Hack the Universe

The universe is just a simulation running on a super computer somewhere. Exploit a bug so
that you can get more energy/matter.
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answered Feb 2 at 20:20

Eric Johnson
534113

7 One day, this will be the implemented, if not accepted, answer.

1 Of course! Why didn't we think to use the Universe's

4 Of course that computer is plugged in to a power source, and its power

surrounding universe, so this solution really only postpones the problem
2 How do we even know their universe works that way?

1 What if the computer that this universe runs on is inside this (our) univ
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up vote11down vote

Learn to control time.

While another poster suggested "jumping
back" to previously stable points in time, it is
worth mentioning that we don't really know
what time is. Therefore, there are properties
and functions of time with applications that
we aren't even aware of yet.
For example, once you can control time, you
can probably exert some control over spacetime. Infinite control means you could craft
physical laws that recirculate energy
throughout the universe in a predictable
format, like a river with walls. This could be a
corollary to Einstein's "Cosmological
Constant," where the universe expands as it
does now, contracts a bit to harvest and
recirculate the energy, expand again, and so
on.
Two issues, however:
1: The energy required to exert sufficient
control over space-time may exceed the
available cosmic energy required for infinite
existence.
2: Space-time control could have "leaks" of its
own, resulting in the same eventual heat
death. You could still get a few trillion-trillion
years or so of existence, which ought to help a
sufficiently advanced civilization come up

with a more permanent solution.

As a final note: we are considering options
based on what we know today. Thomas
Malthus predicted the end of civilization as
population exceeds resources, however he
lived in a time when the primary economy
was making food and the primary fuel was
food and muscle (livestock, slaves, etc). It is
unlikely he could have foreseen a future
where robots harvest crops from year-round
solar-powered greenhouses. It is therefore
reasonable to expect that our limited
understanding of the universe denies us the
vision to see solutions beyond the tools we are
aware of.
Given how long humans have existed and
how little the time, in geologic terms, it took
for us to go from hunter-gatherers to the
Information Age, I suspect that if we can
avoid nuclear, environmental, or biological
apocalypse, we will figure it out in time.
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4 Great answer. Such a shame your username wiped my hard-drive, so now

click the upvote button. I suppose I'll have to restructure the laws of phy
at 18:03
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Depends on your exact definitions and assumptions.

First you are assuming "heat death" as the Ultimate fate of the universe. There
are other options.
Secondly, the last star burning out is FAR from the heat death of the universe.

1014 years - last stars burning out

10100 years - last black hole's evaporate

101000 years - heat death

The ratio between number of years in your scenario and the actual heat death is a
1 followed by about 986 zeros. You're a bit early.
The classical physics definition of "the heat death of the universe" is the moment
when the universe reaches "thermodynamic equilibrium (AKA maximum
entropy)." which means that there are "no netmacroscopic flows of matter or of
energy."
Let's presume that the universe refers to the entire universe and not just your
personal "observable universe" for simplicity's sake.
Note that there are numerous theories and wild ideas in physics that suggest that
either this point would literally never be reached due to other events or that it

would decrease again afterwards and thus multiple heat deaths might be
possible.
Note above the word "macroscopic". There is, in practice, a lot happening
below that scale and if you accept the concept that life can be realised as
dynamic information, then it is possible to assume that after many, many trillions
of years of technological advances we might figure out a way to live down there
at that scale.
We might not even notice the heat death occurring? (Oh, was that this week, I
though I set a reminder...)
If your civilisation has access to sub-macroscopic technology, then by
definition you can use anysub-macroscopic based escape path without blocking
the heat-death.
That could mean living down there at that scale or transporting yourself to a
different universe.
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edited Feb 3 at 10:40

Trang Oul