The Rules of the Universe

In my first blog, I drew the attention of the scientific community to find a solution to the vexing problems of cosmic origin, raised questions concerning the reason for our existence, the mysterious mechanisms that keep us alive and finally, why it is all so hard to know the truth about our role here and does God really play the dice with us? (See Modern Cosmology http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/6797-modern-cosmology-17241.html - http://rsridharan.blogspot.com/ )

Once we know how to unlock the cosmic order, most of our daunting problems are solved. At present, the Universe appears to us like a magical World of Harry Porter, as we are yet to learn the rules of reality! Even the scientists wonder at every turn of event from the moment of Big Bang. (All experimental evidence leads us to believe in the BB – thanks to thousands of scientists all over the world who have approved the Large Hedron Collider (LHC), a Time Machine of the 21st century, catapulting us close to the beginning of time)

At the outset Physicists are perplexed as to the nature of things in our early Universe – Gravity the mother of all forces suddenly separates itself from the Strong, Weak and Electromagnetic forces and assumes unimaginable proportions! Locking together all matter in the Universe, this one gigantic force becomes a huge Monster, almost swallowing the entire Cosmos! Making large chunks of matter disappear in no time; gravity plays havoc inside black holes, crushing them into non-existence.

Dark Matter, the hypothetical Savior, presumed to constitute 23 percent of the entire Universe, with 4 percent of the visible matter, checks the gravity under control and protects the galactic structures from collapsing into oblivion! Then there is the all powerful Dark Energy like Dark Matter, another hypothetical omnipresent force in the Universe which permeates everywhere and counters the Monster gravity from annihilating the entire Cosmos! Suddenly the Dark Energy swells; the Dwarf Universe becomes a Giant! Called Vishwaroop in India, this phenomenon is a common place in Indian mythology.

At quantum level, the Entanglement (Entanglement is a term used in quantum theory to describe the way that particles of energy/matter can become correlated to predictably interact with each other regardless of how far apart they are) is a real and tested phenomenon, an instantaneous communication of the particles. Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance!”, because it defied the common sense. We live in a weird World!

Whatever man has endeavored so far, it has not become apparent for him to comprehend the Cosmos - he is at a loss to know the rules of the Universe! As the saying goes, man proposes God disposes, nature has inherent beauty and it is not easy for us to see the hidden order. For us it is more of a magical world than a logical reality! The rules are simple, but we can not see them – it requires the genius of an Einstein coupled with the logic of a Kasparov to know the rules of this Universe.

To quote an example, the chess analogy from the famous physicist Richard Feynman (the Nobel Prize winning physicist) once noted that discovering the laws of physics is like trying to learn the laws of chess merely by observing chess games. You notice that bishops stay on the same color squares; you write this down as a law of chess. Later, you come up with a better law – bishops move diagonally. And, since diagonal squares are always colored the same, this explains why bishops always stay on the same color. This law is an improvement – it is simpler, and yet explains more. In physics, discovering Einstein's theory of gravity after knowing Newton's theory of gravity is a similar type of discovery. As another example, noticing that pieces don't change their identity in a chess game is similar to discovering the law of mass-and-energy conservation.

Eventually, say, you see a chess game in which a pawn reaches the other end of the board and is promoted. You say, "Wait, that violates the laws of chess. Pieces can't just change their identity." Of course, it does not violate the laws of chess; you just had never seen a game pushed to that extreme before.

Now we are pushed to that extreme anyway! Things appear to make no sense. In place of reality, we imagine and create a God that work wonders for most of us!

Like a novice in chess, we blink at each moment in time and end up nowhere. We make wrong moves. We lose on time even before our adversary gets smarter! How do we beat this Universal Computer? First one has to know the rules in real life. The rules are very harsh indeed! You make one long move, you lose your life! We have sacrificed many lives to know the order of this Universe! With great endeavor we have even built an ultimate machine the Large Hedron Collider (LHC) – that will go back in time and see whether the hidden order exists. Do we still stand a chance to make a smart move? Time will tell!

As Feymann said it is not enough to accept nature as they are, one has to comprehend the entire order in it to know its beauty! A GM in chess visualizes the whole position at a time, and then uses his intuitive ability to see its hidden beauty, combines his technical skills and leads the game to a logical victory. This entire he does it in fleeting seconds!

It is a combination of modern physics, mathematics, logical order and intuitive ability that one requires to know the rules of our Universe. Unless one sees the entire hierarchy in order, we can never be able to piece together the complexity of this stupendous and infinite Cosmos! The rules of the Universe are so intricate that we require many Einstein working on different mathematical models, to uncover the hidden order! It requires the intuition of a genius and masterly of a mathematician to realize the beauty of our Cosmos!

Teach the modern computer a little intuition, there we are, we know the order of this Universe!
View Science Blog

Modern Cosmology

I have been thinking a new way of unfolding the mysteries of our cosmos! There are these jargons- dark energy, dark matter, visible matter, entanglement, speed of light, black holes, inflation, big bang, gravity, strong weak and electromagnetic forces, voids of space, spacetime etc etc... How do we combine all these into a coherent whole?

The idea that something can travel faster than the speed of light is a confirmed fact in the quantum world! The same is unthinkable in the classical world, which limits us to the speed of light as discovered by that famous physicist Albert Einstein. Then there are these mysteries- entanglement, inflation, black holes and what not. The age of the universe has been taken as 13.7 billion years. When something can travel faster than the speed of light, is this limiting age a real one? What is dark matter? What is dark energy? what are black holes? - these are the mysteries for which no answers are as yet found. We live in a universe where 73 per cent is dominated by a mysterious dark energy, 23 per cent by an equal mystic dark matter and the rest of 4 per cent in the real, real world! What do these things mean? - Contemplate.

In the past years, physicists have tried their best to unify all forces without much of success. Great minds have toiled and burnt midnight oil with only frustrations and unfulfilled dreams! However the quest for knowing the unknown never waned - mankind will never rest until the truth is set free! Great telescopes, Colliders and many more mega structures are invented and yet the truth appears to be elusive! Kaleidoscope is what the Universe mimics to the great thinkers of our time. Everything appears to be magical - the great magician never lets down his secrets! Every step we take and climb up the cliff, we never seem to go up even to a little height! We fall. It is as though a never ending quest. Man has started it all and will never accept defeats until he exists. Mind will never rest without solving the great mystery.

The story runs like this
'Ten little Indians went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were Nine.
Nine little Indians sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were Eight.
. . . etc . . . and to the last
One little Indian left all alone'
And then may be the ultimate truth unfolds!

Who will be the great player? Who will end our quest? Einstein did come near it - but succumbed fighting the forces! You find a little truth and then the whole truth widens ! You are constantly provoked to a hide and seek play. It is an inversely proportionate game - the more close you try to reach the goal, the less you actually progress. Man never admits defeats. He is surrounded by mirages at every epoch of age. The greatest of all is his steadfast desire to go in the logical path. Our minds are developed to reason at every point of time. Alas! The ultimate truth still eludes him. He becomes, as though a fish thrown out of water! Wriggles and dies. The ocean of truth lies right in front of him, and never able to see it. He surmises without much of luck. What is the truth? Why do we exist? What makes us tick? Why the ultimate truth eludes us? Are we all a part of the mirage, never to see the light? Nope ! Albert Einstein proved it wrong! He did see the light! "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind". He has shown us the way. He showed that the mystery lies in layers. The more layers you embrace, the more you are enlightened. The ultimate truth should dawn on him. He has the reason to believe in solving the mystery.

Never die a fool! Nature will never play dice with his own creation! We are the part of that ultimate truth. It is as though our own eyes are blind to our organs. Though the progress is visible, he has to accelerate his prowess. There is an exponential expansion after the big bang. We need a parallel processing to catch up with the unfolding and elusive Cosmos. Catch me if you can is what the challenges the Universe throws on us. One day the great truth will have to be known. At what rate this feat is feasible? Man has tried all his ages, inching his own extinction before the ultimate truth he envisages dawn on him. We have a great advantage of our predecessors who have shown us at what rate we should progress to know the ultimate. Though the accelerated efforts of a modern man looks real, much, much more has he to expound.

links to this post:

View Science Blog