Dark matter and the space between us…

What’s the matter?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Come on… It’s never just “nothing”.  

Something is definitely the matter. Sure, ok it’s impossible to say exactly what comes between us when things get all dark and heavy like that because the causes behind it are not in any way visible, perhaps to either of us, but there is definitely something there – it is a serious force that has the power to affects the interaction between us, to alter our future, to change our lives, even destroy us…

So don’t tell me nothing’s the matter.

Even science – that systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe now asserts that nothing is not nothing, after all.

Yes, it emerges now that what scientists formerly understood and previously dismissed as nothing – a vacuum, an empty space that filled the void is now actually filled with an invisible, immeasurable, undefinable matter; ie. energy that actually affects the physical property and behaviour of matter.

Really?

So nothing is not just nothing, anymore?

Could it be then, that everything we were ever told about the universe, its fundamental laws and properties was just wrong?

Well, what if just ONE element (and there are many) of the standard model of cosmology (or Λ – lambda) was slightly out? After all, everything we know today about our physical universe is still based on a mere theory of relativity. For all its intricate mathematics, our standard model of understanding how the universe came to be and how it works, still rests upon mere mathematical assumptions.

Furthermore, based on the existing scientific theories – postulations about the ‘big bang’ and the whole ‘creation theory’, etc. the universe is not actually behaving as it should.

Most scientific calculations are based on measuring the physical motion of matter. According to the movement of physical particles (big or small), physicists create equations that help us predict the behavioural nature of certain events. Events such as how the universe began, for instance. And, for that matter, where it’s all heading for us.

However, what scientists are now discovering is that there’s ‘dark matter’ – an invisible matter which is not made up of physical particles at all, a matter which fills up at least 80% of the space – that ever-expanding nothingness that fills our universe. According to studies, it is now believed that this dark matter, previously known to us as ‘nothing’ or just mere ‘space’ has indeed some effect upon the motion of physical matter.

Not only is dark matter invisible, but it can pass through solid objects.

This includes stars.

This includes our earth.

But since dark matter is not really ‘matter’ at all, scientists have come up with another name for it. They call it ‘dark energy’.

They can’t see it, and they cannot seem to have the equipment to detect it. Yet they know it exists because it messes with their calculations. According to what they know, based on the study of empirical evidence, and the formulae created to determine the behaviour of physical matter, something is just not adding up for the scientists.

And they don’t like it. It scares them.

They wish it did not exist.

It only proves to them that, after all, everything we know about the world around us could be wrong, or at very least, based on theories that are incomplete.

Dark energy messes with all their precious maths equations. It is a most unwelcome element in science which (at this present point in ‘time’) nobody who professes to be an expert in the standard, structured model of the universe knows a damned thing about.

Is it gravity?

Is it the opposite – a kind of anti-gravity?

Whatever it is, dark energy seems to have a weird property to it because, not only does it cause the universe to expand (with space), but also it creates more dark energy to help fill that space.

And… it has the power to dim light.

It’s like… magic!

But hang on…

What’s all this ‘magic’ nonsense? We can’t put ‘magic’ in our equation!

We can’t now just turn around and say that what we thought was mere space – actually, what we thought we knew to be of no matter, is now a magical, invisible force that has the power to affect the way things behave, make them expand, snuff out all the light, as it were – we can’t just say now actually matters.

Well, it turns out it matters a lot.

In this case, “nothing” actually matters about 80% more than “something”.

Atomic scientists have quietly known this for decades. Psychologists too have suspected it for almost a century, still without much progress. Politicians have counted on it, criminals have thrived on it, demagogues have taken nations to war because of it, and bankers have just banked on it.

Let’s just say that ‘dark energy’ been a matter of interest…

So, ok… so dark energy is the energy of space. Of Nothingness. So, since the universe is expanding, then it is being filled with more and more of this ‘nothingness’.

Does this then mean that dark energy taking over our universe?

It would seem only appropriate to at least start factoring it in our fancy mathematical and physical calculations.

This poses an extremely difficult existential dilemma: Since we can’t see dark energy; we don’t know what it is; where it comes from; what to expect from it – since all we do know is that is exists on some level, and it does weird shit to our visible world; that it affects the outcome of events that come to light, it must then stand to reason that we take a more wise and learned approach of including it into some our problems. Maybe then our solutions might make a bit more sense.

Hmmm…

No wonder scientists are in a panic. No wonder that they are still clutching onto the old-fashioned model of cosmology, which, as flawed and incomplete as it is, kinda works to explain how the universe works to some ‘near enough’ degree.

However, scientists – people of all rational minds in general – prefer to understand how things work so that they can predict things. It’s in our natural instinct to want to know how things work, and why.

Why? Because it is more comforting – it brings us more stability and certainty to know how things around us will behave so we can at least be ready for the changes that may affect our own stability.

Our understanding is full of laws about how the world works and, according to our level of education and our ability to understand these laws, we may certain decisions about how we will interact with our world.

Yet, as we see, much of the matter between us, much of the inexplicable forces that bind and repulse us – what we often dismiss as nothing is actually a supreme force whose effect, in quantum terms, has the irrepressible quality to not only change but entirely transform our universe into states we can not even imagine, let alone predict.

This ‘dark force’ that exists in the space between us, among all things that ‘matter’ continues to lurk.

Matters between me and you. And its mysterious power to affect things, to push matters out of control out of seemingly absolute nothing is not only disconcerting to those who prefer to keep matters under control but a downright nuisance to anyone who continues to ignore things that don’t matter.

There is far more dark matter in this universe than luminous matter…

Just check out the human population, lol.

And hang on… what about this?

What if you (as a person) were actually a part of this dark matter yourself?

After all, you seem to affect things on this planet that nobody quite knows about, even you. And you often seem to act in ways that don’t illuminate but rather shroud the situation, withhold the light from others…

Think about that.

Anyway, there’s a thought for another time.

© All rights reserved, Ang Stoic, 2016

see also…

Pluto & the Search for an antidote to Temptation

Pluto & the Search for an antidote to Temptation