show_no_mercy

Can someone explain what existance was like before the big bang?

epepke

You have to define "before" the big bang first. According to most modern theories of cosmology, time itself only goes back as far as the big bang. Therefore no "before."

Some theories have the universe bubbling off from some other structure that has some kind of supra-time or something, but that's as maybe.

Milky

Theres also the idea of time being bounded in infinite curvature.
Stephen Hawkings Imaginary Time axis.

In this case, time being like a globe, would not have a start or finish.
The North Pole on a 2d map may appear like an unpassable singularity stretched wide from left to right, but on a globe its just another ordinary spot.

epepke

Yeah. I think I wrote about that within the past hour, but I can't remember where. The trouble is, where/into what dimensions does it go? Spacetime is already reasonably defined as a quaternion, and you can't just stick on an extra dimension because it would make it not work in an algebra any more. So there would have to be some transformation into an octonion, a sedenion, or that thing with 32 numbers I can never remember the name of.

Wiploc

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=103407

Godless Wonder

No.

Jesse

What theory of physics defines spacetime as a quaternion?

Rudolph

There's also the theory that the Big Bang was actually proceeded by the Universe crumbling in on itself and then going Bang. An eternal cycle of in and out. But this still doesn't address the problem of the begining.

premjan

it's turtles all the way down!!!

MonCapitan2002

That is true. All it does is explain one theory on what the process currently is. The theory says nothing about what set the cycle off initially. I do hope humanity finds the answer eventually. There are still quite a number of gaps in our understanding of how the universe works. I just we spent as much time in unraveling those mysteries as we do in endeavoring to find new an more efficient ways to kill people. I once remember hearing about the US researching ways to develop matter-antimatter explosives. As if having nuclear weapons aren't enough. It's not enough that we have the ability to lay waste to destroy nations. No! We need to find ways to destroy planets (potentially at least, I can't even begin to imagine what a one megaton matter - antimatter warhead's explosive yield would be).
:banghead: