Posted on 03/28/2004 4:53:18 AM PST by PatrickHenry
1) If Universe's are bubbling up all the time into this one then, just as we see eccentric galaxies forming with the Hubble Telescope 10 Billion years ago, we would also see (from a distance) areas of the sky where this is/has happening(-ed). We don't.1) There's a difference between the universe (created at the bigbang and encompassing all we can see) and the cosmos (the background fabric from which different universes expand out of). We can't see outside of our universe because its expansion rate at the edges is near the speed of light and the expansion of the fabric itself (according to one form of Inflation Theory) is faster than the speed of light.2) I just can't rationalize different sets of constants occupying the same space/time. It makes no physical and intuitive sense to me whatsoever.
2) The physical constants are the same all throughout the universe. They were created at the bigbang and don't change throughout the life of this single universe. There is no conflict between the physical constants of one universe and those of another universe because there can be no communication between two universes (separated as they are by ftl expansion from each other).
I once signed up for Astronomy 101. It was my first class in the morning of the first day of my venture into "higher education."
The instructor/professor (whatever) launched into pontificating about the "Big Bang". He droned on and on for about 45 minutes, then asked the class if they had any questions. I was the first to stand up, and I asked; "What was there before the 'Big Bang'"?
He gave me this "look". A sort of "How DARE you question the Big Bang Theory!" (And he didn't answer my question; in fact, he said nothing, just gave me "the look".)
A few hours later that day, during lunch, I dropped the class. I didn't want to spend one more minute of my time "learning" from the goose-steping Astrono-Nazi.
If this is our future [he was discussing the end of the big bang's expansion, which he thought might result in a contraction], it presumably also is our past. The present expanding universe would be only the phase following the last contraction and bounce. (Indeed, in their 1965 paper on the cosmic microwave radiation background, Dicke, Peebles, Roll, and Wilkinson assumed that there was a previous complete phase of cosmic expansion and contraction, and they argued that the universe must have contracted enough to raise the temperature to at least ten thousand million degrees in order to break up the heavy elements formed in the previous phase.) Looking farther back, we can imagine an endless cycle of expansion and contraction stretching into the infinite past, with no beginning whatever. [Underling added by PH.]That's from his last chapter: Epilogue: The Prospect Ahead, which is on page 153 of my copy.
There are even parallel universes in which I am the president of the United States. I'm intrigued with that one and maybe someday the technology will exist to take me to one of those. Hopefully one in which I am a successful president.
Why did we end up in a universe where Bill Clinton became president? Well, at least we had Reagan. I guess there are worse universes.
That's a description of a cyclical closed Universe; it made sense when Weinberg wrote "The First Three Minutes" because at that time we had no definitive data on whether or not the Universe was open, closed, or flat.
Since that time, however, the data have pretty much shut the door on the closed Universe. The W-MAP data in particular indicate the matter density of the Universe is exquisitely close, if not exactly equal, to the critical value, which corresponds with a flat Universe that never collapses, especially when the accelerating expansion is considered.
An infinite number of them. And an infinite number where you make exactly the same mistakes.
I know, and I don't like it. A universe that starts, produces us, and then fades away with a long goodbye into the big sleep. That's all there is? What's it all about, Alfie? It bothers me that the universe is the cosmic equivalent of a one-night stand.
Well, to quote the "Shoveller" in "Mystery Men": "It looks like we've been served a sh*t sandwich, and we're all gonna have to take a bite."
Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right,
But that three lefts do.Wherever possible put people on "HOLD".
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
Remember the Pueblo.Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you;
That lemon on your left for instance.Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls,
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.Carefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
For a good time, call 606-4311.Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog
Is finally getting enough cheese;
And reflect that whatever fortunes may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Sioux City.You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The Universe is laughing behind your back.Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be,
Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up.
Ah, love, let us be true-- Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
I can do anything." -- Jim Morrison
Fred Hoyle is dead? I had no idea. Did the Black Cloud get him?
So then what came before the "Big Bang" was another Big Bang, and before that another Big Bang...and so on...for eternity...
Boy, that really solves the problem of what came previously.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join-- Thanatopsis, by William Cullen Bryant
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.