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Isotropy of the universe is the idea that the universe is the same in all directions, and is a founding principle of the laws of physics. However, that principle has been called into question by observations of galaxy cluster temperatures and luminosities.
https://scitechdaily.com/fundamental-principle-of-cosmology-cast-in-doubt-by-compelling-new-study/
"No matter where we look, the same rules apply everywhere in space: countless calculations of astrophysics are based on this basic principle. A recent study by the Universities of Bonn and Harvard, however, has thrown this principle into question. Should the measured values be confirmed, this would toss many assumptions about the properties of the universe overboard. The results are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, but are already available online."
The paper (open access):
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2020/04/aa36602-19/aa36602-19.html
Journal Reference (open access):
K. Migkas, G. Schellenberger, T. H. Reiprich, F. Pacaud, M. E. Ramos-Ceja and L. Lovisari. Probing cosmic isotropy with a new X-ray galaxy cluster sample through the L X – T scaling relation , 8 April 2020, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201936602
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:59PM (1 child)
The only thing I'd hit on here is that I think you're taking the present state of society and positing it onto a post-relativity world (for lack of a better term here).
After we can reach relativistic velocities, the entire nature of civilizations will change. In particular it won't be you out there alone traversing the stars at relativistic rates, there will be what will likely be an unimaginably large number of people doing the same. And it will be people from countless eons of time. I do think time will start to become much more akin to distance because of this. When you meet another traveler, one thing you'd likely want to know - if out of nothing other than curiosity - is when they are from.
The point of this is that it'd be safe to start to expect civilizations to begin to persist, more or less, indefinitely. One-off cataclysmic events would no longer matter as we'll be spread throughout the entire traversable universe at through eons of time. When you reach a post-relativistic society, the entire nature of existence would be so very different.
No, the really weird stuff would be things like evolution. While the exact time is in dispute, it's likely we only evolved the ability to speak with one another about 40,000 years ago. Learning to speak to putting a man on the moon in 40k years? What might we evolve towards in the future? And perhaps it won't even be evolution (in the colloquial sense), and instead you might find humanity has devolved into barely sentient blogs indulging without end in in some sort of ancient post-scarcity technology.
There's so much room for more reality based sci-fi because, as usual, reality is far stranger than any fiction we could ever imagine!
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:43PM
I seriously doubt it. Yes, people may be traveling around - but only a tiny proportion of them, the energy costs per kg are just too high. And the opportunity costs even higher - if it takes you 1000 years to get from A to B, it's very unlikely your knowledge or wealth will be relevant when you arrive at B. You'll be a thousand-year-old relic with little of value to contribute to a society that's had over 30 generations worth of advancements since you left. What would someone from 1000 years ago have to offer modern society? Do you really think bank accounts would just sit around accumulating interest for that long? Or keep track of your balance at all? And how would social stability improve by a few people skipping across history? Stability is based on the people actually living life within society, not those who remove themselves from it for centuries at a time.