Re: Cosmology Question

From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Sun Feb 09 2003 - 14:45:36 MST

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    On Sun, Feb 09, 2003 at 11:28:24AM -0800, Lee Corbin wrote:

    > Are there reputable cosmological theories that allow
    > within our own universe infinitely many galaxies?

    When one wonders about "reputable" theories versus "fringe" theories, it
    helps to consider the current STRENGTH of the consensus that modern science
    has on a given topic. At the moment, the Big Bang theory is THE theory of
    the evolution of the universe. It is also generally regarded as being fatally
    flawed in a number of different ways.

    That is, we know that, as currently stated, its wrong. Since documentaries
    and teachers alike prefer to teach a mature theory (even a wrong one) than
    admit to ignorance, the Big Bang still gets taught.

    Now, that doesn't mean that any fringe theory is as good as any other, or
    that there isn't evidence to support a Big-Bang-like-event starting our
    universe, but it does mean that you are perfectly correct to propose
    alternate theories.

    One thing that I try to remind myself whenever I write science fiction, is
    that todays best theories are tomorrow's laughing stock. Its perfectly
    acceptible to have a 23rd century dialogue that goes:

    Pete: "Can you believe they used to think that the universe was FINITE and
    EXPLODED into existance???!!!"

    John: Be fair, they hadn't even invented the gravistator yet. How were they
    supposed to measure the deep structure of the quantum foam? Without that, the
    assumption of an initial explosion was as reasonable as any other...

    I remember a TV documentary a few years back that talked about the current
    problems in cosmology, and they asked one scientist if the controversies
    didn't dismay him. He reply, to paraphrase, was something like:

    "Are you kidding? This is a GREAT time to be a cosmologist. Someone needs to
    invent a new, coherent theory of the creation of the universe, and the first
    one to succeed is bound to win the Nobel prize. It might even be me!"

    -- 
     Stirling Westrup  |  Use of the Internet by this poster
     sti@cam.org       |  is not to be construed as a tacit
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