Tom, i am probably going to learn physics from this autumn and when exploring my motives i've found that i am aiming to know that my knowledge is true
you have told on this forum that 'black holes' and 'dark matter' are nonsense which leaves me wondering what else may be nonsense that i'm going to be taught considering that black holes did make sense to me until recently. Could you please find a way to explain me why black holes are nonsense? (apart fom the fact that gravity hasn't been explained yet)
your book makes sense and you are right, it is hard to understand the appearing of the awareness in the beginning even though it had to appear in order to develop itself
fluctuations in the nothingness--fluctuations that are not material?
Liz
Can you define what you mean by "matter"? Do you know anyone who can?
Fluctuation in the "nothing" are already "something" aren't they? It is quite easy to imagine that information can be encoded in such fluctuations.
Lets consider one of the key (unquestionable) conclusions in physics: entropy (chaos) can only increase (everything that we are aware of can only disintegrate/decay). The key question is "how did the initial "order" was established"?
My studies indicate that intellect is the just about the only thing in the Universe that can actually develop itself, even if all material resources around it are temporary and disintegrate. If intellect is evolved enough, it can design/create a perturbation (bang) that will provide extra "material" resources, needed for storing/processing of the information for example. Please study this article for more details.
Hence, decaying Universe that we observe is a cyclical thing, like everything observable in Nature. Before our Universe decays back to nothing, another Universe can be initiated by (a better designed) big bang.
In any case, a conclusion is only as good as assumptions adopted in reaching it. Hence, in trying to determine quality of your (or anyone else's) conclusions you cannot avoid examining assumptions adopted in reaching these conclusions. Keep thinking...
Tom