In 1992, Lee Smolin, a theoretical physicist and co-founder of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, published a paper entitled “Did the Universe Evolve?”
A 2006 book written by Paul Davies, a noted theoretical physicist, entitled “The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life?” presents several theories to explain the existence of the Universe. Davies talks about the Universe as one of many. Is the Multiverse real, or is our Universe all there is? Davies ponders whether the Universe could exist without us as observers. He argues that the Universe’s fundamentals are preconditioned for sentient life to emerge. Does that mean the Universe has evolved in a pseudo-Darwinian way?
In a recent issue of the Smithsonian, an article by Eli Stark-Elster links Darwin’s theory to the evolution of the Cosmos. Like Davies, Stark-Elster cites philosophers, poets, physicists and others who link us here on Earth to the observed Universe.
Theories That Explain the Universe
Cosmology tries to explain the Universe. Did it have a start, or has it existed forever? If it had a beginning, will it have an end in the far future? Is it the only Universe, or are there millions of universes that we have no ability to see or sense through technological extensions of ourselves? The most commonly accepted theory is called the Big Bang.
The Big Bang Explained
Did the Universe erupt from a single point in space-time? The Big Bang theory proposes that space, some 13.8 billion Earth years ago, underwent rapid expansion, starting dense and hot, then expanding and cooling.
As space cooled, the first subatomic particles, quarks, formed. Quarks, through electromagnetic attraction, formed protons and neutrons. Soon the first element, hydrogen, appeared.
Although cooling, the young Universe remained enormously hot, able to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium and helium into carbon and so on.
Gravity concentrated growing masses of matter into pre-stellar masses. As they grew, nuclear fusion soon turned them into stars.
The stars became the fusion factories of a young Universe, generating the remaining elements. The stars also exerted gravitational attraction on other matter to form circling planets. Their gravitational attraction also led to galaxies, and that’s where we stand today.
The Universe still has the afterglow from the Big Bang, background radiation first detected by Edwin Hubble. The forces of the Big Bang continue to expand the Universe.
Cosmic Inflation
Cosmic Inflation adds a twist to the Big Bang, suggesting that it may have preceded it, or appeared shortly after the Universe appeared. Some theorize that Cosmic Inflation initiated the Big Bang. Unusual properties of the Universe today appear to support Cosmic Inflation. One of these is uniformity in temperature across the Universe regardless of how far from the initial inflationary episode. Cosmologists believe there should be peaks and valleys across these very large distances.
Other evidence to support Cosmic Inflation can be seen in the Universe’s shape. A single point of origin and expansion should have produced curved space. The evidence, however, shows uniform flatness.
The Big Bounce
This theory suggests an endless cycle of expansions and contractions, going from a cool, expansive Universe to a contracted, hot, dense state and then bouncing back again. In the Big Bounce, the Universe begins from a single point in space-time, then expands because of repulsive forces to a point where it reaches a point of minimum material density before reverting and collapsing in on itself to a state called the Big Crunch. At the point of maximum density, the cycle repeats.
Eternal Inflation
This theory proposes that in some regions of space, inflation ends with the formation of new universes, given the adjectives “pocket” or “bubble.” The theory suggests that our Universe could be one of these and that space contains lots of them. So inflation never ends, as universes beget universes ad infinitum, forming the multiverse.
The Multiverse
Is our Universe one of a larger collection of universes, each with different physical laws? In the multiverse, space-time varies from universe to universe. Some universes have no stars, no galaxies, and no life.
String theorists support the idea of the multiverse with multiple dimensions, with the physics operating with very different constraints. In a string theory multiverse, the variety of universes and number appear to be nearly endless.
Where the Darwinian Hypothesis Fits the Cosmological Model
What are Darwinian cosmologies? In Paul Davies’s book, he describes how our Universe appears to be prepped for the rise of self-replicating biological systems governed by the laws of physics.
The Big Bang is part of the Darwinian Hypothesis. Without the elements, stars, planets, galaxies and the environments where matter, over time, produces the chemistry of life. Once the chemistry on planets meets appropriate Goldilocks environmental conditions, life follows.
The Darwinian Hypothesis goes further. Some physicists see Darwinian natural selection applying to the Universe or universes. Some of the members of the multiverse, through cosmic inflation, produce baby universes that exhibit variations leading to greater reproductive success. Each offspring evolves. The ones that die devolve into black holes.
In our Universe, Darwinian natural selection has produced a Goldilocks environment here on Earth. This would suggest the likelihood of Goldilocks environments elsewhere.
Final Thoughts About the Observer Status We Bring to the Universe
Does our existence as a sentient species create the reality we see? In other words, without us would the Universe exist? The physicist John Archibald Wheeler proposed the idea of a participatory universe. Wheeler theorized that without participating in the Universe, it would vanish. Instead of a Universe made from matter and space-time, it was derived from observation. That would mean each of us would see a different universe. Wheeler concluded that the Universe was composed of “billions upon billions of acts of observer-participancy.” He proposed that time and the past were not real.
As baffling as this sounds, Wheeler used some of these thought experiments to help derive explanations for quantum physics, teleportation and entanglement.
