• Question: If the world was to be completely destroyed and another big bang were to happen (the same as the previous) would humanity and the world be exactly the same? and if so would the world be just one continueous loop?

    Asked by ghenderson to Amy, Drew on 24 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      Interesting thought…I don’t think you could definitely say. No one has yet explained by reliable scientific means how the first cell would have come together this time around to start replicating. The theory of natural selection that we have only works once you have life already present – it is not an explanation for life’s beginning. So you would really have to have more concrete evidence for present theories to extrapolate into the future and predict what would happen!

      It would depend on whether life would start at all and then if it would keep going at all and then if it would mutate in the same way and diversify. I think it is all highly speculative! What do you think? 🙂

    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      Chaos theory suggests that for complex dynamic systems (like the universe) tiny changes in the starting conditions can make big differences in the outcomes. If the big bang happened in _exactly_ the same way, that would suggest that the world would be the same.

      The tiniest difference in energy state of one sub-atomic particle during the big bang could change all that though.

Comments

  • Photo: bridget

    bridget commented on :

    Wouldn’t it turn out the same if it started the same- cause and effect would cause the same things, even when it got complicated in chaos theory, as they were all caused by the duplicate event and had the same events contributing to them, therefore everything woud replay itself?

  • Photo: Drew

    Drew commented on :

    Bridget- you’re right, if conditions were _exactly the same it would replay itself.

  • Photo: Amy

    Amy commented on :

    I really don’t think you can say it would. By physical theories you could potentially argue that the physical matter of the universe would turn out the same but this does not hold true for “life” and the whole biological world at all. If you believe in natural selection as a means of adaptation and the arising of the diversity of life on earth through evolutionary means then you have to believe in a process of random mutation and selection. The overarching conditions may determine the broad outcomes but the mutations themselves have a large element of randomness. Of course you could believe that there is something more deterministic about everything…but this would suggest that there is much more of a “plan” than most people are prepared to acknowledge.