Cosmology and the Darwinian (Reproducing) Universe

The concept of a Multiverse, that there are lots of universes out there, not just ours, is now taken very seriously by many (though not all) cosmologists. If Mother Nature can create one universe, Mother Nature can create more than one. If universes are constantly being formed, can the concepts central to Darwinian evolution be applied to them? The surprising answer is, 'yes'.

The standard model of cosmology, the origin of our Universe, the Big Bang event, suggests that the Big Bang created space, time, matter and energy, and was a quantum sized event. Thus theorized, our Universe must have created itself; such is the weirdness of quantum physics. First there was nothing; then there was something. No cause and effect. Of course if you are your own parent as it were, there's no requirement for any actual act of before-the-fact sexual or asexual reproduction. Now I can hear you muttering now that it's silly, even downright ridiculous to even contemplate a universe reproducing itself. I mean Johnny Universe doesn't have a one night stand with Mary Universe and produce nine million years later little Joey Universe! Yet, where did our Universe come from if it didn't create itself? Perhaps our Universe is the cosmic offspring of some other universe. How?

Well, my variation on the standard cosmological model has the Big Bang event originating in existing space and time, the event spewing forth already existing matter and energy. Further, that event wasn't a quantum sized (micro) event, but a macro happening. In my scenario, a previous universe had sufficient mass to cause the universe to undergo contraction due to its universal gravity, ultimately coming closer and closer together to form the mother of all Black Holes. That ultimate Big Crunch so warped space-time that the contents were spewed back out again (a White Hole) due to sheer momentum as a quasi-explosion - our Big Bang. That's sort of like asexual reproduction - one parent giving rise to one offspring. But that's not as interesting as trying to reproduce universes by more exotic (erotic?) means.

The standard model of cosmology postulates that our very early Universe underwent an extremely brief period of very, very rapid inflation (in addition to the normal expansion caused by the Big bang itself). The concept of inflation helps explain various observations about our Universe and the technical details needn't concern us. One variation on the inflation theme has been called 'eternal inflation'. Basically, it means that the inflation didn't stop everywhere at the exact same instant. So, one tiny region continues to inflate (a budding off creating a baby universe), and when that shuts down, one tiny region of that (a second baby universe) continues to inflate and bud off, and so on.

Eternal inflation is one way of producing lots of baby universes (a Multiverse), but that's a sort of asexual budding process with no real scope for Darwinian evolution. It's sort of like shaking a bottle of soft drink - you get lots of bubbly foam where bubbles give rise to other bubbles, etc. where each new bubble is a new universe. But if you start with ginger ale bubbles, you end up with ginger ale bubbles. Not much in the way of Darwinian evolution!

However, there might be two mechanisms by which a universe can in fact reproduce itself, reproduction that will exhibit Darwinian fitness by the creation of other universes that would maximize their reproductive capabilities.
The two means are:
1) natural selection via Black Holes, and
2) artificial selection via extraterrestrials (E.T.).

Firstly, it should be noted that it does not follow automatically that all universes are going to have the same laws, relationships, and principles of physics - the physical laws, relationships and principles that we know could well be different. This is akin to the fact that a child is not an identical copy of either parent. So, relative to our Universe, another universe could have a stronger gravitational constant; the speed of light might be different; the mass and electric charge of an electron might have differing values than the ones we know.

Back to the creation of universes, we note that while the precise physics of the internal doings of normal Black Holes aren't clear, there is reason to theorize/speculate, based on what we suspect that physics might be, to further suspect that Black Holes give rise to other universes, albeit ones forever beyond our reach. All the stuff, information, etc. which forever goes down the Black Hole gurgler, while lost to us, has to go somewhere. That somewhere is a new universe, a new universe that owes its existence to a Black Hole in our universe.

The fitness element is this. Any universe which has the right set of physics that give rise to Black Holes, will form new universes via those Black Holes. If a universe doesn't have the right sort of physics that produces Black Holes, then it's like a human that doesn't leave behind any offspring. Black Hole universes that produce other universes, well those offspring universes will probably also have the right stuff - the right kind of physics that will produce Black Holes (though that's not guaranteed any more than the offspring of two parents will in turn produce offspring), and so on.

Then what about a highly intelligent and technological extraterrestrial civilization that could be ideally placed to create an entirely new universe if it wanted to? I mean, our Universe started out, according to the accepted standard model, at a size where quantum physics rule. That is, a very tiny size. So I don't mean that extraterrestrials could be creating in the laboratory fully matured universes billions of light years across at one go. Rather, perhaps they could create a tiny quantum universe, akin to what ours was - if you accept the standard model - 'in the beginning'. Such a quantum sized universe would perhaps expand and inflate and grow up to become the sort of universe that we'd accept as a bona fide universe. Or maybe not - perhaps a baby universe could be confined to something smaller and more manageable. That might not be beyond the ways and means of a super-technological civilization. Such a civilization would probably be classed as a Type III civilization. That's a civilization that has the ability to harness and manipulate the energy output of an entire galaxy - they would be few and far between

The fitness element is this. Any universe which has the right set of physics that gives rise to suitable chemistry and ultimately biochemistry and hence ultimately those Type III ultra-super-advanced-technologically-capable beings, well those beings could create new universes via that advanced technology. If a universe doesn't have the right sort of physics that produces the right sort of chemistry, hence biochemistry, hence advanced intelligences, then again it's like a human that doesn't leave behind any offspring. E.T. rich universes that produce other universes, well those offspring universes will probably also have the right stuff - the right kind of physics that will produce suitable chemistry, biochemistry, and Type III intelligent life forms and so on.

So, any universe that has had a natural selection by which its physics are the sort of physics that's conducive to producing either a lot of black holes, and/or advanced technological civilizations, will be the sort of universe that will produce offspring, a universe in turn which might produce even more universes which will produce even more, and so on. Sounds sort of like terrestrial sexual biology to me!

In short, this is a nice variation on the creation of a Multiverse, which would probably contain a lot of copies of you!