If you’ve experienced science fiction in one of its many forms, chances are you’ve encountered “energy beings.” Unlike the other aliens in sci-fi, they don’t have “physical” bodies, but rather exist as beings of pure energy. They are usually able to fly across the universe at will, often displaying great abilities befitting their advanced, ultra-developed state.
They are also typically portrayed as more powerful, more enlightened, and with a deeper understanding of the universe. In most science fiction, it is almost a given that sufficiently advanced civilizations will eventually develop this way. Transforming oneself into beings of pure energy seems to be the ultimate stage in the development of any civilization. It’s a ubiquitous trope – as if “pure energy” were our own mass cultural idea of humanity’s distant future.
Why is this idea so common? Does our future really look like this? Can we ever really “convert” ourselves into energy beings? Is such a life form even possible? And if not, where did the idea come from?
To get answers, Ars spoke to Professor Saurabh Jha, an astrophysicist at Rutgers University. Professor Jha studies supernovae and was part of the first research team to report that the universe is accelerating. Check out his reactions below.
Video: Energy Beings ahoy! Edited by Jennifer Hahn.
Possibilities
Until now, energy beings have been science fiction’s “best guess” about a future so distant and so otherworldly that it’s almost impossible to guess. But science fiction’s job is to keep guessing.
Energy beings may not be the most plausible concept in science fiction, but science fiction isn’t necessarily about being right– it’s about imagining future possibilities. In light of dr. We would like to hear Jha’s explanation your ideas for the ends of evolution—if we don’t “sink like a subtle mist through the crevices of space,” as Arthur C. Clarke said, what shall humanity will look like in a million years?
List image by Warner Bros.