The Fire in the Equations by Kitty Ferguson

Author:Kitty Ferguson [Ferguson, Kitty]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-02T20:00:00+00:00

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The Elusive Mind of God 169

not—and here we receive some of the help we need with the ‘universeas-a-put-up-job’ problem. Perhaps the universe before the period of inflation was in a chaotic condition. We can imagine this as something like the surface of the ocean. It would be ridiculous to talk about the initial state. We can find all sorts of initial states on that surface, depending upon which speck of it we examine (see Figure 5.1) . Because local conditions for each of the dots on the balloon surface would be different, each dot would respond differently to the gravitational repulsive force when it came. Some would not have the right properties to respond at all. But the theory tells us that, when the inflationary era ended, we would find that in any dot that had inflated, the force of gravity (now working in a way more familiar to us) and the repulsive force resulting from the original Big Bang explosion would be balanced in the way we now observe in our universe. In only a few dots would the other constants be so miraculously adjusted for life to evolve. Perhaps in only one of them. If so, then our visible universe is that one dot.

Russian physicist Andrei Linde has suggested an extension of this theory. In Linde’s picture each microscopic region (each ‘dot’) that inflates is in turn made up of microscopic sub-regions, which inflate and are in turn made up of microscopic sub-regions—and so forth ad infinitum—

an eternal inflationary universe scheme.

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170 The Fire in the Equations

Inflation theory helps a little to dispel the gloom expressed by Hawking when he said that the anthropic principle was ‘a negation of all our hopes of understanding the underlying order of the universe’. At least we can invoke the ‘weak’ anthropic principle rather than have to call upon the ‘strong’ version. (The ‘weak’ anthropic principle, you’ll remember, presumes that somewhere in the universe at some time there is a place for us.) It isn’t just blind ‘luck’ that we have this universe. It seems almost inevitable (inflation theorists cannot yet tell us how nearly inevitable) that some tiny portion of the pre-inflation map of the universe would have had precisely the fine-tuning that would lead to conditions right for us. Inflation theory also suggests a solution to what is known as the ‘horizon’ problem in Big Bang theory. This is the problem of why the universe is so uniform on the largest levels, in areas so remote from each other that it seems radiation could not have passed from one to the other even at the earliest moments. Yet the intensity of radiation is so close to the same in those remote areas that it seems they must have exchanged energy and come to equilibrium. The period of inflation makes it possible for such remote areas to have started out much closer together. Paradoxically, all of this gives new cause for despair about ever finding a Theory of Everything.

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