Persistence

12/01/13 08:11 [Saturday]
I was watching Stargazing Live the other evening and the question arose of whence the fluctuations in the universe derived, where by fluctuations I mean the presence in certain parts of objects with mass - for example planets (but more basically particles) - or other things which differ from one location to another (for example electromagnetic fields). In other words why is the universe not the same throughout its expanse, that is empty or an unchanging sea of some force (which means empty since there is nothing for the force to act on) or an unchanging lattice of mass (which means empty since mass has no meaning but for either gravity or inertia due to it)? Some answer was given relating to the speed of the initial expansion in the fraction of a second following the Big Bang, but the answer which satisfies me is that quantum fluctuations at the outset of the universe led to the lumpiness it now has.
What I myself have been thinking as a consequence, though, is that there is a natural propensity in the human mentality to believe things must stay the same unless there is a reason for them to change. Before Newton came up with his First Law people believed objects had in their nature to be still unless some force acted on them, and the First Law altered that slightly into 'had in their nature to continue in a state of zero or uniform motion' unless some force acted on them. So people think the universe ought to be the same throughout space and time - an unchanging sea you might as well call nothingness - unless there is some reason for it to be different in different locations and at different times.
What this is is the human presumption of causality. It is in human nature to believe that if things alter (from place to place or from time to time) there must be a causal antecedent to the alteration. Modern physics is slightly freeing us from this presumption, in that alterations at the quantum level occur randomly, that is unpredictably and for no reason. Of course what has led to the human insistence on causality is the fact that thinking that way has helped us survive in the context we are in - life on Earth - and the theory of evolution is accurate.
However the way human beings think on this Earth need not be a guide to the way the universe operates outside the Earthy realm. Thus on the scale of the imperceptibly small - the quantum scale - and also (I say) on the scale of the unthinkably big (or lengthy in time) changes arise without cause.
Given all the things that could happen to our planet from one day to the next it may surprise some that it persists day after day: why doesn't it just fizzle out into vapour or nothingness? My answer to that is that it has proved valuable to us (including animals) in evolutionary terms to presume that things go on day after day. I suppose some day it will fizzle out but anyone remaining will get the impression that I have fizzled out. (Hint on humour: this is the end.)