20071226

Letter to a Cosmogonist

Thanks for the heads up on your work. You definitely are working at the fundamental level that I found most useful in writing “The Scientific Worldview” (TSW). I also used to wonder why there was something rather than nothing. The paradox remained for me until I realized that the answer was right in front of me. Each thing always consists of: 1) matter and 2) and space. But solid matter and empty space are idealizations (ideas); neither could have any possibility of existing. Neither solid matter nor completely empty space have been found. Though solid, fundamental particles without parts have been hypothesized, they always turn out to contain other particles. Similarly, no one has ever produced an absolute vacuum. Instead of being 0 Kelvin, intergalactic space is 2.7K, demonstrating that it is not empty, but contains matter in motion. All real things exist only as combinations of what we conceive of as matter and space.

According to the Fourth Assumption of Science, INSEPARABILITY, "Just as there is no motion without matter, so there is no matter without motion." In other words, if the matter inside a particular thing could stop moving, then that particular thing would cease to exist. This never happens. INSEPARABILITY thus implies microcosmic infinity, and when generalized in the Eighth Assumption of Science, also implies macrocosmic infinity. Like all ten assumptions of science (see below) the Fourth and Eighth Assumptions are consupponible, that is, if you can suppose one of them, you can suppose all the rest. The upshot is that, without INFINITY, the universe could not exist. Non-existence is impossible.

You entertain “three basic possibilities (generalities). 1) The original, natural state of the Universe could have contained some “natural” complexity, a definite structure of something (as small as a Cosmic Egg or as gigantic as one can imagine) or 2) the Universe had an original, beginning state of Absolutely Nothing, with nothing volume. 3) The Absolutely Nothing Universe could have been an infinite void with no form or structure.” To those I would add 4) the possibility that there never was an “original state” because, as mind-boggling as it seems, the universe, I assume, did not have an origin. Only the individual things within the universe could have a beginning and an end. The opposing assumption, finity, is the one held by almost everyone, but, when the logic is carried to the bitter end, it implies an equally mind-boggling belief that the universe exploded out of nothing. It is the grandest contradiction of the Fifth Assumption of Science, CONSERVATION, the belief that "matter and the motion of matter neither can be created nor destroyed." This actually is a slightly modified version of the First Law of Thermodynamics, which has been confirmed in thousands of experiments. Infinity, thus, is the reason for the existence of the universe. It is one great “passing of the buck”: whenever asked where something came from, we scientists are always correct when we say “from somewhere else.” That question, however, does not apply to the universe itself (defined as “all that exists”); it only applies to individual portions of the universe.

As I consider cosmogony (the study of the beginning of the universe) to be of little value, I am afraid that I am almost useless for helping you with your quest. Maybe you should be the one checking my books [“The Ten Assumptions of Science” and TSW (which includes TTAOS as chapter 3)] for logical errors. Infinite Universe Theory needs all the help it can get.

The Ten Assumptions of Science

1. MATERIALISM: The external world exists after the observer does not.
2. CAUSALITY: All effects have an infinite number of material causes.
3. UNCERTAINTY: It is impossible to know everything about anything, but it is possible to know more about anything.
4. INSEPARABILITY: Just as there is no motion without matter, so there is no matter without motion.
5. CONSERVATION: Matter and the motion of matter neither can be created nor destroyed.
6. COMPLEMENTARITY: All things are subject to divergence and convergence from other things.
7. IRREVERSIBILITY: All processes are irreversible.
8. INFINITY: The universe is infinite, both in the microcosmic and macrocosmic directions.
9. RELATIVISM: All things have characteristics that make them similar to all other things as well as characteristics that make them dissimilar to all other things.
10. INTERCONNECTION: All things are interconnected, that is, between any two objects exist other objects that transmit matter and motion.