Many people nowadays accept quantum physics as a fact of life. It has been able to explain successfully the periodic table of elements, it has been used to predict and design lasers, it has been used to build nuclear reactors, and it has been able to explain precisely the interaction of light with matter. But at the same time this revolutionary scientific theory has forced us to reshape our way of thinking and the way in which we view our Universe by doing away forever with the concept of atoms as “solid” objects and replacing such concept with a thing as ethereal as a wave function and the utter impossibility to understand the nature of such “waves” of matter, whatever they might be.
If we are designing a universe all to our own, as master creators we could consider improving upon the current design and try to come up with a universe where modern quantum physics will be cast aside and replaced with a universe where atoms and molecules are truly “solid” objects that can be located precisely in space and whose motions can be predictable in a fully deterministic matter. After all, this was the widely held belief before the start of the twentieth century. Or even better, why not do away with the concept of matter being built out of discrete units called atoms, replacing it instead with the concept of matter built out of some homogeneous substance? This would do away with any type of quantum physics altogether, and the entire field of physics would be describable with “classical” physics, just as Laplace and Newton wanted it to be.
As tempting as the above may sound, we may have no choice other than to resort to quantum physics in order to come up with a viable universe, as all other alternatives will throw us into a world of paradoxes that will make the paradoxes of quantum physics look like child’s play. To begin with, trying to come up with a universe made up of a solid “continuous” homogeneous substance will send us directly into a snake pit: the problem of infinite divisibility. Let us see what Richard Schlegel has to say about this topic in his book Superposition and Interaction:
“It is a bonus of the discovery through quantum theory of a limit on space-time specification that an old philosophical problem is now satisfactorily resolved: How far can one divide matter? The question was discussed in Greek philosophy, and given an answer by the atomists Leucippus and Democritus (fifth century B.C.): the process of dividing stops at ultimate indivisible and unstructured entities, the atoms (the Greek word atomos means “individual). Aristotle, for one, could not accept that answer because the concept of an immutable atom contradicted his doctrine that the essence of matter is its being subject to change. A general philosophical question that arises with the idea of divisibility, and that was particularly well stated by Immanuel Kant is, however, still of interest. Suppose we think of some finite volume V of matter being divided into halves, then each of those being divided again into two, and so on. If we carry out this process n times, the original volume will have been divided into 2n pieces, each of volume V/2n. For n a finite number, there is no logical problem: if we bring together the 2n pieces, we regain the initial material volume V. However, we may think of the process of division as in some manner being carried through an actual infinite number of steps, with n approaching Aleph0, the (infinite) cardinal number of the denumerable set (for example, the integers 1, 2, 3, …). The set of elements cut out of the original volume V will now have the cardinal number Aleph which is the same as the ‘power of the continuum,’ the number of mathematical points in any spatial domain of finite or infinite (as opposed to vanishingly small) extension. These ultimate entities of the physical world must each then have the spatial property of mathematical points –that is, of being altogether and completely without spatial extension. [In the book by Richard Schlegel, a brief mathematical derivation is given for this conclusion. The proof has not been repeated here, for it presupposes a knowledge of the "transfinite" numbers of set theory developed by Georg Cantor. The details of the proof can be skipped without loss of continuity for the conclusions that follow.] But a physical volume with a magnitude of nondenumerable infinity is impossible, because any dimension of space will contain at most a countably infinite set (cardinal number Aleph0) of spatial units. Hence, each of the ultimate entities must have no spatial extension. On the other hand, it is also true that a finite material body cannot be made up of elements each of which has zero spatial volume, even if they form a set with cardinal number Aleph0. So we have the dilemma that infinite divisibility leads to entities that cannot aggregate into matter. It may be objected that the infinite sequence of divisions for the volume V is not achievable physically. Such an objection, however, is not valid as long as we hold a conception of matter in space that gives it the continuous property of mathematical space. For then, just as we can conceive of a continuum of mathematical points without actually writing them all out, we can likewise conceive of specifying every mathematical point in a volume V of matter. The puzzling problem is consequent: in thought we can analyze matter into an uncountable set of elements which cannot themselves constitute matter. With the establishment of quantum physics we do, however, completely escape from the dilemma. We are no longer justified in conceiving of infinite divisibility of matter … The possible sharpness of localization of an element of matter or radiation is a function of the energy available, and once the prescribed limit has been reached there is no physical significance in specification of a more precise location … This limit is at what is termed the ‘Planck length’. It is defined as (hG/c3)1/2, where G is the Newtonian gravitational constant and c is the speed of light. In magnitude it is 1.6•10-33 cm. At this length we can expect that space would quite lose any continuity or even measurability … there is a point at which increase in energy of localization will be self-defeating: one would convert the spatial region of interest into a black hole, removed from the ordinary metric continuum … Considering now the measurement of time, we give an indication that one cannot measure a time t for which ct is less than the Planck length.”
Thus, there are deeply rooted important philosophical reasons, fully backed by rigorous formal logic, for why matter should not be infinitely divisible, for why it should be made up of discrete units such as atoms, for why it should be quantized. And indeed this is precisely what we have discovered, that all matter is made up of those small discrete units we call atoms. Can we extend the argument even further and apply it to the atoms themselves, expecting a similar outcome? Perhaps we can. For more than a century we have suspected and have verified many times since then that the atoms are not made up of a solid “continuous” homogeneous substance, but instead they are made up of even smaller discrete units: the proton with positive electric charge, the electron with negative electric charge and the neutron which is electrically neutral (thus its name). Can we extend the argument even further and apply it to these very small subatomic particles, expecting a similar outcome? We might try, and we then find out according to one particular theoretical model that protons and neutrons are made up of even smaller discrete units such as quarks and gluons, which can be combined by Man in many different ways to create new subatomic particles that are not observed in Nature. And these new subatomic particles have indeed been created by Man, making it extremely plausible that quarks and gluons do indeed exist, though they have never been observed directly. However, extending the argument further down below the atoms themselves poses an enormous risk, the risk that we may be right for the wrong reasons. This is because, as we have already observed before in a previous discussion regarding quantum mechanics, at very small distance scales matter can behave not as “solid matter” but as “waves of matter”. The salient property of any so-called “material” object is that it can be precisely localized in space and, if it is moving, its speed and direction are uniquely determined and can be measured with unlimited accuracy. But, as we mentioned in Chapter 5, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle essentially rules this out as the object under observation gets smaller and smaller. Instead of finding smaller and smaller “solid billiard balls” we would find “something” spread out in space as “wavy fuzzy” clouds, with the relative density of the cloud representing the probability (not the certainty!) that we will find the object in such a location. How then can you attempt to “cut out” such a cloud? How can you attempt to divide it? Any attempts towards further divisibility will be as successful as trying to divide a rainbow with a knife. It is almost as if a “fail-safe” mechanism had been inherently built into the very nature of matter to prevent us from running into the paradox of infinite divisibility as we might attempt to go deeper and deeper while trying to find out what we (and the Universe) are really made of. Interestingly enough, in spite of the best efforts by many talented experimentalists using some of the most powerful particle accelerators built to date, we have not been able to “break down” any subatomic particles to obtain from them free quarks. Going so deep appears to take us to a different level of reality where our traditional logic breaks down, where even time and space themselves are not continuous but are also quantized, where events taking place at such small scales appear to defy all intuition. For the time being, we must content ourselves to putting an upper limit to how far we can take the discretization process, and self-restrict to what we can theoretically predict and confirm with experiments.
Having agreed that Nature should be built up entirely of quantum units, describable with some sort of quantum physics, the next design issue we must face is: which quantum physics? Should we use the modern-style quantum mechanics that postulates that those small discrete units that make up matter must behave as a solid particle or as a wavy fuzzy probabilistic cloud (depending upon the experiment performed)? The wave-particle duality of matter from the very beginning has posed many challenges to our intuition, and every quantum-reality view of the world proposed to date has brought ideas so outlandish and outrageous (just take a look at the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics) that it is extremely tempting to do away with modern quantum mechanics altogether. Thus we could try to design a universe where atoms do not behave as wavy fuzzy probabilistic clouds under any experimental condition. As a matter of fact, this is precisely how the “old-fashioned” quantum mechanics used to work, with atoms resembling solid billiard balls able to combine with each other to form many different types of molecules. But as tempting as it may be, resorting to this type of design almost immediately brings about some extremely serious design issues that cannot be simply resolved. For example, in Niels Bohr’s model of the atom, each atom was conceived as an almost solid sphere, with one or more protons located at the center of the atom (and perhaps containing one or more neutrons also) and with the very small electrons swirling fast around the nucleus in fixed orbits. This “planetary” model certainly could account for many phenomena. But there is one big problem: according to classical electrodynamics, an electric charge rapidly moving in a circular orbit will emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (this phenomenon is known as bremsstrahlung), and by losing energy continuously it will quickly spiral down towards the nucleus of the atom. Any universe built with such model would not last even a second! There are other extremely serious design issues in trying to rely upon some type of “old-fashioned” quantum mechanics, but perhaps the most serious design issue of them all is their inability to synthesize newer elements from basic ones. For if we are to design a Universe capable of harboring some sort of intelligent life, we need to provide not just one or two basic elements (such as hydrogen and oxygen) but a variety of many different elements. A wide enough selection of chemical elements has to be available, at least wide enough so that it will provide a minimum framework from which complexity will be expected to arise. Just as in the case of cellular automata where John von Neumann found it necessary to resort to 29 different states instead of just two or three in order to define a self-replicating automaton, and cellular automata with a bare minimum of states (as in the game of Life that only allows two states) were found to be too clumsy and restrictive in the construction of self-replicating automata, likewise the case of trying to build a universe that will foster complexity seems to require no less than twenty or thirty different chemical elements. But if these twenty or thirty chemical elements cannot be built from the simpler ones (hydrogen and helium, in our case) because they all behaved from the very beginning as “solid billiard balls”, then they must be available since the very moment of creation. The entire periodic table of elements would have to exist since the very moment the Big Bang took place, dashing all hopes that the universe will come into being from very simple principles using the least amount of “material” and “complexity”. But even more worrisome, if the universe was born out of a very small singularity, a point of infinite density, how do you reconcile this fact with “solid billiard balls” except by going into further complications?
It turns out that designing a universe with modern-style quantum mechanics, in spite of its many quandaries, is not such a bad deal after all. If we resign ourselves to a picture where matter in its most elementary form can only be described as a wavy fuzzy probabilistic cloud, then many things become possible. Under this scheme, the entire periodic table of elements can be generated starting from just one simple element, hydrogen, by the process of nuclear fusion. In effect, by bringing two hydrogen atoms very close together, they can be fused into a heavier element, helium. If three hydrogen atoms are fused together, we can obtain lithium. Repeating the fusion process, we can generate the entire periodic table of elements. And it can be generated using only hydrogen as a starting point (and hydrogen in turn can be generated from its more basic constituent parts). It is hard to conceive of a simpler creation scheme than this one. And there is an added bonus: in carrying out the fusion process a lot of energy is generated. This is precisely the process that powers stars like our own Sun allowing them to output vast amounts of energy over extended periods of time. And this is just what we need in order to supply many planets with the warmth needed to foster the appearance and the evolution of life.
The philosophical problem of infinite divisibility arises not only when we attempt to divide matter indefinitely. It also arises conceptually when we try to divide pure radiant energy (like the energy we get from the Sun or from a warm electric heater during a cold winter night) forever. As a matter of fact, this is how quantum mechanics got started; by attempting to resolve a puzzling paradox that came from the assumption that radiant energy could be conceived of as being made up of “something” that could be divided forever. In studying blackbody radiation (a blackbody is a system which absorbs all the radiation incident on it, and the radiation can be approximated by a cavity with a very small opening, but for clarity the reader may assume that this radiation is somewhat similar to the visible light given off by an iron rod that is so hot that it begins to glow with the characteristic reddish-white color seen in foundries) the theoretical model one would obtain via the methods of classical physics while trying to describe the “color spectrum” given off by a very hot “blackbody” would be the one embodied in the Rayleigh-Jeans law that gave an almost accurate description of the color spectrum and predicted correctly that such color spectrum would be the same regardless of the material used to manufacture the “blackbody”. As we mentioned, the description was almost accurate; it was very precise for those portions of light having a small frequency (colors on the red side of the rainbow), but for higher and higher frequencies (colors on the blue side of the rainbow) the formula predicted what is known as the ultraviolet catastrophe with the distribution of radiated energy approaching an infinitely high value, contradicting experimental results that showed that at higher and higher frequencies the distribution of energy came arbitrarily close to zero. Again, another deeply troubling paradox, from which there was no way out, until in October 1900 Max Planck was able to come up empirically with another formula that had no theoretical justification at the time, a formula that resorted to a trick to make the mathematics simpler, but a formula that nevertheless predicted correctly the distribution of the radiated energy at all frequencies of light. Having obtained such a formula, he then tried to look for a physical basis for the formula and modify the premises by making the size of an arbitrary constant h in his results arbitrarily small so that he would be able to obtain an improved model based upon a “continuous” range of energy sources. [Mathematically speaking, in carrying out this limiting process we are actually replacing a very large summation by an integral, since it is the tools of infinitesimal calculus what we must use to model continuous phenomena.] But the formula stubbornly resisted further manipulations, for any attempts to make h smaller and smaller would inevitably lead to the same conclusions given by the Rayleigh-Jeans law and the predicted ultraviolet catastrophe. If the constant h was given a certain value, then the values predicted by the formula would match exactly with experiment. At this point, Max Planck rightly suspected that the empirical formula he had derived was telling him something he had not anticipated, something much more profound that had to do with the very nature of all radiant energy, something that would revolutionize our conceptual way of thinking. He was forced to conclude later on that all radiant energy could not be considered infinitely divisible, that there was a point at which any type of radiant energy could not be divided any further [In a letter dated October 7th 1931 to American physicist Robert Williams Wood, Max Planck confessed: "… what I did can be described as simply an act of desperation … A theoretical interpretation (of the radiation formula) had to be found, no matter how high."], that the statistical approach he had used in the derivation of his formula implied that pure radiant energy was actually made up of “particles” of energy. These small discrete units that make up all radiant energy are what we know today as photons. With all matter quantized and all energy also quantized, it appears that the only things in the Universe that can still be divided forever with no end in sight are the dimensions of time and space. But perhaps this just might be another illusion that is being hidden from us very cleverly by the way the Universe is set up. We could suspect that the problems of infinite divisibility might also apply to time and space. For one thing, Einstein’s equation of general relativity (G = 8πT) equates a purely continuous concept (space-time, on the left-hand side of the equation) with a purely discrete concept (matter-energy, on the right-hand side of the equation), thus stating that a continuous reality (infinitely divisible) is equal to a discrete reality (finitely divisible). To any inquiring philosopher, this may very well sound like plain nonsense, and a modification would be in order whereby the left-hand side in the equation of general relativity would have to be replaced by something describing space-time as being discrete instead of being continuous. On the other hand, if time and space (individually or perhaps taken together) were not continuous but discrete, this would do right away, once and for all, with many modern day paradoxes such as the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. But perhaps this would also mean that we, as physical beings, do not exist on a soft “continuous” reality but instead operate much like our computers and the cellular automata we design on them do, at “discrete” ticks of the clock, jumping from one state to another so fast that we are unaware of the process. Fortunately, and yet again, by another extraordinarily "lucky" coincidence, we can go ahead with our ordinary lives without having to worry about such things except when we have absolutely nothing else to do.
The problems of designing our small physical universe free from riddles and paradoxes and make it as logical as possible eventually stem from the desire to make it habitable. The requirement that the universe we are designing is to contain life appears to be a major constraint, limiting severely the number of possible worlds we could design. By imposing that requirement upon ourselves, we are really getting into a straightjacket. And why would we like to do such thing? The answer to this question could be as unfathomable as the reasons why an intelligent being wants to have children of his own in spite of the many disappointments, the many heartaches and the many worries he knows those children will bring upon him long before they reach “maturity”. Rather than delving into such concerns, we will proceed forward accepting the conditional requirement for life as just another design parameter we have to take into account.
If we are going to let our creation evolve into an environment capable of harboring life, especially intelligent life, we could draw a parallel between the evolution of our universe and a gigantic three-dimensional cellular automaton where the individual cells are so tiny that to an outside observer there would be no difference between that cellular automaton and “the real thing”. We have already seen that some initial conditions will produce dull universes with nothing much happening regardless of the amount of time we are willing to wait. We have already seen that other initial conditions will produce oscillating patterns that are pretty to look at, but neither more different nor any more intelligent than a gigantic collection of clocks of different shapes and colors. We have already seen that other initial conditions will produce completely random outcomes that will make it impossible for complex organized structures to emerge. Out of the many possible scenarios, only certain combinations of rules and initial patterns will be able to mimic the processes that are conducive to the appearance of those complex “dissipative structures” we call life. Our main task, therefore, is to discard all those many rules and initial patterns that will not fit into our design objectives, and keep those rules and patterns that will be of use to us. And how do we weed out the wheat from the chaff? We have already seen that in a very small, very limited two-dimensional cellular automaton that only allows two different states for any given “atom” and only allows the immediate eight neighboring cells to produce an effect, the number of possible combinations of rules is quite astronomical. For a three-dimensional cellular automaton allowing each “atom” to be capable of assuming many different states, the number of possible combinations of rules can very much be taken to be as big as infinity itself. Compounding the problem enormously is the stark fact that any semi-realistic cellular automaton model that will apply even modestly to our current Universe will have to incorporate into its rules the effects upon any individual cell coming not just from its immediate neighbors but also from cells located farther away than the immediate neighbors. Thus, if the primitive model is a three dimensional cellular automaton with each cell in the shape of a cube, then each cell will be surrounded by 26 immediate neighbors (resembling a 3x3 Rubik’s cube), surrounded in turn by another layer of neighbors having a smaller (though noticeable) effect on the cell at the center of the “crystal”, and so forth. Only by restricting severely the number of “outer neighbors” that can produce an effect upon the “center cell” would we save ourselves from ending up in a bedlam, since eternity itself would not seem to be big enough to try out all the possible combinations of rules in order to select the best one!
If we are taking the naturalist approach in trying to come up with a universe that will somehow resemble ours by using a three-dimensional cellular automaton as a startup model, the number of possible combinations of rules and initial patterns is so vast that we would have to be not just very lucky but infinitely lucky in order to discover those few rules an patterns that contain just what we are looking for. If we are taking the engineering approach, by designing our universe from the very beginning so as to meet some long-range requirements such as the appearance of intelligent life, then the job gets much tougher. For if we take the engineering approach, how do we guess correctly the few useful combinations of rules from an infinity of possibilities, as they will apply to a three-dimensional universe? By being not just smart, or extremely smart, but infinitely smart. There may be no other shortcut available. Otherwise, we may be going endlessly from one big mess to the other, with no end in sight, and not even the staunchest supporters of evolution will give this kind of program much chance of success after taking a hard look at the size of the numbers involved.
Nevertheless, and just for the sake of argument, let us assume that we know beforehand what are the values that we can use for the setting of important physical constants that will lead inexorably to a universe harboring intelligent life.
We must assume that, somehow, we have been able to master and comprehend infinity itself, since, as we saw at the end of Chapter Five, only by extending the accuracy of our initial conditions all the way down to an infinite level of precision will we be able to predict and control with omniscience the long range outcome of such a grand project.
Summing up what we have discussed so far, if the universe that is being designed is expected to bring about and harbor under rather hospitable conditions an intelligent life form such as Man, then most of the requirements set out in previous chapters must be met:
- It must satisfy the anthropic principle.
- It must allow nonlinear processes to occur and take place on a massive scale, not just any kind of processes but the right kind, precisely the kind that will enable the appearance of galaxies and intelligent life.
- It must allow the second law of thermodynamics to be conserved on several size and time scales, yet it must allow for this same law to be violated on other size and time scales.
- It must solve the problem of coming up with order zeta.
- It must operate in the long run under a set of simple rules.
- Once created, it must be self-sufficient; no additional tinkering should be needed or expected.
In order to meet all of the above demands, since our design is essentially a physical system we will require nothing less than absolute full mastery of subjects such as the following:
- Classical Electrodynamics
- Quantum Field Theory
- General Relativity
- Quantum Chromodynamics
- Quantum Electrodynamics
- Mechanical Statistics
- Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
- Statistical Thermodynamics
- Gauge Theory of Weak Interactions
- Nuclear Physics
- Astrophysics
- Cosmology
And all of the above is just for starters! It must be taken for granted that we will also require some kind of grand “Unified Field Theory” (a theory such as this one was a quest which Einstein himself was not able to accomplish during his lifetime), this being a theory which will be able to unite the theory of general relativity (which has been extremely successful in the explanation of macroscopic phenomena pertaining to the cosmos itself) and the theory of quantum mechanics (which has been extremely successful in the explanation of microscopic phenomena pertaining to atomic and subatomic particles) into a new science (yet to be discovered) that has already been dubbed “quantum gravity”. The closest thing we have to such a theory is the “Theory of Strings”, which does not even exist yet in its finished form and which has yet to make a single solid prediction that can be verified experimentally. In the final analysis, the theory we would require would have to be the “Theory of Everything”, a grand unified field theory capable of encompassing all of the known physical phenomena and all other phenomena yet to be discovered in the future. And this would have to be not just any “Theory of Everything” but the correct one in its final form, the Cabala of science itself! Thus, the would-be creator is required to be not just a master mathematician, but he must also be a master physicist. Indeed, if such a being were to walk among us at this very moment, he would be recognized immediately and hailed as the greatest scientist this part of the Universe (or perhaps the entire Universe, for that matter) has known.
No matter how we look at it, the job of coming up with the design of a universe that will inevitably lead to the creation of intelligent life forms now seems far more than we can handle, even if we vest ourselves with an IQ beyond a million points, even if somehow we are able to grasp some of the attributes of infinity itself, even if we are able to function beyond the confines of the space-time continuum, even if we are willing to wait for an eternity until we have come up with the “right” formula. We have seen many ways on how not to design a universe, ways that will lead to certain failure, but so far we have not yet seen a single one that will produce a “good” universe except the one we have been using all along for comparison purposes, the one we already know that works, that being the Universe we are living in at this very moment. Perhaps we should be a little bit more humble and look for something or somebody already working in a project of this magnitude, whose identity for the time being will be summed up briefly under the designation of “master planner”, more up to the task than we are. Assuming that the project is nearing completion and everything is about to be started, we will adopt the role of patient outside observers, anxiously awaiting the delivery of a child yet to be born.
Once everything has been taken into consideration, once all the design requirements have been met, the master planner is ready to set things into motion, giving the first impulse to the project in the precise manner, with all of the initial conditions figured out exactly, leaving nothing to chance. As the greatest project of them all evolves, we anticipate that everything will come into place at the right time, and many things will start happening just as they were supposed to happen.
As the drama is about to unfold, we can take backstage and try to imagine how things might develop, based on what we have been able to gather from our scanty knowledge. In order to group major events as they happen, it will be convenient to keep track of time with the closest thing we have at present to a “cosmic watch”. It is called coordinated universal time. We begin with what might be called Act I.
Coordinated Universal Time = 0 : The Moment of Creation.
There was no time.
There was no space.
There was only a blueprint that was to be followed.
All the instructions of what was to happen were encoded in the blueprint.
It was only a plan to be followed.
And nothing else.
Until “now”.
A single point of infinite density explodes into the greatest outpouring of mass and energy that could ever possibly be conceived by any living creature yet to come. From this fiery furnace bursts not only an incredible amount of some substance or force entity completely unknown to us, the furnace also gives birth to an expanding container that will hold such substance or entity. The container will soon coalesce into the three-dimensional manifold of rapidly expanding space that carries along that substance of unknown nature. This is able to happen because almost immediately after the explosion another dimension was being created: the dimension of time. The three-dimensions of space and the dimension of time since their very moment of birth are completely independent yet they are completely intertwined and linked into a four-dimensional manifold. This paradoxical behavior will become critical when the force of gravity is required to show its powers in the development of stars and galaxies. But for now, everything appears to be a major confusion, and it would be extremely hard for any living creature yet to come to expect any order to arise out of such chaos. Yet, the order will arise, in due time. Even within such chaos, the instructions from which it sprung are being carefully executed. The primeval outburst is the hardware of a gigantic and self-assembling cosmic computer that has just been built from scratch, whereas the instructions that are being executed by this computer come directly from the original blueprint that is being followed rigorously. The software is the blueprint.
Whilst everything is working out its way in the midst of such an apparent chaos, many events that defy imagination are surely taking place, events that are extremely hard for us to analyze, for the laws that govern this era are completely unknown to any of us. The theory of relativity by itself breaks down completely in this era. So does quantum mechanics. None of them by acting independently can explain many of the things that are happening here. We know that there have to be another set of rules hard at work during this epoch, rules that will eventually be replaced by some of the natural laws we are familiar with, but even the natural laws we know to hold true will derive directly from the workings of those primary master rules. In the meantime, even as outside observers we find ourselves completely disoriented and lost in this maelstrom. From the very moment of creation until a time lapse that has come to be known to us as Planck time, the inner workings of this era remain shrouded to us, exposing us to our own utter ignorance, in spite of the many things we have been able to accomplish.
Coordinated Universal Time = 5.4 •10-44 second : Planck Time.
The expansion continues at almost inconceivable speeds. For a while, it seemed like the expansion took a brief but incredibly huge exponential acceleration during which the temperature dropped precipitously, occurring about 10-35 second to 10-33 second after the moment of creation, with everything being pulled apart at speeds much faster than the speed of light because of the rapidity with which three-dimensional space is being created, and for the time being we will call this phase the “inflationary” period. But even after the expansion has slowed quite noticeably after this brief “spike”, the expansion still moves forward at an extremely rapid pace, for three-dimensional space continues to be created equally on all parts of the newly born universe. The density of matter, since it began to drop quickly from having a value of about 1089 kilograms per cubic centimeter, will only be about 500 kilograms per cubic centimeter about one second later. This is quite a drop in density in such a short time, for a density of 1089 kilograms per cubic centimeter written out in full appears to us as follows:
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms per cubic centimeter
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms per cubic centimeter
In the ensuing period of time, the newly born universe will continue to cool down considerably. From a temperature so high that it is far beyond any mensuration we may be able to devise, a material so hot that it easily exceeds many trillions of degrees Centigrade, the universe will have cooled down after the first second to about ten billion degrees Centigrade. Many fast-moving exotic elementary subatomic particles will have been created, but being particles that can only exist at such high temperatures for very brief instants of time, they will quickly decay into oblivion and will never again be seen in the universe, not unless some of the intelligent life forms yet to be born are wise enough to reproduce on a large laboratory some of the conditions under which these particles were created. True, with such high temperatures and such high densities, no life form can survive or be born. And the fast moving exotic particles would be a major health radiation hazard to any organic being. But things will cool down as the universe continues its rapid expansion, and the vast majority of the exotic particles will die out, no longer posing the risk they once did. All these intermediate exotic particles can be considered to be by-products on the way to achieve something else, just as the intermediate calculations carried out on a computer are the necessary steps to obtain an end result.
Coordinated Universal Time = 0.0000000001 second : Some Strange By-Products.
The temperature of the universe is still extremely high, close to some one thousand trillion degrees Centigrade (1015 degrees). Strange particles abound everywhere, such as the particles that have come to be known to us much later as the “weak bosons W and Z”. These particles will die quickly and will only be seen again very briefly whenever some intelligent species are able to build machines powerful enough to recreate for extremely short periods of time the hot conditions of this early stage of the universe. But even more interesting particles can be observed flying all over, such as “quarks” and their antiparticles. This will be the only period of time when free quarks can be found anywhere in the universe, for they soon will be trapped forever never to be seen again under any condition.
Coordinated Universal Time = 0.00000001 second : Creation of Protons and Neutrons.
The temperature has now dropped by about an order of magnitude. It is now close to one hundred trillion degrees Centigrade (1014 degrees). The universe that was filled with a very dense gas made up of photons, leptons and quarks is now undergoing a major change. The quarks are rapidly becoming trapped into small pockets known to us as “hadrons”, and the mechanism responsible for this entrapment has come to be known as the “strong force”. The free quarks are disappearing completely never to be seen again in this universe. Many types of hadrons are being created, such as the pions, but these particles have very short lifetimes and eventually all will end up decaying. But there are two particles that will last long enough to serve as a solid foundation for material things yet to come: the protons and the neutrons, the basic constituents of the nuclei of every single stable atom that will be found someday in this universe. The temperature continues to plummet rapidly, and as it comes close to one trillion degrees Centigrade, most of the heavier hadrons have become annihilated.
Coordinated Universal Time = 0.0001 second : Massive Creation of Neutrinos.
The temperature is about one trillion degrees Centigrade (1012 degrees), and the density of the universe is now about a thousand tons per cubic centimeter. The universe is now made up of a mixture of many particles such as electrons, muons, pions and some other particles besides the protons and the neutrons. A massive annihilation process takes place: the muons begin to annihilate with their corresponding antiparticles the antimuons, and very soon there will be no muons left in the early universe. After the muon holocaust, the universe becomes filled with very stable muon neutrinos, tau neutrinos and electron neutrinos in abundant quantities that will be hard to detect because they hardly interact with matter. This is an extraordinarily lucky fact, for with the enormous quantities of neutrinos wandering all over the universe they would pose a very serious radiation hazard for a very long time to come to any life form trying to appear and evolve later on; although perhaps luck didn’t have anything to do with this. On the other hand, a neutron-proton ratio of one neutron to every five protons is established, even though there were originally as many protons as there were neutrons at the start. The reason for why there are more protons left than neutrons after this short period of time has to do with their very small difference in mass. The neutron is about 14% more massive than the proton, and this difference makes it more likely for a neutron to convert into a proton than for a proton to convert into a neutron once the temperature has fallen below a certain threshold, a threshold that has just been crossed.
Coordinated Universal Time = 1 second : A Cosmic Fusion Reactor.
The temperature of the universe has now dropped to about 10 billion degrees Centigrade. The density of the radiation is about 100 kilograms per cubic centimeter. As the universe keeps on expanding, a process nothing short of miraculous is starting to take place: nucleosynthesis. Just before this process started, we could have seen vast quantities of protons moving around all the confines of the universe, repelling each other. We know from basic electricity that two electrical charges with the same sign repel each other with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance that separates them, and since a proton has a positive electrical charge we are not surprised that no two protons are coming very close together, for if they were to come close to touching each other the force of repulsion between them would grow exponentially sending them apart. But there is another natural law that can help the protons overcome this repulsive force; it is our old friend quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics will allow two protons to “tunnel through” the repulsive force and “fuse” together provided the energy required for the tunneling phenomenon to take place is big enough. And right now, it is. With the high energies required for what is now happening, the individual protons that will be used later on to make hydrogen atoms begin to fuse together, and many of the individual protons merging together thus loose their individual identities as a new two-protons nucleus is created. This two-proton nucleus will be the essential ingredient for a new element yet to be born in the universe: helium (almost all of the helium we observe today comes from the helium nuclei formed during this era). The effect is so widespread that the universe has now become a runaway thermonuclear reactor; with a massive chain reaction taking place that will only last for about 15 minutes. Besides helium nuclei, a very small quantity of deuterium nuclei is also being created (this is formed by fusing together a proton and a neutron, forming “heavy hydrogen”, the precursor of “heavy water”).
Coordinated Universal Time = 100 seconds : The Results of the First Nuclear Fusion.
The temperature is now about 1 billion degrees Centigrade. Close to 25% of the original protons and neutrons have now been converted into helium nuclei, while the remaining 75% is made up almost entirely of the hydrogen nuclei that survived the fusion process. This is precisely the relative percentage of helium we find nowadays throughout the cosmos. All those neutrons that escaped from the thermonuclear fusing process are now in the process of decaying, since any neutron that is free and not bound to any nuclei will decay into a proton, an electron and a neutrino in about 1,000 seconds. By the time the universe was about 100 seconds old, some of the neutrons had already begun to decay, and at the end of this period free neutrons will no longer be found in the universe.
Coordinated Universal Time = 1,000 seconds : A Sea of Tranquility.
The expansion of the universe continues unabated, and the temperature continues to decline. However, no new developments are seen to arise from here until what might seem like a long period of time. The thick dense matter filling the expanding vessel is composed of neutrinos, photons, and free electron and protons. The universe is still so hot that any hydrogen and helium atoms that might otherwise form are prevented from doing so; any electron trying to join any proton is quickly stripped away. Since photons interact strongly with charged particles such as electrons and protons, in the sense that these charged particles can absorb, emit and scatter the photons, during this period the electromagnetic radiation (the photons) is strongly coupled to matter (the protons and electrons), and thus radiation and matter are in almost full thermal equilibrium with each other. Indeed, everything appears to be so stable now, that it is hard to envision how anything else might happen. With everything in thermal equilibrium, it might look for a moment as if this universe has reached its thermal death as predicted by the second law of thermodynamics. One thousand years go by, and nothing happens, except for the constant temperature decline and the never-ending expansion of the universe. Ten thousand years go by, and nothing happens, save for the temperature decrease and the expansion. Fifty thousand years go by, and still nothing happens. Is there something the master planner might have overlooked? We have waited a long time, and we begin to wonder whether this universe could have been just another botched experiment. But no, too many wonderful things have already happened. Even if nothing else happened from here on, the wonders that have been displayed are truly something to make any experimenter extremely proud. Indeed, setting up everything so as to reproduce the events that have taken place since the moment of birth until the first fifteen minutes in this creation is no small achievement.
Coordinated Universal Time = 100,000 years : The Defeat of Thermal Equilibrium.
The temperature is now close to something like 4,000 degrees Centigrade. As the universe keeps growing, matter is no longer as dense as it used to be. Everything else appears to remain the same, except when we take a closer look here and there we discover something momentous trying to happen. The electrons are no longer being knocked quite as fast from their orbits about the protons as they used to be. New particles are trying to form; and these particles are much bigger than anything else that might have come before them. They don’t last long, for eventually the high energies are enough to tear them apart, but they are becoming more and more common. As they begin to multiply, their survival hinges upon whether things will cool down enough for them to be able to exist for more than a few microseconds. These new unstable particles that are beginning to emerge for short periods of time are what we will know as atoms.
Coordinated Universal Time = 300,000 years : Creation of the First Solid Atoms.
The temperature has now fallen to about 3,000 degrees Centigrade. Previously, the growing universe was dominated by the highly energetic photons, and the intense electromagnetic radiation provided by these photons forbid any solid atoms from being formed, since as soon as any of the wandering electrons combined with the existing protons to form hydrogen or helium atoms, the electrons would be knocked out of their orbits from these primitive atoms returning the protons to their solitary status as free particles. However, the photons no longer have the energy necessary to knock all of the electrons off all the newly born atoms, and these new atoms will survive not for a few microseconds or a few milliseconds but for billions upon billions of years. No longer wasting time trying to destroy these new structural units, the photons are now free to roam all over the expanding universe. The first stable atoms thus begin to appear in ever growing quantities as the laws of quantum mechanics that govern the behavior of these new entities take over. At the same time, the universe, which was opaque because the photons were being used up in their interaction with protons and neutrons, is now quickly becoming transparent though filled with a bright yellow haze. Besides the appearance of the first stable atoms, another important event is taking place: instead of being dominated by radiation the universe is now dominated by matter, since the energy density of the photons is now overrun by the energy density of matter in the form of hydrogen and helium atoms. As the temperature continues to drop the universe undergoes through all of the colors available from the rainbow, and from that yellow haze it once had it will take an orange hue, a red hue, a blue hue, a violet hue, until it eventually reaches the darkness of space we see nowadays.
Coordinated Universal Time = 10 million years : Growing Lumps of Particles.
The universe is still so dense that there has not been any chance for galaxies or protogalaxies to form anywhere. Galaxies resembling those like the ones we have today would be lying one on top of the other and shoulder-to-shoulder. The density of matter of the entire universe, which is about one hydrogen atom per cubic centimeter, is equivalent to the density of matter inside the galaxies of today. However, the distribution of matter in the universe is not entirely homogeneous. Some small perturbations in the density of matter have begun to appear, manifesting themselves as huge lumps of hydrogen and helium gas. These perturbations may have originated perhaps when the beginning of the expansion took place, perhaps as initial tiny density fluctuations already present immediately after the birth of this universe. It all happened so fast that we did not even took notice. But those perturbations have now begun to grow. The only thing that might tear apart these lumps of cosmic dust is the speed with which the universe is expanding, rapidly creating vast new regions of space between them.
Coordinated Universal Time = 100 million years : Coalescing of Protogalaxies.
The universe maintains a rapid pace of expansion. For awhile, it seemed that with most of the hydrogen and helium atoms being scattered across wider and wider distances, eventually the universe would have consisted of a vast dark expanse filled with a uniform distribution of a very thin gas mixture composed of hydrogen and helium besides those large lumps of particles, and nothing else. But just when the universe appeared to have been reaching its final fate, another process nothing short of miraculous begins to take place: the force of gravity begins to exert its pull and gather together more and more particles into those lumps that are quickly growing in size. In a gigantic tug-of-war, working frantically to counteract the expansionary process before it is too late, almost with clockwork precision the pull of gravity begins to gather those scattered waifs into larger and larger families. As the gravitational effects begin to multiply because of the combined gravitational pull of so many particles gathering together in many hierarchies of families, large masses of interstellar dust spiral towards their final destination. Eventually, the quantities of the particles gathered in some places will be big enough, and their energies will also be big enough, so that the hydrogen atoms will again begin to fuse creating something else that had not existed before in this universe: stars, in a scenario not unlike the one depicted by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope of a cosmic cradle of stars:
Upon the obscure infinity of what seemed to be an absolute vacuum devoid of any visible objects, one by one small bright specks of light begin to appear. Almost as if being decorated like a gigantic Christmas tree, the vast dark expanse no longer seems like such a lonely place.
Coordinated Universal Time = Some 500 million years : Creation of the Periodic Table.
As skeptical outside observers, we might be tempted to complain about the outlook of the universe so being created. All we have seen from one edge to the other are gigantic clouds of gas and stars in which the only elements we can detect are hydrogen and helium. Where is the iron needed to build spacecraft and tall buildings? Where is the oxygen needed to create water? Where is the carbon needed for the birth of organic chemistry and primitive life forms? For everywhere we look around, we find none. We can only find hydrogen and helium. And nothing else.
Then, as if to silence us, a loud thunder roars across a small corner of this emerging cosmos lighting up the sky with the brilliance of a million stars: the first supernova has just been born:
A massive shell of debris is thrown outwards flying in all directions. The death of a star carries along a mixed blessing, for in its throes of death before collapsing into a neutron star it has carried thermonuclear fusion much farther than any other previous stellar process, achieving yet another miraculous success: the hydrogen and helium atoms of the star have just been fused many times over, and the entire periodic table of elements has just been generated in the agony of this sun that will soon fade away into oblivion. The shell of debris races outwards towards other confines near the area where the explosion has just occurred, carrying along its precious cargo of oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, carbon, calcium, sodium, and many other elements that hopefully will be put to good use some day when the time comes. Much of the debris will soon find its way to join the remnants of other supernovas soon to follow in order to begin the buildup process of some of those solid cosmic bodies that will be known as planets. Thus, in a twist of fate, the extinction of a giant will be pivotal in bringing about elsewhere the essential materials needed to support life. After the first supernova explosion, another corner of the universe follows suit with the second supernova explosion, and then another one comes along, followed by another, and so on, until the expanding cosmos seems to be filled with celestial firecrackers.
Coordinated Universal Time = 2 to 4 billion years later : A Harvest of Miracles.
The spectacle we can see wherever we turn our eyes is impressive. We see millions upon millions of stars of different sizes and colors, gathered together into large galactic families. There is an enormous variety of galaxies, and when we look close enough we find out that no two galaxies are identical to each other. There are lenticular-shaped galaxies, there are spiral shaped galaxies, there are elliptical galaxies, there are giant nebulas, and there are globular clusters of stars. There are also clusters of galaxies and superclusters of galaxies, with immense voids between them. We feel the presence of strange invisible objects having an enormous mass density, whose gravitational pull does not allow anything to escape from them, not even light, and we conclude that these cannot be anything else but those mysterious objects we know as black holes. We also find other strange objects, among them extremely bright sources of energy, which must be quasars. There are many other interesting objects, such as neutron stars. But there is one thing that definitely catches our attention: planetary systems around some of the stars. And as we watch more closely, in some of the planets there appear to be some very small aggregates of matter having the same shape and which seem to move on their own, each one being no bigger than the head of a pin. These ordered aggregates of matter thrive in large oceans of fluids, and they appear to respond to their environment by automatic response mechanisms that involve no thought whatsoever. We would quickly dismiss these aggregates of matter as just another curious phenomenon, much as we consider snowflakes to be, were it not for one important difference: these primitive aggregates of matter appear to be self-replicating. If these structures can make copies of themselves, even if they do not seem to be aware of the self-replication process, even if they do not even resemble a simple microbe, they do have the one characteristic that makes them unique: their capability for long term survival. For the capability to self-replicate implies that even if many of these aggregates of matter are destroyed by some major change in their environment, some of them will probably be left to continue self-replicating, achieving some form of limited immortality that will transcend their environment. We conclude that these aggregates of matter cannot be anything less than some kind of life, perhaps very elementary, but life nonetheless.
Coordinated Universal Time = ?
Several billions of years have now elapsed since that instant when everything was set into motion with a blinding flash of light. The temperature has now fallen to about 2.7 degrees Kelvin, slightly above absolute zero, and it is now a very soft radiation that showers the entire cosmos; it is the cosmic background radiation. There is a vast expanse filled with millions upon millions of small specks, each shinning dimly against a velvet background, letting its presence be known throughout the immensely huge celestial dome that surrounds them. Then, for the very first time, in a very small corner in the middle of this vast expanse, in a celestial body orbiting periodically around a star much like an astronomical pendulum, a gift will be bestowed, a gift whose worth far exceeds any riches that may be found in any other part of the galaxy where the celestial body is located, a gift worth more than a billion diamonds, a gift worth more than all of the gold that can be gathered from around a thousand nearby galaxies, a gift beyond comparison, for there is nothing since the moment of birth of this universe that can compare in value to such gift. The gift will come as a spark. It will come as a spark inside a life form that has been borne unto such celestial body, a life form that now turns its eyes above towards the sky:
and as it watches in awe the vastness of its cosmic cradle a thought that had never occurred to this life form comes all of the sudden, a thought that comes as a question:
Why?
Surely, other corners in this vastness of space will follow. It could not have been otherwise. It was written all along in the original blueprint.
