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Escaping this universe?

  1. Feb 21, 2008 #1
    I read an article by Michio Kaku about how a highly advanced civilization might be able to escape the impending heat death of the universe by going to another one. I have a few questions.

    1) He says that a wormhole to a parallel universe would have to be held open with negative energy. But according to Thomas Roman, Larry Ford, etc, quantum inequalities place restrictions on how much negative energy can be amassed, thus making the construction of traversable wormholes highly unlikely. So are quantum inequalities fundamental constraints like the speed of light, or are they merely engineering challenges that can be overcome by a highly advanced civilization?

    2) Kaku also mentions the possibility of creating a baby universe in a lab, perhaps by particle collisions. However, from what I've read about inflationary cosmology, these universes pinch off very quickly and expand in their own space-times, forever separated from ours. Exactly how quickly do they pinch off? Could anything pass into them from this universe? Could negative energy hold the portals to these baby universes open, or would quantum inequalities render that impossible?

  2. jcsd
  3. Mar 18, 2008 #2
    It is only my working assumption but I propose that it is not possible to avoid the big crunch.

    It is not possible to cross the boundary of the speed of light. You can go faster or slower but not pass through it.

    A universe can only be created outside our universe otherwise it would be able to expand into our universe. We cannot get outside our universe without going faster than the speed of light.

    This is why people are always able to come up with strong arguments against ideas such as those of Kaku.

    Ed Joyce
  4. Mar 30, 2008 #3
    There will be no big crunch. For there to be a big crunch there would have to be a massive source of energy at an epicenter such as would have the means to draw all matter and space back to it. And that simply cannot be because the source of energy with that capability was blown to smithereens as part and parcel to the big bang. Anyway, that is how I see it.
  5. Mar 30, 2008 #4


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    As I said in your other thread, this is not true.

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