The Ancient Future: Open_Notes 15

when it comes to explaining the universe, gravity is the key - gravity stretches or distorts space and time - rather than thinking of the galaxies as moving apart through space, astronomers prefer to think of the space between galaxies as stretching (elastic space-fabric) - intergalactic space is being inflated - astronomers believe, however, that there is no edge or surface to the universe, and no privileged centre - based on the fact that space can bend, Einstein argued that space can connect up to itself in a variety of unexpected ways - the curved surface of the earth can be used as an analogy - the earth's surface is finite in area but unbounded - similarly space could be finite in volume, but without edge or boundary - mathematical shape called a "hypersphere" - Einstein's hyperspherical cosmos.

the physical laws are purely a low-temperature phenomenon - as the temperature of matter is raised, so the varied forces that act upon it begin to merge their identity until, at the staggering temperature of 10^32K absolute, all the forces of nature should merge into a "single superforce" [spiritual interface] with a remarkably simple mathematical form, a single descriptive scheme - all the many subatomic particles lose their identities, all their varied characteristics (convergence to simplicity) - in the unlimited temperatures of the singularity [the interface between natural and supernatural], only the superforce would have operated - the current differentiated forces and particles emerged as the universe cooled - thus the state of the universe, the laws of physics and the constituents of matter all started out in an exceedingly simple form. -- [Notes 14,15] [physics based on "God and the New Physics", author Paul Davies, with [inserts]]

The Ancient Future: Open_Notes 15