On 3/5/2015 2:09 PM, Avril Styrman wrote:
> And yes, the past must be supposed to be infinite and the future
> potentially infinite, unless the only alternative is accepted: that the
> Universe was born out of nothing and will vanish into nothingness (01)
Actually, there are infinitely many alternatives, which physicists
have been debating and representing in plausible GUTs with serious
mathematical foundations. (That's one reason why I don't get overly
excited about any particular version.) (02)
For example, time is reversible in the basic equations of all the
major theories. In principle, time could flow equally well forward
or backward. Things may get very weird in some exotic regions of
black holes or worm holes -- or in the very high-energy domains
in devices like the Large Hadron Collider. (03)
One reasonable hypothesis is that time, space, and matter/energy
are interdependent. That implies that there is no time or space
outside the universe. It's meaningless to ask what came before
the Big Bang because there is no time or space outside the universe.
In fact, the phrase 'outside the universe' is itself meaningless. (04)
Furthermore, nobody knows why there should be 3+1 dimensions.
String theories postulate more dimensions, which are supposedly
wrapped up in strings that appear as particles in our observable
dimensions. (05)
And other physicists postulate a multiverse of an open-ended
number of universes, of which ours is just one bubble in the froth.
Fortunately, our universe is just right for us to exist. Most of
the others might be so weird that material particles would be so
unstable that stars, planets, and people could never be formed. (06)
John (07)
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