SLD
Contributor
Roger Penrose! About freakin’ time! Amazing mathematical physicist.
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Another Atheist Wins Nobel Prize in Physics
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Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
Yes. He's also done work in pure math, developed quasicrystals, and has an astonishing (crackpot?) view of organic brain.
Especially novel is his cyclic conformal cosmology. In most models, including Penrose's, the universe ranges from a teenytiny size 13 billion years ago, a trillionth of a nanosecond after the alleged Big Bang, to an entropy death in the far distant future, googols of years later if you wait for all black holes to evaporate and for protons to decay. The former is high temperature, low entropy, very dense; the latter cold, high entropy and rarified. YET THESE TWO STATES ARE THE SAME!
Penrose supposes the universe googols of years in the future to be pure energy, just like the Big Bang, with protons all decayed away. (An objection is that some matter would still exist, but Penrose seems to regard very-little matter to be functionally equivalent to no matter.
And without matter, there can be no clocks or rulers! (If this seems strange, know that this is NOT the controversial part of Penrose's theory.) And without clocks or rulers, there is no way to set scales. The googol light-year diameter of the far-future universe will be indistinguishable from the universe a few inches in diameter shortly after the Big Bang!
And these are equivalent, the same! The entropy death of our universe (Univ #N) is the big bang for Univ #(N+1), just as our universe's Big Bang was the entropy death of Univ #(N-1), though with a scale change of 100 orders of magnitude.
Sound like crackpottery? Few are willing to suggest that this undisputed emperor of general relativity is wearing no clothes.
Especially novel is his cyclic conformal cosmology. In most models, including Penrose's, the universe ranges from a teenytiny size 13 billion years ago, a trillionth of a nanosecond after the alleged Big Bang, to an entropy death in the far distant future, googols of years later if you wait for all black holes to evaporate and for protons to decay. The former is high temperature, low entropy, very dense; the latter cold, high entropy and rarified. YET THESE TWO STATES ARE THE SAME!
Penrose supposes the universe googols of years in the future to be pure energy, just like the Big Bang, with protons all decayed away. (An objection is that some matter would still exist, but Penrose seems to regard very-little matter to be functionally equivalent to no matter.
And without matter, there can be no clocks or rulers! (If this seems strange, know that this is NOT the controversial part of Penrose's theory.) And without clocks or rulers, there is no way to set scales. The googol light-year diameter of the far-future universe will be indistinguishable from the universe a few inches in diameter shortly after the Big Bang!
And these are equivalent, the same! The entropy death of our universe (Univ #N) is the big bang for Univ #(N+1), just as our universe's Big Bang was the entropy death of Univ #(N-1), though with a scale change of 100 orders of magnitude.
Sound like crackpottery? Few are willing to suggest that this undisputed emperor of general relativity is wearing no clothes.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
A few years ago I saw him give that talk — on hand-drawn overheads, no less. I’m not sure I left fully convinced but I surely left highly entertained.
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
Roger Penrose and M.C. Escher were friends and inspired each other. You can see Penrose's name at the bottom of this Escher print.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
Maybe it was his friendship with Escher that got him into investigating tiling or maybe vice versa?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
In a 17-minute interview Roger Penrose explains his cyclic conformal cosmology. This YouTube is part of a "Closer To Truth" Channel with several Penrose interviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypjZF6Pdrws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypjZF6Pdrws
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Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
I appreciate the humor! 
But Penrose's Cyclic Conformal Cosmology is a real theory which might be true. And, as Penrose explains in the video, it eliminates the need for the "Inflation" which the Big Bang theory needs to explain homogeneity. Penrose thinks the theory may be testable: In the cosmic background radiation one may be able to find patterns (ripples from the demise of large black holes) from the previous cycle.
Penrose is a true genius with phenomenal imagination, and several important discoveries. As alluded to upthread, he was first to discover two of the "impossible" shapes that M.C. Escher later incorporated into drawings.
But Penrose's Cyclic Conformal Cosmology is a real theory which might be true. And, as Penrose explains in the video, it eliminates the need for the "Inflation" which the Big Bang theory needs to explain homogeneity. Penrose thinks the theory may be testable: In the cosmic background radiation one may be able to find patterns (ripples from the demise of large black holes) from the previous cycle.Penrose is a true genius with phenomenal imagination, and several important discoveries. As alluded to upthread, he was first to discover two of the "impossible" shapes that M.C. Escher later incorporated into drawings.