by Rodney Bartlett

Created on: July 04, 2008

DISCOVER-ing the Universe

I've just finished reading "The Day Before Genesis" (Discover magazine, April 2008). It seems to me that the layout of a few pages in this issue makes sense of our Big Bang. First, the statement "Black Holes Reveal Time Travel" (p. 53) indicates that the series of panels on p. 56 can be formed into a loop with the picture of the cosmic microwave background next to the one of modern galaxies and clusters. This loop can be constructed because space-time that permits time travel cannot be purely linear but is warped and curved. In this scenario, travel in one direction means the cosmic background radiation precedes the modern galaxies and clusters. But travelling in the other direction means modern galaxies and clusters precede the CMB.

When we loop the universe, what is within and outside the loop? I suspect the answer is also on p. 56 viz. branes. If they're in physical contact with our brane, we'd find that there is actually only one universe with one set of laws of physics. Visualizing the loop on p. 56 with the view of the pages' layout making sense of our Big Bang suggests the outside of the loop contains whatever I see when I turn to the next page (58) ... and I see galaxies arranged in a map of our universe. The interior of the loop would contain whatever I see when I turn to the previous page (55). Is that our Milky Way galaxy on p. 55?

How interesting! What could it mean if the Milky Way (or indeed, any other relatively nearby cosmic structure) is not only in the loop of modern galaxies and clusters but also inside that loop? Does it mean quantum indeterminacy not only compels science to think of subatomic particles as not having precise locations, but will also compel science to oneday think of galaxies as not having exact positions? Surely "galactic indeterminacy" would unite general relativity and quantum theory, possibly producing a universe in which space and time themselves do not exist as we understand them but are flexible and indeterminate properties "emerging" from something else.

Thousands or millions of years from now, progress in electronics and science might make it possible to journey back 13.7 billion years in this time machine we call the universe and construct a computer-generated hologram corresponding to the lumps in the extremely young universe which evolved into modern galaxies and clusters. If you believe there is intelligent and adventurous life anywhere in this universe, this would be a perfectly natural

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