Frequencies said:
I'm currently writing a drama revolving around an autistic guy and his prodigious 8 year old nephew looking for God/Heaven by building a machine - trained to the skies and capable of receiving signals.
The whole thing is an analogy on the more tangible subject of the human condition.
But I wanted to at least ground the film in (pseudo) believable Science...
Any ideas on what this machine could be using/doing to realistically search the skies? Fantastical theories welcome too!
this thread will probably need to be moved to Philosophy forum (since it deals with the human condition---the human aspiration and quest to know)
however you came here for practical suggestions
Look up Hsu and Zee on arxiv.
Steve Hsu is a straight legitimate theoretical physicist in good standing who has never AFAIK given any indication of being interested in religion or philosophy.
He has a blog where you can talk to him.
He and Zee wrote a paper where they speculated that somebody might have written their signature in the all-sky map of the Cosmic Microwave Background, CMB.
You have seen this map it is a blue and red oval mapping the slight temperature fluctuations of the CMB
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for future reference (teach a man to fish) here
http://arxiv.org/multi?group=grp_physics&/find=Search
is the arxiv search tool
you can put in keywords, to the abstract summary blank, or the title blank, to see what articles come up with those keywords in the abstract summary or in the title
I put in S Hsu, in the author box, and I get a list of papers by S. Hsu, and number 16 on the list is
MESSAGE IN THE SKY
obviously that should be the title of your play, maybe Steve Hsu would like that or be amused and he might help you. Or he might hate it. I don't know.
So I click on #16 of the list and I get the abstract summary
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510102
Message in the Sky
Authors: S. Hsu, A. Zee
3 pages, published in Modern Physics Letters A21 (2006) 1495-1500
(Submitted on 11 Oct 2005 (v1), last revised 3 Jun 2006 (this version, v3))
"Abstract:
We argue that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a stupendous opportunity for the Creator of our universe (assuming one exists) to have sent a message to its occupants, using known physics. Our work does not support the Intelligent Design movement in any way whatsoever, but asks, and attempts to answer, the entirely scientific question of what the medium and message might be IF there was actually a message. The medium for the message is unique. We elaborate on this observation, noting that it requires only careful adjustment of the fundamental Lagrangian, but no direct intervention in the subsequent evolution of the universe."
I for one would be perfectly happy to discuss this as a purely scientific possibility. Could a cosmological big bang be triggered by formation of a black hole in a prior spacetime region? (Steve Hsu also has a paper about this particular issue.) And could some agency in prior spactime, while arranging for the collapse of some matter to form a black hole, put an IMPRINT of information on the distribution of infalling matter in such a way that, after a bounce and the formation of a new spacetime region, the "message" imprint would be reflected in the largescale structure and could be detected in CMB temperature fluctuations.
I would say that this has a SILLY character to it. However Modern Physics Letters is a PEER-REVIEW journal and both Tony Zee and Steve Hsu are highly respected (if perhaps playful and jocular) physicists. So there you are. Have a look.
BTW arxiv has a TRACKBACK feature where you can find all the blog comment on a particular paper and in this case there are 9 blogs that comment
http://arxiv.org/tb/physics/0510102
and one of the 9 that arxiv lists is, of course, Steve Hsu himself on his own blog discussing his own paper
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2005/10/message-in-sky.html
So now you have a blog URL if you want to go and discuss this with Steve.
Have fun,
Marcus
