The Fireworks Show

Space, Time and Stuff 4.

Now, I have this one crazy idea I really like. Even I’ll admit this one has little likelihood of being true, but my sense of irony can’t help but like it.

I remember once reading about a variation of the Big Bang theory, where the universe would expand to a maximum size, then contract back into the singularity from which it started. As the universe is supposedly expanding at an ever-increasing rate, that idea has, I think, been abandoned. Still, in its defence, I would say that the time from the Big Bang until now may only be a smidgen of the life of the universe, so perhaps it shouldn’t be discounted altogether.

However, what tickled my imagination was this. What if there were a multitude of universes, perhaps even an infinite number, existing within an infinite void. And they all did the same thing—Big Bang, expand, contract, exist as a singularity, Big Bang, expand, contract, exist as a singularity, Big Bang, etc.

I can’t help it. The whole idea makes me smile.

Now, just for fun, imagine there’s another dimension, or reality, where time is much, much, much slower, and in the evening, Dad takes the family out onto the balcony to watch the fireworks display.

Okay, the last bit is just fantasy. Still, I can’t help but love the idea of the multiverse resembling a slow-motion fireworks display. And meanwhile, the human race searches desperately for the meaning of its existence.

Ah, the irony.

Yep, Just my thoughts. Nope, not much research.