For all we know.....

17:30

For all we know.

These could very well be the most intimidating phrase I have ever heard. Simultaneously it is a door opener for creative thinkers, and a ghost of the seas of uncertainty that our ship of knowledge floats on. Why? Good question. Here’s why.

Our current knowledge of the inner workings of the universe can be divided into two parts. Cosmology and quantum physics. Cosmology deals with how the world works at super massive scales, and the current accepted model that most physicists follow is that of Einstein’s general relativity. Quantum physics helps us understand how things work at super small scales. The elementary particles, the nature of waves and particles, and much, much more. The current accepted model that most physicists follow is the standard model. Comment if you would like a post on that. These fields together describe the world we know of, and they have been 100s of years in the making. Physicists today are looking for a master equation, a unifying theory that will unite these theories to form a clear understanding of the universe, and open the doors to the answers to humanity’s most persistent and intimidating questions.

Back to the topic. Here’s a hypothesis.

We are reasonably sure that the world exists in 4 dimensions, 3 spatial and 1 time. But some theories like the string theory require up to 11 dimensions to hold true! The hypothesis, which is expressed in various manners across cultures, goes as follows. Suppose for a moment that we exist in a test tube. A controlled environment, and all the universe that we see and strive to understand is just created by university students trying to run an experiment. Perhaps they have a constructed a 3 dimensional space inside of their higher dimensions, written a computer program that creates some fundamental laws of nature, and waited for something to happen. Perhaps they noticed us, perhaps they didn’t.

‘They’ tricked us into believing that the universe is infinite, and faked a Doppler effect to show us that the universe is expanding.

Scary.

But why scary?

Why are we humans so comforted by the idea that they’re planet is the centre of the universe? Why are we so comforted by the idea that the universe has and will exist forever?

Why?

What is consciousness? Am I conscious? Am I even in control of myself?

More on consciousness next week.

Another hypothesis. Maybe the universe is an illusion. Maybe you're in a dream. The world around you doesn’t exist and is just an experience created by audio visual technology and our brains are being forced to think what they are thinking. The 1999 movie the matrix puts forward that hypothesis, in a rather interesting way. Link below if you haven't yet seen it.
Our knowledge is a crossword. Every bit of verified information that we know of, relies on others, making an almost infinite tower of information. But everything rests on a few basic assumptions, without which, the tower would come tumbling down.

1. The effect always follows the cause in the column of time.
2. Neither matter, nor energy can be created or destroyed (conservation)
3. Objects will only move from the state to order to a state of disorder, unless external energy is used.
4. Everything that can happen, does happen. (wait for the next post)
5. A statement has reached it utmost level of truth if it can be proved by mathematics.

The universe is big^{[citation needed]} and perhaps even infinite. We exist on an extraordinarily average star, on the outer edge of an extraordinarily average galaxy that is one of a few billion or more. That statement implies that we are insignificant. But for all we know, we could be the pioneers of life. The beings that are left here by the scientists to explore our world. Perhaps we are the most important things in the world. You know, for all we know.

Thank you, and never stop asking questions, because,