Democritus,
a Greek philosopher before Socrates, was the first to suggest the
existence of the atom about 2,400 years ago. He thought that
everything was composed of "atoms", which were the
invisible components of the Universe (Universe then was thought to be
Earth centered and smaller than it is now). These atoms were
indestructible, consisted of all kinds of different shapes and sizes,
and there was an infinite number of them. In between atoms there was
supposedly an empty space of nothingness, (a Void if you will). He
thought atoms have always been and would always be in motion.
Regarding mass, which he would have equated to weight, Democritus
said, "The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is",
meaning that the more there is to an indivisible atom, the heavier
it is.
Democritus
was no doubt a genius to envision such a thing in his age of
existence. It was said that he was a jolly man, kidding and poking
fun, and more interested in finding out about our physical existence
than anything else. He was pretty much ignored
by his fellow philosophers in Athens, and Plato disliked Democritus'
philosophies so much that he wanted all of his books burned.
It
is amazing to see how much of what he believed is still relevant now!
Even though the first modern interpretation of atoms, the Bohr
model, was found to be composed of even smaller parts (electrons,
protons, neutrons, etc.) and atoms were “divisible”, Democritus'
atoms still persisted as the subatomic components of the elemental
atoms. And his ideas of mass in physical objects containing
“indivisible exceeds” relates to the quantity of subatomic
particles within an atom. He also said there was a 3D empty space in
which all of this “stuff” could move around, and this stuff was
continually moving around in it.
Now
there has been and still is, a big debate about what space is. Some
have argued that if space exists, it is something and cannot consist
of nothing. If it can be measured, then it has to be something.
Others have thought differently. During the 20th
century, great advancements have been made in understanding space.
With Einstein’s theory of general relativity, we see that there is
a connection between space and time, and that there is really a forth
dimension to our 3D space, and we now call it space-time instead of
just space. But, even though we know that there is a connection
between space and time, and gravity, and the speed of light, and we
know that mass and energy are connected with the speed of light, and
we can predict the behavior of these things very well with
mathematics, we still do not know why and how these things are
connected.
Now,
I am an old man well into my senior years, and I am a retired
engineer with an average intelligence and meager mathematics degree,
one who could spend what few years I have left soaking up sun on a
southern beach somewhere. I have worked hard all of my life to
provide and support my family, and I have managed to save up enough
money and assets to modestly get by for a while. I'm not interested
at this stage of my life in becoming rich or famous. So with this
sentiment, I want to humbly present what I believe to be answers to
some of the scientific questions that still remain unanswered.
The
key to understanding goes back to what Democritus was thinking. We
want to think there is ultimately simplicity and order in what we see
in our physical world. We would like to think there is a theory that
would encompass all of the physical behavior that we see, and one
that could be basically understood by most everyone, not just a
handful of mathematicians and scientists. As Stephen Hawking said in
his book “A Brief History of Time”
“.. if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be
understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few
scientists.”
Democritus
talked about matter and space. He and some present day scientists
still think of these as two separate things. But what if space and
matter is the same “stuff” in different forms? What if matter is
just compacted space, and it is only through this compaction that we
can see it? What if the components of space exist as invisible
physical objects, and those elemental objects that Democritus would
call atoms are all that the Universe consist of ? All of space, all
matter, and anything associated with our Universe would consist
solely of these invisible objects. There would be nothing else in
the Universe, not even an empty void of nothingness anywhere (or
nowhere if you like). This is exactly what I propose! Everything in
the Universe consists of “space bubbles”. Then you might say,
what about energy, and time, and gravity, and inertia, and the speed
of light, all of the properties of the Universe? Well, there is an
invisible forth dimension to our Universe as well, that is the source
of all the properties and actions of the Universe! It is invisible
space expansion. Each space bubble has a creative source within it
that creates new Universe space. This is space that has never
existed in the Universe before and comes from something outside of
our Universe. The expansion of these bubbles and their interaction
with each other competing for room to expand, is what causes our
physical reality. Time passes because of this, exhibition of energy
exists because of this, gravity and inertia exist because of this,
electromagnetic forces exist because of this, and the speed of light
limitation exists because this is the rate of bubble expansion.
So
there you are in a nut shell. One type of thing causes all that we
see as our Universe. If the source of the expansion within each
bubble “runs out” all existence will cease! There will be no
time nor even a history that the Universe ever existed! Every second
is brand new and will never occur again. Be thankful for our
existence and humbly coexist with all of it!
