A possible theory on what caused the 'Big Bang'?

[lw24]

The best theory i have yet heard is that the universe eventually expands to such an extent that the paradigm of size is rendered obsolete. in this condition, ie an infinite state, the infinitely small (a singularity) is indistinguishable from the infinitely large (umm... cosmic butter spread evenly on a infinitely large slice of toasted space-time) and so the big bang, is actually a recalibration of zero. i like this because of its elegance, the characteristic of truth. i also like the idea of causality beginning with its idealisation.

I like the idea of this, but don't really understand what you mean by 'Recalibration of zero', could you explain?

Clear Skies

[JulianO]

The ekpyrotic universe theory is a bit like this. The expansion of space smoothes out the whole universe, until eventually its pretty featureless. Then two branes bang together to start the whole thing off again.

[Telrad]

This is a good thread, with some interesting ideas.. I am particularly taken with the idea of a 'recalibration of zero'.. I guess it's the arrow of time?

[George Jones]

The best theory i have yet heard is that the universe eventually expands to such an extent that the paradigm of size is rendered obsolete. in this condition, ie an infinite state, the infinitely small (a singularity) is indistinguishable from the infinitely large (umm... cosmic butter spread evenly on a infinitely large slice of toasted space-time) and so the big bang, is actually a recalibration of zero. i like this because of its elegance, the characteristic of truth. i also like the idea of causality beginning with its idealisation.

It sounds like you could be referring to Roger Penrose's interesting, relatively new, highly speculative, non-peer-reviewed ideas. Penrose speculates that all particles become massless (in the past and in the future). Massless particles move (carry energy) at the speed of light, and don't have a sense of time and distance. See 6:40 to 10:00 from

YouTube - ‪BBC Horizon 2010: 4/6 What Happened Before the Big Bang‬‏

Penrose (at 9:00): "The small and the big become completely equivalent."

Narrator (at 9:25):"The contention is that because of this, a nearly infinitely large universe could just as well be the infinitely small starting point for the next one."

From Penrose's book, Cycles of Time, "The reader may well worry about identifying a remote future, where the radiation cools down to zero temperature and expands out to zero density, with a big-bang type of explosion, where the radiation had started out at an infinite temperature and at an infinite density. But the conformal 'stretching' at the big bang brings this infinite density and temperature down to finite values, and the conformal 'squashing' at infinity brings the zero density and temperature up, to finite values."

[Macavity]

There is this "duality" thing too? Do we live in a HUGE, expanding universe or a microscopic, contracting one. "R" or "1/R"? According to string theory, DISTANCE seemS to depend on the particles (light/heavy? wound/unwound? strings?) used in the measurement? We rely on light (sic!) photons, but either way (apparently) we can still "fit" into either universe...

The Big Bang under String Theory

Weird stuff, thoughbut...

[NeutrinoWave]

There is this "duality" thing too? Do we live in a HUGE, expanding universe or a microscopic, contracting one. "R" or "1/R"? According to string theory, DISTANCE seemS to depend on the particles (light/heavy? wound/unwound? strings?) used in the measurement? We rely on light (sic!) photons, but either way (apparently) we can still "fit" into either universe...

The Big Bang under String Theory

Weird stuff, thoughbut...

Shame this thread stopped a few months ago ...

2 Brane Collision sounds plausible, but what is the topological outer container for these branes ... The Bulk in higher dimensions ...

How did the structure of the bulk originate, and what is the boundary of the bulk attached to ... if nothing then that makes the outer container universe profoundly huge!

What created