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Blogs by Ken Stark
Why Are We Here? 8/20/2017 10:38:27 PM
I've been wondering a lot lately.
No, not about zombies or what I should write next or even whether or not I'll ever be able to afford a beach house in Hawaii. For the past year or so, I've been wondering about the nature of reality, and I mean, I've been wondering a lot! Call it a crisis of faith, but being a science geek, maybe it would be better described as a theoretical uncertainty.
Now, this is bound to get weird, but stick with me. I promise, no math, and I'll keep the science to the absolute basics. There might be a pop quiz, but we'll discuss that later.
Quite often, people ask, 'Why are we here?', but science has always asked, 'How are we here?' If any of the laws of physics were even slightly different, we might not have stars, galaxies, planets, or life forms able to ask why they were here. The odds are so infinitesimally small of this one universe being perfect in every way for life to emerge, that it's hard to imagine it happening by chance. So then, how are we here?
God? Sure. Maybe. To me, the idea of a deity only multiplies the problem, but I have an open mind. But how about this? Maybe the Big Bang wasn't a one-time event. Maybe the universe expands up to a certain point, then gravity pulls it all back in to a single point, and then it bangs again. Maybe it's been re-banging for an eternity, and it just so happened that in this current incarnation, the laws of physics were ideal for life.
But there's a problem with that. The expansion isn't slowing down. An unknown energy (i.e. 'dark') is actually speeding up the expansion, so that theory appears to be history. So, how about this? An infinite number of universes, all existing at the same time. Hard to contemplate, yes, but it does fix the problem. There are an infinite number of universes, and once again, we happen to be in the Goldilocks universe where everything is just right. I heard that particular theory decades ago, and it was an elegant, unimaginable solution that I could get behind, so that's where I put my money.
Oh, but wait, it gets weirder. There is actually evidence that might support the idea that everything we see and feel and experience, including the perception of time, is actually a 3D hologram encoded as data on the very edges of the what we think of as our universe. Again, hard to even imagine, but as I said, there is actual evidence that suggests the possibility. If this is true, then everything has already happened, will happen, and is happening all at the same time. We only perceive it moving from past to future because we are part of the hologram. But I hope it's not true. It would mean that there is no such thing as free will. Anything we are going to do has been done and is being done and…..well, you get the idea.
But then, along came the idea that we might be living inside of a simulation. The idea bounced around in my head for years, so like any writer would do, I turned it into a story, thinking that it would put an end to it. But no. The bouncing persists. As far as the math goes, it makes a lot of sense. As well, a simulated universe would answer a lot of pesky questions like why do we appear to be all alone in a universe that should be teeming with life. It's actually a very simple solution. No need for 26 dimensions, no infinite number of parallel universes, and we perceive things moving from past to future because there really is a virtual 'time'. And best of all, though we might be made up of bits and bytes rather than atoms and molecules, we would still have free will, at least within the parameters set out by the programmer.
So, is that the answer? Are any of these the answer? Well, the truth is, we will never know for sure, one way or the other. If the universe re-bangs, no one will be around to tweet about it, we can't send spaceships to the edge of the universe to look for holograms because we are inside said holograms, there's no conceivable way to travel from one parallel universe to another (Sam Beckett excepted), and no virtual character ever gets to leave the Holodeck. So unless God or Q or the programmer's avatar pops by to fill us in, we'll just have to wonder.
But let me leave you with one last thought. If this is indeed a simulation, you might very well be the central character. Yes, you. This entire virtual universe might have been constructed around you, and all the rest of us are here merely for stage dressing. Think about that when you're home alone or tucked into bed or languishing in a hot bath, all by yourself. Valuable space on a hard-drive would probably not be wasted on stage dressing passing time alone. It is far more likely that those ancillary characters not interacting directly or indirectly with the main character would simply be paused until the next time they're needed. So maybe you are the star of this show. You, right there. You, reading this right now. And maybe I was put here just to write this blog at just this time on just this day in order to give you a kick in the butt. After all, if you're the star of this show, you're the star for a reason. You're destined to do something awesome, and maybe today is the day it all starts.
If so, I just have one request of the programmer. Dude, I did my job. Is a virtual beach house in Hawaii too much to ask?
