Quantum Gravity, Parallel Universes,
Three Dimensional Sinkholes,
Curved Space-time and Black Holes

Science (physics) is not intuitive

and common-sense assumptions no longer work.

The Theoretical Elegance and Beauty of Supersymmetry

There are according to the theory of supersymmety MANY kinds of matter which cannot be seen but they exist and these particles are called superpartners. None have ever been seen in spite of all of the efforts which have been attempted by particle physicists to detect them. If the When the Large Hadron Collider at Cern finally works there is the hope that they will be discovered. Even though hidden now, never-the-less, many physicists are passionate about the existence of supersymmetry and superpartners.

LHC, the Large Hadron Collider is enormous; it is 27 kilometers (17 miles) in circumference and contains 10,000 ultra-powerful large magnets to repeal particles to speeds approaching the speed of light - which is the cosmic speed limit - in a tunnel beneath Switzerland and France where it is situated.

When beams of protons smash into each other there eventually (it has not yet been turned up to full power) will be so much energy compressed into a tiny space that formerly unknown matter will be created, if only momentarily - like it was at the time of origin of the cosmos. It most assuredly will also result in micro-black holes very much like the primordial black holes created during the Big Bang.

Will superpartner particles appear as new supersymmetry particles and annihilate other matter in the universe? Will these black holes suck us all into them? Will the Earth cease to exist? What effect will the LHC have on the fabric of the universe; the one we live in?

In his famous general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein turned physics on its head. He showed that Science (physics) is not intuitive and common-sense assumptions no longer work. He demonstrated that the concept of space and the concept of time are one and the same. Relative to an observer space stretches and time moves slower as it approaches the speed of light. He established that nothing can exceed the speed of light, which is 670 million miles per hour (186,000 miles sec). And a decade on in his Theory of General Relativity he further described gravity as the warping of space-time and the existence of black holes.

We know now that there are fewer atoms in the universe and we don't know much about dark matter and dark energy and cannot detect them directly, but they have noticeable effects on energy and matter.

Whether or not we can identify everything in the universe, what we know for certain is, it is not nothingness. The universe has something in it. It also contains a lot of dust and we're also depositing a lot of space junk in space.

A Multiverse of Universes

We live in a multidimensional universe - perhaps a multiverse of universes.

"Like quarks or dark matter and dark energy, whose existence we only indirectly ascertain, extra dimensions will not appear to us directly. Nonetheless, signatures of extra dimensions, even when indirect, could ultimately reveal their existence." (Warped Passages, Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions - Lisa Randall - Harper 2006)

Time also has no absolute meaning except as a measure of change. In space there is no time. Time is only relative to the observer. We age, therefore we are aware of our chronology because it is relative to how we change.

If there is no air resistance we are not aware of falling. We think we are flying but when we are orbiting the earth we are not aware of our falling around the earth, which is exactly what we are doing. However, falling is not an observable phenomena.

"Neither space nor time has any existence outside the system of evolving relationships that comprises the universe..." (Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin)

We cannot see the entire universe. We can only see it from our local area where we are and that region which extends around us is approximately 14 billion light years - and pursuant to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, we know also that nothing can move faster than the speed of light.

"At this very moment, our galaxy is hurtling toward the Virgo cluster of galaxies at a couple of hundred kilometers a second, faster literally than a speeding bullet. Virgo is pulling us into its gravitational field. At the same time, our galaxy continues to rotate sedately: The invisible hand of gravity ties together the 100 billion stars that make up the galaxy..." (Einstein's Universe, Gravity At Work and Play, by A. Zee - Oxford U Press - 2001)

Space and time is integrated into space-time, based on Einstein's theory of general relativity; Space and time are geometrically integrated into a space-time fabric warped, distorted and curved by matter and energy.

SPACE-TIME

You can get to the moon in TWO seconds. That is how long it takes light to travel the distance. What we are seeing on the moon actually happened two seconds ago.

What is amazing is how much we know and how short a time we have known it and for that matter how much we do not know. We are also insignificant in the overall scheme of things. A tiny speck of life with a unique perception that we exist and our larger brains motivate us to sustain ourselves long enough so life doesn't become extinquished before we can pass on our own historic blueprint of life.

Space-time is a relative movement which seems normal but relies on a self-centered, anthropomorphic perception and while life is perception, it is not reality.

We Are Space Dust

How do so many become so brainwashed that they can be so anti-science, so anti-humanist and so many can believe in miracles and the supernatural?

We are a mere speck - space dust. Our sun is among hundreds of billions of stars in an island universe which is perhaps one of billions of universes, and galaxies; ours is called the Milky Way - about 3/5th of the way from the black hole in the center of the galaxy and we inhabit and in our little space, in our little corner of one universe we will stay lost. It is unlikely we will suvive long enough to ever meet other life like us, except for some of the millions of other species which also inhabit this planet.

Natural selection is indifferent to morality unless those who are more moral out produce those who are not. Morality, however remains a human construction so it takes on whatever meaning we assign to it. It may be that memes for "belief in God" does have an effect on reproduction and those who believe outproduce those who do not.

The ability to think is also the capacity to lie because the benefit accruing from lies could result in a benefit to reproduction, including survivability which is inherent component up to reproductive maturity and perhaps exceeding reproductive maturity if there is a benefit to survival of related genes.

Civilization is drunk on itself. We like our comforts and we like our toys. We are more interested in meat than in how we kill to obtain it. We want our fossil carbon in spite of safer energy sources because it is cheap(er) and there are profits to be made by oil cartels and money dictates policy, not what is ethical or right.

"We are in our present mess through our intelligence and inventiveness. It could have started as long as 100,000 years ago, when we first set fire to forests as a lazy way of hunting. We had ceased to be just another animal and begun the demolition of the Earth... (James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia - 2006)

6,000,000,000 Hungry and Greedy Humans

Aspiring to a First World lifestyle at any cost

Seven percent of adults in the UK believe in creationism. 45% Americans believe in creationism. 84% of Americans believe miracles happen. 79% believe the miracles in the Bible actually happened and 72% believe survivors of accidents are spared because God intervenes. These figures are from a study done by the University of California.

"Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; to lie in cold obstruction and to rot." (William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure)

We generally fear death. Not to deny we may reach a point in our lives where life becomes difficult and we do not cherish it so much. Losing those we love may leave us feeling empty and more accepting of the thought of death. But (Margulis and Sagan - What is Life?):

"If we did not fear death, we might be too quick to kill ourselves when troubled or inconvenienced and thus perish as a species. Belief in life's importance may not be a reflection of reality, then, but an evolutionary reinforced fantasy that prejudices believers to do what is necessary, bear whatever burdens to survive."

The Animal Ethics Encyclopedia (http://www.animalethics.org) says about "sentient beings", "broadly, sentience is the capacity to perceive and feel things..." Plants are not considered sentient and persons who are comatose are not considered sentient at that moment. To have sentience one must have the _capacity_ and feelings to suffer. It generally implies having a brain or nervous system. Sentience is comparable to consciousness.

However, ALL living things may not be sentient, but MUST have perception. Put simply, Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan wrote in What is Life?

"All living beings, not just animals, but plants and microorganisms, perceive. To survive, an organic being must perceive--it must seek, or at least recognize, food and avoid environmental danger."

"We all inherit a shared perspective bequeathed by our ancestors..." (Margulis and Sagan)

And, the notion that life has meaning is evolutionary. Our mind is a benefit to our species enabling successful survival and reproduction. But it is also predicated on religious myths and philosophical memes that co-opt reason reinforce the will to live.

"From a human point of view, it is our somatic selves--embedded in which are things like mind, personality, love, will--that we cherish most and that define us, to ourselves and to others. We think of reproduction as only one of many activities we can choose to engage in. Perhaps this is not surprising, since it is a point of view arising in the somatic part of ourselves--in our minds. We have used our minds to invent complex belief systems to explain death. None of these paint a picture of ourselves as excess baggage; none cast us simply as tools for transmitting DNA. Yet when we trace the origin of our death beyond mind and belief, to its true beginnings---the death of individual cells---we come to a rather harsh and unflattering conclusion: the irrelevance, in the grander scheme of the universe, of our somatic selves. No wonder belief so often trumps over reason." (William R. Clark, Sex & The Origins of Death)

A Falling Person Does Not Know He is Falling

As an atheist who recognizes the possibility of something beyond my understanding - though unconvinced it can be anything anywhere like the myths about GOD and intentionality that one finds inherent in religion I can never-the-less appreciate the following quote very much:

"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. --- from Empedocles, fifth century B.C.

If I had a choice and the time was now (not over 50 years ago), the new wisdom would certainly be a strong motivation for me to build my life around astrobiology. Everything I have had to learn about the cosmos has been an evolution in the knowledge we all have acquired in just the last few decades.

I was curious enough 50 years ago to become a Ham operator. Radio was new and television experimental. I built everything, including my first computer with resisters and capacitors. There were no transisters or circuit boards then. I worked for presidents and for the top field officers in the War Room in the Pentagon because I was informed by the latest "state-of-the-art" electronics, and worked with the engineers who built their crypto and wide-band communications systems. I was there at the White House when they installed their FIRST television system. It was delightfully stimulating, but nothing like what we are doing now. I was there at the White House when Sputnik orbited around the planet and because of the president ushered in a new age of technology. My uncle received the first computer, the ENIAC, from the U of Pennsylvania and I was enthused and amazed when it was demonstrated - enough to want to have my own computer when nobody knew what to do with them except the calculations they were doing at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and later in the Pentagon with their diode multipliers and tubes doing what today is done with computer chips.

Science was philosophy before it was science and physics actually began with gravity. Einstein was my hero at Princeton and he changed the way we thought about everything - building on Newtonian theory which haunted physics up to his time. Today it is Quantum physics and strings and membranes which are on the mind of many scientists and more questions have been raised than answered.

Illusion is Equivalent to, But Not Equal to Reality

Most of the Universe is Composed of Dark Matter

(And, we are not exactly sure what it is.)

And how much of what we perceive
is actually an illusion and how much of it is real?

How we See the Multiverse

in Space and Time

Gravity Bends Light

Gravity is Curved Space-Time

Starlight which passes a heavenly body bends just as space and time is warped by gravity and the words of politicians are most of the time deceptively skewed.

Pluto is no longer a planet. We are a flawed species easily fooled. Iintelligence is the illusion. And, truth and reality is a delusion.

Gravity curves space and Hominids believe what they want to believe. It seems as-if we are stationary; just as it seems to a rational person that the land we're standing on is flat; but the ground isn't flat and we aren't still; we are swirling around while all the time being pulled towards the center of the planet. Our size and electromagnetic force keeps us from slipping between atoms and falling into the abyss.

"Electromagnetic forces grip atoms to one another building up molecules and the ... and the electromagnetic force that stops us falling to the centre of the planet..." (Forces of Nature)

"Four fundamental forces rule the universe: gravity, the electromagnetic force and then two that act in and around the atomic nucleus, known as strong and weak. The latter pair act over distances smaller than atoms and so are less familiar to our macroscopic senses than are the effects of gravity and magnets. However, they are critical to our existence, keeping the Sun burning and providing the essential warmth for life." (Frank Close - ibid)

In orbit we are falling but we fall around a mass or we may fall into it, just as it falls into us. Mariners navigate a path on a curved body of water. Their route is along a curve circle. The universality of gravity is all objects respond in the same way; they follow the path of least _distance_ in curved space and time.

And as you stand on Earth you are pulled by its core as the earth falls toward the sun. Because the earth has inflationary momentum and all mass in the universe is stretching it never quite gets to the sun. In billions of years, it will.

"At this very moment, our galaxy is hurtling toward the Virgo cluster of galaxies at a couple of hundred kilometers a second, faster literally than a speeding bullet. Virgo is pulling us into its gravitational field. At the same time, our galaxy continues to rotate sedately: The invisible hand of gravity ties together the 100 billion stars that mke up the galaxy. Our dear old sun stays within this hurtling swarm of stars only because of its attraction to all those other stars, just as our earth stays within the solar system because of its attraction to the sun. On an evewn smaller scale, we say tied to the earth by gravity, with nary a fear of falling off. On a grander scale, as the universe tries to expand to even larger size, every bit of matter it contains is trying to rein the universe in by pulling gravitationally on every other bit of matter..." (A. Zee, Einstein's Universe: Gravity at Work and Play, Oxford U Press, 1989)

Everything you see in the night sky is moving. Planets move around stars and stars move. Galaxies move. Everything is moving. We understand most of this movement because of gravity and Einstein.

"...Galileo Galilei was the first person to collect data on falling objects (actually balls rolling down a sloped platform). From these data he produced an equation that showed falling objects travel in parabolas." (University Lowbrow Astronomers University Lowbrow Astronomers Gravity, Part 2: Newton, Hooke, Halley and the Three Body Problem. by Dave Snyder in Reflections: April, 2006)

But before the telescope philosophers and astronomers were limited to what they could see with the naked eye. It took giant telescopes to see well stars, planets, comets, nebulae and it took new ways of looking at these things, i.e. xrays, gamma rays, microwaves, etc to really see the universe which may in actuality be multiple universes and our human time frame for looking at globular clusters, galaxies and universes and multiverses, may be the greatest limitation of all.

It may be that our greatest limitation is being human and the way we see and perceive the world and our universe is merely an illusion.

Hank Roth

e-mail: epsilon@inyourface.info

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Today is Tuesday September 07, 2010

G 0 l e m D e s i g n s
Hank Roth (on the Internet since 1982)
While I don't use a standard blog (weblog software) mostly because I've been doing this too long - having been there with Ike when the precursor to the Internet, Arpanet got started and every step of the way since, I can't get into all the many fads over the years (now it is social networking), but I have been an observer and participant in events which shape the world since my time with NSA and with Army Security and as a voice security cryptologist in the White House for the President, and the War Room at the Pentagon for the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff plus two wars. You could say this site is one of the better kept secrets [grin] on the InterNUT. You are invited back as often as you would like to see what I and others, I trust, may be saying.
-- Hank Roth [viewed 158 times]