Issue 64: The Holistic Universe

The Holistic Universe

In this bumper edition we collect together the most important cosmological writings of Marxist philosopher and physicist, Jim Schofield: his work on the nature of the Universe.

In his ongoing application of Dialectical Materialism to the many disciplines of science, Jim has increasingly turned to Holism as the answer to the persistent crisis in Physics. But this ancient philosophical stance isn’t what most people think of when they hear the term “holistic” science.

Reclaiming Holism

Much like the rampant misuse of the word “quantum” by quacks and snake oil salesman the world over, the word “holistic” has been dragged through the dirt for several decades, becoming synonymous with the worst kind of pseudoscientific drivel, in the minds of many scientists, and in the popular consciousness too, particualrly when it is applied to the field of medicine.

For the team at SHAPE Journal, it is high time this vital word was reclaimed for those who use it deadly seriously. While holism is often used as an exuse by some to abandon analysis and scientific rigour in favour of some questionable belief system - the rational always subtended by the spiritual - the philosophical concept itself, implies no such thing.

The dictionary definition of the term doesn’t suggest this either.

Holistic is posited as the antonym of ‘atomistic’, as the study of wholes rather than parts, or an acknowledgment that parts cannot be understood without reference to the whole (and vice versa), that contexts and the changing relations between entities, are as important as the entities themselves. That holism is oppositional to reductionism doesn’t entail an abandonment of analysis, but a crucial acknowledgment of what analysis actually is; the limitations of all analyses and the necessity for examining the real material contexts in which any findings occur.

To really understand what Holism is, it is important to understand it in terms of its opposite, the currently dominant Priniciple of Plurality, and Jim spends much time explicating the differences between these two philosophical approaches. As he states in What is Holism:

“Plurality saw Reality as being determined by a set of eternal Natural Laws, which simply summed in various mixes and proportions to deliver everything that there is. The task of studying Reality (in all its diverse forms), therefore, had to be to reveal what these Laws were, and any means that could be used to reveal them more clearly was considered a legitimate method for finding such clearly defining things. For, as they were eternal, they could not be changed by context. So, if the context was significantly adjusted to most clearly display a given Law, that would in no way change the sought-for Law. Context would still determine what was seen normally, but merely due to the summing of a set of eternal laws in a given set of proportions.”

This is contrasted with Holism in the same paper:

“This was most carefully defined by The Buddha in India, about the same time as Plurality was being revealed in Greece. And, in a nutshell, it was defined as, “Everything affects everything else” or alternatively as, “Everything is always in constant change!” You can see how very different this premise made the process of understanding Reality. Instead of the pluralist assumption of the addition of FIXED things, there was instead the holist assumption of the mutually-affecting combination of easily changeable and hence constantly CHANGING components.”

Holism is most vitally different in how it sees time rather than space - it’s not just about looking at wholes rather than parts, but looking at changing properties over the assumption and manipulation of fixed laws that we see in all the sciences. Hopefully you can begin to see the relevance of this to Dialectical Materialism and to our understanding of the evolution of the Universe.

The tendency in Physics is to assume the laws that control the Universe have always been the same, but there is no evidential reason to assume this - the flaw is an unspoken philosophical assumption - and it has lead to a very skewed view of Cosmology.

This set of essays begins the task of looking at the Universe and its history holistically - the Universe as an interconnected and evolving Everything.

Mick Schofield
SHAPE Editor

Red Shift and the "Quantum Bounce" (PART 2)

Sky Mirror, Red 2007 by Anish Kapoor

Read Part 1

The Red Shift in a Shell Universe

The possible effects of conditions, presumably at, or around, the limits of the Universe, upon the edges of a finite Universal Substrate, may also be relevant here.

Earlier, this researcher had considered the possibility of Totally Internal Reflections of propagated electromagnetic energy, occurring at such Edges of a Substrate, and, in consequence, making eminently possible, extended zigzag paths, starting from an initial source, via one or more such reflections, before reaching an observer.

Now, the details of that Theory should be reviewed to investigate the possibilities. But, the most important effect must be that Light from a source will not be lost, effectively to infinity, by continuing beyond such boundaries. On the contrary, that "radiation" would always be reflected back at such a boundary, so that an apparent origin, outside the Universe, would be implied.

And, the Universe would appear bigger than it actually is.

In addition, such reflected paths would involve a much longer propagation pathway, and hence be delivering light from an earlier time of production from the source, yet possibly arriving, at the observer, simultaneously with that from the same source, but by another, alternative route.

Indeed, given the position of a persisting source, and enough time (and, of course, the appropriate position of an observer, light could be multiply reflected before reaching the observer, and hence deliver information a great deal older than could be obtained by direct observation (that is without such reflections).

Clearly, these multiply-reflected propagations, would appear to be both very old and very far away, so they ALONE would contain information from the very earliest times in our Universe.

NOTE: For more details about these ideas see the two Special Issues of SHAPE Journal entitled The Shell Universe.

Now, clearly, with not only an outer boundary of the Universe, but also with an inner boundary (assuming a Big Bang of finite duration), reflections could not only occur at the outer edges, but at the inner edges too.

Now, this paper is not primarily concerned with all the necessary consequences of those features.

It is, first and foremost, about considering the possible variation in the nature of the substrate on or near such boundaries.

For, if densities were different there, we could well get intrinsic Red Shifts, entirely due to light paths having visited such an area, and hence suffering a modification of the frequencies of the carried Light! The recently reported anomalies in Red Shift from “extremely distant sources”, may indeed, reflect that those light streams are NOT direct, but have both been reflected, and indeed, modified by those visited regions.

An Evolving Red Shift?

Let us muse a little further about the possibilities of the Red Shift!

The basis for the light we receive is generally from multiple atoms, which are exactly as we conceive of them now. The basic form, with a nucleus and orbiting electrons is stable, indeed, stable enough to be exactly the same, universe-wide, or so we assume.

But, I am going to consider that the form, the atom, though in most respects it is indeed reliably the same, could have changed significantly in certain past conditions, situations or times, to have been different enough to give us an alternative cause of Red Shift of the spectral lines shown in propagated spectra.

Both emission and absorption lines in the spectra of light from celestial bodies indicate that atoms (elements) are causing them and hence the composition of the source, or any surrounding clouds of interstellar gases, to produce what we finally see.

The Red Shift, since its discovery, was always conceived of as a Doppler Effect, and its general preponderance was taken as proof that the Universe must be expanding!

But, think about it... Such an idea is based upon both Waves and a Medium, such that if the latter is stretched, or, alternatively, the movement of the source actually deposits a stretch upon a background substrate, or even the movement away of the recipient can also deliver such a stretch. For then, a Red Shift by Doppler means naturally occurs.

But, are our basic assumptions wrong?

They usually, if not always, are - the trajectory of Human Knowledge is no single, continuous staircase, but a halting ascent with some inordinately long impasses, and even many temporary and incorrect detours! Hegel always said that if you encounter a contradiction, it will always be due to your mistaken premises, which are simply NOT true. He deliberately sought out what he termed as Dichotomous Pairs of concepts (like Zeno’s Continuity and Descreteness), as the ONLY guaranteed route to unearthing our often unstated premises, which had led to both arms of that contradiction.

Now, from the above comments on the Red Shift, it is surely clear that we consider atoms as constant both over time and throughout known Space. What might make that incorrect?

Well, current research by this theorist into a Universal Substrate, is posing interesting questions, which might be relevant here. For, the current assumption about this substrate, is that it not only fills the so-called Empty Space, but also its nooks and crannies, indeed, all possible interstices, such as the space inside atoms! Indeed, his emerging theory of quantized electron orbits within the atom depends upon the resonant interactions of orbiting electrons and their caused vortices within a substrate.

NOTE: For a basis for such ideas, see Yves Couder’s famous Walker Experiments, and the quantized orbits he created at the macro level.

But, note the current conception of this substrate is not a classic continuous and elastic medium, which can be set into oscillation, but a substrate of descrete units with their own internal orbits, so that quanta of oscillation energy are passed along, bucket-brigade fashion from unit to unit of that substrate.

No Doppler stretching can possibly occur in such a substrate, either real or apparent, and all transfers are in descrete quanta from the internal orbit in one unit to that in another.

So, now, the seeming universality of the spectral lines seems to indicate that if a substrate were involved, it must be the same everywhere.

But, that doesn’t seem at all reasonable. For, that substrate wasn’t necessarily a constant: it had to arise, as did everything else in the Universe.

The current, seemingly universal, stability is a state that has been established in the past, and now persists! Yet everything just couldn’t arise ready-made as it appears today. It must have evolved into this state, as a consequence of the content involved, and the context in which it existed.

We are therefore driven to theorising speculatively about that actual History, and its significant events, in order to get some sort of idea as to its phases of development. The question comes to mind, “Would this currently conceived of substrate have always been exactly the same, or is it also likely to have evolved to its present state, as part of an overall development?”

Now, this involvement of a supposed, descrete-unit Substrate, with the quantizing of an atom’s orbital electrons, indicates that if this substrate made to be different, then the quantized orbits would also be different, and hence the spectral lines due to certain elements might change.

Also, if the Substrate was changing its composition, then that would do the same thing.

The most general question, if we are to assume a Substrate, has to be, “What changes in the Substrate would pack closer the energy levels of atomic electrons, and what would possibly spread them apart?”

Obviously, if the latter were the case, the transition would be bigger, and the result would be a Blue Shift in any characteristic spectral lines, while if they were closer together, the transitions would be smaller, and any spectral lines would instead suffer a Red Shift.

Now, this way of reasoning is essential, if you are a holist scientist, rather than a pluralist one, because the easy, yet mistaken, simplification and idealisation of the pluralist route are no longer considered to be legitimate in such questions.

Indeed, the premises involved become paramount in transcending any consequent impasses arising from such grounds.

If you, as I did for decades, pluralistically seek forever-constant Natural Laws, then your necessary premises came entirely after the event, and were, in fact, significant efforts to make a whole collection of prior and new findings coherent!

The currently existing tail was made to wag every new dog!

Now, with such an always applied process the new findings were fixed too, flowing from current stabilities. Clearly, if Reality evolved in every area, then such retrospective filtering of the new, was not letting them develop our understanding, but rather fitting them into an already decided framework! Rarely questioned premises were wholly directing our investigations both in our methods and our assumptions.

But, as the History of Human Thinking has shown, NO premises are ever absolutely true!

Any method that attempts to build upon unstated-but-intransigent premises derived from a prior set of ideas about what might have happened, in their evolution, will invariably be distorted by flaws in that assumed ground!

NOTE: Merely by assuming a Universal Substrate in the infamous Double Slit Experiments, this theorist was able to remove every single one of the anomalies, without ever resorting to the Copenhagen stance whatsoever!

Now, these seem reasonable, though, of course, as yet unproved, but, an important aspect, of any new theories, must be how effective they are at explaining difficult phenomena, and most important of all in transcending any impasses that have occurred (see Hegel’s work).

So, it now seems valuable to speculate upon what a differing internal density of the substrate within atoms would do to spectra and why. Perhaps, the last of these must be addressed first!

What evolutionary scenario might explain a changing composition and/or density of a Universal Substrate over time?

To begin, we will make an important supposition – “Without a Substrate NO electromagnetic radiation of any kind could be propagated!”

The alternative idea that it could happen in totally Empty Space is totally insupportable. As Maxwell proved, the nature of all such radiation is complex – with two oscillating components with a sinusoidal character, one electric and the other magnetic, happening at right angles to one another – all occurring, and even propagating in total nothingness?

It is a placeholder rubbish for “we don’t know!”

So, that if this were true, very early on in the development of the Universe, and if there were then NO substrate yet in place, then all interactions and happenings would be exclusively dynamic, and limited locally. For without an active propagating substrate there could only be collisions and trajectories!

A substrate can distribute radiation (including energy) to all parts of its extent, no matter how distant: it must have been vital in the extension and development of the Contents of the Universe.

In a no-substrate origin, a limited, almost random mix world would gradually extend, but merely by translational movements outwards.This means that such an early state would be incredibly dense, but constantly declining as more of the content was moved outwards.

We cannot even assume modern atoms at that stage or even a modern concept of any sort of substrate. We have to assume that solely translational spread allowed new conditions to appear, in which unions of the merest specks of matter might occur, without immediately dissociating again!

The modern concept of a Universal Substrate (at least so far) is that it is composed (at least in part) of very tiny stable particles termed neutritrons – within each of which there is a mutually orbiting pair of one electron and one positron.

Now, whether this really is the unit of a Universal Substrate remains to be conclusively proved, but several strands of pre-existing evidence have suggested that this could well be the case. For, such a joint particle has been observed, but only in high energy situations, where it is completely unstable, and dissociates almost immediately.

[See the positronium discovered in the Tevatron at Fermilab]

So, clearly, such a substrate of those units could only form and become stable Universe-wide, in appropriate conditions – perhaps outside the main concentration of matter and energy – such as in so-called Empty Space!

Now, whether these conditions could emerge without a propagating substrate, is surely the Key question! And, I can see no reason why it should not grow indefinitely in circumstances around the edges of the growing proto-Universe.

But, the formation of a neutritron, which is stable and to then begin the process of constructing a substrate out of them, is gradually being revealed in current researches.

Let us suppose that the early substrate was local and small, and hence fairly dense. As has been proved elsewhere by this theorist, neutritrons packed closely together, have a strong tendency to form a unique linked system, which he has termed a Paving, ultimately building outwards to totally fill Space!

Now, it should be made clear that this theorist is totally aware of the speculative nature of these ideas.

But, in totally rejecting the current consensus in modern Sub Atomic Physics – namely The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory, he has no choice but to look elsewhere.

He is also fully aware of his responsibilities to destructively test these ideas, on the one hand, and extending them on the other. And, most of all the re-establishment of a sound philosophical stance and physical explanations for all aspects of Reality.

Part 1

Red Shift and the "Quantum Bounce" (PART 1)

Introduction

The current evident interest in the idea of a Black Hole/White Hole Bounce which was suggested in order to “explain” the recently observed bursts of Radio Waves in Space, may sound somewhat like that idea of a collapsing Universe immediately turning into an on-going expansion of a seemingly, completely new one - but the theorists involved in the new suggestions don’t make that connection at all, for they are solely concerned with forcibly-adding as much “evidence” as possible into their pre-existing, purely-formal theories – in this case concerned with Loop Quantum Gravity (perhaps).

Hence, the whole exercise is totally non-physical! It amounts to formal/mathematical research, without an overt physical basis, yet again extrapolating to “infinity and beyond”!

But, surely, what is really required is a physical, explanatory assault upon such concrete data, along with the best possible physical models of what are supposed to be the entities and happenings involved? Any purely formal route is doomed to failure, for it has to be an incorrect path with its purely descriptive premises, so that it cannot take real explanation any further!

The physical premises, for those purely formal theories must be exposed, criticised and replaced, and a truly scientific attempt made to explain such phenomena physically undertaken.

The problem is that the total abandonment of explanatory theories in modern day Physics, leaves current theorists without a model to criticise and improve upon. Forms cannot be criticised! We have to work back from their current theories to expose what physical premises were assumed.

An Intrinsic Red Shift?

The Electric Universe group talk about a cosmic Red Shift that isn’t caused by a Doppler Effect - transforming the frequencies being observed. They assume instead that it is intrinsic to different modes of production within the developing atom.

Now, presumably, the usual explanation of radiation emitted by atoms assumes a particular context – say, in a vacuum, or, if not, they must be making the productions totally independent of any context!

Now, it is most probably the latter, but if a Universal Substrate exists, and is present not only as context for all atoms, but turns out to even be present within all atoms too, things could be different! For then, distortion of that substrate in extreme, external conditions, will definitely affect the electron orbits inside atoms, and cause changes in both emission and absorption frequencies, when such orbital transactions occur. This might be the only intrinsic modification of the emissions and absorptions in radiation, and hence will, in such extreme cases, affect the Red Shift too!

NOTE: As Red Shifts are so common, it would seem that the electron orbits must all be at lower energies, so that transitions down to lower energy levels will also be lower – towards the red end of the spectrum.

Now, we know that Solid, Liquid and Gas concentrations of atoms do not change the characteristic frequencies of emitted or absorbed radiation, so those modes of matter cannot change how atoms normally work! To find intrinsic modifications of the characteristic frequencies, we must consider extreme circumstances not usually encountered in the usual matter-phase modes. But, if those extreme conditions were to affect the Universal Substrate, that would also affect the insides of atoms, whatever phase they were in, and hence deliver the effects we are trying to explain. It could well be that normal phases are not extreme enough to make significant changes to the substrate. What must be involved will be conditions well beyond the usual ones.

It could be when stable concentrations of the Substrate are well outside the normal – in circumstances, for example when Matter is very highly concentrated, as in a Black Hole, or, alternatively, very sparsely concentrated, as at, or “beyond”, the Edge of the Universe! This being the case, we can assume that, within such an entity, the nature of the Substrate inside it can be significantly changed, so that the natural quantised orbits  will occur at different radii, due to different energy levels.

If we also go to the opposite extreme and consider the effects around the edges, then, once more, the electron orbits within the atom will be changed but in the opposite direction, due to the sparse nature of the Substrate.

Now, if these extreme cases are to throw light upon such things as the Red Shift, we will have to consider very carefully, what will be changed.

Obviously, when general radiation is so “red-shifted” (as seems to be the case for distant sources), we must adjust our measurements, to include the fact that we will be looking into the past, sometime long ago as well as far into the distance. It seems that, in this pretty well universal case, we may well be talking about the possible evolution of the Universal Substrate. It is unlikely to have always been there, exactly as we conceive it now!

It must have changed over time, as did everything else, and therefore, could not have been completely unaffected by the developments with which it had to be connected.

Remember, because looking into the distance in Space also means looking into the past, we already have evidence for the developments of Stars and even Galaxies.

For example, if some kind of Big Bang did happen, how does the establishment of the Universal Substrate fit into that changing scenario? And, even if some form of the Substrate preceded that Big Bang, it would unavoidably be successively modified both by that calamitous Event and its following consequences, with effects sweeping outwards from that “Point of Origin”.

In addition, we have to consider a natural “Temperature” of the Substrate over time. In current theories of the Universal Substrate it underpins many phenomena that use it as both sink and source for energy.

So the Substrate could always have contained a measure of Energy, either in the internal orbits of its component units, or in “whole unit” oscillations or translational travel too!

Hence the propagation of other energy would be promoting the internal orbits to levels above those necessary for its initial establishment, and any due to a general state of a region – its so-called “Temperature”!

NOTE: Though a particular unit with a promoted internal orbit will immediately demote it by transferring a quantum to another “empty” unit, when a whole area has all units with extra energy they will effectively equalise to the same internal “Temperature”.

This being the case, we have to consider how propagation would be affected. Remember, we have assumed that the Substrate does not alter the nature the propagation of so-called radiation: whatever it is, it will be propagated  totally unchanged! But first, how does our unit of Substrate manage that, and secondly, how may this be changed by circumstances?

NOTE: If the theories (of this researcher) concerning the role of the Universal Substrate, within an atom, and concerning quantized electrical orbits, are true, then the vortices caused in that substrate, by the orbiting of an electron, will be changed, if the Substrate differs from the classical form during extreme circumstances.

Clearly, if, for example, the density of the Substrate units were significantly changed (for some external reasons) the necessary matching of the orbit with the rotations of its caused vortices to bring about quantized orbits would also change, and the orbits will be at different radii (and different energy levels) though still close to what they were in normal circumstances.

We must determine how the behaviour of the vortices will be affected in a more densely packed Substrate within the atom. Now, if this caused the transitions between energy levels to be slightly lower, the energy of the released radiation would be lass, and the frequency would undergo a Red Shift – one that is intrinsic to the “Atom plus Substrate” system in those conditions. Also, a crucial factor (perhaps within or very close to a Black Hole) could involve a truly massive matter density, which might well distort the relationship between the orbiting electrons and the Substrate.

The more pressing problem is to explain the Red Shift that is merely from distant and past objects, but is internal rather than due to Doppler Shift. How could the radiation be altered either in initial production within the atom, or in transit while being propagated by units of the substrate?

A word about method!

Notice the very different demands upon Theory, between fitting formal (or even statistical) patterns to measured data, and the alternative of explaining that data via physical reasons in some form of concrete analogistic model. The former method is purely formal and includes no content or context information: it is merely a quantitative form-fitting to pre-existing ideal mathematical forms, whereas the latter MUST involve both content and context and explain phenomena in terms of substances and their properties in particular defining conditions.

Arp's Quasar-Galaxy associations challenge the received wisdom on Red Shift

 Addendum:

Halton Arp’s astronomical data may well be crucial in alighting upon a reasonable theory of intrinsic Red Shift. His data will have to be carefully studied, but at his Electric Universe Conference presentation he associated Red Shift with the initial creation and development of galaxies, which he gave evidence to show “budded-off” the hubs of mature galaxies and moved away perpendicular to the plane of the parent galaxy. What were most interesting were the changing Red Shifts as these new-born sub-galaxies moved away, for the Red Shift decline in seemingly quantised steps! It inferred that something determined these particular values, either in initial production or as they changed over time.

An explanation of these data if validated more generally, would imply similar possibilities on a galactic scale to those considered on a sub-atomic one – indeed, with a substrate at all levels.

PART 2 of this paper

New Special Issue: Entangled Universe

Read the issue

The Entangled Universe article by Anil Anathaswamy in New Scientist (3046) tackles a range of supposedly connected ideas in current Sub Atomic Theory. But, as with that overall stance itself, he joined the increasingly accelerated rush into the mixture of facts, “Laws” and speculation that has become the norm in this confusing area.

Every suggested solution begets yet another “rule of thumb” - designed to enable some sort of regular paths through a limited area, and the overall description is of a plethora of such meta rules which alone defines what can and cannot be done.

Clearly, we are being guided through an alien land, and without the necessary signposts of Physical Ground, to resolve anomalies; we are forced to travel with a dependence upon local maps. You have no single theoretical stance, so you have to keep them all, and decide when and how to jump from one islet to the next!

It is an almighty mess – very like the proliferation of epicycles in the Ptolemaic version of the Solar System, It can give you useable answers but no coherent, consistent and overall Theory.

The Gordian Knot of invention must be severed with a goodly dose of Reality – but how? 

Clearly this is easier said than done, and after a couple of re-reads and copious notes, I realised that attempting to follow Anathaswamy’s stepping stones between the various positions, would not clarify, but only confuse! I decided instead to write a series of separate papers- each one tackling a different bit of this messy article.

But it soon became a large response. I have written 13 short coherent papers each on a different topic, with a total length of some 6,000 words. But I still think it is the best way to deal with the New Scientist article as a helpful review.

The Fall

The Real Origin of the Big Bang? 

Let us assume an almighty collapse of Universe-wide proportions of a prior and flagging Universe, which is finally running out of steam, but still carrying within it the developments and constructions of eons.

Clearly, such a cataclysmic event would have to signal the termination of some prior and stable phase, in which the Universe had been developing within a generally acting set of conditions: the most likely, considering what we know of our presently existing Universe, being one of a long-standing and continuous expansion.

Effectively, only a switch to a new, all-prevailing dominance of Gravity, could cause the termination of that phase, and begin such an all-encompassing collapse.

The universe, throughout its spread, would then begin to fall back, on increasingly more extensive fronts, towards its overall centre of mass. Of course, the question, as to where the collapse would begin, certainly presents the first difficulty.

Close to that centre of overall mass, the effective pull inwards would, necessarily, be small. For, very little matter would be there compared with the universe as a whole. And, also, most of the matter, outside of such a position, would tend to cancel out, leaving only a small imbalance to effect such a pull.

The most likely place, therefore, where the pull towards the centre would all be both one way, and due to the combined mass of the whole Universe, would have to be at the extreme peripheries. For, all the gravitational pull, in such positions, would be inwards, previously overwhelmed by some prior cataclysmic event, which threw everything outwards at a colossal speed and swamped, by that initial impulse, any purely gravitational pulls in the opposite direction. BUT, that event could never be a continuous pressure outward, but something of a short duration, the involved momentum would be continually opposed by the general, inwards pull of Gravity.

Clearly, at some point the expansion would run out of steam, and a switch to a collapse would ensue!

Let us assume, therefore, that the collapse would commence at these extremities. And, as it got closer to the centre of mass, the pulling force would increase, so the fall would continue to accelerate.

But, if that Universe were at all like ours, it would not be uniform: it would consist of innumerable concentrations – from planets and suns, to dust clouds and galaxies. And, if the collapse, from the outer edge, were occurring inwards as some sort of wave, this increasing flow would encounter various differing elements of a fragmentary universe, picking up extra weight, but definitely not uniformly, but instead in various fits and starts – sometimes of absolutely colossal proportions.

It would be like a strong flow of water, superimposed upon a relatively calm pond, but also having various floating centres of different sizes in a relatively stationary ground.

The Fall would not be a simple contraction!

Not only would it cause spinning vortices of some of these obstructions to be created, but it could also precipitate local collapses, and even trigger local explosions and supernovae.

In such tumults, what survives could be from many such sub-phases, and include some surprising survivors too. And, as these would be local any explosions, they would not be sufficient to reverse the speed of the general collapse but would, themselves, be twisted like vortices, creating temporary pauses in the general collapse, and also temporary stabilities within these spinning remnants.

Imagine the event, in all positions, like a fast flowing stream, with individual local obstructions and even explosions, twisted into vortices – all accompanying the general flow.

This indicates that during the fall, many such temporary reversals would inevitably occur, with the effect of breaking up the involved material objects into more and more fragmentary units, but not all of the same minimal size Instead, they would be produced in a diversity of different sub-phases, from different stages of prior development.

Ultimately, we assume a total-universe-involved final crunch, at the centre of its mass, which would result in a final gigantic explosion. But, this would, most certainly, NOT be in a “dimensionless dot” – a Singularity, composed entirely of totally disembodied Pure Energy and nothing else.

Such idealist myths are the extrapolations of Mathematicians, NOT scientists! Clearly, the cataclysm will always precede any such state, and will be diverse throughout its initial execution. The overall result will be generally outwards, but radically altered by its almost continuous and varied sub-phases, all the way down to that final Daddy-of-them-all – the ultimate reverse into an explosion!

This could, indeed, be our famed Big Bang, which would then start a new overall expansion, and the building of a Different and Original, New Universe.

But, as with all such cycles of catastrophe and re-construction, what is produced will never be exactly the same as that which was lost.

Indeed, in spite of the tremendous proportions of the whole Event, it would not start from a single given point in time, but be the final consequence of a whole series of crises, pauses and even temporary rejuvenations.

The final turn around would be the culmination of all these contributions, and would commence in different ways and at different times, until the whole process moves were entirely outwards in an enormous Explosion.

Both the Singularity, and its nature of pure, disembodied Energy are false extrapolations of abstract equations taken well beyond their applicability.

They are Formal Myths!

The actual event has been elsewhere generally traced as a common trajectory in what are termed Emergences, which occur in all kinds of developments, and at all Levels, and none of those investigated are the least like the current consensus by the mathematical cosmologists, who currently rule the roost!

Let us be clear, all sorts of entities, at many different stages of development, WILL come through this gigantic event, and thereafter significantly play a major role in the subsequent developments. At No Point was there only Energy. All strictly pluralist attempts to track the trajectory of the development of the new Universe, from “known” and “eternal” Laws, will never deliver anything of value. They are merely intellectual exercises, based upon incorrect assumptions and principles.

To even begin to tackle the suggested Big Bang, researchers must first turn away from Formal Logic and Pure Mathematics, and begin to study the crucial transforming events of all significant development – the Emergences of the wholly New.

And, no single development path will produce any relevant results. The process will, on the contrary, consist of many diverse strands from the outset, with very different contents, depending upon what happened to those ultimate remnants during the Fall.

The simple bottom-up conceptions, of the pluralist cosmologists, ascribing all subsequent differentiations to initial quantum fluctuations, in an initial Singularity, is clearly unfounded speculation, based entirely on a narrow regime of particle accelerators and atom smashing for their evidence.

IT is the diversity of surviving bits from the Fall that determines these consequent developments. For, that produced final mix, may well include fragments from all sorts of phases, and so the trajectory, of developing competitions and dominances, will be entirely NEW, because of the local unique mixes, and different in different localities, which will then come together to generate new crises and resolutions. Indeed, even during the new general expansion, there will be surprising localities, n that supernovae could be occurring, and local collapses of surviving galaxies completing their final stages of the Fall!

This seems to ensure that though these ideas imply an oscillation between successive collapses and expansions, and, therefore, looks like a never-ending repeat, it will never be mere repetitions.

Every single Universe will, indeed, be different, with its admixture of fragments from diverse phases in the prehistory of the Universe, very different victories in the various competitions, and hence different stabilities will be inevitably established.

It isn’t merely repeating the same every time!

Clearly, the mathematical Singularities play no part in this development, based essentially upon the Theory of Emergences. For, such dramatic transformations never do relate to such formal abstractions, in any known cases! 

For, such Singularities occur when simplified and idealised processes (rather than the actual real ones) inevitably “bomb-out”, and something totally unpredictable from those prior formal descriptions, replaces them. In all real processes, such cataclysms do not totally terminate all previous histories, or deliver pristine and pure beginnings. They will be both dirtier and replete with elements of the past, and will, on turn around, beget a wholly new development.

Issue 36 of Shape: Space

What exactly is Space? This is a fundamental area. As soon as we attempt to address such a question, and get beyond simplistic “Nothingness”, we find ourselves in serious trouble – for nowhere can we find a total absence of everything – the Ultimate Void!

Perhaps the place we usually consider to deliver it must be so-called Outer Space –the “empty” gaps between the heavenly bodies, but we cannot even be sure of that. Can we say that every single morsel of anywhere (even in that Outer Space) contains absolutely Nothing?

And, the reason for this is surely the very fact of Light Propagation! There can be no doubt that Light is coming in to us from literally every direction, and the more our telescopes improve, the more previously invisible sources are found to exist and can be seen.

Such ideas beg the question “Doesn’t Light need something to propagate it though Space – must it not have some form of vehicle or medium to transmit it?” As you can see, the question isn’t entirely trivial, is it? Our assumption that it is totally empty is a useable simplification, in many circumstances, but it surely is not the last word?

And these questions are not only concerning its nature. For as soon as we get into such questions, other problems arise, for whatever we consider, we have to “ensure” (if that is possible) that what we extract from Reality, and consider and manipulate are valid concepts, and are dealt with via valid methods.

Yes, Space is quite a subject. So, let us proceed!

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Dark Matter?

No, I’m afraid you've missed it.

It’s behind you!

 

Pardon me, as I am forced to point out that you cannot see Dark Matter for two very good reasons.

First, it is invisible and well nigh totally undetectable. And second, it is also absolutely everywhere, and you can’t see the trees for the wood!

As you study in your underground laboratories, and your ever higher powered Accelerators, seeking the undetectable Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), you are completely missing the NIPs that are all around you, in such abundant profusion that they are, inconsequence, even more difficult to detect.

NOTE: with these Non Interacting Particles (NIPs), I miss out the “M for massive”, because the particles suggested have equal and balancing amounts of matter and antimatter.

Yet, the indirect evidence for these entities is also absolutely everywhere, though we invariably choose to ignore it. These particles exist as a “Paving” throughout the Universe, which actually propagates all Electromagnetic Radiation, AND they do it in quanta! NOT, I must immediately emphasize, by actually moving about themselves as carriers, but by a bucket-brigade kind of passing on of individual quanta from unit-to-unit!

[By the way, the Speed of Light, though indeed a constant, isn’t a Universal Constant: but merely the speed of transfer between these equally spaced out elements of this Paving].

They are not usually translational objects, though we humans can make them so in our many infernal devices.

Welcome to the neutritron! (Which is sometimes it is erroneously identified with the high-energy, short-lifetime version – the positronium as its normal state, which it isn’t!).

This is a mutually orbiting pair, consisting of one electron and one positron.

Perhaps surprisingly, you are already familiar with it in its modes of Pair Annihilation and Pair Production, when it either dissociates from a neutritron into its component parts, or is involved in the union of these two into a mutually orbiting, and stable pair, if the appropriate form of encounter of its soon-to-be components occurs.

It can also carry extra electromagnetic energy, above that necessary to maintain its base orbit, in exactly the same way that the atom does, via the promotion of its mutual orbits (somewhat different, of course, to the atom, because of the absence of a determining nucleus).

Oh, and by the way, I’m afraid it is also causing major confusion at the edge of the Universe, where the Paving ends.

For there, it causes Total Internal Reflection (or something very similar) of all electromagnetic radiation. And it causes trouble by giving not only by this means many extra virtual stars and galaxies, but by, also and confusingly, delivering multiple images of the same single source, yet apparently from quite different directions, as well as from different times in its past history.

If some great Being designed this particle, he (or she) must be giggling uncontrollably as the evident confusion caused by the particle, is shown to affect our most eminent scientists!

And, to compound the felony, this particle and its Paving has enabled the solving of the anomalies of the Double Slit Experiments, and is rapidly burying the ubiquitous Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory.

Sleep well tonight, my beauties!

“But, how are these particles also the source of Dark Matter?”, you may well ask.

Well, all this talk about mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter makes me think what is actually happening is that it that it is them becoming an undetectable combination of matter and antimatter, as in the neutritron. Could that Universe-wide collection of hidden matter + antimatter BE Dark Matter?