Is the Universe Alive? The Fascinating Theory of an Evolving Cosmos

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In summary, the article from New Scientist Magazine discusses the concept of whether the universe is alive and compares it to the evolution of living organisms on Earth. The idea is presented by Lee Smolin, a physicist at the Pennsylvania State University, who believes that the universe may have evolved over hundreds of millions of "universal generations" to become as complex as it is now. However, this idea is not universally accepted and some argue that the universe containing living organisms does not necessarily make it alive itself. The conversation then delves into the topic of creation and the role of religion in understanding the origins of life, with some arguing that the universe was created from nothing while others believe that it was created from the remnants of a supernova explosion. Ultimately, it
  • #1
RAD4921
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The following is part of an article from New Scienstist Magazine where a physicist contemplates whether the universe is alive.
I think it goes without saying that the universe is alive. YOU ARE MADE UP OF THE UNIVERSE AND YOU ARE ALIVE. To think otherwise would be to deny one's own existence.

Is the Universe alive?: The radical idea that our Universe may be evolving like a living creature is making cosmologists think like biologists
15 January 1994
JOHN GRIBBIN
Magazine issue 1908
Nobody would argue that human beings appeared out of nothing. We are complex creatures, and could not have arisen 'just by chance' out of a brew of chemicals, even in some warm little pond of the kind envisaged by Charles Darwin. Simpler kinds of living organisms came first, and it took hundreds of millions of years of evolution on Earth to progress from single-celled life forms to complex organisms like ourselves.

Could something similar have happened with the Universe? It is a large complex system which, some cosmologists argue, cannot have appeared by chance. Simpler universes came first, they say, and it may have taken hundreds of millions of universal generations to progress to a universe as complex as our own.

Lee Smolin, professor of physics at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at the Pennsylvania State University, is a leading proponent of this idea, which also takes on ...

The complete article is 2264 words long.
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RAD4921 said:
I think it goes without saying that the universe is alive. YOU ARE MADE UP OF THE UNIVERSE AND YOU ARE ALIVE. To think otherwise would be to deny one's own existence.
The universe contains living organisms, but that does not make the universe itself alive. How does this "deny one's own existence"? This makes no sense.
 
  • #3
RAD4921 said:
...Nobody would argue that human beings appeared out of nothing...
Well, sure they would, or at least almost nothing. In fact the vast majority of Americans believe in the human creation story in Genesis where the male human body was formed out of (1) dust of Earth (2) breath of god, about as close to nothing as one can get for the formation of a entity as complex as the human body.
 
  • #4
The living universe

Evo said:
The universe contains living organisms, but that does not make the universe itself alive. How does this "deny one's own existence"? This makes no sense.

It is an observable fact that the universe is alive and thinking, at least in part. Some may call it a leap of faith but this is strongly suggestive, at least to me, that the universe is alive and thinking as a whole.

I am not a religious man but it appears to my middle-aged mind that there is some type of hierarchy of intelligence that is contructing the universe. How this coincides with the Judeo-Christian "God" is a different story.
 
  • #5
The biblical fact

Rade said:
Well, sure they would, or at least almost nothing. In fact the vast majority of Americans believe in the human creation story in Genesis where the male human body was formed out of (1) dust of Earth (2) breath of god, about as close to nothing as one can get for the formation of a entity as complex as the human body.

This is one of those rare circumstances where I agree with the bible in that man was created from dust. The Earth is the ash (stardust) flung out from a super nova explosion.

Whether we or anything else for that matter was created from nothing can be debated since there appears to be energy hidden in the vacuum of space.
I could go on to argue if "nothing" even exist but that has already been discussed by myself and others in previous threads
 
  • #6
Discussions based on biblical or similar ideas aren't something that can be rationally discussed, therefore aren't allowed within the guidelines.
 

1. Is the universe a living organism?

No, the universe is not a living organism. It does not have biological functions or the ability to reproduce like living beings do.

2. Can the universe think and make decisions?

No, the universe does not have a brain or any cognitive abilities. It follows natural laws and processes, but it does not possess consciousness.

3. Does the universe have a purpose or goal?

There is no evidence to suggest that the universe has a specific purpose or goal. It simply exists and follows natural laws.

4. Are there any living beings in the universe besides Earth?

As far as we know, Earth is the only planet with known life in the universe. However, there may be other forms of life in other parts of the universe that we have not discovered yet.

5. Can the universe die?

The universe will continue to exist and follow natural laws, but it may change or evolve over time. Some theories suggest that the universe may eventually experience a "heat death" or collapse, but this is still a topic of debate among scientists.

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