The Void

The universe is derived from an ultimate principle of spiritual consciousness, the one and only existent from eternity.  Accepting this, you become an affirmer of The Void, which is to be understood as the Primordial Nothingness: that is, the raw stuff out of which all is created as well as the background against which every creation can be discerned. 

                                                                           Frank Herbert, Destination: Void.

This is from Orson Scott Card’s Xenocide, playing around with similar concepts.

                “What nobody’s been able to figure out is why a Big Bang would ever happen.  This way it makes a weird kind of sense.  If somebody was capable of holding the pattern of the entire universe in his head stepped Outside, then all the philotes there would sort themselves out into the largest place in the pattern that they could control.  Since there’s no time there, they could take a billion years or a microsecond, all the time they needed, and then when it was sorted out, bam, there they are, the whole universe, popping out into a new Inside space.  And since there’s no distance or position—no whereness—then the entire thing would begin the size of a geometric point—“

                “No size at all,” said Grego.

                “I remember my geometry,” said Valentine.

                “And immediately expand, creating space as it grew.  As it grew, time would seem to slow down—or do I mean speed up?”

                “It doesn’t matter,” said Grego.  “It all depends whether you’re Inside the new space or Outside or in some other Inspace.”

                “Anyway, the universe now seems to be constant in time while it’s expanding in space.  But if you wanted to, you could just as easily see it as constant in size but changing in time.  The speed of light is slowing down so that it takes longer to get from one place to another, only we can’t tell that it’s slowing down because everything else slows down exactly relative to the speed of light.  You see?  All a matter of perspective.  For that matter, as Grego said before, the universe we live in is still, in absolute terms, exactly the size of a geometric point—when you look at it from Outside.  Any growth that seems to take place on the Inside is just a matter of relative location and time.”

                “And what kills me,” said Grego, “is that this is the kind of thing that’s been going on inside Olhado’s head all these years.  This picture of the universe as a dimensionless point in Outside space is the way he’s been thinking all along.  Not that he’s the first to think of it.  Just that he’s the one who actually believed it and saw the connection between that and the non-place where Andrew says the hive queen goes to find aiuas.”

                “As long as we’re playing metaphysical games,” said Valentine, “then where did this whole thing begin?  If what we think of as reality is just a pattern that somebody brought Outside, and the universe just popped into being, then whoever it was is probably still wandering around giving off universes wherever she goes.  So where did she come from?  And what was there before she started doing it?  And how did Outside come to exist, for that matter?”

                “That’s Inspace thinking,” said Olhado.  “That’s the way you conceive of things when you still believe in space and time as absolutes.  You think of everything starting and stopping, of things having origins, because that’s the way it is in the observable universe.  The thing is, Outside there’re no rules like that at all.  Outside was always there and always will be there.  The number of philotes there is infinite, and all of them always existed.  No matter how many of them you pull out and put into organized universes, there’ll be just as many left as there always were.”

                “But somebody had to start making universes.”

                “Why?” asked Olhado. 

                “Because—because I—“

                “Nobody ever started.  It’s always been going on.  I mean, if it weren’t already going on, it couldn’t start.  Outside where there aren’t any patterns, it would be impossible to conceive of a pattern.  They can’t act, by definition, because they literally can’t even find themselves.”

                “But how could it always have been going on?”

                “Think of it as if this moment in time, the reality we live in at this moment, this condition of the entire universe—of all universes—“

                “You mean now.”

                “Right.  Think of it as if now were the surface of a sphere.  Time is moving forward through the chaos of Outside like the surface of an expanding sphere, a balloon inflating.  On the outside, chaos.  On the inside, reality.  Always growing—like you said, Valentine.  Popping up new universes all the time.”

                “But where did this balloon come from?”

                “OK, you’ve got the balloon.  The expanding sphere.  Only now think of it as a sphere with an infinite radius.”

                Valentine tried to think what that would mean.  “The surface would be completely flat.”

                “That’s right.”

                “And you could never go all the way around it.”

                “That’s right, too.  Infinitely large.  Impossible even to count all the universes that exist on the reality side.  And now, starting from the edge, you get on a starship and start heading inward toward the center.  The farther in you go, the older everything is.  All the old universes, back and back.  When do you get to the first one?”

                “You don’t,” said Valentine.  “Not if you’re traveling at a finite rate.”

                “You don’t reach the center of a sphere of infinite radius, if you’re starting at the surface, because no matter how far you go, no matter how quickly, the center, the beginning, is always infinitely far away.”

                “And that’s where the universe began.”

                “I believe it,” said Olhado.  “I think it’s true.”

                “So the universe works this way because it’s always worked this way,” said Valentine.

                “Reality works this way because that’s what reality is.  Anything that doesn’t work this way pops back into chaos.  Anything that does, comes across into reality.  The dividing line is always there.”

                “What I love,” said Grego, “is the idea that after we’ve started tootling around at instantaneous speeds in our reality, what’s to stop us from finding others?  Whole new universes?”

                “Or making others,” said Olhado.

                “Right,” said Grego.  “As if you or I could actually hold a pattern for a whole universe in our minds.”

                “But maybe Jane could,” said Olhado.  “Couldn’t she?”

                “What you’re saying,” said Valentine, “is that maybe Jane is God”

                “She’s probably listening right now,” said Grego.  “The computer’s on, even if the display is blocked.  I’ll bet she’s getting a kick out of this.”

                “Maybe every universe lasts long enough to produce something like Jane,” said Valentine.  “And then she goes out and creates more and—“

                “It goes on and on,” said Olhado.  “Why not?”

                “But she’s an accident,” said Valentine.

                “No,” said Grego.  “That’s one of the things Andrew found out today.  You’ve got to talk to him.  Jane was no accident.  For all we know there are no accidents.  For all we know, everything was all part of the pattern from the start.”

                “Everything except ourselves,” said Valentine.  “Our—what’s the word for the philote that controls us?”

                “Aiua,” said Grego.  He spelled it out for her.

                “Yes,” she said.  “Our will, anyway, which always existed, with whatever strengths and weaknesses it has.  And that’s why, as long as we’re part of the pattern of reality, we’re free.”

                “Sounds like the ethicist is getting into the act,” said Olhado.

                “This is probably complete bobagem,” said Grego.

                “Jane’s going to come back laughing at us.  But Nossa Senhora, it’s fun, isn’t it?”

                “Hey, for all we know, maybe that’s why the universe exists in the first place,” said Olhado.  “Because going around through chaos popping out realities is a lark.  Maybe God’s been having the best time.”

                “Or maybe he’s just waiting for Jane to get out there and keep him company,” said Valentine.