UNIVERSAL DESIGN
by Steve Hinrichs (Revised 1/11/97) (Shinrichs9@aol.com or http://members.aol.com/SHinrichs9/)
1. INTRODUCTION
Early this century Hubble looking through the Wilson telescope noticed that all of the especially distant galaxies were red shifted which implies they were all moving away from his observation point. Since this observation was for all galaxies in any direction, Hubble concluded there everything was essentially flying apart from a center. This implies a big bomb set off the beginning of the universe; thus, the big bang theory for the universe was developed. In 1964 the cosmic background radiation as expected by the big bang was observed for this first time (1) on Earth. In 1990 satellites (COBE) were sent up with the purpose of measuring this background radiation. As expected these satellites discovered the background ratio took the form of a perfect radiator implying the universe has endured an essentially random degradation of energy, typical of an explosion. Thus, the Big Bang Theory was confirmed.
Based upon this evidence is it difficult to ignore the conclusion universe had a beginning. Physicists have proposed theories that avoid this conclusion. Hawkings proposed a theory that avoided a beginning proposing a mathematical relationship where an imaginary time domain (square root of -1 times time) is related to real time in such a way that the imaginary time domain does not have a singularity (beginning) because it has the shape of a sphere (3). A sphere has no beginning or ending point; thus, in this domain there are no singularities. Different mathematical models that can be concocted up where real time is related to some other time domain. Some would have singularities and others would not. It all depends upon the goal of the mathematician. In this case Hawking model is searching for a universe without a singularity which is obvious by his resulting conclusion,
"But if the universe is really self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have no beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?"
He does point out a prediction of this theory that the universe must have started off with just the minimum possible non-uniformity allowed by the uncertainly principal. This non-uniformity would go onto explain why the universe is nonuniform such as clumping of mass into galaxies and stars. Most models do start out with nonuniformity in the period of time prior to 10^-43 second so this prediction does not separate out Hawking's theory as being more successful scientifically than the other proposed theories that includes a beginning and the theory actually does not avoid a singularity (4),
"A quantum universe (such as Hawking proposes) ... necessarily consist of not just one four-dimensional sphere, but rather the infinity of spheres of all possible radii. However, since it is meaningless for the radius of a sphere to be less than or equal to zero, a four dimensional sphere of zero radius forms a boundary to Hawking universe ... He has eliminated the classical singularity - the beginning of time - only to have it re-appear as the beginning to the space of all possible four-spheres."
Other responses on the internet to attempts to dismiss a universe with a beginning can be found in Ref. 7.
Hubble's data is quite obvious, a big bomb went off making it quite difficult to avoid the obvious and straight forward conclusion, as far as we can tell the universe started as a singularity; thus, had a beginning. There is a remarkable observation about the expansion rate for this big bang (2). If the universe expanded to rapidly, matter would disperse so efficiently that none of it would clump enough to form galaxies. If no galaxies form, no stars would form, no planets would form; thus, there would be no place for life. On the other hand, if the universe expanded to slowly, matter would clump so effectively that the whole universe would collapse into a super-dense lump before and solar type stars could form. The remarkable point is that expansion rate cannot differ by more than one part in 10^55 from the actual rate. There is apparently no physical reason why the universe should have a certain expansion rate which implies there was an intelligence that started it for the reason of providing a habitat for beings that search for a purpose, such as humans.
It is not known if the universe can bounce back from a big crunch but if there was such an oscillating cycle the bounces would get bigger and bigger until the universe would explode forever. There is no possible way to prevent the maximum radius of a cyclic universe from increasing cycle to cycle (6). Thus, there is still required a beginning and would be a real stroke of luck if that one bounce hit the expansion rate just right so that the universe expanded in such a way to allow life to form.
The anthropic principal explains our condition by the following simple answer. Why is the universe the way we see it? If it has been different we would not be here. This anthropic principal is always correct; thus, not open to falsification; therefore, does not qualify as a scientific explanation.
The value of the expansion rate of the universe is only one of many parameters that just happen to have the precise value that allow for life to form. Reference 2 lists 25 parameters that scientist have discovered in general for the universe and 32 more specifically for the earth that have values the are just right so that life could form. For example, unless the number of electrons is equivalent to the number of protons to an accuracy of on part in 10^37, or better, electromagnetic forces in the universe would have so overcome gravitational forces that galaxies, stars, and planets would have never formed. Just a few of these are listed in the Table below. The ratio of which the range that allows life to form of all possible values for the parameter is listed.
|
Parameter |
Ratio |
|
Universal |
|
|
Nuclear Force |
.05 |
|
Ratio of electromagnetic force to gravity |
10^-40 |
|
Neutron Mass |
.002 |
|
Electron mass |
10^-5 |
|
Ratio of number of electrons to protons |
10^-37 |
|
Earth specific |
|
|
Distance of Earth to sun |
.001 |
|
Earth surface gravity |
.001 |
|
Star Age |
.2 |
|
Rotation period |
.1 |
|
Atmospheric transparency |
.01 |
Each of the universal parameters effect the one known universe; thus, if any of them were off from their tight constraints, life would never occur in the universe. The earth specific ones have the opportunity to occur on any of the estimated 10^22 planets throughout the universe. However, all 33 parameter listed in Ref. 2 produced a combined ration of 10^-42 which implies there is essentially no chance of life occurring on one of these planets in a universe that is finely tuned.
The SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) organization led by the leading atheist, Carl Sagan's is looking for extra terrestrial intelligence. SETI is looking for a signal that is not random and neither produced by just some natural process. SETI is looking for a designed message put out by some intelligence. It appears that the universe and the Earth present just the message they are looking for. An intelligent being finely tuned the universe and the earth in a way that appears impossible to explain by chance through some random natural process.
2. REFERENCES
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