Seth Shostak states in his November 2003 article on Space.com, �we inevitably tend to envision the capabilities of putative extraterrestrials as being similar to, or slightly more advanced than ours�. Yet, if the Colonials are truly far in advance of us technologically, at least in some areas, it is conceivable that they know a great deal about the nature and laws of the universe that we do not, and thus probably have a very different view of the universe than we do. Indeed, in light of a number of new studies done in the last several years, we are only now beginning to understand just how much we DON�T know about our universe. Our current ideas may be seriously flawed, or at least grossly incomplete (it wouldn�t be the first time).
There is currently somewhat of a crisis in the science of astrophysics. Scientists, particularly those who like to study the nature of the universe, love Ockham�s Razor, meaning they prefer a simple, unified theory that encompasses all aspects of the subject (As an aside, remember that Ockham�s Razor actually makes no claim as to the truth of any hypothesis. It simply points to that which should be tested first, as it will be the one easiest to disprove). Unfortunately, recent findings are beginning to suggest that the universe is anything but simple or unified.
It is fairly well accepted now that the universe is expanding. The thing that is causing such headaches is that not only is it expanding, but the rate of expansion is accelerating. Yet, recent super-nova studies suggest that that expansion is not at a steady rate and that the force causing the expansion is not distributed or applied evenly. In the Space.com article Astrophysics Challenged By Dark Energy Finding, author Ray Villard sums the problem up well when he says ��the universe is beginning to look like a complex witch�s brew of dark energy, normal matter, and dark matter. �This starts to look incredibly ugly and complicated,� says Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute. �I even wonder if we are asking the right questions.��
Richard Ellis of Caltech says �I find it very worrying that you have a universe where there are three constituents, of which only one [i.e., ordinary matter] is really understood.
�When you teach undergraduates, and they say, �Well, what is dark matter?� Well, nobody�s really sure. �What is dark energy?� We�re even less sure. So you have to explain to a student, that � 90 percent of the universe, 95 percent, is in two ingredients that nobody really understands.�
What is surmised about dark matter is that it is composed of exotic particles, sometimes collectively called WIMPS. WIMPS are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, such as the photino, axion and squark.
Dark energy is even more problematic. This strange stuff seems to be a form of negative energy that is thought by some to be responsible for the expansion of the universe. It has a number of interesting properties, not the least of which is that it gravitationally repulsive. There are a number of theories as to how it is distributed, but like dark matter, no one really knows. One theory tags it as Einstein�s Cosmological Constant. The version of the theory known as quintessence suggests that the distribution and force exerted by this dark energy is anything but constant and that it fluctuates and varies with both time and location.
Add to this that modern science is still very unsure about the nature of gravity, and you begin to understand just what we don�t know about the universe.
It is even possible that a number of the foundational theories of the Standard Model, particularly when relating to gravity, are fundamentally flawed (a very convincing argument for the fallacy of Newtonian, and by extension Einsteinian gravity can be found in Mark McCutcheon�s The Final Theory).
So, what does all of this imply in relation to the series? Simply this: the universe that the Colonials know is vastly different from the one we perceive. The mysteries of dark matter, dark energy, and gravity are known and understood by the Colonials, and freely made use of for their purposes. It is this knowledge that allows the Colonials and Cylons to move through space as if it were a liquid medium and traverse thousands of light years in the blink of an eye.
Specifically, I suggest that in the Galactica milieu, the Quantum AetherDynamics model holds sway (this theory at least does not dismiss too much of the Standard Model). Space is a dynamic sea, filled with positive and negative energies. Negative energy is everywhere, but the further between bodies of mass one goes, the �deeper� and more powerful the energy form becomes. It can indeed be likened to earthly oceans, with currents and channels, deeps and shallows. Between the galaxies, in the deepest of the deeps, the negative energy is so strong as to cause matter to bunch up at its edges, and these deeps are often recognized by the hydrogen that lines their �shores� (like the line of hydrogen that connects the Milky Way to the Greater Megallanic Cloud). It also helps to clump together the galactic halos of dark matter (the cloud of �asteroid dust� which the fleet passes through before entering a new galaxy in LP).