[extropy-chat] Big Bang & "the origin of the Universe"

[Jeff Medina]

Big Bang physics does not imply the creation or origin of the
Universe. According to the theory and the data supporting it, the
"initial state" of the Universe simply refers to the earliest point
from which data was preserved in a form we are currently capable of
investigating in some way.

The "initial" state was such that, were there anything preceding that
state, information about it would have been lost. A
not-quite-accurate, but perhaps intuition-informative analogy:

If you store data on your computer, run programs, etc., and then
compress and melt down the materials making up your computer at
ridiculous temperatures (plasma-level) and cool them off, you won't be
able to infer anything about the nature of the resultant substance
prior to the supercompression/heating. Information lost. Not
indicative of creation or "the beginning of the Universe".

Yet a lot of people, mostly general public, but also a surprisingly
large number of scientifically educated folks, speak of the Big Bang
theory as if it asserts something about the origin of the Universe.

We have no evidence about what existed prior to the Big Bang, nor any
evidence in favor of " nothing" existing before the Big Bang.

If someone with substantial physics knowledge thinks I'm missing
something here, please speak up. If not... what a weird, fundamental
error for so many scientists and engineers to make in their
understanding of BBT. Thoughts on the psychological underpinnings of
such a failing, iff there's something more unusual than "even people
of above average intelligence make lots of mistakes / have lots of
unquestioned assumptions", are welcome as well.

Best,
--
Jeff Medina
http://www.painfullyclear.com/

Community Director
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/

Relationships & Community Fellow
Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies
http://www.ieet.org/

School of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/phil/