This is a response to Message 92 by jazzlover_PR, on matters that have drifted from the topic. Jazz quotes from The Merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies.
jazzlover_PR writes:
An interesting fact on the timing is that the Sun will still be burning brightly when this collision occurs and maybe life of some sort will still be around on Earth at that time. So what would people see in the night sky during this billion year galactic dance?
Now this is a very interesting quote. He apperently isnt sure that earth will survive humans or something like that. Does evolution predict also that in the near future civilization on this planet as we know it will cease to exist? What do you think of this.
He isn't sure that life will continue to exist for this length of time. Neither am I. Evolution does not exactly predict such things in detail; but it is a natural consequence of how biology works that over a time span of, say, ninety million years, humans will either become extinct, or we will leave descendents who are plainly very different from our present form. Human civilization only spans a few thousand years; we have no idea if this is a flash in the pan or the start of a long term aspect of human behaviour.
Civilizations rise and fall in a eyeblink by comparison with the scales of evolution; and species develop and diversify like splashing water by comparison with the stately movements of galaxies.
The collision cited above is much further away from us into the future than the first multi-celled life in the past. On such long scales, all bets are off. If life continues to exist on Earth (and I think that is probable) it will be vastly different from existing forms. The page cited shows a simulation of how the collision between Milky Way and Andromeda might pan out. It is presented as a series of images at time steps of 90 million years. That means the whole interaction lasts longer than multi-celled life has existed on Earth. Between any two images in the presented sequence, you can expect that life forms will be transformed significantly.
What life might do in the future at such time scales is amusing speculation, best conducted in a comfortable lounge chair and fortified with some agreeable beverage, as one lets the mind wander over the unbounded possibilities in a vast future. So I've answered here in the coffee house.
Cheers -- Sylas
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