Written in 2015–2016. Personal notes on cosmology, the nature of reality and technology — ideas behind many of the worlds in my art.
On Cosmology, the Universe, the Multiverse & the Nature of Reality
According to the latest discoveries in cosmology and astrophysics, the universe seems to be fine-tuned in all of its aspects to sustain life — from its inception at the moment of the Big Bang to the formation of atoms, stars, galaxies and life. This view of a fine-tuned universe is accepted by many scientists and researchers in the field.
Take the delicate balance between the forces: had the force that binds the nucleus of atoms been only slightly different, hydrogen could not have been sustained — and without hydrogen, the main ingredient of stars, there would be no stars, no galaxies and no life.
The ratio between gravity and dark energy (the repulsion pushing the universe to expand, while gravity pulls it inward) was found to be so extremely delicate that many cosmologists call it unnatural, or designed.
Three-dimensional space-time is vital for physical life as we know it; life could not have formed or been sustained in a universe with only two spatial dimensions, or with more than three.
Many cosmologists admit that these numbers and delicate balances leave little room for doubt that this universe may be the product of a master plan.
Voices from astrophysics
Fred Hoyle: “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”
George Ellis: “Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word ‘miraculous’.”
Paul Davies: “There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all… The impression of design is overwhelming.”
The first moments
At the moment of the Big Bang there was a state of singularity, with all elements in extreme precision and balance before the release of enormous amounts of energy. Over time irregularity grew — but the first moments were so precise that most scientists wondered whether the process was natural, or made with the intention of a super-intellect.
These discoveries troubled many researchers and led some to the conclusion that the universe is not a universe at all, but a multiverse. If our universe is one and unique, then the precision that led to its creation, and to everything within it, is deeply unnatural — and points in one direction: design. If instead countless universes are created every second, ours is no longer unique, and its precise numbers become a statistical fluke that occurs once in every few billion universes (although that in itself is very unique too).
Reality & matter
Now you may ask: who or what created the designer? The same question can be asked about matter itself. All matter is made of atoms, atoms of particles, and the latest found was the mass-giving particle — but what are the smallest particles made of? String theory proposed vibrating strings at different frequencies, like music; a beautiful idea, though somewhat abandoned. In the end you can keep asking what makes the sub-sub-sub-particle. Perhaps it is the idea, the formula, the thought — because in the end it is ideas and thoughts that create the reality we live in; particles are defined and revealed by the formulas we discover.
Quantum theory even suggests particles exist in many places at once, and only when we observe and locate them are they revealed in our reality — so in a sense we create reality with our ideas, formulas and instruments.
So the problem may be purely philosophical: science can explain how things work, perhaps not why. Einstein and Newton also turned to philosophical questions when physics alone could not answer them. Take music: you can say it is beat and melody moving through time, affecting certain areas of the brain — but does that define music? It is so much more, and cannot even be fully defined. Evolution is the first answer that comes to mind for why a natural universe created feeling brains out of physical matter, but it is not that simple: many things, music among them, were not strictly required for survival.
The argument that fine-tuning points to a universe designed by some form of supreme intelligence is a valid one. It cannot be disproved at the moment; the multiverse was offered as an answer, but it only leads to other problems.
Problem 1: unprovable universes
As of today there is no way to prove the existence of other universes, simply because no creature living in our space-time can step outside the universe to see them. Perhaps in the far future, through wormholes, black holes or particle colliders — but for now the multiverse is purely speculative, and accepting it requires as much faith as accepting a single, designed universe.
Problem 2: Boltzmann brains
The multiverse leads to strange paradoxes. One is the “Boltzmann brain”: if endless universes are created every second, each with different physical rules, statistically some will produce floating, bodiless brains — thinking entities with no physical form, like ghosts or souls. Nature tends to choose the simplest solution, and a living creature like us — a brain in a body, breathing and eating in three-dimensional space — is a very complicated feat of engineering. It has even been argued that if the multiverse is real, bodiless thinking entities should vastly outnumber ordinary brains like ours. Which raises the question: why do some researchers accept such ideas, yet not the idea of one unique, designed universe?
A holographic, simulated universe?
All this leads to further questions: is the universe real at all? Does matter really exist? Or is the universe a simulation, or a hologram? New theories suggest the universe might be holographic — that we do not truly exist in three-dimensional space-time, but are projected into it from a two-dimensional space, or even from outside space-time.
It has been claimed that an object swallowed by a black hole is not lost forever: the black hole stores all of its information mathematically, like a coded plan — an idea also explored in the film Interstellar. In theory, that information could be extracted to reassemble the original object. Another idea suggests the Big Bang itself was a reversed black hole, releasing information from another side, or another universe, to create our own.
The multiverse even makes a kind of reincarnation possible: given endless universes over trillions of years, a person who dies could statistically reappear billions of years later — the same brain, body and consciousness, living the same experiences. That is arguably stranger than accepting a single universe by design.
And if we are projected into space-time from outside it, perhaps we control our consciousness like an avatar — without ever truly being “here” at all.
On Technology & the Future
Prediction machines
Companies and governments are gathering huge amounts of data in nearly every field, and one aim is the ability to make accurate predictions. At some point it will be possible to feed this data into a kind of super-computer consciousness that connects it in real time, from every point on the globe and beyond — combined with all of recorded history and shared life experience. The more we know about the present in real time, and the faster AI evolves, the more accurately we will be able to predict.
Further away in time: many minds connected and working together with artificial intelligence, sharing real-time data and past experience as easily as an individual recalls a memory — perhaps through bio-implanted memory chips. Millions of connected minds, on Earth and beyond, could forecast events with remarkable accuracy. The more varied the input, the richer the predictions.
Autonomous transportation
Personally, I never felt the urge to get a driver’s licence early; I enjoy the freedom of choosing where to go, but I’d much rather sit back and enjoy the view. Driving in a city — traffic, parking, insurance, fuel, repairs — is mostly a nuisance. I believe most people will come to the same conclusion, and in time (perhaps decades) owning and driving your own car will become a hobby for a few enthusiasts.
Autonomous vehicles will be the way of the future. Letting transportation rely on autonomous, shared vehicles will be far safer, and the few accidents left will mostly involve human interference. Think how little most private cars are used — an hour or two a day — while they sit on the streets the rest of the time: a huge waste of resources. In major cities you will simply summon a vehicle, and by the time you step outside it will be waiting for you.
Since most traffic will follow predetermined routes, it can move to other forms of energy — charging through the road itself, or even magnetic levitation — making transportation quieter and less disruptive, with dedicated high-speed lines for long distances. I do appreciate beautiful cars as a blend of art, technology and engineering; but for most of us, a car is simply a way to get from A to B.
Technology as freedom of creativity
Growing up, I dreamt of creating things that were simply impossible at the time unless you worked with big companies or owned equipment worth millions. Today, as a single designer, creator and musician, I can create almost any idea I imagine — music, 3D animation, concepts — and share it anywhere. The only real limitations are discipline and time. The computer is one of the most important instruments ever developed for bringing freedom of creativity to anyone on Earth, cheaply and affordably.
Automated programming
Future technology will program itself. Much of programming today is already reusing existing functions with small adjustments; in time, every function ever created will be available to everyone.
This will bring a new age of personal, automated programming: anyone will be able to create their own programs with simple voice commands — like talking to the ship’s computer in Star Trek. You tell the computer what you need, and it either finds a ready-made function in a world database or creates one from its vast AI programming knowledge.
Programming will become completely conversational: you will explain what you want the program to achieve, and it will be formed. Strange programming languages as we know them will become obsolete, because computers will understand our language and translate it into code.