In Search of The Origin: Time-Space Dimensions

Our perspectives, our experiences, and our very existence are all bound by the two familiar dimensions; The ‘Space‘, and The ‘Time‘ — We do exist, very strictly, only at a given Time-Point. Therefore, the two essentials for the existence, be it us as a living being or a substance/matter, are ‘The Space‘, and ‘The Time‘ — Absence of any one of these two essentials, and nothing does exist – Absolutely “nothing”.

To exemplify the point, let’s consider a scenario: You are here, now – The ‘here‘ here refers to the space you are in. If the ‘here‘ (space) is still here, but the time is 200 years from now – do you still exist? NO, of course. All else is the same but the ‘time‘ that ‘was‘, is not here any more – If you could go back in time, you would still find ‘you‘ there!

Now, let’s look at the ‘space’ scenario; if the time is the same, i.e., ‘now‘ — the time that you do exist in, but the space (say, Earth) does suddenly cease to exist – do you still exist? Difficult to visualize, but, as a matter of fact, No. With the absence of space, you will also cease to exist – Unless, of course, you were ‘teleported’ away before the disappearance of the space that you were in.

Speaking in purely physical (not spiritual!) terms, we live in our ‘body‘ – which occupies a ‘space‘. Now, as you can visualize, without the space that ‘contains‘ your body, there will be no ‘you‘. Also, if the ‘time‘ is not there, ‘you‘ will not be there in that space.

That is the case with every thing in this universe, every body, large or minuscule, does exist in a specific ‘Time-Space’ dimension.

The Time-Space-Matter Prerequisites:

As we have ‘discovered‘, the ‘Space’ is a must for any entity to exist in time. Also, mathematically speaking, it is a ‘Bi-directional‘ truth; the other side of the same ‘truth’ is that, some sort of element (i.e., ‘substance’, ‘matter’, or ‘things’) are essential for the ‘Space’ to exist in ‘Time’ – There cannot be a ‘space’ with a ‘void‘ in it. You can think of the space as a ‘container‘ – Container exists only if there is an element in it (web developers’ lingo!).

It will be an exercise in futility to argue if the ‘space’ did come first, or the ‘element’ – it will be very much like the proverbial ‘chicken-and-egg‘ sort of debate?

Now, we have THREE simultaneously occurring requirements, or conditions, for the ‘existence’ of any thing:

1. The Time,
2. The Space, and
3. The Elements (Matter) in the Time-Space containers.

As you may have noticed, we are facing an interesting situation here. First, there has to be a ‘Time’ and ‘Space’ dimension for the ‘Matter’ to exist – But, then, there must have to be some ‘Matter’ there (where?) for the ‘Space’ to exist in a given ‘Time frame’ !

Certainly, there are a lot more of the conflicting ‘prerequisites’ and ‘hurdles’ that we have to find our way around. But, working systematically and logically, we will be able to proceed and piece together the puzzle of The Origin.

The Laws of Universe:

As a matter of clarification, when we say the ‘Laws of Universe’ or ‘Laws of Physics/Science‘, we refer to the laws that we have observed to be governing whatever exists in the ‘known’ universe – these are not the ‘laws’ that we have made or invented for our ‘convenience’.

It is true that the ‘Laws of Physics’ define the relationship of the ‘Time-Space-Matter‘ – that we just discussed above. But, the point to consider is that, these Laws of Physics came into existence along with the emergence of the Universe. What were the ‘Laws’, and what was the state of the ‘Time-Space-Matter’, prior to the ‘Moment‘ of the ‘Emergence‘ of the universe, we don’t know.

The Beginning, and The Prior:

All the evidentiary data indicate that, like any other ‘thing‘ that we know, the universe had a beginning. It didn’t exist forever – It is almost universally acknowledged that it came into existence bout 14 billion years ago.

We can also acknowledge the basic fact that there must have been an enormous amount of energy/matter somewhere (?) for the Universes to emerge. But, that statement contradicts the deterministic Laws of Physics (Time-Space-Matter Prerequisites) that govern the Universe now – but we are talking about the state prior to The Beginning.

To begin with the ‘Beginning’, we have to accept the fact that it all started at some point in ‘time’. We may call it The Point Origin. To start at the Point Origin, we have to try to, somehow, visualize the sate that was prior to The Beginning – A state of ‘absolute-void’ – a state of ‘space-less space’ (!) It is a state that causes the structural failure of our brains.

We face the fundamental obstacle – How to visualize a state of ‘No-Space‘, ‘No-Dimensions’ and ‘No-Time‘? We function in our world confined within our ‘Time-Space’ dimensions. Our brains visualize the space as being the ‘empty‘ distance between objects or some boundaries. A state of ‘absolute nothingness’ is the state of ‘absolute void’ where no objects, distance or space exists. Further, for us to understand, an ‘event’ or an ‘object’, it must have to occur or exist at some time-point.

Visualizing a state devoid of space and time, is not the domain of our physical brain – it causes our brain to go in a state of ‘freeze’. Our brain is not designed to visualize such a scenario. Our thinking mechanism relies on three basic units to perform its operations; space, time, and mass.

For the sake of brain exercise, you may like to try to visualize an object or situation that has no dimensions, contains no mass and exists in no time – won’t be fun. The intricate processing network of neurons in our brains hits the ‘absolute zero‘ in a dimensionless, massless and timeless processing atmosphere.

That is the hurdle many of the humanity’s great minds stumbled upon when they tried to present the theories on the subject of the Creation, or the Emergence, of The Universe. We can ride on our mental horses to the point of just after the instance when it all began, most logically, with a Big Bang. But, to come up with the understanding of the state at the precise instance of the Big Bang or the state prior to that, we have to deal with a Space-less, Dimensionless, Massless and Timeless state that our brains are not designed to work with.

The Big Bang, and Beyond :

Now, to begin with the Beginning – with a Big-Bang (we are not entering into the debate if the Big Bang was a ‘Creation Project’ or just an ‘Inevitability’ of the state that had existed prior) – we have to deal with a situation that there had to be a, sort of, Space and Time point, for the Big Bang to occur. But, the Space-Time dimensions itself were the creation of The Big Bang, and the dimensions of Space, Time, and Mass, as we know now, came into existence as the result of the unleashing of the Energy-Fields at The Big Bang.

A point worth mentioning here is that even though we shall use the word ‘Energy’ quite frequently here, we have no satisfactory definition of the energy at this present point. Here, we shall use the term energy to define a sort of ‘Force’ or (Ahmm!) Energy that is the fundamental building block of every thing; the Time, the Space and the Matter.

It is presently the accepted theory that the indivisible Packets of Energy are the building blocks of the so called Quantum Particles, which, in turn, join together in different orders to form the different sub-atomic particles. As we know, all matter is composed of atoms. And, at its core – at the atomic level – all matter is just the composition of Energy – or, rather, the composition of the Packets (quantum) of Energy.

For the Big Bang to occur, there must have existed an Energy of an order – magnitude of which is beyond our mental computational capabilities, that provided for the Big Bang. But, the ‘Energy’ itself had to exist in some Space-Time dimension – On the other hand, the Space and the Time dimensions themselves were the product of the Energy – The Energy that was the source of the Big Bang.

As we have been discussing, the absolute nothingness is a state that is also devoid of any energy. How can we visualize – let alone understand – a scenario in which the Universe came into existence from absolute nothingness, having no Energy, no Time, and no Space dimensions ?

We accept the basic dictum that nothing comes from nothing. And, we can also safely assume that absolutely nothing comes out from a state of absolute nothingness.

To remain strictly within the scientific domain, a Time-Space dimension can also be defined in terms of the Energy Field that may generate it and can keep it confined within it. But, again, the fact is that for the Energy Field to exist, there must be a Time-Space dimension in the first place. Further, to unfold the Time-Space in a multi dimensional Multi-verse, we are talking about the Energy the magnitude of which is beyond our comprehension.

To understand the state Prior, and at the moment of The Beginning, we need some ‘essentials’ to work with. We need the ‘pre-existing’ presence of ‘some sort’ of Space, Time, and the Energy to be able to paddle our way to understanding The Origin of this Universe; We have none to work with.

We have to accept the fact that we cannot deal with the Point Origin or with the state Prior. In order to proceed with our initial quest to understand the Origin of the Universe and our of own self, we have only one ralistic option:

For all the practical purposes, the ‘moment’ right after the Big-Bang was the ‘Time Zero‘ – It was the beginning of the ‘Time’ . It was also the beginning of the ‘Space’ dimension – The ‘Space Zero’. Unifying the two dimensions, the ‘Time Zero’ and ‘Space Zero‘, we can call the state at that ‘moment’ as The ‘Point Zero‘ – The actual ‘Singularity‘ – The dimensions of the Time, Space , and Matter were all ‘Zero’ at that point – A state of Absolute Singularity.

From the ‘Point Zero’ onward, we have the ‘Laws of Physics’ on our side to guide us in our search for the truth – The truth about our Origin and the Origin of the Universe.

By extrapolating the ‘Laws of Physics’ backward, and applying our ‘Deductive Reasoning’ logic, we can try to have a handle on the state at the instance of ‘The Origin’, and the state ‘Prior’.

We have to keep in mind the fundamental fact; our knowledge at any given point in time is ‘just our best understanding’ of the Nature’s Affairs — With this understanding , we can proceed in our quest to understand our own Origin.

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