The Big Picture

THIS POST WAS AMENDED ON 10/24/2011

So, from the preceding post, something we call energy comprises all of existence. Everything is energy. But we don’t have any idea what energy is. The universe then is, and has always been, characterized by this one energy. And, to continue on with the hypothesis, the one energy, composed of the forces of attraction and repulsion A/R, caused the eruption of energy that we call the big bang.

Prior to the big bang every point of the one energy was attracted to and repelled by every other point simultaneously. The attractive/repulsive points are very close together and the enormous energy was contained by the constant and minuscule transfer of energy from attraction to repulsion and vice versa. A little glitch at any one point would unleash a massive amount of energy. And such was the beginning of our universe. This massive energy, however, was much less energetic than that from whence it was produced. So the energy of the so-called big bang created a space where A/R lacked the energy to recombine into its original form.

This big bang eruption is viewed by us to be of enormously high energy and extremely hot. The eruption was, however, something separate from the one energy, was less energetic and began to cool from the git go. This allowed the forces of attraction and repulsion to go their separate ways. The repulsive force of dark energy, then, repels itself, thus, pushing things apart and causing the universe to expand. The attractive force of gravity, attracted to itself, attempts to bring things into itself.

The attractive force, with its attraction to itself, began to create black holes while the repulsive force, unleashed from the coupling, expanded outward with a ferocious energy.

The black holes were attracted to one another and huddled together in relative close proximity where some merged together to form larger more powerful black holes. They entered into a struggle with the repulsive force that neither could win. Particles of matter caught in this struggle produced dark matter that hung around with the group of black holes by virtue of its attractive force. And this growing concentrated force of attraction put the breaks on the universe’s expansion to some extent.

The attractive force having establish a separate realm for itself continued attracting particles of matter. The black holes swallowed some of it and created even bigger more powerful black holes that went on to create galaxies.

Quantum forces of attraction and repulsion created nuclei and formed atoms. They were kept within range of the black holes. Massive pockets of hydrogen atoms began to collapse from the gravitational force effecting them and stars began to form. The struggle between the forces of attraction and repulsion around the forming galaxies created dark halos that separated and protected them from the repulsive force of the dark energy.

We can see all the threshold events, like that of the big bang, as manifestations of the forces of attraction and repulsion. Particles attract and repel in certain ways to combine and form atoms. Particular atoms attract to one another and combine to form molecules and so on and so forth. Chemical bonding in general has to do with particular elements attracting and repelling one another. In this way all such events are vitally connected to the one energy that is the primal force of nature.

All is a manifestation of the attraction/repulsion dynamic of the one energy. And it is to that one energy that all seeks to return. Energized quantum particles display a marked tendency to recombine into the whole energy from whence they appeared - like the virtual particles that percolate out of the vacuum energy and just as soon recombine back into it. However, the quantum particles of our universe, called real particles, lack the wherewithal to perform that neat little trick.

In the formation of an atom we can see the tendency to recombine along with the inability to do so. The forces of attraction and repulsion that wrestle around with quarks, the strong force, perform a Sisyphean like activity of continually coming together and pushing apart. This is, perhaps, a good illustration of how energy itself behaves in its constant attraction and repulsion to itself. Quarks with the same charge constantly repel one another by virtue of an electromagnetic field while the attractive force of gluons continually reels them in. Out of this contest the A/R forces and the quarks do combine to create a unity in the form of a proton or a neutron. Electrons are attracted to protons, as they would be to their antiparticle positron, but lack the energy to take that attraction to its logical conclusion of merging back into the single form of energy that a nucleon represents. And so atoms are formed.

Hydrogen atoms with the assistance of the attractive force of gravity formed galaxies. The black hole at the center of a galaxy is a massive attempt by gravity to return to the prior state of oneness. A greater majority of the hydrogen atoms in proto galaxies, however, got caught up in less massive gravitational fields and produced the fusion reactors known as stars which created all the atoms with multiple nucleons. And, in seeking to recombine, these heavier atoms formed the molecules that created solar systems and life forms.

From the forces of A/R we can derive all the characteristics of the universe that stand in opposition to one another. In terms of the one energy they can be seen as absolutes and our universe exists by virtue of a dialogue between them.

These characteristics are:

• unity — diversity
• uniformity — disparity
• stability — instability
• order — chaos
• contraction — expansion
• permanence — change
• attraction — repulsion

The characteristics that make up each column are interchangeable with one another. Unity, uniformity, stability, order, contraction, permanence and attraction are all intimately related, as are their opposites. The one common denominator in all of these pairings is attraction/repulsion because they qualify as ultimate forces; all of the other dualities can be seen to be an effect of the cooperative contention of the attract/repel dynamic.

At one extreme we have super giant stars with enormous centers of gravity striving to hold them together while the ongoing force of their nuclear furnace violently pushes outward producing an overwhelming force of repulsion that seems bent on tearing the body of the stars apart as quickly as possible. This objective is achieved soon enough in a massive explosion as the star’s constituent parts go their own separate ways into outer space. This nearly absolute repulsive force can also be characterized as approaching absolute diversity, disparity, instability, chaos, expansion and change.

Something approaching absolute uniformity can be seen in our universe as a neutron star, or a black hole, where the force of attraction, gravity, acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner sucking everything around it into its super monolithic density and stripping everything down to elemental particles. This nearly absolute uniformity brought about by a nearly absolute attraction can also be considered as absolute unity, order, stability, contraction and constancy.

In opposition to the extreme black hole gravity devouring galaxies from the inside we have the repulsive dark energy pushing them apart and threatening to eventually tear them up. It seems that the dark halo surrounding galaxies protects them from an all out invasion of dark energy that would rip them asunder. Such a halo might have been created from a static combination of gravity and dark energy. That is, a standoff between the attractive and repulsive forces where they are neutralized. And the dark matter found in and around galactic formations could be a by-product of that energetic tug of war in which primitive particles of matter got caught.

A/R is what is responsible for the controlled expansion of spacetime and what started the universe in motion prior to the eruption of light and heat that ushered the visible universe into being. The visible universe is an anomaly in the universe as a whole. It accounts for only a fraction of the contents of the entire universe. Light is, and must always be, contained within the universe. Light is a product of this universe and cannot exist except within it. The expansion of the universe proceeds at speeds faster than that of light and it keeps on expanding at an ever-increasing acceleration. If the universe had begun with an explosion of light then its boundaries would be that of light itself and it would have been impossible for anything else to accrue more energy than that which the initial expansion predominantly consisted of. Before the lightshow of this universe took place there existed a vast ocean of energy roiling with innate forces of attraction and repulsion.

In subsequent posts we will see how all this relates to the human condition.