Musings from Jay (blog site permanently frozen 11/05/2024 morning)

In the essay cum index How our body works , I state the following: It is clear our body is incredibly orderly and very sophisticated. It is intelligently put together. Chains of different types of nucleic acids form DNA/RNA. Chains of different types of amino acids form peptides and proteins. Chains of different types of sugars form complex carbs. The type and order of units constitute a code, and this is information. How did such a system evolve in nature!! Is God/nature a programmer? When viewed through the lens of modern science, biology resembles nothing less than a masterfully designed software stack running on the hardware of the universe. We see digital code stored in high-density DNA, transcribed into temporary execution scripts via RNA, and translated into physical, moving hardware engines via proteins. We see data storage, error-correcting code, and signal transduction pathways that function like logic gates. The type and sequential order of these molecular units constitute a...

In my previous essays on consciousness and spirituality (summarized here:  Spirituality and Consciousness Probe Summaries ), I left two distinct but related gaps. In the consciousness essay, I established an epistemological vacuum: consciousness is a strictly private, first-person experience that you can only verify within yourself. In my wrap-up of the spirituality probe, I reached a methodological stop sign: my science-based inquiries proved an extraordinary, interconnected order exists across 14 billion years of cosmic history and 4 billion years of biology, but science could not explain why or how that order came to be. This extension bridges those two gaps, bringing my views on the mind, evolution, and the cosmos into a single, unified architecture. 1. The Localized Awakening When we look at the breathtaking timeline of the universe, we see a systematic, intricately put-together sequence of events. Through the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, matter has steadily orga...

Welcome to the definitive guide to the cosmos. This series of essays explores the fundamental rules governing our universe, tracking the journey from the cosmic macro-scale down to the strange quantum world. Main Physics/Astro Physics Hub: [ Physics/Astro Physics Deep Dive (v1.1) ]   Cosmic Beginnings & The Fabric of Space These essays examine the birth of the universe, how it expands, and the invisible scaffolding that shapes everything we see. [ Big Bang and Cosmic Dawn (v1.1) ] :   Synopsis: How the universe transitioned from a hot, dense singularity into the structured cosmos we observe today. [ Space-Time Fabric (v1.0) ] :   Synopsis: Understanding Einstein’s revolutionary idea that gravity is not a pulling force, but the bending of geometry itself. The Expanding Universe:   Synopsis: Cosmic acceleration, dark energy, and the mysterious forces pulling the universe apart. Deep Dives: Dark Energy: [ Dark Energy (v1.1) ]  Dark Matter: [ Dark Matter (v1.1...

Physics can get awfully close to the universe creation event, but it is very unlikely it can say anything about why the Big Bang occurred and what it was before it. It is not even clear causality works in such instances. This is as close as we can get to God's creation. At time zero, there was no space, time, or matter. It is assumed there was a gravitational singularity. Here is an account of the progression of the universe from “Physics of the Universe” and other sources. This is basically the standard model of cosmology. Since the Big Bang, 13.787 billion (± 20 million) years ago, the universe has passed through many different phases or epochs. Due to the extreme conditions and the violence of its exceedingly early stages, it arguably saw more activity and change during the first second than in all the billions of years since. The first second of creation is dominated by particle physics and quantum mechanics and may not make much sense to a layman. To better understand it, you ...

  Much of this essay is a summary of classes of Prof Richard Wolfson of Middlebury College among other sources. The Quantum and Relativistic Revolutions Einstein developed the special theory of relativity in 1905 and further expanded it to the general theory in 1915. Special theory is, in its essence, a great equalizer. It says that your frame of reference does not matter - it could be at rest or moving at close to the speed of light. Physics experiments give the same result. You play the same tennis on a steady cruise ship or on land. You eat peanuts the same way on a steady airplane or on land. This simple thing leads to some interesting effects and fundamentally alters classical physics. The general theory of relativity turns out to be a theory of gravity. After that quantum mechanics was developed. The key concept of quantum mechanics can be illustrated by emptying a jug of water repeatedly in half until you cannot do it anymore. You are left with one molecule of water....