If we do discover a complete theory, it should be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. … If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.
Stephen Hawking
Imagine, you are walking late at night. It’s dark, the sky is black, and the stars look like fireflies frozen in space. Then you start to wonder: with so much light in space, why there is so dark out there. You think of the Universe expanding like a runaway train, with the speed exceeding the speed of light. Is there anything comparable to our life out there? You couldn’t live unprotected in space, whereas here on this, our planet, we have a billion-year history of stable, capable of the sophisticated life, environment.
And then, the inevitable happens. How did it everything begin? The Big Bang, the scientists say. And how did the Big Bang happen? And what was before?
The Greeks had their ideas. Then came Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Schrödinger, and many others. They all created theories, all created equations. Each next better than the previous one. Some contradicted the others. But neither was simple and elegant enough to explain how the all this started. The scientists just don’t know. We are still waiting for the theory of everything, the unified field theory. The challenge is to write an equation encompassing all the physics.
Science needs to investigate our past to understand the present, and be able to predict the future.
Is an atom a piece of matter, or just a wave? Our universe is miraculously designed. The beauty lies in symmetry. The life can only exist in a perfectly balanced environment. Our body temperature is 37 C. Our blood chemistry falls within the narrow range of values. Anything out of range of our sophisticated thermostat means disease and eventually death. Obviously, all these have to and all this does make sense. How come we cannot understand it? The scientists work hard to create new explanations, each new theory creates new assumptions. We started with three dimensions, now we are up to ten. Each new theory is more complicated, and gets us away from the question of why are we here, why we fall in love, and what is happiness. And how do you define the beauty.
So, coming back from our nightly walk, we still have to think of what to do the next morning, do not forget to make coffee for your wife, tell that you love her, how to pay the bills, and what are the vacation plans.
The Big Bang Theory is only important if it helps you live your everyday life.
