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Cosmology deals with the physical situation that is the context in the large for human existence (Christopher Smeenk, George Ellis)
On the one hand, the argument arises from human curiosity as to why there is something rather than nothing or than something else. It invokes a concern for some full, complete, ultimate, or best explanation of what exists contingently. On the other hand, it raises intrinsically important philosophical questions about contingency and necessity, causation and explanation, part/whole relationships (mereology), possible worlds, infinity, sets, the nature of time, and the nature and origin of the universe (Bruce Reichenbach)
Unsplash / Patrick von der Wehd
The Great Loop: From Conformal Cyclic Cosmology to Aeon Monism
Penrose’s conformal cyclic cosmology describes the cosmos as a collection of successive universes, the so-called aeons. The beginning and ending of our universe are directly connected to two other, anterior and posterior, universes. Penrose considers but rules out a different interpretation of conformal cyclic cosmology: that the beginning of our universe is connected to its own end in a cosmic loop. The paper argues that the view, aeon monism, should be regarded as a natural interpretation of conformal cyclic cosmology and discusses its implications for the concept of eternal return in light of the most popular metaphysics of time
Journal for General Philosophy of Science
Penrose’s conformal cyclic cosmology describes the cosmos as a collection of successive universes, the so-called aeons. The beginning and ending of our universe are directly connected to two other, anterior and posterior, universes. Penrose considers but rules out a different interpretation of conformal cyclic cosmology: that the beginning of our universe is connected to its own end in a cosmic loop. The paper argues that the view, aeon monism, should be regarded as a natural interpretation of conformal cyclic cosmology and discusses its implications for the concept of eternal return in light of the most popular metaphysics of time
Journal for General Philosophy of Science
Pexels / RDNE Stock project
Are We Alone in the Universe? Revisiting the Drake Equation
Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question--summed up in the famous Drake equation--has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. But a new paper shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed. And it shows that unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then human kind is not the universe’s first technological, or advanced, civilization
NASA Science
Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question--summed up in the famous Drake equation--has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. But a new paper shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed. And it shows that unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then human kind is not the universe’s first technological, or advanced, civilization
NASA Science
Unsplash / Chris Yang
Cosmic Evolution: State of the Science
Cosmic evolution is the study of the many varied developmental and generational changes in the assembly and composition of radiation, matter, and life throughout all space and across all time. These are the changes that have produced our galaxy, our Sun, our Earth, and ourselves. The result is a grand evolutionary synthesis bridging a wide variety of scientific specialties—physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology, and anthropology, among others—a genuine narrative of epic proportions extending from the very beginning of time to the present, from the Big Bang to humankind
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Cosmic evolution is the study of the many varied developmental and generational changes in the assembly and composition of radiation, matter, and life throughout all space and across all time. These are the changes that have produced our galaxy, our Sun, our Earth, and ourselves. The result is a grand evolutionary synthesis bridging a wide variety of scientific specialties—physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology, and anthropology, among others—a genuine narrative of epic proportions extending from the very beginning of time to the present, from the Big Bang to humankind
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Unsplash / the blowup
Exploding the Big Bang
It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt.
The question of our Universe’s birth seems settled. And yet, despite how the Big Bang is portrayed in popular culture, many physicists and philosophers of physics have long doubted whether science can truly tell us that time began. In recent decades, powerful results developed by scientifically minded philosophers appear to show that science may never show us that time began. The beginning of time, once imagined as igniting in a sudden burst of fireworks, is no longer an indisputable scientific fact
Aeon
It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that great endeavour is in serious doubt.
The question of our Universe’s birth seems settled. And yet, despite how the Big Bang is portrayed in popular culture, many physicists and philosophers of physics have long doubted whether science can truly tell us that time began. In recent decades, powerful results developed by scientifically minded philosophers appear to show that science may never show us that time began. The beginning of time, once imagined as igniting in a sudden burst of fireworks, is no longer an indisputable scientific fact
Aeon
Pexels / Darlene Alderson
Four direct measurements of the fine-structure constant 13 billion years ago
What fundamental aspects of the universe give rise to the laws of Nature? Are the laws finely tuned from the outset, immutable in time and space, or do they vary in space or time such that our local patch of the universe is particularly suited to our own existence? We characterize the laws of Nature using the numerical values of the fundamental constants, for which increasingly precise and ever-distant measurements are accessible using quasar absorption spectra
Science Advances
What fundamental aspects of the universe give rise to the laws of Nature? Are the laws finely tuned from the outset, immutable in time and space, or do they vary in space or time such that our local patch of the universe is particularly suited to our own existence? We characterize the laws of Nature using the numerical values of the fundamental constants, for which increasingly precise and ever-distant measurements are accessible using quasar absorption spectra
Science Advances
Pexels / Cameron Yartz
Is Earth inside a huge void? 'Sound of Big Bang' hints so
Earth and our entire Milky Way galaxy may sit inside a mysterious giant hole which makes the cosmos expand faster here than in neighbouring regions of the universe, astronomers say. Their theory is a potential solution to the 'Hubble tension' and could help confirm the true age of our universe, which is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old
Royal Astronomical Society
Earth and our entire Milky Way galaxy may sit inside a mysterious giant hole which makes the cosmos expand faster here than in neighbouring regions of the universe, astronomers say. Their theory is a potential solution to the 'Hubble tension' and could help confirm the true age of our universe, which is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old
Royal Astronomical Society
Pexels / cottonbro studio
Quantum origin of the universe
The idea that the universe was created from nothing is at least as old as the Old Testament. The first serious scientific discussion of this possibility came several thousand years later. In 1973 Tryon I pointed out that all strictly conserved quantum numbers of a closed universe can be equal to zero, and so the whole universe can be a vacuum fluctuation
ScienceDirect
The idea that the universe was created from nothing is at least as old as the Old Testament. The first serious scientific discussion of this possibility came several thousand years later. In 1973 Tryon I pointed out that all strictly conserved quantum numbers of a closed universe can be equal to zero, and so the whole universe can be a vacuum fluctuation
ScienceDirect
Unsplash / 愚木混株 cdd20
God vs the multiverse: The 2500-year war
HERE’S the dilemma: if the universe began with a quantum particle blipping into existence, inflating godlessly into space-time and a whole zoo of materials, then why is it so well suited for life? For medieval philosophers, the purported perfection of the universe was the key to proving the existence of God. The universe is so fit for intelligent life that it must be the product of a powerful, benevolent external deity. Or, as popular theology might put it today: all this can’t be an accident
New Scientist
HERE’S the dilemma: if the universe began with a quantum particle blipping into existence, inflating godlessly into space-time and a whole zoo of materials, then why is it so well suited for life? For medieval philosophers, the purported perfection of the universe was the key to proving the existence of God. The universe is so fit for intelligent life that it must be the product of a powerful, benevolent external deity. Or, as popular theology might put it today: all this can’t be an accident
New Scientist
Unsplash / Maxim Berg
The End of Physics? AI Is Discovering New Laws of the Universe - Without Us
In 2023, an AI algorithm analysed raw data and independently rediscovered 74 known physical laws (laws that took humans centuries to discover), without any prior instruction. At Columbia University, another AI system watched videos of natural phenomena and identified entirely new variables to describe them, suggesting it might be capable of discovering alternative physics. What does this mean? AI may be capable of creating entirely new ways to describe reality - frameworks that humans have never considered. If AI can redefine fundamental concepts, it could lead to alternative theories of physics that challenge our deepest assumptions. If AI can find the patterns, write the equations, and uncover the laws of nature without human input, what’s left for physicists?
Leximancer
In 2023, an AI algorithm analysed raw data and independently rediscovered 74 known physical laws (laws that took humans centuries to discover), without any prior instruction. At Columbia University, another AI system watched videos of natural phenomena and identified entirely new variables to describe them, suggesting it might be capable of discovering alternative physics. What does this mean? AI may be capable of creating entirely new ways to describe reality - frameworks that humans have never considered. If AI can redefine fundamental concepts, it could lead to alternative theories of physics that challenge our deepest assumptions. If AI can find the patterns, write the equations, and uncover the laws of nature without human input, what’s left for physicists?
Leximancer
Unsplash / Ben Lambert
ESA Previews Euclid Mission’s Deep View of ‘Dark Universe’
To study dark energy’s effect throughout cosmic history, astronomers will use Euclid to create detailed, 3D maps of all the stuff in the universe. With those maps, they want to measure how quickly dark energy is causing galaxies and big clumps of matter to move away from one another. They also want to measure that rate of expansion at different points in the past. This is possible because light from distant objects takes time to travel across space. When astronomers look at distant galaxies, they see what those objects looked like in the past
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
To study dark energy’s effect throughout cosmic history, astronomers will use Euclid to create detailed, 3D maps of all the stuff in the universe. With those maps, they want to measure how quickly dark energy is causing galaxies and big clumps of matter to move away from one another. They also want to measure that rate of expansion at different points in the past. This is possible because light from distant objects takes time to travel across space. When astronomers look at distant galaxies, they see what those objects looked like in the past
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
What’s next?
– How AI Assesses the End of the Universe: A Computational Framework for Cosmological Prognosis
– The Shell Model of the Universe: A Universe Generated from Multiple Big Bangs
– There are 5 eras in the universe’s lifecycle. Right now, we’re in the second era
– The science illuminated by the first light in the universe
– Time Likely To End Within Earth’s Lifespan, Say Physicists
– The thermal limits to life on Earth
– Quantum fluctuations in open pre-big bang
– The Evolution of Intelligent Design Arguments
– Cosmological Argument
– A black hole is a one-way exit from our universe
– Alien Life May Not Even Look Like Life
– The aliens are silent because they are all extinct
– Does quantum theory imply the entire Universe is preordained?
– If Our Universe Is Just a Random Occurrence, Science Has a Big Problem
– The Passage of Time is Not an Illusion: It's a Projection
– How AI Assesses the End of the Universe: A Computational Framework for Cosmological Prognosis
– The Shell Model of the Universe: A Universe Generated from Multiple Big Bangs
– There are 5 eras in the universe’s lifecycle. Right now, we’re in the second era
– The science illuminated by the first light in the universe
– Time Likely To End Within Earth’s Lifespan, Say Physicists
– The thermal limits to life on Earth
– Quantum fluctuations in open pre-big bang
– The Evolution of Intelligent Design Arguments
– Cosmological Argument
– A black hole is a one-way exit from our universe
– Alien Life May Not Even Look Like Life
– The aliens are silent because they are all extinct
– Does quantum theory imply the entire Universe is preordained?
– If Our Universe Is Just a Random Occurrence, Science Has a Big Problem
– The Passage of Time is Not an Illusion: It's a Projection