GENESIS
Chapter 5
I
n the beginning, there was no beginning… there was no middle or end either. Space-time particles and energy-matter particles were jumbled together with their antiparticles so that there was no direction to space, no arrow of time and no gravity or other forces throughout the megadimensional, chaotic, high energy, hyperspace of the MEGAVERSE. All these particles and all subsequently formed fundamental particles were simply vibrating donuts of energy whose particular characteristics were determined by the frequency, amplitude and dimensionality of their vibrations.
All throughout the supersaturated hyperspace matrix bits of coherent space and time (wherein direction and time arrows snapped into place aligning the now distinct space particles and time particles and their antiparticles) crystallized out (in a phase change) until the infinite hyper dimensional plasma was filled with an infinite froth of coherent Space-Time bubbles, each composed of two halves (positive time-matter and anti time-matter) going in opposite space and time directions.
In one typical space-time bubble about fourteen billion years ago (from our point of view) as it’s positive half expanded and cooled (what we now call the Big Bang), within the first instant of its time (the Planck time is the smallest possible time interval - 10-43 seconds), space and time separated and became oriented establishing our current three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension. As this phase change exploded outwards; the hyperspace particles in its path aligned and pushed the matter particles ahead of it much as a wave pushes a surfer and released the first force - gravity - in that bubble.
Space and time are particles and they have mass, even though it’s exceedingly small. However, since space and time are everywhere, their aggregate mass is roughly nine times the mass of the visible matter in the universe. We know the size of these particles as the Planck time (10–43 seconds) and the Planck distance. Assuming a mass for time particles that’s close to zero (I think S=TC2 is a close approximation where S is the mass of a space particle, T is the mass of a time particle, and C is the velocity of light) and that space particles make up almost all of the dark matter in the universe.
Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity says that space and time are not separate, but actually form a continuum called space-time. In other words, there was no distinct space or time at the beginning and both space and time expanded with the big bang. Furthermore, space-time is curved and, in fact, objects curve space-time proportionately to their mass, and these curves in space-time are what we call gravity.
Quantum Mechanics, the second great theory of twentieth century physics, says that the particles that make up atoms, the building blocks of matter, are themselves made up of tiny particles, as are light and the four forces. Furthermore, all these particles are probabilistic entitities rather than like little golf balls. This is expressed in Werner Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principal which says that an observer can’t know both the location and momentum of a subatomic particle. They are therefore, more or less, wave particles (vibrating energy donuts) and are mathematically expressed as a probabilistic wave function.
Before the first second, as the universe continued to cool even more, the hyperspace energy-matter particles phase-changed into the building blocks of matter -- quarks, electrons and their anti-particles. Following the laws of conservation, matter and antimatter net out to nothing in our universe, meaning that the sum total of the two halves of the new universe is nothing. Our half of our universe is made up of mostly matter, not antimatter (depending on your point of view, of course). Thus our total universe wasn’t about something coming from nothing but rather about nothing being rearranged into two halves that are, together, still nothing.
Between the first second and second minute of our universe, all of the surviving matter of our universe had then solidified into the form of protons and neutrons. At the very beginning there was only one force in the universe. That force very quickly decayed into the four forces that now govern our universe - gravity, the weak force that holds particles together, the strong nuclear force that holds atomic nuclei together, and the electromagnetic force that manifests as electricity and magnetism.
Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity tells us that matter is simply frozen energy (e=mc2). Adrian’s theory says that space is frozen time (s=tc2). Within those first moments the rapidly expanding universe cooled to a point where the weak nuclear force bound the quarks into protons and neutrons and then the strong nuclear force caused protons and neutrons to adhere together to form atomic nuclei. This first matter was initially in the form of a plasma of naked hydrogen (mostly deuterium and tritium), helium and lithium nuclei and free electrons. Plasma is the highest energy state of matter after solid, liquid and gas. It wasn’t until about three hundred thousand years later when the universe was cool enough (down to about 3,000 degrees Kelvin from several trillion degrees Kelvin) to allow the first atoms to form as those nuclei caught nearby electrons.
The chemistry of this universe is determined by the physics of this universe, that is to say that there are about twenty physical constants (such the mass of an electron, the speed of a photon, etc.) the values of which define our physics and thence our chemistry. It is the nature of the physical relationships of those physical constants to each that define our physics; and the relationships of ninety-two natural elements to each other and to the various molecules thereof that define our chemistry. There is a hyperchemistry of the vibrating donuts that make up the particles that make up the building blocks of all the atomic particles, forces, electromagnetic particles (light, x-rays, etc.) as well as space and time. It is now time to construct a layered “periodic table” of all those particles.
String Theory, the third, and hopefully final physical theory of the Twentieth Century, is the theory that tries to explain the fundamental particles and forces (which are also particles). Just as the length and thickness of a vibrating violin string define a musical note, so the characteristics of the vibrating energy donut (string) define a fundamental particle. In an intuitive sense, our universe is a symphony of particles behaving in different but coordinated “tunes and harmonies.”
About five hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the up to then opaque expanding universe’s density thinned out until it reached the point of photon decoupling where it became transparent and the photons broke free. We still hear those ancient first photons as the static in between stations on our radios. We now recognize them as the Cosmic Background Radiation. In fact, the COBE Satellite (Cosmic Background Explorer) has mapped this phenomenon showing that the early universe was far from homogenous. COBE also measured the temperature of space – the energy level of the cosmic background radiation - at 2.7° above absolute zero. It was this primal inhomogeneity in density that permitted the next stages to take place.
Today’s universe still reflects that original cosmic inhomogeneity in it’s large scale structure consisting of stars, galaxies of stars, groups of galaxies, clouds of groups of galaxies, clusters of clouds of galaxies, super clusters of clusters of galaxies, great voids, and even a great wall like structure of super clusters of galaxies bounded by voids on both sides. And that’s only in the tiny portion of the universe that we can observe. In this scheme of things our Earth is to our universe as far less than an atom in an eyelash is to our entire solar system.
In the denser regions, gravitational forces caused concentrations of these atoms to compact tightly into protostars. And then, nuclear fusion lit them up, and one by one, they each blinked on creating the celestial sparkle that transformed the formerly black universe. Stars are actually massive stable hydrogen bombs wherein the process of fusion (combination) combines two hydrogen atoms into one helium atom releasing tremendous energy according to Einstein’s equation (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared). Within the largest and hottest of these stars (initially they were all made up only of hydrogen and helium), the fusion process produced ever-heavier atoms moving up the periodic table until all of the ninety-two natural elements were formed.
In particularly dense areas of the new but mainly gaseous universe, massive black holes (millions of times the mass of our sun) formed from the collapsing of these massive and closely packed early stars. Much as our sun attracted the earth and the other planets, moons, comets and asteroids into orbit around it forming our solar system, these super massive black holes attracted nearby stars and gasses into orbits around them forming the galaxies.
The “Hubble Field” illustrated on the back cover is the computer enhanced result of scores of exposures from many different angles taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth. The telescope was repeatedly aimed at a tiny area of the night sky - about the relative size of a grain of sand held at arms length. The tiny blue dots in the background are galaxies 14 billion light years away, which means we are seeing them as they were when the universe was only one billion years old.
Those massive early stars burned so hot that they used up all their “fuel” within only about one hundred million years (compared to stars like our much smaller sun, which is only half way through its eight Billion-year life). Without the fuel to keep fusion in operation, their massive gravity collapsed them to a point where they exploded in supernovae that spewed the more recently made heavy atoms into space in huge molecular clouds of dust and gas leaving a residue of black holes where they once were (smaller stars leave neutron stars behind when they go nova). All of the atoms that are heavier than lithium were thus “cooked” in those far away and long dead stars. We and everything around us are literally made of stardust.
Black holes are simply the massively heavy collapsed cores left over from the remains of massive dead stars wherein gravity is so strong (it approaches infinity) that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, thus trapping all its photons (and everything else) within its event horizon.
Black Holes recapitulate the Big Bang in reverse wherein matter, energy and space-time are squeezed right out of our Universe into the space-time particles and energy-matter particles of the primordial chaos of the MEGAVERSE. This elegant ecology between the Megaverse and its constituent universes shows that, much as we are made of the ashes of dead stars, our universe is made of the ashes of other dead or dying universes. On the cosmic scale, everything is recycled. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust has far wider implications than our forebears ever imagined.
After about two billion years, those complex molecular clouds grew as more of those first giant stars went supernova. While at the same time, within those clouds, gravity clumped this dust and gas into ever-denser regions until our old friend nuclear fusion lit them up again, and a newer type of more complex star containing all 92 natural elements blinked on. Within those huge molecular clouds gravity and centrifugal force caused the stars to crowd together in whirlpools around the black hole remnants of the dead supernovas. The tremendous combined gravitational forces of the leftover black holes had aggregated them to form the heart of the new galaxies that had pulled the new stars into orbit around them.
At the same time, in the much smaller areas of those molecular clouds that formed the disks of dust and gas that surrounded the new stars, that dust and gas started to aggregate into ever-larger lumps constantly and violently crashing into each other forming asteroids and comets and finally planetisimals that cleared out the soon-to-be interplanetary space around those stars. The planetisimals continued to smash into each other further aggregating into planets and moons. Thus was formed our Earth almost five billion years ago.
These planets assumed a wide variety of forms, from geologically dead rocks like Pluto and Mercury and our moon that are void of atmosphere; to geologically active planets like our Earth and Venus that have thin skins of solid rock and water floating on top of nuclear fired molten rock cores and surrounded by thin atmospheres of various gasses; to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune and to the gaseous giants like Saturn and Jupiter that are virtually all atmosphere (which can be considered failed stars).
Up to this point, the uncountable numbers of Earthlike planets throughout this universe were completely uninhabitable by any form of life that we know about. Their surfaces were violent oceans of molten rock with increasing amounts of rock solidifying and floating on the surface that were then smashed by asteroids, comets and sometimes planetisimals crashing into their newly formed rock skins while monumental volcanic eruptions roiled their surfaces and atmospheres. It was one such violent collision that sent a huge portion of the Earth into orbit that then became our moon.
Our solar system retains a graphic reminder of that violent epoch in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is probably the remnants of a catastrophic collision between two planets or a planet and a moon or large asteroid.
These partial crusts of solidified rock grew until these Earthlike planets achieved planetary skins of solid rock surrounded by atmospheres consisting of a variety of poisonous (to life) gasses. If a modern observer could have seen those Earthlike planets back then, they would never ever guess that beautiful biospheres like ours were in the distant futures of those aboriginal planets.
As those planets cooled, thicker more stable rock skins covered them. As the surface temperatures fell below the boiling point of water, liquid water started to form in depressions condensing from their atmospheres and augmented by incoming comets (mostly large ice balls) and other incoming interplanetary water.
Before long (in geologic terms) these Earthlike planets had large, warm, salt-water oceans wherein great numbers of chemicals were dissolved. Deep within these primordial oceans (which already contained some amino acids), superheated volcanic vents (where molten rock met liquid water under very high pressures) were to become the wombs of the first anaerobic, self-contained, self-replicating, auto catalytic, inheritance systems (life) that were our very first ancestors.
All the occurrences to this point happened on billions and billions of earthlike planets all throughout our universe. However, what happened next, as detailed in the next four chapters, while generically likely, is different in detail on each and every one of those planets. Undoubtedly many of those planets had multimillion year head starts on our Earth allowing them to develop civilizations far more advanced than ours. Studying those different life tracks (exobiology) will be quite fascinating when we achieve interstellar capability. While there may be many paths to intelligence in this universe, they are all heading to the same end, and that is as data (software or virtual) beings whose morphology of their physical bodies will be totally optional.
While there are many different variations of humanoid beings throughout the universe, it is the nonhumanoid civilizations that are most interesting. The main precursor to civilization building is tool making which requires intelligence together with appendages capable of manipulating materials and making tools and building technologies. Following are some interesting civilization building life forms:
- On some planets, there are underwater civilizations built by aquatic primates who returned to the sea as the ancestors of elephants and whales did on our planet. Aquatic primates with hands with opposable thumbs created tools then technologies, and finally civilizations.
- Cephalopods like octopi and squids certainly developed the intelligence to make tools with their tentacles and build civilizations on many planets.
- Many planets have civilizations built by the reptile descendents of dinosaur-like creatures.
- Most interestingly, on many planets social creatures like termites and Portuguese Men O War achieved sufficient neural mass and complexity to achieve sentience and then build civilizations of distributed biological beings.
The question has to arise: If the universe is full of intelligent life, why haven’t we heard from them by radio yet? Why is the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program finding only silence?
The answer is not a happy one – Extinction Events. Phase one Extinction Events destroy advanced life before they achieve radio capability and come in two varieties.
1. Asteroid collisions like the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and
2. Gamma ray bursts – A Super Nova will sterilize, that means destroy all life on any planets within about 1000 light years of it.
Phase two Extinction Events destroy life after radio capability and are technological in nature. Within two or three hundred years of achieving radio capability, any of the following technologies could destroy a civilization:
1. Nuclear weapons
2. Runaway biotechnology
3. Runaway nanotechnology
4. Super Artificial Intelligences
5. both phase one events
6. other as yet unknown risks
I have no doubt that the universe is full of dead planets that once held great promise. Many of those biospheres were destroyed before they could emit signals on radio waves and many more were wiped out after only a few hundred years of radio signal emissions. Thus the radio waves they emitted might have already passed us by and are therefore undetectable by SETI. Also, our exploration is limited to only eighty or so light years from Earth and 99.999999+ % of life capable planets are out of range.
The lessons for us are obvious. The universe is an extremely dangerous place littered with the remains of destroyed civilizations. We absolutely must:
1. Develop planetary defenses against celestial collisions. A Strategic Missile Defense Program could be modified for planetary defense.
2. Digitize our population and back them up to super computers in Hard Bunkers for defense against gamma ray bursts.
3. Carefully manage and regulate the obviously dangerous technologies.
Now, back on Earth almost four billion years ago -
History of the Universe
Not quite Stephen Hawking, but I found a pretty coherent and interesting history of how the universe was created. It's also capped with some fascinatingly plausible speculations as to what forms intelligent life may have taken on other planets. This one is my favorite:
"On some planets, there are underwater civilizations built by aquatic primates who returned to the sea as the ancestors of elephants and whales did on our planet. Aquatic primates with hands with opposable thumbs created tools then technologies, and finally civilizations."
It's pretty long, but well worth reading the whole thing.
Posted by: The Greater Nomadic Council | July 01, 2004 at 04:20 PM
I suspect Aliens are giant gaseous bulbs that move objects through telepathic powers. And they are all Libertarians. Hey, why not?
Posted by: Skippy | July 01, 2004 at 10:47 PM