Starting a book, "In the beginning..." is a good place to start. But assuming there is a beginning, does that not automatically mean that there must be time before it?
The assumption that "the big bang" had to be "before time" is mystical. It is also possible that multiple big bangs have occurred. It would be rather difficult to find traces of the echo of another universal era, but it is logical that matter may collapse and reassert itself as a sort of very very very long term rhythm. That atomic particles in their current state are merely a state of existence, and their collapse or intervening spaces are a variable, not constant but are modulated upon a chain of "direction" - which can also be called "time". The growth of the universe is one "direction" and the contraction of it again is another "direction".
The beauty of this model is that the changed states are so vast and so tiny, its all rather musical. It implies some grand scale plan. Of course it is entirely fictional. But the idea that particles create a destiny of expansion in their very structure and inter-tolerance causing time to swing back like a great pendulum is at the least, intriguing. The universe is a great pulsing organism. That it may be just one of millions of similar organisms in one of many seas is just the start of a vision of the infinite.
This TED demonstration seems to illustrate that things can behave in ways unexpected by common experience. These animated creatures are in fact just straws and bottles or other common objects. Designed by a da Vinci crossed with a McGuyver.
TED Talks
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
the fiction of origin
Science and Religion start with the same incorrect premise: origin.
If the Big Bang happened then there was a time before it that caused it. How?
If God created everything, there was a time before that occurred, the old humbug about someone being there to invent God becomes part of the picture.
The idea that there is an original state, or a state before other states requires other facts than what is already there.
The endless universe. Infinite, endless, and with no beginning. It violates all the rules of religion and science. It is heresy to claim things never started. But it does circumnavigate an obvious difficulty in the logic of creation.
The continuum depends upon processes of matter/energy entering and departing the universe though stars and black holes - like a violent sea with valves. Like the engine of an old car leaking oil and yet exchanging energy furiously.
As matter is crushed and energy is compressed, new atoms are formed, each nucleus compresses the energy from the fusion and creates nuclei
Matter is a process, involving energy, light and making reality in black holes. Stars pop up from nowhere as the atoms so made collide. The universe is peeling itself into reality, and grows constantly. But it need not have boundaries, it is a process contained in seven dimensional space.
If the Big Bang happened then there was a time before it that caused it. How?
If God created everything, there was a time before that occurred, the old humbug about someone being there to invent God becomes part of the picture.
The idea that there is an original state, or a state before other states requires other facts than what is already there.
The endless universe. Infinite, endless, and with no beginning. It violates all the rules of religion and science. It is heresy to claim things never started. But it does circumnavigate an obvious difficulty in the logic of creation.
The continuum depends upon processes of matter/energy entering and departing the universe though stars and black holes - like a violent sea with valves. Like the engine of an old car leaking oil and yet exchanging energy furiously.
As matter is crushed and energy is compressed, new atoms are formed, each nucleus compresses the energy from the fusion and creates nuclei
Matter is a process, involving energy, light and making reality in black holes. Stars pop up from nowhere as the atoms so made collide. The universe is peeling itself into reality, and grows constantly. But it need not have boundaries, it is a process contained in seven dimensional space.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Sky is Falling
In the seventies scientists decided to make computer models of the Milkyway Galaxy (that is where we live) and hit a bit of a snag with their calculations. Something was missing - it seems - the existing laws of gravity and formulaes we thought guided things like stars and light would mean that the galaxy would fly apart.
It was not the first time that science had to rethink its physics. In fact physics has evolved from a set of assumptions about the universe being a fairly linear understandable and predictable old thing to new understandings that indicate that up until quite recently we knew very little indeed.
Einstein changed the way we understood matter. Instead of a definite solid, it was now a dispersed lattice of atoms that sort of vibrate and seem like models of the solar system - and these systems clumped into molecules, seemingly following a pattern of natural analogy with galactic arrangements grouping billions of stars.
This had led to conclusions that had never taken into account that something had to be holding together these giant suns - rotating about an axis, the force would seem to natually disperse. Some kind of cosmic cement seemed to prevent this.
Much much vaster than the space between Earth and the Sun (Solar space), 93,000,000 miles approx - is the space between stars. The closest, Proxima Centauri is 4.3 light years away. 1 LY is approx 26 billion miles. The distance between stars is several orders of magnitude greater inside a galaxy. Being able to understand how huge a galaxy is itself presents a challenge. Now, the space between galaxies is again, an order of magnitude greater. Imagine throwing millions of frozen peas into the Pacific Ocean, how they disperse over a period of decades. May help to appreciate just how cold and huge intergalactic space is.
So, what is contained in these gaps? One theory is "dark matter", another is "dark energy". We used to think it was just a vast vacuum but the physics just say that is not the case. What does glue the pieces together appears to be gravity, a force that is exerted on an object in space seemingly by a larger object, another model is that gravity is the coercive electromagnetic environment dragging objects together like electro-magnetism.
The "dark matter" is not something that can be weighed or sliced up with a knife. It seems to me to be a way of explaining a discrete effect or bonding - the rules may be different in empty space - when there is no matter about, time hungers and creates an inert state that acts as a repelling force enveloping things with temporal resistance. This creates an equilibrium in which the real "exists".
It was not the first time that science had to rethink its physics. In fact physics has evolved from a set of assumptions about the universe being a fairly linear understandable and predictable old thing to new understandings that indicate that up until quite recently we knew very little indeed.
Einstein changed the way we understood matter. Instead of a definite solid, it was now a dispersed lattice of atoms that sort of vibrate and seem like models of the solar system - and these systems clumped into molecules, seemingly following a pattern of natural analogy with galactic arrangements grouping billions of stars.
This had led to conclusions that had never taken into account that something had to be holding together these giant suns - rotating about an axis, the force would seem to natually disperse. Some kind of cosmic cement seemed to prevent this.
Much much vaster than the space between Earth and the Sun (Solar space), 93,000,000 miles approx - is the space between stars. The closest, Proxima Centauri is 4.3 light years away. 1 LY is approx 26 billion miles. The distance between stars is several orders of magnitude greater inside a galaxy. Being able to understand how huge a galaxy is itself presents a challenge. Now, the space between galaxies is again, an order of magnitude greater. Imagine throwing millions of frozen peas into the Pacific Ocean, how they disperse over a period of decades. May help to appreciate just how cold and huge intergalactic space is.
So, what is contained in these gaps? One theory is "dark matter", another is "dark energy". We used to think it was just a vast vacuum but the physics just say that is not the case. What does glue the pieces together appears to be gravity, a force that is exerted on an object in space seemingly by a larger object, another model is that gravity is the coercive electromagnetic environment dragging objects together like electro-magnetism.
The "dark matter" is not something that can be weighed or sliced up with a knife. It seems to me to be a way of explaining a discrete effect or bonding - the rules may be different in empty space - when there is no matter about, time hungers and creates an inert state that acts as a repelling force enveloping things with temporal resistance. This creates an equilibrium in which the real "exists".
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