A Brief Musing on the Point of the Universe

So, in one of my more self-indulgent moments, I was thinking about the whole origin of the universe thing, based on some of my discussions with supergoober and others, and I just started thinking about the actual "time" right before the Big Bang.

I use the quotes around time because it is highly probable that time did not really even exist. According to most theories, the universe was a infinitesimally small volume of energy heated to billions of degrees somewhat smaller than an electron in size, and uniformly energetic. The four fundamental forces were unified at that point, and the existence of "space" and "time" as we can currently conceive doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

You see, all of the dimensions that we know (plus a probable 6 or 18 others that we cannot perceive) were wrapped around each other and existed in that microscopic space. So even the question of measuring it and saying it "was the size of an electron" is somewhat specious. Since the dimensions were fundamentally different at that point, trying to establish a radius in something that fundamentally encompasses all of the spatial dimensions that we can conceive of is somewhat ridiculous. Space would be so turned in on itself, it would be like trying to measure to the edge of the universe right now. The problem is that you would have to take an infinitely curved path to get to that edge, because the dimensions did not behave as they do now (that is my personal contribution to the thought - I haven't heard anyone else say it, but I am sure that theoreticians must have raised this point somewhere). Even trying to question what was outside that energy at that time is not a great question. If there was something "outside" there is no way we could possibly come up with a description because it would be outside of all known experience. It would not even possess the dimensions of space that we hold so dear as absolutes (until you get close to light speed or on a subatomic scale).

But I digress... just millionths of a second after the Big Bang, gravity split off, and caused some of the expansion of the universe and dispersal of the energy (one of the reasons space has a fairly uniform temperature despite 13.7 billion years not being enough time for universal cooling to this extent). Very shortly thereafter, the strong and weak nuclear forces as well as electromagnetism come into existence and Hydrogen and Helium come into existence as a result. It takes much longer for other elements to form, because H and He must coalesce into stars so that nuclear fusion can happen (and incidentally, if the timing was any different, and the strong nuclear force was about 2% stronger, you can kiss the universe we know goodbye - Deuterium and Helium-5 or maybe Helium-6 becomes standard, stars do not form in the same way (if at all) and who knows what the hell the universe would be like, but we certainly wouldn't be here).

Anyway, this always makes me think of the whole life in outer space thing, and while I believe that it is a distinct possibility, the temporal distances (not the physical ones) are what seem to be the problem. Of course, physical distance is a problem, too. Let me put it this way - we have been humans (homo sapien) for 150,000 years. We have been a "civilised" species for about 12,000 years, and have been fairly mathematically advanced for about 3,000 years. We have been able to communicate via radio transmissions, etc for about 120ish years, and we might have another few thousand years as a species, say 100,000 years as an optimistic estimate. Since we are, by most accounts, recovering from a fifth major extinction event, any one of those previous eras could have made an intelligent life form as a dominant species. If another planet has a similar evolutionary pattern but was off of the creation of our planet by 100,000 years, they could have peaked and gone extinct far before we existed. Similarly, they could be occurring after us. The timescales are so huge, and the evolutionary scales are relatively quick (maybe 4 billion years from sludge to us, but that includes major extinction events). Suppose a planet doesn't have that first major extinction, evolves into an advanced civilization, then experiences that extinction (say, like sleestaks, for humorous comparison). We would not ever bridge the physical gulf to the suitable planet, and to then get there AT THE TIME that their civilization is comparable to ours would be statistically impossible. Just look at the slice of a 100,000 year peak period for an intelligent species (I just made that number up, but it seems like a reasonable amount -complicated intelligent species seem to have some self-destructive nature if we are any example - but maybe that is overly pessimistic - we've only been around at our current level for a very short amount of time, so that is why I am giving that time frame).

Suppose that the universe will last another 25ish billion years (another assumption, but reasonable for the rate of expansion and the point where energy may be diffuse enough to no longer support life as we know it). That means about a 40 billion life cycle of the universe, with a generous 100,000 year window for intelligent species. This amounts to a fraction of 1/400,000 of the time in the universe. Hoping that another species is intelligent in that correct window of time as well as within range of practical travel and technologically sufficient to communicate - a long shot at best. My point - don't bet on meeting ET outside of a theater any time soon.

But actually, that is not my only point. Many philosophers have posited that one only gains a soul through painful self-reflection and a growth of self-awareness. These two facts - the fact that we could need to engage in self reflection coupled with the fact that we feel compelled to explore the origins of the universe, led me to an unusual thought, one I think supergoober will like to muse on.

What if the whole existence of the universe is simply a struggle for self-awareness. That is, the sum total of all physical and natural laws of space and time is only an attempt for the universe to create something that can comprehend itself. Rather than individual self-awareness, it is a struggle for the actuality of the universe to comprehend itself. I know, it is kind of wacky, maybe something that many people contemplate while high, but since I have never been high and have missed out on those idiotic moments, I find this thought rather interesting.

What if the universe is on a quest to become self-aware, and we are just one of many possible divergent lines of "thought" for said universe? Like the different modes of reflection/religion/philosophy many of us muddle through as individuals in a quest for understanding of self and enlightenment, what if there are divergent strands of life (temporally and spatially forever separated) who are all engaged in the struggle to understand the universe because the ultimate goal of the universe is self-awareness.

So what happens if the universe does achieve this?

I don't know, but it is kind of cool to think about.

Hope I haven't bored you too much, and I will be writing about my Reno trip soon.