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I discovered within myself what seemed to be an How could the Universe be both finite and infinite at infinite division of the scales, beyond reconciliation the same time? Truly, day-to-day experience seems to with the concept of a bubble Universe from which point to the existence of well-defined finite boundaries. everything started with a bang, without any clear After all, your body's dimensions are defined by what understanding of either what produced it or how the —_ appears to be a very specific scale. The same applies to material got there to bang in the first place. the chair you're sitting on, or the pole you're holding I remember being very young, probably about seven, — onto while you're reading this article on the bus on your when it was explained to me that the Universe was likea | way to work. But wouldn't an infinite Universe have no big balloon expanding. My first question to myself was: definition, no distinct way of identifying a boundary to expanding in what? Surely, if the Universe were define all other ones? All of this became the subject of expanding, it must be expanding inside another many years of contemplation, and the answer, Universe, larger than the one we are in. Andthen again, interestingly, came from an unexpected source. if that one were expanding as well, surely it must be expanding in a larger one, and so on. There was no easy The Organising Principle of Nature solution to the riddle. The only thing that made sense From my study of ancient civilisations, there seemed was that the Universe was infinitely o be a persistent, recurring theme, and arge and infinitely small, that we hat theme, to cut to the chase, seemed ived in a continuum of divisions, and o have something to do with geometry hat our world was defined by the and some fundamental medium mere fact that we observed the As well, in permeating everything, being Universe from a very specific scale. : omnipresent, omniscient and e For instance, if you were mathematics, organising principle of nature. I looked experiencing the Universe from the fractal theory o find if similar concepts were present scale of an atom or even a subatomic in our history of physics and the particle, your experience would be resembled many advanced physics of today, and indeed | ven eee tae einen ancient concepts ee ae rc side, for instance being. And if I were to grow you from and symbols and was Einstein's geometrisation of the an atom to the size of a human, you 1 structure of space-time. As well, in would most likely think that you provided a mathematics, fractal theory had changed Universes or even perfect resembled many ancient concepts changed dimensions (although 0 G and symbols and provided a perfect that would be partially true, as relationship . relationship between infinities and you have literally changed in between infinities the boundary condition, as an dimension). infinite amount of boundaries These thoughts had come to and the boundary could be embedded within a finite me in various ways throughout condition... initial boundary (the scale at which you are observing). As far as an omnipresent permeating energy was concerned, it occurred to me then that maybe, just maybe, the all-prevailing intensely energetic vacuum of the quantum world the years, but how could they be appropriately expressed in physics? Was there any physics already written in our world that indicated such a principle at hand? Furthermore, did these concepts agree with thousands and thousands of years _ might fit the bill. of advanced thinking in philosophy, mysticism and Maybe the space between all of the molecules and religious belief? atoms that | was observing on my cliff-face inside the The first clue had come in my teenage years, when crystal that my hands were so firmly gripping, the space initially realised that for almost 100 years a chasm had between our planet and the Sun, the space inside our existed in our physics between the mathematics and galaxy and the space between galaxies was full instead models we use for large objects, which predict a of empty. Maybe space was permeated with all the continuum that tends towards singularity and infinities information of all things in the space and was the grea (Einstein's field equations), and the quantum world o connector between all these things. After all, from atomic and subatomic particles, which predicts linear __ infinitely large to infinitely small, space would always be functions of bounded states, well defined and with finite | present, since even the extremely small radius of an behaviours. Yet big things are made out of small things, | atom still contains some 99.99999 per cent space. so how could the Universe use two completely differen Perhaps space defined matter, rather than the materia sets of physics? world defining the space. How could the Universe be both finite and infinite at the same time? Truly, day-to-day experience seems to point to the existence of well-defined finite boundaries. After all, your body's dimensions are defined by what appears to be a very specific scale. The same applies to the chair you're sitting on, or the pole you're holding onto while you're reading this article on the bus on your way to work. But wouldn't an infinite Universe have no definition, no distinct way of identifying a boundary to define all other ones? All of this became the subject of many years of contemplation, and the answer, interestingly, came from an unexpected source. As well, in mathematics, resembled many ancient concepts provided a : perfect relationship between infinities condition... might fit the bill. Maybe the space between all of the molecules and atoms that I was observing on my cliff-face inside the crystal that my hands were so firmly gripping, the space between our planet and the Sun, the space inside our galaxy and the space between galaxies was full instead of empty. Maybe space was permeated with all the information of all things in the space and was the great connector between all these things. After all, from infinitely large to infinitely small, space would always be present, since even the extremely small radius of an atom still contains some 99.99999 per cent space. Perhaps space defined matter, rather than the material world defining the space. JUNE - JULY 2010 NEXUS ¢ 43 fractal theory and symbols and and the boundary www.nexusmagazine.com