Can we get something from nothing?
Please note: this post is IA-free.
I recall back some years ago, Stephen Hawking said “there's no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe is the ultimate free lunch.” Quoted by Stephen Hawking (1988).
Scientists now have their own version of the creation story it is claimed. There was no epoch before the big bang; time & space, the Universe and everything came from nothing. I feel cheated when told that the Universe just popped into being, like a rabbit from a cosmic magician's hat. This scenario is played out not only in science, medicine but in all of scientific endeavors.
To claim that the universe just popped out of nothing and matter appeared from nowhere, is to say that a supernatural deity did it all. Again, a big claim but science has been struggling with this thought for decades as it was convenient to plug a hole in the dam that was leaking profusely of silly ideas.
As I was intensely studying the creation theory for may years, physics writers consistently quoted that quantum fluctuations, (changes in an energy state within a vacuum or space) demanded that matter should appear in this super-heated quark gluon plasma soup. I always thought, did this come before the inflation or just after? To say that matter just appeared at or just on the creation at one billionth, billionth, billionth of a second, and repulsive gravity changed its action to compress outward to create inflation from a size of an atom, was wild and mind blowing.
Without running through the cosmic science on how this occurred and what created such a condition of a baby universe, to some people could be preposterous. I tend to refer cosmologists such as, Simon Singh, Allan Guth, Brian Green and finally Lawrence M. Krauss. There are many more punters in this space such as Cox & Neil Degras Tyson to name a few, but my choice is based on hard facts and the willingness to go out of the box and say how it is. Some physicists and cosmologists stay the middle ground but the above group do take chances in saying what they think.
Of late, I have been incorporating a great deal of philosophy of the universe (sorry not religion) and if one combines the two, you will be surprised how you entertain difficult to understand concepts.
Some people dislike the notion that the Universe had a beginning. Why can't it have existed forever? The answer is simple, there are many physical processes that are irreversible; if the Universe were infinitely old, these processes would all have run their course. The Universe would already have reached its final state. So, thinking ahead, we start to realize the future universe has the answers, not the past. The past revelations have been outstanding such as General Relativity however, I think of these profound discoveries has led us into far greater universal understanding. Moreover, if we were to fully understand quantum gravity for instance or dark matter, what would come from these revelations and is the understanding of quantum mechanics and dark energy, the final part of physics in discovery? To be able to describe quantum gravity and then to complete the standard model of physics is set for several Nobel Prizes. The unlocking of such discoveries will I believe, create a tumbling of more and more scientific profound subjects unknown to human intelligence. We see with two eyes and a 3-dimensional world, perhaps we will see we live in a holographic world as Hawking described in his famous paper - published in 2017.
As we discuss this paradox and admire the greats of the past and present thinkers, life unfortunately catches up with us. This has happened with Dr Krauss over the past few years. Disappointingly Dr Krauss recently defended himself in court for sexual harassment and has left his university for a quiet life. The news was all over the US and I say what a shame we have lost a great thinker but in the end we all have to account to what we do in life.
Returning to - How do we get something from nothing?
The Big Bang theory says that the universe came into being from a singularity, unimaginably hot and dense more than 13 billion years ago. It didn't occur in an already existing space. Rather, it initiated the expansion and cooling of space itself. So, what we are saying here, is that the universe did not happen at any specific time or any specific place. This means that there was no universe then (time zero) and how did matter come into existence? To get your head around this is difficult to comprehend but physicists do get it and I am close.
To make a universe you need Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Lithium, Silicone and iron etc and a bit of dust thrown in for good measure. The most profound question I think in cosmology this century is –
where did matter come into existence and how?
The classic Big Bang theory:
When we start next year at MPAS, we will review several of these theories however, empty space is complicated, it is a boiling brew of super-heated virtual particles which pop in and out of our system without any driving force. Krauss says that our quantum system can borrow energy from what he says - another system but the payback must happen sometime.
Hawking said in 1974 that the energy entering a black hole may never escape but the Krauss theory runs counterintuitive to this discussion.
Now here is the kicker – Krauss says “all of these phenomena imply that under the right conditions, not only can nothing become something, it is commanded by physics.
What is being said here, the appearance of matter at the beginning of time, was or is commanded to happen as physics demands this and is partly responsible by quantum fluctuations to produce the seeds of creation. We are to believe that matter and their opposites – anti-matter particles, began the initiations required to build of universe of matter.
We will discuss all of this in January and further meetings coming up, I trust you enjoyed this short but interesting post.
Please note: my writings are IA-free and are my own words.
