Exploring the Pre-Big Bang Universe

[turbo]

I agree with your teacher because that is the only one of the chocies that doesn't continue the question

Your choice (God did it) is comfortable to many for the reason you cite. It is unsatisfactory to many others for these reasons:

Who made God?

Where did God reside before he created our universe?

Why are the rules of our universe (the principles of its structure and interactions) coherent and discoverable? This should not necessarily be the case if the universe was created by a capricious God.

What existed before the universe?

There are a lot more metaphysical questions, but I will leave you to parse these before spending a lot of time posing them.

 

[Garth]

Your choice (God did it) is comfortable to many for the reason you cite. It is unsatisfactory to many others for these reasons:

Who made God?

Where did God reside before he created our universe?

Why are the rules of our universe (the principles of its structure and interactions) coherent and discoverable? This should not necessarily be the case if the universe was created by a capricious God.

What existed before the universe?

There are a lot more metaphysical questions, but I will leave you to parse these before spending a lot of time posing them.

Although these questions can only be answered by a ‘work of faith’, i.e. you cannot use scientific observations to get a handle on them; the fact that the Big Bang or Black Hole singularities present a barrier or horizon for scientific observations has the consequence that much of modern cosmological theorizing (the multiverse, Smolin’s evolutionary cosmology etc.) may equally be thought of as a 'work of faith'!

Garth

 

[jbaxter1701]

Escape from a Dying Universe

Hello,

I am reading -- and re-reading Dr. Kaku's article in the December Discover magazine "How to Survive the End of the Universe". It is fascinating to ponder the possibility that hyper-advanced civilizations could develop incredible technologies that would enable them to move the essence of their intelligence - or in fact their civilization itself - to another universe in the Multiverse.

"Even if... (an artificial wormhole) ..."were subatomic... it might still be possible to inject enough information through the wormhole via nanotechnology to re-create the entire civilization on the other side".

The thought that came to mind upon reading this was -- what would this look like from "the other side"?

Suddenly, and seemingly from nothingness, there is information and energy. In a deep and mysterious process involving nanotechnological interactions, matter begins to form. Structure is created by the incoming information. A new Universe forms, starting from a tiny point in space. Or perhaps, space and time itself form... as if from nothingness.

This is a new Big Bang. A new beginning...

This was described in poetic language in the Book of Genesis, and in the creation legends of many world religions. Perhaps these beautiful legends are an echo of a "racial memory" that is older than the Universe in which we live?

 

[aguy2]

If the universe of space and time had a beginning then there is the question of First Cause.

1. One person might say, "God did it, He/She made the universe" - this leads immediately to the next question, "Who made God?"



Garth

I propose that: "There is a high probability that we and the universe around us are involved in an ongoing, staged process of self-creation; wherein and whereby the creator of us and the universe around us is attempting to create itself." What do you think the probability is of this being the actual case?

aguy2

 

[Garth]

My own particular view is that the material universe is self creating, see my posts/thread on self creation cosmology. Whether this universe had a beginning or not depends on how you measure time, SCC has two conformal frames of measurement, in one the universe linearly expands from a Big Bang, whereas in the other it is static and eternal.

However the laws of such physics would be 'pre-exisitng' in some sense and therefore you may want to ask where do they come from? The answer to this question I believe is essentially metaphysical in nature.

Garth

 

[Garth]

We do also have a problem with language.

It is futile, if not pointless to pose a question such as 'what came before time?' and expect a scientific explanation.

The question is not only pointless and futile but it is also linguistic nonsense. The word "before" assumes a temporal order in which one event can be unambiguously ordered before another event. In other words it requires 'time' to exist in order to have any meaning at all!

It is therefore true to say that when you (the Creator God) had not made anything, there was not time, because time itself was of your making...
What then is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.

(St. Augustine. Confessions XI 14) AD 397/8