2012-09-25, 02:27 PM
With our a priori knowledge (life exists here and now) it's hard to gauge the probability of this event's occurence in general. Obviously here and now it is 1.
4.5 billion years is a long time by human standards... our species has only existed for maybe one ten-millionth of that time. When you're talking evolution, punctuated equilibria is what dictates progress - it could stay stable for a long time, or the correct mutations & events could make it happen quickly. It takes a while for abiogenesis because everything's random chance, but once evolutionary factors kick in, for the most part, progress is maintained - it's more likely to advance than to regress.
@ abvoe I'd have to look in more detail but I believe the 'event horizon' of a black hole is the radius where the speed of light is exceeded and nothing can escape. Mass has to be quite dense for this to happen.
And yes, the relativistic time difference is taken into account with satellites.
4.5 billion years is a long time by human standards... our species has only existed for maybe one ten-millionth of that time. When you're talking evolution, punctuated equilibria is what dictates progress - it could stay stable for a long time, or the correct mutations & events could make it happen quickly. It takes a while for abiogenesis because everything's random chance, but once evolutionary factors kick in, for the most part, progress is maintained - it's more likely to advance than to regress.
@ abvoe I'd have to look in more detail but I believe the 'event horizon' of a black hole is the radius where the speed of light is exceeded and nothing can escape. Mass has to be quite dense for this to happen.
And yes, the relativistic time difference is taken into account with satellites.