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Chapter 1: The Expanding Energy Continuum

1.1 The Universe as an Expanding Energy Continuum

1.1.1 Introduction

It is widely believed by Cosmologists and other scientists, that the universe is an infinitely large, empty space, sparsely populated with stars and galaxies which sprang spontaneously into existence 13.8 billion years ago. As Einstein pointed out, this belief is too similar to the Divine Creation theory of most Western Religions to have any scientific validity. In addition, it would seem impossible for the universe to be infinite since its main, measured property is its expansion, which is not possible if it is already infinite.

The theme of this book is to explain why it makes more sense to view the universe as a continuum of energy, finite in extent, shaped like a hyper-sphere - an object in its own right. Energy, in this case, is to be thought of as a kind of perfect gas, invisible and indivisible.

In fact, this is very similar to the kind of universe proposed by Einstein in 1917. Unfortunately, when it was pointed out to him that such a universe would be unstable he withdrew the paper. The instability referred to was perpetual expansion, which Einstein rejected because of his strong belief in a static universe. It was only in 1929 that he accepted expansion, but by then it was too late, the ’big-bang’ theory of Friedmann had already become the standard model.

Two diffculties attend this concept of the universe as an expanding energy continuum shaped like a hyper-sphere: the first is that energy is usually thought of as a property of other things; the second is that it is impossible to visualize a hyper-sphere, which is the three dimensional version of a two dimensional sphere.

Many processes in Physics are known to involve changes in energy content, which are thought of as unique properties of individual processes. The concept proposed here is that such processes are themselves properties of the energy continuum. This simplification reduces the number of fundamental ’things’ in the universe to three, space, time and energy.

For example, the well known equivalence of mass and energy, \(E=mc^2\), implies that mass and energy are two different substances. Since the mass of a material object derives from its atomic structure, this new concept views atoms as tiny, spherical regions of the continuum having an extremely high concentration of energy. Hence, any process involving mass reduces to a process involving energy configuration.

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