energy. The creation field itself was postulated to have negative energy. The appearance of each new particle of matter with mass m had the effect of contributing an energy -mc 2 to the creation field. [Paul Davies, The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the BasicBooks, 1994, p.152] Universe, Although the creation field provided a technical solution to the problem of creation, it left many questions unexplained. It also seemed rather ad hoc, as no other manifestations of the mysterious field were apparent. More seriously, observational evidence began to mount against the steady-state theory in the 1960s, the most important of which was the discovery of the cosmic background heat radiation. This uniform background receives a ready interpretation as a relic of the big bang, but it is hard to explain convincingly in the steady-state model. In addition, deep-sky surveys of galaxies and radio galaxies showed unmistakable evidence that the universe is evolving on a large scale. When this became clear, Hoyle and his coworkers abandoned the simple version of the steadystate theory, although more complicated variants make fitful reappearances from time to time. [Paul Davies, The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate BasicBooks, 1994, p.152-153] Fate of the Universe, Quite apart from physical and observational problems, the steady-state theory raises some curious philosophical difficulties. For example, if our descendants have truly infinite time and resources at their disposal, no obvious limits can be placed on their technological development. They would be free to spread across the universe, gaining control over ever greater volumes of space. Thus a large portion of the universe in the very far future would essentially be technologized. But by hypothesis the nature of the universe is supposed to be unchanging with time, so the steady-state assumption obliges us to conclude that the universe we see today is already technologized. Because the physical conditions in the steady-state universe are overall the same at all epochs, intelligent beings must arise at all epochs too. And because this state of affairs has existed for all eternity, there should be some communities of beings that have been around for an arbitrarily long time and will have expanded to occupy an arbitrarily large volume of space-including our region of the it. This conclusion is not evaded by supposing that
energy. The creation field itself was postulated to have negative energy. The appearance of each new particle of matter with mass m had the effect of contributing an energy -mc 2 to the creation field. [Paul Davies, The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe, BasicBooks, 1994, p.152] Although the creation field provided a technical solution to the problem of creation, it left many questions unexplained. It also seemed rather ad hoc, as no other manifestations of the mysterious field were apparent. More seriously, observational evidence began to mount against the steady-state theory in the 1960s, the most important of which was the discovery of the cosmic background heat radiation. This uniform background receives a ready interpretation as a relic of the big bang, but it is hard to explain convincingly in the steady-state model. In addition, deep-sky surveys of galaxies and radio galaxies showed unmistakable evidence that the universe is evolving on a large scale. When this became clear, Hoyle and his coworkers abandoned the simple version of the steadystate theory, although more complicated variants make fitful reappearances from time to time. [Paul Davies, The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe, BasicBooks, 1994, p.152-153] Quite apart from physical and observational problems, the steady-state theory raises some curious philosophical difficulties. For example, if our descendants have truly infinite time and resources at their disposal, no obvious limits can be placed on their technological development. They would be free to spread across the universe, gaining control over ever greater volumes of space. Thus a large portion of the universe in the very far future would essentially be technologized. But by hypothesis the nature of the universe is supposed to be unchanging with time, so the steady-state assumption obliges us to conclude that the universe we see today is already technologized. Because the physical conditions in the steady-state universe are overall the same at all epochs, intelligent beings must arise at all epochs too. And because this state of affairs has existed for all eternity, there should be some communities of beings that have been around for an arbitrarily long time and will have expanded to occupy an arbitrarily large volume of space-including our region of the it. This conclusion is not evaded by supposing that