| Universe |
| A1. What is the nature of the Universe? Well, I'd have to start by determining if I'm going to discuss "your" Universe or define "mine".... I think its best if we only look at my Universe and then perhaps you can see similarities in your own... A2. A lot of what has been going on in my universe is a mystery to me as I have forgotten a lot of what happened before I was born into this new existence. You see, the shock of being born again was so traumatic that it wiped all of my memory of the universe as it existed before I was born and only small fragments of my history come to mind from time to time. They seem to wink at me through the darkness and tell me that I've been here before... Before, as in both the future and the past and in fact, even in the present, but on different planes or dimentions of existence. Hard to understand? I'll try to draw a more clear picture of what I mean. A3. The background on this page is what's called a Nebula. We on Earth have named it the "Hourglass Nebula". It's located far off in distant space some 3000 light-years from Earth, so the picture you see here is approximately 3000 years old as that is how long the light of this picture took to reach the telescope that the camera was attached to... Actually, the photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and there are more such photos at Astronomy.com if you're interested in such things. Do you ever get the feeling that you've seen this wonderful thing before, like a deja vu...? I know I have. I just can't remember if I saw it in the past or in the future... A4. To me, my Universe is very flexible, a sort of fluid that can change with the stirring of a finger. Most people would call it chaos and for lack of a better term, I will too. Like crystals of freshly falling snow, there are no two flakes that are the same, in fact there are no two of anything in the universe (my universe) that are the same. Just seeing this picture of the Hourglass Nebula has changed my universe, even in the most insignificant of ways. The small amount of knowledge that it has given me has changed the way I think and it will perhaps change the way I will approach my day... Therefore, it has changed my life and my Universe. Can I possibly predict what this knowledge will result in? No, nor could I imagine what my Universe would be like had I not seen the photo. A5. A river starts as a raindrop, a miniscule and insignificant bit of moisture and gathers with others to create a creek and then merges with more, to become a river... The river has a somewhat predictable path... It will eventually reach the sea and over the course of time, it will wear into the landscape a somewhat predictable path to the sea, but can we distinguish one raindrop from another? Can we say where an eddy will form and another vanishes beneath the surface? Can we see the undertow or predict when a piece of earth will shatter the smooth, clean surface as it meanders on its journey? No, through all of the predictability of the river, it is a churning mass of chaos and with every moment its predictability is changing, like everything in the Universe. A6. I find it very amusing that Einstein and the world would think that this universe is so predictable that the Theory of Relativity would work in all Universes. As the River changes, so to does the Universe and therefore even Relativity is meaningless outside of this one singular existence... The future is the past is the present is the future... and the speed of light is only invariant in this one Universe. So, the Hourglass Nebula is seen here, in the present, the past and the future, simultaneously... It has always existed and yet has never existed... There are thousands of people who have never seen the photo and for them, it does not exist at all... Nor will it ever change their lives and their Universe, unless they do see it and it becomes a part of their unique Universe's... And the "seemingly" predictability of their lives will be changed forever... Like a small stirring of a finger in the fluid of their lives, something has changed and everything has changed. A7. The old saying comes to mind, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." All things are ever changing and in the midst of a seemingly predictable world, there is nothing predictable. No one can relive even one moment in time. No one can ever return to the exact same spot in the same time frame ( for more on this subject of Time and Relativity see: On Time ) A8. This might sound like a very lonely thought but here goes... My Universe is mine alone, as is your Universe completely different from mine. In the great scheme of things, we are like two ships passing in the night. There are similarities between your Universe and mine and in similar ways they are both somewhat predictable. We both came into this world alone and we will both leave alone to carry on our existence in some far off and distant Galaxy perhaps. We may or may not ever cross eachother's path again in all of time or eternity... But for a time, we met and hopefully it was good for your Universe... Whatever "good" is.....??? |
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| Mandelbrot Set |