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This drawing is from Alan Guth, MIT Dept. of Physics. It is what physicists call an 'embedding diagram'. It represents three-dimensional space as a two-dimensional surface that is 'bent' or curved by gravity. This diagram shows the moment of 'creation' of a new universe when a very dense object undergoes a quantum 'phase change' to a peculiar state of matter called a 'false vacuum', details to be discussed below. Importantly, this is a state of matter that the known laws of physics do not prohibit. The diagram depicts the moment that the 'umbilical cord' (wormhole) connecting the parent and child universe snaps, and the child universe becomes a completely separate new universe. See Farhi, Guth, and Guven (Nuclear Physics B, Volume 339, Issue 2, 30 July 1990, Pages 417-490) for all the detail. |
(last updated 20 June 2024)
This post is devoted to this simple question, which has such profound implications that it necessarily pre-empts every other possible physics question:
Can a Baby Universe be spawned within our own Universe?
Yes or no.
Current thinking among theoretical physicists suggests that the answer is yes rather than no. There are, in theory, many different ways that a universe can spawn offspring that are not prohibited by the laws of physics as we know them.
Equivocation is pointless on this question because, by the 'Totalitarian Principle' of Quantum mechanics, “Anything that
is not forbidden is compulsory,” (which effectively means that in the infinite realm of the universal quantum field, it has happened/is currently happening).
The consequences are game-changing, and yet physicists have rarely (if ever) discussed them.
It is long past time for this discussion to begin.
If our universe is capable of spawning offspring universes,
then it is virtually certain that we, ourselves, came from a parent
universe, and that our 'Creation Story' is far more complex, and yet far more approachable and
interesting, than the standard 'Big Bang' model that posits a sudden, spontaneous, inexplicable expansion from some mathematically intractable singularity.
In the discussion below, I argue that we need to begin to think of our universe as more like a single-cell organism than a simple, inert 'bag of space and stars'.
A New Look at an Old Universe
The underlying premise for asking this question, and the apparent reason that physicists have failed to adequately discuss this topic, is that a 'yes' answer opens realms of enquiry that few in the physics community seem prepared (or qualified) to address yet are common fodder for the life sciences.
The parent-child paradigm implies (practically demands) that we consider an analogy between the origin and evolution of life and the origin and current state of our observed universe.
It posits that the overwhelming statistical odds point to a 'reality' that did
not directly originate from nothing via a highly unlikely but definitely
possible quantum event emerging from the vacuum (see further discussion in
the Paradox tab), but that that original "Big Bang" event brought into being some much simpler 'sterile' universe or font of simple germ-universes (via something like
eternal inflation).
Then one or more of several not-forbidden processes of universe self-replication 'took charge' and quickly statistically overwhelmed the original spontaneous germ-universe formed directly from the vacuum. Parent universes began to produce children, leading to an evolution of increasing complexity. This picture has the distinct advantage of explaining why our universe is so exquisitely 'fine-tuned.' Our universe achieved its observed state in much the
same way that our complex human bodies originated from an original simple single-cell ancestor—a process equivalent to abiogenesis. This premise
necessarily leads to the conclusion that, just as with life, mathematics is
far from the most efficient or useful way of describing our universe's
morphology and behavior (the 'laws' of physics that govern it).
Points up for discussion (this is an unfinished, ongoing thought space; and there is a vast landscape of fascinating topics that need exploring):
A. What we observe did, on first principles,
originate from the vacuum (ex nihilo) somewhere in the deep recesses
of 'time'; and furthermore, the vacuum remains intimately relevant to our
reality—it 'surrounds' us. We are 'bathed' in it; and its structure
still defines much of what we observe. This is critically important
'news' because it means that (making a parallel with abiogenesis theories),
we have both the beginning point (the vacuum—the 'elements') and the
endpoint (our universe—a dynamic functioning ecosystem) to study, and it
simply remains to examine the physically possible pathways linking one with
the other.
B. It seems particularly telling (to me) that math-beholden physicists have
such a hard time characterizing the simplest thing in the world—'Nothing'
(see Wikipedia articles on the quantum vacuum which describes the zero-point energy, or ground-state, of empty space). What this tells me is that math is just not the most useful tool
here. If mathematical analysis is to be consulted (and it is always a good resource), then let's discuss how it has exposed the 'greatest difference between prediction and reality' in all of physics—namely, how big the difference is between the theoretical prediction for vacuum energy and the observed. They are different by a factor of 10 to the 120th power. That is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!
C. Some really fundamental aspects of our reality do not seem to stand up to mathematical scrutiny. For example, time does not have any physically consistent role across the various realms of mathematical physics (quantum mechanics vs. general relativity). It is in no way a fourth
dimension. We cannot pick a location in time and go there. The
past cannot be observed at all—no more than the future can be. There
are macroscopic evidentiary remnants of the past from which we can create
models of the past using certain rules and assumptions, but this is not far
different from the way we create models to predict the future. What we
think of as 'cause and effect' is more fundamentally characterized as
'observation and model'. The universe appears (based on best mathematical interpretation of observations) to have originated as a tiny hot ball within which everything was quantum-entangled with everything else; and entanglement is notoriously a timeless state.
D. The choice to use a 'model' to organize and make sense of observations requires scrutiny itself. The ability to fabricate hypotheses (which are fantasies, NOT reality) and then test them to come to a consensus model of reality is
a distinctive characteristic defining the consciousness of a living
thing. It remains to be demonstrated, however, whether there is any
real threshold that defines 'intelligence' and thus separates the human
'soul' from those of any other species.
E. The speed of light may not have been particularly relevant to the early state of the universe.
The 'speed' at which 'space' was created was (and may still be) very
different. Whatever the 'force' is that 'manufactures' space, it does
not apparently exchange information, but it does profoundly
affect the exchange of information. This 'manufacture' seems to be a
process of realizing (making real) a zero-entropy state, which 'then' (or
'instantly') becomes subject to the boiling infinite-entropy state
consisting of all possible (quantum) states (laws). Conceptually, the 'manufacture process' begins with the fundamental ubiquitous superposition of a physical nothing (infinite entropy—the vacuum) with a physical something (a local pocket of zero entropy), and it proceeds across a 'reality horizon' when a pair of 'ephemeral (fleeting)' virtual somethings separate and one of them interacts with (‘observes’) some other ephemeral virtual something during their mutual fleeting lives. The preceding is a thought experiment (a model) involving an arbitrary fundamental conceptual entity. The 'uncaused cause' (i.e., the ‘first cause’—Time's arrow) emerges here.
F.
Quantum Field Theory (just now celebrating 100 years since its earliest origins), is the
best mathematical 'model' we have describing the small-scale landscape of
the Universe. However, given the large number of conventionalist
assumptions* that underlie it, there is a lot of 'wiggle room' in
characterizing the evolution of the Big Bang. The behavior of a putative
grand-unified 'substance' (probably preceding the 'inflaton field'/false
vacuum or its equivalent) will probably point to a much more complex pathway
for the growth of our 'embryo' universe from that single cell that came from
the parent universe to all the various specialized 'cells' required for a
'mature' universe to support life—the zoo of particles and forces that we
observe today. Intriguingly, the original field or fields that
preceded the process that cosmologists characterize as 'inflation' could have
had even smaller energy than the roughly 28-gram mass equivalent that Guth
calculated as the pre-inflation size of the universe. This seems to
allow the possibility that initiating the process of universe replication
could be within reach of today's technology or could be a common naturally
occurring phenomenon.
-----------------
*One key example is Renormalization, which says “let's only look at the behavior of a system in a range of
parameter space that we physically understand.”
G. The following declarations are proposed, based on Occam's Razor
(see I. below):
i. Flatness is a fundamental attribute of reality. Omega equals exactly one.ii. However, the 'local' portion of the universe that is observable is not likely to be precisely homogeneous or isotropic. The original 'Creation' can be a lot bigger than the part we can observe. That conclusion seems to be mandatory for the reality we experience. The original processes might now manifest themselves on such large scale that we cannot observe a statistically significant sample. Because we obviously need matter in order for life to exist, we happen to be in a 'zone' of slight Baryon asymmetry—more matter than antimatter. But this could simply be a statistical fluctuation from a mean of zero. On the largest scales physicists have found no reason for such an imbalance, and it does not appear necessary to find one.iii. Space, although 'real', is an emergent property that provides the 'currency' and 'scaffolding' of observed reality. Evidence suggests that it is surprisingly complex. It has been customized by the process of universe evolution, and is intimately tied with matter/gravity, with dark matter and dark energy, and probably with hidden 'strings' of higher dimension (or some other form of quantum weirdness) where the 'DNA' carried by the 'grand unified' original 'substance' (acquired from the parent universe, subject to quantum mutations) is probably coded. Using math to describe space will prove to be as hopeless as using math to explain the development and morphology of the human body as it developed from its original single fertilized egg cell.
H. Having abandoned math as a useful tool to describe space, it seems
natural to extend this perspective to the Standard Model of Particle Physics and to the Lambda-CDM model of the cosmos. These well-tested and widely accepted theories provide broad-brush answers to many fundamental questions that were plaguing scientists during the years
when I was growing up; but, as they say, “The Devil is in the Details.”
I. Occam's Razor is an intuitive guideline that says that the
preferred explanation of a phenomenon is the one which is constructed with the
smallest possible set of elements. Math-oriented thinking would use
Occam's Razor to reject the 'evolution of universes' conjecture laid out
here. However, from a Holistic perspective, the two-element 'mother-child' self-replication relationship may be the most
fundamental and essential causal dynamic process that exists.
J. Why would a universe 'want' to reproduce? What purpose is
served? What advantage is gained within what sort of 'competitive environment'?
i. First of all, we need to acknowledge that our own universe is a proven end-point of any Creation process. Our universe has life, whether that was the purpose of Creation or not. Life formed as a statistically preferred response to the destructive forces of nature—the inexorable increase in entropy. Universe self-replication would be favored for the same reason. Those universes that failed to replicate are swallowed up by and have returned to the vacuum. Those that reproduced have proliferated. The purpose is existential. Survival is favored over indifference. That simple emergent purpose is an intrinsic attribute of reality.
ii. So ... what characteristics must a universe have in order to self-replicate? We'll dismiss the Eternal Inflation multiverse predictions for three reasons: 1. Most fundamentally, creation of a multiverse from a single inflation field is not a reproductive process. It does not address the issue of how one bubble therein can, itself, reproduce. 2. The evidence is pointing to the need for Inflation theories to have fine-tuned initial conditions. 3. It has been shown that the nucleation of individual universe 'bubbles' cannot originate from random fluctuations as was originally expected. We will, however, point with delight to the current 'Inflationary Schism' that points to the failure of math-based analysis and the preference for using the tools of life-sciences-style analysis. *-----------------
* Here's a direct quote from that Inflationary Schism article (Ijjas, Steinhardt, and Loeb: Physics Letters B 736 (2014) 142–146) : A paradigm ... with initial conditions yet to be determined, with complex potentials consisting of multiple fields and parameters, and, then, with the freedom to select the measure a posteriori cannot have generic predictions. In fact, observations cannot falsify post-modern inflation – failure to match observations leads instead to a change of measure [gkn14]. This places postmodern inflationary cosmology squarely outside the domain of normal science. Linde concurs [3], quoting Steven Weinberg [15], “Now we may be at a new turning point, a radical change in what we accept as a legitimate foundation for a physical theory”. Exactly! Step back, please, and look at what you just said. Life science uses the endpoint as the natural measure. The complex human body is no unique prediction of abiogenesis. No life scientist would even think of attempting such a prediction.
iii. Given the need for specific precursor information to drive 'inflation', and probably a set of multiple precursor fields, the question arises (thought experiment): Can a universe in its 'information epoch' (perhaps also characterized as the 'grand unification epoch'), prior to what we identify as 'inflation,' reproduce? Is it necessary? [This is the equivalent of asking if a week-old embryo in the womb can reproduce.] If not, then we can restrict consideration to post-inflation 'mature' universes, which are amenable to observation. Universe replication can then involve mass. That's nice, because all the test-tube or laboratory universe creation mechanisms that have been proposed involve mass, and if these mechanisms are indeed possible, they may be sufficient.
iv. If mass is assumed to be the seed of the child universe, then a mechanism wherein areas of Baryon asymmetry can be maintained (so there can be 'lots of mass' in the parent universe) ought to be statistically favored, and that suggests a universe that has barriers to the exchange of information produced by that process that we call 'inflation'. Already, we have a pretty complex universe, for it to manifest these characteristics. *-----------------* How did such a complex universe evolve prior to its capability to reproduce? One answer that comes from Quantum mechanics and from study of brain function points to the phenomenon known as 'Strong Emergence' which is defined as an irreducible, supervenient [i.e., additional, extraneous, or unexpected] downward causal power that is not due to the aggregation of the micro-level potentialities. Through the evolution of countless generations of universes that contained life, life has affected the inorganic realm—its environment. The process of universe reproduction itself systematically altered (mutated) its flow of sequential steps in order to improve the prospects for life to thrive (see next paragraph). I call this extraneous additional downward causal power 'Wielding' and attribute it directly to quantum fluctuations stimulating the receptive observer—one predisposed to some purpose/goal (survival) and capable of acting to advance it.
v. It could be argued that life is merely a byproduct of the complexity of the universe, and that the formation of self-replicating life has nothing to do with universe self-replication. However, “what is not forbidden is compulsory” in a quantum universe. It is doubtful that it is forbidden for life to find mechanisms whereby it works to enhance the processes that lead to universe creation/reproduction. Ultimately, life may find a way to be in charge of the show. That could manifest itself in myriad ways. I'll just mention a few examples. Perhaps advanced intelligent beings learn how to create universes in their laboratories as Alan Guth proposes. Perhaps some as-yet unrecognized process is producing child universes without advanced technology. Maybe every time we create a Higgs Boson a new universe forms. Here, I need to mention the 'Fecund Universes Theory' proposed by Lee Smolin, in which the trigger mechanism for the quantum-tunneling formation of the child universe takes place naturally as a Black Hole collapses toward its classical singularity. Black Holes certainly concentrate energy. If this is the source of the 'germ', then universes that create black holes would be evolutionarily favored. Smolin claims that this prediction has testable/observable consequences. The quantum bounce that results in the formation of the universe in his theory has no direct connection with the suitability of the universe for life. As Smolin views it, life is a mere byproduct. Maybe this is an unnecessary bias. Stay tuned. In more far-reaching speculation, maybe some exotic form of life deep inside the interior of the hottest stars (let's call them magnetic worms) feed off the energy released when a new universe is created, and so they have evolved to grow universes in their gardens. Going the direction that Metaphysics believers could latch onto (but denying any and all supernatural processes), there is the possibility that some highly 'excited' mental state (e.g., a bio-electro-chemical state in a neural network of an advanced creature's brain, or perhaps a similar energetic state within a super-computer) could provide the 'spark' that can quantum-tunnel to become the child universe. Maybe advanced single-cell carbon-based organisms are all that are needed to create such an 'excited' state. This is the route that my visionary, speculative hard sci-fi novel Eden's Womb explores, and so I won't elaborate here.
K. Do universes compete with one another the way living organisms do? Can they interact with one another at all? If the answers to the above questions are both yes, then what, if any, are the limiting resources that such a competition would center on? One means of interaction, and therefore competition, that physicists have explored at some length (with mathematical models), occur via traversable wormholes, such as the Ellis Drainhole, which appear to be valid solutions to the equations of General Relativity as augmented by aspects of Quantum Field Theory. We will take that as a 'yes' to the answer to the first two questions. Eden's Womb proceeds from here by positing a hyper realm, called Flat World, in which universes exist in community. They can better themselves via the exchanges that take place through the wormholes. This would be a sort-of sex between universes. Similarly, one can visualize (conceptually) a more powerful predator universe 'sucking the life' out of another simpler form of universe through the wormhole link (effectively eating it). Given this picture, which certainly has yet to be proven to be forbidden, the full analogy between an ecosystem of living organisms here on Earth and the putative 'Flat World' arena where a highly diverse ecosystem including many different 'species' of universes, which co-exist and interact, seems robust. Has anyone studied the problem of traversable wormholes between universes with different laws and constants? Perhaps such studies would help to distinguish between the cooperative/mutually beneficial exchange of information (sex) between similar universes (same 'species') and the predatory exchange (war/theft/murder) between dissimilar ones or rivals.
L. Repeating the opening question: can a Baby Universe be spawned within our own Universe? Are mainstream physicists prepared to give a firm answer to the question? Waffling (or the classical 'shut-up-and-calculate' denial) gets us nowhere. The 'truth', in this case *IS* binary. Either we are the descendants of an evolving line—a genealogy—of universes, or we are not. If we are, then the consequences point to a merger of the techniques of the Life Sciences and Physics, as applied to Big Bang Cosmology, and the result could be revolutionary. If not, then what are the alternatives that physicists have looked at? I'll mention a few that I know about. Proposals involving one eternal cyclic universe exist and could be considered a version of 'cloning' in the life sciences. Though they could be incorporated into an evolution-of-universes proposal, they seem destined to play a limited role. String theorists work in this field (called Cosmogeny) but the variations on the theme seem to mire these proposals in a field of weeds of detail. Nevertheless, elements of these theories seem amenable to the 'big picture' evolution-of-universes concept. Meanwhile, more conservative 'traditionalists' prefer to stick closer to what is known and tend to describe the root of our universe as a 'singularity' (mathematically intractable) or some sort of random fluctuation that is, perhaps, made of whole cloth from the start, and therefore much closer to the raw Chaos of the vacuum. These scientists are usually content to calculate what they can while leaving many questions unanswered. They tend to classify them as 'unanswerable'. This is the 'ostrich' perspective (“put your head in the sand and the problems go away”), and it is not productive. So ... what other proposals exist that offer start-to-finish closure on the questions of our origin? Outside the realm of myth, I have found none; but I would eagerly welcome the opportunity to learn about any that do exist. The process of learning and questioning does not have an end point. It is like the flow of a Great Stream.
* * *
(From here, we change gears pretty drastically, moving into the realm of art—specifically of applying poetic expression to the Creation Story 'issue'. This is the long-standing pre-Western tradition of storytelling, i.e., myth (or, more accurately, mythopoeia).
"Becoming"
* *
*
Soon the twilight’s ashes
will filter down from the audience of dungeon mountains
to settle here where boulders churn the sea eternally.
to settle here where boulders churn the sea eternally.
The fugue of darkness swells.
The choir close their books and take their seats—
a soft shuffling in the balcony
a soft shuffling in the balcony
like leaves in the wind on a sunny isle.
The flutter of butterflies of light.
. . .
out on the dark sea ...
the restless froth
cares not ...
. . .
A nervous cough, a soft “eh-hem” ...
the murmurs hush.
Expectant stillness.
Echoing off the chancel dome,
Echoing off the chancel dome,
the fading sough of their last noble hymn
shrivels away into the hiss of silent space ...
... and a once-majestic cause heaves its final sigh.
. . .
out on the dark sea ...
great vaulting waves dance and writhe,
the seething froth consumes all meaning ...
. . .
Dissolved? Engulfed …
... into the swollen void.
. . .
Here is the ancient nimble ballet
where the wind organ's trembling pipes in thund'rous discord
fuses rock with mind and water.
The raging litany,
The roiling dirge,
The surging chant of conquest.
Virtual Ghosts writhe in the Chaos—
looming like fiends before a barren face
that will not blink in the stunning gloom.
Memories of flop joints roar
as pungence oozes to the whizzing neon streets.
And out of that torpid stench
a courageous soul takes a stand.
She lifts her voice in pure clarion song—
a beacon of light, a trumpet herald.
. . .
Her breath fills all space—
new—like a sudden gasp.
“Hear me!”
The Death Wind parts.
A blinding flash.
White boiling flame.
“Firestorm in the Wilderness!”
“Firestorm in the Wilderness!”
* *
*
Creation is a story told in myriad different ways in different times
and different cultures. Most of us subscribe to one that comes
to us from a trusted source and leave it at that. A few of us
are seekers—pathfinders, who like to explore many options. My
55-year-old poetic version was one such exploration. It begins
outside the frame of reference that modern science is currently able
to describe, and some of it seems to be talking about disembodied
conscious entities—the realm of religion. But none of it is
meant to be a myth or a fantasy, and the expectation is that it is not
supernatural. It is actually a modern objective, though
speculative, way of looking at our real-world Creation.
I contend that discovering Creation is not optional. Creation confronts us all;
and it is only left to us to decide what to make of it. There is a
philosophical point-of-view that says that nothing beyond the individual
mind can be proven to exist. (“I think, therefore I am.”) Each of us is locked inside a prison called our physical
bodies, and the only way to interact with the 'outside' is through the
electrical signals that reach our brain. In that sense, Creation
is a new event that happens within each child's developing mind as the information is fed
into it.
That's actually a very dangerous and disturbing point of view. When our
consciousness kicks in as children, we are met with parents, teachers,
sages, elders, friends, and a complex natural world that is feeding us
information at a breakneck pace. The human players can have biases and hidden agendas. Those nightmare conspiracy scenarios aside, most of us, as we mature and compare notes, discover that the information we absorbed is
consistent and coherent, and from sources that did not or could not conspire (nature, for example), which suggests that it pre-existed our minds and was prepared by other forces that are independent of our minds. And the complexity and depth of that
information suggests a mind-boggling degree of preparation—maybe even
too much to be satisfactorily explained by the limited time and space
contained in the observable universe.
“Firestorm in the Wilderness!”
Since I was born (only in the last several decades) Science has
converged on a description of Creation that says that our observed
universe began as a tiny ultra-super-hot ball of fire known as the “Big
Bang”. This is their best
guess. It is still just a guess—a hypothesis—since nobody we know was
there to see it; but it is a pretty well-founded one because we can
see the afterglow of the firestorm wherever we look in space—in every
direction. It is called the 'Cosmic Microwave Background
Radiation' (CMBR) and it was discovered in my lifetime—on 20 May 1964.
“Hear me!”
Does the CMBR carry a message from 'beyond'? PhD Theoretical
Physicist and science writer Zeeya Merali in her 2017 book
A Big Bang in a Little Room: the quest to create new universes wants to explore that possibility.
***This is a discussion in progress -- to be continued***
|
| Covers of Zeeya Merali's 2017 book on universe creation and Alan Guth's 1997 book to which Merali refers frequently. |
to be discussed:
1. The Totalitarian Principle applied to our universe as a whole
implies, with near certainty, that we are not unique. The
Copernican Principle joins it in telling us that our particular universe
is not at the center of 'Creation'. It is, rather, just one
representative on a vast phylogenetic tree.
2. The signature of universe creation happening within our
observable universe (e.g., the breaking of the umbilical in the image up
top) ought to be a detectable phenomenon. It should be affecting
the observed nature of the vacuum, which is ubiquitous and independent
of time and space, (because those emergent properties are not general,
but specific only to our reference frame). The vacuum must provide
clues to every step of our evolution, but is weighted toward the general
state that contains signatures of all possible other universes as
well. What is exciting to me is that the Vacuum is the elusive
'Most Recent Common Ancestor' that is missing from the phylogenetic tree
of life. Both the beginning point, and the end point of the
cosmological evolutionary tree are accessible to us.
3. Our current ability to scientifically (mathematically) answer
the question posed near the top in bold orange letters is obviously
limited. Perhaps the demand for a binary 'yes or no' answer needs
to be parsed into something like: Are there any models/calculations that
say no? What assumptions limit the models that say 'yes'? etc.
4. Quantum physics provides us with a number of counter-intuitive
'surprises' that must guide any search for our origins. They can
be summarized in seventeen words:
Reality is subjective.
Reductionism fails.
All meaning is emergent.
A Superposition of contradicting premises
underlines every inquiry.
The fundamental nature of reality seems to be embedded only in 'fields',
which are partially, selectively, and always imperfectly sampled by
observers, and which cannot be turned into physical reality without
observers. That points to the importance of mind in the
description of reality itself, and yet, as I said much earlier, in no
way does that support Solipsism. Nor does it imply the dominance
of logic despite the fact that our brains are built like biological
computers. Yes, reality is fundamentally mental (i.e.
information), and any non-mental reality is merely a model created by
mind. The rules of quantum mechanics sampled above must guide that
model building. (Key, to me, is the treatment of contradictory
premises, which must not be thought of as roadblocks to understanding,
but as the very pathways to it. They most often occur in pairs and
are the direct equivalent of pair production of virtual particles.)
Yes, the Creation that greets us when our individual consciousness
emerges out of its womb is very well prepared indeed. It simply
remains for us to decode it.
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