Living Universe?

[Eduffy80911]

Here's a trippy one. Has anyone ever considered that our observable universe may be, or may be a part of, a living organism? I don't know if that would make life as we know it an "infection" or something productive.

[orbsycli]

ahhhh i've thought about this! came up with a ton of hypothetical situations that were soooo out of this world. i have no scientifical anything to back to up, nor do i really believe it, but it's a crazy thought. that's for sure.

[Tormod]

Well...metaphorically speaking it is alive. It was born, it grows, it dies. The difficult questions are of course what was it born out of and what happens when it dies (and does it have children?).

[Stargazer]

Originally Posted by Eduffy80911

Here's a trippy one. Has anyone ever considered that our observable universe may be, or may be a part of, a living organism? I don't know if that would make life as we know it an "infection" or something productive.

I like to think of it the other way around, that living organisms are parts of the universe... which means that on some level, the universe is observing itself.

[UncleAl]

Since information cannot propagate faster than lightspeed for casuality to obtain, how would a "living" universe communicate with its component parts? It's better that you believe in the Keebler elves. It's just as reasonable and you get cookies for it.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Tormod

Well...metaphorically speaking it is alive. It was born, it grows, it dies. The difficult questions are of course what was it born out of and what happens when it dies (and does it have children?).

Interesting observation Tormod; It also has intrinsic laws which metaphorically speaking could represent intelligence. And as you have already stated, it was born, it grows, and it dies. But could it also be reincarnated "metaphorically speaking" with a new big bang? Assuming that the sum of it's parts is greater than any single part, I have to believe that the universe is much more magnificent than we will ever understand.

[DAK]

Well, if you take all the descriptions of the ultimate reality {god} by all the sages and avatars through history you have just that: God is the infinite totality of all existance.

Oh, and even science is up in the air these days on lightspeed no? Non-locality and all? That will no doubt fall by the wayside if the above is true since there really is no here, there, or time to get anywhere if there was.

DAK

[TheFaithfulStone]

Now, is God the total sum of all exsistence and nothing more (Spinoza, Atman, Scientific Pantheism) He, it, whatever is worthy of worship and is holy simply because of it's exsistence? If so, isn't the notion of the seperation of sacred and profane is a human imposition onto an entirely sacred exsistence. God is that thing which is simultaneously completely contradictory and utterly self-consistent. Ahh - the holy paradox of existence itself.

Or - alternatively, is God the universe-plus? More than the sum of it's, his, parts. Many modern Christian theologians (Crossan, et al) subscribe to this kind of theory. Certaintly easier to buy than a big bearded fella in hyperspace somewhere. Just as humans are really just animated bags of meat, and yet more - God is protons and neutrons and antimatter, and yet more. The creative responsive force for love. Whoa, my mind is blown.

Good story on this point, which I can't remember the name of, involves a computer named AC. Written by Isaac Asimov. Involves heat death of the universe, good stuff. Well, not really, but it does sort involve "God".

TFS
[let there be light]

OOOOO i remember thinking about this a couple of months ago!
get ready for a scientific explination of a living universe

The brain on most levels has been considered millions of potential differences, in which information is transmitted and recieved and then translated.
they say the brain has many little quantumn like computers inside it (I dont mean nanobots and ACTUAL computers here lol) and that explains why the translation is like it is...

I mean afterall logic for one thing is utter nonsense for someone else.

I would have thought that the universe has so much stuff in it that many potential differences would happen

however one post here said about light speed and how the information transfer would be too slow etc, which indeed is very true, kind of like how insects use diffusion for oxygen rather than lungs.

we have a mass transport system

Universes mass transport is black holes/wormholes

all these potential differences can make a possible conscience, however i dont think that means the universe can control what it does

afterall...we cannot explain the psychology of "will" while we WANT to do something or NEED to do something the fact remains that our brains act instinctively and were not 100% in control.

i dont think the universe is either

[paultrr]

One thing one could do is ask how does this idea fit under philosophy in general. Two areas it would tend to overlap a bit on are as follows:

Naturalism is the view that the universe exists as a self-contained whole and that it is self-directing. Naturalism thus denies that there is any supernatural element affecting the natural world.

Pantheism sees God as in all things, with God and nature mutually dependent on each other. Pantheists typically deny that God does miracles or reveals Himself in any special way.

So in general, if one subscribed to the Universe being a living thing one would, while, not denying naturalism, tend towards Pantheism given that we are ofspring, so to speak of nature itself and nature would as such be our creator. However, one would also have to define weither or not a living universe is conscious to actually fit the full pantheist perspective.

Uncle Al mentions something that while not a fully settled out issue today still raises a good question. If this living Universe was conscious then how would it communicate across all its parts? One possible solution besides invoking quantum entanglement like paths is to suggest it does so slowly which would then suggest one is dealing with a very slow thought process.

These are some suggestions if you really want to play a bit with this idea.