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| '''Omega point''' is a term invented by French [[Jesuit]] [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]] to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. Rather than divinity being found "in the heavens" he held that evolution was a process converging toward a "final unity", identical with the [[Eschaton (theology)|Eschaton]] and with [[God]]. According to Chardin and the Russian scholar and biologist [[Vladimir Vernadsky]] (author of ''The Geosphere'' [[1924]] and ''The Biosphere'' [[1926]]), the planet is in a transformative process, metamorphosing from the [[biosphere]] into the [[noosphere]]. | | '''Omega point''' is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. Rather than divinity being found "in the heavens" he held that evolution was a process converging toward a "final unity", identical with the Eschaton (theology and with God. According to Chardin and the Russian scholar and biologist Vladimir Vernadsky (author of ''The Geosphere'' 1924 and ''The Biosphere'' 1926), the planet is in a transformative process, metamorphosing from the biosphere into the [[Noosphere]]. |
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| ==Tiplerian Omega Point==
| | See the Wikipedia for more info. |
| {{main|Omega point (Tipler)}}
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| {{mergefrom|Omega point (Tipler)}}
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| ''Omega point'' is reprised by the mathematical physicist [[Frank J. Tipler]] to describe a hypothetical [[physical cosmology|cosmological]] scenario in the far future of the Universe. According to his omega point theory, as the Universe comes to an end in a specific kind of [[Big Crunch]], the [[computation]]al capacity of the Universe will be [[acceleration|accelerating]] [[exponential growth|exponentially]] faster than time runs out. In principle, a simulation run on this Universe-computer can thus continue [[eternity|forever]] in its own terms, even though the Universe the computer is in lasts only a finite time. The omega point theory assumes that certain cosmological parameters have values that require the universe to eventually contract, and that there will be intelligent civilizations in existence at the appropriate time to exploit the computational capacity of such an environment.
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| Tipler identifies this [[Asymptotic analysis|asymptotic]] state of infinite information capacity with [[God]]. The implication of this theory for present-day humans is that this ultimate cosmic computer will essentially be able to resurrect ("simulate" might be a more modest verb) everyone who has ever lived, by recreating all possible [[quantum]] brain states within the master simulation. This will be manifested as a [[simulated reality]], except without the necessity for physical bodies. From the perspective of the simulated "inhabitant," the Omega Point represents an infinite-duration [[afterlife]], which could take any imaginable form due to its virtual nature.
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| Tipler crucially predicated his omega point theory on an eventual [[Big Crunch]], now thought to be an unlikely scenario by virtue of a number of recent astronomical observations. Tipler has recently amended his views to accommodate an accelerating universe, if the acceleration results from a positive [[cosmological constant]]. He proposes [[baryon]] [[quantum tunneling|tunneling]] as a means of propelling interstellar spacecraft. If the baryons in the universe were to be annihilated by this process, then this would force the [[Higgs boson|Higgs field]] toward its absolute [[vacuum]], cancelling the positive cosmological constant, stopping the acceleration, and allowing the universe to collapse into the omega point.
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| ==Omega Point as a Technological Singularity==
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| [[Transhumanism|Transhumanists]] argue on the basis of the accelerating technological development inherent in [[Law of Accelerating Returns|The Law of Accelerating Returns]], that within 20-140 years into the future we will arrive at what [[Vernor Vinge]] called a [[technological singularity]] or "prediction wall" in which humans will be semi-aware components of a computerised social structure of such complexity that no one person or group of persons can understand more than a tiny fraction of the whole. They believe we will soon enter a time in which we must eventually make the transition to a "runaway [[positive feedback]] loop" in high-level autonomous machine computation. The result is a technological Omega Point, in which our human tools eventually completely surpass human capacities.[http://omegapoint.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=32]
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| ==Omega Point in Popular Culture==
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| * In the [[Isaac Asimov]] short-story "The Last Question" (in the Book "Robot Dreams"), Humanity merges its collective consciousness with its own creation: an all-powerful cosmic computer. The resulting intelligence spends eternity working out whether The Last Question can be answered; The Last Question is "Can [[entropy]] ever be reversed?". When the intelligence discovers that entropy can be reversed, it does so with the command: LET THERE BE LIGHT.
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| * The musical band [[Mr. Bungle]] references the Omega Point in the song "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" on the album "California."
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| * [[Apollo 440]] wrote a song called Omega Point for their debut album (Millennium Fever), in which a friend of the band recites a quote from Barrow and Tipler's "''The Anthropic Cosmological Principle''", p676: "At the instant the Omega Point is reached, life will have gained control of all matter and forces not only in a single universe, but in all universes whose existence is logically possible; life will have spread into all spatial regions in all universes which could logically exist, and will have stored an infinite amount of information, including all bits of knowledge which it is logically possible to know."
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| * In Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a book by [[Charles Sheffield]], the main character Drake Merlin is on a quest to cure his sick wife. He has her frozen and then freezes himself to hope the future holds the cure. Eventually, he finds that the only hope to having her back is to wait out the aeons until the Omega Point, at which time she will again be accessible.
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| ==See also==
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| * [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]]
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| * [[Technological singularity]]
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| * [[Vladimir Vernadsky]]
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| * [[Novelty Theory]]
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| * [[Elisabet Sahtouris]]
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| * [[Noosphere]]
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| * ''[[The Footprints of God]]''
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| * [[Supertask]]
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| * [[Digitalism]]
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| * [[Frank J. Tipler]]
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| * [[Human Instrumentality Project]]
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| ==References==
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| * [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]], 1950. ''The Future of Man''.
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| * -----, 1955. ''Le Phénomène Humain'' (''The Human Phenomenon'') (1955)
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| * [[Frank J. Tipler]], 1986, "Cosmological Limits on Computation," ''International Journal of Theoretical Physics 25'': 617-61.
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| * -----, 1994. ''The Physics of Immortality''. Doubleday.
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| == External links ==
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| * [http://www.orgs.bucknell.edu/teilhard/index.htm Teilhard de Chardin Homepage]
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| * [http://www.humanevol.com Human Evolution Research Institute]
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| * [http://noosphere.princeton.edu/ Princeton Noosphere project] cites Teilhard de Chardin
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| * [http://www.kheper.net/topics/Teilhard/Teilhard-evolution.htm Teilhard de Chardain on evolution]
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| * [http://www.webcom.com/gaia/tdc.html The Human Phenomenon]
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| * [http://www.richmond.edu/~jpaulsen/teilhard/isnoogen.html Is Noogenesis Progressing?]
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| * [http://www.math.tulane.edu/~tipler/summary.html Essays by Tipler on the Omega Point]
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| * [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/computerhistory.html Computer history's stride towards an expected Omega Point]
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| [[Category:Cosmology]]
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| [[Category:Pseudophysics]]
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| [[Category:Eschatology]]
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| [[de:Omegapunkt]]
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| [[cs:Bod Omega]]
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