not worth losing any sleep over, or indeed spending too long mulling over.
According to scientists, the gradual loss of time is not noticeable to the human eye. And anyway, they say, we'll all be long gone by the time time really does end.
Professor Senovilla told New Scientist magazine: 'Everything will be frozen, like a snapshot of one instant, forever.
Scientists have previously measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at a rapid rate.
The accepted theory is based on the idea that a kind of anti-gravitational force - known as 'dark energy' - must be driving galaxies apart.
However, the scientists working on the latest theory say that we're looking at thing backwards.
And Senovilla proposes that the current assumption has got it all wrong - with the appearance of acceleration instead caused by time gradually slowing.
It might sound difficult to believe, but a cosmologist at Cambridge University, says the idea is not without substance:
'We believe that time emerged during the Big Bang, and if time can emerge, it can also disappear - that's just the reverse effect.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Where’s that graphic, “We’re All Going to Die?”.
Stop the world and let me off.
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.
Yep, it’s going to be a gnab gib.
Yay! I’m not aging as fast!
Thank God we’ll already be dead - so that we won’t have to worry about being killed.
Soon, I hope.
That’s it !!
I will not be responsible for my actions tonight !!
There is a good SF story on this theme, about 10 years old. I’m going to try to look it up. (If I get the time. )
Obama will stop at nothing to extend his presidency. Clearly he is slowing down the universe to prevent a Romney victory.
Wait for it..........”Global warming linked to Universe slowdown.”
Let me guess...It’s Bush’s fault?
How does the scientist know time started with the big bang. Time may have never stopped or started. It just took a licking and kept on ticking.
Oh, please. At least this helps undermine the silly "there they be dragons" of our time, dark energy.
A very accurate description of our perspective.
What we call the present is actually the immediate recent past.
What day is it? What day is it after sun rise.
PS the sun doesn't actually rise, and it's still the same day it was yesterday. Just because every human perceives it that way does not make it a fact.
Time is stretched space filled with matter. It is a plaything of the Creator.
The first time I heard this theory, I was a freshman in college. The guy spouting it was an economics major who read SciAm while puffing on self-rolled tobacco-less cigarettes.
I’d rather one of these super smart assholes who’ve figured out time is going to end would instead discover a way to fix my friggin’ prostate.
Get to work on your bucket list....
Worrying about the end of the world is beyond my pay-grade. ;)
Didn’t Einstien postulate that all of time is now?
How could time stop, if all of it is now?
Well....... not quite.
What you perceive as solid matter is actually mostly empty space. When you touch something, you don't really touch it... you're just feeling the repulsion of electric fields on a very small scale.
I know what I want to be doing when it stops...
No one expected the Spanish Inhibition...
If everything in the Universe slowed down by 1/2 how would we’d know? How fast does the slowdown spread? If the slowdown was by 1/2 every second instantaneously we’d never reach the end of it or even know it was happening.
New York Times headline: “Time stops. Women and minorites hit hardest”.
So do I go for the "No interest until 2015" on a new living room set or not? I'm confused. A billion years is kinda soon, ya know.
RE: I thought you said “millions”!
Would you panic if it were “hundreds of thousands”? :)
Oh no, Mr. Hand!
I'll get right on it. Right after I finish sorting my socks.
I just updated my estimated percentage of the American voters who are functionally insane.
Now it's 60%.
And yes, that includes so-called college graduates and advanced degrees.
Well done!
Thanks SeekAndFind.
Oh good grief. They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for scare stories. As if anyone with two brain cells to rub together is going to worry themselves sick over what’s going to happen billions of years from now.
As for time’s slowing down, PROVE IT.
All I see is that “some scientists” say that we’re measuring things “wrong” and time’s going to stop. Prove it, scaremongers!
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
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