Reply #105: The uneven distribution of matter in the universe presents a very interesting question: [View All]

[originalpckelly]

Why are we here?

That may seem to be the age old question, but I don't intend it that way, I mean the following:

If we observe that energy (and therefore matter) tends to radiate symmetrically from explosions, why did energy from the big bang not radiate symmetrically?

Why is it that there is this void, why did COBE find the variations in the microwave length background radiation? Why are there even smaller variations, like ourselves, in the distribution of matter?

Why aren't there totally symmetrical stars out there, in completely symmetrical (or I guess homogeneous) distributions?

In a way I've been thinking about this since I was about 15/16 and I guess I'm getting closer to some kind of answer. I used to walk home every day from school, at that time, it was a bus stop for an arts school I attended that year. On many days I was lucky enough to have companions, yet on a few, when some event would take them away that evening, I would walk home alone. Out behind my house, and along the entire route of the path home, there was a creek. In this creek there would be slow spots, where the water seemed to be almost placid. Being a dippy young man interested in fun, I'd drop various things into the creek. Sand from the trail, or maybe a rock or two, and even once a Gideon Bible (though that may have been in years prior.)

Irregardless, I was puzzled at how the water's ripples were usually fairly symmetrical. I never thought much of it then, at that time I was off on some odd tangent, as I have been at various times for many of these years, but now that I believe I'm getting closer, those early dalliances done only for fun, seem to be valuable.

In the ripples of water, we see but only one of a great many examples of symmetrical energy radiation, yet our universe appears not to do that even at it's earliest moments. (Hence our existence, and the existence of that void, and all other irregularities in the distribution of matter in our universe.)

It is altogether possible, in fact, it would seem likely, that there is something missing from our understanding of this great universe.

I guess if I'm good enough, and not just some nut with wackadoodle theories, maybe I'm on the path to figuring that out. Who knows?