The End of the Universe?

[vivian maxine]

Philosophy or Science? It fits in both but it ends with Philosophy. So, here it is. I have often wondered and - with Burt Jordaan's thread about aether - am wondering again if anyone here has read Edgar Allen Poe's "Eureka". This is not one of his horror stories but a scientific treatise. I was surprised that he wrote such but I've since learned that he wrote many scientific papers. EAP says he speaks of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical.

This is a history of the universe from "birth" to "death" (implosion - Big Crunch). His predictions of what will happen are scattered throughout. My head is not full of historical dates but I've read that scholars who have reviewed the book express amazement at how many of his predictions turned out to be accurate.

As to the physical aether (he spells it ether), he predicts a new spiritual aether. Matter would be destroyed with some of it developing a sensitiveness "involving what we call Thought and thus attaining Conscious Intelligence".

I don't want to spoil it with some of my favourite quotes. Just wondering if any here have read it and what they thought of it.

[Eclogite]

Poe was weird. I like weird, but I haven't read Eureka.

[vivian maxine]

Poe was weird. I like weird, but I haven't read Eureka.

He had some real psychological problems that might have been eased today. Might have been, though I'm not sure. But Poe lived 200 years ago when not as much was known as is known today. Then, because of his problems, he met with one rejection after another.

Still, it is -- well, not hard to believe. We know he wrote "Eureka". But there is such a difference between this - a serious study - and Amontillado, Rue Morgue or that dark Raven. He was an intelligent man whose problems kept him very disturbed. Sad, really.

Many years ago, a friend and I visited his home. Everything was so very small and yet not crowded. The guide said he kept himself wrapped in a tight cocoon. That is what his house reminds me of - someone who hides away, afraid to reach out.

Oops! Sorry.

[-1-]

Poe's vision of a Universe that begins and ends ties in tightly with the string theory. (Pardon the pun.) A Universe is very much like a string, both of them having exactly two ends -- one in the beginning, the other, at the other end.