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Big Questions - Strange Answers

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It is a question that has vexed science for many years. It is, simply put;

Why is the universe that we live in always 'just right' for us to live in?

In the 1960's and 70's a new discipline came into being, it began with the gradual blending of astrophysics and cosmology, and it led us closer and closer to the moment of - dare I say it - the creation of our Universe.
It is precisely what happens right at, and immediately after that moment of creation that scientists yearn to determine. There are two main obstacles to overcome in the quest to get to that defining moment:

  • Power requirements
  • The strange things that begin to happen the closer you get to it
  • First of all, the power requirements. It would take a particle accelerator with the ability to generate a temperature of 1027 degrees (Abs). If I was to write down that number it would look like this;

    10000000000000000000000000000o ,

    So, I won't do that again.

    As this is impossible to achieve without (makes sense really, because that's what happened here anyway) using all of the power left in the universe, we are just going to have to make do with the latest Hadron Collider at Cern which will achieve a total collision energy of 14 TeV. [TerraEVolts.] - (One Tev = 1.60217646 × 10-7 joules) - And in certain conditions, much more. Scientist at Cern hope to get to within billionths of a second after the moment of the big bang.

    Anyway, I'm not going to do any more of that because it is the second obstacle that really interests me.
    It's the region of Cosmology and Astrophysics which can only be approached with the power of thought.

    Before I go on with this I have to say that what I am writing is now just an incomplete remembrance of an experience I had some time back, when I was capable, for a short time, of much greater concentration and contemplation than I am at most times now in my life.

    This is the region of our universe which will be forever out of bounds to us. It is the [place/time] where all of our physical laws were created. Before they were created our universe was a very strange place. We don't really have the words to describe this place, we have mathematics, depending on which discipline you agree with, but words fall short so I will have to use words like 'place' and 'time', as I have no wish, nor do I have the ability, to place the Maths in front of you.
    In this place impossible things happened. Gravity danced with electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces crowded close by, making sure everything fitted together just right.
    This was the place which could have spawned dragons, elves, trolls, teleportation, and tachyon beams for Geordi La Forge. If God needed a sitting room, this would be it.

    Why then, didn't dragons result from this place? Why does every action produce an opposite and equal reaction?
    Why then, doesn't E=Mc2 + 2 ?
    Or better still, why aren't the stars fixed to transparent celestial spheres? or planetary orbits perfectly circular?

    As the four forces broke up and fell apart our universe was suddenly fixed, just the way we like it, forever.

    Well, that's the standard thinking anyway.
    The trouble with this is that it doesn't completely take quantum fluctuation into account, you know, that thing about cats and boxes and cyanide and radioactivity.
    The thing is, it really didn't have to be this way. It could have been so different. It could still be different, that's what the guy who said we could have changed the age of the universe by looking at it meant. I mean, that could never happen, could it?
    Let's see.
    One of the many things I have contemplated is a strange phenomenon called 'Observational Genesis'. Put simply it means that the universe conforms to our needs because we need it to be that way.
    It goes like this:
    As we get closer to the singularity, the moment of creation, we learn how the physical laws of our universe came into being. Some time immediately after the moment of the big bang those laws were all in a quantum flux, waiting to be born, or being born into this universe then jumping back out of it, (into one of an infinite number of 'other' potential universes waiting for a big bang to come along). To fix a particular law into our very own universe, someone had to 'observe' it. This 'observation would then pull the law from it's quantum flux state and 'pin' it into reality.
    So, as we tunnel down into the depths of the creation event, we discover more and more about the 'reality' of our own universe, and in doing so, fix it even more firmly than it was before.
    We tunnel using telescopes, LHC's, Proton smashers and experimentation. The power of thought almost always comes first, then the experimenters and the observers make or break the theories by fixing them with close scrutiny.
    Here is the craziest part.
    In the future, scientists, experimenters, theologists, astronomers and all, will still be fixing our laws for us. In fact they will have firmly fixed any 'new' phenomenon long before we get to explore it thoroughly. They are busy sending us clues down from the future so that we can assist them in their further endeavours.
    No wonder all of the dragons and elves and transparent crystalline heavenly spheres disappeared from the world so long ago.

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    {"commentId":1367034,"authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}

    Don't worry, I'm not going mad yet!

    {"commentId":1367034,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
    • 3 votes
    Reply#1 - Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:41 PM EST
    {"commentId":1368491,"authorDomain":"SVForbes"}
    No wonder all of the dragons and elves and transparent crystalline heavenly spheres disappeared from the world so long ago.

    Good points, Eddie.

    I think a lot of people forget that much of traditional science is simply theory rooted in ideologies of man made construct.

    Personally, I agree with the Buddhist philosophy.....It's all an illusion.

    I think it was Wayne Dire that said, and I paraphrase, when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

    {"commentId":1368491,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"SVForbes"}
    • 3 votes
    Reply#2 - Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:18 AM EST
    {"commentId":1368830,"authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}

    From my perspective Shaun, it's as good a theory as any of the others out there.

    {"commentId":1368830,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
    • 2 votes
    #2.1 - Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:47 AM EST
    {"commentId":1369109,"authorDomain":"SVForbes"}
    it's as good a theory as any of the others out there.

    The world is definitely a big and strange place. :)

    {"commentId":1369109,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"SVForbes"}
    • 2 votes
    #2.2 - Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:49 AM EST
    Reply
    {"commentId":1377593,"authorDomain":"DrKnow"}

    They call them the "Laws of Nature" - Who passed them?

    {"commentId":1377593,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"DrKnow"}
    • 2 votes
    Reply#3 - Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:37 PM EST
    {"commentId":1378448,"authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}

    I think it might have been us.

    {"commentId":1378448,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
    • 1 vote
    #3.1 - Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:14 PM EST
    Reply
    {"commentId":1379436,"authorDomain":"mmhuffaker"}

    In mormon theology, God himself is bound by the laws of nature that exist in our universe. He is omnipotent because he is omniscient. He controls everything because he knows all the laws and can use them to manipulate nature to create what we see as miracles. That would make God the original observer and in that way, creator. That's so cool! That gives God as creator of the universe a whole new meaning!

    Hope it's OK to inject sectarian theology into this scientific discussion. ;)

    Just what came to mind.

    {"commentId":1379436,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"mmhuffaker"}
    • 1 vote
    Reply#4 - Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:42 AM EST
    {"commentId":10045565,"authorDomain":"ersoymat"}

    Hi everybody. I hope you are still in touch after such a long time.

    Dear readers, I join the idea that the modern science can not be distinct from the beliefs. At the end, some beliefs must turn out to be true.Right?

    Among you are scholars and very intelligent people.

    However, in Islamic faith, it is beyond human capability of imagination how omnipotent God is. As an example, is not the creation of all universe instantly out of a little speck enough? It has been billions of years since then. However we are the ones who has to wait. He is the One who contracts and expands the time. In his creation, the initiation and termination are at the same point.

    By the way, He is not bound by the laws he created. After all we see what is before us as creation, it blinks that He who created the universe can create and manage everything. The absolute omnipotency of God can not be bounded by anything.

    In his creation, our eyes likely returns back to us tired after the search of a flaw.

    {"commentId":10045565,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"ersoymat"}
      #4.1 - Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:21 PM EDT
      Reply
      {"commentId":1379562,"authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
      Hope it's OK to inject sectarian theology into this scientific discussion. ;)

      From the article:

      If God needed a sitting room, this would be it.
      {"commentId":1379562,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
      • 1 vote
      Reply#5 - Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:47 AM EST
      {"commentId":1379591,"authorDomain":"mmhuffaker"}

      So, ya, it's ok... :) I guess I really meant mormon theology since it seems to have an ability to irritate people and stir the pot. But great article. Have you seen my much simpler and much sillier 'asymptote theory of eternity'?

      {"commentId":1379591,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"mmhuffaker"}
      • 1 vote
      #5.1 - Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:00 AM EST
      Reply
      {"commentId":1382641,"authorDomain":"DesmondUK"}

      Ok hows this for a theory,
      There are lots of worlds, but the only ones that have evolved life have to conform to certain strict rules.

      And so we see these rules and then wonder why there appears to be order. But it is simple. There is no order generally, but only in cases that have evolved to allow creatures able to observe.

      How many worlds there may be that have no order, we will never know. Possibly as many as thee are possible combinations of atoms. After all once one has got to numbers that are trillions of trillions etc, what are a few extra noughts here or there.

      Further more, if the first forms of life were types that could travel in interstellar space, e.g. not be destroyed by heat or cold, then as matter comes together and then breaks up, these forms of life would travel and populate other barren worlds. Therefore, unlikely though the chance might be of self replicating life forming, when you have the trillions of trillions of worlds combined with a travel ability and plenty of time, it only has to start somewhere to eventually get most everywhere.

      {"commentId":1382641,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"DesmondUK"}
        Reply#6 - Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:12 AM EST
        {"commentId":1383576,"authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}

        Desmond,
        These worlds that you posit would have to be in different universes, we made the rule for the whole universe when we observed the separation of the four forces.
        So, each new world we discover in our galaxy, or indeed in any galaxy as we progress, would have to conform to the 'familiar' rules.
        Nice thought though.

        {"commentId":1383576,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"eddiefrench"}
        • 1 vote
        #6.1 - Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:40 PM EST
        Reply
        {"commentId":2234582,"authorDomain":"blessingsblessings"}

        "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the oposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." ~ Niels Bohr

        The statement by Bohr would seem to open the door to any and everything. Bohr never intended such distortion, no more than Jefferson did his re: church and state (but that's another discourse). To say, or even imply, that the words of one's own self carry such merit and weight as to foment the creation of the very universe is the height of lunacy, a grandiosity bordering schezophrenia. Do not confuse pagan babblings with serious discussion of quantum mechanics. Nowhere in acedemia is serious credence given to such conjecture, regardless of references to Schrodinger's cat!

        For you armchair physcisist, I say, "I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy." (~anonymous)

        {"commentId":2234582,"threadId":"203526","contentId":"1226112","authorDomain":"blessingsblessings"}
          Reply#7 - Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:07 AM EDT
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