What was before it began?

[matrixscarface]

In your opinion, What was the universe before it begain? what was here? what was around?......your thoughts

[Tormod]

I frankly don't know.

[the5thhorseman]

a two dimensional universe where they dreamed of traveling to a three dimensional universe and so made this appear in there efforts to reach it :eek:

[pgrmdave]

I think that there must have been something 'before' the Big Bang, however, I also think that because of human limitations, we will not be able to know what it was. The only evidence of it we can really see is the non-uniform distribution of matter throughout the universe.

[C1ay]

In your opinion, What was the universe before it begain? what was here? what was around?......your thoughts

 

I don't think we could ever prove what was. I tend to think there was a similar dispersion of mass that we see in our universe today. I believe this mass collapsed on itself from gravitational force which resulted in the event we call the big bang. This is all conjecture though so it really doesn't matter.

[muller]

The bing bang theory is the simlest thing that scientists could invent. We know now that universe is expanding so if we look back in time we see that universe is shrinking. It's easy to guess that if we go further back the universe turns to a dot.

I think it should be more complicated.

[pgrmdave]

Why should it be more complicated? I think that simple, elegent theorys are often the best - f=ma, e=mc^2...

[matrixscarface]

Of course we would not know for at least a long time, we know the big bang theory, but what else can we all come up with? i think if anyone is going to come up with something it is going to be us. we have some very bright people here.

[lindagarrette]

In your opinion, What was the universe before it begain? what was here? what was around?......your thoughts

There was no before. Time and space did not exist.

[matrixscarface]

there HAD to be something! take the air in front of you, nothing, look nothing! not a thing is happening! something just doesn't appear out of nowhere! if so, how do you make something out of nothing?

[Fishteacher73]

We all are consumed with what something could be...At least we have a name for it ...nothing (But does that make it something now?). Just as it was a long time before humans conceptualized zero, it may be a long time before we can grasp what nothing really is.

[humility]

I doubt we will ever know but I'll give it a go. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

 

I like to thing of the formation of the universe as similar to a chemical reaction.

For example hydrogen and oxygen can react together to form water. The properties of water are very different to hydrogen and oxygen. The reaction is quite stable as well. It's easier to combine hydrogen and oxygen to form water than it is to turn water back into hydrogen and oxygen.

So two or more things can react to form something which has properties different to the things that created it and which doesn't readily decompose in to the things that created it.

You could think of the universe forming in a manner similar to the above. But don't think of this reaction as taking place in space and time.I like to speculate space and time would be two properties of the the product of the reaction(the universe) that wheren't properties of the reactants(?).

A purely abstract, hypothetical example of this idea goes as follows. Imagine a positive charge(nothing to do with charges as we understand them in the universe, plus don't try and give them dimensions of space or time. Imagine it as just a hypothetical purely abstract charge ) and a negative charge.These charges are attracted to each other( don't even try and imagine the mechanism of this) they react to form a third netrual charge(the space-time continuum) .This neutral charge does not readily change back to a positve and negative charge. It is stable and highly unreactive.The positive charge can exert a small amount of attraction on the negative component of the neutral charge. And the negative charge can exert a small amount of attraction on the positive component of the neutral charge. These small exertions of attraction on the neutral charge cause it to oscilate( not in space and time ) but aren't strong enough to make it react. So the neutral charge retains its own structural independence(It has boundaries of existence.It has characteristics of existence that define it as seperate to the positive and negative charge which created it.) but is influenced by the free positive and negative charges.

If you imagine the structural independence of the neutral charge as a space-time continuum that oscilates due to the reasons given above.

So the universe that we observe of movement through space and time. Could be seen as a space-time continuum that oscillates between its boundaries of existence.

So the universe wasn't created back in time. Space and time where created along with the universe. And the oscilation of the universe back and forth between a perfectly balanced self-contained system(unreactive product) and almost being destroyed( a reverse reaction) is what we perceive as movement through space and time.

So to summarise. Instead of thinking of the universe as shrinking to a point in the past and expanding into the future. Think of all the universe being created in its entirety at once as a balanced system( no movement, a neutral unreactive universe, a dead universe if you like.) The product of a reaction between two charges(that aren't all used up in the reaction).So the stable product of this reaction is influenced (but not destroyed) by the leftover reactants. This influence causes the universe to move and become a dynamic system( the one we observe) but isn't enough of a influence to destroy the universe.

Although the universe might be destroyed by something else. But we won't live to find out would we.

Please forgive my indulgence in wild speculation. But that's what science is all about isn't it. :naughty:

[matrixscarface]

i remember learning that atoms can be created nor can they be destroyed! maybe if the idea that something big was here before then was destroyed is true, maybe we are that same big thing over again. look if it is destroyed, the atoms will still be around (think of it just exploding then coming back from that same energy), so maybe they formed on a molecular scale to create simple elements (hydrogen oxygen carbon) and we just grew from that. thats a pretty good idea! then there is the question hey where did these atoms come from as well as the space?!? i was thinking about it and maybe some strong Concentration. i am still wondering.