Volume 1, Issue 1 
1st Quarter, 2006


The Physics of Immortality, Threats to Terran Society, & Self-Replicating Nanotechnology, and An Exchange Between Frank Tipler and Ray Kurzweil Regarding Ways to Avoid an End to the Universe

Frank Tipler, Ph.D. and Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D.

page 7 of 7

Frank Tipler: It contradicts quantum mechanics. There is no reason to stop with quantum mechanics. I see no evidence of anything but quantum mechanics. As a matter of fact, it has been realized independently by several people: one of the motivations for hidden variables is to get around nonlocality, but actually the arguments that non-locality even exists is really based on the assumption that quantum mechanics doesn't really apply to everything.

It's very frustrating to me and to other people, too - I've mentioned Dennis Sciama and David Deutsch, for example - that physicists will not apply quantum mechanics to human beings. I apply it to everything in sight. Quantum mechanics applies to the atoms making me up, it applies to the groups of atoms making me up, I think it applies to me too, because what else am I but an organization made up of atoms. Same thing for this house, same thing for the universe.

But why would we want to have hidden variables? The laws of physics as we now know them from the laboratory give us all sorts of interesting ways to do things. As I say, you want to overcome the light barrier. General relativity already gives us a neat way of doing that by not having anything go faster than light. But nevertheless, you get effectively the same thing as you are going into the final state.

Let me show you how the mathematics works. It's very simple. But you have to think about using these laws. Nature fortunately is more clever than any human being. It's already used most of these effects and will use the rest in the ultimate future.

Frank Tipler

Frank Tipler, Ph.D. is a Professor of Astrophysics at Tulane University and author of The Physics of Immortality.

 

 

 

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D. is a best-selling author, inventor and entrepreneur.  He is a recipient of the National Medal of Technology.

 

 

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