Life and intelligence could sustain themselves indefinitely in such a universe, even as the stars blinked and the galaxies were all swallowed by black holes, Dr. Freeman Dyson, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study, argued in a landmark paper in 1979. “If my view of the future is correct,” he wrote “it means that the world of physics and astronomy is also inexhaustible, no matter how far we go into the future, there will always be new things happening, new information coming in, new worlds to explore a constantly expanding domain of life, consciousness, and memory.” Now, however, even Dr. Dyson admits that all bets are off. If recent astronomical observations are correct, the future of life and the universe will be far bleaker.
In the last four years astronomers have reported evidence that the expansion of the universe is not just continuing but is speeding up, under the influence of a mysterious “dark energy”, an antigravity that seems to be embedded in space itself. If that is true and the universe goes on accelerating, astronomers say, rather than coasting gently into the night, distant galaxies will eventually be moving apart so quickly that they cannot communicate with one another. In effect, it would be like living in the middle of a black hole that kept getting colder. In such a universe, some physicists say, the usual methods of formulating physics may not all apply. Instead of new worlds coming into view old ones would constantly be disappearing over the horizon, lost from view forever.
Cosmological knowledge would be fragmented, with different observers doomed to seeing different pieces of the puzzle and no single observer able to know the fate of the whole universe or arrive at a theory of physics that was more than approximate. “There would be a lot of things about the universe that we simply couldn't predict,” said Dr. Thomas Banks, a physicist at the University of California at Santa Cruz. And perhaps most important, starved finally of the energy even to complete a thought or a computation, the domain of life and intelligence would not expand, but compress and eventually vanish like a dwindling echo into the silence of eternity. “I find the fate of a universe that is accelerating forever not very appealing,” said Dr. Edward Witten, a theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study.
1. According to Dr. Freeman Dyson, we can conclude which of the following is NOT true?
2. From Para. 2, we can see the recent discovery for astronomers is that ____.
3. In Para. 2 the word “formulating” could best be replaced by ____.
4. Which of the following can appropriately reflect Dr. Edward Witten’s attitude towards the fate of human beings?
5. According to the passage, which of the statements about theories of physics and astronomy is true?
A.Dr. Freeman Dyson is an outstanding scholar majoring in physics and astronomy.
B.Dr. Freeman Dyson is greatly concerned about the fate of human beings.
C.Dr. Freeman Dyson is an optimist in terms of the fate of universe.
D.Dr. Freeman Dyson once held a belief that life and intelligence could sustain themselves indefinitely in the universe.
A.the universe is in the process of gradual evolution
B.universe evolution is accelerating its pace towards an ill-fated outcome
C.distant galaxies will eventually be moving apart to a separate location
D.the universe will stick to its original evolution trend for quite a long time
A.basic
B.advanced
C.expressing
D.establishing
A.Uncertain.
B.Indifferent.
C.Pessimistic.
D.Optimistic.
A.Dr. Freeman Dyson’s prediction is doomed to fail.
B.All experts have reached a consensus on new theories.
C.Dr. Thomas Banks has developed a new comprehensive theory to replace the old one.
D.Now one could be able to know the fate of the whole universe.
