I'm no physicist, so if someone could give me a laymen answer here's my question:
I was under the impression that quantum fluctuations present the possibility of something coming from nothing. So in regards to the big bang, my question is this: Did the quantum fluctuation bring about the existence of the singularity that expanded (the big bang)? Or did the singularity already exist, and some attribute of a quantum fluctuation cause the singularity to expand?
2011-08-18T20:23:07Z
Sorry, no good answers ... vote it up.
MTR 2.02011-08-16T16:56:44Z
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First "something from nothing" is a logically bankrupt statement.
If at any point existence exists, then you can categorically eliminate the absence of existence.
If there is no existence that exists, then the point is categorically moot as there will be no speculation concerning the absence of existence.
Now.
A singularity can be treated as a uniformly compressed dimension (say absolute total entropy/symmetry for a given finite potential).
Now something occurred that resulted in a breaking of that symmetry.
However to ask what happened in the context of one or the other does not make sense without pages and pages of very serious math.
And even then it is regarded as speculation without definitive empirical methods to confirm it.
Basically you say.
"in order to build a universe you must begin with a single dimension and conduct an operation that brings extension or expands it into two dimensions relative to that single dimension and so forth"
And then some will just come along and say, well that looks good on paper, but prove it.
Well right now we just don't have the kind of technological capacity and natural resources to prove it. And we probably won't for quite some time.