Posted on 03/23/2006 4:37:32 PM PST by Brilliant
If our universe was purposefully created — perhaps by a deity or an advanced civilization in another universe — could the Creator have left a calling card? The idea is not as crazy as it seems. Renowned cosmologists such as Andre Linde (Stanford University) and Alan Guth (MIT) have speculated that an advanced civilization could, in principle, cook up a new universe in a lab by concentrating huge quantities of energy into a tiny volume of space. And even the avowed agnostic Carl Sagan concocted a story at the very end of his sci-fi novel Contact of how scientists discover a message from the Creator embedded deep inside the number pi.
In a paper posted on astro-ph, physicists Stephen Hsu (University of Oregon) and Anthony Zee (University of California, Santa Barbara) come up with an alternative idea: astronomers can look for a message from the Creator in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — the echo of the Big Bang.
"Our work does not support the Intelligent Design movement in any way whatsoever, but asks, and attempts to answer, the entirely scientific question of what the medium and message might be IF there was actually a message," write the authors.
The trick, say Hsu and Zee, is for the Creator to fine-tune the inflaton field — the field responsible for inflating the early universe — to encode a binary message in the subtle hot and cold spots of the CMB. As the authors note, the CMB is a "giant billboard on the sky" visible to all civilizations in all galaxies. Because different regions of the universe are so far apart that they are not causally connected, only a cosmos Creator could place a message in the CMB that all civilizations could detect.
Given the limited number of distinct regions of the sky of any fixed size, Hsu and Zee calculate that the message could include up to 100,000 bits of information. Such a message might, for example, reveal fundamental laws of physics. While current experiments like NASA's WMAP satellite do not have sufficient angular resolution or sensitivity to detect the extremely small-scale temperature fluctuations that would encode the message, future instruments might be capable of doing so. The authors urge that scientists analyze subsequent CMB data for possible patterns. "This may be even more fun than SETI," they conclude (SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).
In another paper posted on astro-ph, Douglas Scott and James P. Zibin (University of British Columbia, Canada) counter that Hsu and Zee overestimate the amount of information that can be encoded in the CMB.
Hsu responds, "Both groups agree that one can encode a universal message in the CMB. But we disagree as to its maximal information content."
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the Big Bang redshifted (stretched) by the universe's expansion into the microwave region of the spectrum. In this image NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) records minuscule temperature fluctuations in the CMB as different colors. In principle, an advanced civilization could create a universe and encode information in the CMB that would let civilizations in the offspring universe know that their universe had been purposefully created. NASA / WMAP Science Team.
Looks like Clara Bow with lots of hair. Clearly an example of supernatural design.
Or noticing that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon matches up with the Wizard of Oz (ever heard that one before)?
Japan had tons of like minded people in the 30's and 40's.
ping I agree!!
I had exactly the same reaction to this; with enough anisotropies in the CMBR, they can claim to find just about any "message" they want; much as the Bible-code people have claimed.
The trouble is, if you accept the Bible coders at face value, than you are also compelled, by the very same methods, that Melville was secretly encoding messages when he wrote "Moby Dick."
And we all know what the ultimate Secret Message is:
"Don't forget to eat more Ovaltine..."
And so, the Freeper creationists keep telling us, does the USA in the 21st century.
The universe was created by the ringing of the divine cowbell.
That's what this thread needs more of...
I think the counting of PHs pinglist is simply a pre-emptive counter to the oft-seen anti-evolution Freeper claim that the number of Freepers who support evolution is tiny. The "No True Freeper" fallacy.
I have never seen that equally vacuous claim.
anti-evolution Freeper
Against evolving? How Odd.
I didn't catch that. Of course, I'm not a guy. :-)
It was another advanced civilisation. IOW,
"It's advanced civilisations all the way down."
Thank you very much for the ping but no, it was not I. At least not that I remember. :-)
In principle, an advanced civilization could create a universe and encode information in the CMB that would let civilizations in the offspring universe know that their universe had been purposefully created.
Hashem spoke the heavens and the earth into existence. The heavens declare His glory. If someone discovered cosmic background waves that "sounded" or spelled out the Torah (that which already bears witness to the creator), they'd be mocked and booted out from the scientific community faster than you can say bereshith bara elohim... :-/
Do you always ignore the posts to you?
I got on the list, and I'm a Buddhist. :-)
That suits human nature very well. It's having everything settled and done and everybody living in comfort that drives people to drink.
It's Discworld.
LOL! You sayin I should get off my butt and paint my house?
:->
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