When science found that all the galaxies were expanding away from us, it wasn’t hard to calculate back to a moment in time and a point in space when our universe began. Big bang theory is that over 14 billion years ago, all the matter of the universe existed at a point singularity that then exploded out to create what we see today, but this simple extrapolation from now requires several miracles for it to be true.
The first miracle, as noted earlier, is that our universe of something had to be created from nothing. The second is that all the matter of the universe had to exist at a point singularity of infinite matter density. This is a miracle because in current physics, matter at that density would immediately collapse into a black hole from which nothing could emerge, so the universe would be stillborn. To avoid this, Guth proposed inflation theory (Guth, 1998), that an immense anti-gravity field appeared from nowhere to expand the universe faster than light for 10-32 seconds. This solved the black hole problem but what then stopped the inflation? Solving this needed another miracle, that the anti-gravity field then suddenly vanished, for no known reason, to play no further part in the universe.
The old creation story that God made the universe is now replaced by the story that nothing made everything at a point of infinite density that expanded faster than light by a magical force that then disappeared forever, leaving the universe to sedately evolve into the galaxies, stars and us. Given three miracles, the theory works, but a theory that replaces one miracle by three isn’t a very convincing story.
Quantum realism proposes that our universe came from a primal reality that existed before it began, so it avoids the “something from nothing” miracle by stating that the physical world is a virtual reality.
It then proposes that like every virtual reality, our universe “booted up”. When a Windows computer boots up, it first loads a tiny CMOS program that then loads a kernel program that then loads a bigger BIOS that finally loads the full Windows operating system. It is a step-wise process not an all-at-once process, so it is proposed that the first event created one photon in one unit of space. Booting up a computer isn’t booting up a universe, but applying the same principle of starting small avoids the singularity miracle because one photon isn’t a universe.
How can a virtual photon just “appear” on a quantum network? In computing, a client-server relation is where a network server gives its processing to clients, as when a server runs many terminals, each just a keyboard and screen connected to a network. Pressing a keyboard key sends a request to the server to send the right letter to the client screen. One server can run many terminals because it transfers processing much faster than clients run that processing. Even if client terminal users type as fast as possible, in-between each keystroke the server can handle hundreds of other people typing. The next chapter explains how a photon’s quantum wave spreads as a client-server relation but for now, note that the sudden appearance of a photon on a network doesn’t require a “something from nothing” miracle, as the server is just another network node. And a universe that began as one photon avoids the singularity miracle, as what initially exists physically is just a tiny seed of the universe to come.
If the first event was when one node of the quantum network gave its processing to other nodes, how did the rest of the universe arise? Creating one photon also created a “hole” in the quantum network that began space. As the first space was tiny, the first photon had a very short wavelength and so a very high energy. Current physics extends the electromagnetic spectrum indefinitely but a digital network has a minimum wavelength, so light has a maximum energy. One photon in one unit of space implies an extreme photon of maximum energy. It is then reasonable that putting a white-hot photon on the quantum network triggered other nodes to do the same, giving the chain reaction that physics calls inflation. A tiny “injury” to the quantum fabric quickly became huge, just as a pinprick can quickly rip a taught fabric apart.
Inflation as the quantum network “breaking apart” into servers and clients to create all the processing needed for a virtual universe then occurred faster than the speed of light because this “ripping” occurred at the server rate not the client rate. This avoids the need for a massive anti-gravity field from nowhere to expand the universe in a faster-than-light miracle. In this view, the initial plasma was:
“… essentially inhabited by massless entities, perhaps largely photons.” (Penrose, 2010) p176
What then stopped inflation from continuing forever? If inflation created space as well as photons, each step of the chain reaction created not only a unit of light but also a unit of space. Adding space increased the wavelength of light, diluting its energy, so cosmic background radiation that was white-hot at the dawn of time is now cold. The photon chain reaction grew exponentially but a hypersphere surface grows as a cubic function and a cubic growth will overpower exponential growth if the resolution is quick (Figure 2.12) as by the evidence inflation was. This then avoids the miracle of a massive anti-gravity field disappearing forever.
That the physical world is a virtual reality makes this theory possible, as a virtual reality can be created from nothing in itself, it can initially boot-up very small and it can be contained in a virtual space that expands. In science, one assumption followed by logic is simpler than three different ones followed by logic.
Little rip theory is that the first event created one photon in one volume of space that started the faster-than-light chain reaction that physics calls inflation but space expanded at each step to cause the chain reaction to stop, but not before it made our finite universe. Space then continued to expand to reduce the energy to levels suitable for life. It follows that the expansion of space isn’t just an oddity of physics as without it, life couldn’t have evolved. It also follows that the creation of our universe was a once only event that hasn’t repeated since (J. B. Davies, 1979). Galaxies have come and gone but since inflation, the quantum processing that generates the universe has remained constant.
In conclusion, the “big bang” wasn’t big, at first anyway, nor was it a “bang”, as before the first event there was no space to expand into. It was a little rip in the fabric of reality that cascaded to create the quantum processing of our universe until the expansion of space “healed” it. The real miracle is that not only did a primal reality create everything we see today as a virtual reality but that continues to do so today. The creation of our universe is an ongoing process not a one-shot event that happened long ago.