Space-time
Space and Time
December 14, 2018
One of the theories that dominate today is that space and time didn’t exist before the Big Bang.
According to this theory, space, time, and matter only at the moment of the fiery explosion or the Big Bang which happened 14.7 billion years ago.
Since then, space and time expanded at the speed of light until today and indefinitely. Before the Big Bang, there existed no space and time; one can’t talk of space time during the pre-Big Bang.
But with the advance of science and technology, other theories also emerged that are now gaining acceptance from the scientific circles.
One of these theories is that time and space already existed before the fiery cosmic event. In fact, this view contends that they existed forever; they have no beginning. One big proponent of this view is the String theory and M theory.
These two influential, but still speculative theories, advance that the space and time which began during the Big Bang refers to our space and time that also spewed out subatomic elements like leptons, quarks, matter, anti-matter, etc. that were virtually existing prior to the actual explosion.
Technically, this is called the Big Bang singularity, where “everything that was in it “are compressed to its infinite density, temperature, and pressure.
This “everything that was in it “ were there, not dead, inert, or passive, but active, seething with restless energy, awaiting for the right moment and conditions for it to explode.
Quantum physicists term this as “nothing” but not really empty and void, as thought of by Greek scientists Democritus and Leucippus, whose only function was to allow mobility or movement for atoms to meet and join together to form the planets, stars, and galaxies we witness today.
Before the explosion, there was “nothing” but at the same time there was “something” out of which the Cosmos emerge. The world’s major religions today grab this idea because it correlates with their concept of “creation ex nihilo” or creation out of nothing.
The Judeo-Christian believers symbolized nothingness as water, which was not dead and stagnant because “the Spirit of the Lord” hovered over it.
Two other theories, the Parallel Universes and Multiverse theories, that also came out as an offshoot of the String and M theories, also advance that there were also space and time in the other universes even before our universe was born.
The explosion they experienced also started their respective space and time, similar to ours.
In fact, these theories picture our Cosmos as an endless series of explosions or Big Bangs caused by the meeting and collision of two parallel universes.
These several universes out there could be parallel to ours. As you are reading this, an infinite number of Big Bangs are happening out there.
I am only giving you a bird’s-eye-view or what I call a “cosmic view” of how our universe began. There are pros and cons.
You have to dig deeper into the details of these theories yourself so you can form your own view of how we came to be and why we are here.
I am keeping the explanation as simple as possible in keeping with Ockam’s Razor Principle. All this are explained in detail in my two books.
Space and Time
February 8, 2018
"If energy has no beginning, then, it also implies that space and time have no beginning. They existed even before the Big Bang, or we can say forever. Why then do cosmologists like Stephen Hawking believe that space-time didn't exist before the Big Bang?"
Second question sent to me by William Kushal Hawking Callistratus on January 3, 2019.
True, indeed. Like energy, space and time also have no beginnings. They have existed even before the Big Bang. They have always existed and could exist for eternity.
How can we explain this when many, including Hawking, still expressed the view that space and time only began a few moments after the cosmic expansion?
In a lecture on the no-boundary proposal, Hawking wrote: "Events before the Big Bang are simply not defined, because there's no way one could measure what happened at them. Since events before the Big Bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory, and say that time began at the Big Bang."
There are so many theories that can plausibly explain these seemingly opposing views. Let me expound this below.
First are the two classical laws of thermodynamics, namely, energy conservation and entropy.
1. The Law of Energy Conservation
In physics and chemistry, the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Rather, it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another.
This means that the total quantity of energy created when our universe first appeared remains the same as it is today. This is the so-called law of conservation of energy.
But this only apply in a closed system or one that is without any external supply of energy.
2. The Law of Entropy
The second law of thermodynamics is about the quality of energy. It states that as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted.
This means that in a closed system the availability of useful energy can only decline.
And thermodynamics states that the state of entropy of the entire universe, as an isolated system, will always degenerate into a more disordered state.
Simply put, there is a natural tendency
for any isolated or closed system to degenerate over time. Thermodynamics advances that, in any isolated or closed system, the state of entropy will always increase, thus, degenerate over time.
This begs another question: "Is the Universe an open or closed system?"
This question can be answered by invoking the so many theories discovered at the quantum world. They include:
3. The String theory, M theory, Parallel Universes theory, Multiverse theory, and the Multiple World Interpretation.
Basically, these theories speculate that there are an infinite number of universes out there that could be similar and parallel to ours. In this regard, they advance that our universe is not an isolated or closed system.
Our universe is an open system, i.e, we absorb or receive energy from other Universes out there, in the same manner that we send or emit energy for the other Universes out there.
Physicists speculate that our space and time today must have started from other Universes out there and transferred to us when two universes collided in a fiery explosion that gave birth to our present Universe.
Our space and time originated from other universes out there that are likewise continually merging to produce a never-ending series of Big Bangs and an endless creation of universes.
As our universe appeared, our time and space also began. This explains why cosmologists, including Hawking, express that our space and time only began at the moment of the fiery explosion and cosmic inflation.
In the words of Hawking: "Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago."
Yet, borrowing from the principles of String theory, he also acknowledged that the universe is an open system.
On the whole, as I said in my previous post, the Cosmos in its totality is innately self-existent, self-propelling, self-evolving, self-creating, self-healing, self-governing, even self- destructing.
This would strongly suggest, therefore, that the Cosmos in its entirety is a closed system. Outside our Cosmos, there is nothing out there from whom we can receive some supplies of energy. There is also nothing out there to whom we can give our supply of energy.
