With all of the talk and research within recent history, about the nature of our universe and about life on earth …… with all of the predictions, both trivial and dire about where we came from and where we are going ….. with all of the effort to understand the physical universe, the nature of matter and energy … light, dark and anti! ….. I thought it was time I shared a few predictions of my own … about what science will ‘discover’ in the near future.

In the past few hundred years (just an eye blink in human history and not even registerable on the cosmological time scale) man has been striving to understand the nature of the physical universe … and perhaps more significantly, his place within it. Great minds have formulated incredibly complex calculations seeking to describe physical things in mathematical language. Einstein apparently came up with the concept of a ‘cosmological constant’ which was needed to ‘balance up’ these mathematical equations, seemingly without a real understanding of why it was necessary. The current search for exotic things like dark matter and dark energy seem to have flowed on from the obvious need for some kind of as-yet unknown phenomena that would balance up the universe and cause it to become understandable to science and predictable to the rest of us. Great mathematicians and scientists are searching for a ‘universal theory of everything’ that will magically cause this to happen.

I think that the answers to most things are right in front of us. Unfortunately, like an ant staring at an elephant’s toenail, we have trouble conceiving those answers ………. just as the ant would have trouble conceiving the nature of a whole elephant. The truth is all around us and we cannot recognise it … from the inside, as it were. One thing that we chillingly do understand is the possibility and the outcome of splitting an atom. Did you ever ponder the amazing similarities between a single atom ….. and a single solar system? One of the recurring themes that my mind finds within the universe, both physical and non …. is that of ‘things within things’. The concept of a whole world existing within a snowflake isn’t new.

Current scientific ‘wisdom’ posits the theory of a cosmological ‘Big Bang’ that gave rise to our universe, as we know it. And it seems to me that the similarities between that amazing cosmological event and the diabolical fruits of mankind’s successes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are too obvious to ignore. A tiny bit of something was ripped apart, releasing its component essence in a display of violence and destruction, on a scale that defied belief.

I reckon the Big Bang was the same essential process. But what was the ‘matter’ that was ‘split’ to release all that energy and matter that we now recognise as our known universe? I reckon I know the answer! I reckon that by far, the most common ‘element’ that was available at the time; from which all that we know could have been released is ….. drum roll please …… EMPTY SPACE! And of all the stumbling blocks that stand between science and understanding, I believe that the concept of ’empty space’ is one of the biggest and hardest to get around.

So my prediction??? Science will ‘discover’ sometime soon, that all that is within our universe ….. all that we think of as matter and energy, both discovered and undiscovered …. is made up of the component parts of what we currently think of as empty space. And if you could take every little bit of matter and energy that exists within our universe and somehow recombine them, you’d have … well …. you’d have ‘nothing’ ….. a little chunk of what we think of as empty space.

The great cosmological constant that we need then, to balance up those complicated equations … is simply ….. +X=0

So there ya go. The Andy Constant … and you can have it for free. Zero represents ’empty space’ and ‘X’ represents all of those factors that you don’t understand that are needed to balance up all the factors on the other side of the equation … those that you DO understand!

Why do I think these weird things? Probability! The chances of our known universe being made from something that is all around us and goes on, seemingly forever (empty space) is infinitely more likely (in my mind) than the sudden existence of some mysterious ‘something’ springing spontaneously into being … and then magically metamorphising? through the process of a big bang into what we now think of as our universe.

And if you think my ideas are stupid, bear in mind that lots of new thinking in past history, was ridiculed and reviled by the establishment thinking of its time. Anyhow, I reckon I’d rather be an insane person with a few ideas that are my own … than to be a sane man who has NO ideas of his own!

In closing, I would also like to share one of the most profound bits of wisdom that it was ever my privilege to receive …. well I believe that it is, anyway. I was trying to explain to someone dear to me, the current understanding and theories (as I understand them) of energy and dark energy; of matter and anti matter and dark matter. He thought for a moment and looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said ….. “And don’t forget doesn’t matter!” I think there’s something in that for all of us, don’t you?

I thought about perhaps changing my name legally to +X=0 … you know … so that no-one else would be able to come along and steal my idea. But what the heck … I probably wouldn’t amount to anything, even if I did!

Cheers All,

Andy

(20130104) .. andrewcaddle.com

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Thank you, Andrew.

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