What’s outside the universe? What’s smaller than the smallest thing in the universe? What was before the universe started, and what will come after? Here’s a possibility…
The fundamental particles in our universe could themselves be whole universes, and our universe could be one of the smallest things in another universe one level up. That could go on forever in both directions.
Continue reading My Favorite Concept for How the Universe Fits into Everything
Why do we care how many universes there are and how they’re arranged?
Question: Is there a reason the universe is the way it is, or is it just arbitrary?
A few of these attributes are: number and topology of dimensions (like space is 3-dimensional, not 2- or 4-dim), conservation of energy (energy can’t wax and wane, either arbitrarily or according to some rule), four forces and their properties (why not more or fewer forces; why gravity not both attract and repel, electricity only attract, etc), has the particles w/properties that it does.
With two interacting bodies, interacting via the r-squared forces of gravity or electricity, and obeying classical mechanics, the equation of motion can be written down in closed form.
With three interacting bodies, the equation of motion can’t be written down in closed form.
So the three-body problem can’t be solved exactly (and this is just for classical mechanics and r-squared forces). Algebraic approximations or numerical simulations can do a good job, but they’re not exact.
So what’s it mean?
The Universe doesn’t care. Really what I mean is…
How the universe operates and how we understand and analyze it are entirely different.
The universe…
Reductionism reduces everything to its parts. You know how the parts behave, then put them together, and thus you know how the whole thing behaves.
This could be for our knowledge in principle, for our knowledge in practice, and for how the universe does it (except the universe doesn’t, we just think it does).
Reductionism has been exceptionally successful in the last thousand years or so, first with the Arabs and then with the Europeans and their descendants.
DEFINITION
A living object is material in an ordered state, which actively maintains its state (at least), and (better yet) is able to rearrange increasing amounts of its environment into something similar to itself, by growth (ok) or replication (best of all).
In detail, it’s an object that is…
The Universe…
What does that mean – it listens to quiet piano music by the light of warm candles while meditating on self-awareness? Continue reading The Universe
Very Universe 