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The return, clothed in quantum physics, of the old idea of the cyclical universe

Francisco Miraval

There are many old ideas which, having been rejected, discredited, and abandoned during a long time, now they reappear in our own time under new clothes. One of those ideas is the belief that the universe exists for all eternity and that, during that eternal existence, the universe repeats a cycle of expansion and contraction.

In ancient time, thinkers and believers in many cultures said the universe begins, ends, and then begins again. And the cycle repeats itself for ever. They were so sure that was the case that some of them, the Stoics for example, said, that “There will be another Socrates who will marry another Xanthippe”.

In fact, in each new cycle (or each new universe), Socrates will do exactly the same things he did in the previous cycle, according to that old belief. Then, sometime in the history of thought and science, it became accepted that there was a beginning of the universe, the Big Bang, with not cycles or repetitions.

However, on July 8, 2016, scientists from Canada and England, published an article in Physical Review Letters with the results of their research suggesting that, in the context of quantum mechanics, the Big Bang is the “bounce” of the implosion of a previous universe. Our Big Bang, can be described as the result of a Big Crunch.  

According to Dr. Neil Turok, of the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with only “minimal assumptions” it becomes “very reasonable” to say that the mater in our present universe is the result of matter which previously existed in a previous universe that collapsed.

A colleague of Turok, Dr. Steffen Gielen, of London Imperial College, says that the same quantum mechanics preventing electron from destroying atoms also helps us to “save” the universe, meaning that the extreme contraction of a previous universe leads to the big expansion of our universe.

Obviously, I add, that means that when our own universe eventually collapses (what the Stoics called ekpyrosis), a new universe will emerge from the remains of this one.

I don’t have the knowledge to truly understand what Turok and Gielen are saysing. And I don’t know if in the next universe everything that ever happened in this universe will happen again. But, leaving aside my undeniable ignorance, it is fascinating to see an old idea, very much accepted two millennia ago, now enjoys new allies among modern scientists.

I wonder then how many more ideas widely accepted by our ancient ancestors, but rejected by modern scientists, will soon be “rehabilitated” based on new scientific discoveries. I am not saying we should go back to say that the earth is flat and the center of the universe. There are other ideas to be reviewed.

For example, the Stoics (it seems) believed that the universe will eventually be absorbed in some kind of divine, creative fire to purify the universe. It is a controversial topic, but the idea of a “creative fire” and “universal spirit” sounds quite interesting.

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