If we learned how to alter the structure of space-time itself, that would be
really amazing. That would be the universe hacking it's own kernal,
trancending itself. Perhaps that's what it's been doing all along; hacking
it's own kernal, to make it more intelligent next time it reboots, modifying
it's design and then allowing the system to play itself out until it
spontaneously reboots itself. Perhaps the Big Bang is simply the most recent
time the universe rebooted itself with an improved kernal, and perhaps this
universe will figure out how to redesign itself so that life forms faster and
develops more intelligently the next time it reboots. Or perhaps, as Chris
Hind brought up, the universe will learn how to create baby universes which
also become self-aware, and able to improve themselves and do the same type of
thing their parent universe did, inheriting a lot of it's basic
characteristics. There is the possibility that the universe itself is an
organism, in an environment of other universes. They may be breeding and
feeding off each other. Perhaps only the most lively universes ultimately
survive, so we keep getting universes which are more living and intelligent
and more able to propogate and maintain themselves. Perhaps we are part of
the growing brain of this developing organism. Perhaps our universe is a
decendant of universes who have developed pretty much the same way ours has,
with the occasional mutations here and there for variety.
If we become capable of creating baby universes and specifying the laws of
physics and the initial state of the universe, we may be capable of making
baby universes which develop very much like ours has and will. Then these
will do the same sort of thing that we did, continually reproducing. Perhaps
our universe has ancestors. What an intriguing idea!
- David Musick