THRESHOLD BOUNDARIES OF PHYSICAL EXISTENCE (MY ART MANIFESTO – PART 3 )

I would like to briefly remind you of a statement I made in the previous section. “If anyone evaluates the nothingness, the absolute nothingness meant now loses its nothingness; that nothingness can no longer be spoken of because after any existence, nothingness in the absolute sense loses this state. At least it comes out of absolute nothing. Since nothingness is associated with being, it passes to the initial boundary of being, a threshold or ground state.

In fact, in the state of absolute nothingness where there is no Being including God, it is not logically possible for any Being to form. It cannot be and need not be mentioned. But now there is something existing, we exist here. So we need to evaluate nothingness with reference only to our universe and the laws of physics because there is a starting point for our universe which we call “Bigbang”. If something has a starting point, the mind definitely wonders about the past. That is why I will consider and question nothingness as a state at the immediate outer limit of existence. Therefore, I will start dealing with our existence with Bigbang.

In the 1920s, the theory that the universe had a beginning was put forward by the Russian cosmologist and mathematician Alexander Friedmann and the Belgian physicist priest Georges Lemaître. This theory, in 1929, when Edwin Hubble determined that the distance between galaxy clusters was gradually increasing, it was concluded that if they were moving away, it has a starting point when measured backwards. This result (Bigbang theory) has been supported by various evidence.

As I mentioned in previous chapters, I have been intensively interested in science for many years. For this reason, I am quite well familiar with cause and effect relationships in physics, even if it is not at academic level. Therefore, I will base my explanations of existence as an artist on scientific facts as much as possible. First I have to give a definition of what science is:

“Science; regulated knowledge that chooses a part of the universe or events as the subject, and attempts to draw conclusions by making use of empirical methods and reality. ”

In short, science deals with and credits the conclusions proven by experimental and mathematical evidence. In this context, let me now quote the information about what actually started, from the book “Origins / Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution” written by the famous American astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson and astronomer Donald Goldsmith:

“In the beginning there was physics. ‘Physics’ describes how matter, energy, space and time move, and their relationship with each other. The play between the characters of the cosmic drama that we are in, highlights all the biological and chemical phenomena. Therefore, everything indispensable for us starts with the laws of physics and is based on these rules.” (Neil de Grasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith. Cosmos. p. 21)

“It was the laws of physics that started”, id est it was science, he says. Now let me quote information about the laws of physics from the book of the American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman:

“Among the phenomena of nature, there is a rhythm and order that is invisible to the naked eye, but that can be noticed by an analytical eye. What we call the laws of physics is this rhythm and order itself. ” (Richard Feynman. On the Laws of Physics, p.15)

“Each of our laws are mathematical expressions that contain highly complex and obscure mathematics.” (Richard Feynman, ibid, p. 48)

As can be easily understood, the laws of nature are entirely based on mathematical codes. In short, all the laws of nature that science has not yet known have started with the beginning of the universe. Therefore, science begins with the existence which we call ‘Bigbang’.

“What was there before Bigbang?” is the question that is raised. Science explains this in a very logical way. The word “before” is a word that states time. “Time has started with Bigbang. So there was no time before Bigbang. Therefore, since time has not been formed yet, they state that questions which include a time frame such as what was before, cannot be asked. This is the answer science will give for the threshold limit, and the science literature does not cross this threshold. However, although this answer given by science is absolutely correct, it does not meet the question that is asked because the question “What was there before Bigbang?” asks for an answer about neither before or after the beginning but the beginning itself. What is the factor behind the existence of the universe? To answer this curious question, I will start with energy, which is the only constituent of the universe starting with Bigbang. And I will make a comment on existence with the query “How has energy acquired the physics feature, laws and functions of the universe that encompass infinite varieties?”

Due to its nature, science acts on the principle of cause and effect. It relies on experimentally or mathematically proven results; as it should be. However, in the development of the first stage of the universe, there are such important thresholds that the present universe cannot exist even if only one of them does not exist or its mathematical proportions are different. Therefore, scientists who act on scientific principles call these thresholds either “for an unknown reason” or “we do not know why”. Some others attribute it to a supernatural power like “intelligent design”. Here I will begin with the First Law of Thermodynamics, which is one of the most important thresholds for existence. First, let me give the definition of this law in the literature:

“The First Law of Thermodynamics says that energy cannot come into being out of nothing and cannot be destroyed”. (Richard E Muller. Now, Physics of Time. p. 102.)

The First Law of Thermodynamics is the law of conservation of energy. The definition of this law states that the total energy in an isolated system will not change. The well-known explanation is, “Energy cannot be created and destroyed, it is just converted from one form to another.” According to this law, the entire universe is made up of constant energy. Everything that exists, living and non-living, from the smallest particle (quantum) to giant stars, that is, the whole universe is energy. It is formed by the conversion of energy into different forms without any change in the amount. The very important question I call threshold in this law is this;

What is the origin of the energy that cannot be created and destroyed? Yeah! If the energy that constitutes the whole universe cannot be created out of nothing, how did it come into being?

In fact, there is no exact answer to this in the literature. The most plausible explanation that science can make is the state called ‘the singularity of energy’ where Bigbang has not yet begun. Singularity is the state of energy where no potential motion and laws of physics have yet begun, and the energy that will emerge in the whole universe is infinitely dense and small in atomic scale. However, regardless of the situation, there is no information about how this energy that constitutes the universe and us came into existence. In other words, what did the energy consist of and what factor caused it is unknown.

There is another interesting situation regarding energy. If you reason within scientific, mathematical rules, energy cannot exist coincidentially!

I will continue in the next part.

(Translated by Semih AYDIN)