On Fri, 6 Aug 2010 00:53:42 -0400 (EDT) Michael Pollak
<mpollak at panix.com> writes:
>
> On Thu, 5 Aug 2010, Shane Mage wrote:
>
> > Just to point out that the "dark matter" is not observed, merely a
>
> > computer-generated artefact reflecting an arbitrary mathematical
> > construction to which nothing in physical reality corresponds.
>
> Not nothing. It corresponds to very larage discrepencies that
> shouldn't
> be there in the pure big bang model. Adding "inflation" -- an extra
>
> booster stage in the first second of the universe's existence --
> fixed
> some of it. Then we added dark matter. Then dark energy.
>
> So it fills a need. But there is something to be said for the vague
>
> feeling that these first second add-ons are beginning to accumulate
> like
> pre-copernican circles and maybe there's something fundamentally
> wrong at
> the bottom. Which perhaps is what you are getting at with the
> arbitrariness idea.
Part of the appeal of the original Big Bang cosmology was its simplicity. Remember too, that when Einstein developed his field equations for the cosmos, he had introduced into his equations a cosmological constant. Later on he rejected the cosmological constant (which he thought spoiled the simplicity of his equations), calling that the greatest mistake of his career.
However, since that time, cosmologists have had the benefit of greatly improved empirical observations that have required them to make some serious modifications of the original theory, such as the addition of Alan Guth's notion of inflation, the addition of the "dark matter" hypothesis, and even the reintroduction of a non-zero cosmological constant. Certainly, to more than a few observers, this is starting to look like the accumulation of epicycles that caused disatisfaction with Ptolemy's astrononmy back during the Renaissance. Certainly, the original Big Bang cosmology has lost of the original simplicity that had made it so appealing.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
>
> FWIW, there is an alternative theory, called the endless universe
> theory,
> that gets rid of dark matter:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Universe-Beyond-Big-Bang/dp/0385509642
>
> It posits that big bangs happen over and over, each time creating a
> new
> membrane between the old and new universes through which nothing can
> pass
> except gravity. And that what is now attributed to dark matter and
> energy
> is actually the gravitational pull of stuff on the other side of the
>
> brane.
>
> Michael
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>
>
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