Some Alternative Cosmologies: Part One

The standard model of cosmology, the Big Bang event, not only postulates an origin for all matter and energy (out of nothing) but of time and space too (equally out of nothing). First there was nothing; then there was something. The Big Bang cosmology is seriously flawed IMHO. That the Big Bang event, our entire universe, started out being smaller than the head of a pin puts the icing on this cake of the absurd. Fortunately however, there are alternatives.

A key question in modern cosmology, rarely asked, its answer usually assumed, is whether or not the Big Bang event actually created space and time, as well as producing or providing our supply of matter/energy that we observe all around us. The central foundation of the Big Bang event, apart from the observational evidence of an expanding cosmos, was that the Big Bang event somehow created time and space, out of nothing for apparently no reason, and thus, the often assumed answer is “Yes”. But, there’s no evidence for this. No laboratory has ever created time and/or space. There’s no real even theoretical recipe textbook way of doing this.

What if one rejects that premise? So, what if the answer instead is “No”? What if the Big Bang was created out of something, and for a reason? Then it’s a whole new ballgame! If time and space pre-existed the Big Bang event, 13.7 billion years ago, then that suggests that because time existed prior to the Big Bang event, that there was a chain of events (a cause) that led up to and included the Big Bang (an effect). In fact, I invoke the principle of causality (cause and effect) which is one of the, if not the, foundation upon which all science is based, to ‘prove’ (as far as that’s possible, but which is as close to certainty IMHO as makes no odds) that the Big Bang event had a cause. Therefore, there had to have been a before-the-Big-Bang. Hells, bells, even “The Bible” attributes a cause to the origin of the Universe – ‘In the beginning, God created…”. Ditto that for all other major religions.

Now I realize that the nature or properties of time and space (or space-time post Relativity Theory) are a good deal more complicated than described. In fact, whole books have been devoted to the physics and philosophy of same. But, the key point remains. Can space and time (or space-time) actually be created where no space and time (or space-time) existed previously? If not, then space and time (or space-time) has always existed and therefore the Big Bang took place in existing space and time (or space-time).

Faced with a choice between accepting a Big Bang event that had a cause, and a Big Bang event that had no cause, I’ll accept the former (hands down) and consign the latter to the fantasy land occupied by such notables as Santa Claus, James Bond, Little Red Riding Hood, Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Tooth Fairy, Harry Potter, the Easter Bunny, assorted elves, goblins and the Loch Ness Monster! Anyone believing that all of time, space, matter and energy, were created out of absolutely nothing, for absolutely no reason, is living in that same fantasy land.

Of course one shouldn’t be just negative about things. One should try to put forward a constructive alternative(s). If the standard model of the Big Bang event were the only game in town, then this essay would be an exercise in futility. Fortunately for me; unfortunately I guess for proponents of that standard model it’s not the only game in town. Here’s a list of various cosmologies and where you can get more information on (at least) some of them.

1) The Standard Big Bang Model (Pro and Con) – It’s obvious from the above that I feel this is seriously flawed. However, here are several standard texts that deal with it as given, and several that don’t.

Barrow, John D.; The Book of Universes; The Bodley Head, London; 2011:

Clegg, Brian; Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of Our Universe; St. Martin’s Press, N.Y.; 2009:

Chown, Marcus; Afterglow of Creation: Decoding the Message from the Beginning of Time; Faber and Faber, London; Revised Edition; 2010:

Gilmore, Robert; Once Upon A Universe: Not-So-Grimm Tales of Cosmology; Copernicus Books, New York; 2003:

Goldsmith, Donald; The Runaway Universe: The Race to Find the Future of the Cosmos; Basic Books, New York; 2000:

Guth, Alan H.; The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for A New Theory of Cosmic Origins; Vintage, London; 1998:

Hawking, Stephen; A Brief History of Time; Bantam Books, New York; 2^nd Edition; 1996:

Hawking, Stephen & Mlodinow, Leonard; A Briefer History of Time; Bantam Press, London; 2005:

Silk, Joseph; On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; 2005:

Silk, Joseph; The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology; Oxford University Press, Oxford; 2006:

Singh, Simon; Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It; Harper Perennial, London; 2005:

2) The Vacuum Energy Model – There are those who claim that empty space has intrinsic properties like the vacuum energy / quantum fluctuations / quantum jitters, and above all ‘dark energy’ (which I think, if not identical to, is at least a kissing cousin of the vacuum energy). So, the more space you have (and space is apparently expanding) the more ‘dark energy’ and/or vacuum energy you have. Call the Universe a box with sides of one unit length. The volume of the Universe is one cubic unit. Now double the length of the sides to two units. That’s an eight-fold increase in volume, hence of activity associated with ‘dark energy’ or the vacuum energy. (The mathematics is straight forward: 1 x 1 x 1 = 1 cubic unit; 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 cubic units.) Regardless whether of not the ‘dark energy’ and/or the vacuum energy is a property of space itself, or manifests itself in some other way, in either case if you have more space you have room for more activity inside your space box. You have more something, so you can apparently get something from nothing, or, in other words, a free lunch! Could the ‘free lunch’ be an entire universe?

In the infinite beginning there was the vacuum energy, a quantum state where energy can create matter – antimatter particle pairs (even if the matter is just composed of virtual particles) and where the particles then annihilate each other back into pure energy again. The vacuum energy resided in space and time (or space-time, post relativity theory). From the vacuum energy (which again is a quantum phenomenon often termed vacuum or quantum fluctuations or the quantum jitters), at least one macro universe arose. This is theoretically possible – just don’t ask me to explain the technical details although I strongly suspect it has an awful lot to do with the quantum mantra that ‘if it’s not forbidden, it’s compulsory’ – at least if you’re willing to wait long enough. Of course maybe more than one universe arose from the vacuum energy. The more the merrier!

Cole, K.C.; ‘The ultimate free lunch’ (in) The Hole in the Universe; Harcourt, San Diego; 2001; p.168-171:

Tryon, E.P.; ‘Is the universe a vacuum fluctuation?’ (in) Nature, Vol.246, 1973; p.396:

Vilenkin, A.; ‘The universe as a quantum fluctuation’ (in) Many Worlds in One: The Search for other Universes; Hill and Wang, New York; 2006; p.183-186:

To be continued…