The "kaboom" part of a nuclear weapon is called the "physics package," presumably because it uses the one law of physics everyone knows: E = mC^2.
Surprisingly, H-bombs are not efficient; only a few percent of the plutonium mass is converted to energy. An anti-matter bomb, like the one in the Dan Brown novel, could theoretically operate at 100% efficiency.
But really epic kabooms can't be made by using the laws of physics; they're made by exploiting the laws of physics.
A BB gun normally transmits energy using the law E=MV^2; change the laws of physics in its vicinity such that E=M^1,000,000V^1,000,000 and you raise its destructive power to a whole 'nother level.
Science seeks to discover natural laws. If Gnostic claims are true, and the universe was created by a finite, fallible creator, physicists may well discover not just natural laws, but the means by which those natural laws are implemented. Future bombs won't have a "physics package" - they'll have a meta-physics package!
In software terms (and why not, that's the form the "respectable" versions of these hypotheses take), is the code space writeable or can we at least change our return addresses? Good question!
ReplyDeleteTo take the code analogy further, what if in attempting to ask your questions we cause a unix-style "bus error" and get core dumped?
DeleteIn theory, who knows? Tipler's answer is that we build our own simulation that brings everybody back to life, taking advantage of the time dilation near a black hole to make this simulation "infinite" (in our time) even though it won't be to other observers. At least that's what I THINK it said ... I am not a physicist.
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