more on this theme     |     more from this thinker


Single Idea 19482

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence ]

Full Idea

Our best theories of physics imply we shouldn't be here. The big bang ought to have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter particles, which would have almost immediately annihilated each other, leaving nothing but light.

Gist of Idea

Current physics says matter and antimatter should have reduced to light at the big bang

Source

New Scientist writers (New Scientist articles [2013], 2015.05.23)

Book Ref

-: 'New Scientist magazine' [ 2013], p.12


A Reaction

This is not, of course, a rejection of physics, but a puzzle about the current standard model of physics.


The 26 ideas from 'New Scientist articles'

Hilbert Space is an abstraction representing all possible states of a quantum system [New Sci.]
Chemistry just needs the periodic table, and protons, electrons and neutrinos [New Sci.]
We are halfway to synthesising any molecule we want [New Sci.]
General relativity predicts black holes, as former massive stars, and as galaxy centres [New Sci.]
Quantum states are measured by external time, of unknown origin [New Sci.]
The Schrödinger equation describes the evolution of an object's wave function in Hilbert space [New Sci.]
Relativity makes time and space jointly basic; quantum theory splits them, and prioritises time [New Sci.]
Light moves at a constant space-time speed, but its direction is in neither space nor time [New Sci.]
String theory needs at least 10 space-time dimensions [New Sci.]
84.5 percent of the universe is made of dark matter [New Sci.]
No one has yet devised a rationality test [New Sci.]
About a third of variation in human intelligence is environmental [New Sci.]
People can be highly intelligent, yet very stupid [New Sci.]
Current physics says matter and antimatter should have reduced to light at the big bang [New Sci.]
CP violation shows a decay imbalance in matter and antimatter, leading to matter's dominance [New Sci.]
Psychologists measure personality along five dimensions [New Sci.]
Space-time may be a geometrical manifestation of quantum entanglement [New Sci.]
It is impossible for find a model of actuality among the innumerable models in string theory [New Sci.]
In string theory space-time has a grainy indivisible substructure [New Sci.]
Black holes have entropy, but general relativity says they are unstructured, and lack entropy [New Sci.]
A system can infer the structure of the world by making predictions about it [New Sci.]
Neural networks can extract the car-ness of a car, or the chair-ness of a chair [New Sci.]
Quantum theory relies on a clock outside the system - but where is it located? [New Sci.]
Einstein's merging of time with space has left us confused about the nature of time [New Sci.]
Entropy is the only time-asymmetric law, so time may be linked to entropy [New Sci.]
Entropy is puzzling, so we may need to build new laws which include time directionality [New Sci.]