Chapter 11 - Escaping the Universe

“So even if one believes that life is unique to Earth now, then that doesn’t mean that life is forever going to be a trivial piece of the universe.”

This chapter veered into a different direction than the rest of the book. It was very interesting because it was about future civilizations, and the possibilities of escaping the universe and if we will ever be able to travel light years through space.
Physicists sometimes classify future civilizations into three different categories:

Type I civilizations can utilize all the solar energy hitting their planet and can thus control weather patterns like changing the course of a hurricane.

Type II civilizations have exhausted the energy of their planet and can now harvest all the energy from their star. They would be able to control such things like solar flares and be able to ignite other stars.

Type III civilizations have exhausted the power of their star and have now colonized other portions of its home galaxy. They are able to utilize energy from about 10 billion stars.

We can estimate that we are about a 0.7 type civilization meaning that in about 100-200 years we may be able to achieve type I status. This means that our generation could be the most important generation in getting our civilization to the next level. It quite possible that our great-grand-children may live in a type I civilization and be able to use all the energy harnessed from the sun. It is also estimated that in 1000-5000 years we will be able to achieve type II status, and in 100,000 to 1,000,000 years, we can achieve type III status.

I think this is a very interesting way to classify civilizations because it is not common knowledge. It very inspiring to know what humans may be able to do within the next 200 years. Learning about the future shows us that anything really is possible, and perhaps one day will be able to colonize other planets in our galaxy.

Finally, physicists classify civilizations on information content. The more information your civilization contains the greater letter your civilization receives, “A” being the lowest letter, and “Z” being the highest. Our civilization is considered a 0.7H civilization, and physicists hypothesize that the civilizations must be of type IIIQ to even consider being able to jump through a wormhole. So, we can see that, in hundreds of thousands of years, if humans can survive that much longer, we may one day be able to jump through a wormhole escaping to a new universe and perhaps starting life again on a new planet.

Chapter 10 - The End of Everything

Have you ever wondered how the universe was going to end, or is it even going to end?

There have been many discussions about what the end of the universe will be like. Most ancient mythologies suggest that the universe will end in a chaotic fire, where everything is burned. A different theory suggests that instead of the universe expanding, it will do the opposite and every galaxy will crash into each other in the middle of the universe destroying everything. It is now generally accepted that the universe will continue expanding until the density of energy decreases to tiny amounts. Then, matter will have no energy to move and so the heat will drop to absolute zero killing all life forms and in the end destroying the universe.

Interestingly, it is still debated whether or not intelligent life can survive the end of the universe. If the universe does freeze to below the freezing point of water, humans must abandon their frail mortal bodies in order to survive. We can either transfer our consciousness to machines or, we can become pure consciousness. This seems quite unusual to me, considering life as we know it requires a human body and a consciousness, but in the future, will it be possible to abandon the human body and just become pure consciousness? And if we can become body-less minds, is that going to be enough to either find a new universe, or at least exist until another universe that can harbour life springs into existence?

Surprisingly, physicists hypothesize that these “creatures” can exist and will be able to think. The main difference is that there will be little energy to think and so processing thoughts will take a long time. So the time it takes to think of something may take billions of years. Even though this seems like a long time, it’s all subjective. A million years with these conditions will be like a second in the warm conditions of our environment. So, since these “creatures” should be able to exist for billions of years, they may regularly see new universes budding into life.

I am wondering, how do you think the universe will end, or how would you like the universe to end? Do you think that then end will be anytime soon, or do you think that the universe still has billions of years and so the inhabitants of Earth do not even need to worry about its affects on us? Personally, I think that the universe freezing to death makes the most sense. The universe is expanding at an accelerated rate and shows no signs of stopping. In billions of years, it is very possible for the universe to freeze. I sometimes wonder though, when the universe will end. I know that the end is not actually predictable and can happen anytime. To me, the universe can end any second.

Chapter nine was a confusing chapter because it was mostly about the eleventh dimension which for me, it is hard to even believe there are eleven dimensions.

Part of this chapter focused on measuring the eleventh dimension. To do so, physicists needed to find a deviation from Newton’s inverse square law at very tiny distances. Physicist knew that this formula worked tremendously at big differences, but if, at small distances there was a deviation, there would have to exist another dimension to throw off this formula. When physicists are measuring at “small” distances, they mean really small. Physicists at Purdue University are bring a sheet of nickel 58 and nickel 64 together until there are separated by atomic distances. We can then attribute any tiny oscillations to gravity because they would become attracted to each other. By measure oscillations they will test Newton’s inverse square and see if there are any deviations.

This chapter then veers off onto another subject atomically small. We know that there is about a billion dark matter particles that fly through every square meter of our world every second. So why then, is it so hard to detect these particles? This is because they interact so weakly with matter. Our machines cannot detect all this dark matter, and if one day in the near future, a machine detects the dark matter, it is said that this may go down in one of the greatest accomplishments of the 21st century.

For all you fellow bloggers, I am wondering, do you think that there really is eleven dimensions in our universe? And do you think that we will be able to find dark matter in this dimensions any time in the near future?

Chapter 8 - A Desginer Universe?

“In at least one world…of the many-worlds universe, life must develop.”

Over the thousands of years that humans have walked the earth, we have evolved quite well to be able to survive in our current conditions. Since we were able to evolve and adapt to this planet shouldn’t we be able to adapt to any planet?

Scientists suggest that we live in a designer universe, meaning that it wasn’t just luck that we ended up on Earth. There are so many “Goldilocks zones” that there is only a small percentage of planets that are in the right “zones” in order to give birth to life.

For example, Earth is just the right distance from the sun. If we were farther from the sun, Earth could become a frozen desert like Mars, and could not harbour life. If we were closer to the Earth, the temperature would jump and so the water in our bodies would boil thus ending any kind of intelligent life. Another “Goldilocks zone” that makes our planet unique is the size of Jupiter. I previously thought that Jupiter, being so far away, wouldn’t have an effect on life, but if Jupiter was smaller, our solar system would actually be full of asteroids, and so these asteroids would plunge into our Earth destroying mankind. (Jupiter cleaned out the asteroids form our solar system 3.5 billion years ago because of its strong gravity.)

So, it’s not coincidental that humans ended up on Earth. Earth just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right amount of Goldilocks zones. Other factors that are just right include the size of our moon, our distance from the middle of the Milky Way, the amount of oceans, the oxygen content, heat content, and so on.

Because of all these factors, it may very well be possible that we are the only intelligent life in our galaxy or even the universe. There are many factors that must be met in order to harbour life, so the chances of other planets also having all of these factors is very small.

Scientists are now working on a project to catalogue all potential solar systems nearest ours to address the unanswered question: how common, or how rare is our own solar system?

Chapter 7 - M-Theory: The Mother of All Strings

Chapter seven has been, so far, the hardest chapter to read. Chapter seven explains string theory and M-Theory, neither of which I understand very well.
String theory is a popular theory I’m sure most people have heard of. This theory explains that everything is a tiny string vibrating at a certain frequency. So, everything in the entire universe is made up of a tiny string (about 10^-36) vibrating at different frequencies. This concept, was the easiest to understand.

Kaku then described how string theory can only exist if there are eleven dimensions that exist in our world (not just three, or four including time). It is possible for these eleven dimensions to exist, we just can’t see them. He suspects that some of the dimensions are smaller than atoms and so this explains why we can’t see them. Other theorists suggest that some dimensions are right above us, we just can’t see them. This concept puzzled me quite a bit because wrapping my head around the fact there are eleven dimensions in the world shocked me. It is really hard to try and visualize even one more dimension so the string theory was very confusing.

String theory lead into a different “theory of everything:” the M-Theory. This theory differs from string theory because instead of strings there are tiny membranes. This theory is still being developed and doesn’t have a big following - yet. Physicists deem this theory as the theory that will develop into the theory of everything because the equations include the effects of gravity (which is often omitted in other attempts at creating the “theory of everything”) and string theory is explained through M-Theory.

Chapter seven went way over my head but I still managed to understand bit and pieces of the theory that is one day supposed to explain the universe. I learned that there is so much out there that we can’t explain and that we can’t see with our bare eyes. It was mind-boggling to read because it was so hard to imagine or visualize.

For those commenting on my blog, let me know what you think about the M-theory or even the string theory. Do you think either is true? Do you think that one day we’ll be able to actually explain the universe?

Chapter 6 - Parallel Quantum Universes

This chapter was my favourite chapter to read because it explained a theory revolving on the fact that we can never know for sure where an electron is. Meaning that until you see a certain tree, for example, you can never know for sure if it’s falling or standing up, but you can calculate the possibility that it’s falling or standing up.

According to the quantum theory, there is small but calculable probability that you can suddenly dissolve and reappear on the other side of a wall! This is because electrons have the ability to dematerialize and rematerialize on the other side of wall. If electrons could not be in two places at once, we could not exist (Because of this fact electrons form a cloud around the nucleus allowing for atoms to bind).

I really like this chapter because I have always believed in parallel universes/worlds. This chapter explains there the possibility of parallel worlds is almost certain, and there is even a (extremely small) chance that we could slip between these two universes.

To calculate this probability we must use the infamous wave function created by Schrödinger.

Unfortunately, this leads to the “cat problem.” Say there is a cat in a box, then it is impossible to tell if it is dead or alive so we can say that cat is 50% dead and 50% alive at the same time. But, how can a cat be dead and alive at the same time just because we haven’t looked at it yet?

At this point, Hugh Everett III discussed that maybe the cat is both dead and alive at the same time but in different universes. So, when you finally open the box, the cat may be alive in your universe, but in a different one, the cat will be dead.

The many worlds theory has been my favourite theory so far because it confirms that anything is possible. For example, there must exist a world where dinosaurs never became extinct so they are currently living on the same planet we are. Or, there is even a universe where Jurassic Park actually happened and dinosaurs came back to life. There is only a small chance that this would happen in our lifetime, but in an infinite number of universes, this is very likely to happen at least once. The only problem is that our wave functions are different so we can’t interact with the other universes.

Our universe seems like the only universe, but it’s really just the only universe we can interact with. So, our reality simply depends on our specific wave function, and remember for every decision that you make, there is another you who made the opposite decision, and is living out the life you chose not to live...

Chapter 5 - Dimensional Portals and Time Travel

In this chapter, Kaku discussed two theories that intrigued me. The first described “a universe in your bedroom” and the other “time paradoxes.” Both deal with time travel, and the second more specifically about the problems with time travel.

The first theory, is a simplified universe created by Charles Misner. In this universe, for example, your room would become an entire universe. The right and left wall of your bedroom would be identical, so as you tried to walk through the wall on your left, you would end up reappearing into the room from the wall on the right. This concept is also applied to the ceiling, floor, front and back of the room. In this way, you cannot escape from your room making it an entire universe.

In this case, all four walls would be transparent and you would notice that there would be exact carbon copies of yourself beside you, in front of you and behind you. There would be a infinite series of you, but you could never see your own face because if you were to look right, all the copies of you would be looking right and therefore you could only see the back of your head. It would also be advised not to point a gun at the clone in front of you because you will soon notice that the clone behind you will also be pointing one at your head.

In a Misner universe, we’ll say that the right wall is moving in at a speed of 2 m/s. So, if you leave through the left wall, you will reappear through the right but have your speed boosted by 2 m/s. If you continue to go through the loop, you can reach speeds close to the speed of light causing you to go back in time, or visit any point in space-time.

Hawking analyzed this scenario and compared it to two mouths of a wormhole, where both mouths of the wormhole would be identical. So, if we were to find a wormhole that moving in, we would be able to time-travel.

This universe is not stable so it has not gotten us much closer to time-travel, but created lively discussions in the physics world.

These discussions lead to time paradoxes. There are four main paradoxes which render time travel very complicated:

-The grandfather paradox where you alter your past, for example, killing an ancestor so you would not exist, and therefore not be able to go back in time to kill your ancestor.

- The information paradox where information comes from the future and so it has no origin in the present. So if someone from the future were to tell you how to make a time machine, your idea would not have an origin since you did not create the machine.

- Bilker’s paradox where a person knows the future, but does something in the present that makes the future impossible. For example, if you knew went into the future to find out who you’re going to marry, and then go back to the present to kill that person, your future cannot exist.

- The sexual paradox where you go back in time and father yourself, which is biologically impossible.

Having so many paradoxes means there are many theories explaining how to get around the paradoxes. Like the “many worlds theory” where all possible quantum worlds would exist, and so in one world you may have killed your parents and you would not exist, but in the other, nothing would have changed and life would continue normally.

Finally, time travel also stumbles upon free will. If we don’t have free will, and somehow, something is constraining us to “act properly” so we can’t kill our parents, we could eliminate certain paradoxes. So, I’m wondering, do you think time travel is possible? And, do you think we actually have free will?