What's your theory of life, the Universe and everything...

Titania said:

I'm glad I made a thread where people can come together. There's no hating here.

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email468 said:

Since some of us our jumping into string theory might as well go right into inflation and the "multiverse".

OK – this is really hard for me to get my head around but let’s see where it takes us… but first I should mention that the observable evidence is mostly based on the information gleaned from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

WMAP studies the microwaves from 380,000 years after the Big Bang event (within a 2-percent margin of error). But since the universe is so large, we still aren’t certain of its shape. To us it could appear flat, but still could be round, spherical with a hole in the center (like a doughnut), flat but thick and round, or flat but thick and round AND curved is another likely shape.

But the observable universe may not be the only part of the universe that has any shape. Physicists theorize there could be a hidden, microscopic “intra space” but so well concealed that we can’t experience it directly. It is at this point that string theory puts forth the proposition that there are ten (or more) dimensions besides the three we are familiar with (space) plus time. Thank you Einstein.

Where the hell are these extra dimensions you might ask. Good question. Beats the heck out of me, but if some scientists are right, they are “curled up into tiny geometrical containers called Calabi-Yau manifolds, where they remain forever hidden from us.”

If string theory is correct, then these six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds exist everywhere – at every point in space – on your finger, on Mars, on your bud, EVERYWHERE! The actual size remains an open question but some place them in the realm of Planck scale (10 E-33 – ten to the power of negative thirty three) – that’s a decimal point, thirty two zeros and a one. Which is ridiculously tiny. Some scientists say they are larger than that but still far too small to detect.

Either way the shape of the six-dimension complex is of extreme interest since many scientists believe the shape or geometry of these manifolds is what dictates the laws of particle physics (gravity, cosmic inflation, and dark energy). If they are correct, then these tiny structures are the dominant phenomena affecting our cosmos!

To quote Joseph Polchinksi, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara: “All of the numbers we measure in nature – all of the things we consider fundamental, such as masses of quarks and electrons – are derived from the size and shape of Calabi-Yau space.”

In fact, it gets even better. If string theory is on the right path, the number of possible Calabi-Yau shapes is linked to the number of possible universes (or “multiverse”). Anyone who studies modern cosmology will soon find that the biggest problems facing cosmologists and physicists is determining the shape of the universe.

Now the big question(s) – how do we observe the unobservable? Or maybe a better question would be – what can we learn about the Calabi-Yau geometry? Scientists are trying to find evidence for the existence of these dimensions and hopefully through that find hints to the shape of this “inner” space.

Now here is the kicker which brings us back to studying the CMB (cosmic microwave background). The latest string theory models of cosmic inflation (there are others) are very close to making detailed predictions about our universe which scientists will soon be able to TEST! And once cosmologists can start testing, they can plug in different variables which should help determine the shape of the Calabi-Yau manifolds since the predictions will be based on the different possible geometries.

In order to understand how this is done, we need to learn more about CMB (no avoiding that one)! But that will have to wait until our next installment.

But the implication is we will soon know where the laws of particle physics originates! Pretty awesome stuff <- understatement of the year!

Click to expand...

tampicos said:

i've always believed something similar to this since i saw a documentary on atoms. i learned about quarks, which are the smallest observable thing we can see. they make up protons. what if the quark is a universe in a sense and we are all part of an atom? if the magnifier could go so deep into a quark that you could see what it consists of, will we see a collection of galaxies? haha that would make us really small but if you think about it the other way, we are monstrously huge to the beings that inhabit those quarks...

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Titania said:

Lets hear your views on the most fundamental questions... Why are we here,? do you believe in the anthropic principle?, what is the meaning of life?, What is consciousness?, is the Universe infinite?, does it have a cycle? Or maybe you believe in a religion which answers everything for you, if so which one and why?

Not that you have to answer all of these, or any of these.

Click to expand...

email468 said:

Since some of us our jumping into string theory might as well go right into inflation and the "multiverse".

OK – this is really hard for me to get my head around but let’s see where it takes us… but first I should mention that the observable evidence is mostly based on the information gleaned from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

WMAP studies the microwaves from 380,000 years after the Big Bang event (within a 2-percent margin of error). But since the universe is so large, we still aren’t certain of its shape. To us it could appear flat, but still could be round, spherical with a hole in the center (like a doughnut), flat but thick and round, or flat but thick and round AND curved is another likely shape.

But the observable universe may not be the only part of the universe that has any shape. Physicists theorize there could be a hidden, microscopic “intra space” but so well concealed that we can’t experience it directly. It is at this point that string theory puts forth the proposition that there are ten (or more) dimensions besides the three we are familiar with (space) plus time. Thank you Einstein.

Where the hell are these extra dimensions you might ask. Good question. Beats the heck out of me, but if some scientists are right, they are “curled up into tiny geometrical containers called Calabi-Yau manifolds, where they remain forever hidden from us.”

If string theory is correct, then these six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds exist everywhere – at every point in space – on your finger, on Mars, on your bud, EVERYWHERE! The actual size remains an open question but some place them in the realm of Planck scale (10 E-33 – ten to the power of negative thirty three) – that’s a decimal point, thirty two zeros and a one. Which is ridiculously tiny. Some scientists say they are larger than that but still far too small to detect.

Either way the shape of the six-dimension complex is of extreme interest since many scientists believe the shape or geometry of these manifolds is what dictates the laws of particle physics (gravity, cosmic inflation, and dark energy). If they are correct, then these tiny structures are the dominant phenomena affecting our cosmos!

To quote Joseph Polchinksi, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara: “All of the numbers we measure in nature – all of the things we consider fundamental, such as masses of quarks and electrons – are derived from the size and shape of Calabi-Yau space.”

In fact, it gets even better. If string theory is on the right path, the number of possible Calabi-Yau shapes is linked to the number of possible universes (or “multiverse”). Anyone who studies modern cosmology will soon find that the biggest problems facing cosmologists and physicists is determining the shape of the universe.

Now the big question(s) – how do we observe the unobservable? Or maybe a better question would be – what can we learn about the Calabi-Yau geometry? Scientists are trying to find evidence for the existence of these dimensions and hopefully through that find hints to the shape of this “inner” space.

Now here is the kicker which brings us back to studying the CMB (cosmic microwave background). The latest string theory models of cosmic inflation (there are others) are very close to making detailed predictions about our universe which scientists will soon be able to TEST! And once cosmologists can start testing, they can plug in different variables which should help determine the shape of the Calabi-Yau manifolds since the predictions will be based on the different possible geometries.

In order to understand how this is done, we need to learn more about CMB (no avoiding that one)! But that will have to wait until our next installment.

But the implication is we will soon know where the laws of particle physics originates! Pretty awesome stuff <- understatement of the year!

Click to expand...