Cosmology is about the basic nature of the universe. You may read about cosmology when it is studied with tools such as particle accelerators, telescopes and, space probes. But I have an approach that I call "Everyday Cosmology". Everything that you do, and how things work in your daily life, is ultimately rooted in the nature of the universe, and we can study cosmology just by looking at daily life and the world around us.
A simple example involves the dimensions of space. We can see, by looking at property lots, that right-angled lots are the only form that fits together with no leftover space. This can only mean that the dimensions of space form right angles. When boxes are stacked, we can see that each box has three dimensions and that they fit together with no leftover space. That must mean that there are three dimensions of space, at right angles to each other.
One branch of cosmology is how information works in the universe. I see information and energy as really the same thing because we cannot apply energy to something without adding information to it and we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it. Another way we can see that energy and information is really the same thing is how we can make our lives physically easier by using technology, but only at the expense of making them more complicated. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives physically easier and also less complicated.
A basic principle of physics is that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state. This is why spheres are the default form for gravitational mass in the universe. A sphere is the three-dimensional geometric form with the least surface area per volume. That means it has the lowest energy state and is thus preferred by the universe. The reason that objects will fall to the ground, instead of remaining suspended in the air unless supported, is that it is a lower energy state, and is thus preferred, to having the object in the air.
But if the universe prefers a lower energy state, and energy and information is really the same thing, it must also prefer a lower information state.
This posting is about how the universe operates, in terms of information. There is another cosmology theory, what I have named "The Theory Of Stationary Space", but that is about how the matter and energy in the universe originated with a two-dimensional sheet of space that was within, but not contiguous with, four dimensions of background space. This is why the concentration of matter in the universe, relative to space, is so sparse and explains the scarcity of energy, relative to space, so that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state.
Suppose that the universe was a person. Have you ever known a person that just cannot make a decision? That is what the universe is like. It just cannot stand to make a decision. This is because a decision is information and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state. There is some energy, which is also information, so the universe sometimes does have to make a decision. But even when it does, it will try to balance it by also making the opposite decision.
Snowflakes tell us quite a bit about the universe. They are perfectly symmetrical and the only way that could come about is by electrical forces. This must mean that snowflakes are composed of particles with electric charge. If there were two opposite electric charges then a structure on one side of the snowflake would have to be balanced by an identical structure on the other side of the snowflake, but with the electric charge order reversed. This is an example of when the universe makes a decision it tries to balance it by also making the opposite decision.
We could deduce that the particles, which we call atoms, have both of these electric charges, which we now call negative and positive, and that opposite charges attract while like charges repel. Usually the two charges in the particles balance out but something is special about water in that one side of the particles are more negative, and the other side more positive, so that they line up by opposite charge attraction. This is explained by atoms combining to form molecules and one side of the water molecule is more positive, and the other more negative. This is what we call polarity.
This explains why water is liquid but can evaporate if there is enough heat. If heat is the kinetic energy of the movement of atoms and molecules, that can break the bonds between atoms in lines of water molecules, then water would evaporate because it is lighter than air by molecule but not when molecules are lined up by electrical forces. Ice forms when the lines of water molecules are moving slowly enough, at low temperatures, for cross links to form between them.
So, using my principle of "Everyday Cosmology", snowflakes tell us a lot about how matter in the universe operates.
But there is a lot more. Since we know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state, snowflakes can reveal how vast the universe is.
As far as we can see, no two snowflakes are exactly alike. They are composed of intricate structures of ice crystals and it does indeed seem that every snowflake is different from every other one. But how can snowflakes possibly "know" the form of every other snowflake that has ever fallen?
Let's go back to the basic nature of information in the universe. We know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state. What that means is that the universe does all it can to avoid having to make a decision, because a decision is information.
Suppose that a trillion snowflakes have fallen and the universe has run out of patterns so that the patterns of snowflakes must now start repeating. But then the question arises as to which one of the trillion snowflakes that have fallen will be the first to be repeated. That is information and means the universe would have to make a decision, and we know that the universe just cannot stand to make a decision.
You might be thinking that snowflakes could repeat their patterns in the order of which they had fallen. The first snowflake would be the first to be repeated. But that would require a mechanism for keeping track of the fallen snowflakes. That would mean information and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state.
So what the universe does is to arrange the snowmaking process with the snowflakes large enough, relative to the scale of the water molecules that compose them, so that the patterns will never have to repeat themselves. That is the lowest information state, because it means that a decision will never have to be made, and is why every snowflake is different from every other snowflake.
This reveals the scale of the universe. We saw that the sphere is the default gravitational form of matter in the universe, because it has the lowest information and energy state. This applies to stars, planets and, moons.
Using the same principle as with snowflakes, every star must be different from every other star, every planet from every other planet, and every moon from every other moon. The only way that the universe can do this, in order to avoid the terrible dilemma of having to decide which one to replicate first, is to make the universe so vast, relative to the number of stars, planets and moons, and the number of different atoms that they can be composed of, that no two will ever be exactly alike.
We cannot begin to fathom how vast the universe is. But the scale of planets and stars give us an idea of how vast it must be, so that no two are ever exactly alike. There is a far wider range of possibility than with snowflakes because snowflakes are composed only of water molecules, while stars and planets can be composed of all the different elements.
We can immediately see why planets are so much smaller than stars. It is because planets can be composed of a wide variety of elements, while stars are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. Planets can thus be smaller without any two in the universe being exactly alike.
This explains why so-called "primordial fusion" had to take place. The first atoms in the universe were, of course, hydrogen, which is the simplest element. But enough energy was left from the Big Bang to fuse many into helium, and traces of the next elements.
But if there had been only hydrogen, considering the number of stars that would have formed in this vast universe, it would be inevitable that there would have to be stars that are exactly alike. That would mean the universe would end up faced with the dreaded situation of having to make a decision, as to which pattern would be the first to be replicated. We know that the universe cannot stand to make a decision and will arrange itself so it never has to.
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