And if it didn't exist before the hypothetical big bang, what did exist before that? I wonder.. Any views?
if you assume that time, IS a valid dimension, (and not a make belief construct used to explained our limited views and theories) then your question cannot be answered. nice paradox what other forms of matter can be found? what other explanations? The more we think we know, the more we realize how little we understand..
Let's forget about time, I just find it very hard to imagine that without the universe, *nothing* would exist. there always has to be something not?? The problem is, you always end up looking for something larger (and smaller). If the universe existed in something else, where would that something else itself exist in?
Gordon Gekko had a pretty cool slide show "from macro to micro" Hey GG.. see... I give credit where it's due. Is "everything" contained within it's own self? Something cannot exist without the concept of nothing. Me thinks the only thing that exists is existence itself. But try to define that and it another ballgame. Once you create boundaries in order to contain and define something, then the question always arises of what's behind them boundaries. How far does the Universe extend?.. well so far.. as far as we can see with our present technical advances..'literally". Ha!
Well, one of the viewpoints I've been reading about that is at the forefront of quantum reality is something called "virtual particles." Now, on a large scale, the universe has energy conservation -- it can neither be created or destroyed. However, on the quantum level, particles are constantly popping up out of thin air, along with anti-particles. The energy conservation law isn't technically violated, since whatever energy is borrowed during this event is eventually returned. In fact, the entire universe most likely has a ZERO SUM energy level. All of the particles that we observe (matter, atoms, etc) contain positive energy. However, gravity is the negative energy that balances out the positive net of energy. One of the theories is that the entire universe started from one of these virtual particle creations that somehow rapidly expanded during hyperinflation. In essense, the universe is the ultimate free lunch. The "something vs. nothing" debate also touches on philosophy and metaphysics, but according to quantum theory, a true vaccuum does not exist anywhere. There is a quantum foam that surrounds us right now with virtual particles coming and going in a fraction of a fraction of a microsecond (for lack of a better way of explaining it). This could very well be what "nothing" is like, however in this universe, when everything adds together, all the particles and negative energy cancel each other out to equal nothingness. The difference here is that nothing just seperated itself into two types of anti-nothings that eventually may recombine to form nothing again, at which point it would probably redivide itself at some point.
A Universe from Nothing http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/31_02/nothing.html Creation ex nihilo - Without God (1997) http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mark_vuletic/vacuum.html QUANTUM MECHANICS, COSMOLOGY SHAMBLES http://ca.geocities.com/rayredbourne/docs/58.htm Everything for Nothing http://www.ldolphin.org/everything.html
There is a theory that universes are circles within circles going on forever with no end. We can think in terms of molecules and their tiny orbits because we have seen them........but we always need to know how small does it go, and then how big? infinite and without end are beyond our grasp. Forever is another problem. We could say it has always been this way, but we all need to know a beginning and an end. What if there was no beginning and no end because they are the same thing. What if existence and non existence were the same thing