Exploring the Origins of Time, Space, and Matter: Insights from Science

[redhedkangaro]

I know that we all know about the big bang. We say that is is what created time, space, and matter. However, how do we know through science that time space and matter were in fact created? (Let us not go into issues about god). I was thinking that our universe has always existed that there have been many big crunches and big bangs, in which our universe has started over again? What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Piscuit]

I think that this coincides nicely with Mayan religion, about how the universe restarts, and every time beings get more complex. (they predicted the next apocalypse and universe restart in the year 2012) They also believe that at some point we will be such complex beings that telepathy will be the new form of communication.

 

[Piscuit]

My personal theory happens to be that our universe has always existed, simply in another dimension, and that the big bang was actually the opening of a wormhole in which all life from that other dimension was extinguished from the pressure of said wormhole. This would explain why there is everything necessary for life available in our universe. I think that this is a slightly more logical hypothesis than the theory of spontaneous generation of EVERYTHING.

 

[Chalnoth]

I know that we all know about the big bang. We say that is is what created time, space, and matter. However, how do we know through science that time space and matter were in fact created?

Well, no, actually, we don't know that. While the big bang theory has a singularity in the finite past, we can't actually take the theory seriously that far back. And while we do know that our own region had to have a beginning at some point, we currently have no way to say whether or not that beginning was from nothing, or from some other space-time.

I was thinking that our universe has always existed that there have been many big crunches and big bangs, in which our universe has started over again? What are your thoughts on this?

Well, I think the whole "bouncing universe" idea is highly unlikely to be accurate. It basically requires that the entropy monotonically decrease after some point in time. And besides, it looks like our own region will probably expand forever, so it seems doubtful that it will ever collapse back on itself. Here is one attempt at describing this which, personally, seems rather more likely to me:
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0410270

 

[Naty1]

It seems we know back about 99% of the way to the supposed big bang rather clearly on both theoretical and experimental (measurement) basis...how it all got started is less clear. It seems like inflationary cosmology fits experimental data rather well, like filaments, galaxy clusters and so forth. Before that?? who knows??

Was our universe a once in a lifetime, highly unlikely, "miracle"? Seems more likely to me its a process that goes on all the time...in a virtually infinite cosmos likely an infinite number of universes are born and many die without evolution...perhaps those that evolve, like ours, somehow spawn others...a darwinian style natural selection.

However since nobody even knows exactly what time, space, matter,energy, etc really are and exactly how they are related, let alone "dark" forms, likely we have a lot yet to learn. Maybe some universes bounce, others like ours expand forever...in an infinite number of chances, everything must happen...