Before the Big Bang: A Twin Universe? 212
esocid writes "Until very recently, asking what happened at or before the Big Bang was considered by physicists to be a religious question. General relativity theory just doesn't go there — at T=0, it spews out zeros, infinities, and errors — and so the question didn't make sense from a scientific view. But in the past few years, a new theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) has emerged. The theory suggests the possibility of a "quantum bounce," where our universe stems from the collapse of a previous universe. This may be similar with beliefs of Physicist Neil Turok of Cambridge University who has theorized about a cyclic universe, constantly expanding and compressing."
Before the big bang... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fallacy of the Big Bang Theory (Score:5, Funny)
I have no response to that other than, um, sometimes its best to not post your thoughts in public where others can see...
The Alternative Factor? (Score:4, Funny)
yeah, I heard about this (Score:3, Funny)
Galactus (Score:5, Funny)
Galactus, the Overmind, and the Stranger all came from the previous Universe, by one mechanism or another surviving the Big Crunch and the following Big Bang. There may be other previous universe types, but those 3 are the only ones I picked up on, back in my comic book days. (decades ago, even)
Re:Thanks for furthering your agenda! (Score:3, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/285/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Thanks for furthering your agenda! (Score:5, Funny)
There are different kinds of intelligence. Some people can solve complicated problems like getting laid but can't handle simple problems like calculating pi to 15 places using a couple of paper clips a rubber band and a slinky. This doesn't make them useless to society, and I think we should celebrate our differences.
To look at it another way, Einsein supposedly intuited a lot of his work and then proved it later. He had that kind of mind. If Einstein had been a goat herd 2000 years ago, the accepted mode of proof would have been vastly different, so proof from them rates as primitive religion now just as general relativity is the superstitious mumbo jumbo of the future. I'd take you in my time machine to prove it, but it only seats one and I know you're prone to not returning them... or will be on July 12th, 2017.
Also, Einsein was wrong about a whole lot of stuff, but that doesn't make his contribution useless. Ditto for the goat herders.
If someone does finally work it out, kill him. Until then, being open to the idea that someone who can't read or write but can play world class lawn bowls probably has as much, if not more insight into the true nature of nature than Hawking et al is a healthy perspective.
Re:If it really is just nodes and links at the bot (Score:1, Funny)
Re:You can go almost 3 times the speed of light? (Score:1, Funny)
Bad news travels faster than the speed of light :)
It's save to say that if the speed of light is at 10, bad news travels at 11.
You'll sure arrive early, but, wouldn't be welcome!