The Big Little Bang theory
Let’s have some fun today, shall we?
I only have one problem with the Big Bang theory: nobody knows what “big” means. Is Earth big? What about the Sun? Is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall big?
It’s a serious question. Because, from my point of view, all of those things are the same size. I’m thinking about it like Lego. No matter what you build, you’re just manipulating tiny bricks.
If you take apart the stuff in our known universe, you’ll eventually get down to the brass tacks of existence. And those are called… well, I don’t know what they’re called.
Maybe it’s quarks or leptons. But then, I have to wonder, what are leptons made of? Supposedly there are six types of lepton and, supposedly, they’re not made of subparticles.
20 years ago, M theory was pretty popular and Pluto was called a planet. I might wait another couple of decades before I decide how I want to feel about leptons.
Ultimately, however, one of the following statements must be true:
There are base components that make up everything in our universe.
There are objects in our that are simultaneously discrete and infinitesimal.
So, dear reader, this tells us that either the “biggest” thing in our universe is something very small, such as a lepton, or that our universe is made of things that are infinitely small.
Is it just me, or is that spooky?
Homework
Imagine the following:
A non-omnipotent, non-omniscient deity creates a very small box that, no matter what, is always slightly larger than whatever is inside of it.
The deity places two small things (let’s say they’re leptons) inside of the box.
The deity smashes the leptons together so hard that they implode with almost infinite force.
The implosion subsequently creates an explosion with so many reactions that it takes a near infinite amount of time to resolve.
As the explosion expands, the reactions at the center slow and manifest physical matter.
Now, imagine billions of years passing within the box. The matter at the center has expanded and now presents in myriad forms. Galaxies have been born. Life emerges on at least one planet.
Questions:
What happens when the deity tries to communicate with the entities in the box? Their physics are intrinsic to the explosion they exist inside of and would be unlikely to operate in the same time-space continuum as the deity.
What happens when the explosion ends? R.I.P. box people?
Can we compare this magical box to an AI system’s black box? And, if so, would our universe’s physics be just as exotic compared to the AI’s as they would be to the aforementioned deity’s?
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Art by Nicole Greene