h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Bossel:

One of your paragraphs caught my attention, namely

"Note that there doesn't seem to be any language which has a proper name for the opposite of a vicious circle, ie, a loop which improves some condition by executing one of its cycles1."

The term "Virtuous circle" was coined about 4 years ago to indicate a situation in
which one good thing leads to another. My information comes from a website called
"The Word Spy," which uses "virtuous circle" in the context of an article in
"The Economist." When a country's economy grows fast, more wealth is
generated, so people's savings grow even if they don't cut consumption.
With savings at higher levels, investment and growth rise, leading to
a virtuous circle.

Your paragraph on The Big Bang theory mentions the possibility that gravity
will eventually slow down and reverse the expansion of the universe, leading ultimately
to another big crunch, which would set off another Big Bang. This is a popular
Theory, one which was dramatized in the book and film versions of "A Brief
History Time." There is a new theory, however, which posits that empty space
contains particles which act contrary to gravity. As the stars and galaxies
get further apart, their velocity speeds up, ensuring that gravity will never
pull them back together. In about 100 trillion years, all the universe's particles
will be so far apart that the universe will, in effect, have ended.

I am not sure that I really like either theory, but maybe it doesn't matter.
Other theories are sure to crop up from time to time. Also, who is to say
that some race of intelligent beings cannot find a way of tweaking the
universe to their own liking? And if they don't succeed, we can at least
enjoy Max Quordlepleen's act again and again and again…….

arrrrgh! Somehow I missed this forum

Yepp, there is such a thing as a virtuous circle, thanks!

my problem with the 'expanding Universe' thing is always this one: what do you call the places which the Universe is going to reach tomorrow? Aren't they part of today's Universe, or what? My brain seems to be too small for this, and then I always have this pain in the diodes down my left arm