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R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
order, what are the origins of the order that now exists, notably clusters of
galaxies, individual galaxies, stars, solar systems, and ultimately life? After
all, “nothing will come of nothing,” [2] as the Bard so rightly, if somewhat
plagiaristically, 1 informs us.
The word “evolve” in Brandenberger’s reply is evocative. A human develops
from fertilised egg to adult because of the presence of DNA in the nucleus of
the egg cell. Is there some equivalent package of information present at the
initial Big Bang singularity that foreordains the evolutionary path, at least in
broad principle, that the universe must take? In his theory of the evolution of
species, Charles Darwin identified natural selection as the driver that guides
the evolution of a species and creates order from the chaos of random mutations. Is there a corresponding driver, perhaps involving gravity, that produces
order out of the early chaos of the universe?
On the other hand, what appears to be order may actually result from
something very simple. One of the authors is reminded of a fishing excursion
some years ago, when a clumsy comrade knocked over the bait container,
depositing hundreds of writhing maggots in a heap on the carpeted floor
of our boat. As we watched, we saw an almost perfect, rapidly expanding,
circle of larvae advancing with military precision outwards from where the
heap had landed. They were not, of course, following the command of some
insect drill sergeant, but had simply headed off in the direction they happened
to be pointing when they alighted. The random nature of the fall ensured
that all directions were equally covered, their speeds were approximately the
same, and the result was the circle we observed. There are many examples
of complex behaviour arising from a few underlying basic rules in social
insects (bees, ants, etc.), flocks of birds, schools of fish [3], and even crowds of
humans. The science of thermodynamics, including concepts such as entropy,
has been successfully applied to interpret crowd behaviour.
So perhaps the emergence of structure in the early universe is just chance,
and we are simply fortunate that our world seems to be tuned to support
the development of life? If so, we have indeed won the lottery, because a
slight change in any of a number of fundamental physical constants, or a
small variation in the physical laws or in the universe’s conditions in its early
stages, would have produced a universe where life as we know it would be
impossible. We shall discuss the origin of the universe further in Sect. 12.4.
It is also possible that our universe is not unique, and we are surrounded by
innumerable other inaccessible universes, in which case we are only aware of
our own universe precisely because it is one in which life is possible.
1 The bard was paraphrasing the much older: Nothing can be made from nothing—once we see that’s
so, already we are on the way to what we want to know.—Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 1.148–156.
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
order, what are the origins of the order that now exists, notably clusters of
galaxies, individual galaxies, stars, solar systems, and ultimately life? After
all, “nothing will come of nothing,” [2] as the Bard so rightly, if somewhat
plagiaristically, 1 informs us.
The word “evolve” in Brandenberger’s reply is evocative. A human develops
from fertilised egg to adult because of the presence of DNA in the nucleus of
the egg cell. Is there some equivalent package of information present at the
initial Big Bang singularity that foreordains the evolutionary path, at least in
broad principle, that the universe must take? In his theory of the evolution of
species, Charles Darwin identified natural selection as the driver that guides
the evolution of a species and creates order from the chaos of random mutations. Is there a corresponding driver, perhaps involving gravity, that produces
order out of the early chaos of the universe?
On the other hand, what appears to be order may actually result from
something very simple. One of the authors is reminded of a fishing excursion
some years ago, when a clumsy comrade knocked over the bait container,
depositing hundreds of writhing maggots in a heap on the carpeted floor
of our boat. As we watched, we saw an almost perfect, rapidly expanding,
circle of larvae advancing with military precision outwards from where the
heap had landed. They were not, of course, following the command of some
insect drill sergeant, but had simply headed off in the direction they happened
to be pointing when they alighted. The random nature of the fall ensured
that all directions were equally covered, their speeds were approximately the
same, and the result was the circle we observed. There are many examples
of complex behaviour arising from a few underlying basic rules in social
insects (bees, ants, etc.), flocks of birds, schools of fish [3], and even crowds of
humans. The science of thermodynamics, including concepts such as entropy,
has been successfully applied to interpret crowd behaviour.
So perhaps the emergence of structure in the early universe is just chance,
and we are simply fortunate that our world seems to be tuned to support
the development of life? If so, we have indeed won the lottery, because a
slight change in any of a number of fundamental physical constants, or a
small variation in the physical laws or in the universe’s conditions in its early
stages, would have produced a universe where life as we know it would be
impossible. We shall discuss the origin of the universe further in Sect. 12.4.
It is also possible that our universe is not unique, and we are surrounded by
innumerable other inaccessible universes, in which case we are only aware of
our own universe precisely because it is one in which life is possible.
1 The bard was paraphrasing the much older: Nothing can be made from nothing—once we see that’s
so, already we are on the way to what we want to know.—Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 1.148–156.