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

[Dirk Bruere]

On 2/5/06, Jeff Medina <analyticphilosophy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/

Check out the third lecture by Roger Penrose

Dirk
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