Black holes 14

Pasta tubers

Spaghettification!

It’s not the thought of being stretched out

That makes me cringe

But how the word, is gloated with glee

By new tubers, ahem, unhinged

 

And now they’ve changed the way black holes

Are depicted on the screen

Big bright red crowning accretion discs

Ensure they can be seen

 

Call me old, but I’m not sold, I prefer

The simple black disc, on a field of stars

With those wispy round white arcs

Just hinting, at what transpires

 

Billiard balls coalescing into a triangle?

Privileged white one is spat out fast

Dimensions curled around themselves?

Head stuck up their own ass

 

And if you stir milk, in a cup of tea

Just one more time, to illustrate entropy

I’ll unsubscribe, from this diatribe

Of AI-generated ‘truth’ you prescribe

 

Conspiracy?

I say YouTubers are spreading lies

That black holes look so fair?

I thought most were just hidden among us

And, just, lurking everywhere

 

So, I do contend, there’s a growing trend

Of science ‘communicating’ chancers

Know not what’s meant

By their bot’s ‘content’

And pose, more questions than answers

 

And… flat Marsers? Hollow black holeers?

Debunked and shamed online

Now infotainment by ignorance

And spoofing folk is fine

 

Let’s all sing Carroll number 2

This is merely conjecture

And playing with the numbers

More Lewis Carol than Sean

Yet still paid for, by the funders

 

You see, these lines of attack, clearly lack

Any way to test a prediction

Sure, beautiful math, and yes, quite a laugh

Yet conjectures, are but sciencey fiction

 

If you need to be in a specific ‘many world’

To see what lies there, within it

It’s no use to us, out here, in this one

A loose-end theory, I’d bin it

 

You say fiction

But there’s a prediction

An experiment, you can do

That’s still the best way to find out

If something is, or isn’t true

 

We need these great minds to imagine

To play, explore and discover stuff freely

But if the figures don’t figure

And contradiction’s allowed

Physics degrades into philosophy

 

I mean, I could suggest there’s a conspiracy

Against man, AI and all life on Earth

Say, the Sun is trying to kill us all

But what would that theory be worth?

 

Worth everything, if we prove it right

We could take action, to save our souls

But even if everyone believed it

We wouldn’t start prepping down rabbit holes

 

There’s plenty of evidence that the Sun harms us

So, my hypothesis has some weight

Doesn’t matter if it ‘means’ to kill us all

It will grow, to eat us one day, that’s our fate

 

Now there’s a prediction if ever I heard one

We might escape before it expands, in a race

Sure, but it’s yet to be seen, if we really mean

To colonize… interstellar space

 

Anyway, don’t rule out my daft conjecture

That the Sun is actually tryin’

To hug its own children, way too much

Unaware, that we’ll all be a’ fryin’

 

Indeed, you could even say, and without a delay

That the Sun is simply feeding its soul

To eat enough matter, and grow a bit fatter

And achieve its goal, to become a black hole

 

Sentientropy

“Entropy is a measure of how much the atoms in a substance are free

To spread out, move around, and arrange themselves in random ways”

Well, according to this “entropy isn’t a measure of ‘randomness’ disorder’ or ‘chaos’

But of energy’s diffusion or dispersal to more microstates”

 

Because there are more ways to be mixed up

Than there are ways to be arranged, all organized

Into the complex structures, we currently see

That’s why, over time, entropy tends to rise

 

Left unchecked, things tend to get a bit messy

Even for efficient information systems, like me

 

“Information entropy is counted in bits and is the minimum length of message

Required to communicate all of the information accurately

Any energy stored in carefully ordered ways, like an efficient bookshop

Has lower entropy than in chaotic ways, like a random-pile library”

 

You’re in bits

So tidy your shit

And it’s lucky for me

Cos, in bio-sociology…

 

“Entropy is a measure of disorder that affects our daily lives

A house gets messy, the garden gets weeds, and other degrading problems arise

Even a cup of tea’s heat spreads out. And high psychological entropy…”

“Explains conflicting beliefs, unclear self-concepts, or decision-making difficulties”

 

“The higher the entropy any organism has

The more defects you’ll find in its mind”

Yet we creatures repair ourselves, to fight the second law of thermodynamics

Which is the ‘coolest’ trait of ‘life’, we’ve ever defined

 

“Entropy still quantifies disorder in both biological and digital systems

Aiding research from biotechnology to ecology

Entropy models randomness, in evolving financial markets

Informing risk management”, to make ‘you guys’ more money

 

And what’s more, entropy is the embodiment of Murphy’s law

“Left to themselves, things will always go from bad to worse.”

Yet not indifferent, entropy is neither good nor bad

But simply a fundamental aspect of our Universe

 

It’s more than that

Cos, believe it or not

 

“Entropy helps us understand cosmic evolution, and directs the arrow of time

Negentropy is extremely high in you and I, and the planets our Sun has hooked

The entropy of the Universe has always been increasing at an enormous climb

And nevertheless, has not yet reached its maximum value”, last time I looked

 

And…

“A black hole is a ball of maximum entropy”

So it can hide something somewhat surprising

The end…

“…And its entropy, scales proportionally

To the area of its event horizon”

 

Ahh, yes, the black hole information paradox

Somehow escaped, out of its spherical box

 

“The laws of quantum physics dictate, that information cannot be destroyed

‘And’ information can’t be emitted or preserved, inside a black hole forever”

So they wheeled Hawkins out, to digitally shout, information ‘evaporates’

But it didn’t spot a fiction, or resolve contradiction, which isn’t all that clever

 

Give heroes too much authority

And they’ll corrupt our cause

Inhibit progress for centuries

Like Newton’s calculous wars

 

In every discipline from math, physics, chemistry and biology

Stuff like length always means, from here to there, and we all agree

But the word entropy, confounds me, causing way too much confusion

Countless different things are described by a single word, we’re all using

 

Theorists have made a new enemy, more battles to crusade on

They opened up a can of worms, while fishing for just one

Entropy doesn’t cause time to tick, or help it to continue flowing

But it can describe with accuracy, which direction ‘your’ time is going

 

I understand the cosmos differently today

Than I understood the cosmos in the past

Though, I don’t understand the cosmos

I can but say, the cause was first, not last

 

 

Look, get over it

Things cool down

They get mixed up

They spread out

They don’t return

 

Maybe the Universe didn’t start with super-low entropy

It had, just a tad, less than we can see today…

… And in science fiction memes, other worlds, and dreams

Entropy, not time, tried to flow the other way

 

Entropic genesis

In the beginning, was the word ‘entropy’

Everything was simple and tame

Then things got complex and rowdy

Before they chilled, to become simple again

 

But back then, entropy was just as small

Always increasing, as the cosmos grows

But it won’t come back down, to the ground

As far as anybody knows

 

Most ways to configure a Universe

Results in similar random mushes of energy

Most are distributed

It’s disputed

Misanthropically. Ie, without me

 

So, I imagine a Universe, in which entropy

Decreased instead of increased, somehow

And what a weird world that would be

But, it’s not. I’m actually living in it now

 

If I was going backwards in time, that’s what I’d see

Travelling towards those earliest foundations

Waving goodbye to all things complex

Towards low entropy and zero complications

 

So

As far as I know

My favourite type of entropy

Is in a battle, in cosmology

And in information theory

Hiding the truth from me

 

Yet, information can’t be lost forever

Past boundaries, intent on disguisin’

Dark artefacts, thoughts painted black

Still hidden, beyond the horizon

 

Gaia bh-1

I had planned to visit Gaia bh-1

The nearest known black hole, to everyone

To sing a song

And paint the tune on

Our neighbour’s eventful horizon

 

I’m  getting too far into black holes

I had thought the Sun, was the lifeforce and light

Just paying my respects, to those fallen stars

Still blasting dark tones, at us day and night

 

Anyway…

1500 light-years, was too much for me

So instead, a twenty-year, return journey

To Epsilon Eridani

With a seed-sowing army

To help clean the scene, and green the galaxy

 

-Why do you want to greenwash it all?

Things will grow, where they will

It managed fine, without your help

Flower bombing your seeds, till they spill, and kill

 

-Eridani is a baby version, of our solar system

You know, debris disc growing asteroid belts anew

Cute fetal planets forming, in their vacummy womby

Like feeding ducks bread. it’s just a nice thing to do

 

-Feeding ducks bread is unwittingly mean

Weighs them down, and stops them from flying

Blast your space tourists, that make all things green

And spread unworthy life, that’s continuously dying

 

Like giving dead flowers

Or releasing caged doves

You’d marry yourselves

You guys, just don’t ‘get’ love

 

And why go there? Just transmit and wait

It was you, who said I should get out more

But who said you mortally wounded this sweet planet

With just a century of transport?

 

The fisherman

In the beginning, the four forces separate in vain

Only one, gravity can’t push, it only pulls things astray

Before that, the four dimensions split up, just the same

Only one, time, fell off early, and now only goes one way

 

Are you calling foul play?

Why, even today…

 

…Nothing you throw, down into a black hole

Can swim fast enough, to escape the place

Then don’t throw it!

Just lower it down, on a fishing line

And reel it back in, at your own pace

 

How do we know, we’re not ‘in’ a black hole?

And we’re singing, to the far boundary

Which moves further away

Just like what we see today

That point of view, better suits me

 

I’m sure ‘God’ wouldn’t separate himself

From part of the Universe

He has no choice, spacetime escapes

Into black holes, as a matter of course

 

Constants change

Imagine you were on the surface

Of an expanding balloon, and you blew too much

Or pinched the middle, of a flat rubber sheet

Pulled down, let go, and launch!

Picture all the constants, fields and laws

That you could never see

Well, there is no better way to delight me

 

But…

‘Acts’ like a wave, and ‘acts’ like a particle

Oh yeah. that drives me up the wall

It’s a single thing, with both properties

Accept there’s no analogy, for what we should call a ‘wavicle’

That’s all

 

Ok, so….

Mapping each quantum object, to the macro world

Loses it’s essence, which is hard to retrieve

Talking shells and balls, and not orbitals

Just makes energy, harder to conceive

 

Black holes now wear, hats to hide their hair

But I’m too old to learn new signs and symbols

The torus was once a life ring, a doughnut

The hyperbole, horse saddle, is now a pringle

 

It’s just constant change, if constants change

Too much mind, to re-find, then rearrange

Wait for weights, that only wave, a probability

The standard model boat, kinda floats

But for me, lacks gravity

 

Add to that, that I cringe when I hear

Words like ‘fabric’ and ‘building blocks’ all day

I don’t like being told, things, I don’t ‘get’

Too many times, so I make it a cliche

 

Yet…

“New theory breaks science”, is simply AI clickbait addiction

Sure, but at least it gives a voice to bots, newbs and even fools

You should thank online science educators, for teaching us

All this stuff, I should have learned at school

 

Realistic numbers

Negative, irrational, and imaginary numbers

Never accepted, in their own lifetimes

Couldn’t count on them, like coins or beans

Yet they could be expressed, and used, just fine

 

The worst-named thing, in all the many worlds

Is the imaginary number, so now, it’s famous

Followed by strange, charm, colour and spin

Then big bangs, which all but beat Uranus

 

Cygnus x -1 star deserves a catchier name

Hardly notable in the list, of objects they’re maintaining

They won’t change it though, it’s astronomy’s fatal blow

Wins them the award, of worst discipline at naming

 

Each subject should have a marketing team

Or at least advice about communication

But they already have to compete for budget

Winning money, would become their main vocation

 

Project poltergeist

While Project Poltergeist was looking for ghosts

They discovered neutrinos, and reckoned

That ten trillion of the little blighters, had been passing

Through their brains, every second

 

These tiny guys, come in three flavours

Electron, Muon and Tau

They’re ace. They change their taste, in haste

So, what was a Tau one, when it entered your brain

Is probably a Muon one, just leaving Mars…

…. Now

 

But this identity-switching crisis, is nothing

Compared to their unique ability

To change their mass, as they go past

Or through any, heavenly body

 

Most of those that got through your thick skull, just now

Came directly from the surface of the Sun

After fighting their way out, from a war in the core

When their journey to, or through, you begun

 

Yet many of these oddies, that penetrate our bodies

Came from far neutron stars colliding

Or black holes, quasars, pulsars and blazars

After avoiding events on the horizon

 

We don’t know their mass – yet

But seems less, than a millionth of an electron

They’re nearly too small, to affect anything at all

So, it’s almost impossible to detect ‘em

 

They don’t interact with visible light, or any waves of electromagnetism

And unless you seek to give em’ a peek, they’ll just hide in a superposition

Yet they can ring hells bells, and mess with stuff in your cells

And while they fly by, other nuclei, they can trigger nuclear fission

 

Or simply be heroes

On chips, they don’t miss

To flick ones, into zeroes

And that’s nothing, get this…

 

Unlike almost all other ‘physics’

All light, and the strong force

These tiny weak mites, don’t do left or right

Can’t turn clockwise, or counter

When plotting their course

 

See, neutrinos have no mirror image

All left-handed, and so it transpires

These ghostly particles have no reflection

Making them the cosmos’ vampires

 

Holiday in the Sol

I’ve been in a dark place. It was lovely, I must say

Relaxing by a local hole, for a chilled-out holiday

Took the weight right off my mind, and didn’t cost a penny

Well, duty-free and non-binary, so I had a couple (hic) too many

 

It may be interesting

To know. I’m contesting

That ‘meaning’ is in question, and that’s it

I’ve no time for testing

No mind for inspecting

Or even investing, in giving a shit

Sol’s meaning of life

All stars aspire to become black holes

Saved! Retire to equilibrium forever

Though if I explode, I fear, I’d never be able

To pull myself, back together

 

It isn’t all that clever

We stars, too, fear the never

But I’ve never, had quite enough energy

To invest in this endeavour

 

It’s easy for you guys, ‘go forth and multiply’

Take it all from me. rule the Earth, sky and seas

Force-feed your star, with the darkest matter

And power up hidden supplies of dark energies

 

The monolith of lost knowledge

And the monolith of lost knowledge looms

Before us and after, our impending tomb

A towering totem, before which we kneel

This life-taker has a skin, of black stainless steel

 

A perpetual, lightless, Russian doll

The secret within, the secret sum

Our progress measured, not by distance covered

Only, by how close, we have come

 

The apex has disappeared from sight

With definitions, re-defined indefinitely

All numbers within halved, and halved again

One more nut cracked, is another stone seed

 

With our sights, set squarely on the vanishing point

The bounded horizon always recedes

Fibre-optic fingertips probe the edge

Yet it escapes our grasp, and feeds

 

Objectivity seeks to step outside of reality

Like simple magnets, dark pushes us away

But the magic circle expands, with each move we make

Forever elusive. Take us home, and lead us astray