Wednesday 11 November 2009

Black Holes and Singularities!

Wednesday 5:55 p.m.
The cannabis programme they did was a disgrace, but three of the best programmes on the telly I've ever seen were Horizon programmes. They did black holes and singularities last week.

Fourteen billion odd years ago, the Big Bang started everything in this universe. Life and death come from the Big Bang. The Big Bang came somehow from a singularity.

A singularity has no centre or circumference. Since there was no space or time for it to be in before the Big Bang. In Buddhism mind, or Mind, has no centre or circumference either. I think with Mind though there is some kind of awareness implied.

Experience is proceeded by mind. The Dhammapada.


There is a singularity in the middle of every black hole. There is a black hole at the middle of every galaxy. In our galaxy, our sun is a million times the size of Earth, but the black hole at the middle of our galaxy, which isn't a big one, is four million times the weight of our sun. Black holes and singularities have been crucial to how our galaxies have been formed.

Folk used to worship the sun, which makes sense since it supports life. Also, you couldn't look directly at the sun. You can't see black holes of course.

They can do the sums for the big things using Einstein and they can do sums for the wee tottie things using quantum mechanics, but nothing seems to work right when it comes to black holes and singularities. This seems to be partly due to the gravity in black holes. Quantum mechanical sums can't handle gravity, it seems.

In singularities there seems to be infinite density and infinite gravity. This is what the sums pan out to. In the real world there is no such thing as infinity. In singularities our understanding of nature completely breaks down. It is beyond our mathematics so far. The black hole problem means that we don't really understand anything. I enjoy stuff like that since I believe in ignorance above all else.

We embrace our ignorance
We don't believe in any things
Especially thoughts.

The Buddha didn't seem to have much problems with infinity.

This samsara has no discernible beginning and no discernible end. The Dhammapada.

5 comments:

rob said...

It's amazing what one can learn here. Singularities are beyond mathematics, which is all a load of old photons anyway. Just pass me another stubby of New South Peculiar.

rob said...

PS - could you do a post explaining the theological implications of Higgs boson and the Hadron collider? Thanks, that will help.

Hotboy said...

Albert? Unfortunately, all I know is what it tells me in Horizon programmes. But there is something funny going on with this universe. That's for sure! Hotboy

rob said...

I'd like to know who's responsible.

Hotboy said...

Albert? No one's ever called me responsible! So it's definitely not me. But at the same time I think you have to take responsibility for your view because none of them other basturns will! Hope this helps. Hotboy